Sunday started with a bad runny nose. I chalked it up to teething and we went about our day. By Sunday night it was getting worse and all Sunday night she coughed in her sleep. Monday was a TERRIBLE day for the both of us. She got worse and worse throughout the day and I cried all day because my poor baby was so miserable. Gene came home sick with a vertigo attack. We took her to urgent care around 8 PM and she had to get a breathing treatment because her oxygen levels were so low. The doctor at urgent care sent us home with a prescription for an anti-biotic so I filled it on the way home but didn’t give it to her because there was NO explanation of why she actually needed it.

Tuesday morning we went in to see the pediatrician (ours was out of the office so we saw the other one, which she was amazing!) and she tested Zoey for RSV. Thankfully that was negative so she gave us a steroid and an inhaler for Zoey’s lungs. She said not to give her the anti-biotic unless she started playing with her ears and spiked a fever because there was fluid in her ears but it wasn’t infected… yet! We filled those and had a pretty rough day. Wednesday and Thursday her runny nose had almost completely dried up and she seemed to be doing a lot better and on the mend.

Friday morning we went to our 22wk OB check up and my Mom watched Zoey for us and we came home to a snotty, congested little girl. It was like taking two steps forward and eight steps back. So frustrating!! Friday night she started pulling at her ears and had a low fever, so we started giving her the anti-biotic. This evening she spiked a fever of 102.5 so I spoke with the on call nurse to get some information and amazingly enough, she has been acting better this evening since she spiked a fever than she has in the last 6 days!! This morning I thought we were all going to go crazy and nuts after listening to the non-stop crying and whining and fussiness.

I guess we can say Zoey has had her first cold. I wish I could say it was the LAST.

So that’s a quick update on where I’ve been. Our OB appointment went great. Baby bean is doing fine. Going for my glucose test in 4 weeks, fun fun. I’m ready for a break from this madness. I’m ready to get OUT of the house. I think we’re all getting a bad case of cabin fever!

She finally graduated to calling bananas “nana,” which helps with the Toddler Speak Confusion that is often going on at our house. She says “Yee haw” like Woody from Toy Story and she has started saying “Bubble” pretty clearly. Turtle is “tuh-tull” and when she says “Cheese” it just tickles my heart. She loves books and has favorite parts of specific books that she loves. Once you get to that page, she is done and wants to move on to the next book.

She is just a cutie pie all around and I absolutely love it. I want to say that this is my favorite age so far but I would be lying because I think I’ve loved every age, every minute as much as the next and last. Including those weary newborn days! This learning to talk and do things like a big girl is a lot of fun though and so exciting to watch.

She loves going down slides and says “Wheeeee” when she goes down. She loves the swings at the park, but only for a short amount of time. She loves to write with sidewalk chalk on the driveway or throw a ball. Although she has never been much of a climber, she is finally getting up the courage to climb on things. I’ve found her on the coffee table, the picnic table outside, the fireplace hearth, trying desperately to get up on the couch… It’s quite an adventure for this Mama’s heart!

• One of her new words is Buzz, as in Buzz Lightyear. It sounds more like “Buh!” but we know what she is talking about. You cannot walk through a store without her pointing and shouting “BUH!” left and right, noticing ALL of the Toy Story characters on every product imaginable. Candy, cereal boxes, melamine plate and bowl sets, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, bath towels, pajama sets.. The list goes on! Our entire grocery shopping trip at Wal*Mart is littered with “BUH!” and I think it is absolutely adorable!
• Some of her latest words: Bubbles (BuhBuh), Banana (Bah! or BahBah!), Buzz (Buh!), Shoes (Shhhh), Duck (Duck!), Dog (Dog!), No (No! or a whiney NooOoooOooo!), Ball (Ball!)
• I try to give her kisses and she always turns her head away. Sooo.. to entice her, I kissed Gene while he was holding her and she gave us such a huge bashful smile! THEN, she put her hand on the back of his head and her hand on my cheek and tried to push our heads together, hinting that she wanted us to kiss again. So we did.. and this repeated a million times. I finally told her I had enough Daddy kissies and wanted some Zoey kissies and she said “No!”… I tried!
• At any given time through the day, if I am walking around with flip flops, she will stop, bend down and start “tickling” my toes. I have to use my Amazing Motherhood Response Time Superpower to quickly summon a hysterical laughter as if I am being tickled death. She thinks this is hilarious stuff and always looks up at me and smiles.
• Zoey’s friend’s name is Emma.. and our dog’s name is Emma as well, so it is causing some confusion. The other day we were getting dressed to go meet Paulina and Emma for brunch and I said “Zoey, come get dressed so we can go see Emma!” and she immediately pointed to Emma (the dog) and said “Dog!”…

