Icky Sicky

We've been lucky so far this Winter in that Morgan has not been sick. Well, today I can officially say she has a cold. Monday evening she spiked a 102.7 degree fever. Not alarming by any Doctor's standards, but unnerving for parents. She came out of her bath all shivering and whimpering. We bundled her up as soon as we got her dried off. We called our friendly neighborhood Nurse Practitioner (and friend), Sasha. She advised to dose her with some Children's Advil and give her more if she woke up in the night.

Morgan surprised us by sleeping well all night. She didn't show any signs of fever or illness the next day, nor much yesterday, but when she woke up this morning with lots of boogers and multiple sneezes we knew something was up. She also had the tell-tale sign of a "weepy" left eye. This is something I've been meaning to have checked out with an opthamologist because our pediatrician thinks it might be a blocked tear duct. It's kind of handy to tell when she truly has a cold though...

We've been laying low at home lately, which we will continue to do until the sickness clears. It is supposed to warm up to a "balmy" 40 degrees this weekend! Hopefully Morgan will be feeling better by then. She's still eating pretty well, playing, getting into everything and babbling away. She must not be feeling too bad. She'll be all better before we know it!

Wordless Wednesday: First Corn on the Cob

The "clingies" have arrived

We think we're finally into an official phase of separation anxiety. Morgan used to be such a champ in childcare situations. She'd go and play and it didn't seem to bother her to be away from us. Not anymore. My first experience was that Morgan didn't do so well last week at the gym childcare. I was about 3/4 through my workout when one of the caregivers came to get me. I chalked it up to the fact that we had not been there much in the last few months and she'd need time to adjust.

Sunday at church we dropped Morgan off in the nursery and were happy when we didn't get paged throughout the service. When it was over we headed over to pick her up. As soon as we got there we looked over the counter and saw our little one "escaping" the room on her hands and knees (while another baby was being carried out the door) with tears running down her face. Poor thing! It was pretty funny to see all the babies being handed over to the moms and dads and our Morgan was fighting her own way out of the room to find us.

This morning I decided to try the gym again. I had signed up for a special six-week long class that I was really looking forward to. We got there a little early. There were TONS of kids there! I brought her in the playroom and she seemed excited when she saw all the toys. I sat her down and she immediately started playing. I gave her a few kisses and said goodbye. She pretty much ignored me, so I thought she might be OK. Nope. About 30 minutes into the class the caregiver showed up to get me...again Luckily there weren't too many people in my class and the instructor said Morgan could come back with me. She occupied herself with some exercise balls and weights, but it was hard to concentrate on the class because I was keeping track of her.

And to top it off, tonight I spent some time downstairs making dinner while David and Morgan played upstairs. I came upstairs briefly to give David his dinner (a treat, we don't usually eat upstairs) and headed back down to get mine and Morgan completely melted down. When I got back upstairs I had to spend some time calming her down before I could eat my dinner.

Everything's a phase, they say. We'll see how long this one lasts. I've got my women's group at church tomorrow, so we'll see how she does there.

Our little "Duh"

We were visiting with the McDevitt's last night and Morgan found the perfect costume...a "duh" (Duck)! She looks pretty cute, don't you think? Kirsten also had to check out Morgan in her costume. As soon as Morgan was done with it Kirsten insisted I help her put it on too. They were too fun!

Tidbits from Toddler-dom

I'm not sure we can really say officially "toddler-dom" as it seems Morgan still has no interest in walking. She does tons of cruising and crawling, but still no progress anything independent. Anyway, she certainly doesn't seem to be much of a baby anymore...have you noticed how tall this girl is?! Here are a few tidbits:

* We ditched the bedtime sippy cup this weekend. She had eaten a particularly large dinner that night (can we say WHOLE veggie burger...yikes!) so I knew she didn't need the milk to get her through the night. When it came time when we usually give her the cup, she looked around for it, but didn't complain when it wasn't there. Check that one off the list!

