Junky eye

I have a blocked tear duct, so I've had a junky eye pretty much since I was born. My right eye always had goop coming out of it, or was stuck together, or whatever. And Mommy and Daddy and my teachers at school were ALWAYS all up in my face with wet cotton pads or kleenex or wet washcloths trying to clean it off. I kept saying, "Just leave me! Leave it alone! Let me look like a homeless baby!" When Mommy would come pick me up at school she would say "Oh, poor little homeless baby.. Don't you have a Mommy to take care of you? You look so junky and dirty. I'll be your mommy!" People always thought I had an eye infection, but I didn't (well, except that one time I had pinkeye).

Also, I always looked like I had been in a fight. Mommy usually tells me not to put up the pictures that I look really bad in so that people don't think that she beats me or anything, but here's one she took of me at school (she is the photo parent for my room, thats why she had her camera with her).

I look like I've gone a few rounds with Rocky Balboa.

Anyhow, this Saturday morning Mommy came in to get me out of my crib and my eye was not junky at all. Not a hint of crust to be had. We were cautiously optimistic. The same thing happened on Sunday morning, Monday morning AND today, so I think it has finally happened, just like my doctor said it would: I think my junky eye has cleared up! Woooooo!!

I'm seven months old!

Hey everyone, guess what? I'm seven months old! I know, hard to believe.

Next stop, upstairs!

Now that I can pull myself up to standing, I'm going to tackle those steps!


Untitled from meandertail and Vimeo.

Roseola, no thanks!

I don't want roseola! But too bad, because roseola wants me.

Mommy noticed that I had a rash all over my trunk on Thursday night. On Friday morning it looked like it was going away so we decided not to mention it to my teachers, but when Mommy picked me up on Friday afternoon it was back in FULL EFFECT! My teachers said that they thought I had roseola and that most of the other babies in my class had gotten it too. And sure enough, when we looked around a lot of them had a rash just like mine! G-G said that when my Uncle Jim was a baby, he got a bad case of roseola and was really sick and miserable. My roseola wasn't too bad I guess, because Mommy and Daddy didn't even realize that I was sick until I got the rash, which is AFTER the fever breaks.

Oh well. Feeling better now, although I still have the rash. You can see it on my forehead.

Cat!

I love my cats. Whenever I see a cat my face instantly breaks into a huge smile. I can't help it! Cat!!

Now I can pull myself up and look up on the couch. Look, its a cat!! Woo!!


Cat. Caaaaaat! from meandertail and Vimeo.

Crawling and another video

I told you I could crawl! What, you didn't believe me? Well here's the video proof:



Crawling, baby! from meandertail and Vimeo.

Also, here's another video that Mommy took of me and Daddy when we were in Chicago.



Piggy Back from meandertail and Vimeo.

And no, I don't have any idea why the videos are so big all of the sudden! I mean, I like them big - easier to see! - but they're wider than that column of my blog. I'll have to tinker with my template a bit.

Trip to Chicago. Also: Why even babies hate American Airlines

So, like I said in the last post, I've been pretty lax in updating my blog lately because we went on a trip. We went to Chicago for my uh...second cousin's wedding? Mommy's cousin Tina. We worked this all out while we were there and now I can't remember, but I think that makes Tina my second cousin. Whatev. Anyhow, we took another big airplane to get there. This time we flew on American Airlines, which Mommy and Daddy do NOT recommend. First of all, checking in for the flight was absolute chaos. We had to check our bags and get my special boarding pass, so we couldn't do it online like normal people. There was a line for American that was for International departures only and everyone else had to check in at the electronic kiosks. The problem was that:
a) there was no discernable line for the kiosks
b) there was no American Airlines employee there to help if you had questions

Daddy ended up having to help THREE other people check in because they did not understand or could not work the electronic kiosk (because they were old and not tech-savvy like I am). It was insane.

When we got to our gate, Daddy asked whether they did pre-boarding for families with small children. They said that they did not normally but that we were welcome to, so we did. It was good because we had a bunch of crap to deal with and we would have held up the line and then everyone behind us would have gotten all annoyed.

Here's a picture of me on the airplane:


When we got there, G-G and Sky King met us at the airport. They had also flown to Chicago for the wedding and had gotten in right before us on another, less crappy airline. We rented a big SUV to fit all of us and all of our suitcases and strollers, etc. and drove to G-G and Sky King's friends' house in Long Grove, where we were staying. Here's a picture of me, Daddy and Mr. R on his cool deck:


I decided not to put up the picture of me and Mrs. R because she hated having her picture taken! I don't understand why, I'm such a total camera hog now. Whenever you come near me with the camera I just start smiling. I'm going to be a model when I grow up.

Anyhow, we played a lot at their house with some cool toys from the kitchen.


I had some tupperware, measuring cups and measuring spoons and a wooden spoon. It was awesome.

I didn't get to go to the wedding or anything, but I heard my first cousin once removed Caleb (Mommy's cousin Eric's baby, who is a few months older than me) was there. He was even wearing a little baby tux! I hear he looked super cute, but I never actually got to meet him myself. While Mommy and Daddy were at the wedding, I stayed at home with Mr. and Mrs. R. They even put me to bed. Before I went to sleep, Mr. R read me a book that Mommy had brought along. See, Mr. R is a Badger, so he really liked the book and sang me all the songs at the end.

I did get to go the wedding brunch on Sunday where I got to meet my various relatives (except Caleb! I guess I'm a morning person and he's a night person). Mommy didn't get any good pictures though, so nothing to show. Then we drove back to Arlington Heights and stopped off to see another friend of G-G and Sky King's, Curt and Bonnie and their daughter Heather, and HER daughter Madeline.



That was fun. They had lent me a bunch of baby stuff to use, like a Pack-and-Play, an Exersaucer, and a high chair.

