Where did we leave off? Oh yes, sick at Thanksgiving. Well, we enjoyed a brief respite from illness (read: 10 day antibiotic induced health high) before fever set in again (the cough never really did leave). After 4 days of fever and O coughing so badly he was making himself gag we headed in to ready care (what our pediatricians call walk ins) on Sunday (our pediatrician group is awesome and have walk in times available 7 days a week for sick kids!). But it would seem everyone was sick, as we arrived only to find we were behind 36 other people and sat (on the floor b/c there wasn't even chair space left in the waiting room) for a 2 hour wait to see the doctor. Turns out the ear infection never really went away, it was back with a vengeance, so we were prescribed a different antibiotic and a steroid to help him get over the cough he has had for 2 months. Great! We left very hopeful all would be well soon...we were wrong. Monday night (day 2 of antibiotic) we noticed O had a couple red dots in one spot on the back of his arm as we were putting him to bed, ok, we'll keep an eye on that. By 10ish, he was awake again writhing in itchiness, and we turned the light on to discover he was covered head to foot (with the exception of his back oddly enough) in hives. Yup, allergic reaction to the new antibiotic. So, emergency call to the pediatrician, and a quick search to find an all night pharmacy to get some children's benadryl (meanwhile I stuck him in an oatmeal bath to help the itch). Then the benadryl and a hilarious 45min of non stop hyper chatter out of O (omg so freakin' funny...even if it was after midnight!) then he finally crashed and slept. Then back to the doctor's to get the rash and ear checked again...a new antibiotic (which he is not allergic to, thankfully!), and his cough seems to be diminishing...so he is ::finally:: on the mend...from this cold. 'Tis the season...bah humbug.
And this morning, on his 6 month birthday, E woke up and decided that from the menu of options he would choose pink eye as his next medical ailment.
To top it all off, both Dave and I have finally succumbed to whatever it is O has been sick with (it was bound to happen given how many times we have been coughed on in the face over the past several weeks).
You know it's bad when the baby is getting the longest stretch of continuous sleep of anybody in the house. ;) So, as much as I love my family, I gotta say, I'm happy we are not traveling anywhere for xmas this year, and that we don't have visitors descending on us for the holidays either. It will give us a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep and relaxation!
Alright, illness saga aside, here is what else is going on. First, E, here is what you are all about at 6 months (and I can't believe you are already 6 months old!!! Time has flown by!!):
You. are. happy. You are such a happy baby! You are constantly smiling, and giggling. You love to giggle! And you are so ticklish (legs, belly, armpits, you name it!), even diaper changes elicit a belly chuckle from you! You are also a very mellow baby. You don't do much in the way of complaining...it's pretty awesome.
You are fascinated by your big brother and by the cats. You could watch them all for hours I think.
You refuse to hang out on your back anymore. The instant you are put down on the ground you roll to your belly...and then get stuck there as you can't seem to roll back over to your back. Eventually you don't like this and complain about it, but you are happy to watch the goings on from your belly position for a while. You have started sitting on your own a little bit...like 10 seconds or so at a time before you topple, so you still need either me or a pile of pillows to sit with.
You like to chat. You especially like chatting while I feed you breakfast...it's like our morning coffee hour chat. You giggle and chat away as I spoon all sorts of yummy stuff into that gaping maw of yours...because you are an amazing eater so far. We started you on solids a little after 4 months and from day 1 you didn't do much spitting out of food. You caught on right away. You eat rice cereal, oatmeal, banana, apple, pear, avocado, squash/pumpkin, sweet potato, and peas so far.
You are also an amazing sleeper. We feel insanely lucky about this. You haven't been as good lately (as in the last few weeks) but I think that is due to illness combined with possible teething. But generally you make it through the night without a feeding, sleeping 11-12 hours (from 7pm to 6-7am), usually requiring one to two paci reinserts somewhere in there (which I can hardly complain about...it's far better than getting up to feed you!). This holds true for 5-6 nights out of the week. The other nights you require a little more effort and a middle of the night feeding (I think they generally correspond to days you don't eat well during the day). We have started putting you to bed unswaddled and you have been doing pretty well with that, but we usually end up reswaddling you during the paci reinsert. You do love being swaddled!
But most of all, at 6 months, you are definitely part of this family. I can't even think of what life was like before you were here. Our family feels complete now that you are part of it too. We love you so much, little E!
The weekend one week after T-giving (during our health high) we headed over to a cut-your-own-xmas-tree farm in Wisconsin to, well, cut our own xmas tree! It was a decently warm day (only a couple degrees below freezing) and we picked ourselves out a winner! It's name is Macbeth (they put a tag on and name the trees you can cut, so you can find it after they shake off loose needles and bail it up for you! quite clever really)
This morning, O and I headed to the post office to send off the last of our xmas mail. After we left this is what happened:
O: where are we going next?"
Me: home
O: No, I want to go somewhere
M: how about the grocery store?
O: no, not there
M: the library?
O: not there
M: really?! where then?