There is lots more but it is nearing 1 AM and I think it’s time to get my rearend in bed. I don’t know what it is about this pregnancy but I am staying up until 1 or 2 AM every night and paying for it dearly during the day. I need to get my sleep schedule back on track… Just in time for it to get royally messed up again, I know ;-)

• Zoey is starting to RUN. Well, “baby run” that is. In the last 24 hours, she has become WAY TOO CONFIDENT FOR HER OWN GOOD. It stresses this Mama out beyond belief. She is everywhere!
• Grandma taught Zoey to say “uh oh” over the weekend and she says it in the proper context now. It is adorable when she drops something, falls down or purposely throws something and then says “Uh oh!”.. Melts my heart!
• She mimics you when you sneeze by making a “shhppfffhggfffshhhh” sound from her mouth. It is adorable too. Did I mention that I think every single thing she does is adorable? Even pooping, yes!
• My right foot is acting up bad. It is tingly and achey. I’m guessing a pinched nerve in my leg or spine. Sucks! I need to see a doctor but I keep putting it off.
• Summer is here! It is consistently 90-95 degrees here every day. Yowza. My body is still trying to adjust to sweating every time I step a foot outside.
• Zoey LOVES red grapes. I am scared to DEATH of choking, so I cut each grape into TWELVTHS. No, I am not even kidding! I cut a grape in half and then cut each half into sixths. Yes, I am overly paranoid. So what! Grapes are on the top list of choking hazards for kids/babies. Don’t judge me!

Well, my little peanut should be waking from her nap soon. Better go get her lunch ready. After lunch I think we are gonna throw a suit on and go outside for some pool fun.

She throws a fit when you change her diaper so I figured if she was already throwing a fit then it could not get any worse. Did you read that last part correctly??? I assumed that a child throwing a fit could not get any worse. All of you experienced Mamas that have toddlers can stop throwing rotten vegetables at me now!! I realize my mistake! I know it can get worse. It can ALWAYS get worse! I promise not to break the Mother Code ever again. Pinky swear, even!

As you can imagine by now.. It got worse. She started arching her back. Kicking frantically. Thrashing around. Hitting things. I handed her things (a pajama shirt, pair of shorts, drink coaster, toy, ball, sock, clean diaper, sunglasses and then I began to get desperate so I tried a CELL PHONE, REMOTE CONTROL, MY SOUL) to occupy her and she just threw them away. She cried and the crying turned to screams. She choked and coughed on her own saliva. Her voice (or SCREAMING, I should say) started to become hoarse. I tried comforting her and she would not have any of it. Finally, I got fed up and put her back into her crib with her paci and she was out for another 1 1/2 hours.

This daycare thing is throwing her for a loop. Her daily nap and eating schedule has changed quite a bit. She has so much fun at daycare and is such a good girl but she just does not nap there. The most I got out of her today was about 45 minutes, so by time we left she was absolutely exhausted! She threw a fit yesterday evening after we got home from daycare but it was nothing compared to this evening’s show that she put on! Phew. She also threw another fit right before bed. Poor baby!

Tomorrow we are taking naps, eating on schedule and we might run a few errands if we are feeling up to it. Being a kid is HARD work, ya know?

Ok so here is the thing, my kid (like almost all other kids, I’m sure) loooves remote controls. She has a fake one (the black one seen at the beginning of the video) that her Grandpa gave her but somehow in her genius baby mind she KNOWS it isn’t the real deal. Therefore, she could care less about it. Now, I keep all of our remotes in the little basket on top of the stereo speaker so that they are all in one place and are not getting lost every day (related: DON’T YOU HATE THAT THERE IS FIFTEEN BAJILLION REMOTES?!?! IT DRIVES ME NUTS!!). I can’t help but think that when she stumbled upon this basket once she topped Fireplace Hearth Mountain, she MUST have felt like she had found the Holy Grail.

