A week away from ONE

Alaina is almost a year old. I've heard lore that the first birthday party isn't so much a party for the little one (what do they know? they're just babies.) but a celebration for the parents for keeping a tiny person alive. I get this. I spent the first few weeks hoping Alaina would grow and be healthy, but having trouble imagining her getting to this point (I told you; parenting does weird things to your brain!). And here we are. Just a week away from her first birthday.

I took her in last week to figure out what was going on with her ears. First I had to bring her to work with me. She got to sit in on my grad student meeting again. She was a little more excited about the cupcake magnets on my filing cabinet than our discussion of research projects.

The ENT said he had thought we might need to have her left ear tube removed because of the continued drainage but once he looked in her throat he saw that her left tonsil was infected. So we started a round of Augmentin and more ear drops.

Augmentin is the devil's antibiotic. You can't tell from the pictures but this medicine really made our lives difficult the first few days. Alaina wasn't interested in eating or sleeping. She was going to bed late and waking frequently and truly screaming in frustration. We felt so bad for her. But that seemed to level out after a few days and she seems to be doing well. No more ear drainage and she's eating and sleeping normally.

My mom is currently visiting us and Alaina is having a ball getting to know her Nana. She's really enjoyed showing her how to work the Playskool Busy Ball Popper and how to play fetch with Jasper. Tomorrow Mom and I will attempt to organize Alaina's closet and dresser. My sweet friend, Lana gave us a bunch of clothes from her daughter, Grace. We are excited for Alaina to have a whole new wardrobe, particularly since Grace is one of the cutest and best-dressed toddlers around! It does mean that I need to get back in gear with putting baby clothes away though! We have stuff hanging up that Alaina has long since grown out of. But hopefully we'll get that squared away tomorrow.

So that's the excitement. I am mostly in denial that Alaina will be a year old next week.