A Long February

It's been a long February for this branch of the Wilson family. School started back up again on Jan. 31st, and the first couple of weeks of spring term are always busy for both Ian and I. But this February has been a doozy for us. Sophie has had a cold and hasn't been sleeping well, and then she stopped eating last week. She started up again on Sunday, so she seems to be okay. Ian and I found out in the last couple of days why she hadn't been eating...there's a nasty stomach bug going around that just makes you nauseous all the time. Ian and I are still fighting it, but both of us are at work today. We'll try to post some new pics as soon as we're all well again...

18-Month Doctors Visit

On Tuesday, right before leaving for Wisconsin, Sophie had her 18-month doctor appointment. All is well. She was sick (just a cold virus), so she couldn't get her only shot she needed...a HepA shot in preparation for her European adventure. But she did get measured. She was 24 lbs. 2 oz. She's been fluctuating for about the past month between 24 and 25 lbs, but she's had an ear infection, a stomach bug and a cold, so she hasn't been eating as heartily as normal. She was measured at 34 inches long. The nurse even commented on how tall she was! This puts her height in the "above 95th percentile" range (surprise, surprise!) and her weight at the 25th-50th percentile range. (This seems low, but if we figure it at 25 lbs, which is what she was at before she was sick, it puts her back to the 50th-75th percentile range.)

Our next visit won't be until she turns 2 years old!

"An Uneventful Week"

I ended my last post with something about looking forward to an uneventful week. I should have knocked on wood! On Tuesday afternoon, Sophie's daycare called to let us know that she had a fever. We picked her up a little early and we could tell she didn't feel well. Her fever lasted until Thursday! I stayed home with her Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! She had a little rash that the phone nurse said was chicken pox, so for about a half of Wednesday, we thought she had chicken pox. That night we went to the doctor because her fever still hadn't gone down and he verified that it wasn't chicken pox; it turns out to be just some viral thing connected to her cold. So, Sophie just returned to daycare today, and I think she was ready for it!

Here are some more pictures from her trip to California. I'll try to post the few pics we have from Buffalo tomorrow.

Grandma and Grandpa Fine and Uncle Matthew took Sophie to the Big Bear Zoo, which is a pretty small zoo in the mountains near their house. She seemed to enjoy her time there and learned to howl like a wolf:



Sophie's Great Grandma Linda and Great-Great Grandma "Grams" visited on our last day there. Sophie enjoyed giving and they enjoyed getting kisses! Sophie kept trying to push Grams' wheelchair around for her!

A Long Week

We're sorry it's been a while since we posted. We have lots of pictures still from our trip to California and to Buffalo, but I'm sure you all will understand when you hear about the last 7 days!

I'm still really busy, so I've pasted here what I wrote to Sophie's Grandma Schmidt yesterday:

It's been crazy around here. Last week Sophie got bit by a mosquito right on the bridge of the nose, and since she's mildly allergic to mosquitoes, her whole eye area swelled up. We took her to the doctor and they just said to keep giving her benadryl.

Then on Thursday night we had a big storm come through, and lightning hit a tree and/or some power lines in our back yard and started a fire at 2am! Because it was electrical, it kept burning and ended up blowing the transformer. Really scary...we had to evacuate the house and call 911! The fire department came and watched the fire, but since it was electrical, they couldn't do anything until the electric company turned the electricity off. It took them over an hour to do that...I think we finally crawled back into bed at 4:30, but then the electric company showed up at 5am to fixed the transformer and lines. All is well and the house is safe, but we weren't sure that the house wouldn't catch on fire for a little while there.

So this weekend was nice, but Sophie's had a little cold. She woke up this morning (Monday) with her eye glued shut by gunk, so I assumed she had pink eye. When we got to the doctor's, they said she has a double ear infection that caused an eye infection as well! Whew! So now she's on antibiotics and should be fine in a few days, but I'm looking forward to a very uneventful week!"

When It Rains, It Pours

Sophie's eyes are doing much better today...a little puffy and red, but on the mend. Her cold has taken a little turn for the worse, but it's still just congestion and a cough--treatable by over-the-counter cold medicine (which must now be bought with proof of ID at the pharmacy counter just in case we are really covering for a meth lab that uses tiny drops of infant medicine!). But...yesterday Sophie took a little bit of a tumble while at the playground, and although it's rather superficial, she looks like she was in a bar fight or a car accident! This poor little girl needs the weekend to come more than her mommy and daddy do!

On a funnier note, last weekend it was cool enough one day to wear long-sleeved shirts, so I put her in her new shirt that Grandma Ethel bought her on their last visit. I had to run to the bank, only 5 minutes away, so I packed Sophie up in her carseat, and by the time we returned she had done this (and I'm still not sure how, considering she was strapped in at the time!):

Home Sick Today

Sophie came home from daycare yesterday with pink eye! Luckily, we still have some medicine leftover from her last bout with it, so we started it on her last night. She still had to stay home "sick" today, though, because she's contagious for 24 hours after starting her medicine. She has a little bit of a cold, so the rest will do her good.

