Sick tactics

The Monkey seems to have developed a runny nose. Of course the timing was impeccable. Literally as her friends are arriving  at the house for a playdate yesterday afternoon she starts sneezing and snot non-stop starts draining from her nose. Eeek. "Sorry, moms of playdate pals. I truly didn't know she was coming down with something."

Thankfully though - now 21 hours into this latest sickness, we only have a runny nose on the symptoms list. And the runny part is clear so that's good news.  Her congestion woke her up several times last night because she couldn't suck her thumb with a plugged nose. Nothing a good tug at a bubble asperator won't cure. Unfortunately for me and Mike, we had to do this at 10:30pm, 12:30am, 1:30am and 2:30am.

Anyway, today is a new day and yes, the nose keeps running. She's also napping a little more. Based on lastnight's restless sleep, that makes sense. But here's the best part of it all. The Baby Whisperer is here right now. I had a morning meeting and came home around 12pm.  While I was heating up my lunch, I was hanging out with the Monkey and BW in the living room.  Out of nowhere, Eloise - with her constant nose drain - stops what she is doing, then sneezes and then gets down on all fours, puts her face to the ground and rubs her nose back and forth on the rug to get the snot off of her face.  WHAT??  I kid you not.  She doesn't use her sleeve. She doesn't come to either one of us to help her. And she doesn't just leave it be, which her more typical sneeze/snot drain reaction. Nope. Head down, go to all fours, face on the rug where she leaves a thick gooey pile of snot. Where in the ever beloved world did she get that as an idea???  And what do the BW and I do in the sheer shock and awe of it all?? We laugh. How can you not??

Lord have mercy.

Completely MIA

Barely any Monkey pictures. Hardly any posts. No running. Nothing. I've got nothing for ya.  Honestly though, I'm still on the mend. I've decided I will not go running until I'm completely better. Going running on Thanksgiving and then being pretty much laid up for 3 days straight scared me straight so I'm not going to risk it. This mystery illness is winning the battle and therefore I will succumb to its wishes to lay low until I get completely healthy again.

And as you can tell, being sick just throws me way out of whack. Besides a few pics of Eloise on Turkey day, I honestly can't remember the last time I took any sort of snaps of the little one.  I haven't updated any of you on anything other than sickness and I'll be perfectly frank, I'm sad about it. I want to get back to my know-nothing posts about whatever it is I must rant on. And also to filling this blog with pics of the Monkey for us all to laugh at.  I'm so close. Just work with me for a few more days and I swear, we'll be right back where we started.

As one funny - because I feel compelled to leave you with at least a little nibble of some Monkey meat....yesterday during bath time I busted out some Christmas songs. She loves music. Loves it when we sing to her and coupled with her love of bath time, I obliged and bellowed out some out-of-tune Jingle Bells.  What mom wouldn't?

Here's how bath time goes so you can get a visual (then you can add in some Christmas carols and you'll have a perfect night time setting at the Vail residence). Monkey in warm tub completely enamoured by all toys and wants nothing to do with actually being scrubbed. I wash her down lickity-split and then she spends the next 30+ minutes in there having fun. And what do I do? I sit beside the tub and twiddle my thumbs. I should really bring a book in with me. She doesn't need or want me to actually play with her but for obvious reasons, I'm right there to make sure she's OK.

So as of late, I've added in some singing. Like I said, she loves it when we sing to her. Tis the season and so Jingle Bells was about all I could think of at the moment. I sing it over and over and she bounces around the tub "dancing" on her bottom. I thought I should get this on video, but of course I think of this when she's already in the tub and Mike's out of town so he or I can't go and grab the camera. Maybe tonight. 

Then I text Mike to ask for another Christmas carol. I need to change things up before I go crazy. 30 straight minutes of Jingle Bells is going to make me mad.  He responds...."Rudolph!"  Perfect.  I immediately switch tunes and what do I get out of Eloise??  She halts all dancing, abruptly stops playing with her toys, looks at me and repeatedly says, "no, no, no, no, no....." all while shaking her head back and forth.  Ummm......Ok.  So I go back to Jingle Bells because I'm pretty sure this is what the protest is all about and sure enough, head back down, happily playing with toys and doing the "booty dance" all around the tub.

Alas, I have a picky, bath time Christmas caroler on my hands.

Mono?

I guess we're due for a sick update. And I'm not trying to complain so just work with me here for a bit. I really felt better on Thanksgiving. So much so that I went for a run, cooked all day and still felt fine. Then Friday arrived and I felt like I'd been beat up again. It was like a trick day or something. My body tricked me to believing I was getting better so sadly I over did it and I then paid the price. Like nearly slept from Friday until today kind of pay of the price. I tried to rally again on Saturday for just a few hours when we went on a small outing to see a giant 10' x 14'  gingerbread house in the lobby of the Ritz Uptown and then wandered over to the ice skaing rink. But again, that outing proved to be too much as I spent literally all day in bed on Sunday. I would say I was just napping but after you sleep for 5 1/2 hours during the day, I think that's past being a nap. And then I was in bed officially asleep last night (and every night this weekend for that matter) at 7:30pm. We all got up today at 6:30am and all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. I can't get enough sleep right now. What is wrong with me???

