Sweet Baby Smudge: Summer updates

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind. The end of the semester is always so hectic and the transition to summer is never an easy one. You might think that summer is a time when faculty members slow down and go on vacation but instead, that's when research ramps up and you try to do all the things that didn't get done during the academic year. In the last month, we have submitted four manuscripts and I'm wrapping up edits to two book chapters. All of these are things that I wanted to finish months ago but just haven't had the time. My goal is to get out two to three additional manuscripts by the end of the summer (again, ones that should have been done ages ago). This has been a really down year for me in terms of papers so I am hoping to turn things around a bit.

In addition to work, we've had lots of other things going on this summer. Baby A has moved up to the two year old class at school. The last couple of weeks have been tough in terms of drop-offs because she is so sad when Chad or I leave. However, she typically adjusts quickly once we are gone and has a great time. She loves being reunited with some of her little friends that have been in her class since she very first began there in August 2012. She's the youngest in the class right now and it is interesting to watch her hanging back from the older kids. At the end of the day, when I go to pick her up, we have to walk through the play area for her previous class and she walks around like she owns the place. She also always has hugs for Miss Amy. But we think she is doing well. She is taking longer naps (which I'm sure is directly related to her waking up more frequently at night lately...) and her vocabulary is starting to really take off.

We went back for a follow up with the pulmonologist last Friday. Overall, A is doing pretty well. Her cough comes back periodically which was a little more concerning to the doctor than I expected. It seems like any time there are fires in the area, it gets particularly flared up but there are additional unexplained times as well. We developed an asthma action plan to try to reduce the nights where A can't sleep because of it. Her plan is that we are to give albuterol twice, wait ten minutes and readminister two puffs, and wait ten minutes and readminister. This is a little different than other action plans I've seen online but hopefully it will help. If it remains uncontrolled, we will be switching her medication from flovent to advair, which has a longer acting albuterol directly in it. I suspect we will end up down that road but not yet. She absolutely loves this doctor and doctor's office, though. I just wish they were in Stillwater! Story of our life...

She also coughs after she eats something really cold. However, she adores ice cream and frozen yogurt so the cough almost seems worth it on occasion. After her appointment last week, I had wanted to go to the Tulsa Children's Museum. However, she had fallen asleep so we didn't get to go. Once we got back home, we took her to Orange Leaf for the first time. She loved it.

Big bite!

Serendipitously, this week there was a fundraiser for Relay for Life, so of course we had to go back.

My niece, Avery, turned 6 this month, which is truly just impossible to believe. Kris threw an awesome Alice in Wonderland themed party. And once again, she takes the most amazing pictures and I have shamelessly stolen a few to show off.