Summer Update in, um, October

I'm going to rely on the age old adage that "no news is good news" as an excuse for going four months between posts.  Basically, since the kids recovered from the plague discussed in the previous post, things have been going well, so there hasn't been anything to report.  Now, they're both sick again, so it seems like a good time to update everyone on our summer.

Beach Vacation

A couple of years back,we (along with some other friends) enjoyed some cocktails at a tennis event and ended up "winning" a silent auction for a week at a condo in Hilton Head.  Our growing families meant we had to wait a while to take advantage of our purchase, but we finally did so back in June. The experience took me back to when my family used to vacation there in the '70s.  In fact, I think this condo had not been updated since the '70s, so it really felt like the olden days.

Carter-era accommodations notwithstanding, we had a great time.  Our beach time was a little limited, but we made up for it by spending loads of time at the pool.  We also rented a bike with a little trailer for the kids, and they loved it!  The most memorable part of the trip, however, has to be Amanda's on stage performance with the guitar player in Harbour Town.

A little background . . . back when my family used to vacation in Hilton Head in the '80s, I remember seeing a guy playing kids songs and conducting a singalong under a big tree in Harbour Town.  Well, it turns out the same guy (Gregg Russell) is still there, doing a great job entertaining dozens of kids every night during the summer.  When we first stopped by on Tuesday, Amanda was absolutely entranced by his performance.  Ordinarily, she is very shy and clingy in crowds, but she quickly left me and sat in the midst of the other children.  When I pointed to an empty spot closer to Gregg, she got up, moved right past the spot I was talking about, and plopped down right in the front row.  After that first night, she kept talking about wanting to see "Gwegg Wussell" again, so we resolved to get back there one more time before we left.

That Friday, we went back to Harbour Town, and Amanda went right up to the front row.  The rest of us hung back and watched and tried to tolerate the kids music.  When Gregg asked for volunteers to come up and sing, Amanda raised her hand.  We assumed she did so because so many (much older) kids around her were raising their hands.  A couple of other kids got picked and sang their songs, and he asked for volunteers again.  Again Amanda raised her hand, and this time she got picked.  I got ready to go and retrieve her as soon as she cried and/or froze up, but I didn't have to.  Instead, she sat on Gregg's lap, talked to him, told him her name and where she lived (she gave the name of our neighborhood, which left Gregg confused), and said she wanted to sing the ABC song.  Then, she actually did it!  It was amazing!  She was so happy, and we were so proud of her!  It felt like she took a big step toward being more independent and more willing to try new things.  Naturally, though, I forgot to film the performance even though I had our camera in my hand.  I was too worried trying to get a good photo that I completely forgot to try to film it.  As you can see, my quest for a good photo ended in failure; this was the best I could do:

We'll be going back to Hilton Head for Thanksgiving, and we're going back to Harbour Town to see if she will perform an encore.  Should be interesting.

Reagan's First Birthday

And now back to the nominal subject of this blog, Reagan!  She turned one on July 27th, and we had some friends (our friends, not hers . . . she's too young for friends!) over to the house for a water-themed party with baby pools and a slip-n-slide-n-bust-your-ass.  She didn't cry, so . . . success!  She enjoyed her smash cake, too.

Amanda's Fourth Birthday

A month or so later, it was time for Amanda to have her own birthday party.  We had it at a little studio where she has been taking a dance/gymnastics class.  The staff there took the kids through a bunch of tumbling, balancing, etc.  Everyone had fun, and I think "kids gymnastics party coordinator" is possibly the hardest job in the world.  Sorry, "Bering Sea crab fisherman;" you're now in second.

Current Update


As mentioned above, both girls are sick right now.  Amanda got her cold first, probably because she went back to preschool about a month ago.  Fortunately, she feels fine most of the time except for the sneezing and the runny nose, which she has had for about a week or so.  It's annoying (to her and to us), but at least she knows how to blow her nose.


Reagan's started with the sneezing and runny nose a few days ago, but her cold has been more troublesome.  Since she can't blow her nose, it just runs and runs.  After wiping it a few times (which she hates), the area gets all irritated, making additional wipings even more unpleasant.  To combat the irritation, we have to apply lotion which, guess what, she hates.

To top it all off, Reagan is also cutting her fourth molar, so there's a lot of drool to go with the snot.  Awesome.

And all of these problems have meant that her nap/sleep schedule has been thrown into disarray for a few days.  Some days, she hasn't wanted to nap at all and cries at the top of her lungs if we try to make her.  Other days, she naps with no problems.  Susan and I agree that we can't wait for her to get better so we can be reminded of what she is really like.

