Teething, Ear Infections, MMR, and more

This was our first week with a normal schedule in a LONG time. Since the beginning of November we have either been traveling, hosting people, dealing with morning sickness and fatigue, preparing for my PA board exam, or sick. So I am very happy to have settled back into a normal pace.

Overall we had a good week. I started taking Erik to swimming lessons again. He LOVES them. At the of the class I told him it was time to go and he kept signing "more, more." Our kind instructor said the next class was pretty empty and invited us to stay for it as well. Erik giggled and laughed through the next class as well. Very fun and cute! I am glad he likes the water, as so many kids are scared of it.

Erik had his 15 month check up -- yes I know he is 16 months. The month of December was too busy though so I didn't have time to take him in. He is 23 pounds 5 ounces (25%) and 32 inches (50-60%). He is following his curves well.

He still had fluid in his left ear though so he is on a second round of antibiotics. He loves taking medicine of any kind so that is not a struggle but I will be happy when I can stop drugging him.

He has also cut 3 molars this week (not fun -- think whining, crabby, poorly sleeping baby). I can feel one of his canines as well so I suspect that will be coming next. Fun, fun!

On top of teething and fluid in his ears he also got his MMR shot Friday. I am not sure which of the three caused it but Friday night he screamed inconsolably for two hours. Poor baby -- we finally calmed him down by letting him suck on a pedialyte popsicle and rocking him. He seemed crabby and tired Saturday as well but was back to normal today.

We have pushed his bedtime back to 8 pm and put him on a one nap a day schedule. We did this because he seemed to like getting up at 5:30 am everyday. As much as I love spending time with him I prefer he sleep a little later! It seems to be working pretty well as he has only gotten up before 6 am twice in the past 10 days and has slept until 7 am 3 or 4 times. Lets hope this pattern continues!

Erik has picked up some new words during the past couple of weeks... Elmo, kitty, Wow, Brrr, apple, up (with a P on the end). He also added night-night and stinky to his signs. His enunciation is still poor but I am excited that he is trying out new words.

Erik is a fun playful little boy. He loves to spend time with us -- and to help out. He has fallen of a kitchen chair twice under my watch (bad mommy) so he now has to help us while strapped in the high chair. He doesn't enjoy this as much but less risk of a broken collar bone that way....


He also loves pens. Usually we don't let him have them but one morning I was a little lax. He was playing with the pen and decided to stick it in his overall pocket for safe keeping. He actually didn't quite get it in the pocket so it fell through down to his legs but I got a couple shots before that happened. Do I have a future engineer or math professor on my hands? We will see....