Feeling ditchy

I'm watching Iowa's latest snowstorm from our truck in a ditch. The unexpected free time gives me an opportunity to write about Slane's latest exploits.

Rotavirus: it's a terrible bug and really affected Slane for over a week. Our happy child had suddenly become sleepy and lethargic, wailing from the pain and needing to be held all the time. Sunday she reverted to her happy, healthy self.

Happy and healthy now includes lots of crawling, standing, and exploration. The stairs are a magnet and she has a proud but devious smile each time we pull her off the stairs. She can stand and sit with ease, though she still needs something (wall, chair, leg, etc.) to steady her.

Happy and healthy also means thinking defying sleep. We've had to be firm with a bedtime routine (bottle, book, rocking). To this routine she adds crying, whimpers, and quiet sleep. We caved to her Monday but outlasted her protests the rest of the week. Tuesday they lasted what felt like an hour, other days they lasted no more than 10 minutes.

Here's my translation of her cries from the crib: "This is an injustice! Why are you leaving me! I won't stand for this! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? ... I am still upset! I am going to continue to protest these unjust conditions by laying down and closing my eyes while still crying. Just wait until you come back, you'll be zzzzzzzzzzzz"

Minnesota: The people of the State of hockey (Minnesota) welcomed us this weekend. We visited with friends from college (N. and family and M.) and Grinnell (S., V., and C. and K.). A generous friend (K.) gave us tickets to the Wild-Blue Jackets game at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. It was a good time, except for the part where the Wild won. Slane wore her homemade Jackets sweater which got compliments from fans of both teams. We also made a trek to the blue and gold temple that is Ikea. We made our offering and left with some items for Slane (toy bins, a lamp, and other baby-friendly items).

More pictures and stories soon.

Sick

Slane is finally on the backside of Rotavirus. She started with diarhea last Friday and was screaming on and off, but we thought it was teeth. On Sunday, Slane and I were taking a nap, and when we woke up I heard the diaper before I realized that it had exploded all over the sheets on the bed. Then on Monday, Miss Denise called and she had a fever. Q was on a business trip from Saturday to Wednesday, so I tried to leave school early so I could take her to the doctor (nobody would cover my last class for me though), and finally got her there a little before closing. He said she had this virus, and she would be a sick for a couple more days and wasn't good to go to daycare. It was a rough few days for me. My mom watched her Tuesday, I took Wednesday, and Q took Thursday. Tuesday night we were up at 2am and she threw up on the clean sheets I had just put on. She is back at daycare today (no fever for 24 hours, and no diarhea). I guess the biggest fear with rotavirus is dehydration, but she kept taking bottles (not as much as usual, though) and was drinking from her sippy cup. It turns out she does NOT like Pedialyte. She would push it away every time I offered it to her. The worst was when it hurt her little intestines so much that she would just scream. She was so cuddly, but everyone could tell she just wasn't feeling like herself.

I was extremely happy to see Q pull up on Wednesday. And, one of my students stopped me in the hall today to ask how Slane was doing. I said she was feeling better, and the student said, "good, then you won't be so crabby the next time I have music."

So, needless to say, we are way behind on blogging and life and projects. We will post Christmas when we finally take Christmas down from our house.

Oh, one more thing... a big welcome to baby Einar, who was born on the 5th. I'm glad we didn't come to visit on Sunday, but we will come meet him soon!