11 months - late seems to be the fashion

I seem to have made posting the monthly updates late a tradition...but there's only one more after this one!  After that who knows when I'll actually update.  I will try to post at least once a month for all the E fans out there, and of course for my own record keeping.

Baby bears eat wood chips...
right?

The 11th month has been packed full of fun adventures!  E LOVES adventures.  She is fearless, which is a wonderful, terrible thing.  it is wonderful because she is so willing to try new things.  She will eat new food, greet new people, try new stunts at gym class, shimmy off the couch backward, climb stairs, climb all the little kid playground equipment at our local park.  And she will also put anything and everything into her mouth - including the screw on top to daddy's sporran, which she pulled off the couch, unscrewed and then proceeded to crawl around with it in her mouth.  She will try to go off the edge of anything, usually face first.  She can actually get down small sets of stairs this way, anything else makes mommy jump and grab her when she's heading for the edge. She's had a second ear infection, in her opposite ear.


Some of our adventures this month have been:

Adventures in getting what we want:

I like pumpkins!

E has started pointing.....at everything!  She loves her new found ability to make the adults look at what she wants.  She loves to point out cars and airplanes.  She can spot things that I often overlook, especially binkies.  If there is a binky within eyesight and she doesn't currently have one in her mouth, she will point at it.  it doesn't matter if it's half-buried under a blanket or on a shelf with a million other objects, she can spot it!

One of the main things she pointed at this month was her Halloween card from her grandma and granddaddy.  It was a fairly spooky card, with a photo of a bunch of jack-o-lanterns.  they had LED lights in their mouths and eyes and said "Happy Halloween" in various spooky voices when you push a button.  E LOVED the card.  So much that she would point at like it was a binky.  We had several dinners set to the soundtrack of "Happy Halloween".  One night she continued to insist that we play the card but mom and dad were ready to put E to bed.  E went nuclear.  She screamed through her bath, diaper, teeth brushing, all the way to the bottle.  The whole time pointing and whining.

She has also learned to put her blocks into her activity center.  This is a fascinating game now that she can do
it herself.  We are talking MINUTES of entertainment.  Blocks go in, push the lever and blocks fall out.  It makes me a little nostalgic.  when she first started playing with the cube all she could do was spin the little spinners and now she's able to do all the activities on her center.

peek-a-boo!

She has also learned to look into, over, under and through things which has led to playing hide and seek with her musical elephant.  Mommy puts the elephant in a hiding spot and turns the music on.  E searches her out.  She has the hardest time finding the elephant if it is up on something but she has rescued it from under the couch, in a backpack, out of her activity center, under blankets, etc, and every time she finds the elephant she gives it a big hug.

She has also shown her early engineer genes by figuring out how to pop open the baby locks on the cabinets and figure out light switches.  She loves to turn the lights on and off.  But she has also shown the first signs of fear.  She is afraid of the dark, but only if she's not being held.  If she's being held she's fine, if she's sitting on the floor and the lights go out she starts crying.

11 months also came with the adventure of Halloween! E went as an Ewok, and I must say she made the cutest little ewok ever!  She won her first costume contest by tying for best overall costume with a little boy dressed as Chef Boyarde.  She went trick-or-treating at a few houses in our neighborhood, though we didn't let her eat any of the candy.  poor kid.

And the other big adventure for 11 months was Renfest!  Mommy and daddy got married at renfest and go and celebrate their anniversary there every year.  This was E's first trip and she loved it!  She just loved people watching.  She got to watch the elephants, go to the petting zoo, and ride the big swing with Oma and Mommy.  She didn't win, but she still liked picking the duckies out of the water.  She also got to ride a llama (almost) all by herself.  She held on pretty well, but mommy had her hands ready to catch her just in case.

E loved staying home with Oma and getting to play with her all day.  They went to the playground almost every day!  E was not very happy about returning to daycare but after a few days she was back in her happy groove.  Thankfully they are finally spending most of the day in the Wobbler room.  E does not like being in the infant room now, she cries less and sleeps more in the Wobbler room than she does in the infant room.

E's second highland games!

At 11 months E likes:
all green foods.  She loves them.  lets hope this persists into toddlerhood
...okay actually it should say all foods.  but she does like to devour the green ones in particular.

her elephant.  It was the first stuffed toy she ever gave a hug to, and she still hugs it, pretty much every time she sees it

Her walking train.  She's not walking yet, she's taken a few un-assisted steps.  Her teacher Mrs. Bush says it's because she wants to make sure she's doing it right and not making any mistakes before she shows off for everyone.

