Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Flirty Spice

That is Julia's newest nickname. We've noticed her flirty behavior before, but it really seems more prominent lately. Mostly it seems like she flirts with males more than females ... is that typical? The cutest thing is when she flirts with my brother. Joel has been staying with us the last few weeks. He's helping us organize and clean our basement in preparation of converting part of it into livable space for himself. Actually, it's a pretty nice area though the concrete floor and walls are chilly, but he's a guy and probably will be OK.

Anyway, Julia's flirtatious behavior is amusing to watch. She usually gets quite excited and waves at Johnders as soon as she descends the stairs; now she looks in the guest room and waves at Joel. It's quite adorable to watch. She truly enjoys looking at Joel, especially as she sees him playing with Johnders.

If you haven't looked at some of the recent photos on flickr, check them out. The ones our friend, Lisa Connor, the great photographer, took are incredible and show some of Julia's flirty qualities. : )

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The First Cold/Fever

Julia inherited my constitution, or so it seems. She can eat anything without adverse effects, she's hot-natured, and she doesn't get sick. Of course, I have to throw in that studies show babies who are breastfed for their first year are less likely to get sick which makes the timing - 1 month after she weaned - of Julia's first cold interesting...

About 2 weeks ago she got really congested but it didn't seem to have much affect on her. We started with the humidifier and eucalyptus infused steam baths combined with J/A/S/O/N Cooling Mineral Gel Tea Tree Pain Reliever (essentially the same as Vicks Vaporub). The congestion seemed to clear up and then Tues night I put Julia to bed at 6pm and she slept until 8am, which was a little unusual - about 2 hours longer than normal. The morning progressed as usual but at lunch she was crankier than her usual "Feed me NOW!" cranky. She eat as much either. I put her down for a nap, she slept 2 hours but seemed tired still so I left her. She slept for another hour and woke up really hot to the touch. I took her temp with one of our thermometers. It read 103.1 but she wasn't acting that sick - she was a little slower than normal but happy and chatty and playful none-the-less. I didn't think to take it a 2nd reading. I laid her back down and she tried to doze off while I called Tara and Bonnie (left a message). I looked it up on the Internet and didn't see any reason to be alarmed and since I haven't gotten really sick in years I wasn't too worried. Tara got home, held Julia and she went back to sleep. B/c of all the sleeping I started to get nervous. We watched TV but I couldn't concentrate and I was hyper alert listening for her.

She woke up at 8:30pm and seemed much perkier. Her temp was closer to 100 so we brought her down for a dinner of oatmeal and milk. Then we gave her a bath and took her back to bed. She was quiet but I had horrible dreams all night.

This morning Julia woke up at her usual 6:40ish, her temp was 99.8 (which is apparently 98.8 orally) and she had some oats, banana and milk, as usual. I let her play a little in her room and laid her back down for a nap. She slept for 2 hours, her first morning nap in months.

Julia has given us no worries (other than the slow weight gain) in these past 14 months and I now have an idea of that knot in your gut when something is wrong and you can't do anything about it. This incident again reminds me of what a carefree baby I have; she's inquisitive, healthy and happy. I am also reminded that I am an extremely fortunate man.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Julia Sleeps


Julia Sleeps
Originally uploaded by bmitd67
A nap is a very important part of your day when you turn 14 months old