I moved the basket and she hasn’t gone back up there… Yet.

My kid can really climb. Someone please hold me.

Finally, one late night I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep and I had the brilliant idea of just putting a bath mat down in the tub and letting her sit in the tub like a big girl. She can sit up on her own just fine but I am very nervous about her slipping because she tries to move around so much. So anyway, we tried it and it worked and we are back to having fun bath times!

She can now crawl around, play with lots of toys, make big splashes and just generally do whatever she wants. To say she loves it is an understatement. She gets so excited when we put her in the bath tub now and would play in there forever if the water stayed warm and her skin didn’t wrinkle up.

The only problem is that it causes a bit of trouble when Gene is trying to wash her and she wants to crawl around the tub and play with toys. I overheard him say “This is too difficult now” while he was bathing her earlier.

Well, now that she is feeling better, I was finally able to see that her top 2 front teeth are peeking through her swollen gums. I had the biggest “Ah ha!” moment of my entire life when I first saw the white specks on her top gums. Everything just made total sense! The crying, the whining, the not-sleeping, the fussiness and the sensitivity to Everything. That. Came. In. Contact. With. Her. just made complete and total sense to me. It all added up and I suddenly felt enormous guilt for not giving her teething tablets and Ty*lenol to ease her pain. Here I thought she was just battling an icky cold and come to find out she was battling an icky cold on TOP of some hardcore teething. Parenting fail!

Ever since we made this discovery we have been able to stay on top of her discomfort with teething tablets and the occasional dose of grape flavored infant’s Ty*lenol. She is in much better spirits and I no longer feel like I am going to lose my mind. It is a win-win situation, really!

I think the version of Z’s cold that I received was about a bajillion times worse. I got The Cough. It has been awful and even though I am starting to feel a lot better, I still have The Cough. I’ve been taking everything over the counter that I can and I even dug up an old bottle of antibiotics that I never finished (yes, I know, shame on me!) and have been sucking those down as well. Mu*cinex, Del*sym, Extra Strength Ty*lenol, Al*eve, Ny*quil, Day*quil, the list could go on forever. I am so drugged up on OTC medication that I should probably look into a detox program when The Cough is finally gone for good.

So that my friends is my unnecessarily long excuse of why I haven’t been around. I still want to blog more frequently and still have great aspirations to keep up with this thing.

Sidenote: Z is pulling up to standing position on EVERYTHING, regardless of it being a stable surface or not. There is a lot of head bumping and falling over going on at our house but surprisingly, we have yet to get any bruises. She is starting to learn that she can move her feet and I have a feeling she’ll be cruising along the coffee table or sofa in the upcoming weeks. She can crawl pretty fast now and has a love for any and everything that is not a designated toy (for example: the remote, the cell phone, cups, kleenex, shoes, breakable home decor, etc.). I am officially going to pack up all of the pretty decorative stuff in my living room and put it away in the garage until after we no longer have little children in the house. It’s a sad day but I realize that is what comes with the territory. It is either that or invest in one of those baby gate / makeshift jail house things and I just feel bad doing that!

Doc didn’t really say what she had, which tells me that he isn’t sure if this is a really bad reaction to teething or just a really bad cold. He gave us a prescription for Albuterol to help with her wheezing and basically we will just ride this out. Last night Z and I got barely any sleep. I ended up sleeping on the twin bed in her room to help minimize my trips back & forth across the house and my back is paying for it tonight. Tonight I will sleep in our bed and just make the walk back and forth just to help give my back some relief. I’m crossing my fingers that she will sleep better tonight but I know that she has a really rough time sleeping because of her congestion. She coughs and coughs and it wakes her up almost every single time. I guess we can write this down as her very first cold.

Here is to hoping for a better night as far as sleep goes. Oh and that tomorrow we have no projectile vomit. Because that? Is gross and starting to get on my nerves! I think the vomit is related to the excessive coughing.