October 1, 2008

Timmy loves doors. At least 3 times a day, he'll go up to the cupboard door and open and close it over and over again for five to ten minutes. It's not just the cupboard door, either. In Egypt, it was the door below the nightstand and in Ireland, it was the door in the desk in the room. Grandma Hall says he did this at her house, too, with the door under the sink and Grandma Gossiaux's cottage cupboard doors saw the same treatment.

Timmy and Daddy went up to the health clinic yesterday to try to get Timmy his 12 month well-baby appointment. It turns out, the pediatrician we were seeing on post (who is a fantastic doctor, by the way) was given additional duties as the chief doctor in the clinic and can no longer see children for well-baby appointments. Now, all the well-baby appointments are referred to off-post doctors- i.e. German doctors. The referral process it a long and comlicated road. You need to be "prescribed" a referral by a doctor or nurse, then you go to the health insurance provider (Tricare) who calls up doctors to make an appointment for you. This is all fine and good if it goes smoothly, but yesterday saw Timmy and I sitting in the Tricare waiting room from 10:00 until 11:30 only to find out we didn't have a referral in the computer. *sigh*

I also started the process to sign Timmy up for CYS on post- Child and Youth Services. This is basically a babysitting service if we need it, should something come up. With Savannah going in a couple months, things'll be pretty hectic and I figure we had better be safe than sorry.

As far as Timmy's vegetables go, I haven't gotten the book Breanne suggested yet, but I have been trying to "hide" his vegetables in his food. I find that food with a tomato-based sauce is the easiest, since the tomato hides the color and it's strong enough to hide the taste. Yesterday he ate a whole serving of peas for lunch with his spaghetti. Cheese works, too, if it's done right. I mixed some cheese in with pasta noodles, tuna fish and peas and he ate that right up.

Timmy's pacifier habit has gotten to only be at night, now, or in the car. Sometimes we put him in the car without it, but it can be tough to drive with a screaming child in the back. Our landlady, Manuela, took Timmy for awhile on Tuesday to play and wants to do so again today. I'm looking forward to this for multiple reasons. First, it gives Timmy a lot of contact with the German language. He's not talking yet, but who knows? Maybe it's subconsiously making him more open to learning German down the road. Second, Timmy loves to play with Manuela, so I know I'll get him back in a good mood. And third, Manuela loves to play with Timmy. And having someone close by who you can trust completely with your child makes life much easier. It was nice having family close by back home for this same reason- I can't imagine how difficult it would be to raise Timmy otherwise.