Being outside.  She loves, loves, loves the playground, the back yard, the driveway anywhere outside.

Dancing and music.

Brushing her teeth - she has her first real toothbrush with bristles, her other one had little silicon nubs for gums.

books!  she loves her little chunky books.  She will play with them, opening them, turning the pages and chewing on them.

At 11 months E does not like:
diaper changes
clothes changes
socks
being strapped into her car seat or stroller - though once it's moving she's fine
being told "no"

oh so very fussy

The family went to Austin for the Saledo Highland games this weekend.  Ken took second place in his division and won weight over bar in his division! Elora spent the day clinging to mommy.

It may be that the trip coincided with her developing another ear infection, or perhaps that she is possibly cutting more teeth, or she was out of her routine and had some anxiety... or some combination of all of the above.

On the road there E cried for 90% of the drive.

She did not want to eat anything, not milk, not food at the restaurant, nothing.

She did not want to sleep, especially because she could see/hear mommy and daddy despite our best effort to hang a blanket to block her view.

The night before the games she got up and at 11, 1, 3, 4,5 (after that mommy took her to the hotel lobby to play so daddy could sleep)

At the games she was good for most of the time, still didn't eat much. Loved playing in the grass, trying to eat it, and watching two Great Danes that were there.

At dinner that night she refused to sit in her high chair. She ate about 1\3 of what she normally eats.

She woke up at 11(diaper) 12:30, 1, 130, 2
Mom and dad took turns holding her and sitting in the arm chair. She wild be dead sleep in your arms and then pop wide awake the moment you set her in her crib.
At 2 holding her I didn't stop the crying, figuring her ear was bothering her mommy took her to the bathroom and lay her on a towel on the floor to give her Tylenol... And she passed out. So mommy ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor with the baby... Who still woke up every hour or so, but would go back to sleep once she had her binky back.

Thankfully she slept the whole way home (do did mommy).

We are back home now and she has still been more fussy than normal, but thankfully she ate well and she has been alseep since 8 with only the occasional cough. I hope this lasts until morning!

But oh did she ever look cute in her
Highland dress!

the importance of accuracy

In my class I always started the year off talking about accuracy and precision in measurements. After today I feel like some thermometer companies would benefit from the same lesson.

E had a fever and had to go home from daycare yesterday. When I checked it in the morning, because she felt hot, the lovely, germ free, temporal thermometer that E knows how to sit still for and doesn't complain at all when I take her temperature, read 99.1. A little high, but still OK to go to daycare.

Then she screamed through her entire gym class. Normally, she's the only baby who never cries. One of the other mom's actually rematked on it..."wow, this is the first time I have ever seen her cry.". And she didn't want to be put down, and she didn't want to participate... all very strange for E.

Fast forward to 2 and daycare calls... 102! E needs to go home. I pick her up and she is acting fine. Happy, snuggly, bouncy, wriggly, normal; though she does feel hot.  Take her home and take her temp, which she even rested her head on my chest to do... 99.5. I figure it's teeth, but make an appointment to get her checked out the next day.

Get her up and check her temp... 100.6. Poor baby. Check throughout the day, it always ranges between 102 at most and 99 at least.  Nothing serious, no need for needs.  Go into the doc and the nurse takes her temp... 103.8!!!!!  That's high enough to warrant medication... And almost high enough to warrant a trip to the er!  The doc offers fever reducer immediately, yikes!  Decline the in office meds. Doc diagnoses an ear infection and prescribes agumentin.  Go home and before giving the fever reducer try the trusty temporal thermometer again... 100.6...

My trusty little thermometer shows it's true colors... It's accuracy stinks. E was probably too febrile to go to daycare from the start. Thankfully ear infections aren't contagious, but seriously a 3 degree difference?!?!? That means she had a fever of 105! When I was getting readings of 102. Accuracy for crap.  You missed the bulls eye in an unacceptable fashion.

Needless

to say we went to get a new thermometer.  All types, shapes and for all orifices were available and all claimed to be apart accurate,  pediatrician recommended and the best value.  I bought the one that looks like the one they use at the doc's. It is an aural thermometer, and E hates it.  She doesn't want that thing anywhere near her ear. If she sees it she starts whining. But the first reading it gave me when I got it home was 103.5. Much more accurate. Braun, you pass the lab practical on accurate  measurement. Here is your gold star. Thank you for your dedication to correct science... Not to mention mother's peace of mind.