O: somewhere else...like the museum
M: ok, let's go to the museum with the big dog (this is the MIA, fyi)
O: hmmm...no, not there
M: do you want to go get lunch?
O: yes, but not at home
M: okay, we can go get lunch out. Should we invite Dad and Elliot to join us, or just you and me?
O: no, let's just go you and me
aahhh...so nice! So we went and got lunch just the two of us. It was pretty great!
And this morning, on his 6 month birthday, E woke up and decided that from the menu of options he would choose pink eye as his next medical ailment.
To top it all off, both Dave and I have finally succumbed to whatever it is O has been sick with (it was bound to happen given how many times we have been coughed on in the face over the past several weeks).
You know it's bad when the baby is getting the longest stretch of continuous sleep of anybody in the house. ;) So, as much as I love my family, I gotta say, I'm happy we are not traveling anywhere for xmas this year, and that we don't have visitors descending on us for the holidays either. It will give us a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep and relaxation!
Alright, illness saga aside, here is what else is going on. First, E, here is what you are all about at 6 months (and I can't believe you are already 6 months old!!! Time has flown by!!):
You. are. happy. You are such a happy baby! You are constantly smiling, and giggling. You love to giggle! And you are so ticklish (legs, belly, armpits, you name it!), even diaper changes elicit a belly chuckle from you! You are also a very mellow baby. You don't do much in the way of complaining...it's pretty awesome.
You are fascinated by your big brother and by the cats. You could watch them all for hours I think.
You refuse to hang out on your back anymore. The instant you are put down on the ground you roll to your belly...and then get stuck there as you can't seem to roll back over to your back. Eventually you don't like this and complain about it, but you are happy to watch the goings on from your belly position for a while. You have started sitting on your own a little bit...like 10 seconds or so at a time before you topple, so you still need either me or a pile of pillows to sit with.
You like to chat. You especially like chatting while I feed you breakfast...it's like our morning coffee hour chat. You giggle and chat away as I spoon all sorts of yummy stuff into that gaping maw of yours...because you are an amazing eater so far. We started you on solids a little after 4 months and from day 1 you didn't do much spitting out of food. You caught on right away. You eat rice cereal, oatmeal, banana, apple, pear, avocado, squash/pumpkin, sweet potato, and peas so far.
You are also an amazing sleeper. We feel insanely lucky about this. You haven't been as good lately (as in the last few weeks) but I think that is due to illness combined with possible teething. But generally you make it through the night without a feeding, sleeping 11-12 hours (from 7pm to 6-7am), usually requiring one to two paci reinserts somewhere in there (which I can hardly complain about...it's far better than getting up to feed you!). This holds true for 5-6 nights out of the week. The other nights you require a little more effort and a middle of the night feeding (I think they generally correspond to days you don't eat well during the day). We have started putting you to bed unswaddled and you have been doing pretty well with that, but we usually end up reswaddling you during the paci reinsert. You do love being swaddled!
But most of all, at 6 months, you are definitely part of this family. I can't even think of what life was like before you were here. Our family feels complete now that you are part of it too. We love you so much, little E!
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| "wazzup, ladies? I'm just chilaxin' in my infant tub" This is where E hangs out while I do things like brush my teeth and wash my face, or shower...with no complaints. Like I said, a mellow baby. We don't even use this as a tub anymore...we just keep it around as a bathroom seat! |
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| eyeing Owen |
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| a little blurry, but a classic E happy face |
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| O is a very loving big brother. He always likes to make sure E is doing okay. |
The weekend one week after T-giving (during our health high) we headed over to a cut-your-own-xmas-tree farm in Wisconsin to, well, cut our own xmas tree! It was a decently warm day (only a couple degrees below freezing) and we picked ourselves out a winner! It's name is Macbeth (they put a tag on and name the trees you can cut, so you can find it after they shake off loose needles and bail it up for you! quite clever really)
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| bundled up for their "sleigh" ride |
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| Dad doing the heavy lifting on the tree cutting |
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| the trees look deceptively small out in the "wild". This one is about 7.5 feet. |
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| sitting by the bonfire eating cold leftover pizza |
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| look at those baby blues! |
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| then of course we had to play in the snow in the backyard when we got home! |
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| tree decorating. O helped for about 10 minutes before he got bored. But in that time managed to hang about 8 ornaments over a span of 3 branches...I did some rehanging after he went to bed. |
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| "knock knock. Hey, McFly, anybody home?" |
O: where are we going next?"
Me: home
O: No, I want to go somewhere
M: how about the grocery store?
O: no, not there
M: the library?
O: not there
M: really?! where then?
O: somewhere else...like the museum
M: ok, let's go to the museum with the big dog (this is the MIA, fyi)
O: hmmm...no, not there
M: do you want to go get lunch?
O: yes, but not at home
M: okay, we can go get lunch out. Should we invite Dad and Elliot to join us, or just you and me?
O: no, let's just go you and me
aahhh...so nice! So we went and got lunch just the two of us. It was pretty great!
 |
| his favourite part was definitely the giant class of chocolate milk! |
