Happy 49 Week Birthday, Mika!

Daddy told me this morning that you actually didn't mind being dropped off at daycare. As long as they bribe you with raisins, it's all good.

Both Daddy and I are looking forward to spending some time with our wee nugget of love this weekend..even though we'll probably be spending Saturday in my office working. At least there are long, long hallways in which Mika can run and run and run with her little push cart.

Joy

So it's looks as though what happened was that Mika contracted RSV at daycare which led to the pneumonia and croup. She got the go-ahead to return to daycare and was fine there yesterday. I received a call from the daycare late this morning informing me that Mika had broken out in a dark red rash on her body and that it was quickly spreading to her limbs. Daddy rushed to pick her up and take her to see her proper GP instead of a medicentre. Luckily, the Dr. had one opening that was appx. 2 hours from the time that I called. Turns out that Mika is allergic to penicillin. She's on a different antibiotic now, so her recovery will be delayed by a couple of days as the new medication kicks in. Mika's ecxema has worsened lately too, so she's been prescribed a cortisone cream for that. On a positive note, the kid is starting to not mind being dropped off at the centre in the mornings.

Tagged? gah!

Tagged by Kris

Four jobs you have had in your life:

1. Mama
2. It Admin
3. Technology Administration Specialist
4. Print Shop Billing Clerk

Four movies you would watch over and over again:

1. Harold and Maude
2. Bloodsucking Freaks
3. The Sound of Music
4. Sid and Nancy

Four places you have lived:

1. Northwest Edmonton
2. West Central Edmonton
3. West Edmonton
4. Downtown (in Edmonton)

Four T.V. shows you love to watch:

1. Jeopardy!
2. The Simpsons
3. Family Guy
4. Moccasin Flats

Four places you have been on vacation:

1. L.A./Santa Monica/San Diego/etc., CA
2. Drumheller, AB
3. Clinton, BC
4. Calgary, AB

Four web-sites I visit daily:

1. gmail
2. flickr
3. google news
4. scads of blogs

Four of my favorite foods:

1. coffee
2. meat on a stick (no goat, lamb, or wild game please)
3. yogurt
4. mama pork

Four places I'd rather be right now:

1. in a house rather than a condo
2. ireland
3. on a mountain
4. ontario

Four bloggers I am tagging:

1. Lucas yeah right...!
2. Kerry
3. Woody
4. Lynanne

Sick Girl

Mika started getting a bit of a cold on Thursday. She was more or less OK until last night when the croup cough kicked in. By this morning, she was having trouble breathing and we had to run her over to Emergency. Five hours later and we're home with a diagnosis of mild pneumonia. Mika was too sick and tired to even loudly protest the contraption she was in for the chest xrays. It was called the Pigg-O-Matic, I kid you not. Basically a table with a wee bicycle seat mounted within a hole in the middle. You sit the kid down on it, legs dangling through, and they close a clear plastic cylinder with a face hole around to hold her in place. Her arms had to be pinned straight up in the air. My poor little girl. She's back on antibiotics for a week, but was given the OK to go back to daycare. We'll see how she is in the morning. Daddy is not well either, so the two of them may take a sick day tomorrow. It amazes me how quickly her sickness progressed. I hope it recedes just as quickly. Mika weighs a mere 8.325 Kg or about 18 and a half pounds for you old folks and americans.

Happy Belated 48 Week Birthday, Mika!

Mika's Friday at daycare was her best day last week. Yay! She's slowly getting used to the new routine. I still cringe a little bit when I see her after work because she has crusades on her face and mismatched clothes, but I guess it means that she is eating and that the teachers are changing her clothes when she gets wet or dirty. We all just collapsed after getting home yesterday..First week back to work was exhausting.
Mika had us up at 6 this morning. No rest for the wicked. Not much that can be done about the early rising as we need to keep her on schedule for the weekdays. It worked out well though because Grandma and Grandpa Ted go for breakfast every Saturday at 8:, so we actually were able to go out and meet them this morning. It used to be that Mika wouldn't get up until after 8:. She had a big breakfast before we left and grazed off mine and Grandma's plates at smith's too. It's nice to see Mika having a big appetite. She's supposed to be napping now, but we can hear her babbling away upstairs. Daddy and I want to nap too. Those 4 cups of coffee have us too wired to go back to sleep, even though our bodies are too tired to do much of anything right now.
Once Mika has napped and had lunch, we're off to visit G!

Happy 11 Month Birthday, Mika!

