December 13, 2010

We seemed to have survived croup, but Emma still has a cough and a LOT of nasal drainage. The last few nights, her left ear started draining a lot too. We attempted to take her to Urgent Care on Sunday but we're denied. Apparently here on Sundays they just offer "Quick Care" services by a nurse practitioner. Although the website included the symptoms that we wanted to take her in to be seen for (ear ache, cough/cold) they only see patients 18 months and up. That fact is not listed anywhere on the website. So we waited it out -- and luckily she slept last night -- and took her to the doctor today. We were told that her ears are waxy, but otherwise fine. The drainage was actually a good sign that the tubes are doing their job. We did get some recommendations on treating her super red, dry cheeks (cortisone with aquaphor over that for a week). It's starting to get really bad around here mouth from all the snot/drool and the pacifier. Yet another reason to get rid of the pacifier. Unfortunately it's still the only thing she wants when teething and she has molar #3 and #4 that have cut, but are still working their way down.

This weekend was a bit of a flop. We went to the Picture People on Saturday morning to do some Christmas pictures. That was a disaster. The photographer sucked, to put it nicely. She was determined to just take pictures of Emma sitting or standing perfectly still and looking directly at the camera. I don't think she snapped more than 30 photos in all and only uploaded 13 for us to choose from. That's a huge difference from the 275 choices we had at her last pictures with Portrait Innovations. Granted, she wasn't mobile at that shoot. It was very frustrating and I think we'll travel the extra hour next time and go back to Portrait Innovations. Their staff was much friendlier and seemed to work better with babies.

Sunday, I had plans to go out of town with a friend and then a friend's daughter was going to come watch Emma so Dan and I could finally go see Harry Potter in the theaters. Friend cancelled (not a huge problem cause Emma had been up most of Saturday night and I was exhausted). And the girl who was supposed to babysit never called back to confirm -- even though SHE was the one who asked to babysit. So Dan and I didn't get to go to the movies.

I never realized how hard it would be to get a babysitter! When I was pregnant, tons of people told me "oh, I can't wait to babysit!" And then when I tried to set a day and time - they flaked. Let's see if I can list the number of times Emma has stayed with someone (other than daycare) so that Dan and I could go do something -- his parents watched her once last November and we went to the movies. Robin watched her once last December and we went out to dinner. Dawn watched her once last November while we finished Christmas shopping. Jess watched her in June while we went to get our eyes checked. Our moms watched her (sleep) at the hotel room in Vegas while we went to see a Cirque du Soleil show with family. That's it. Five times in 14 months. It's not like Dan and I are real social people or anything. We are definitely home-bodies, but it would be nice to get out occasionally with just the two of us.

Pictures this week are a blog exclusive - they won't be posted on Facebook until after Christmas cards have been sent out. These are the 3 decent pics from this weekend. They aren't horrible - but Emma never would smile (probably didn't help that I wasn't smiling much either because the photographer was frustrating me so bad). Next year we won't bother with professional ones.

As for milestones - she's been nodding her head yes and no. That's absolutely adorable! The other day I found her standing in the living room, pointing at the cat, yelling "no, no, no". We've been trying to teach her to say "No, no Jo-Jo" to Jonah because he likes to try to run outside. (We also try to get her to say "bad kitty" to Britney when she's on the kitchen table.) She has started using a fork when she feels like it. She has figured out how to put her knit hat on all by herself. And she is getting very familiar with daily routines. When she knows it's time to leave the house, she puts her hat on and brings her coat to Dan. As soon as she gets inside (school or home) she takes her hat off and fusses until you take her coat off. After dinner tonight, I took her out of the high chair and hoped that she would play for a few minutes so I could clean up. Nope, she went straight to the bathroom and banged on the door. She's holding a crayon and actually drawing lines now inside of just making dots. For now, she seems to be over the separation anxiety at school and waves bye-bye from the breakfast table inside of screaming and clinging to me. (That only lasted a few weeks, but was still difficult.) Her latest toy obsession has been the Glo-Worm. She doesn't necessarily like the glowing part or the music - she likes to take a washcloth and cover it up. We dug out Jingles (her Christmas bear from last year) and now she carries both Glo-Worm and Jingles around with 2 separate washcloths and sets them down places to cover them up. Then she'll pick them up and move them somewhere else and cover them up. She is also obsessed with Elmo. We started watching some video clips on SesameStreet.org and she is a bit addicted. Our favorites include the Imagination song, Elmo's song, Song about Elmo with Adam Sandler, What I am by Will.I.Am., Elmo's Ducks, Elmo Loves You, and this one with a duck that moos and a cow that quacks. We watch each of these (and a few others) 2-3 times a day.