May (and half of June) were a little challenging for us. We have been learning just how difficult and exhausting it is to care for a sick child when we are sick as well.
The day before Mother’s Day was to be my present – a day hiking in Boulder with friends and then just hanging around Boulder shopping and eating - I put Elizabeth in the car seat and…projectile vomit soaked both of us. Thinking it was a one-time thing, I cleaned us up and we got into the car…then the second round hit. The 11th time that Elizabeth threw up we were in the urgent care clinic. It was awful and frightening to see her (my “bruiser”) so weak that she could barely hold her own head up. It took about 36 hours for her to totally recover…me? It took about four days and a couple of follow-up visits to the doctor’s office for monitoring recovery from dehydration and more weight-loss. I’ve never before been asked to put on a pound “just to make sure I can”. Sadly, I was easily able to put on two. Now I might have to see if I can lose that again and then stay at this weight. Wouldn’t that be grand?!
Then the cough/cold hit Elizabeth. The cough was so bad that we ended up back at the doctor’s…Then another cold, but this one was more like the flu. Sadly, you don’t know how much your child is ailing until you get the same sickness. I’m guessing that’s why we’re supposed to get sick, too? This last cold/sinus infection took three weeks and two different kinds of antibiotics to finally get Elizabeth better. Actually, I’m crossing my fingers that she is better since she is still on her second round. I’m still recovering, but Andy is finally better.
She wasn’t too keen on eating solids while she was sick. Look closely and you’ll see big tears…if you could’ve seen my face I think I had big tears as well.
Elizabeth and I had many battles during this time of sickness – eating solids, blowing her nose, using the nose drops, using the nasal aspirator, and so on. She is one strong-willed and physically strong little girl. She’d see a tissue coming and she’d start kicking and slapping me. She knew when the bottle cap was off of the saline nose drops (knowing it was time for drops vs me giving her the bottle as a toy for a distraction). Thankfully, she would take her medicine (Tylenol or antibiotics) without a fuss – she likes her “sweet juice” as we called it.
A couple of things helped, though. We taught her how to “blow her nose” by having her watch us and she’d attempt to imitate us. So instead of whipping her head back and forth crying, she ended up sitting still as we praised her for “blowing”. She only attempted to actually blow once, and she tooted instead – but that was pretty hysterical. And in the past week or so, she finally stopped fighting me with the nasal aspirator (or boogey-sucker as I tend to call it). I think she just finally realized that she felt better after it was done and over with.
But we still managed to squeeze in some fun and Elizabeth learned some new skills as well.
I think she may have a talent for music. Here she is “playing” her bells….
Here we have her at GCB (Golden City Brewery). She loved the outdoor seating area as much as we did, and there are always tons of other babies and kids for her to check out.
Aunt Karen and Uncle Craig came for a long weekend.
Eliz really enjoyed playing lots of different games with her aunt and uncle.
We got a bunch of balloons for a friend in the hospital, but ended up keeping one to share with Elizabeth. This smiley-face balloon didn’t bring a smile to her face (at first).
So Karen and Craig had visited us right at the tail end of the stomach virus and the beginning of Cold #1. We had thought about having them cancel their trip to protect themselves, but it would’ve been months before they could’ve come out again. But, boy, did I feel awful when I found out that the stomach virus hit my sister as she was boarding her flight home!! And then she got the cold, too. It was bad enough that WE got sick, let alone spreading it to our guests!
Elizabeth graduated from the Mom Support Group in May. We had stayed a couple of weeks longer than normal just to go to a music class that was being offered at the group…but we missed it due to the stomach virus. Bummer. We went back the week later to get Eliz in “her cap”.
I feel lucky to say that I plan on keeping in touch with several of the moms that I’ve met thru this group. They were a real life-saver for me, especially in those beginning months. Thanks ladies!
Elizabeth has really started rolling around. She uses her rolling to get places and get things.
Most things that aren’t “toys” are what she wants to play with the most. And the little girl who used to be terrified at the sound of tearing paper now will try to eat and rip up every kind of paper she can find. Tissues were the most challenging to keep out of her reach, and still within ours, during her colds.
Like I said, we did get to do some fun things during our malady-ridden month. It made us all feel a little better to get outside when we could. So one day we took a short hike in Eldorado Canyon State Park.
Elizabeth loved this hike. She kept leaning over the side of the backpack so she could look ahead of Andy and down over the cliff of the trail. She loves touching the trees, too. The turnaround point of our hike was the view of the Continental Divide.
Once we turned around to head back down, Elizabeth fell asleep. Sometimes I think she knows that we’re done and now she can relax and let go, as if to say “Ok, I’ve seen this before – whew! I can finally go to sleep and not miss anything new.”
Another weekend we drove down to Castle Rock and visited Castlewood Canyon State Park.
A neat little place with a boulder-strewn canyon with a creek running through the middle of it. A pretty place to walk/hike. Some of the trails were paved, some were natural.
Great rock formations.
Even an exhausted Elizabeth tried to give me a big smile near the end of the day.
Then on Memorial Day we went to the Denver Zoo. We weren’t sure what an eight-month old would think of the zoo and the exotic animals, but we wanted to get out for the day so we thought we’d find out.
She seemed just as intrigued by other people and kids as she was by the animals. She definitely likes birds a lot…especially when they fly past her. She also liked the animals that made loud sounds, such as the tapirs and the elephants. She would give us these looks of pure amazement. How fun!
Here is our sleeping beauty…who missed the second half of the zoo :)
The next time we go back, I’ll take her in the opposite direction so she’ll see what she missed on this visit.
I’m relieved to say that May is over. Besides our sickness, it rained almost daily. We expect crazy weather in April, but May shouldn’t have been this wet. It didn’t help our spirits any, that’s for sure. But now that we are all better or darn to close to being better, we can appreciate what May’s rains brought us – incredibly green foothills! It is awfully pretty to look at the green hills, which are normally brown in this high desert of ours.
Elizabeth has added to her repertoire of skills. She can now do the following:
- she initiates play: she’ll take any kind of cloth she can find and covers her face with it…and then waits for us to “find” her. She has kissed my neck and giggled, just like I do to her when we play. She has also given me one raspberry, too. Very funny.
- she initiates big kisses and big hugs: her big kisses means that she comes at you with an open mouth – you don’t really know if she plans on biting or kissing! She has done both.
- in late May, she brought her hands together in an obvious attempt to clap
- On Memorial Day she began practicing her consonants. In one long babble she’d say dadamamababa, and so forth. By June 7th it was clear that “Dada” was the winning word. Actually “Hi” was truly her first word, but it was the all important bet of “will it be Dada or Mama first?” that had us on the edge of our seats for that week.
- she is stronger and stronger every day at rolling, sitting, leaning and reaching while sitting, standing, and walking with support. We still think there’s a good chance that she’ll walk before crawling, but who knows – she may still surprise us yet.
Lots more pictures on our May WebAlbums if you’re interested.
