This may be the longest I have gone without posting! Things have been very hectic at home and at work. Alaina is all over the place and into everything!
She is just so happy. Even when she is refusing to sleep. :)
She is fussy at times these days because her ears are still bothering her. We ended up doing another round of ear drops and they are draining again. So, I'm taking her back to the ENT on Friday and hoping for some answers. Chad and I are beyond frustrated with this experience. Poor thing just needs to be well.
The Friday before Spring Break I picked Alaina up early and took her to my graduate student lab meeting. FYI, I do not feel guilty having meetings the Friday afternoon before Spring Break so don't even ask (good graduate students don't take spring breaks). :) Anyhow, she enjoyed hearing about our upcoming projects and is excited that Greg and Hilary will soon be defending their theses and Ashley is proposing in a couple of weeks...okay, maybe not. But she was excited that we stopped by the new gelato/grilled cheese/coffee house, Blue Spruce, after work. She got her first taste of a semi-naughty food, strawberry sorbet. She was pretty addicted.
What are you waiting for? I need more sorbet!
Along these lines, and in response to new research saying you no longer need to wait until after 1 year to introduce high-allergen foods (though she is so close to a year ::sniff sniff:: that this is really a moot point), she tried peanut butter last week. I just gave her a tiny dab to make sure she did not have an allergic reaction and she was infuriated to get such a small amount. I am sad I didn't get that on video because her response was priceless. She has also tried yogurt and ground beef recently. On Sunday she had some small bumps on her chest and today she had a few around her mouth but I'm really not sure what that's about (both days she had pretty typical food). Trying not to sweat it too much. Because she has done okay, I am thinking that I will just do a regular birthday cake for her. I had been thinking about doing a vegan banana or applesauce cake but I think she can probably handle the little bit of cake/frosting that she will get. And it's a lot more fun.
We were all excited that Alaina got to meet her sweet cousin, Avery, who came to visit for a couple of days. I cannot believe that this precious little girl is almost 5 years old. I still remember being at the hospital before she was born. Of course, Avery was more excited to see the puppies than anything. But I think she misses her "momma Steph." :) I certainly miss her. This is a definite reminder how hard it is being away from family and how fast time flies. Glad we have more family coming to visit in the next couple of weeks.
Our silly little girl will be a year old in just 1 month. It's very hard to believe. The first three to six months really did feel like an eternity sometimes but now I keep thinking she's 9 months old. The last few months have really flown by. It's so sad. She's just so big.
So this has been an interesting week for us. On Thursday I got a message from Alaina's school after I finished teaching. One of the directors said that when Alaina woke up from her nap, there was blood on her sheets, that had come from her ear. This freaked me out partly because the message was two hours old and of course, no one likes to hear that their child has blood coming from any orifice! However, the director went on to say that Alaina seemed very happy, she slept well, and she had been eating normally. I called the ENT and he indicated this was normal. Doesn't really sound "normal" but what do I know? We had an appointment scheduled for Tuesday (today) so he indicated we should continue putting drops in her ear (we had started the night before due to the excessive drainage) until then. Her school had also noted that her face looked swollen on the one side. It's hard to really see puffiness in such a chubby cheeked kiddo.
The blood has continued so I am glad we had the appointment. Basically, the ENT said both tubes looked good but that her left ear was infected. So we are back on Omnicef (again, the crazy drug that causes brick red stool) and a different ear drop. I imagine that will clear it up. It's hard not to be irritated--I thought the tubes were supposed to stop the infections. Again, Chad and I know that ear tubes are tremendously helpful in a lot of cases. So many people said that they were a God-send for their families. But so far, it's hard for us to see how she has really benefited. Instead, all we see is that they were expensive and they have caused annoyances (grumpiness following the anesthesia, being told we need to use ear plugs--which we are still doing even though it sounds like they aren't actually necessary, and now the infection/drainage/bleeding). But alas, this too shall pass.
In other news, Alaina is really going now. She loves exploring the house. Jasper is a little less enthusiastic about her mobility but fortunately for him, he is still much faster than she is. She's also really loud so her squeals give away her unstealth "sneak" attacks.
