Can you find what's wrong with this picture?

A month or so ago, Annie swallowed a safety pin. The pin Brad is holding in his hand in this picture is the same pin that you see in the x-ray. It went clear through her digestive system and came out in her pooh. Lucky for us, the doctor told us we had to dig through her pooh until the pin "passed". It was a gruesome couple of days.

Until we got this x-ray back, I wasn't even sure she really had swallowed the pin. Earlier in the day, she tried to eat it and I took it away from her. I thought I put it on top of a table, but then a minute later she choked on something and I couldn't find the pin anywhere, so I thought she might have reached it somehow. Just to be safe, I took her to the doctor. He used a metal detector on her and sure enough, it went crazy around her mid-section. He suggested an x-ray to make sure that what she'd eaten really was a pin and that the pin was closed.

As soon as the x-ray was taken, the lab technician said, "Oh, yep. It's definitely a pin." I thought she was being a little presumptuous saying that - I was fairly certain that techs are not supposed to tell you anything. They are supposed to let the radiologists do that. I asked her (not really thinking that she would know for sure) if she could tell if it were closed. She said it was definitely closed. Again, I thought she was being far too definite for her level of expertise. Then she gave me the printouts and I laughed. If all cases were this easy, even I could be a radiologist.

*Side note: Lots of people want to go to medical school to become radiologists. It's on the ROAD to happiness in med school. ROAD stands for radiology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, and dermatology. These are all specialties in medicine that have easier residencies and great salaries at the end. I don't know if Brad will choose any of these (currently he's into the idea of radiation oncology), but I think I would shoot myself in the face if I had to become a radiologist. I'm SO grateful there are people out there who want to do that, but I am far too social for a career like that, no matter what the pay is. On this visit to the hospital, I saw a radiologist at work and I realized I would die. They sit in a dark room, read x-rays, and dictate all day. Wow. I'm glad they get paid a lot.

11 months old

So I've got a sister-in-law who faithfully records what my niece can do at each month marker. I have not done that, but I thought I might as well start doing it at 11 months (and probably stop at a year) because Annie has been so stinkin' cute recently. I don't know if it's because I now spend more time with her or if she is just in such a fun phase. But whatever the reason, I am totally enamored with my little girl and I really don't want to forget how fun she is right now.

She's learning all sorts of new things. She's really good at figuring out games and then wanting to play them. She does peek-a-boo where she puts the blanket over her own head and then pulls it down. If I say, "Is it Mommy's binky?" She pulls her pacifier out of her mouth and gives it to me and then puts it back in her mouth when I say, "No, it's Annie's binky." She just learned how to roll a ball back and forth. She LOVES to click her own tongue or have someone else click their tongue at her. She loves to explore around our apartment. It cracks me up because I'm always finding her behind/under furniture. Her method of transportation is still an army crawl/roll. It doesn't look very advanced, but she can always get exactly where she wants to go. She is very good at pulling herself to a standing position in her crib and on the bench at church. This means she never goes back to sleep if she's crying in her crib and that she makes friends with everyone sitting behind us at church. She loves reading books (not all books, just her favorites). She is still obsessed with both her grandmas - she's a grandmas' girl through and through. Lately though she's become more of a daddy's girl. We always are grateful that this is the daughter we named after her grandmas. She finally has enough hair to do a little tiny pony tail. I'm obsessed with how cute it looks. Can you tell I just adore this little girl?

$1200 Jazz Tickets

I had a surreal experience last night. I was invited by a friend to the Jazz game. However, these were no ordinary seats - these were Lexus club seats. I sat center court, three rows back. I was so close to the players, close enough to hear Jerry Sloan shout a few choice words. I ate it up.

Kristy (my friend and former mission companion who invited me) works at the Church Office Building, so I picked her up there at 5:50. We had to get to the game an hour early because we were invited to eat AMAZING food in the Lexus room beforehand. She hadn't driven to work that day, so we took my 1997 RAV to the game. It was so funny to pull into this parking lot full of BMWs, Range Rovers, etc. I parked near the back so as not to offend any of the nicer cars. :) I'm in the habit of taking the important things out of my wallet if I'm going to leave it in the car. I got chuckling as I took my credit card out because I thought to myself, "If I were going to rob a car in this parking lot, it would not be the RAV with a carseat."

Everywhere we went people saw our (laminated) tickets and treated us like royalty. At dinner the server looked at our tickets and said, "Oh, you're in the seats that get drinks after the 1st and 3rd quarters. What would you like?" We realized after we sat down at our dinner table that we'd missed the coat rack, so we went to hang our coats up and cracked up. Our coats were red and green; everyone else's were varying shades of gray and tan. A little gauche, but what can you do? I thought our coats were the cutest.

We got to walk across the floor, right in front of the players' seats to get to our seats. Our seats had little candy dishes in front of them. They gave us free t-shirts. The seats were super comfortable. The whole atmosphere was so cool! It was so much fun to do. Once.

I came home having loved the experience, but also really glad that it is a once in a life time experience. It makes me appreciate it that much more. I'm glad that I live a normal life. I'm actually sort of glad that I don't have enough money to buy $1200 season tickets to the Jazz. I don't want to be waited on hand and foot my whole life.

However, all that said, it was an amazing night! And I'm so glad I got to do it. Once. Thanks Kristy!!!

Goodbye to my sweet little girl

Annie has entered a new phase. She has become super territorial and possessive. On Saturday morning I watched my friend's cute little boy and Annie really liked him, but she also wanted everything that he had, no matter what else I gave her. She also felt like she had to be RIGHT by him all the time. It was kind of funny, but I felt like maybe I was starting into a new phase. I expressed this sentiment to my sister and she told me it was a new phase and it was only going to get worse. Thanks Babs! ;)

She was right. On Sunday we sat next to Bobbie's family at church. Susie (my nearly two year old niece) needed some things to entertain her, so I handed her a library book from Annie's diaper bag. Annie watched it go by and nothing was going to distract her from getting it back. It only got worse when I gave Susie some of Annie's nasty little puffs to eat. I'm not super excited about this new phase.

Any tips on teaching 10 1/2 month olds to share?