So after the Monkey went down for her first nap today, I dragged myself to the computer and tried to do some research. If I'm not getting better, I might as well wallow in my own self pity about what kind of mystery disease I have, right?  Other than the sore throat (which I do not have), I swear I have mono. And no, I didn't kiss that little baby that got me so sick so I'm not sure it's really mono. But how can one person be so tired day after day after day (11 and counting on this current illness) and still not feel better?  I continue to be congested and I continue to blow foreign objects out of my nose. TMI, I know. And I'm just soooooooooo tired. And the worse news? Mike's gone until Friday. So I have to rally. Some how. I'm on a pinch of coffee right now so that's helping. And I had breakfast today which was my first meal since Saturday, so that's exciting too. I'm going to see if the Monkey and I can go for a walk or something outside today. We have too. I can't keep us cooped up in here forever. We must get outside.  The fresh air will do us both good. Or it'll lay me up in bed for another day or two. What's new, right??

And speaking of the Monkey, she has a runny nose, which occasionally brings out some yellow snot so I'd say she's fine but the yellow makes me worry. As far as her temperment though, she's really hanging in there. And she's definitely not as tired as I am. She's sticking to her 2, 1 hour naps daily and sleeps from around 6:30pm to 6:30am.  Here's my final note (and I'm not complaining!) - I can't wait until I feel well enough that I don't pray for 6:30pm each night to come sooner (the Monkey's bed time). I can't wait until I can run again. I can't wait to get my life back!

Ok, this isn't funny

It's Wednesday. The day before Thanksgiving and exactly 1 week after getting sick for the 2nd time (in 7 days) and I'm still not right. I mean, "not right" in a coughing, congested, runny nose kind of way. I realize I'm "not right" actually most of the time but we can just keep that to ourselves.  No need to kick a girl while she's down. But you guys - seriously - I can't deal with this anymore.  How is it that I live a realitively healthy life by eating right, running, taking care of myself and my Monkey yet I'm still stuck in a funk battling an "unknown virus" (thanks for that Urgent Care) that seems quite content hanging around. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving and truly, I have SO much to be thankful for. But this sickness is not one of them. Flat out - this is just not funny anymore!

I'm kind of back in the saddle

I'm at least upright and in a vertical position vs. horizonal. It's good progress so I thought I'd post. After wanting to literally die on Saturday, I dragged myself to Urgent Care - great place to find yourself on a weekend afternoon - why I didn't just call the Dr. on Friday per my mother's request, I don't know. So I sat there for 2 hours. Awesome. Then they run a flu screen on me to see if that's indeed what I had, because it darn near felt like it and they came back to say "No, it's not the flu. But you have a temperature so we can't go ahead and give you the flu shot today."  Ok, well what is it?  "It appears you have some sort of virus so unfortunately, we can't give you anything. Just go home and 'treat the symptoms.'"  Seriously. That was about the nail in the coffin at that very moment. I've never felt more sick in my life. I actually faced the public with one valiant effort only backed by the sheer idea that I might get some relief through a drs prescription and you are going to send me home with nothing???  Kill me. One straight shot to the head. Just end the misery. So instead of going home completely empty handed, I went to CVS and bought the following:

1 bag of swedish fish
2 cans of chicken noodle soup
1 bag of M&Ms
1 bottle of Tylenol
1 container of Flu something or other - CVS brand

As I'm checking out I'm barely making eye contact with the checkout guy. I'm not trying to be nasty, I just can't deal. And it's only going to be about a 4 second transaction. There's no need for small talk at this very moment. Surely he'll understand. He can chat with the guy behind me. Instead what do I get???  "Ma'm, you should really have a hanky on you. It sounds like you could use one right about now." Whatever look came out of me at that very moment, I can't say for sure but his response might let you know. "Oh, ah, ummm....I'm just sayin'."  My only thought - is this kid for real??  Give me my bag of said items and stop talking to me. In fact don't ever talk to customers ever again. Should I ask for his manager's name? I'm half tempted. Thankfully I was literally out of my mind on Saturday so I returned home, ate my snacks, took some meds and returned to my bed to sleep for another several hours.

Then yesterday included more sleeping. Thankfully Mike was here so I could continue to rest. Today I was feeling better, not close to 100% but at least better enough where I could take care of the Monkey and face the world if we indeed had to leave the house - which we only made one quick trip to Harris Teeter for Monkey milk.  I'm hoping tomorrow I'm at least 75% there. I haven't run in what seems like an eon. I just need to get some energy back and losing this hated runny nose would be a nice perk. I no longer ache all over and my head is no longer pounding so that's a plus. Oh and I can sleep through the night without having to change my clothes after waking up completely soaked. (I don't make this stuff up. That happened twice on Friday and twice on Saturday. Gross.)