* She finally cut her fourth bottom tooth. She had been really fussy at tooth brushing time for a week or so, so we think this was the culprit. We've been waiting for that tooth for a few months. Next should be the first molars and I hear they can be really painful. Hopefully she'll get a little break before they start coming in.

* She still is pretty much on a two nap schedule. Occasionally I mess her up with some morning activities and she occasionally refuses the morning nap, but I think she will keep that one for a bit longer.

* We are hearing lots of new sounds, but no new real words lately. I'm not sure what the developmental "rules" say, but we hope she's still on track. She somehow figures out how to communicate though. We are getting more protest yelling and she kind of sticks her arm/hand out towards something when she wants it. Not really pointing, but she gets the idea across.

* Sleeping is still pretty good. Except for one random night of midnight playtime a few days ago, she sleeps from about 8:15-7:15 or so. This morning my alarm went off at 7 am and I looked at the monitor to find her still asleep. Yay! I fell back asleep and woke up at about 7:50 am and she was playing quietly in her crib. I wonder how long she'd been awake? Who knows?

* We've started "time outs". She doesn't really get it yet, but I read that you can start at this age. Usually I put her in the designated spot and she just crawls away. Yesterday she was getting into a cabinet she wasn't supposed to be in and I did the whole warning thing...then picked her up and put her in time out. She looked at me, then lowered her head and started crying. She'd had a bit of a rough day with sleeping/napping, but I wondered if maybe she actually "got it." I left her there for a few seconds then picked her up and told her loved her. Today I had to do time out and she just crawled away again. Sigh. It's all progress, right?

Overall, Morgan is just a lot of fun! Sometimes I wish I had a break, but as soon as I get one I miss her like crazy!! I love her kisses and laughs. She can really get going sometimes! She loves to raise her arms above her head so we'll say "so BIG!" And she never gets enough of her Old MacDonald. Someday she'll join us on the EIEIOs!

Gramma and Grampa A Visit

We just finished up a great visit with David's parents. Morgan had not seen them since we were at their house last August, so we couldn't wait for this long-awaited visit!

Morgan took a little while to warm up...we are seeing a little more separation anxiety from her day to day, so that was probably the culprit. Overall it didn't take long for her to be giving "kisses" all around.

We enjoyed great meals and lots of good conversation. David and I were able to have a day/night away on Saturday and Sunday. We had a fabulous time with our friends at Silver Mountain. Amy and I had a blast on the inner tubes...the rides were much more hair-raising that we expected, but except for a bruise or two there were no issues. David snowboarded and Trevor skied and they got in just enough runs. It was clear sunny day too. Did you know that Silver Mountain has the "World's Longest Gondola Ride"? Well, this was until just recently when Whistler built a longer one in anticipation of the Olympics in 2010. I still think that's a pretty big feat for little ol' Kellogg, Idaho. It was quite a ride!

Aunt Trudy and cousin Patrick also came on Sunday for a visit full of food and football. We love seeing them and always wonder why we don't see each other more often. There's a good one to keep in mind for 2009!

Here are a few cute shots of Gramma, Grampa and Morgan. Please come back soon!!

Status Quo

Oh my goodness, I can't believe almost a week has gone by and we haven't posted anything! Bad, bad, bad.

Gramma and Grampa A are visiting this week through next Tuesday and we are having a great time! Morgan has been her usual silly self, with lots of "dit-do's" and "Old MacDonalds." Her new sound is something like "zoo-zoo-zoo." It's pretty cute. Today I changed the setting on her activity table to "learning time" instead of "music time" and this fascinated her for a very long period of time. It was like it was a new toy. I had to pull her away from it to play with something else. Obsess much?

David and I are going for a half-day at Silver Mountain tomorrow with our friends Amy and Trevor. That means David and Trevor are going to Snowboard and Amy and I are going to either go for a few sled runs on the bunny slopes or just lounge around the lodge. Yay! Then we're going to head back into Coeur d'Alene for dinner and stay overnight at our friend's place. Morgan gets lots of Gramma and Grampa time at home. I already miss her, but I know she's in great hands.

