Sicky Missy

The above pic is kinda blurry, but I LOVE the outfit, so just look at that part. :-)

See that sweet little face up there. It's up to no good. No good at all.
See, Lila Jane looks all innocent, but really... she knows things. Things she shouldn't know.
Of course, she always knows when she has a hairbow in, and immediately retrieves it as a chew toy. But I'm talking about that sixth sense. For example, she knows when her 9 month well-check is coming up.
And she knows that three days before that well check is a FINE time to start showing symptoms of an ear infection. She was doing the ear-pulling, the shoulder shrugging, and the low-grade temp that are all associated with an ear infection. So...three days before our scheduled appointment, we made an early visit to the pediatrician. Guess what....no ear infection. I love making those $20 copay "donations" to the doctor's office.

So that was on a Friday. The following Monday, we went in for the scheduled well-check. All was well, except... Lila had a handful of spots on her torso. Dr. Livera said he thought it was probably just heat rash, and so I didn't think a lot of it. But...I thought at the time that it didn't really look that much like heat rash she's had before.
By Tuesday, she was infested. Throughout the day, it got worse and worse. I called the doctor, and in we went AGAIN. Yes, third time in 5 days. Dr. Livera took one peek at her polka-dotted hands and feet, and declared it a classic case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. I've probably seen hundreds of cases of HFM in my daycare career, but I don't believe I ever recall seeing a kid SOOOOO covered in that rash! Poor kid had it everywhere! I tried to get a couple pics, but they really don't do it justice. She was VERY lucky that even with such a bad case, she didn't seem to have any inside her mouth or throat, so she was still able to eat and drink ok. She was pretty uncomfortable, but hung in there pretty well.
So after the spots started clearing up, Lila was left with some allergy stuff she'd been struggling with. Just one week later, yesterday (Monday), Lila really started struggling to breathe at school. Her chest was retracting, and she was starting to wheeze a bit. Yes, we went back to the pediatrician...again. Dr. Livera had to laugh when he saw us coming this time. He decided she just has something viral, and did a breathing treatment in the office. It helped quite a bit, so we got to go home with our very own nebulizer, and a stack of prescriptions. We got one for the albuterol (breathing treatments), one for a steroid, and one for drops for her poor goopy eyes.

I called Clay, and he said he could come pick Lila up at school as soon as he got off work, so I packed her up and sent him on his way with Lila and her prescriptions to drop off at the pharmacy around 5:30. But things never go as planned on Mondays... Due to a vehicular SNAFU, Clay came right back in to the daycare. He called for help, and we waited there in my office. And waited....and waited....... We went on and let Lila eat dinner at 6 with the other kids at the dacyare, then we waited some more while a VERY sickly Lila slept on my shoulder. At 7, the daycare closed, and we were still waiting. Clay called two other companies to come help, and they were also all backed up. So at 8pm, Lila was finally awake, and in a very rapidly deteriorating condition. She was burning up, so I went on and dosed her with some Tylenol (I keep a whole pharmacy in my desk drawer.), and we threw in the towel and headed home in Clay's car, leaving my car behind. Oh, and have I mentioned that I was sick, too, with about a 100.0 temp? Super. Fun. Times.