Milestones

You're probably all assuming that Reagan is walking by now, but you'd all be wrong.  Just like with crawling, she is taking her sweet time with the next method of movement.  A couple of weeks ago, she took her first steps, and we try to practice with her every day.  Usually, though, she just stands there for a second before dropping to the ground and crawling to us.  It's just so much faster for her to just crawl, and I for one commend her on her preference for efficiency.  That said, just within the past few days, Reagan has taken more steps at once (maybe 7 or 8?) and has also turned around while standing.  She also loves pushing around one of her little walking toys. so we are sure she'll be bipedal full time in short order.

Here's a snippet of her (almost) first steps:




Upcoming Events

We will be taking our first family trip to Disney World in a couple of weeks, which should be a lot of fun.  Please don't rob our house while we're gone.

Also, I'm working on another photo album and I plan to post that within the next week.  And maybe I'll post from Disney World, too.

The Plague Sweeps the Household

When we took Amanda to the Emergency Room last week, we hoped her bug would spare the rest of the family, but we weren't that lucky.  No sooner had Amanda recovered when Reagan spiked a fever herself.  We think it started overnight on Friday since she didn't sleep well, and by Saturday morning she had a temperature around 101 or so.  Fortunately, we were able to get some infant's Motrin in her without her throwing it up (she has in the past had a very sensitive gag reflex for medicine), so I think we were able to control it.  As a result, the fever never got up in the scary 103 to 104 range.  Also, she never vomited.  Still, it's tough to feel so helpless when your baby is clearly suffering.  By Sunday afternoon, Reagan had basically recovered, though she still isn't eating all that much or taking as much formula as we would like.  Hopefully the appetite will return soon.

Of course, now that Reagan has recovered, Susan has a fever, headache, and a sore throat.  I don't have to hold her down to get her to take medicine, so she's been able to minimize her symptoms somewhat.  If the lifespan of the illness holds true, she should probably be better by late this afternoon.  At any rate, that's when my sympathies will expire.

The question becomes, then, who and when will the dreaded 36-hour plague strike next?

Spring Update

The past couple of months have absolutely flown by, and it's hard to believe that Baby Reagan is already ten months old.  Where does the time go?  I've actually got a lot to cover with this update, so let's get on with it, shall we?  A few pictures are embedded, but there's also an album over yonder >>>>>>
with more photos (and captions!).


Overall Development

Let's see . . . what milestones has Reagan hit since the last update . . .  Well, she got two more teeth, bringing the total to four!  And she's been drooling a whole lot for the past week, so we're expecting some more activity along the gumline any time now.

Reagan had her nine-month check up, and everything was pretty good.  In fact, the only source of concern was that she wasn't crawling yet.  But since she was otherwise so normal (i.e., not lethargic), and since I've heard of plenty of kids that go straight to walking, I wasn't really concerned.  Still, the pediatrician asked us to check in with her if Reagan wasn't crawling by two weeks later.  Two weeks passed, and there was no change.  However, we still thought everything with Reagan was good enough that we just ignored the pediatrician's directions.  Shhhh . . .

Finally, one day short of her ten-month birthday, Reagan shuffled forward enough toward an identifiable goal that we officially called it a crawl.  And since I happened to be home that day (self-employment can be awesome), I got some footage of one of her earliest attempts:

She still much prefers being held, but she can squirm her way toward whatever she wants, which is usually the remote control (not her toy one, mind you, but only the real one).  Life just got more complicated.

Easter

As usual, our Easter weekend was busy with multiple egg hunts, along with brunch at the Athletic Club. Amanda seems to have finally gotten over her abject fear of people in animal costumes.  Now, it's merely a healthy distrust.

Mother's Day

In keeping with our Mother's Day tradition, we did brunch at the club.  Yes, again.  A good time was had by all.  And a cute picture was had by me:

Baptism

We had our little baby girl baptized on May 15th at Johns Creek United Methodist Church.  Heading into the ceremony, we were worried we had waited too long to have it done.  Rather than being oblivious to her surroundings, Reagan had gotten to the point where she was afraid of strangers (in a healthy way).  And with the pastor doing the baptizing also having a full beard, we were expecting the worst.  Imagine our surprise, then, when I handed her over to Rev. Big Beard and she just went along without complaint.  She did fantastic during the little ceremony itself, even waving to the congregation!  Then, she let the pastor carry her around the sanctuary to show her off, and she even let out a few squeals during the rest of the service that got the whole place laughing.  We were so relieved proud!

