The Virus Who (Nearly) Stole Christmas

This is how we feel at the moment.

We had a wonderful Christmas but Shelby came down with a bug the next day and she is still recovering. It's been pretty bad for all of us and I think she passed the bug on to me. We went to the doctor twice this week to rule out RSV, ear infection or pneumonia and she got a clean bill of health from the major stuff. She just has feverish, congested, coughy runny nose gunk that won't go away easily. It's been pretty pitiful to see her struggle with breast feeding or listen to her stuffy breathing when she tries to sleep. A decent stretch of sleep (for any of us) or a good nap has been rare. We've spent a lot of time this week driving around aimlessly while she catches a snooze propped comfortably upright in her car seat. I am ready for us to be better again... it's a horrible feeling to see your sweet baby unhappy! And did I mention the decent stretch of sleep? Yeah, dying over here. I'm exhausted.

I'm Dreaming Of A...

... White Christmas!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas pictures are here.

What We've Been Up To

This month has been so busy! Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to lately...

Meeting new friends! Our good friends welcomed baby Luke into the world in November and we headed to Athens to meet him a few weeks later. As you can see, Shelby is very impressed with his willingness to play with her.

Getting into the Christmas spirit! Shelby loves the tree and all of the sparkly bows and gifts underneath. The temptation to chomp on bows has almost inspired her to crawl, but not quite. She's very close though.

Preschool Christmas program! Babies + singing = mass chaos! The program was adorable! Toddlers attempting to sing, do basic hand choreography and play simple instruments is just about the cutest thing ever. And don't even get me started on the Nativity reenactment. Pure cuteness.

Riding the Pink Pig at Macy's! We took Shelby to this Atlanta tradition last weekend and I think she was sort of confused, and so was I. Fortunately, the modern Pink Pig is just a train ride. We read that the original Pink Pig was a miniature suspended monorail ride that went above the old downtown Rich's toy department and was later moved to the roof top of the building. They had the old Pink Pig on display and it was a rather terrifying looking amusement park car with metal cage bars on the windows! Fortunately the modern Pink Pig looked a little safer.

Meeting even more new friends! Some old high school friends stayed with us for a few days and Shelby had a wonderful time playing with her new friend Sasha. The babies did all sorts of cute things together and it was fun to let them hang out, as much as babies can hang out. They sort of just sat on a blanket together and stared at each other. Even though Shelby is three months other than Sasha, they weighed about the same, although Shelby was longer. Don't they look cute in their festive pajamas?

Merry Christmas!

Nine Months Old

A few things about Shelby at nine months:

• She is using her hands a lot more now. She will push you away if you're doing something she doesn't want you to do, like wiping her nose.
• She will repeat sounds, usually "daaaaa" but I don't think she knows "da da" yet. We are trying to teach her to associate the "daaaa" sound with her bathtub duck and I think she is starting to get it.
• She is pushing up on all fours and rocking back and forth. She will crawl backwards, but not forwards.
• She consistently takes two naps a day, one around 10 and the other around 2. Each one usually lasts at least an hour but usually no longer than two hours. She goes to bed at 7 p.m. and wakes up around 7 a.m. On the weekends we just get her out of her crib and then lay down in our bed with her for an hour or so while we wake up. She's very sweet and cute in the mornings.
• She does not have a "lovey" yet but she loves to suck her thumb. Sometimes, when she is tired or overstimulated, she will switch back and forth between each thumb every few seconds like she can't decide which one is best. It's very funny. However, her hands are totally chapped and gross right now because of the dry winter air. We have to be vigilant about coating them in Aquaphor.
• I think I am going to work on teaching her some baby sign language, starting with just a few words like milk, more, done, mama and daddy.
• She is very interested on self feeding and loves to eat a few cereal puffs after dinner each night. I can tell she is getting impatient with being spoon fed.
• She can hold toys in each hand and clap them together. She does not clap her hands yet.
• We think she is starting to express boredom at simple baby toys like rattles and is more interested in more interactive baby toys like stacking toys or nesting blocks. She loves board books.
• She is getting really good at playing peek a boo when you put her towel or a burp cloth on her face. It's really cute. She is really CUTE! Of course we think so!

Baby Bear

Ew.

Shelby has been a bit under the weather for the past few days. She's getting over a cold and threw up a couple of times yesterday, including one gigantic projectile vomit all over me right before bedtime. It was seriously shocking that that much stuff could come out of one small baby. She seemed to feel OK after that and even slept through the night and slept in this morning until the very late hour of 7:30. Here's to hoping she's feeling better!

Mattress Question

Before Shelby was born, we bought the Colgate Classica mattress, which is what all of the baby books recommended. However, it's as hard as a rock, much harder than any other crib mattress I've seen. I think now that she's older and sleeping on her stomach more, she might be more comfortable on a slightly softer mattress. It seems like she can't settle down and get comfortable on the mattress we have now.

What kind of crib mattress do you have for your baby?

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Peekaboo!

The other night, without any prompting from us, Shelby figured out how to play peekaboo by pulling her bath towel over her head. It was so cute! She thought she was being hilarious. Obviously.

Writer's Block

Confession: It's somewhat difficult for me to write for this blog. I have a lot of thoughts floating around in my head and things that I would like to say, but I rarely feel like typing them out and hitting the publish button. I write a lot of posts in my head but never sort them out on paper.

I know exactly why writing for/about myself is so hard. I have a journalism degree and write for a living. I was taught to write concise, factual news stories, to write without inserting your own voice and was told that embellishing too much usually got you sued. It's hard for me to write in the first person. It's hard for me to not think about leads, column inches, the five W's and the inverted pyramid, even though I haven't written for a newspaper in years and there are no column inches on the internet.

This blog was also only started as a way to keep a few family members and friends updated on baby stuff. Cute pictures. Cute videos. What Shelby is doing at this moment. Just the facts. Do I really want a 1,000-word essay with my deep thoughts on motherhood floating around on the internet? Does Shelby, when she's older? Do I want to spend time proofreading? Or get labeled a "mommy blogger?" Cringe.

Perhaps, in the new year, I will challenge myself to find my writing voice and write more often. But for now, here's a another cute picture.