change o’ plans

this past weekend, we had a change of plans.  what was supposed to be a nice relaxing fun day/night hiking at waterfalls & staying at a bed-n-breakfast for The Mr. & me turned into a weekend at gramma & grampa’s house with an afternoon spent at an apple orchard.

The Mr. has been traveling these past 6 weeks.  with the exception of weekends, he doesn’t get to see jovie.  and that will continue for the rest of the year- save for the vacation time he’ll “take”. 

so it wasn’t really a good time, or the best choice for us to go away in the middle of this.  although last week, she was normal & fine with Daddy being gone, the week before that she started to notice.  and  let me assure you that it’s just plain awful to go into her room when she wakes up and realizes her dad isn’t there.  i hear her playing happily.  i open the door and 1 of 2 things would happen:

1. she begins to cry immediately. 
2. she hears the door open, squeals “dada!”, sees me & cries.

even the other weekend, i went to get her.  and although he was home, she still began to cry/sob/make me “chase” her around her crib.  until i said some magic words:   “do you wanna go see Daddy?”.   BOY she was fine THEN!

so we decided that now wasn’t the optimal time to leave her overnight for the first time in the care of gramma & grampa (who, just a month ago was scary to her) in their strange (not her) house.  because although we realize that’s just going to be plain awful no matter when it happens…. and she’ll definitely let them know it!….  couple that with the fact that this is the little time The Mr. gets to spend with her, throw in the other fact that she has not consistently been very fun in the car for a trip [his only time with her], and- well- we decided we should wait (even longer) for our (much needed) mini-vacation.  

but it all turned out ok. because gramma suggesting the apple orchard made our wrestling with the decision a little better.  The Mr. was excited at that prospect, because he said he’s been wanting to start a fall tradition.

and next year we know she’ll have fun.  this year, all the apples were picked (just as well.  not like she’d know what was going on anyway)

proof- there's the apples

& we just enjoyed the scenery

and fresh baked donuts. (mmmm).  we took a hayride (minus the hay??)

and we saw some animals.

"pup-pup"

although the car ride both to & from greenville were (dare i say) good, the ride to/from the orchard [about an hour each] wasn’t the best.  she was tired. and she felt as though she had to entertain gramma & me since we were in the backseat.   that = crabby!

it was a good weekend overall, though.  and it was fantastic seeing my bff & her fantastic baby, too.  and The Mr. & i did get to act like a childless couple when we went to dinner & also ran together sat & sun mornings.  …we haven’t run together in probably 3 years!

not exactly the picturesque fall foilaged waterfalls we had intended on, but there’s always next year.  (right, gramma & grampa??)

speaking of next year….  how much fun will it be to look back at THIS?:

the olden days

if you’ve read this blog at all, you’d probably get that i’m super nostalgic.  (especially since it seems i mention it in MANY of my posts).

and you may have gathered that i’m sad that jovie keeps doing that thing that babies do.  what’s that??  oh, um- growing.

if you’ve followed for a bit, you see that we’ve had some pretty good surprises when jovie decides to not freak out at certain new things.  (some examples:  eating baby food at first,  going to MOPS & the pool the first time).  so, i guess now that we have a happy toddler (!?!) and she’s been proving herself recently, The Mr. & i have made the dire mistake of just letting her experience something new without us prodding, practicing, and feeling apprehensive so we can be on our guard.

instead, we let our guard down.  cuz you know, (as we say over and over to each other) we finally have the kinda baby we thought we’d have way back then.

enter:  bubbles.  more specifically of the bath-sort.  as in a bubble bath.

oooohhhhh so those often longed-for olden days are back!  there’s the jovie we remember.  the one who detests bathtime to the point of screaming bloodymurder that even being downstairs with the tv on you can’t hear the tv.  those bathtimes.  the ones where, when she was a baby, would end up being messier than before b/c after you hoist her out of the bathtub (which she detested), she’d scream so violently that she’d poop all over the towel that, thank god, The Mr. (and not me) would be holding.

aaaaahhhhh the olden days.

so we have our baby back.

b/c we totally didn’t even think that a bubble bath would make her flip her freaking lid.  she LOVES bubbles, and it’s her favorite part of both library time & music class.  and “buh-boo” is one of her words. 

but even the very few bubbles we put in her low-filled bathtub was way too much, and she freaked out before she could even give it a chance.  FUH-REAKED out!