We still had to drop off the prescriptions, get them filled, and find dinner along the way. I figured since Lila had the Tylenol and it was so close to her bedtime, Lila would probably sleep until we got that all taken care of and got her home. No such luck. We dropped of the scripts, went through the McDrive-thru, and then Lila lost her marbles. And she deserved to. It was late, and she was miserable. So we tossed our burgers back, and made a hasty retreat to the house. Clay helped us in, and I started getting Lila ready for bed while he went back for the medicine. I got her all sponge bathed and in her jammies, took her temp (102.8!!!!!), and snugged her in for her bedtime bottle. The rational part of me did give pause about giving milk to a kid with a fever, but I figured a few ounces wouldn't be a problem, especially since it had been an hour since she'd had Tylenol. Wow....what a rookie mistake. Within moments of sucking down the bottle, she puked the entire contents of her gut ALL OVER ME....down my shirt, filling my bra, covering her fresh jammies, and saturating our burp cloth. Classic mothering moment. I knew Clay was within a few blocks away, so I tried to remain calm, and I sat and waited. I managed to get her onesie off, and we just sat and watched out the door. Clay arrived within just a couple minutes of the deluge. As he walked in the door with our grocery bag full of meds, I just barked out, "STOP. Drop everything, and take the kid." One glance in our direction, and he stepped in like a rock star. He scooped her up, and only hesitated for a moment before whisking her away to the bathtub so that I could deal with my own clothes. I have to mention, this was the first time Clay had actually bathed Lila in the bathtub. He typically just does sponge baths on his nights, so it was quite the experience for both of them. By the time we cleaned everyone up, administered a breathing treatment and a pile of meds, we were ALL SO READY for bed. Lila had a bit of a rough night, but we made it ok.

I think my Facebook post pretty much summed it up for the evening:

Bad news: her temp is 102.8
Good news: mine's only 100.0
Bad news: she puked her whole bottle
Good news: I caught almost all of it...in my bra

This morning, Pop and Mim came and saved the day for us. I was off work this morning anyway, due to a low census, so Mim and I had planned to do some shopping. Plans change, though, and instead Mim babysat while Pop and I went back and took care of my car. Lila slept through the entire ordeal, so poor Mim was left with the WORST babysitting job ever. She never even got to see Lila!! I am SOOO very thankful that they were here to help us out, though. We were really in a pickle!!

I know that was a really long saga, but these are the things I'm going to (hopefully) look back on in 10 years and get a really big laugh. We have been SO fortunate with Lila that she's been so healthy, so this week has really thrown us for a loop.

Lila and I both seem to be on the mend a bit today, so we're hoping for a good day at school tomorrow, and the RAPID arrival of a long weekend will be welcome!

9 months!!

Lila Jane Cundiff, you are NINE months old!! That's OFFICIALLY 3/4 of a year! (Unlike last month when I said that, and you were actually 2/3 year. I hope you get your math skills from Daddy.)
You are 18 lbs, 3 oz, and 27 inches long. You are in the 50th percentile for height and weight, and in the 75th percentile for your head. You definitely get that big ol' brain from Daddy!

I'm starting to retire a lot of your 9 month clothing. You are definitely fully in the 12 month size now, which is just perfect. I've bought you mostly 18 month clothes for fall/winter, so I think that's going to be about right. You are still known at school for your crazy wardrobe. I bounce around between putting you in all of these sweet little vintage looks, these crazy mix-matched patterns and pieces, and tons of crazy accessories to go with everything. Even the doctors office calls you the "girl with the bow in her hair"! People have often stopped us when we're out and about to ask how in the world we get that bow stuck in your hair. You still don't have a whole lot of hair, but it is starting to thicken up a bit on top, and get a bit longer. Your little "sprig" ponytail is at least an inch tall now!
This has been a BIG month for you, Lila! You started crawling, and then pulling up within days of each other. That makes Mommy and Daddy SO nervous! We've been very busy trying to baby-proof the house and make sure you don't get into anything you shouldn't. Your favorite toy at home is your little activity table that has LOTS of buttons to push. It lights up and talks and plays music, and you spend LOTS of time there. At school, your favorite toy is a large U-shaped ball activity center that is the perfect height for you to pull up on. You like to stand at it and practice your mad dance skills!

