Rhia's Blog: almost a year

I've been getting really sentimental lately about Rhia being almost a year old. I just remember a year ago so well, and it doesn't feel like it was all that long ago. It's crazy how much she's grown. Expect a sappy, "oh my baby's one," post in the near future. I just remember waiting for her and being so impatient and uncomfortable--amazing how much a year will change.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty rough for all of us. Last Tuesday Rhia came down with a really high fever that tylenol wasn't bringing down, so we wound up in the ER at midnight. They gave her some motrin and some more tylenol, and by the time we saw the doctor her fever was gone. He diagnosed her with a viral bug and sent us home. The next day she spiked a fever again, but we were less worried since he'd said it could happen. By Thursday the fever still wasn't gone, so I called her regular doctor's office, and they wanted us to come in to check it out. Again, by the time we got there, fever gone. I was starting to feel a bit silly. They agreed with the viral bug and sent us home yet again. The doctor mentioned something called roseola, which is a high fever for a few days followed by a rash. Friday she broke out in a horrible rash all over her body and her fever was gone. So, apparently she had roseola. It's really common, from what I understand a lot of kids will get it, so no big deal. About the time her rash started to disappear she caught a cold, so for the last few days she's been sniffly and cranky. To top it off she's cutting about 4 teeth, so she hasn't been sleeping well or in a very good mood. I miss my happy, content, smiley, mellow baby. Her top two front teeth are through, but her gums are all lumpy and whatnot, so there are more on the way. To make things better, Al's funding at UW is still up in the air and not looking good, and school districts are laying off teachers rather than hiring, so we're worried about that.

Milestone-wise she's taken off--she'll take a couple of steps towards one of us, but she's not too sure about it. Usually if we let go of her hands she just collapses and crawls away. She's gotten really exploratory, crawling under the table, through chair legs, all over the house, etc. She keeps me on my toes all day. She's using a lot of words. She's added "kitty" to her vocabulary as of late. She loves her kitties. She's gotten really affectionate, blowing kissing and giving hugs. She really loves going to the park and playing on the swings and the slide. She's also started to sign "all done," in addition to "more" and "milk." I'm not sure that the sign for all done is the real sign, but it gets the job done--she just started copying me sort of dusting my hands off and saying "all done," and it's turned into her sign for it. She tries to say "all done," we think--it sounds almost like it, has the correct number of syllables, and she only does it when she signs "all done." She's very big into communication skills, it's pretty neat.

She was up to 20lbs when they weighed her the doctor the other day, so she's gained a tiny bit of weight in the last couple of months--I guess only a little over a pound, but she's a whole lot more mobile, so I'm not too worried. She's gotten pretty tall lately, too, so I'm excited for her 1-year appointment to see how tall she is now. She's starting to lose a bit of that baby chub--so sad. She's also completely weaned now and using cups, much to her mama's relief.

And some pictures, that are relatively recent. Since she's been sick we haven't had many photo ops.