so i took the soap and erased* them & that wasn’t good enough.  so i drained the tub.  and that wasn’t good enough.  that was saturday.  sunday’s & monday’s baths (sans bubbles, no doubt) haven’t gone well, either.  oh please let this be a passing phase.  b/c bedtime around here used to be quite nice!

but, you know…. she more than makes up for it:

i love this walking gig

*am i the only one who knows how to erase bubbles with soap??  i remember being a kid and hating the washing part and saved till the water was borderline freezing b/c all the fun would disappear.

eventful tidbits

thanks for staying tuned…

so last week:

• sunday we had our first fast food experience.  which didn’t go too well.  who’da thunk that a plain hamburger & french fries could be so detrimental!  (well, anyone who realizes she’s my  kid might’ve thunk it).  she was fine when everything was cut into little manageable bits.  but give her a fry??  she bit off a couple of pieces and then shoved the rest in her mouth (of course!)  that’s not fun, apparently.  oh, and ketchup??  no thanks! not having it!!
• monday we were invited by a friend to go to the aquarium.  this isn’t something The Mr. & i had planned on doing anytime soon, since she’s so little.  and we certainly aren’t going to pay $50 to do so!  but since it was free (thank you, free passes!), we decided that The Mr. would have to miss out on this “first”.                 

[which, by the way, i'm very glad to not have had to pay anything... i wouldn't've gotten my money's worth for sure.  there's a total of 4 things i remembered when i went about 4 years ago.  and 3 of the 4 things were closed!   no penguins, otters, or jellyfish.  the other thing to remember were the whales- and sadly there are only 3 now instead of the 5 from way back]

[largest aquarium in the world.....   psshaw]

• tuesday i was giving her a bath and when i filled up her squirty bath toy and told her about the bubbles it was making, she began to say what i’m assuming is her word for “bubble”.  which pretty much took me by surprise.  all she’s been saying is “da-da” or “dah-dee”, and “kii” (kitty).  no “mama” over here.  but now, we’ve got “buh-boo”… which also sounds a lot like her version of pup-pup.         do you guys hear me?  we now have words!?!
• which is nothing compared to the HUGS i got from jovie while i was holding her on tuesday.  all day that day, she just really grabbed onto me. i even told her out loud what a fantastic hugger she is!
• wednesday we went back to music class b/c we were going to miss it on saturday.  she had fun and started to warm up.  we were there waaaay early, so i had to walk around and show her tons o’ stuff to keep us occupied.  one thing i showed her were the bushes of flowers outside.  so i showed her the sign for “flower” and went on our merry way.  almost at the end of music class, she saw the large window, bolted out of my lap to crawl over there…  she saw some (unflowered) bushes and began to excitedly sign “flower”.   i didn’t have the heart to tell her she was wrong.   (ha!) 
• after her nap on wednesday it was raining, so we had to go get the mail and use an umbrella.  and as soon as i opened the door, she saw the rain coming down and signed “rain”.   ???  i haven’t shown her that in well over a week!
• on friday, we went to greenville to see gramma & grampa.  we were preparing ourselves for this trip and the fussiness that would likely arise like they did 2 months ago.  but this time, we knew to stop at the mall of GA and blow off some steam in the playground area….      um, sssshhhhh….  don’t tell anyone.  keep this between us, but….     she was *good*!      The Mr. & i have been waiting a year for a car trip like this one.
• which was good, b/c once we got there, that’s when she kinda lost it.  she was pretty cranky!  even grampa’s fish were not the consolation we had wanted.  (guess she’s so over fish, now that she’s been to the largest aquarium in the world!)
• saturday we left jovie for the longest time ever b/c gramma & grampa got us clemson tickets!  (THANKS AGAIN!!)  needless to say that from her behavior on friday (and even early sat) made us a little nervous.  but i also knew that “outta sight/outta mind” is a phrase that must have come from observing babies….  i assumed that once she got over the jolt of having g’ma & g’pa get her from her nap that morning that she’d be fine.  and they said she was. 

unfortunately, it was a rainy day.  and incidentally, while we were planning on being home around 6, we actually came home at 4pm… b/c the clemson/boston college game got lightening-delayed…. TWICE!  they literally evacuated the stadium (apparently twice), and it took us a half an hour to leave our seat and go down the stairs!  so we left & eventually clemson won.  (WOO-HOO). 

• we got home & jovie was so relieved to see us, she proved that by being cranky some more!  (they said she did well. really!).  we watched some baby einstein where she showed off her favorite word (“kii”). and she then decided to copy us when we talked about grampa’s fish.  she did the sign for that, too!

so that brings her signs up to:   more, eat (just started that on sunday), flower, rain, & fish.

