Family update

Obviously, with Lily, the biggest thing in her world recently was her birthday. And rightfully so - three years old! That's huge! With other birthdays, I found myself thinking "I can't believe that she is [1, 2] already". With this birthday, my main thought was, "I can't believe that she is just turning 3". She has seemed like a three-year-old for so long now that starting around August, when others asked her age, we would always say "almost three". Her birthday month was equally fun for us as it was for her too. From the party to the circus to Chuck E Cheese to the Arch, we all had a great time this month.

Being with Lily so much these past few weeks has also reaffirmed that the 3-4 age group is definitely my favorite. I absolutely love the way her mind works. Explanations and rationalizations at this age are simply the best. Also, the inventive language and unique take on the world is fascinating. Sometimes I wish that I had a notebook and pen permanently attached to me so that I could fill it will all the things that she says every day to amuse us. Unfortunately, my memory just plain stinks so I don't remember the majority, but here are some recent remarks:

• "Daddy, Daddy, I peed!" (Said to Carl after she drew a "P" on her paper)
• After watching a lengthy preview on a DVD, the announcer asked, "So what are you waiting for?", referring to purchasing the advertised DVDs, and Lily responded quite matter-of-factly, "I'm waiting for the movie to come on".
• "Mommy, you didn't know when you were a baby that I was a big girl."
• "My pee is warm." (Said after emerging from the bathroom) After asking why she thought her pee was warm, she replied, "Because it has to go through the tunnel".
• "You can see that my applesauce is empty, so I don't need to say please." (Said to Carl and me during dinner last night when she wanted more applesauce. It should be noted that we had not prompted her to say please. This also must be said with a lot of attitude to get the full effect.)

Actually is her favorite word right now, and she actually says it about 20 times per day. I wonder if this has anything to do with her former pediatrician's proclivity for the same word. Hmm... Speaking of pediatricians, we have an appointment for her three-year-old well visit on Thursday. So, we should get some new stats then. Her new pediatrician has the same name as a very famous former football player which I find amusing for some reason. We'll see if he has any fun quirks too.

And now on to Carl. He is on a much-deserved vacation this week - yay! The pathology residents get three weeks off for the year that they have to take in one week increments. We had to pick the weeks back in June so we just chose some random times. We don't have any plans in particular this week except on Thursday when we plan to do the bulk of our Christmas shopping together. It's crazy that it's that time again already, but I'm truly so excited for a day together to knock this out without the usual last-minute hustle and bustle.

This morning Carl had a minor surgery, removing a small lump in his left leg. This is one of five lumps that Carl has had. The first one, revealed to be testicular cancer, was removed in November four years ago. The second one was a sebaceous cyst at his hairline removed two years ago. The third one, removed today, is hoped to be a benign lipoma. All initial feelings from the docs are positive, but the true results won't be in until later this week, so all positive thoughts/prayers are certainly welcome. The surgery was done with a local anesthetic today, and I think Carl enjoyed being able to watch the process and get a first-hand look at the excised lump. They will be sending this to Carl's department where they will slice it and put it slides for the microscope, so he will likely get to see the slides himself next week, after it has been read by one of his colleagues this week.

As usual, Carl keeps his unique humor through all, so here are a couple of lines from him lately:

• When Carl was trying to get Lily upstairs to change into her pajamas one night, he said to her, "You know, your family name ain't the best in the Navy. You need to be doing it better and faster than the rest."
• There were several little quips at the hospital today. I think when Carl is feeling anxious at all, his "humor" kicks into full gear. After the receptionist checked us in and gave us our beeper, Carl asked her if it was okay to get drinks from the bar while we wait. She actually laughed, sweet woman. In the pre-op area, Carl was asked by no less than 8 people if he wanted a warm blanket. Carl finally said to one nurse, "I'm not afraid of showing a little leg on my way to the operating room". After the surgery, a nurse was taking Carl's blood pressure when I came up to see him. He remarked to the nurse that it was going to be higher now that his wife was back. She laughed and said, "Actually it is!" Smart ass.

Not much has changed for me lately, although you would not guess this if you talked to Lily. She has informed several people now that mommy and daddy are going to have a baby and that she is going to be a big sister. I think that more than one person has thought we are holding out on them, but alas, it is not true. I'm a bit of a medical mystery right now. We are continuing to test and search for answers, but the only thing I have been told so far is that I am ovulating but not ovulating well. Whatever that means. I do have to say that after 14 months of trying, I have definitely chilled out a bit. It used to be that the sight of a pregnant woman or the mention of a baby had me fighting back tears. I think that you just can't maintain that level of emotion forever. Now, I have truly come to grips with the fact that if Lily is our only child, we truly are among the luckiest people in the world. The evolution that has taken place within myself is quite amazing. I used to be preoccupied (bordering on obsessed) with spacing, not wanting siblings to be too close nor too far apart (in my mind). I think that because I felt so much control with our first pregnancy (first try, first baby!), I very wrongly assumed way more control in this process than is actually there. Now I have a fuller appreciation for how truly lucky we were with Lily. I know that some don't have the chance to have one, so you will never hear me complain about our situation again. It took a lot to get me to this place, but I am fully there.

Whew - so that's the story with us right now!