Wednesday, March 31, 2010

red, angry welts, Part One

I got a call this afternoon at 3pm from day care saying that baby had woken up with angry red raised welts all over her body - face to toe. Other than looking unsightly she reported no other symptoms over the phone.

I stopped by the pharmacy and bought some more benadryl on my way to get her. By the time I got there she was sitting up in the high chair, making a mess out of Cheeze-its. She still had welts on her legs and face and on the backs of her arms. They were still raised, red, and warm to the touch. (They were between the size of her palm and my palm, and some of them had blister-looking places in the centers of them.)

Hmm... any new foods at lunch? She had beanie-weenies, which she'd not had before, and apple juice, which she'd not had before. She has, however, had apples before without problems - and every type of meat and beans, too. Next, any new laundry detergent? No. Maybe it's a late reaction to the shots she had last week? I'm clueless.

Meanwhile, she's playing and being herself without any signs of distress. She's happy as a lark. I called the doctor's office on the way home and left a message to be given to the nurse.

The whole way home I wondered between giving her benadryl or not. On one hand, she definitely had welts and it wouldn't hurt her. On the other, I halfway wanted to see what the natural progression would be (plus, it wouldn't hurt her). I sent text messages to some friends and nurses I work with - a poll, if you will, to see what the verdict should be.

It was tied. I took pictures of the welts. Then I gave her the benadryl around 4pm.

The Hater came home shortly after that. I'd already updated him, so it was just a matter of show and tell at that point. I'd poured over the discharge papers from when she got the shots last week (Hep A, MMR, Varicella). One of them mentioned the possibility of a rash, but this just didn't look like a rash to me. We played and got supper together.

During supper the doctor called. He said it sounded like she'd had a reaction to something. I asked if it could be a rash from the shots and he said it sounded like she'd had a reaction to something. He told us to get some benadryl cream and put on the red spots, then come to the office on Friday if it's still there.

After supper we sent The Hater to get the cream and I put baby in the bathtub. She's tired, but it's not out of the norm for her to be that degree of pitiful at that part of the day. Lubed her up with lotion and cream and put her down for the night at her usual time, about 6:30pm.

Hopefully it'll all be gone tomorrow morning. The next conundrum... do we wake her up around midnight to give her another dose of benadryl? Hmm... to poll or not to poll...

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

ode to the tantrum

Baby is warming up slowly to the sippy cup. Slowly.

She's also slowly working on the perfect tantrum, although she's doing that quicker than she's picking up the sippy cup.

Meanwhile, in other leaps and bounds, she ate REAL FOOD for lunch and supper today! Okay, real food plus cereal, but real food all the same.

Friday, March 26, 2010

history

This is the fist time in NCAA history that the UT mens basketball team has gotten to the elite eight. AWESOME!!!

Great game, guys!
Great coaching, Bruce!

whole milk

Weaning continues... today we focused on diluting her formula with milk. I started that last night, and it was continued today. Tonight with supper her bottle had 75%+ milk. I think tomorrow morning we may try 100% cow milk.

This is all still in her bottle. We thought it'd be wise to convert her to cow milk first, then try to change the bottle so it wouldn't be too much too fast for her. I know I said that's what we'd be doing this weekend, but we're at least working in that direction.

Day care reported she took about three sips of water out of a sippy cup this afternoon for them. I bought some juice for her after work. I'm hoping some watered down sweet stuff will be enough to entice her with the sippy cup. Maybe once she figures out that good things can come from the sippy, too, she'll warm to it more quickly. Or she may be like I was and just plain refuse to drink milk out of a sippy cup.

We're watching Tennessee play Ohio State. So far it's a good, close game. The Hater is watching it on his laptop as CBS keeps cutting to another game. The Hater tells me that I need TN to win this game because the person in our bracket who is ahead of me picked Ohio State to win. I told him I'd be for TN even if it didn't help my bracket. Silly man.

Baby went down for the night about 6:30. She slept well last night, and I hope we have a repeat performance of that tonight. I'm also hoping that the milk doesn't hurt her tummy tonight. Her formula is cow milk-based, so it shouldn't bother her much (if at all).

Meanwhile, our other daughter has climbed up on the couch next to me and is content to sit next to me for now. I'm glad she's content to drink tap water out of a dirty bowl on the floor.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

change

Don't let this grin fool you.

We've been talking about the bottle and the process of getting rid of it. I talked to the day care lady, who said she went cold turkey with her kids. I thought that was a great idea. She thought it was great that I thought it was a great idea and suggested I try it this weekend. Oh, no, I said. We'll try it on her birthday! (The part I didn't say out loud but thought in my head was, "because this is why I pay you.")

