Dora, for real

For the first time, and only once, little Miss C said "Dora". Clear as day.

She was watching an episode of Umizoomi, and a Dora promo graphic came on. I was looking at her, not the tv, and noticed a suddenly huge smile on her face. She turns to look at me and says "Dora". And then goes quiet.

Not Doda or DooDoo, but Dora. Wouldn't say it again but it was a sweet little voice.

I've since realized that DooDoo or sometimes Choo is for the Chupon.

One day, relatively soon, she will start talking and I'm certain that I'll be thinking of "how can I get her to keep quiet" but right now it's AWESOME!!

And the poor thing is sick again. Another visit to the pediatrician and we find out she's got either a new viral infection (hence all the ear pulling and trouble taking a nap) or it's the same one from two weeks ago and the antibiotics didn't kick it.

No new drugs. Just fluid and rest.

Ha. Rest.

Ear infection + Amoxicillin = X

Do you remember the old Family Feud tv show? Remember when someone would say an answer that was wrong? It wasn't just a big, red X on the board -- it was accompanied by a eah-eahh sound. Made you feel both wrong and stupid.

After 48 hours on amoxicillin, that's how I felt. The baby was very, very hyper about 30 minutes after I gave her a dose and this would last a few hours. Getting her to bed and a nap, even leaving the park was drama.

Once I finally realized the correlation, I spoke to the doctor on call last night. She thought perhaps it's the sugar in the amoxicillin that they add to give it a bubble gum flavor, which the baby adored. Couldn't suck it down fast enough.

When I mentioned her little heart beat was much faster than usual and she wasn't just hyped up but almost possessed hyper. Could NOT sit still or relax. The doctor believes she's allergic to penicillin and called in azythromycin (sp?) to the pharmacy.

This morning will be the first of that instead. I hope it works. Her ears are really hurting her.

Neither of us are allergic to penicillin, that we know of. But holy christmas. I'm never giving this kid any such meds again.

Apparently, the common side effect is diarrhea for both amoxicillin and azythromycin. That I can handle. I guess Miss C is special. Makes sense since I'm pretty sensitive to certain meds that make me feel very anxious/hyper. My dad too. Poor kid.

We have our first, real sickness

After a week of being snotty nosed and mommy-mommy, she was better for nearly a full week. Monday she started to get all mommy-mommy again and feel warm. There wasn't any high temperature, although the thermometer said 96 degrees so I figured two things: A) the thermometer is broken, and B) she's not as hot as I think she is.

Well fast forward to today at the doctor's office, she has an ear infection in both ears. Hence the resurge of yellow mucus streaming out of her nose, and the constant pulling on her ears. When I thought she had an ear infection last month, the doctor said it was just teething. But this time it was.

Got the amoxicillin and first dose given before bedtime since we got home about 6pm.

I carried her to the city and back, plus grabbed some needed groceries and the drug store two times. I am exhausted, and my lower back hurts so badly I nearly started crying a little while ago when I tried to pick her up out of the bathtub. And, poor thing is super uncomfortable (still) and pulling on her ears in her crib right now. :(

Gotta keep her home tomorrow and then see how she is if she's okay to go to music class on Friday or not.

At least this isn't the flu and she's contagious!

15 month checkup

Rock 'n Roll t-shirt at the park

So far, so good. She's still about the same height (I forgot to ask exactly how tall, but my last attempt at measuring her she was about 29"). And has lost a little weight at 18.8lbs now. Apparently, this age is common to lose a little weight since they are so active.

The only concern was with her calcium levels. The doctor didn't measure anything but since Carolina has a bit of trouble with dairy, I haven't been giving her as much milk as other kids get. She does love ice cream, frozen yogurt, yogurt and cheese. I mostly give her cheese and some frozen stuff.

So they gave me a Vitamin D supplement, probiotics (again), and want me to get her a calcium supplement. Additionally, she's to eat ice cream pretty regularly -- if her belly can handle it. Her brain, as I knew, needs the fat. Apparently, ice cream is a good source of milk fat and calcium in the smallest possible "package".


If she can handle the gas and diarrhea, then I can give her more milk and cheese. I can deal with the super stinky poop cleanup if it means she's getting enough fat and calcium.

Otherwise, she's talking up a storm, basically running around and obsessed with stairs. I think it's fair to say she's pretty obsessed since, even if there is ONE stair, she'll go up and down it until you pull her away from it. Yeah...

I've started to read The True History of Chocolate (The True History of Chocolate, Second Edition) and it's pretty good. Made me really want chocolate every night, and so bought some Ben & Jerry's Chocolate (no other stuff, just the straight chocolate) ice cream. Man that's good stuff. I want to give Carolina some but Chocolate makes her crazy. I don't mean she gets hyper after, I mean she thinks it tastes so good she's a little crazy for it. I'll just leave it to her dad to deal with giving her chocolate ice cream when I'm not looking :)

What I learned in the book that I didn't know is the reason you're not supposed to give babies chocolate isn't the caffeine and sugar, which is bad, but dark chocolate is actually toxic to small animals (and human babies). It's only larger humans that can process it. It's something about the alkaloids. Yeah, I read but I don't remember all the details as well as I used to.

I know Carolina isn't a baby-baby anymore, but I'm still careful with the food she gets. Probably too careful.

I need to get a new recipe for zucchini bread-muffins. The one I have uses too much olive oil, which is weird anyway, and tastes too oily.

Today she said "mouth", and she keeps trying to say "shoes" by saying "sssssooo". When she wants to watch Dora, she'll sit in her little seat (a totally awesome 1970s Costco chair, which is a rip off of an Eames design) and she'll say "Doh-da", and sometimes also point to the bookshelf where we often leave the cable remote. Yup, she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to ask for it.

I love this. That she can tell me what she wants and needs. Awesome. I can put up with the tantrums occasionally so that we get this communication. Love it!