The Rowes in the Rose City: It's Tough Being 2

One would rather be praised than punished,
but, one would rather be punished than ignored.

I think this is especially true when you're two, and possibly don't even realize that's what's happening. One-on-one Avery is doing great, but as soon as Jordan is around, she quits listening and minding, and spends alot more time in 'time out' (the crib in her room). This is not rocket science to figure out, but it is difficult to deal with. And having a screaming, sick, baby sister is NO help to the situation.

So, mommy & Avery headed out to Steakburger for a round of mini golf. Avery keeps telling us about how much fun she and cousin Nathan had playing golf "last week" (it was actually in May, but she's a bit fuzzy on time references), so I thought we'd try it again. Mommy got the ringing out of her ears (from Jordan screaming) & Avery got some special one-on-one time. We started off following the rules, for the most part, but pretty soon Avery was tired of the club, and preferred rolling the balls with her hands. There were "hills" on many of the later holes, and she found it was much more fun to climb the hills holding the balls than hitting or rolling them. Then she learned that two balls will fit in a hole at once (the orange one and the blue one), so we had to test that out on the last 5 holes. I think 18 holes was about 9 too many, but we still had a blast. And then we had a fresh blackberry milkshake, and brought a strawberry milkshake home to daddy. We figured he deserved it, after hanging out for a couple hours with 'Screamer' Rowe & doing exercises with her (which often makes her extra mad, if you can believe that!).

Speaking of 'Screamer' Rowe, what a hassle we had today. I had to wait for her to poop, then pee, so I could take her up to the hospital for her weekly labs & daily blood pressure check. Her blood pressure was through the roof, and there was a big kerfuffle over which doctor needed to order this weeks labs (not like we haven't been doing it for 5 weeks now!). It's to the point where she's so fussy she can hardly even eat. Ironically, she seems to be screaming for & rooting for food. But I think the slowdown in calories has lead to more hours of sleep, providing a much needed break for mommy's ears. I suspect I'll spend a fair amount of time either on the phone with or at the doctor's office tomorrow, and a nephrologist may well be added to the team. Yeah, we need some more docs. Actually, we do. We're starting to look at doctors in California, Michigan, and Maryland to see if they can help us with Jordan's diagnosis.