Wish we were home together celebrating.

gah...

we survived my first day back. working is for chumps, man. my job is great and i work with wonderful people and all, but still. Bleh. Mika was very upset when I picked her up from daycare yesterday. She took one look at me and melted down. Screaming, crying, freaking. Daddy showed up about 3 minutes after I did and she had smiles aplenty for him...just beamed. Daddy said that Mika cried again this morning when he dropped her off. Poor nugget.
She was exhausted last night and asleep shortly after 6PM. She woke up twice before I went to bed just after 11PM. She was up twice in the wee hours too. This morning at 4:30AM, she didn't want to go back to sleep. A new thing in our house. When Mika wakes in the night or early morning, she always goes back to sleep easily. Finally, she fell back to sleep just before 5. I had a heckuva time getting my sorry self out of bed this morning. I opened Mika's blinds and clicked on her star lights, but she didn't stir. Usually she would have snapped awake at the sound of the blinds opening. I picked her up and she just flopped back onto my shoulder asleep. I took her into bed with me as that usually wakes her pretty quickly too, but no. She grabbed my pillow and within seconds was sound asleep cuddling it. What could I do? I napped with her until Daddy was out of the shower and back in the room reminding me that they had to leave in 10 mins. I somehow managed to get Mika up and dressed and fed and into her Daddy's arms only 5 mins late. Daddy's workday ends before mine does this month, so from now until February he will be picking up Mika from daycare and the two of them will come and get me from work. Kinda nice to get rides home during what is usually the coldest month. Off to call the daycare and see how Mika is getting on today.

Happy 47 Week Birthday, Mika!

It's our last day at home together. I am far too sad about this. I feel like I am making a bigger deal out of this than I should be. Anyway, Mika seems to be over her flu. She hasn't pooped in a day or so and now that has me concerned. Then again, Mika has gone a couple of days without pooping before and she doesn't seem distressed about it today. I'm off to shower while she naps and then its back to hardcore playtime. Maybe a stroll too.

Feeling a bit better

Mika finally seems to be a bit better today. We decided to keep her home from daycare until Monday anyway. I didn't want to miss any time at all with my little nugget before going back to work next week.
Mika had a mild interest in stairs until her Daddy showed her how to climb them. Now she's stair-obsessed. She also never used to point at things. A week or so ago, I noticed Daddy walking around with her pointing things out. Since then, Mika points at everything. Everything. Sometimes she even uses both hands to point at things in opposite directions. Mika also seems to have Daddy's knack for belching. The noises that wee little girl can make would astound you. She'll make Aunties Amber and Tamara proud. And horrify her Grandmother, I'm sure. Then again, I think Uncle Lucas and I sufficiently broke Grandma's sanity about 15 years ago, so maybe a belching baby won't phase her. Have I ever mentioned that I have an uber-kewl Mom? I do. While other Mom's I knew were considering whether or not they should get a computer, my Mom was swapping out SCSI drives on her old Mac. She owns a hardcover edition of the Fountainhead. She loves cats and the Beatles, which you would guess instantly if you were ever in her home. She supports alternative lifestyles...in animals, anyway. Hence our long-gone male cat named Princess and my Mom's not-so-long gone black fluffy female named Peter. (She will kill me for writing that.) I've never known my Mom to go out and buy a cat...they always just find her and move in. She can shop like you wouldn't believe, too. She wears the same Ferragamo sandals as Lois Hole used to. I blame my shoe mania on her entirely. AND...she got my brother and I the kewlest clocks for xmas...they tell the time in binary. How many other boomer Mom's out there were getting their kids binary clocks, I ask ya?

bleh

Mika has been sick since Friday evening. We think its a stomach flu that she probably picked up from daycare this week. And so it starts. Poor thing has barely consumed anything and seems to hate every flavour of pedialyte. Mika won't be going in to daycare tomorrow...she's having her first sick day. If her fever is still high, I'll be taking her to a doctor.

Happy 46 Week Birthday, Mika!

Another early morning jaunt to daycare for Mika and Daddy. She cried when he left her this morning. Mika was mad at me again when I first got there to pick her up this afternoon. She got over it quickly though. Poor thing is just exhausted when we get home. She has a bit of playtime, supper, some more playtime, bath, and she's fast asleep by 6PM. Lately she's been needing a middle of the night change and bottle too. She prefers to sleep until 7:30-8AM and hasn't quite adjusted to being up by 6-6:15. I'm so with her on the sleeping until 7:30-8AM thing - I haven't adjusted to being up at 6AM either and need to collapse in a heap on the couch now.

