Baby's First Cold

It had to happen sometime. After almost 15 months of blissfully good health, Fiona finally got her first cold. It came on subtly: last Thursday she was just a little off, not too interested in food, kinda crabby. Friday morning when she woke up, she had a thoroughly crusty nose, and my mother-in-law informed me later that day that Fi was officially a sick little puppy. She was in good spirits, though, and played most of the day with her usual vigor.

Of course, when I showed up to pick her up that evening she took one look at me and remembered that she was sick and demanded some love and attention, which I gladly dispensed to my usually independent child. By Saturday evening, she was still congested but apparently feeling better. Not so on Sunday. More congestion, more crabby. Poor little shaver. As of today, she's on the mend again, but I have her humidifier on full blast to do as much as I can to alleviate the snot block going on in her wee noggin.

The dreaded toddler cold couldn't be held at bay forever. Lots of things conspired against poor Fiona. On Halloween morning, we visited a day care just to check it out, and she naturally got her little hands all over all kinds of stuff that lots of other little hands had been on. Then the day after Halloween we had a party that was overrun with other kids, much to Fi's delight; much toy-sharing and drool exchange transpired. The following Tuesday, I took her to the pediatrician fearing she had an ear infection (no ear infection; apparently, she's an ear tugger). Her immune system - no longer benefiting from the antibodies in breastmilk - just couldn't withstand those voracious germs.

Still, we weathered this first cold pretty well, I think. She has continued to sleep like a champ (14 hours a day!) and still finds great comfort in food. Especially apples, which she enjoys gnawing on while walking around the house. All in all, it could have been worse.

Favorite Photo Fridays - Halloween Edition!

Happy Halloween!! Fiona is a wee pirate. Arrrr!!!!

Favorite Photo Fridays - October 24

I'm just going to pretend I've been here all along, posting my little heart out...

Onward!

It's Friday. And you know what that means. Hold on to your hats, kids. Fiona is cute as hell! Unfortunately, my blogging skills are limited, so I'm not going to try and provide captions alongside these pictures. Here's the info you need:
1) Early October: Fall + Redheaded Baby + Jack-o-lantern sweater = Ridiculous Adorableness
2) Holy frickin' crap we are PSYCHED for our first swimming pool adventure! This was late August on our trip to my aunt & uncle's place in Menomonie, WI. The kid is a pollywog.
3) September at Nana & Grampa's one day. The overalls alone are cute. Put them on my baby, it's like cute overload!

That is all!

Quick Hit - No walker required!

The baby can walk! The baby can walk! THE BABY CAN WALK!!!

How lucky am I that I got to see this?? And that I had a recording device at the ready?? Answer: Super-lucky!

Sorry for the lousy video quality, but you get the idea anyway.
Go, baby, go!!!

Quick Hit - First Birthday

Fiona celebrated her first birthday yesterday with family, friends, and a blue-frosted cupcake just for her. I'll post more about it later, but as I myself am recovering from post birthday exhaustion, here's a quick hit for all you watchers out there. At first, Fi was tentative with the Cookie Monster cupcake. That's really her way - touch lightly and softly until she knows it's OK. Once she figured out that frosting is yummy, she dove in. Slowly and methodically to be sure; but as the second picture below reveals, also with a ferocity known only in babies on their first birthdays.

Favorite Photo Fridays - August 15

Time for another long-awaited (is there any other kind?) Favorite Photo Friday installment! Please to enjoy my impossibly adorable spawn!

This one is from June. M took a picture of Fiona's reaction when I returned from work one day. Is it any wonder I can't wait to get home every day?












Back in mid-July, Fiona and I took a trip to Arizona to visit NaiNai (my mom) for a few days. We had some professional pictures taken while there by Nnamdi Solomon. Who can resist this face? No one, that's who.












That's all you get for pictures today because there will be lots more coming after the ultimate celebration of the century (aka: Fiona's first birthday) takes place this weekend. Happy Friday, all!

Kitchen remodeling is not for wussies

It's been quiet in 20dollarbet world lately. And that's because it's been anything but quiet in the real world for Fiona, M, Ollie, the kitties and me. Here's what I've learned in the last 6 weeks: Remodeling a kitchen is not particularly fun. And while I've never gone through a kitchen remodel without a baby in the house, I think a baby makes it even less fun. I

started badgering M about getting a new kitchen about 3 years ago when IKEA moved into the area and it seemed like it wasn't entirely financially unfeasible. It was mostly just a fun idea (especially when M refused to entertain the idea, or even banter with me about the prospect), but I did my darndest to plant the seed.

The kitchen we inherited when we bought this house was serviceable. Old, worn, and not the most convenient layout one might hope for; but altogether OK. But when we tried to refinance our mortgage last winter and couldn't because the housing market had tanked, M and I held onto something the appraiser had said. When he asked if we'd made any changes to the house since the last appraisal, I said heck, yeah, we have a new mahogany deck and pretty new front steps! Clearly that wasn't what he was looking for because he said, hopefully, "No new kitchen? Bathroom?" Sadly, no. But it was the impetus we needed.

We demolished the old kitchen (along with a wall that used to separate the kitchen from the dining area) the last weekend of June and have been living in utter chaos, filth, and general disarray since then. This remodeling business is not for the faint of heart. Luckily for us, we have a wet bar in the basement, which meant we haven't had to do dishes in our bathroom sink (although a bar sink is hardly any easier) and actually had an additional source of running water. But going up and down the stairs just to get a dish, clean a dish, microwave something, get a dish out of the way... it gets old really fast.

But I sit here tonight and I can see the finish line. The counters were installed today and I'm starting to feel human again. We have a laundry list of to-dos left in this largely DIY project - namely plumbing (oh! to have running water again... not to mention a dishwasher!!) - but we're so close. With any luck, plumbing won't be the final straw to break our spirits and we'll be back in business within a few more weeks.

Good thing, too. I can't take another pizza, bowl of cereal, take out from Chili's (which we actually abandoned quite a while ago out of disgust), or sandwich. Fiona has been a total champ, though. She scarcely noticed the mess she was living in, and accepted being contained much of the time in her Playzone (lovingly termed "baby jail") in spite of the fact that she's becoming quite the mover and shaker these days.

Short story, we're close enough that I can just about say, "Yeah, it's been worth it." Maybe I'll call the appraiser and see what he thinks.

(PS: Pictures will come at some point in the not-so-distant future.)