Sick but still impressive!

So E's been battling some illness.  We think it was all brought on by the latest round of teething,  She's working on breaking in her left side upper and lower first molars.  The right ones are already in.  When she teethes, she becomes a drooly, snotty mess. (I think all babies do).

Well the snot piled up, her Eustachian tubes swelled up and she bought herself a double ear infection.
We were in the doctors office waiting for a while because they were a little behind schedule.  So E and I spent lots of time (you know 15-20 minutes) exploring the room.  Looking at the books in the kids drawer, looking a the mirror on the wall, looking at the posters of the babies and the painting of the cat in the flowers. Eventually the doc came in and I told her about how E spent the day stuffing her fingers, cooked carrots, torn paper, pretty much anything that would fit in her ears and the night poking mommy and daddy in their ears as if to say "Hey! this part of me hurts but I don't know how to tell you so I'm going to try to make you feel my pain!" (she does this with her teeth too)  That coupled with the fact that she'd been falling down more frequently than usual, which is saying something, was enough to make me take E in, despite not having a fever.  The doc checked her out, gave us the diagnosis, a prescription, and a see you in 10 (11) days for a check up!

X-ray holder or torture device?
yes.
Side note..this is not E.

Fast forward 11 days, E is no longer trying to stuff everything on earth in her ears but she has a horrible runny nose, a temperature and a cough.  In a different exam room this time, and they aren't running as behind so we aren't in there long.  But while we are in there E keeps pointing at an immunization poster and signing cat.  I'm confused but she's really tired from spending the night hacking and not sleeping and I'm really tired from spending the night making sure she's breathing and not sleeping.  Turns out she's got some slight crackling in her lungs and its time to go for a chest x-ray.  I hope that if you have children you never have to have your infant get a chest X-ray.  It's horrifying.  Pictured here is the device they cram your kid into to keep them still and their arms out of the way.  Oh how E hated this.  Hated. It.  Screaming. Snot. Sobbing. Hate.

puffy faced but still
impressing mommy!

She came out of it screaming mad, scared and covered in snot.  But managed to sign "thank you" to the x-ray tech when prompted and then we headed back into the exam room and as we walked in she pointed at the immunization chart on the wall and signed cat (While still crying, which is very cute and very sad) and I looked at the wall and that's when it hit me.  She was asking where the cat went.  The cat. From the painting. From her last visit to the doctors office.

Knock me over with a feather.  She remembered the art that was on the wall 11 days ago!  My overtired brain decided on the spot that "My child is a genius!"...."or she just really likes cats and we spent a long time looking at that painting".  It doesn't matter it made me smile and remember what a wondrous little girl I'm mommy to.

But I really hope she forgets about the X-ray holder.  that's not a memory  I want her to hold onto. Oh and she has bronchitis from all the snot.   Woo, more antibiotics.  Hopefully she'll be back to her bright chipper less goopy, amazing self soon!

Daycare Blues

E has been in day care for almost a year now.  There are many many things I love about her daycare.  They are good at communicating, she has friends there, they have a nice play structure, they do occasional art projects (wish they did more) but there has been a disturbing trend going on at her daycare....the teachers are leaving.

A few months ago the director left, we don't know why just one day I went in and saw him when I dropped E off and when Ken picked her up there was a notice saying the director was gone.  It was hard because we'd developed a relationship with him and we trusted him with our baby.  For him to be gone so suddenly we figured it must have been something big (drugs, money, sex or abuse) so now not only was the person we trusted gone, but we had reason to doubt our trust in him.  Had we misjudged his character?  Did we trust our baby to someone who lost his job for abusing a child?  No explanation was ever given.

A new director came in, she's nice but we just don't have the same relationship with her as we did the previous director and ever since she came in the teachers have been leaving.  First the lead teacher in the infant room Ms. D left because she was offered a better position elsewhere.  Then the chef, no explanation given.  Then Ms. Tee the support teacher from the toddler room who E adored.