Better Days

Yay! Mika fared very well at daycare today. She didn't cry when Daddy dropped her off. Mika did have a couple of minor fits after Daddy was gone, but she was also happily playing and eating and napping and such. The other kids seem to take to her quite well. I've seen her playing with a few different kids. Mika was asleep when I went in to pick her up, so I just hung around and waited for her to wake. I thought she was going to see me upon awakening and beam with delight, but I got the cold shoulder for the first 5 mins...then Mika was showering me with kisses, so it was all good.
We had a date after daycare!! Kristeen, Diamond, and Saoirse met us at the mall for coffee! The kids got along well as usual..sitting there in Starbucks like a couple of teenagers. It was a much-needed visit - something positive and fun in the middle of our first trial week of daycare. We're looking forward to having kewl neighbors soon.
Tomorrow Mika goes back to daycare again. I'm thinking about picking her up about an hour later than I did today, but we'll see. I'm finally going to get my hair cut tomorrow. I haven't had so much as a trim since prior to Mika's birth. Auntie Amber took pity on my tresses and is sending me to see Des at EC! I'll be all fancy and crap.

Day to Daze

Ugh. Mika and I were at the centre by 7AM this morning. It wasn't too bad. Mika more or less clung to me the whole time. She played and interacted only when I was near. She could totally sense that something was up. I tried to make it all good, but she was on to me. I left when she fell asleep around 10:30. I felt awful about it. Seeing as she usually wakes up happy to see anyone willing to rescue her from the crib, I thought it better than having her watch me leave. Not to mention that I just couldn't handle having to actually leave her while she screamed for me. Then I was lost. Lost. Wandering aimlessly not knowing what to do with myself. I called up Daddy and got some much needed reassurance that this was all good. For about 5 hours, I wandered around within a close distance of the daycare guilt shopping and stuff. I went back and peeked in during that time. Mika was happily eating in a high chair and didn't see me. I drank coffee and read papers at a fast food joint across the street and looked at the building. There's nowhere to get a decent cup of coffee within reasonable walking distance. I spent way too much time in a kids consignment store. It was all surreal and strange. The daycare folks reported that she did OK. She had fits and freak outs, but also spent time clapping, giggling, babbling at people, and generally trucking around. Not bad for a first day. I went back at around 4:30 and we waited around until 5 or so for Daddy. Mika was not all that happy to see me. See wasn't happy to see Daddy either when he showed up. In fact, she was downright vexed with us. She wanted me to hold her and everything and eventually smiled and was OK. At first all I could hear were echoes of Stewie Griffin or something. Daddy is dropping her off at 7AM again tomorrow. I'll pick her up at around 1 or so, assuming all goes well and I don't need to scoot over any earlier from my own separation anxiety. That is if Mika even agrees to see me by that time.
We tried to visit G after supper, but Mika fell fast asleep just before we got there. Not wanting to wake her after the long day, I just ran up and dropped off yet another box of chocolates for G from my Dad and Barb (one more left!), explained the day as fast as I could, checked for laundry, filled G's sweater sleeves with mints, and ran out again. We'll see if Mika's up for a visit tomorrow.

The Update

Today was supposed to be Mika's first day of daycare, but I chickened out. I had to have at least one more day at home with her. I wanted to try and get her used to the routine a couple of weeks prior to my return to work, but we'll be taking it as we need to. I'm going to spend the day with Mika at daycare tomorrow. I can't figure out if that is a good thing or not. On one hand, I want her to feel safe in the new environment. On the other, I want her to know daycare as a parent-free place. If all goes really well tomorrow morning, I may sneak out during naptime and pick her up later in the afternoon. I doubt it though.
Mika had a wonderful New Year's Eve over at her Nana's place. There was a small family gathering and potluck supper. I thought Mika would have a total meltdown about half an hour into it, but she didn't! Miss Social Butterfly carried on very well, considering she refused her PM nap. She wowed the crowd with her mad skillz and even learned Oma's name, which delighted Oma to no end. Mika waved hello and goodbye, clapped, sang, danced, ran, climbed, and basically went through everything she knew to say and do and then some. She was at home, in bed, passed out cold by 9PM. We removed all traces of holiday madness on new years day. We had to get a system out from underneath the stairs. I figured since all the xmas decoration boxes had to be pulled out first anyway, I may as well fill them and be done with it.
Daddy taught Mika to climb up the stairs this weekend. She's been wanting to make the ascent for a few weeks now and I keep distracting her with other things. While I was showering, she convinced Daddy that stair climbing was the thing to do. She made it up all by herself with no help from Daddy. Getting down is another story.

Mika's Current Fave Activities (in no particular order):

Clapping
Singing
Dancing
Waving
Climbing
Crawling
Walking (with help)
Eating
Reading
Playing with mylar balloon (She *loves* those stupid balloons)