Oh, oh and how could I forget the best part of all of this??? How indeed did I get so sick, after having just gotten sick the week before??  Well, today finally revealed the source. On Wednesday of last week a neighborhood mom and I went to watch another mother's 17 month old and her newborn to give her a break.  So Eloise and I trucked on over and this mom trucked on over with her son Cam.  In total there were 3 kids around Eloise's age, the newborn, and then us 2 moms to take charge.  One of the toddlers had a runny nose but to this day, Eloise still is not sick, not even a runny nose. So that little guy can't be the varment. Nope. Instead, I get a text message from the other volunteer mom just today saying she's been "death walking since Thursday.....has never been this sick before in her life.....listed out her symptoms (which happen to be the exact same ones as mine) and that Cam is completely fine." 

Conclusion - she and I got something from the newborn and it freaking knocked us both out.  She's still hurting. I at least feel like I'm on the mend.  My solution....stop trying to be nice to help out other moms in the neighborhood. Lol. How terrible am I?? Kids are dirty little varments and honestly, I can't deal with getting sick all the time like I apparently do now. Ok, I'm off to bed. I still need another good night's rest. With it maybe I can at least go running tomorrow. Dare to dream.

Sick.......again

I'm sick AGAIN. I can't even believe it. That said, I don't know when I'll be returning to running or blogging. To think that just last week Eloise and I were puking everywhere. And this week I get socked with the flu. As I said, I can't believe it. And I can't understand it as well. Nonetheless, as of now Eloise seems ok. I'm not sure if she's getting sick but I continue to try and muscle through each day being ill all while taking care of a healthy child. That makes things very interesting. Oh the days when I never ever got sick. Now I'm a complete mess. Quite literally. And an unshowered complete mess at that. Agh.

The Monkey gets blogged

Yes, I blog about her daily and yes, you come here to read about all-things-Monkey but it's fun when someone else blogs about your little girl so I thought I'd share.  You remember Danielle, my friend the super-fab photographer who graced us with her awesomeness just recently.  She posted something today on her blog about the Monkey and added a few more pics that you haven't seen yet.

And as far as sickness goes, we're on the mend around here. Thankfully so because I'm drowing in work and desperately need to get back in action. The baby whisperer is here for a full day so I can knock out my to-do list. I'm half tempted to go running but think that might be a bit much. I only returned to actually eating real food this morning so I'm not sure exercising is a smart idea. I guess I've done dumber things in my day. We'll see.

And then there was 2

I guess if you get puked on it's only a matter of time until you start puking, right? Hindsight 20/20 on this situation because as of yesterday around 4:30pm, I was hovering over the bowl puking my guts out.  The Monkey was happily watching Cars movie - my only saving grace right now for feeling so terrible.  My puke fest continued right on into story time last night when I was putting her to bed. Together, we made a b-line to the toilet mid-book where mommy again puked her guts out. And this time with the Monkey standing by watching the entire meltdown. How disgusting.  Maybe I can use this as a teaching time and she can learn how to hold Mommy's hair back?

I tucked her in at 7pm and promptly tucked myself in at 7:30pm.  She seems better today. Or at least I didn't find her covered in puke at 6:15am. I, on the only hand, am death walking.  I really do miss the days when I said, "I hardly ever get sick." Now being a mom, as soon as Eloise gets sick, it's just a matter of time before I'm hit with the same funk.  I don't have the baby whisperer today. The least I could do was keep her away from the scene of the crime. So today will include several naps from both Eloise and mommy, a lot of water sipping, toast, and some movies. That's it. And if Eloise starts feeling a little better and wants to play, I'm going to have inform her that today is not a day for playing. Tomorrow, maybe. If she's lucky.

Vomiting - Day 2

Yesterday morning we were greeted with a vomit soaked Monkey and today, the same thing. What gives? Meanwhile, she seemed fine yesterday, is not running a fever, ate OK - not what she usually eats but that's because I limited her to toast and Saltine crackers all day, but then this morning when I went in to get her....I found a vomit soaked Monkey.  For the second day in a row.  We had a repeat morning of strip her down, bath, try a bland breakfast and again, she's been acting fine today. She's a tad bit more mellow, which honestly, has been kind of nice. So aside from puking all over herself for 2 mornings in a row, you'd think nothing was wrong with her. But since this is the second day, a call to the Dr was in order and they told me to give her the B.R.A.T diet - Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast, which she was basically already on.  No milk. Just water, Pedialyte and Gatorade and to give it another 24 hours.  We've been laying low today playing games and watching Cars and as I said, besides being more mellow, she really does seem like herself.  Is this the calm before the storm?? Stay tuned.

The Parents Club

Mike and I are in.  As of 7am today, we've been officially indoctrinated into the "Parents Club".  It really feels like such an honor. Thanks for all of your well wishes and words of encouragement over the past 17 months. We really appreciate it!

