Wow. The holidays are always so crazy. I can hardly believe that Christmas is over, the New Year has begun, and Joel’s back at work. Alexis misses having her daddy at home. She cried the first morning he went back. It was really quite sweet. Now we’re counting the days till Saturday. 🙂
Branwen had her 4 month appointment today. (She’s not quite 4 months, but she’s close… another 10 days and we’ll be there.) I was able to proudly announce to the doctor that she had rolled over from her front to her back, and she was almost able to make it the other way. She gets onto her side from her back but doesn’t quite go all the way to her tummy yet. 🙂 Other than that, she’s on track for all the normal stuff… reaching out and grabbing things, putting anything and everything into her mouth, etc. She weighs 14 lb. 11 oz. and is 26 1/8 in. long. She’s tall for her age, just like her sister always was. They’ll probably have similar builds.
The other day, I had a silly mother experience. Alexis likes to write on a little pad of paper with a pen, so I let her have one while I played on the floor with Branwen. Eventually, Alexis came over with her paper and pen and sat down with us, alternately asking me to write things on the paper for her and “writing” them for herself. After a while, I wanted to take care of some email I had been meaning to get out, so I figured I could just glance over now and then to make sure everything was ok. That was working great, until I realized that the pictures I had promised to send someone were absolutely huge and I had to change their sizes. It took me a few minutes to figure out what I was doing since I haven’t worked with picture editing very often, and I was completely distracted. Just the right formula for Alexis to go to work…
When I had finished sending the pictures, I looked over and saw that Alexis had abandoned her post next to the baby and the pen was tucked under a sleeping Branwen’s arm. I thought, “Thank heavens the cap is on!” Then I went over to pick it up and noticed the pen mark across her cheek. I said, “Alexis, did you write on your sister?” She said, “Mm-hmm.” So we had a chat about not writing on anything but the paper (which she had heard before), and more specifically, not writing on Branwen. I thought we were all set, but then I picked the baby up to nurse her and found another pen mark on her ear. Hmm. So I called Alexis over and we had another nice chat about not sticking things in ears, be they your own ears or anyone else’s. 😛 Lunch and nap time weren’t long after that, so Alexis was bundled off to bed, then woken up a couple hours later to go meet Daddy at the chiropractor’s. While we were there, Joel (who had heard the tale of the marked baby) said, “So, I found some more writing.” I asked him where, and he said to look down. I had been bouncing Branwen on my knee, and when I looked down I noticed that showing through her downy hair on top of her little head were several pen lines looking somewhat like a failed attempt to make a star. *sigh* Well, I’ve learned my lesson. No more art implements without direct adult supervision. 😛
Joel got the flu over Christmas, and the rest of us had what seemed like milder versions (head colds with slight fevers). Joel’s still getting rid of the cough. It’s not as bad as it was, so we’re just waiting for it to go away completely. Now Alexis has a low-grade fever and I can’t figure out what’s wrong. I’m hoping she’s just getting her 2nd year molars in, but that remains to be seen. In the meantime, I’ll just keep an eye on her and see if she shows any other kinds of symptoms. Thankfully, Branwen doesn’t seem to have a fever… at least for now.
Well, off to make some phone calls. Life keeps going no matter how often we plead for a few minutes of peace and quiet. 😉