T - 1 month and crying...

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!