See, at approximately 7am this morning, the Monkey was found projectile vomiting from her crib and thus onto her mommy and daddy.  And I have to say, what followed was a series of well-performed acts between both Mike and me that live up to a solid A+ effort.  Who knew the two of us could so quickly be Johnny on the Spot?

After hearing Eloise wake up through the monitor, I went into to greet her with my normal "good morning Monkey-girl!" and instead, I found her literally puking over the rails of her crib. A quick call to Mike and the two of us got her comforted, stripped down, bathed, fed, doted on, pampered, and the war zone cleaned up. 2 loads of laundry later and I'd say, the hazing period is over and Mike and I are now officially card carrying members of The Parents Club.

Luckily for us, it took nearly 17 months for a puking incident of this magnitude to occur but of course, all parents have to go through this before they are truly seen as equals amongst their peers. And so here we are, we've been puked on, we've cleaned up the battlefield and we're in.  The Parents Club. 

The well-performed acts took a divide and conquer approach. I bathed the Monkey while Mike retrieved a new clean monkey lovey, a new pair of warm PJs and also started battlefield clean-up duty. Then when her bath was over, he took her downstairs to see if she'd eat a little breakfast and/or play while I was the finishing clean-up crew. When I came downstairs I half expected to see him feeding her rice and ground beef - what you feed a dog after having a puking incident. Because we have literally zero experience in this area, you must cut us some slack.  But dry toast and water was the perfect plan because the Monkey was completely none the wiser on what just went down. After breakfast, she was running around here as good as new. She goobled down some toast, took a few sips of water and it was off to playing with daddy before he went to work.  

Mike and I are both still a pinch traumatized by the incident but thankfully the Monkey is fine. To her it's like it never happened.  After seeing what came out of that Monkey-girl, I'm not going to lie, it's going to be a long, long time before she gets spaghetti for dinner again. My word.

Friday's update

Ok, I fell off the wagon a little. I'm still feeling crummy. Sigh. I missed running today which means I'm just not myself yet. Serious bummer. And I was on such a roll this month with running. But then I got sick and it's ruining everything. Hopefully tomorrow the Monkey and I will be back out there. The Quanrantine has still been lifted - we even had a fun visit with Grammie judy today - but my pounding head needs to subside before I can hit the pavement again. Oh and if I'm to trust a mother (my mother) vs. the Monkey's thermometer, which is supposed to be all fancy and the thermometer to have, than I had a fever today. My mom felt my cheeks and forehead and I was hot. The Monkey thankfully was not. So I dashed upstairs and got her fancy thing and used it on myself and it said 98.6. For my sake and the Monkey's sake I hope the thermometer was correct. But mother's always know best. Anyway, I've been relying on that for months so I'd hate for it to be telling me something inaccurate. I need to just get an old school mercury filled bulb thermometer and call it a day. Why does everything these days need to be so high-tech? Anyway, that's my sick tangent. Enough with being sick!

Today was our last music class. I have mixed feelings about it. I actually got a little teary when Eloise was starring at the teacher playing the guitar and danced along to the beat but then again, I get a little teary every time she does something that's really cute.  The class was 15 weeks long. Frankly, that's too long. Eloise loved it each and every time we went but I got tired of the drive - not a good location whatsoever - and even though each class was different, I don't think it was different enough each week to fill 15 of them. Anyway, I'm glad it's over. We need a new activity. Let's try something new or maybe even do another swimming class. I haven't decided. Of course I'm getting pressure to sign right back up again for the music class but I just don't know. For the sake of the kids that she could continue on with, that's cute. She loves the other kiddos in there. And the teacher has shortened the classes. Smart. Now they are only 8 weeks instead of 15.  The next class starts a week from Monday and it'd be at 4:30pm, which is a good time for us. I just don't know. I'm going to think about it. It doesn't help that Mason (born 6/9/2010) really wants Eloise to do the 4:30pm Monday Summer class. The two have been flirting big time for weeks now. And today they met over in the corner and discussed each other's upcoming birthday parties. Come to find out, he's going to be a cowboy on his birthday.  And Eloise said, "no way, I'm going to be a cowgirl!" I'm telling you, it's nearly 1 year old love. Anyway, like I said, I'll think about it.

Ok, so I would be remiss if I didn't catch you up on pics and a video regarding some of things I've blogged about but haven't shown examples.

Here is the video of the Monkey stacking her cups. Quick 43 seconds on this one.

Here is the Monkey standing with my running shoe.

This is just hilarious and something babies must be in to at this age. I see kids doing this at the library and at music class. Cracks me up.

Big girl tub pics....

And her favorite bath time activity - standing up and throwing toys out of the tub.

And last, our new bath time ritual, we wave goodbye to the bath toys. "Bye bye toys. We'll see you tomorrow." And she waves. Hilarious.

Oh wait, I lied. One more. Look at that hair. My word.