You also bumped up to EIGHT teeth either on your 9 month birthday or the day after. You don't like to let me in to check as easily as I used to, so I'm not exactly certain which day it popped through.
Even though you still seem so tiny in comparison to some of your friends, you're definitely still the best eater! We still haven't really found any foods you won't eat, though you do show preferences for some things over others when there's more than one food on your tray. You also really want to feed yourself. Even for things like yogurt that must be eaten with a spoon, you often try to grab the spoon from Mommy and try to push it into your mouth all by yourself. You're finally doing AWESOME with your sippy cup! Now that we figured out you like straws best, you're really going to town! We can even get you a big kid cup with a lid and straw at a restaurant, and you can pretty much handle it all by yourself! You definitely take after your Aunt B and Cousin Collin, though, because you like to bite your straw. It makes me giggle every time.
We used to laugh because you were such a serious baby. You could watch us and hang out forever without cracking the least bit of a smile. That baby is LONG gone! You are always SO happy now! I love peeking into your classroom through the window. I never stand there long before you spy me. Every single time you see me in that window, your face lights up like a Christmas tree! And every single time, my heart skips a little beat. I can still come and go from your room easily, and you are always happy to see me, but you rarely ever get upset when I leave. I think you do best if I tell you bye bye and wave to you when I leave rather than trying to sneak out. If you catch me sneaking, I think it hurts your feelings.

You LOVE to wave hello and goodbye to anyone and anything. You often wave bye bye to the house when we leave in the mornings. You also love to give me and Daddy "ZRBT"s on our arms. You've started trying to give kisses, too. Today you even started kind of blowing kisses, but you were doing it with your palm out instead of against your mouth. It was SO cute! We'll work on that one a bit more...

Lila, when I write these birthday posts for you, I always go back and look at some of the older pictures of you. People always tell me to enjoy the baby days while they last, and that it will all go by in the blink of an eye. I really do try to savor every moment with you, but it's not making it any easier to watch you grow up so quickly. I told Daddy tonight that it really does make me feel this strange kind of sadness when I look at your tiny baby pictures. I feel like that baby is completely gone, and I miss her so much. I love the baby we have now even MORE, if that's possible, but in my mind we started out with a completely different baby, and there's just none of that left. It's another good reminder for me to really try to soak up every snuggle, kiss, and image in my mind, and with pictures. No matter how many pictures we take, I always think it's not enough.

I love seeing you grow and change, and getting glimpses of the personality you are starting to get as you develop. Nothing in my world compares to your big smiles and drooly kisses. Being your Mommy is the BEST thing that ever happened to me, and I have no doubt Daddy would say the same thing. I think we have done almost as much growing and changing as you have over the past nine months. I love the changes you've made in us, and can't wait to see how our little family continues to grow together over the next weeks, months, and years. We love you, Lila Jane. Bunches and bunches like grapes and bananas.

Lila's House

Hi! Welcome to my humble abode! Let me just turn down this stereo so we can talk.

I've been cleaning these floors ALL day! It's tough being me.


Ah, here we go. Have a seat at this table with me. Sorry it's so cluttered.

I'd offer you a cup of tea, but Mom doesn't let me have caffeine. Or brew tea. She's so strict.


We can sing together, though! I love "Twinkle, Twinkle", "The Tiny Turtle", and " The ABC Song."



Please excuse me while I close the window. It's a little drafty in here, and Mom dresses me in all these silly sunsuit things.



I'm back! Now...what were we talking about?


Hmm...that sounds pretty serious. I'll think on it.

What? Leaving already??? I'm so sad.


BYE BYE!!! Come back soon!

The Cup

At around 6 months, we started working with Lila on taking the sippy cup. I bought a couple different varieties, and we started letting her try them out. We had limited success with her drinking from them, but pretty much NO success with her holding any of them. We tried short, tall, spout, straw, handles, grips, fast-flow, slow-flow, and pretty much every other type cup on the market. Some she would drink from, other she wouldn't.

But as of this week, I can officially say we've found success.

And I think she's pretty proud of herself about it.
Almost gone! Drink up, chickadee!

So end score:
THE LOSERS
The WINNERS! The winners ended up being the cups with a soft straw. The orange one shown below is the big winner because it has handles, and is short enough to leave on her high chair tray and let her manipulate. The red one is a close runner up with the same straw mechanism, but it's a bit too tall for her to hold herself.
In other news, look at my new hobby!! I've started trying to pick up bows here and there for Lila, and those suckers are EXPENSIVE! They often run from $5-8 and up! Mom and I kept looking at them in stores and saying, "surely we can do that!!" So I took one apart, and sure enough! Easy peasy! They take a few minutes to do, and I'm still perfecting the art, but I thought I came up with some pretty cute ones for first tries!