Code Brown

Reagan's ability to sit up without wobbling, combined with her inability to fit comfortably in the small plastic baby bathtub, led to our bathing her in the big bathtub in our bathroom.  Ordinarily, I would agree that such a simple achievement wouldn't qualify for inclusion in her blog, but the big tub had an unusual effect on her -- it caused, shall we say, extreme relaxation.  In other words, she pooped.  Three of the first four times we put her in the big tub, she let loose.  And for two of those three times, Amanda was in there with her, so we had to do an immediate evacuation of both kids, followed by a good Comet scrub down.

Projectile Vomiting

In keeping with the theme of bodily excretions (aren't you glad you waited so patiently for this?), I've got another wonderful story.  And, it's a two-parter!

Part I begins on the evening of Friday, May 6th.  Susan had a "girl's night" at a concert, so it was up to me to get the girls fed and put to bed.  That responsibility in itself is no big deal, as I have handled those tasks without incident on many occasions.  Dinner went fine, and a little while later it was time for Reagan's last bottle of the night before putting her down.  After finishing the bottle at about 7:15, I tried to burp her, but something didn't seem quite right.  Then, instead of burping and being happy within about a minute after finishing the bottle (which had been her m.o. for weeks if not months), she threw up all over me like a freshman during fraternity rush.  Here's what my clothes looked like:

Not pictured:  My look of disgust

At least Susan enjoyed the concert.

Part II of the story took place the following Tuesday.  Again, Susan was conveniently away, this time traveling for work (a likely story!).  Well, I gave Reagan the last bottle, and the little critter vomited all over me AGAIN!  And again I had to shower and change clothes!  Okay, so maybe that wasn't so much a Part II as it was a sequel which simply recycled the plot of the original.  Still, it was very disconcerting to see throw-up that close, and to see it twice in five days is something I'll not soon forget.  Neither will Susan, as I intend to regularly remind her of the fact she missed both of them.

And Reagan?  She was fine.  We decided we had been trying to cram too much food into her in a short amount of time -- basically, within about three hours, we were giving her two full bottles sandwiched around baby food and whatever finger food she could shove down her gullet.  We ratcheted back the size of the bottles, spread out the timing a little more, and everything has been fine since then.

Solid Food

We've been gradually scaling back Reagan's formula intake since we've been able to add baby food and some solid food to her diet.  So far, we really haven't found anything that she doesn't like.  Her favorites are ham, cheese, beans, cantaloupe, pasta, and avocado.  That said, we're not naive enough to believe she'll always eat whatever we put in front of her, but hope springs eternal!


First Day at the Pool!

Our neighborhood pool opened in mid-May, and Amanda could not get in there fast enough.  Though it took about a week and a half for her to be as comfortable (swimming, jumping in, etc.) as she was at the end of last summer, Amanda is now planning a summer of almost daily swimming.  And we're dreading a summer of facing the daily choice of either going swimming with a three-year-old or disappointing a three-year-old.


The bigger question, of course, was how Reagan would react to the water.  Since she loves her bath, we hoped that would translate to loving the pool, as well (albeit with fewer bowel movements).  Well, after a few minutes with a "what's going on here?" look on her face, she settled in and now really enjoys it herself.  In the little ladybug floaty, she'll stand on the steps and kind of jump toward the pool, which seems pretty fearless for a ten-month-old.

I guess that's about it for now.  As I write this, Amanda has been battling a pretty high fever which led to an Emergency Room visit last night.  Not only did she have a fever pushing 104, but she threw up a bunch of times yesterday, too (only a little got on me or Susan), so we thought it made sense to get her checked out.  Fortunately, it's nothing serious -- probably just a virus -- and we're just supposed to try to control the fever with Motrin.  Unfortunately, Amanda absolutely will not take medicine, so she's had to kind of suffer some today.  We've kept an eye on her fever, and it hasn't been as high as it was yesterday, so hopefully she'll be her old self again soon.

Sisterly Love

Lunch Outing

Well, the girls are feeling better today (except for Reagan's runny nose), so we went out for lunch to Steak & Shake. The guy who seated us brought a kids menu, toy, and silverware for both Amanda and Reagan. I'm guessing the host didn't have any kids if he thought it appropriate to give a knife and fork to an infant. Or maybe he has kids but is just a really crappy parent. I tell ya, It's nice to be a flawless father. Now watch the girls end up on the pole.

