I’ve always liked spring. I’ve always gotten pretty sick of winter lingering around the way it does this time every year. But this year’s different. I’m literally sick and tired of these cold days that force us to stayed trapped in doors. Well, mostly I’m sick of the weather forcing little kids to stay in doors, sharing the same germs over and over until they’re all so sick you can’t even figure out what they have or who they got it from.
That’s where we’re at now. Knock on wood, little Natalie is approaching a week of good health, the first in about two months. The flu turned into a cold, that morphed into a worse cold, that turned into an ear infection and somewhere in the middle she in all likelihood had RSV to boot. Throw in my recent heart murmur diagnosis and a double pink eye infection – where in heaven’s name did I get that? – and Jason’s two-week cold, touch of bronchitis, an ear infection and my personal favorite, walking pneumonia, and we’re about the last house you’d want to visit. Keeping track of who’s on what prescription and when it should be taken is a riot and I don’t even want to see the medical bills. My theory is we’re just getting all of our illnesses of 2007 out of the way in the first quarter so the others are much more enjoyable. Let’s hope that pans out.
Oh, so the good news, your asking? The good news is that after having her ear infection checked out a week after it was diagnosed – it’s clear – I sat down with her doctor to have the tube conversation. As her fourth ear infection, I was getting worried about the poor thing and wondering if she would end up needed ear tubes to help drain the fluid. I braced myself as I waited for the response. But yeah!! We’re nowhere near needing to talk about them yet! Apparently her doctor only proceeds with tubes if a child has an ear infection that won’t clear up for two months – my gosh, can you imagine how awful that would be?! – or if the ear infections happen back to back over several weeks. So for now, we’ll pray those little ears stay healthy and clear.
I’ve been desperately trying to get some new photos of Natalie, but apparently the new toddler version is a much more tricky photo subject. She’s either creeping, crawling or scooting her way out of the frame before I can snap a shot or she’s screwing her face up into bizarre forms that I know she’d later hate me for documenting. I’ve taken dozens in the past couple months, but only saved a couple. Most of those are of her really big grin, the one where she scrunches up her little nose so far it’s almost between her eyes, her mouth open in a huge smile and her eyes squinted. It’s hilarious to see in person, as she only does it when something’s especially funny and she’s a silly goose, but in a two-dimension little photo, it takes some explaining. She usually looks horribly angry or like something’s really wrong. Apparently she gets this special smiling skill from her mother, so I’ll take all the heat when she’s mad about these photos too.
On a different note, Grandma was asking the other day how many baby signs Natalie knew. I guessed about a dozen, but Jason and I finally sat down one evening and wrote them all down. Turns out the little sweetpea knows and uses about 20 regularly, with a handful of others stashed in her “I know how to do it, but I choose not to” category. My gosh, I had no idea she was chatting with us that much. She’s really backed off on verbal communication now, which really appears to be one of her phases. She likes to master things and then drop them like a bad habit, only to have them resurface a couple months later when we least expect it. About her only word now is “Dada” or “Dado.” She was saying a bunch more, like “Mama,” “dog,” “uh-oh,” “nigh-nigh” and “nana” for banana.“ But she’s scrapped all that for some concentrated signing efforts, combined with her recent interest in more walking attempts. Thanks to sign, she can tell us when she’s done with something, wants more, is hungry or thirsty, has wet or dirtied her diaper, sees a puppy, fish, bunny, cat or baby, wants to read a book, is sleepy, wants to wear a hat or would like to eat a banana (saw that one for the first time today!). She’s even signing please, thank you and help. As she gets interested in speaking again, she’ll add the words to the signs, just like when do when communicating to her. Very sweet!
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