Alex seems to be feeling much better and even managed to sleep (with some coaxing) for 12 hours last night. A few observations to catch everyone up:

She might be thinking about letting go...

The only thing she likes better than looking out the window...

...is looking out the door...

How cute is she in her new clothes? I think she would rather eat the shoes than wear them but...

It's getting harder and harder to distract her long enough to change her diaper without a wrestling match so we introduced a new friend to the changing table... please meet Mr. Monster Man...
Suddenly she wants to take things with her as she moves around so she either has to crawl on one hand and one elbow...

...or just carry things in her mouth... you know, like socks...
Apparently 12 hours wasn't enough, because she is out...

The Rupture: End Times...

The end of days is upon us...

Ear infections in the little ones are horrendous. Miserable. Can't sleep. Grumpy, pissy, screamy. This poor baby. And, apparently when ear infections get bad enough, the pressure builds up until the ear drum ruptures. How terrible does that sound? The pressure builds up (that's the cause of the pain; the pressure) until it just pops. The fluid that has built up oozes out. Horrendous-er.

The good news is that when the ear drum ruptures, even though it hurts pretty bad in the moment, the pressure is relieved. All better. Not better. Because, even though she was already in the middle of her second course of antibiotics, the other ear got infected... keeping the pressure on. So she had to get new antibiotics in the form of a shot. Horrendous-est.

Of course she's still Alex. When she isn't waking up in the middle of the night or screaming in pain, she's a trooper. She's mostly happy and at worst cuddly. She seems to be feeling a bunch better and will probably go to daycare tomorrow.

Tubes may be on the horizon... but so might be the Apocalypse. Maybe we just need to let her eat more dirt.

Daddy Haiku...

Not Again, Again

her ear infection
clinging, wanting mama
heart break with a smile

For Michele at work...

Sound asleep... bum in the air.

Alexandra's 9 month checkup

On Monday we made the trip to the doctor for Alexandra's 9 month checkup. We had visited the after hours facility on Saturday because her ear infection was back so the visiting the doctor was fresh in her mind...not a good thing.

Here are her stats:

• Height is 29''
• Weight is 20.12 lbs
• Head Circumference is 17.5''

What this means is that she is 95% in height, 90% in weight and 75% in head circumference. This is pretty consistent with her previous visit so that doctor is quite happy. She asked if she was crawling and playing peek-a-boo. Both of which she is doing. All in all, she was pretty happy with how healthy and happy she was with the exception of her ears. So she has really had 2 different ear infections since starting day care. It seems like a lot more because they start her off on the weakest antibiotic for 10 days. Then when it is clear that it hasn't killed the infection then she is upgraded to another antibiotic and that has done the trick. So unless she gets 6 ear infections in a year, a continuous ear infection for 6 weeks or is really upset/uncomfortable due to the ear infections, we don't need to get ear tubes. I am a bit concerned about tubes...I never had them and would prefer Alex not have to go under general anesthesia. Of course, if I had been able to breast feed I feel like this wouldn't even be an issue but enough beating myself for no reason....

Wes and I love our doctor. When we were talking about the ear thing, she asked us why we had gone to after hours care instead of just calling her. She then confirmed that we had her home number. We expressed our concern with calling her at home and she stated that she would not have given us her number if she didn't want us to call. We feel she thinks Alex is the coolest!!! She had such patience with checking her heart and ears that Alex didn't cry at all. This has not been the case during recent ear checkups. So yeah, our little girl is growing up fast!!

I think we're in more trouble...

Busy Thursday...

I work from home and hang out with Alex on Thursdays & Fridays. Here is a very brief rundown of our day today...


We got up and saw Michele off to work and had breakfast, then I hit the laptop while Alex did laps around the main floor... living room, hallway, kitchen, living room, hallway, kitchen...As I continued workish behavior Alex watched the world go by out the front window. Thursday is garbage day and she loves watching the big trucks go by...
Then I sneaked outside... she wasn't quite sure what was going on...
After a while it was on to reading. Her cousin Max was recently gifted a very nice book about Cheerios, which Alex, as is her modus operandi, has usurped. She will "read" that book for an hour at a time...
After a nap and a conference call and lunch, we went for a walk which required some bundling up. How friggin' cute is her new hat?
We practiced some walking skills, both with my assistance and with that of a very cool walk behind hippo on loan from Maxwell...
Finally we finished up with some more random playtime and practiced talking with our mouths full...