I'm back on the wagon

I'm back. I'm not 100% but with the meds I get a good enough false positive to be productive and feel somewhat alive again.  The Monkey is not 100% either but she's been fairing better than I have this entire time so I'm hopeful we'll both be healthy again come the holiday weekend.

So with that update, the Vail Household Quarantine has officially been lifted. We are now leaving the house once again and feel confident neither of us can contaminate those we encounter. I'm in major scrub down mode on this house. I've bleached, washed and Lysol-ed everything I can get my hands on. I figure it has to help. If anything it should smell clean around here. I wouldn't know because I still can't smell, taste (or hear) but with bleach comes clean. And when Mike gets back tomorrow he can be my judge and tell me whether or not the place smells and looks as clean as an operating room.  That's what I'm after. Speaking of Mike, we think he may have dodged the bullet on this one. It seems he has a cold but not nearly what wiped me and the Monkey out so let's hope his pre-cold remedies did the trick and he gets over this one also by the holiday weekend.

I actually mistakenly lifted the Quarantine for about 40 minutes yesterday while the Monkey and I went running. Another false positive feeling from the meds and I just had to get us out of here.  We didn't go far and by the sounds of my hacking and nose blowing about 2 miles into the trek, I was reminded of what a stupid move this was. I even noticed another fellow runner near us actually took a detour as soon as she heard me. I don't blame her. Aren't you supposed to officially report a crime if you see one? Ok, I'm not sure taking a sick baby out into public when you are also sick is necessarily a crime but it can certainly be thrown into the "Unfit" category. Whatever. Don't judge. Well, actually you can judge. It was stupid. At that very moment in time, it seemed like a good idea. I was wrong.

On to Monkey updates. I've been off the blog for what seems like forever (Tuesday) so yes, I have a list.  Here we go:

1) Operation Cow's Milk is officially underway. And the Monkey seems fine with it.  She must not be able to taste anything either.  Good timing, Mommy.  I've mixed 1-2oz of cow's milk in with her breastmilk bottles three times now and also, this morning I filled a sippy cup with cow's milk, warmed it up and handed it over. She sipped at it about 5 times so she didn't flat out reject it but she didn't guzzle it down either. Honestly, I was pleased with the 5 sips she took. I thought the sippy cup was going to get slung across the room, per usual. Perfect.  I'm going to continue mixing it with breastmilk until her 1st birthday and by that point, will hope the breastmilk "fade out" will be a non-issue. I'm sending positive vibes into the breastfeeding universe on this one.

2) The Monkey has really improved her balancing skills. She's even taken a step here or there. It's only ever one step so clearly she is not walking but she's trying her hardest to get her strength and balance in gear so that she can. It's very cool to watch this process go down. It's nothing for her to squat down, pick up something that seems awkward or heavy (to a little girl her size) and she lifts it up, swings it around, drops it, goes back and picks it up again, etc. This is particularly fun for her with my running shoes. Bulky, awkward and maybe a little heavy for her, I don't know. She LOVES them. Like the love-fest fills 20 minute increments with this one and filling 20 minutes with any one activity at her age seems like a miracle. But she's up, she's down, she squats, she stands, she flings them around, and then.....she'll try to take a step. She'll take one and be fine. The second one catches her off balance and down on her bottom she goes. Then she gets up and starts all over again. It's an amazing fete that I enjoy watching it come together. She's a determined little bugger that's for sure. For all of her practice when she finally does start walking I hope I'm there to make sure she sees how proud I am of her. And I know she'll be proud of herself. She's certainly put in her due diligence on this project.

3) This is another for the "I'm fascinated watching my daughter" bucket - this morning she was bound and determined to join me in the bathroom. But she wasn't coming in without the empty Gatorade bottle. Fair enough.  At this point, she was clear across our bedroom and had a ways to go.  She put it in her mouth and bit down and started crawling. She'd get 4 or 5 crawls and it'd fall out. So she tried sliding it while crawling. This didn't prove efficient enough for her so back into her mouth it went. Again, she'd get 4 or 5 crawls and it fall. Dang if that little girl didn't try several different means of carting that Gatorade bottle to the bathroom with her and sure enough, she made it.  Once she arrived, she wanted nothing to do with the empty bottle but her determination and reasoning skills were quite impressive.

4) Yesterday morning she was in the bathroom with me while I was pumping. This is typical and what she'll do is either play with her Old McDonald Farm or play under the sink. I have plastic shampoo bottles and what not under there and she loves nothing more than to pull every last item out from under the sink and then put it back (note: she also does this now with toys. my repeated attempts at getting her to clean up are paying off!). While this was all going on, like I said, I'm pumping. At one point she looks up at me and starts signing "milk". Now I guess TMI so I'm sorry for those of you who don't want to hear this but the bottles were filling up with milk while I was pumping. She was directly below me watching them fill up and she signed "milk." And she didn't just do it once. She kept doing it and doing it and doing it. And for those who don't know the sign for "milk", it's when you squeeze your hand like you are squeezing an udder. Yup. The Monkey is watching Mommy who is literally a cow with udders filling bottles with milk and she's watching and signing it. Are you freaking kidding me?  That is hilarious! This is another sign that we've been doing over and over and over and just yesterday it clicked. Amazing. And what an excellent time to use it. This is my first experience with my "no-filter" child. I love that about kids and am excited for many more with Eloise!