• the ride home was equally as good!  (sssssshhhhhhh)   and then a little after we got settled at home, we took her temperature b/c wow was she hot!  & there you have it… another unexplained, non-symptomatic fever.  that lasted thru yesterday.

so thanks for lasting this whole long post….  pretty busy times!   it’s amazing how busy you sound when you write all the details down.   

(sorry. no pics… can you believe it?  what kind of mom am i?  the pics we have of the aquarium are mainly of the fish. or of the back of jovie’s head…)

our week in bullets

• jovie had a fever last weekend.  it lasted about 5 days. with the exception of the occasional runny nose, or sneeze — she was symptom-free.   at the recommendation of the children’s tylenol bottle, we made an appt. with the dr.  & her blood test came back that there was nothing wrong with her. (no virus, bacteria, whatever….).   
• so we stopped taking her temperature.
• on monday (labor day) Dad took Jovie to the park since she A. has been couped up at home all weekend, and B. decided to not nap.  —i mean, come on!  dad’s home!—  i didn’t go with them.
• when they came home, he told me that i missed a pre-milestone of her holding onto him and walking about 20 feet barefoot in the grass!   up to this point, when we’d try to hold her, she thinks we’re helping her get down, so she sits and crawls.
• they immediately showed off their skills!
• 
• The Mr. likes to say “she’s walking”. 
• she’s not walking.                                   YET!
• on saturday we went to her first music class!  that’s a class where we pay a lot of money to have her watch the other kids and the lady with the guitar.
• she loved it.
• it’s every saturday… so i know very soon she’ll get into it.  she LOVES music!  i bet in a coupla more times, she’ll show off her signature wiggle dance.
• (we’re missing this saturday b/c WE GET TO GO SEE GRAMMA & GRAMPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!  so we’ll go this week to make it up)

last week was uneventfully eventful.  it’s currently Tuesday, and we’ve already had a decent start to this week.   stay tuned…..

MOPS

wow.  can i just say—– WOW.  yesterday was SUCH a good day for jovie!  it amazes me sometimes.

i was chatting with my bff becky & i said “brb.  it’s naptime.  give me 5min” & that statement alone set me back!  a year ago— i would’ve had to say  “brb. it’s naptime.  give me 2 hours”  and i wouldn’t have been joking.

so as much as i hatehatehate that she is growing up so much, there are definite advantages.  & The Mr. likes to point out all the time what a happy baby jovie is.  and how we cannot freakin’ believe that we would ever have uttered that statement about our child.

jovie has always been somewhat of a surprise to us.  we truly had no idea that babies could behave that way.  she came out of the womb unhappy.  and stayed in that place for much longer than was necessary.  so we learned early on to ease her into things.  and test the waters to get her used to things (ie: car rides to the neighborhood salary-drainer Publix*).

i’ve mentioned a few times before that she has surprised us.  she handled the Callaway trip well.  Her first pool experience was really great.  & she did fantastic for Gramma & Grampa when they watched her while we went to the Hawks game.

that was one of very few times that anyone has even babysat jovie while she was awake.  each and every time she’s been awake and left alone, g’ma & g’pa were the ones she was with.  and i think it’s mostly been a quick trip to the grocery store once or twice.

i have been apart from her very little in her 13almost14ohnoway months.  twice for 4.5 hours, a coupla times for 2-3 hours.  that’s it.

so imagine my trepidation when i decided to try & join a program called MOPS.  The Mr. is hoping that its a program that will help me learn how to want to use a mop.  unfortunately for him, MOPS is an acronym for “mothers of pre-schoolers”.  if you haven’t heard of it, it’s a playdate- for mommies.  for 2+ hours while i’m upstairs enjoying a brunch and chatting w/ other ladies, listening to guest-speakers, or doing crafts, the kids are downstairs in a daycare like setting having their own version of playtime & fun.

sounds great! right??

yesterday, they had a registration/open house.  i’ve been a little nervous about it since i found out about it.  b/c i learned that at this open house,  jovie would be dropped off in a classroom.  without me.  with other kids her age.  without dad.  in the hands/eyes of a stranger. who’s not gramma or grampa.  during what should be naptime.  without her crib. 