Sent from my iPhone

Illness Update

We just finished Day 3 of the girls' illnesses.  Reagan doesn't struggle breathing anymore, but she is still coughing occasionally.  But when she does, it's not as "barky" as before, so I guess that's good news.  She hasn't had a fever since yesterday, and even then it was very slight.  This improvement in her symptoms is obviously good news, but she had a very fussy day today anyway.  She slept a lot and cried a lot for no apparent reason.  I'm wondering if maybe she's teething at the same time, and the symptoms are all kind of running together.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be better for the little munchkin.

Amanda, meanwhile, has consistently been running a slight (99.6-ish) fever for the past three days.  She's had a bit of a runny nose, but no other real symptoms that I can detect.  And my earlier comment lauding the virtues of deception as a parenting technique?  Well, forget about it.  Amanda refused to drink any more milk-medicine that day, and it was a chore to get her to drink any milk at all yesterday (even without the medicine).  So, our deceptive practice almost drove our daughter to stop drinking milk.  Outstanding.

Tomorrow will be better.

Long-awaited update . . .

Leave my daddy alone!  I love him.

As usual, I've been getting a lot of flak from some quarters (I'm looking at YOU, Coverdell people), about the infrequent posts.  While I'm honored that some folks out there believe that every one of Reagan's BMs is a noteworthy event, I would simply prefer providing meatier, though less frequent, updates.

All that being said, here are the high points since my last update in January:

Let's see, about a week after the last post, Reagan cut her first two teeth -- the ones in front on the bottom.  That event almost warranted a blog post itself, but not quite.  After those first two came in, we thought she'd have a lot more come in pretty quick since she continued to be fussy and kept trying to bite everything.  But here it is, three months later, and we have had no further breakthroughs.  By now, there are probably a half a dozen ready to cut through all at once.  When they finally do, she'll look like she has antlers in her mouth.

Also, Reagan is now sitting unassisted, which is a nice milestone.  Even better, she stays where we put her, and as long as there are toys within reach of her tiny, tiny arms, she's pretty happy.  In addition to sitting, she spends her days in the exer-saucer, in the door jumper, or in someone's arms being carried around like royalty.  And we're suckers, so we tend to be all too happy to let her get away with it.

Here's the most current, up-to-the-minute update available:  On Sunday, (4/3), Reagan was a bit wheezy in the morning and coughed occasionally, as well.  Since the pollen has been bad lately, we thought she might be suffering from seasonal allergies, and since she otherwise seemed relatively happy, we were content to wait until today to take her to the doctor.  The nurse took one listen to the breathing and the seal-like coughs and basically diagnosed her on the spot with croup.  That diagnosis was kind of alarming at first since I've always heard of it as some sort of dreaded childhood illness, but it turns out to be (apparently) not too big a deal, at least not in Reagan's case.  In fact, it should run its course after three days.  To treat the inflammation of the trachea, she got an oral dose of steroids at the doctor's office, which promptly triggered Reagan to throw up all over Susan (heh!).  In fact, the vomit episodes (there was another one a little later while she was eating puffs) were probably the most alarming part of the experience.  We ultimately got her to successfully 'roid up by using another form of the juice, and she only needs two more doses before the symptoms should be gone.  As a side effect of the steroids, she'll develop terrible back acne and also be able to lift a car.

Even as Reagan has been battling croup with performance-enhancing drugs, Amanda has also been sick.  She was fine on Sunday but woke up with a 103 fever on Monday.  Since we were already taking Reagan to the doctor, we just schlepped Amanda along to get her checked out, too.  The doctor (or PA, or whatever) seemed to think Amanda had the same virus as Reagan, but it just affected her differently since she's older.  Instead of inflaming the trachea to the point where it affects breathing, it basically just gave Amanda a fever.  We tried mightily to get Amanda to drink a little children's ibuprofen to knock the fever down, but she would have absolutely none of it.  We tried reasoning with her by explaining that it would help her feel better.  When that failed, we (actually, I'll take credit/blame for this brilliant idea) took away her favorite stuffed animals as punishment (!) until she took the medicine.  Strangely, that didn't work, either.  Finally, we settled on the strongest weapon in the parental arsenal -- deception.  We put the ibuprofen in a half a cup of milk and encouraged Amanda to drink it since she "needs to drink fluids."  She bought it!  So, the moral of the story is, reason and logic are no match for deception.

And now, Susan is on the verge of a week-long trip to Chicago, and I'll be home from work tomorrow with the girls.  At least I get to join her in Chi town on Friday, and hopefully, Aunt Terri won't have two illnesses to contend with while we're gone for the weekend!

Plus, see photos on the right . . .