And she's off!

Annabella figured out the walking thing tonight!

Jas and I were sitting a few feet apart, farther than ever before, and I had the video camera out (we'll post it later). So of course we urge her to walk back and forth. She stands up and takes 12 steps to me! Then she goes back and forth and back and forth. And then, she just up and walks past Daddy. And she just walks and walks. Her record without touching her hands to the ground was 17 steps. Before tonight I think it was 8. She just kept going.

My heart is bursting.

A good day

We had Annabella's ENT follow-up this morning, and she can hear! Really, the difference was night and day. She was yammering on through the test and was still looking for the really quiet sounds. I could barely hear some of the sounds over top of her talking, but she was still looking for them. So that was pretty much awesome.

I almost missed it, but I got to be with my baby at 12:21pm. I held her in my arms and told her how much I love her.

We made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting. Jas and I sang happy birthday and gave Annabella her cupcake. She played with it for what seemed like minutes before finally putting a morsel in her mouth. One bite was all it took. The feeding frenzy began. She had this goofy smile that seemed to say "What is this and where has it been my whole life?" She just kept ramming more in.

Then we got her hand print in a clay mold we have. One of Annabella's Grandmas got us a set of molds for ages 1-5. It took several (okay, maybe a couple dozen) tries, but we got the hand print. And I will cherish it forever.

Then we played games on the floor in the kitchen. Annabella was a couple feet away from me, and Jas and I were cheering her to take a step. After a few minutes, she stood up and walked the 7 steps it took to get to me. My heart, already swollen with pride, swelled up even more. I held my baby and told her how proud I was, and that she would always be my baby.

I really can't ask for a better day.

Pix of Annabella with cake coming soon.

One year ago today

One year ago today, at 12:21pm, I was introduced to my favorite person on the planet. I looked at her and kissed her head and fell in love. Everything she did was magic, and we treated her like our perfect little china doll.

I had no idea how fully she would change my life, and I had no idea my heart could hold so much love. Now our precious little baby isn't so little anymore. And she's not a china doll anymore either. She's our adventurous, curious, smiley, happy, determined, little toddler. And we couldn't love her more.Annabella, I hope the next year brings you lots of fun, lots of mischief, lots of laughs. I can't wait to see how you grow. No matter what though, you'll always me mommy's little girl.

First Steps

Annabella took her first steps for Dada yesterday. Mama wasn't there. Mama was home 5 minutes later. To say Mama is bummed that she missed the big moment is an understatement. To say Mama is beaming with pride is also an understatement.

Way to go baby.

Mistake

On Wednesday, September 9, Dr Raymond D Cook put tubes in my baby's ears.

On Friday, September 11, Dr Raymond D Cook drove drunk on a road, not far from my house, 40mph over the speed limit. He crashed his Mercedes into a 20 year old ballerina's Hyundai, killing her. (Article)

I'm not certain how to process this.

But I am sad. I am sad for the victim, and I'm sad for Dr Cook. Her life is gone. His isn't far from it, at least not the life he knew.

And I'm scared. Because Dr Cook seemed like a genuinely good guy, and he was very reassuring, and I trusted him. And now I don't know if that trust was misplaced. I have no reason to believe that he's been anything but a great doctor in all of our dealings with him. But really, how would I know? Did we luck out that my baby is fine? Did this man, who I liked, who put others at risk by getting behind the wheel after drinking do the same with the knife? I just don't know. And my baby is fine. So I'm not worried that he screwed something up with her, because I don't think he did. But it's my job to protect her, and once again, I should have done better.

And I'm confused. Because I have other friends who drink and drive when they shouldn't. Who can't seem to control the drink. Who are one bad night away from throwing their lives away. They are good people. Good people with a problem. Not unlike Dr Cook.

And I don't know why, maybe it's just because I met him and liked him, but anger isn't what I'm feeling. I see a man who made a tragic mistake, and he and his family are paying dearly for it.

Date night!

Jas and I went on an actual date Sunday night. A date where we put on nice clothes. And ate a fancy meal with each other. And didn't worry about being home for the bedtime ritual.

And Annabella did great! This for me is the most exciting part, because it means that maybe, just maybe, we can do this again in the future.

For our date night, we hired one of her daycare teachers to come over and watch her, which was great because we trust Miss Kim and we figured Annabella wouldn't be freaked out with Miss Kim being the one putting her to bed since she sees her all the time. The not-so-great part of hiring Miss Kim was the price tag: $12/hour! Sure she's a professional and all, but I remember getting paid like $3/hour when I would babysit. So even though having her over gave us peace of mind, I don't think we'll be using her sitting services on a regular basis. But now that we've seen that Annabella can handle the bedtime routing with somebody else, hopefully we can try it again with a cheaper option :)

Ears

Warning: Some of what I talk about below is just gross. Read at your own risk.

I think we might be finally beating this last round of ear infections. Finally. The tubes and antibiotic ear drops weren't enough. Annabella's now on an oral antibiotic called Vantin in addition to the ear drops.

For those of you keeping track, she's already been on Augmentin and Omnicef for these infections, and neither of them kept the infection away. After she got the tubes, there was a bunch of gross drainage that was supposed to go away after 36 hours. We called the ENT on Friday when they were still gross, and we were told that it was ok to still be draining. Sunday was supposed to be the last day on the ear drops, and there was still a TON of gross drainage. So much in fact that we had to use the nose bulb to suction her ear before we put the drops in. Yum. Annabella would stick her fingers in her ears and it would make a juicy sound and come out covered in puss/mucous. Double yum.

So we went to the pediatrician, and she said that she thought there was probably so much drainage that we were unable to get the drops to where they needed to be and put us on the Vantin, which she said was an older but good antibiotic. Apparently it's not prescribed that often anymore, as we had to call 30 pharmacies before we found one that was open on Sunday and carried it. Fun times.

As of today, there's still some caked on grossness on her ears, but no wet puss/mucous. So we might be over the hump. I can't tell you how happy this makes me.