and before you start tsking me… i’d like to clarify that my nervousness was not about my leaving her.  nor was it really about her leaving me.  i’m not your typical mom.  my boobs don’t ache when i leave her/ hear her cry.  the fact that we haven’t been separated much has more to do with the fact that The Mr. & i aren’t comfortable making someone else deal with her when she starts nutting up.  (thanks to our friends kenny & amy for that fun term)

so my nervousness was about making the workers in the room have to deal with her.  when she’s REALLY upset, it’s hard for us even to settle her down.  nevermind being in a room w/ other babies- who, let’s face it, all glom onto other kids’ emotions.  i did NOT want a volcanic eruption of screams to boil out of that classroom.

right before i was going to leave (did i say it was during naptime, by the way….  oh, and she decided to wake up AN HOUR EARLIER THAN NORMAL yesterday!  so that just meant that naptime should’ve been much earlier) i called The Mr. who was out of town and i seriously considered the fact that it’s not fair to the other kids!   i didn’t want her to be the cause of what could be a crappy day for everyone.

but, still- i knew it was the best situation for her.  unfortunately, in spite of her nap schdule.  but she obviously needs to get away from me.  and be with kids her own age.  and learn to be w/ strangers.

it’s a really cool setup at MOPS. a real big production.  & they have beepers and badges for the mom/kids.  i knew i’d get paged if there was a need.  in any case, i went & decided that if she got to be too bad, we’d just leave.  and try again the next time. 

but (please don’t jinx it please don’t jinx it) she did FANTASTIC.  i put her down to play.  i walked over to her cubby, and she saw me and crawled towards me.  not crying, just loving.  so i grabbed her and kissed her.  and walked her back to the toys.  and i left.  and she didn’t care!

as far as i know, she only cried when someone took a toy away from her.  i went to get her and she just finished eating snack AT A TABLE.  a table!  my baby’s eating at a table!!

and, just WOW.

so we now have something scheduled the 1st & 3rd thursdays of the month.  i hope they all go well.    you know, i’m starting to wonder- if DAD brought her, would she’ve cared then??

*about Publix, The Mr. no longer gripes when he sees all the receipts for that place while we do our budget.  in fact, he is considering getting his paycheck direct-deposited there.  State Taxes, Federal Taxes, 401k, Publix….   there is a category for that, isn’t there?

title: picture that mommy posted so she doesn't get yelled at for not posting a picture even though this isn't at all about MOPS.

13

so 13 months came and went on sunday.  i said repeatedly how i needed to post.  to commemorate the number 13 of course.  but as you see, i didn’t.

as i mentioned in a recent post, i’m likely not going to go around and tell everyone that jovie’s 13mos old.  i’ll just say a year.  but still- 13 is kinda special.

here are some random goings-on:

1. just this morning she decided she knew how to crawl down the stairs.  & successfully did 4 of them on her own- i wasn’t even prompting her.  in fact, it’s been over a week since i tried to guide her down the last time.  guess she figured out now that it’s the same as getting down from furniture….
2. which she does ALL. DAY. LONG.  she’ll crawl to the window and stand up. and crawl to the couch and stand up. and crawl to the chair and stand up.  and crawl to the ottoman (aka baby gate) and stand up. 
3. she LOVES music.  when we sing to her, when we play it, when there’s a musical chime like if we reboot or something.  she’ll stop what she’s doing, give a little wiggle & a smile, and be on her merry way.
4. she is starting to cruise ever so slightly.  especially to get to the computer at one end of the couch.  she did better before she knew how to get down from the couch…. but now she knows it’s much quicker to crawl under my legs and stand up again to get to it.
5. yesterday she began to let go w/ one hand while standing up on me and/or the couch.
6. her bangs are ridiculously long.  too bad i can’t keep her cute all day long with a barette….
7. because she’ll eat it.  truly- she ate her barette!  so for the last month, we are probably more diligent than we need to be- but man, that was crazy!  she seriously ate that thing w/o any problem or our knowledge.  she was in the backseat while The Mr. was taking her to the park.  in less than 5 min. he noticed it was gone.  surely she didn’t eat it. not that quickly nor silently.  we tore the car apart several times.  just to be sure.  well, a few days later….. it was confirmed. so now she can’t wear one when she naps or rides in the car.  oy vey!
8. and now i see how easy it is. b/c she swallows a lot of her food whole too!  especially the yummy stuff.  (baby raviolis that i still have to quarter, veggie puffs from gerber that i have to break in half, etc…)  
9. she finally began to suck from the sippy cup spout.  i wish i had any kind of mechanical knowledge so i can invent the sippy cup that lets one or 2 drops out and that’s it.  b/c she’s been sucking it for quite a long time.  but every time i’ve tried the plug, if she wasn’t getting any, she didn’t know to suck.  so when i show her how to do it and start sucking in my cheeks, she just gives me her adorable goofy grin and laughs.  we’re still working on doing this more consistently.
10. recently she has taken to some links that she has.  you can usually find her crawling around with one in each hand.
11. after waiting for about a month for that tooth to finally poke thru, she now has an even set of teeth.  4 up top and 2 on bottom.  complete with spaces. 
12. it’s easy to get her to giggle these days, and i do it often.  it’s so adorable & surprisingly quiet.  i know she can be quite loud.  in her voice, and of course her cries/screams!  (she has never had that cute newborn cry). 
13. yesterday she ate PIZZA for supper!   did y’all hear me??  (unfortunately, it was “light on the sauce”- so i hope next time she’ll also enjoy it).