5) As of yesterday, the Monkey now has an "Easy Teether" on her crib. Yes, she's a Beaver as well as a little Monkey in case anyone was curious. She has crushed her crib with constant chewing that it got so bad she literally was creating splinters. Nice.  So as soon as we saw a piece of wood come off, she and I literally dashed off to Buy Buy Baby (to also return the 2nd baby gate that I've purchased that also does not fit the bottom of our stairs - seriously, kill me. at this rate, the 2 dining room chairs will serve as our baby gate.) and purchased the "Easy Teether".  And what kind of reaction do I get out of the Beaver?  She moves from chewing on the front rail of her crib to the side rails. Ah, but she can't do this for long because "Easy Teether" makes guards for side rails as well. I'm getting them asap.

Last update, not Monkey related....I finally got my flowers planted. We purchased them on Saturday but this is when I spiraled down into the dark depths of sick-oblivion and therefore my poor flowers sat in their containers until I put the Monkey to bed last night. Likely running on another med induced false positive, it was enough to get my mini impatient garden in the backyard planted and 6 pots planted. That's all I'm doing this year but it was a much needed improvement to this god-awful yard. (pics below)

For pictures today - during our down and out sick days I was looking for any kind of diversion for both me and the Monkey. Anything that kept us occupied for even a moment in time so I'd forget my head was pounding and my nose was draining and would stop the Monkey whining.  This one day's distraction was the perfect kind of distraction - a birthday present! Much too early for the Monkey's birthday and I've also put the word out that we want no presents for this little one for her first birthday. She has plenty around here and so Mommy and Daddy will buy her a few new things and that's it. Nonetheless, Aunt Caren and Uncle John sent down a present and so on Tuesday I used it as a fun activity for the Monkey to open it. Here she goes....

Thank you Caren and John!

Also, here are some pics of my 2010 flowers...

Interesting USA Today article on parenting

"Why do mothers judge one another and their parenting" posted today on USAToday.com. Interesting read.

Sick Update: The Vail household is falling a part at the hinges. Mike's symptoms have started (scratchy, itchy throat, sore neck and shoulders, cough) and so he's is popping cold preventative products like they are going out of style. I'm now taking (pharmacist approved) meds right after I pump (not sure if this matters but it seems to me to be safer). The person who's doing the best, and we should all be most concerned with, is the Monkey. She's not 100% but she's in much better shape than the rest of us. I'm working this morning and then going to bed while the Baby Whisperer is here. (Who I had to call yesterday to come and help me. I couldn't take on the Monkey with this cold all by myself. Reinforcements were necessary.) I have some cute pics to post later if I'm up to it. That's iffy at this point. 

Sick Monkey, Sick Mommy

Is there anything more torturous than a sick breastfeeding mommy taking care of a sick Monkey?  Seriously, this is worse than waterboarding.

Sick Monkey

I'm glad our dinner plans for tonight fell through after all. As soon as our babysitter reads this, she'll be glad as well. (i.e. grammy Judy) The Monkey has been sick, courtesy or moi and so after I put her down for the night, I knew we'd be seeing each other again. She didn't get up at all last night but she and I both have been getting worse daily. I'm still stuck in head cold haze but I'm wondering now if hers isn't progressing into something worse. I heard her on the baby monitor around 7:30pm, went upstairs to check on her and found her completely covered in vomit. At this age, it's not spit-up. It's full on vomit. My poor, poor baby. I stripped her down and put her back into the tub - she just took a bath before she went to bed - so that I could try my best at getting her cleaned up. She literally had vomit on her from head to toe and was not at all pleased that she was back in the tub. I changed her bed, found the back-up Monkey woobie (thank god for the back-up), gave her some water and rocked her back to sleep. I'm thinking she's down for the night but there is certainly a chance we'll be seeing each other again. Oh, and no fever. It's a miracle.

Laundry list

I have a laundry list of items to jot down but first off - I've taught the Monkey how to do laundry. It's been extremely helpful. Really better told, if I delegate a job while cleaning, then she'll enjoy herself and I'll get some things done around here. It's a good match. So as of now, she'll stand in front of the dryer and hand me clothes to fold. And she's actually quite good at it. Only every once in awhile will she play a game with me where she won't hand over the shirt, sock, et. al. for me to fold. Instead she'll tug back and forth, which is still cute. With her assistance, laundry is a much better task. (sorry the example pics below happen to be underware shots. they were the last item in the dryer.)