Then she started backpeddling. "But she doesn't take them very well from us." Funny, I said, since she takes water from it just fine for me in the afternoons. I was sure she'd do fine if offered no other options. Day care lady agreed.

This morning I dropped baby off at day care with two emergency bottles in her bag. I thought about her at least every hour and wanted to call to see how it was going, but didn't want to be "that mother". I mentioned it to several people at work to get their reaction. One of them looked at me like I was a fool, they'd call me if they needed me. Another one told me that one call doesn't make me "that mother". The third one was convinced that I should have called already. I decided not to call.

When I picked her up this afternoon I was met at the door with, "well, that didn't work." I asked, "What do you mean that didn't work?" She answered, "Well, we tried it. After she ate her cereal I gave her the sippy cup and she threw it in the floor. So I handed it to her again, she touched it to her lips, then threw it in the floor and SCREAMED." I said, yeah, she's a screamer. She said, "No, genderist, you have no idea. This was unlike any scream she's screamed for us." So they gave her the bottle.

Today at day care my daughter learned that if she screams enough, she will get her way. I learned that it looks like it's going to be a really long weekend for us.

Today is baby's first birthday!

When baby was born someone told us that this would be both the fastest year and the shortest year of our lives. The Hater and I totally agree with this. In some ways it's hard to believe she's a year old, that a year ago tonight we were watching Sports Center and waiting for the cue to start pushing. In some ways it feels like I've aged three years. (Not that I've "matured" three years, but just flat out aged that much due to chronic sleep deprivation.)

Looking back it's been a fantastic year. We wouldn't trade one single moment, and we're eager to see what year two holds for us. Some of it we can imagine, as baby is already arching her back, flinging herself backwards, and screaming her head off to show us exactly what traits she inherited from The Hater. She's developing own agenda, walking around without us into empty rooms, and giving wet open mouth kisses to pictures of kittys in her books.

Bye bye!
(kinda sorta, but not really)

As the parents of a new generation we have many of the same challenges that our parents and their parents faced, things that are inherent to parenthood and guardianship. Although many things are the same, like safety for example, we are faced with a nuance of protecting safety in a more technologically advanced society. In light of this, The Hater and I have decided it's time for us to stop posting pictures of baby on this blog.

Don't be sad!

The blog is not going away. My hope is that it'll turn back into the random narrative of Uglyhoma goings on, the joys of raising an independent toddler, and general life musings. Old school blabbering, minus the pictures of baby.

This by no way means that I'm going to stop taking pictures of baby. We have too many grandparents out of state who would throw their own tantrums if that happened. I will continue to upload pictures once a week to the picture webpage like I have since baby has been about a month old. Also, if you'd like sneak peeks of the best of the best, email me and I'll send them to you directly, hot off the camera upload.

Thanks for going on this journey with us. We may not know what's around the bend ahead (or from which cup we'll be drinking), but it's nice to know that you're our virtual copilot.

FYI: Today is also Peyton Manning's birthday. I will continue to randomly post pictures of him because he is the greatest QB of all time. :)

PS: If you do not have the web address to the picture page, email me and I'll send you the link.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

snow bunny


We woke up this morning without more snow on the ground, although thats what they had predicted. We skated to church (The Hater acting as Jeeves), and decided to wait until after Baby's nap to get outside and play in the snow. Unfortunately, by the time she woke up, more than half of the white stuff was already gone. She wasn't as impressed by it as we were, but she did humor us enough to stand still for 15 seconds.

Meanwhile, I've dropped from first to second place in our sports bracket standings. I had my eggs in the Kansas basket, so now I'm pulling for Tennessee to take it all. The Hater has dropped to "way far down" in the bracket - so now he's torn between pulling for my teams and pulling for the underdog.

He's looked it up. He says he is tied for 4th place. (In his other bracket he's tied for 9th place.)
It's been a good day and a great weekend. We've played hard and napped hard, but we're still a little sad that it'll be Monday tomorrow.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

the first day of spring

We have several inches of snow outside and it's still coming down. Hopefully it'll stop coming down tomorrow while there's still time for us to get outside and play in it.

Friday, March 19, 2010

pretty day




When I got home from work it was 71 degrees outside. Windy, but really nice. We decided to go outside and play for a little while before bedtime... and before the cold front comes in tomorrow. We're due to get a ton of snow (somewhere between 4-10" tomorrow), so it may be a while before we can hang out at the swingset again.

