Hold Her Down!

Well, Zoey "gave" blood yesterday. This was for the lead test we are doing. They had to poke her twice. Yep. She is a strong and very smart little girl. Dr. Loren and her assistant talked us through how it was all gonna go down. She put on the huge rubber elastic thing they use to tighten above the elbow to find the vein onto Zo’s arm and then the other arm, just to see which one was better. Zoey got to play with it. Zoey then put it on her arm by herself. (How cute and smart is that?) The first poke was with Zoey sitting on Daddy’s lap and the assistant holding Zo’s arm and Loren doing the poking. I was hanging out trying to sing the abc’s. Zoey didn’t care about the abc’s. She was not pleased. As a result of her superior stregnth against 3 adults, she managed to pull her shoulder/arm back and the needle came out. Break time. Zoey came to me and we calmed her down.

Take two. Other arm. This time, we laid her down onto the exam table and she was a lot better. She wasn’t even upset while they tied the big rubber band thingy on her arm. They held her down again and she didn’t flail around nearly as much, but she was still not pleased. Mostly it was with the being held down part. The poking didn’t seem to be that big of a deal. But, Zoey was a trooper. We should be finding out the results in the next day or two. We also requested to find out her blood type, ya know, since she gave them blood and all.

Her eating has improved over the past day. She is sleeping better. Me thinks the teeth don’t hurt as much.

Tomorrow will be our third time at the Little Gym. What a terrific place! Teacher Louie (female) is awesome! She is always one step ahead of the kids. It is for 50 minutes and we move from cirle time saying our names and getting to tap the tamborine, to warming up our bodies by walking in a circle and dancing or touching the sky or bending down. "Upside down" was the theme for last week. Zoey had a great time! We also play on the mats and hang on the bars. The first week there was a huge blow-up mattress, more like a trampoline, but it was a blow-up mattress. The kids totally loved that. Zoey was a little leary, but I managed to get a smile out of her. When Teacher Louie got out the balls to play with, Zoey squeeled with delight. The Little Gym is the best! I bet we will have lots of birthday parties there.

My detox is going quite well. It is kind of interesting, really. I have never done anything like this before. My skin is sweating this gross oily stuff. I have been eating only organic fruit, veggies, chicken, fish, beans, soy (like tofu) and nuts, plus this special herbal detox tea and green tea. No caffeine, no sugar, no eggs, no wheat, dairy, sugar, and corn. All this for three weeks. Plus a colonic once a week. I am doing this for three weeks. This is day 6. So far, so good. Oh, did I mention water? I have to have about 3 nalgene bottles of water (at least 75 ounces) per day. Yep.

Brassapalooza is going swimmingly! It basically runs itself. I am so happy with it! We have 13 kids who signed up and 3 high school interns helping us out (and who can put this sort of thing on their resume, I am told). We are teaching a much higher level of music than they receive in band. Plus they play a ton, quite a bit different from school band. We overwhelmed them on the first day. heh, heh. They play in a brass choir, a homogenous (like trumpet ensemble) ensemble and a "mixed up" brass ensemble (like two trumpets and a horn). We also teach them concepts in college level masterclass style format. The first three went well, and today is a very fun one: How to Playtest Mouthpieces. The kids get to try out a tons of different mouthpieces and become a lot more knowledgeable about why one sounds like it does. It’s cool. They already sound tons better than three days ago. The concert will be at Greenlake by the kiddie pool if y’all are interested! Friday, 5pm.