We feel really fortunate that she is a really good listener. We are attempting to set things up so that we are not having to say no (except in dangerous situations) or redirect/distract her. She responds pretty well to things being explained to her. It's crazy how babies pick up on more than we realize (here is the description of a cool, recent study that directly discusses how amazing babies are, with the ability to make predictions based on probability, their reasoning abilities, and their ability to feel empathy!). Today Alaina's teacher shared that Alaina is the "bib police". She likes going around and taking the other babies' bibs off. However, when they say her name, she looks at them and hands them the bib. Which is pretty stinking cute. Today, the other little girl in her class was laying on a boppy pillow, drinking her bottle and Alaina took it from her. The teacher caught this and said "Alaina..." and she promptly put the bottle back in Breckin's mouth. And then she held Breckin's bottle for her (while she drank it) for 5 minutes. My heart melted. How cute is that???
In terms of receptive language, she really does understand a lot of words (in addition to her name and the occasional "no"). She knows night-night, bye-bye, bottle, eat (both verbal and sign language), and up. She also knows what the gesture "hand it to me" means. She is still making lots of babbling jabber and will sign for "eat" and "all done." In terms of "words"/verbal language, she will sometimes say her version of all done and she can say night-night. I'm ready for her words to explode in the fairly near future. She really is just a sponge soaking it all up!
Every week, I feel like I'm thinking "this is one of my favorite videos." I'll just call this one sock. Watch what she does.
In terms of food, we are still (very) slowly introducing new things. She still does a mix of purees and finger foods. As much as we try, she still just does not like chicken. At all. However, that is the only meat she has had so far. She loves pita bread. I have been nervous about dairy but I gave her a bit of shredded cheddar cheese on Sunday. She loved it! Could not get enough of it! So far, so good. We really hope she is able to eat dairy. Depending on how the next few weeks go, I may make her birthday cake (the one she will eat/smash). I have found a few vegan cakes--one is applesauce and the other is bananas. She has had an oral reaction (bumps/spots around her mouth) to bananas every other time we try them, though.
Anyhow, that's basically the developmental stuff from the last month. I can't believe that her next "monthly" post will be for her birthday!
It's rare that I'll post unclothed baby shots but these were just too cute not to share. It's always possible I'll decide to take them down, I just couldn't resist taking a shot of her arm rolls. I just want to eat her up.
As you can probably tell, she's really getting around now. She's still a little slow but I'm sure that won't last much longer. And of course she is now just interested in those things that are not so baby-friendly.
She's such a little investigator--
Watch her wiggle:
I love how patiently she can play and then she decides she needs to go check some other things out. :)
She's pretty proud of all her new skills.
Overall, Alaina is doing great. I have had a lot going on at work in terms of an upcoming grant deadline, journal reviews (6 that are due in a two week period, 6! they are multiplying in my inbox), grading, manuscript resubmissions, etc. However, I've really had the chance to just enjoy Alaina in the mornings and at night. She can be a great stress reliever (of course she is also a great stress producer but I have written plenty of blogs on that subject!). This morning was definitely one of those times. And I certainly needed it!
We aren't sure if her allergies/sensitivities are acting up or if maybe she has a cold/virus. Overall, she is in a fabulous mood during the day but by bedtime, she gets pretty miserable with a runny nose, draining ears, and swollen/yucky eyes. When she first wakes up in the morning, she's a crusty mess. I have to completely wash her face before I can even feed her. Chad called the ENT's nurse today because her ears just seem to be constantly draining and gross. They said to start giving her ear drops again so hopefully they help. She's also gotten benadryl a couple of nights this week. But even without the benadryl, she has been sleeping amazingly well. I hope we stay in this phase because she sleeps from about 8 pm until between 7:30 and 9 am. Sometimes she gets up once around 10 pm for a final feeding but otherwise she's great. And then she wakes up super happy (eyes glued shut and all!) in the mornings which just starts my day wonderfully. This morning I just couldn't stop cuddling her. She's pretty irresistible. Even (especially?) when she's pathetic.
Today we took Miss Alaina to the OSU Center for Veterinary Animal Sciences's open house. They had a teddy bear surgery center and a number of small and large animals to check out. Clearly she's a Kentucky girl at heart because she loved the horses. Okay, that's probably not true. She seemed to like checking out all the animals--there was a huge boa constrictor, an adorable calf, a goat, a cute black & white sheep, a llama, a cow, a number of dogs, and some guinea pigs. It was pretty cool to see the facilities, including the enormous stalls and the animal CT machine. Given her interest, maybe she will grow up to be a vet...however, she was equally interested in checking out the sectionals at the furniture store we stopped at on the way home. So, a couch potato could be just as likely if we are just going off of today's predictions. ;)
