Stats of my cold

Symptoms: Persistent dry cough, runny nose, sneezing, sinus headache

Movies watched since Friday: Emma, The Goonies, Footloose, Overboard, Pride & Prejudice (1.5 hours of the BBC version), and Caddyshack.

Workouts since Friday: 0

Diet: steady stream of hot tea, cough drops, and crackers

This sounds like the couch potato's dream, but it ain't all it's cracked up to be. YUCK! Claire has taken up the amusing habit of blowing her nose on tissues and throwing them in the "tash." See what she's been seeing mommy doing the past few days?

First-Time Mom Syndrome

Today when I took Claire to the doctor, she was diagnosed with a little cold, I diagnosed myself with First-Time Mom Syndrome.

I didn't think I was going to be one of those moms who rushed her daughter to the doctor for the smallest sniffle, but it appears I am. I would read some letter to an advice columnist in a Parenting magazine like this: "I've taken my daughter to the doctor twice, only to find out she's just teething. How do I tell the difference between regular teething pains and a legitimate sickness?" and scoff secretly at those moms. How silly! Do these moms have nothing better to do? Then I see what it feels like to have a suffering child who can't tell you what hurts or how bad it hurts or why she's waking up three or four times in the night. I stayed home from work today, scheduled Claire a doctor's appointment, only to find out this afternoon that she has a little cold. I've become one of those moms!

Yesterday evening, she became very congested, and when I used the aspirator bulb, I got lots of thick, yellowish-green snot. Then her eyes started running. Baby book says that's a reason to go the doctor. Turns out she's going to be fine, no prescription drugs needed! We're very thankful it's not an infection or the flu, but a tiny part of me wishes my worries had been justified: I guess I wanted to hear that it was good I brought her in, diagnosing it early will make for an easy treatment to stave off the illness. Instead, I feel like a worrywart and a hookey-player, and Claire is still stuffy and fussy. Oh well, six and a half months with no sickness is a pretty good record! Thank you, Lord!

Mommy and Daddy's Quality Time

Here are a couple pics of how Mommy and Daddy spend our quality time with Claire: Jay is doing her exercises with her, and I'm reading a book to her.

She is getting really good at holding her head up and kicking her legs. Sometimes it really does seem like she's supporting herself for a second or two, and we're just helping her balance.

Her new favorite thing to do is to lay on an activity mat. Paula at my work brought one her grandsons used to use for Claire to lay on in my office, and she was so enthralled with it that I remembered I had one of those at home, too! We set it up last night, and she gazes up and kicks her legs and coos away at the little toys hanging down. I've got a great video of this, but Google is not wanting to accept it!!