Bet that big pan-o-pork got your attention, didn't it? Clay made that. Like, from a pig or something. But not the whole pig, because that would be gross. Just from giant chunks of a whole pig, because that's completely NOT gross. I think it has some other stuff in it too, but I requested that he never share the details with me. I think it's a bad thing that I now know the price per pound of quality fat from Kingsley's Butchers.

But I somehow doubt you came here to read about pork fat. What is it that you come here for, if not fine meat products? Oh yes...that kid!
She's kinda cute, isn't she? She's kind of a pistol, though. She dresses all cute and makes you think she's all innocent. But really, she's a scamp and a vandal.

Ok, not really.
BUT...she is giving me problems. See, since I had her, I really want to blog a LOT more. But the thing is...since I had her, I seem to be able to blog a LOT less. Ugly little cycle there.
This really cute little creature now CRAWLS all over our house. She has this whole "freedom of movement" thing going on, and it's causing me headaches. See, she's discovered power cords. And my, but they are tasty. So we had to hide them all. Which meant the laptop had to move to the bedroom. Which was fine, but the cord to it somehow got left in the living room. So I finally moved the cord to the bedroom so that I could get online and blog. Except that I left half of it. And didn't realize it. So then we lost it and had to find it. And then I went to plug it in and realized we had no outlets left in the bedroom. So then we had to find a power strip. And then....well, I realized that I'm weeks behind on blogging and still don't have all of the photo memory cards I needed. But I still thought I'd pop in and write some excuses. I'm sure when Lila's 30 years old and reading back over this, she'll really be concerned about the missing weeks of her life.

To that I say, "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT FOR CRAWLING, LILA JANE!!!"
Did I mention that she's really cute, so it makes up for a lot of her aforementioned transgressions?
No, I have no idea what the above picture is about. Clay has mad skills at catching odd pictures of me on his fayncy camera. Thanks, Clay.

And she's OFF!

Miss Lila has been a busy girl lately! On Thursday, I was in her room at school talking to her teachers when I saw her make her first official scoots toward freedom. She scooty-scooted in an actual crawl and made it about a foot. Friday at school she did a bit more creeping around. Saturday, I expected to see her make great strides on her locomotion, but unfortunately, she came down with a yucky fever bug. She was NOT herself all weekend, with a temp going up as high as 101.6. She wouldn't eat or sleep very well, and didn't want me out of her sight. Even when I was in her sight, though, she still just wasn't content. Sunday she really wasn't any better, though her fever had dropped down to about 99.6. By Monday, I was EXHAUSTED, and so ready to go back to work!! I told Clay that I really do NOT know how stay at home moms do it, ESPECIALLY if they have cranky babies. I think God is just trying to give me a tiny taste of what my own mom went through my ENTIRE childhood!! Sorry, Mom....I didn't mean to be such a baby pest!

Anyway, Lila did much better at school on Monday, and even broke out with a few tiny bumps that I'm assuming are the tell-tale signs that her fever was due to Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, a common childhood illness characterized by a low-grade fever followed by blisters on the hands, feet, mouth, and bottom. Fun times. So Monday I was in the classroom next door to Lila when I heard her teacher calling me. I ran over and peeked into Lila's room in time to see her STANDING in her crib. She pulled up on her own! I couldn't believe it. I knew she'd been really trying, but I really thought we had a couple more weeks before she mastered that trick. No such luck. I emailed Clay, and he had the exact same response as I did... "OH NO! We have to lower the crib mattress again!" We got that taken care of last night!

Today (Tuesday), Lila has been pretty much back to herself. She's crawling like a mad-woman, and pulls up immediately any time you put her in her crib. She's still exploring and figuring out what else she can pull up on at school and at home. She has to have things at just the right height to be able to pull up.

I'm so proud of her, and yet also traumatized!! She can now just roam around at will! How did this happen? I didn't sign on for a MOBILE child! I signed up for a BABY! Where has that baby gone?