Also on the list....the Monkey is now getting the hang of stacking cups, blocks and her rings. I'll get a video of this asap. Oh yeah, before I get too deep in the milestones, the Monkey and I officially have head colds. The teething symptoms for her evolved into a head cold courtesy of me. I freaking gave her a cold. Lord. She had classic teething symptoms all week then I developed a sore throat and a cough and then she has a cough too. We're hanging in there but it's a bummer.  Just more tired than usual.

Ok, back to the list....we have a parrot on our hands here. If I say da da da da da, then Eloise says da da da da da. Then I say ge ge ge ge ge and she says ge ge ge ge ge. Then choo choo choo and she says choo choo choo. And on and on. It's cute and impressive all at the same time.

I've officially switched the Monkey over to taking baths in the big girl tub. The pink blow up ducky tub had a slow leak in it somehow so rather than blow it up each and every time, I just put it away and am now bathing her in the tub with a few inches of water. She's actually been totally fine. A little slipping and sliding initially but she's gotten used to it and has been enjoying herself. Splashing is her favorite bath time activity, which I've been joining in on. She's obviously soaked. And then I get soaked as well:)

Yesterday while driving to music class I was singing to Eloise, of course - driving meltdown diversion - and at this point I was on "The Itsy Bitsy Spder" and I peeked in the rear view mirror and saw her doing her hands in the itsy bitsy spider way. Of course it wasn't as good as if you or I were doing it but it was her best attempt and I was shocked to see it. I love when these things click in her little mind.

Ok, my last update - I believe that Eloise is in the midst of weening herself from the bottle. She's very uninterested in the bottle as of late unless she's starving. I always fill her up with solids first and then offer the bottle 3 times a day after a meal in case she's still hungry so with this plan in place, she's been drinking anywhere from 20-25 oz of breastmilk/day. But lately, she's only been drinking maybe 15-20. I still push it because I think she needs the nutrients, anitbodies, etc. that it offers but it's interesting to watch how this is all coming together at just the perfect time. My plan is to transition her to whole milk starting at one year and since we're only a few weeks away, my hope is this is all going to happening perfectly.  Then after we transition in whole milk, I need to transition out the bottle. I'm a little nervous about this all happening at once so I'm going to stagger it. Whole milk first, bottle shortly there after. With what appears to be a little assistance from the Monkey, this may all go much smoother than I expected. Fingers crossed.

And.....the message you never want to get on Facebook

Eloise had a not so stellar day in the nap department so I'll admit, I complained a teeny bit on FB today.  2 - 27 minute naps and 1 - 22 minute naps makes for a very busy, no break ever filled day.  Nonetheless, one of the responses I got back said...."Jenna was up quite a bit last night and woke up this morning with a sore throat and now has a fever:( I hope she and Eloise aren't headed down the same path! Good luck."

See Jenna is a sweet little 4 year old who met us at the hockey game yesterday.  So sweet that she was giving Eloise mouth kisses.  Like lots of them. Ummm....it was really sweet at the time (actually made me a little nervous but what can you do? kids are kids and it was really cute. i know, i know. i can't keep Eloise in a bubble forever.) but now.....I'm praying that Eloise stays the course. "Keep that runny nose (only!) baby girl, and we'll be just fine. You hear mommy?? Just a runny nose, ok??" 

Wait, maybe it's just teething

Are the symptoms of teething similar to a cold? I'm thinking I was fooled and really, her incessant nose drain is courtesy of her new tooth poking through. And her fussing as well. Makes perfect sense. I thought it was a cold because she was coughing last night - on top of all other said symptoms -but now I'm figuring that was just the result of her post nasal drip and really there is nothing wrong with her other than a canine rearing its head.

Hmmm.....

Further analysis continues.

Tooth number 3

Another tooth popped through this weekend for the Monkey. I believe it's called a canine. It's on the top and it's not one of the middle two but sits right beside one of those middle two. Tooth status - nearly 3 teeth at nearly 10 months.

And it's official, she has developed her second cold, which means she's a serious nose drain and is acting quite fussy. This may explain why we had to bail from the park during our playdate on Saturday and also during yesterday's hockey game. Poor Monkey.  And, I've decided we will not attend today's nursing home visit with the neighborhood kids. I'm pretty bummed about it but hopefully it'll be a good time and they'll schedule another.  I thought it was a bad idea to get Eloise and her germs around the other babies and then of course, around the seniors.  But what a great idea that one of the local moms thought of - bring the babies into see some of the patients in a nursing home. Eloise might meet another Eloise! I hope there is a next time.

We have some errands to run today per the Monkey's status. I need to get another noise machine for her room. Hers has all of a sudden cranked up a level and is really loud. Even though it's on the same low setting.  Weird. And to be honest, hers (even when working) was too loud in my opinion so I'm going to try and find a quiter one at Target. I'd like to break her of this habit all together (another bad habit that I created) and so during naps this week, we're going to leave it off maybe every other nap and see how she does. As of this very second, it's off and she's sleeping just fine.  The true test will be garbage day on Wednesday morning.