Dreaming of Old MacDonald?

Every night Meg, I or both of us will tip-toe into Morgan's room while she's sleeping just to look at her. She's so adorable that we want one last look before bed.

Last night was like any other. Meg was downstairs, so I decided to go on a solo mission. Morgan had been asleep for about 2 hours, so I felt it was safe go in without waking her. I carefully opened the door, got about two steps into the room when a dreamy little voice came drifting from the crib bellowing: "Wwowwww"! I froze... did I just wake her up? Is she now going to have an epic meltdown that'll require 20 minutes of soothing, and make for an extra cranky baby in the morning? Should I just sit on the floor and pretend I'm not here?

Against my better judgement I approached the crib. I resigned myself to finding wide open brown eyes expectantly hoping for a late night crib rescue so she could resume destroying our bonus room. Instead, she was fast asleep, oblivious to the fact her startled Dad was hovering over her. I made sure she was out, then left quickly as I was about to start cracking up. She may have uttered noises in her sleep before, but it was the first time either of us have heard her say a word.

I couldn't wait for Meg to come upstairs so I could tell her what happened. My only regret was that she wasn't there to hear it, though if we were both there I'm certain we would have both cracked up and woken Morgan.

So you may be asking yourself at this point "What's the Old MacDonald correlation?" As you may have read in a previous blog, Morgan's first word was "duck". Somehow that transitioned to the classic kids tune, where Meg and I sing to her, and she fills in the animal on the farm - always a certain water fowl - then adds in another loud "Duck!" at the end of the song.

Lately, however, she's revised the ending of the song. After the last E, I, E, I...O she's replaced "Duck" with "Wow!" I take it as a compliment, as if she's in awe of our performance. It didn't strike me until Meg mentioned it that maybe she was dreaming about us singing to her. (If any one's heard me sing, this could be classified as a nightmare.)

Regardless, this has produced one of the most cherished memories of parenthood yet. There's so many firsts that you just don't take into account as you consider what it would be like to be a parent. Each one seems more and more amazing. I could go on for hours, but I think I'll go check in on my little sleeping angel. I hear she may be reciting the Gettysburg Address tonight!

Busy Baby

Here are a few more photos from the Grandma and Grandpa B visit. After Morgan's romp in the snow we came inside and she roamed around the kitchen a bit. She was looking out the window at all the snow. In the last few days we have had quite a snow melt. I will have to take some before and after pictures tomorrow.

And of course it's been a while since we had some bath photos. Here are a few cute ones. She still likes her ducky tub! Lately it's been tough to get Morgan to smile for pictures. During this bath David started to play a game with her where he would blow in her face. She would get a shocked look on her face, then right after she'd smile. She also was fascinated by the red-eye reduction feature of Grandpa's camera. It took a few tries to time the picture right, but I think we got it!

Look at all my teeth! I'm still missing one on the bottom front.

Wordless Wednesday: I've fallen and I can't get up!

Snow Bunny

We finally got Morgan bundled up in her snow suit! It really ended up being quite large for her. It is an 18 month size, which in most items are about the right size, but this one is still HUGE! Here are a few shots from a little fun we had outside yesterday.

We plopped her down in a snow bank. She didn't seem to know quite what to do.

Looking at Grandpa taking more pictures

Her little pink car made it outside! She loves it!

Cutie Pie

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa B

Morgan is having a nice long weekend playing with Grandma and Grandpa B. They arrived a day late due to our lovely weather and are currently out shoveling the driveway after last night's snow. I've put them to work!! J/K...they offered. I think they like having the exercise. They are used to walking every day at home, but the snow and cold have kept them inside the last few days.

Later today we're hoping to bundle Morgan up in her new snow outfit and boots and get outside to do some playing! We'll have cameras in hand as I realize I am way behind on my Morgan-pics. She is 13 months today...no walking in sight yet. She's better when you hold her hands, but her balance is not so great and she sure has a vice grip on your fingers! We figure it will still be a while. Sigh. She'll walk when she's ready.

I'll post some pictures soon!