Everybody stay warm this weekend!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

in the circus




Not every little girl can pull off the giraffe look this season.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sanctus Pactricius





Kiss me, I'm Irish... or at least we're going to fake it for a day.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

party pooper



We had an early birthday party for baby while the Dorks were here. I made heart-shaped chocolate cupcakes in silicone sleeves with pink frosting and sprinkles. They were moist and yummy, although didn't come out of the sleeves without a fork. Baby appropriately smashed cake and frosting all over herself and The Hater and myself. It was fun and she won herself an afternoon bath.

After we lotioned and changed clothes I wanted to get a few pictures of her and the dorks wearing their party hats. Mom was initially holding her, but Dad took her as I grabbed the camera. As they put on their hats and adjusted, Dad said, "I think someone smells like poopy." Mom looked over and started laughing. Not only had she poopy'd, but she'd errupted poopy all overherself and him.

I held her out under her armpits and took her to change again. Mom came with me to help. We both were crying because we were laughing so hard. Dad went directly to the bathroom to wash up and douce himself with astringent.

It's been a birthday party to remember and a very memorable visit.

Saturday, March 13, 2010

playing with the dorks




The Dorks are here! Baby has been so excited for all the extra attention, especially after she figured out that they weren't going to eat her.

Big Dork has created a house for her out of a cardboard box. I think we're more excited about it than she is, but she'll grow into it.

Big Dork and Little Dork have both read a ton of books to her, most of them multiple times.

She's now down for a nap. I'm trying to ease her into the time change. I thought it was going well, and then she woke up crazy early this morning. I tried for a little while to get her back to sleep, but then decided it was a great opportunity to further convert to DST, so we've been up since about 5 am.

I'm glad to report that last night was the first night in five where baby didn't have explosive poopy everywhere on her and in the crib. In fact, yesterday we only had one explosive diaper which conveniently happened right before her bath. I'm certain this is all teeth-related poopy because she's been fussy and chewing on her fingers like George Burns gnawed on a cigar. Although it's three days after when I had very good intentions to post a poopy everywhere story, here it is, somewhat belated:
Baby woke up a few times in the night and whined, but not with the whine that something was majorly wrong that I needed to fix. After I took my shower I went to wake her up. As soon as I opened her door I was punched with the smell of vomit. I turned the light on very dim and asked her if she had gotten sick. By now she was pulling up to stand in the crib, very happy baby babbling. I turned the light up a little bit more and picked her up. She reeked of vomit. I reached down to feel her bed. Sure enough, there was a damp spot. I held her, who was happy mind you, and went to get The Hater; this was more of a mess that I could do by myself. I told him she'd thrown up on everything and I needed his help to clean her and the bed up. He got up immediately to help. I put her on the changing table and noticed there was vomit all over her sleeper, even on the feet of it. I turned up the lights to normal and unbuttoned her sleeper to find that, indeed, this was not vomit we were dealing with. This was poopy. She'd had diarrhea at day care on Monday and Tuesday, too. (These damn teeth coming in!) The Hater took everything to the washing machine. I put baby in the sink and gave her a quick bath. She reeked of vomit-smelling poopy. She smelled much better after her bath. I hope she's not a poopy monster today at day care. Incidentally, last night one of the baby foods I gave her was broccoli and carrots. And this morning she had chunks of both in her diaper! Lovely!

Here's hoping that we have another wonderful day without an eventful poopy story.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

buffet


There's nothing like grazing under the table for all the little bits of goodness that we threw into the floor during supper...

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Thursday, March 04, 2010

cha-cha-cha-chia baby



Baby was born with lots of long, dark hair. Then it all fell out and she was peach fuzz baby for a while with a dark rat-tail that we called her "soul patch". Then it was blonde. Now people say, "Oh, your baby is blonde?", not knowing that both The Hater and I spent our first several years with blonde hair, halfway looking at us like we stole this baby from someone else more worthy of blonde hair.

These pictures aren't great, but as time moves on and her hair continues to grow, now it looks like it's going to curl. You can especially see this at the bottom of the first picture. My hair isn't curly, but Dad's is. The Hater has never had his hair long enough to know if it'd curl, but his brother grew his hair long and it was curly. Perhaps baby has hit the jackpot with two recessive genes? Only more time will tell. Hopefully at the least this means she'll grow into hair full of body.

And, no, you don't have to worry. I already have a bottle of detangler on hand for when we need it. That's one of those magical things that they should've had when I was younger. I want to avoid jerking out tangles with a fine toothed comb while muttering "beauty must suffer pain" to my daughter. That's one buck that will stop here.