so now that she’s as old as she is, i just don’t ever think to have the camera poised on her so often.  all i have is video of the pizza.  i didn’t grab my camera. 

but here are a few recent shots of her, her rings, and her mess of hair!

requisite photos

i apologize for not posting some pics earlier.  last week was pretty busy, i guess.  aunt jo-jo & michaela came for a visit.  then we headed to gramma & grampa’s for a visit and a very helpful babysitting deal while The Mr. & i went to a friend’s wedding.

the birthday weekend was a success.  thursday (actual bday), The Mr. & i went to lunch, ran some errands, and got her pictures made.  we gave her our gift to unwrap.  i’d post the video of her unwrapping, but really, we don’t want to waste about 10min of your life watching her watch the box.  we gave her a little push/ride-on car that she has no interest in yet.  well, save for the little piece that she likes to pop off in the front.

saturday the 11th (her due date!) we had gramma & grampa, and kenny & amy & their baby over.  unfortunately, my bff wasn’t able to make it with her daughter.  but amy had made the cutest ladybug cake for the occasion (thanks, amy!) and we all enjoyed ourselves watching the babies watch each other.  we dipped in the pool and then cut the cake.  this time, we even tried ice cream.  let’s hope she does, in fact, have some grampa & me in her.  b/c at first taste, ice cream was NOT her friend.  we have good video, at least!

but here are the money shots:

actual birthday, first tastes.

ladybugs galore

(by the way— the plates/napkins came from the cutest online store! they sent me better than average emails tracking my order with poetry. was fun! the cups i had fun dotting myself. i’m quite the talent. you know, compared to the awesome freakin cakes that amy made. that were also delish!!!)

i like this birthday thing!

thanks to the participants.  & thanks to The Mr.  (greatest ever!) for cleaning her up & feeding her a lot of supper afterwards.

(we missed you, beck!)

new developments

just in time for her birthday, jovie’s on the ball with keeping me pretty active.  in the past week or so, she had a few more breakthroughs (a la what happened late April)

2 weekends ago, she enjoyed some pool time w/ Dad.  & i heard him shouting for me.  so i quickly ran outside to see what was the matter.  and he said she’d been trying to climb the steps.  i saw her make a few attempts before i went inside to make her dinner.  when he came in he said that she did, in fact, climb 2 stairs.

the next time i took her to the pool, she spent some time climbing 3 stairs- and thus getting out of the pool altogether.

she hasn’t stopped since.  now she spends much of her pool time trying to hoist herself out of her raft & crawling out of the pool.

oh, and those 13 stairs we have in our house?  the ones w/o baby gates.  yeah.  she climbs those too.  all day if i’d let her.  we usually crawl up for a naptime and for bathtime.  and sometimes once for fun.  she was pretty cute today b/c there was a tiny wrist-book on one of the landings, and instead of stopping to play with it, she grabbed it and scaled the mountain with it. 

also, early last week, The Mr. was giving jovie her bath when again i was summoned.  this time, she decided to pull herself up to stand.  she has been doing this from a different angle.  usually she’ll crawl all over one of us and push down to stand up.  which i think is easier than trying to hoist yourself up from furniture (or bathtubs) at your height.  so finally, she pulled herself up legitimately.  and the next day, she cautiously tried again on the chair where i was sitting.

nowadays, she spends a lot of time finding me when i’m sitting & standing next to me.  the pride you see on her face is just melting!

as is her pride when she figured out how to sign “more”…. it comes out as a clap mostly, but she’s trying to “aim” it right.  she’s hit-n-miss on understanding exactly that it means “yes, please. i’d like some more of that”  because sometimes she’ll ask for more and then push it away when i give it to her.  she still doesn’t do the “all done” sign.  which may help.

now that she’s more active  (and i’m tired of her crawling around the same place overandoverandoverandover), i like to get her out more.  we’ll take some classes/activities in the fall when things start up again.  but i did find a gym down the road that opens for 2 hours so your kid can tumble & use the fun activities.  we’ll get a lot more out of it when she’s walking, but she had the BEST time crawling really fast over the squishy mats & going all over the place.  she was squealing and pointing excitedly.  The Mr. came with us & he said he’s never seen her like this.  it was a lot of fun. 

