One year stats

Isn't she just rotten? Love it!

Alaina had her 1-year-appointment today. She was 29.5 inches long (52nd percentile) and 21 pounds and 12.2 ounces (55th percentile). Her head was 18.11 inches (71st percentile). I think she had a little growth spurt recently because a couple of weeks ago she was barely eating but in the last few days we could barely shovel food in fast enough! She is doing great developmentally. She has a few consistent words (mama, dada, nite nite, yay, yea), a couple of signs (eat, all done, and one that sort of means more but can also mean milk), and some nonverbal gestures (waving, clapping, pointing). She isn't walking yet but she gets all over the place cruising and crawling. Her favorite thing these days is to crawl really fast into the entrance of another room and wait for you to come "chase" her. She laughs hysterically. I must get this on video. Her face looks something like this, when you "catch" her.

She was really good at the doctor's office, which is impressive considering that her teacher had forgotten I was picking her up at 2 and had laid her down for a nap at 1:45. Eeek. Alaina was a little unsure at first, holding tight to my arm when the nurse took her vital signs. She had two shots today and she was upset by them. I talked her through what was happening and she calmed down, only to have to go down to the lab and get her finger pricked for a blood test. As soon as we got in the lab room, she looked around and started crying. Poor thing was really upset when the nurse (phlebotomist?) kept scraping her finger to try to fill the vial. And oh the bandaid. The bandaid with cotton was just too much.

Once I got her cuddled and settled with a bottle, she was much better. We went to visit Chad at work and she really enjoyed that. It was nice to have a visit to the doctor where nothing was wrong! She was a little cranky this evening but it could have also been due to her nap schedule being a bit off. She's been sleeping great tonight so hopefully she doesn't react negatively to the vaccines. She's done pretty well in the past.

So a healthy girl. Her ears are all clear which is nice...Unfortunately, mine aren't! I got my first ear infection as an adult (at least in memory) and boy is it ever painful! I've got drops and am on an antibiotic. The first day was just terrible. I took one of my leftover pills from surgery and it didn't touch the pain. I tried all kinds of tricks I found on google--warm compresses, blowing the blow dryer in my ear, Tylenol, Aleve, Ibuprofen (not taken together of course!). The thing that worked the best was some crazy home remedy--a salt rag--where you put 4 tablespoons of salt in a rag and tie it with a hair elastic (no metal). Dip the salt ball in a bit of water and microwave for 10-15 seconds. Hold that to your ear for about 30 minutes, rewarming as needed. It's crazy how it worked! I also tried dry heated salt in an athletic sock but I didn't have as much luck with that. So yea, the salt rag. My new go-to ear infection reliever. And I hope I never have to use it again!

This weekend's fun included watching the Derby. Sometimes I am overwhelmed with grief at missing the Bluegrass State. Kentucky in May is amazing. I miss seeing the horse farms during spring with all the foals running alongside their mamas. Nothing is more beautiful. I can't wait to take Alaina back for a visit and let her see. The Derby does lots of gratuitous horse farm shots so I certainly got a taste of home. I also brought the derby home a bit, giving Alaina a little Derby style hair accouterment. She didn't get it. Yet. Next year I'm going to have a derby party and Alaina will need her own hat for sure. It's no surprise that Pinterest has tons of pins for crafting pint-sized derby hats...

Of course, Alaina said she was very busy this weekend. She had to help review a manuscript for work. She might be better at spotting methodological flaws than I am...

Speaking of work, we just wrapped up finals week and I finished my online class for teaching an online class. This feels fantastic. Summer as a professor really is amazing. It's the time when I feel like I actually get to spend the most energy doing the things I really want and the things that weigh most heavily on tenure and promotion. And parking is great. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy teaching and really like the courses I have prepped. But not teaching is even better. I'll still be at work most days but I won't have grading, preparing lectures, or faculty meetings. I am serving on three comprehensive exam and one thesis committee that will be within the first six weeks of "break" but all of that is sort of fun (less so for the students!). My lofty goal is to submit six manuscripts this summer. The data is collected for all of them so it is possible. But given how poorly I have performed on my New Year's goals, I am not unrealistically optimistic.
I also need to get my wisdom teeth pulled and go to the eye doctor. A very productive summer indeed...

In other news, Alaina is still trying new foods. We are slowly introducing whole milk and I think she is doing okay with that. We give her one ounce with every four ounces of formula right now.
We tried eggs last week and that did not go over well. She didn't seem to like the frittata I made for her (though Chad seemed to love it!) and really just ate a couple of bites. However, she definitely had a reaction to the eggs. I'm not surprised she's allergic since I am as well and they are one of the high-allergen foods. She has responded really well to things that have eggs cooked in them (like me) so I am not concerned. We will try them again in a few weeks.

However, she loved eating off of my corn cob! It was hilarious. She became obsessed. You can see the tears in her eyes from when we tried to take it away from her.

Man, I guess I have had a lot to update on, I feel like this is the longest blog in awhile. In other news, we got a new convertible car seat for Chad's car. We will keep the infant seat in mine awhile longer. We went with the new Chicco Next Fit and so far I am excited about its reviews and how it looks and feels. It is supposed to adjust up to 65 pounds and will rear-face until 40 pounds. Alaina seems very excited about it and is already relaxing in it and studying all its features.

Whew! So I guess that's all the excitement!