Also, I have some jeans to drop off at the seamstress for patches. I found the place to take jeans that are still in perfectly good condition but have a tear that is about to take off unless it's patched.  Anna's Alterations on Park Road is money. They do a really great job.

We'll do all of the above and also go running based on how the Monkey is doing. Oh and before I forget, here is her new favorite book - Tarzan - Me and You. It's super cute. Thanks Grammie Judy!

Mike is gone until Friday and Grandpa and Grandma Vail are coming for Easter Weekend. I'm planning an egg hunt for the back yard! (although there are several egg hunts we could go to - I'm contemplating whether that's a good idea since she's got a serious disadvantage over the other kids - she's a crawler, not a walker (scares me that she'd get trampled.). oh and also, she doesn't really "get" finding eggs to score some sweet goodies inside. might be best to rig my own egg hunt in the backyard and have it all to Eloise. stay tuned here...)

If you're lucky, maybe you'll see a snotty pic of the Monkey later today:) Have a good Monday!

Friday's update

This week can nearly be considered a full on hibernation. With a sick Monkey we really hunkered down. We even missed story hour, music class and the consignment shopping I wanted to do today because it didn't seem worth it to drag her out with a cold. She ebbs and flows with being happy and then full on exhausted so it seemed safer to stick around the house. And since the cold knocks her out after about 90 minutes of play time, she's been taking more naps than usual (could she possibly take more? yes.) so going anywhere seemed unrealistic. That said, we did peek our heads outside today to enjoy the warm sunshine (nearly 60 degrees!) and together we played in the leaves for quite a bit. Sweet Pea joined us and so it was pure 100% entertainment for Eloise. What could be more fun than her kitty and some leaves to try and stuff in her mouth? (she was actually getting good at listening to me after about 10 times of saying, "no. we don't eat leaves." and then I'd give her arm a gentle nudge down, away from the mouth.)

Speaking of, she actually knows quite a few more words than I've previously given her credit for. She's very alert and responsive when I point out things and say their name (repeatedly - that's how I think she actually knows some more words). One in particular that I must jot down for future reference - we bought sconces and hung them in the stairwell. My brother freaked me out during construction of the house about the stairwell being really dark because it's literally smack dab in the middle of the house - not a chance for natural light. So with this input, we selected sconces to hang in addition to the standard canned lighting that is always in the ceilings of hallways/stairwells. You see where I'm going with this - the sconces are a BIG hit around here. To Eloise we call them "lights", obviously. She's been on to this for awhile. We'll walk up the stairs and notice that she's smiling. Then she'll even start to giggle. This is all while her head is completely cranked back and she's gazing up at these sconces hanging from the wall. We quickly figured out her light humor because literally every trip up and down the stairs she'd go through this smile/giggle/head cranked back routine. The stairwell has become a 10x daily highlight for her. Isn't it funny what amuses a baby? Too cute. So now we play the light switch game and turn it on and off and then on and off. And she loves it! Of all the things. Anyway, long story short - she knows the word "lights." This is on top of several others that she really seems to pay attention too and lead me to believe she knows.

This next item is totally random but I'll add it just in case this topic pesks someone's interest. Here goes it - I've mentioned this before, I author a couple of blogs for work. They all happen to be healthcare clients and so the posts for February have been about heart health since it's American Hearth Month. Great topic - (I thought) - lots of areas to cover with good stats and helpful advice to provide readers, etc. Perfect. Well I'm nearing the end of the month and honestly, I'm a little over heart health. It's all so obvious. Don't smoke. Start exercising. Know your family medical history. Get a physical. Yada, yada.

Anyway, in my quest to find something to write about (I was very close to throwing in the towel and instead write about the phenomenon of "dying of a broken heart", which I think is fascinating but seriously, what a total buzz kill.) I thankfully came across a press release from the National Barley Foods Council (yes, such a thing exists) who threw themselves a bone this month and told the world - "Barley makes your heart healthy" (lowers "bad" cholesterol).  Alrighty then. Alas, my next blog topic. One post later - complete with "how to find barley in your grocery store" (in the dried beans aisle - next to the rice)  plus a few tasty recipes - and I'm pleased to announce, this random topic peaked my own interest enough to go buy barley and for the first time ever, cook with it. I made beef barley soup this week and it was really good. My mom even had some today and she thought it was delish! So, there you go. Barley - makes your heart healthy. Remember, you heard it here first:)  Here are lots of barley recipes. And here's what I made this week. This recipe does not call for potatoes but I added one, diced.

Today I was able to go running because Grammie Judy came over to watch the Monkey. Big score for me! And tomorrow, she's coming back over to watch her again while Mike and I go out to dinner. Big score for the Vails! Thanks so much Mom - we really appreciate it!

I think that's about it for our Friday's update. A little light on the scoop this week - sorry. Playing nurse maid and getting the Monkey healthy again has been priority #1. After that, work was work and Mike was out of town so basically a typical Vail week at the homestead.

Have a great weekend! If you're in CLT - we're going to have awesome weather!