(it’s a great idea, too…  b/c i’m sure it helps promote gymnastics.  they start as early as 18mos w/ a mommy&me class.  so we’ll likely be doing more of this come january!)

she has even surprised me with at least 2 real kisses— mouth closing sloppy wet and all.

and to think it was one year ago today that i had my last dr’s appt where they said things were already progressing.  but to relax, b/c it could take even a week before i start real labor.  hmmmm the fun started in the middle of the night (2am on the 8th) & 26 hours later….   the journey began.

pool time

day 1- loved it. surprisingly w/o needing any coaxing at all.  immediately began to splash:

splashy-splash!!

day 2- more like how i thought day one would’ve been.  (you can’t hear the whine that accompanies this picture:)

i don't wanna touch the water

day 3- somewhere in between.      <we were an “expert” at going to the pool, so we didn’t bring any film…….     oops>

but it’s official.  our pool is open for business!  & days 4, 5, etc….  have been a great success!   she even loves her ladybug raft!

this is so cool!

oh, by the way,  this marks our 101st post!!!  thanks for keeping up with our adventures!

101.8

this is not jovie’s favorite radio station.  it is actually the reading on the thermometer a few days ago when she got her first fever.

one week shy of 11 months, and we finally got to see what kind of kid she’d be when she was sick.  you hear sometimes how being sick changes things…. personalities, routines, etc…

i’m developing a theory that it makes the family revert back to newborn times.  b/c that seems to be what happened to jovie.  instead of the nice naps we have grown acccustomed to, she decided to go back to the days where she wouldn’t nap, but for possibly 15min or 30 at most.  with lots of crying in the duration.  wait- did i say crying??  no, i mean ear-piercing-blood-curdling-glass-shattering-screaming.  

well, it wasn’t like that ALL day.  at least, not when we held her.  The Mr. picked a fine time to decide to work from home this week….   tho’ it is The Mr.’s fault that we have a fever at all.  he has the smallest of colds this weekend.  unlike last time- in february—where his whole workgroup got it, and it was BAD.  this time- pretty minor.  and we weren’t diligent this time about keeping him away from her.  we discussed it.  but, really-  she’s ~11mos old.  isn’t it about time we let that immune system work? 

so on tuesday (after sleeping all the way thru the night w/o any peep at all) i noticed after breakfast she had a little runny nose.  it began when she started to “snorfle” [for the potters in the group, that's what i call what haylee used to do]….  she wrinkles up her nose and sniffs in and out.  she does this not cold-related.  but this time, there was stuff to snorfle.

not a big deal, this runny nose.  just a little here and there; she even let me use the aspirator (which has rarely been needed).  she seemed fine.  was playing pretty good.  until she decided not to.  she would rather be held, please.

of course- i thought it was probably due to the fact that daddy was home.  she tends to change a few habits when this happens.  so when she refused to nap, i thought it was b/c of him as well.  by that time, her nose wasn’t even running very much.

as the day went on, just around the time she was grating on our nerves- what with the holding and the holding and the not-getting-any-work-done-here holding… i finally picked her up after she didn’t eat much dinner and i noticed she was quite hot.

so, poor baby.  but really- it was gone by yesterday afternoon, and she hasn’t had a runny nose much at all.  nor is it stuffy.

yesterday was a little ruf.  she was fussier in the early part of the day than she had been on tuesday when it all began.  again- going back to the reverting to newborn stage:  at one point the only thing that calmed her was my rhythmic swaying/shushing.  and she even wouldn’t go down for a nap until daddy held her and she slept in his arms first.  that hasn’t happened in many months. 

we’re glad she’s back to her newer old-self today.  happy, playful little girl who at this very moment is still sleeping!

<<<visualize an adorable picture of mommy & jovie watching baby einstein while holding flopsy under a blanket here.   daddy was too busy at work for me to ask him to take her first “sick” pic…… but wow, it woulda been cute!>>>