When we were there, I sat in Sky King's lap for a little while. Here's a picture of that:


You can see that he does not look like he thinks that I am an atomic bomb that might explode at any moment. Maybe just more like a small kind of bomb.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning and fly back to Durham. We had ANOTHER bad experience with American Airlines. First, Mommy got yelled at when she was checking in for daring to walk up to the ticket counter herself to talk to the agent and get her boarding pass. At this airport, there was one agent at the kiosks who was helping to check baggage, and she started to help Mommy get her new boarding pass but then left and didn't tell Mommy what to do. But when she went up to the desk, the lady yelled at her. That was nice. Then we went to the gate and asked again about preboarding. This time, the agent was NOT very nice. She said "Now, forgive me if I'm being rude, but why do people traveling with children always think that they're entitled to board the aircraft before everyone else?" You know when someone starts out by saying "Forgive me if I'm being rude" that they KNOW they're being rude and they just don't care. I know I'm just a baby, but even I know that you shouldn't treat people like that when they just asked you an innocent question AND it is your JOB to help them. So Mommy and Daddy did not preboard this time. It was fine, we didn't have quite as much stuff as we had on the way out so it wasn't a big deal. But Mommy and Daddy are NEVER flying on American Airlines again, and they hope that you won't either. Even though Mommy usually hates the 'cattle call' mentality of Southwest Airlines, they were really nice and helpful to us when we flew back to New Hampshire last month, so we think you should fly Southwest instead of American.

Anyhow, that was our trip! I better get back to trying to catch the cat and pulling myself up on Mommy's leg. Talk to you soon!

I am officially crawling!

Well folks, I am officially crawling! I use my knees and my hands now, instead of just dragging myself along with my arms. No good videos yet but Mommy will keep trying. I've been doing this for about a week now, but alternating with the army crawl. Now I'm not doing the army crawl as much, even though it gets me where I want to go a lot faster.

You won't believe this, but I am also starting to 'pull up'. At school I have a hard time taking a nap when there are so many exciting things going on around me, so my teachers hung a towel across the front of my crib so I couldn't see what was going on. I pulled myself up and peeked over the top! They can't keep me down!!

I'll try to get Mommy to get some video and pictures soon. We've been busy because we just got back from Chicago (will have pictures from that too!).

Iron Chef Buggle

I have discovered a whole new world of toys: the kitchen!

Swimming

We have a pool in the neighborhood that we live in. Mommy and Daddy have taken me a few times but the water has been CHILLY. So I just whined and we went home. They took me on the 4th of July and the water was a lot nicer. I had a good time! Here I am in the car, sitting in my special chair. When I sit in my special chair, Mommy sings me a song about it. If I sing it for you right now though, it will probably get stuck in your head forever, so I'll spare you.


Here I am in the pool with Mommy.


Here I am with Daddy. He was helping me fly up into the air!

A new trick with no pics

Mommy and Daddy can do all kinds of stuff that I can't do. If they want to sit down, they can! If they want to stand up, they can do that too! If they want to go over to the other side of the room, no problem! I can get myself around a little bit now. I do sort of an 'army crawl' where I drag myself around with my hands and push off with my toes. Now I can do another thing that they can do. I can sit down by myself!

The first time I did this was on Tuesday at school. When Mommy came to pick me up, I was in my crib playing with my blankie. The teacher told Mommy that she had put me in the crib laying down, but now I was sitting up and I must have gotten that way all by myself! Of course I did. Duh. Yesterday I did it twice. One time I did it in front of Mommy and Daddy, the other time I did it in my crib when I was (suppossed to be) taking a nap. When Mommy came in to check on me, I was sitting in my crib with my pacifier in my mouth, just hanging out (I can put the pacifier in my own mouth too).

Next I'm going to be working on STANDING UP.

I may be half British, but today I'm All-American!

Happy 4th of July!






(Can you tell Mommy is going a little nuts with the camera? I must be the most photographed baby EVER!)

Mommy's too cheap for a real photo shoot

Well, thanks for all of your well wishes! I'm feeling better now. On Saturday I felt like a poopy diaper, but by Sunday I was pretty much okay. Today I was able to go back to school, hurrah! Although when Mommy picked me up, another baby in my class was getting his temperature taken and it was 102!! So it looks like the virus is still moving!

Oh. And another thing that happened. Mommy told me that she ran into the Japanese postdoc/orthopedic surgeon that used to talk to her about her broken foot. He said that another pregnant woman at Mommy's work had probably broken her foot and that maybe Mommy could email her and give her some tips. She doesn't know if she broke her foot or not, but it is likely that she did. And if she did, she did it at 32 weeks which is EXACTLY when Mommy did. Mommy didn't have much to say to her except to try to make her laugh because really, what else can you do when you're 7 months pregnant and your foot is broken??

Mommy took some pictures of me this weekend for my 6 month pics. She's too cheap to take me to the mall for pictures! Look at how well you can see my teeth now when I smile! Also, look how well I can sit up by myself. Mommy and Daddy don't even need to spot me anymore.

Has it really been 6 months?

Studs


I'm late!


First picture!


Going home from the hospital


One month old! I can smile in response to your smile.


Two months old! I can move my arms to hit stuff, sometimes get the hand to stay in my mouth and I just learned how to hold something in the hand!


Three months old! I smile and do the silent laugh when you do something funny and I don't hate tummy time so much anymore!


Four months old! I can move things from one hand to the other!


Five months old! I got my first two teeth! They just broke through! I giggle and I love to watch my doggie and kitties.


Six months old! I'm dragging myself all over the place with my arms and getting up on my hands and knees (or my hands and toes!). I'm totally going to crawl soon! And I can say Da now!