Here's a family picture we took yesterday morning (to be included in the church directory):

15-Month Doctor Appointment

Yesterday was Sophie's 15-month appointment. We thought she'd be getting shots, but they didn't want to give them to her yet because she's had hives for the past 5 days--no other symptoms, just hives. They're reluctant to rule it as a food allergy and think it might just be viral. If it is viral, it should pass in a couple of weeks. We have another appointment next week to either get her shots or discuss her hives in more detail. We'll see.

We have new measurements:

Weight: 24 lb. 2 oz.
Height: 30.75 inches (Although this may be wrong since they measured her at 32 inches at her 12-month appointment...she definitely hasn't shrunk since then!)
Head Circumference: 47 cm

It seems as if she's slowed down a little in her growth (thank goodness!). Her weight and height put her in the 50th-75th percentile and her head puts her in the 75th-90th percentile.

A Few More Pictures

So we made it to the end of the week--phew. Sophie's been having a great time in general, though she's had a mightily nasty diaper rash for a few days and then some hives today. Grandma Fine expects Sophie may be looking at a lifelong battle with allergies, something she comes by naturally from both sides of her family.

She really enjoys her daycare now, and we've noticed lots of little things she can do that she must have learned there. It began, of course, with walking better, which we think must have been helped by seeing all of the other kids in her room walking around. But she also colors well, which means she has some pretty good motor skills, she sings a little, and she dances, too. So we're pretty pleased with the learning side of the place, and Sophie likes it, too.

Last weekend Sophie's grandpa and grandma Wilson came to visit. Sophie got some new clothes, including a new winter hat. She insisted on wearing it around for about 15 minutes that evening. This morning, she brought her black hightop Chuck Taylors to us so she could wear them around with her pajamas. It was pretty funny.

The second picture shows her doing one of her favorite things: looking through her transparent plates after (well, usually after) she's eaten all the food on them.




I thought of a few more words she's been saying lately: "basketball," "Eidechse" ("lizard," one of her favorite animals, in German), and "Auto" (German for "car").

Pre-Christmas Pictures

I finally downloaded our Christmas pictures, but when I did, I realized that we had a lot of pictures from before Christmas, so for the sake of organization, I'm going to post some of the pre-Christmas pictures first.

Also, Sophie officially has her first ear infection! And it's a double-whammy...she has an infection in each ear! We started antibiotics last night, and she seemed much better even this morning, both in temperment and physically.

Here's a picture of Sophie ready to watch a Carolina game!


Santa came early to our house (sometime in November!) and left Sophie this present. He thought she was ready for an exersaucer and that mom and dad would benefit from it as well! She seems to have lots of fun in it and like it (as do mom and dad!).

RSV Update

Well, Sophie is doing really well. She returned to daycare on Monday and is back to her old self. She's still waking up at night coughing, but that's the worst of it.

As for Ian and I, we caught it too and are having a harder time shaking it. I ended up with bronchitis. Hopefully, I'll be able to post some new pictures before Christmas, but we may have to wait until New Year's since we're leaving for California on Sunday.

Sophie's First Serious Illness

Sophie was just diagnosed with RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) last night. Almost all kids get it at some point, but it can lead to more serious illnesses such as pneumonia if we're not careful. There's a very simple and informative article here. Right now she has bronchiolitis, one of the illnesses that stem from RSV. This basically means that she has a bad cold. There aren't any medications they can give for RSV, but the doctor did give her a prescription for an inhaler to help open up her passageways. He also said that she has a pretty mild case compared to most of the kids who have it right now.

So, I'm at home with her today and tomorrow. Hopefully she'll be well enough to go back to daycare next week. When she's a little better we'll post some more pictures.

A Long Week

We haven't posted any pictures recently because we've been dealing with Sophie having the flu. Luckily, I think she finally has it just about beat, but she was sick for about a week with vomiting and diarrhea. On Saturday she was a little dehydrated, so we had to break out the pedialyte for the first time ever. It was a long, messy time. She finally ate a normal amount of food yesterday, so I'm hoping that she'll be all well to travel to Wisconsin to visit her grandparents for Thanksgiving! I'll try to post some pictures later this week when I get a chance.

The Weight on My Shoulders

Mindy's in Chicago this week for a conference, so I've got Sophie on my own. She's so incredibly easy to deal with that it's been simple to some extent, but managing to take care of her with only one set of hands, even only in the morning and evening, has been a little tricky and pretty exhausting. I really don't know how single parents manage. We're definitely looking forward to Mindy coming home! Still, we're having a good time (though Sophie's got a bit of a cold again, it seems). Here's a picture of my little "burden" sitting on my shoulders for the very first time.