And now a one two punch to the gut.  The two ladies who were E's very first teachers.  Ms. T and Mrs. B.  I trust E with these ladies like I trust pretty much no one else outside of my family.  They are the ones who sneak into her classroom and give her kisses, or take her out of her room when she's throwing a fit and nothing will make it stop.  She sees them when she goes to school and gets super happy.  She reaches for them from my arms.  I think it's fair to say E loves them based on observation evidence.

Mrs. B left on the 7th and Ms. T leaves on the 14th.  Within the span of 2 weeks E (and my main) support system and are leaving.  One to go continue her education and to take some down time before she starts back into school.  And the other to lead a program at another school, one that is very close to Ken's new office, though he may be moving and it's about a 45 minute drive in the wrong direction for me to drop E off.  But I love this teacher enough that I am considering it.  I'm happy for them that they are getting the opportunities but I also wonder, what is our daycare doing (or not doing) that's making all the good teachers leave?

I didn't cry when I dropped E off a daycare the first day.  I was sad, but I didn't cry.

I cried today.

I came in and Mrs. B wasn't at the front desk to greet us.  Ms. T was and E was so happy to see her.  I took E into the infant classroom because her teacher for the wobbler classroom was out and E started crying.  Her buddies H and V were there and were running around playing and I kept asking her if she wanted to go play and she kept shaking her head "no" and crying, and crying, and crying.  After putting her supplies up and filling out her sheet I left her with Ms. P and Ms. R the infant room teachers and she started wailing....and there wasn't anyone to go get her, to give her snuggles and make her feel comfortable.  I kept expecting to see Mrs. B come out of another classroom, or Ms. T to go in and get her (she was in a different classroom at this point)  but no one came...and after this week, no one will ever come.  Those ladies made me feel like my baby was special to them, maybe she is, or maybe they are just really, really good teachers (because that's what really good teachers do, they make all their kids feel special).  I want someone to look out for my baby, to make her feel special, and those people are leaving.  This is my new reality.

So I sat outside her classroom and cried.

Singing and empathy

I need a video.  I promise a video but every time it happens I just get caught up in the cuteness and forget to record.  but I promise, I will post a video....

...of what?  Of E "singing".  E has always loved music and has been doing what I think is singing for a while, where her babbling takes on a slightly rhythmic or tonal quality that could possibly be a song to a mother's ears...which song is as good your guess as mine but it could be a song.

But now it's real and its cute...and it's..."row, row, row your boat"  the version I learned from my friend Anne's blog about her son.  The lyrics are different from the regular song they are:

row, row row your boat

gently down the stream

if you see a crocodile

don't forget to scream

(and then you scream)

E loves it and thinks it's hilarious.  Daddy and I do hand motions to go along with the song and she's even started doing them.  She gets out the first "oh" of row and then look expectantly at us.  Once we start singing she'll sometimes sing along in her little squeaky baby voice.  And at the end of the song she'll give some sort of screaming noise.

At dinner she will insistently grab at our hands and if she manages to get them she will give her little grin and start off with her "oh, oh" while making rowing motions with her hands.  Over and over and over.  We've had to put a moratorium on "row, row" until dinner is finished but almost as soon as she's done she's asking for our fingers to row with. It is very cute.

She is also staring to show some empathy towards others, specifically her friends at daycare and her dollies.  At daycare one of her friends fell down and was crying and she went over and gave her a hug and some pats.  With her dollies i will make baby crying noises and she will find her doll, pick it up to her shoulder and pat it on the back or give it a hug.  We play a game with some toys where she "feeds" the dolls.  I wasn't sure if she was understanding the pretend aspect of the game until she shared her cracker with the doll and made "om, nom, nom" noises.  (got that one on video!)

I love that she's becoming aware of others and that she's showing empathy to them.  When Daddy or I ask for a hug many times E will say "no" (non-verbally) but if we "cry" after being told no she will come over and give the hug.  Or if we are laying on the ground and saying that we need a hug to feel better she will often come up and lay her head on our chests and splay her arms around us as best she can.  It's heart meltingly cute.