Author: Andi

The last few days, Maddie has had a little cold. We had Christmas with my dad and step-mom yesterday and Maddie was happy and having a grand ole time. I put her down for her afternoon nap. When she woke up, (actually, she just kept sleeping so I woke her up at 5:15…later than she normally sleeps) she had a “barky” cough, but she seemed pretty happy. After I took her downstairs to play, I could hear her little voice sounded funny. She really needed to cough, but didn’t know how.

So I ended up calling the nurse line to see what they said. They told me to give her some nasal spray and run the shower (for the steam) for a while to try to loosen things up and help her breathe. And if she coughed all night long or her breathing got fast to call back. We did those things and by about 6:30, her breathing was a little fast. We called back and the nurse could hear Maddie on the phone and told us to take her to urgent care.

So we left for urgent care and Maddie had a 101 temp by the time we saw the nurse. They did a strep test (which was negative) and checked her ears (which they cleaned out a bit). Maddie then fell asleep in my arms in just her diaper. When the doc came back, he said she had croup. He prescribed some medicine for her and we took her home. Now we just have to watch her breathing and make sure she isn’t struggling to breathe.

We put a humidifier in her room and she slept all night and until about 8:30 in the morning. Apparently, the meds can make her hyper, but I haven’t noticed that yet. She just played this morning and wanted to snuggle. But she has been in good spirits. She gets the most upset when I wipe her nose!

Overall, croup isn’t too bad. It could have ben a much worse diagnosis. But this was the first time we had to bring her in to the doctor. Now she is napping and we will see how she is the rest of the day. I plan to give her lots of snuggles (when she wants them) and have a low-key day!

Maddie learned a new skill last week. She learned how to drink out of a straw. It is so nice! Maddie never liked the bottle after I stopped nursing, so she has been drinking out of a cup that we have had to hold for her. Last week we tried giving her a cup with a straw and she figured it out right away! Now I can just give her the cup and she walks around with it and drinks what she wants. I think we are all happy about it!

And along with drinking from a straw, she also likes to eat them! Veggie straws, that is. She loves them. She wants to eat a handfuls of them. She just can’t put enough of them in her hand at once. And now that she has teeth on the top and bottom, she bites them. It’s really cute. Here she is with her hands full of them!

Last weekend we let Maddie go nuts with the ads from the newspaper. She had so much fun tearing them apart. It was a great trial run for opening presents! (I’ll write lots more about that soon!)

A couple weeks ago, Maddie and I went to our friends’ house to hang out. Our daughters are just a couple weeks apart. And now that they are both walking, we thought it would be fun to watch them waddle around together. My friend, Trisha, already wrote about our play date. But I thought I would steal her pictures (since I didn’t take any) and post them over here. Thanks for the pictures, Trisha!

The girls played so well together. Until Chelsea started “bulldozing” Maddie. Maddie didn’t seem to care, but it was hilarious to watch!

The girls walking around!

Maddie loves shoes!

Thanks for having us over, Trisha. Can’t wait to do it again soon!

I got summoned for jury duty for two weeks starting December 12th. Microsoft has a back up daycare service we were able to utilize. So I took Maddy to daycare last week Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. She had a great time! She didn’t really nap, but the teachers said she was so good and played the whole day. Even though I didn’t have to go in for jury duty until Wednesday, we thought it would be good for her to be with some other kids and play.

So I had to go in on Wednesday for jury duty. I was one of 18 jurors for a case, but they only questioned 15 of us (not including me) and ended up selecting the jurors they needed from the 15. So I didn’t have to be questioned and was released. The bummer to not getting on a case is that I am now on call next week. It was a really interesting experience to see how the process works even if I don’t end up on a case.

So Maddie might go to daycare again next week. Even if I don’t have to go in, I might send her to play and I’ll get some things done around the house. It’s a win-win!

I have a number of videos I have taken of Maddy, but I haven’t posted them yet. So here we go!

Maddie shakes her head “no” all the time. This is a short video of her doing it. It looks so funny when she does it because her eyes don’t move at the same time. And she puts her head down. It’s just so funny.

Here she is walking around. This was a couple weeks ago, but she wouldn’t let go of Chuck’s shirt.

Walking and talking.

Walking and dancing.

And here she is walking around with my wallet.

We took Maddy in the snow for the first time. To say the least….she hated it. We of course got the tears on camera. We will try snow again when she is a little older.

And here she is being silly. Which really happens all the time. She is a silly little girl!