Where did her 3rd month go?

Like I said before, Julia's well into her fourth month already. I don't know where month three actually went, but I have photographic evidence that it did happen, so let's take a look at Julia's 3rd month with us. This is the month where she really started to respond to people, smile and laugh, and though she can't sit up yet on her own, she's not quite the bobblehead that she used to be.

Hi everyone! What's happenin'?

With her favorite reindeer doll.

 

More Sister Love

Wild hair woman after a bath

A Review of Month 2

Since Julia is steamrolling her way through her 4th month already, let me quickly catch you up on a few photos from month 2....

Dr. Ernie with Julia at her monthly checkup

Snuggling in Daddy's neck

Rocker Chick

Sister Love

Sleepyhead

FIghting Swine Flu Like a Little Champ

Haven't been able to get on the blog lately, so I have to catch you up on some happenings... Just before Thanksgiving, little Julia (who was only 9 weeks old at the time) started running a fever. At this age, I know that any fever is serious, so as soon as it started climbing I just immediately took her to Miami Children's Hospital (how glad am I that I live like 2 miles away from it?) We arrived at the Emergency Room shortly after midnight. Unfortunately, because they had to rule out bacterial things like Menengitis, they had to perform a mini spinal tap on her to retract some fluid from her spine. She had to stay in the hospital for a couple nights until all the tests came back. Everything came back negative except for Influenza A, which is basically Swine Flu. At least, it is treated the same way. They were trying to keep us in the hospital one more night but our fantastic pediatrician Dr. Ernie came to the rescue and sent us home just in time for Thanksgiving. My little angel battled it like a champ, and was none worse for the wear a couple days later. Talk about scary though!!

Julia in the smallest hospital gown ever

Getting her spinal tap OUCH!!

We couldn't get a room until about 5:30 in the morning

In the hospital crib

Daddy comes to visit

Well, if there was anything good to this story, it is this: the hospital staff at Miami Children's Hospital was amazing, and I have a new appreciation for what families go through when their children have to be in the hospital, especially during a holiday. The in-house radio station, Radio Lollipop, was great entertainment and they come around to each and every room at least once during a patient's stay. Lamar and I decorated a paper snowman the radio station staff gave us for a contest. We called him called "Frost-a-fari" and he had dreads and a tie-die T-shirt. Julia won a prize for her parents originality (a Carter's sleeper outfit!) Another good thing was that because I was breastfeeding the baby, all my food was free. Granted, hospital food is nothing to call Zagat's for, but still, when you have children, it is such a great luxury to have someone else make your meals for you. I took great advantage of this and loaded up every meal by checking off most everything on the menus. (Yes, I'll have more Jell-O and chocolate cake! And more bacon!!) A local Miami radio station, Power 96, has an annual drive to support Radio Lollipop. I'll be sure to support that mission as I now understand how something that lifts the kids spirits, even if just for a moment, is so important and critical to maintain.

We're back! We're back!

Ok, after several rounds with the computer (one night I literally ended up on the floor wrestling it, I kid you not) I was able to get back into the internet sites it kept kicking me out of, including this bloggging site. So there!! I am excited to tell you about some new features that will be showing up on this blog, in an effort to give you endless hours of useless entertainment. One of the new features will be a regular blog entry called "Urban Observations," and given my urban planning and historic preservation background, this should be so enlightening. Of course, you must remember I am still a County employee, so I can't go on the rampage, but it will be fun nevertheless. Another feature will be Giveaway Fridays. I'm not sure what I'm giving away yet, but that sounds fun too, doesn't it?? I'm also thinking of doing a regular feature called "My Miami" where I showcase some of my favorite local haunts. Although I should really come up with something more creative than "My Miami," don't you think? Got any suggestions? Stay tuned...

Olivia's First Imaginary Friend

Recently we noticed Olivia was doing a lot more role playing on her own, and seemed to really be talking to somebody. We started paying more attention and noticed that she was talking to someone named Regella. Sort of a creepy, evil name to begin with, if you ask me... "Olivia, is Regella your friend?" "Yes, Mommy. She's silly." Awww, how cute. Her first imaginary friend. Well, it was cute until "Regella" was the one who mysteriously started to color in the tile grout with crayons, draw in marker on the playroom furniture and other assorted fun things that Olivia didn't want to get in trouble for. One day I pressed Olivia to tell me more about "Regella." "She's a monster, Mommy, and sometimes she wants to eat me." Oh really? That was that. Regella was ceremoniously kicked out of the house and was told not to return ever again (Olivia was concerned that we actually "kicked" her.) Who you gonna blame the wall drawings on now, Olivia??

Back to the Grindstone...

I've been back at work for two weeks now. Although of course I hate leaving the baby, at least she doesn't really mind being "left" because she's still too young to really know that she's being left. At least I tell myself that so I don't have a breakdown. Julia is still getting up in the middle of the night to eat, usually around 1 am and then 4:30 am.... so there's been a couple of times I've been at work and I wonder, "is that little puddle of water on my desk from me falling asleep and drooling???"

Fear Not, The Blog Shall Return!!

We've been having some technical issues with our home PC..... (it's why I love my Mac,  because I never have these issues with my Mac!) My tech-genius brother got no less than 37 viruses off of our PC last week... but for some reason it still won't connect to Blogger, thus I am unable to update the blog from my PC, which is where I store all of our digital photos. But I am diligently working on it so that you, the faithful reader (are there really any of you out there??) can once again be entertained by our daily antics. I've got some new features that I'm going to try out on the blog, so be sure to stay tuned.