Sign language

I know some of you have used it. I think we are going to do it. We've started a little bit but haven't been consistent. We need to work on that. Any thoughts or tips?

Also, did anyone send their kids to daycare while teaching sign language? I wonder if they would participate, too...

Flu Shot

Tori got her flu shot today. Seriously, I think she did better than I would. Not a tear. Not a frown or whine. Not even a flinch. It was like nothing happened. That's my big girl. :)

Scratching

As if Tori doesn't have enough skin problems. Lately, she's been reaching down and scratching and pulling at herself when we change her diaper. It's a real hassle when her diaper is dirty! I can't seem to find much online about it. The dr. checked her for any sort of infection (yeast or otherwise) and didn't see anything that led him to believe there was anything wrong. But it is getting out of control! We put A&D on her and we put Aquaphor on her legs around her diaper. We have to try to keep her attention on something else other than her diaper change, which is not always possible. Did anyone go through this and do you have any suggestions?

8 Month Checkup

It's been awhile, so here we go!

height - 28 (85%)
weight - 16 lb, 3 oz (20%)
milestones - crawls; pulls herself up to standing; speaks a number of syllables; eating finger foods and working on a sippy cup; 2 bottom teeth in and 2 top teeth breaking through; and this morning, she waved good-bye to Min (so freaking cute!!)
problems - surprise...eczema!

They took blood from her foot, which she handled like a champ! She didn't even flinch! We go back in 2 weeks to get a flu shot though. The Dr. said she wasn't recovered enough from her cold yet.

Baptism

Some of you may have known that we were taking Tori to Key West to get her baptized. The priest that used to be at the church in Plantation moved to Key West. He's a really great guy and pretty laid back, so I knew he'd be perfect for us. And in Key West?!!? It wasn't a hard decision. Unfortunately, I could tell when she woke up on Friday to drive down south, that Tori wasn't feeling well. Her temperature crept up all day long. So we went out to Duval to catch Mallory Square then some dinner. Mind you with my entire family. Getting 7 adults to agree on a plan and then to execute can be so painful. So it was pretty late when we left. (Side note: so we're waiting for the shuttle at the hotel. We get there 10 minutes before it leaves and find a bench to all sit on. 18 people get there after us, and what do they do? You guessed it, they get on the shuttle first, so we have to wait for the next one! Jerks.)

Mallory Square was fun. Shawna got to see the robot/statue guys. We saw some tumblers and went to dinner. We rushed back to catch the shuttle back to the hotel that comes once an hour and I watched it drive away. :( Needless to say, I was not in a good mood at that point. We found a Walgreens to at least get Tori some Tylenol and all decided 2 taxis were well worth our money. Saturday morning wasn't much better. So my poor baby went to a non-air conditioned church in a hot white dress to get some water dripped on her head. As miserable as she was, the baptism was really nice. Father Baker LOVES my sister's family and is super great with kids. He made it very laid back and we ended up hanging around for maybe a half an hour afterwards. Here are a few pictures. The church has so much history and is absolutely beautiful! (The pictures are backwards...I'm not very good at this)

http://www.keywestcatholicparish.org/history.htm

So the rest of the weekend in Key West primarily consisted of Min and I staying in our (awesome!) hotel room watching football while everyone else played at the pool, took a glass bottom boat sunset tour, and had dinner. They did bring us back dinner from the hotel which was really good. On Sunday, the rest of the family went to brunch and Min and I (very much against his will) went to the southern-most point to take a picture and went home.

That night, Tori's fever got up to 104! I called the dr's office for the third time that weekend and since this was more urgent, finally talked to a doctor who made me feel a little bit better. I took her in on Monday and got her an antibiotic (slight/beginnings of an ear infection) and instructions for a Tylenol/Motrin alternating schedule. Good thing I can work from home because on Sunday, Min got sick too! What a disaster! So Monday thru Wednesday, I'm at home working on the sofa with both of them sleeping upstairs. I wanted to be sleeping upstairs!

Finally, though, I think everyone is better. Tori should be going back to daycare tomorrow. Min should be going back to work. I missed a work trip to Orlando for the Our & Equal Summit, but all is well. I really had plenty of work to do that I really shouldn't have gone anyway. Now I really need a vacation!

Oh! I almost forgot, her top 2 teeth are coming in during all of thi, too! My poor baby.

Trip to Jungle Island.

I went to Jungle Island (fka Monkey Jungle) with Tori, mom, my sister and Shawna, my aunt, 2 cousins, and my cousin's 2 year old son. Who knew that 3 hours at the "zoo" would be so exhausting?!?! They shut down the bird show early and ushered us under cover due to a tornado watch in the area. It seemed like the perfect time to eat, so we took advantage. We did catch the tiger show, though, which was great. Tori is just WAY too young to enjoy any of this. She had zero interest in anything...monkeys, the petting zoo, birds, tigers, nothing. (And as a side note, Jungle Island is probably not worth the $30 for adults, $24 for children that they charge to get in, plus $7 for parking.)

We did get some quality time with my cousins and aunt, though, so all was worth it. And the good news is, since Min didn't want to go, he's in charge of Tori tonight. I'm so playing that card!

Here are a few pictures from today. Strangely, not a single picture has Tori in it.

Dry skin doctor visit

I took Tori to the doctor today. Her poor dry skin was getting worse. It's all over her legs, abdomin, and even armpits now, and she is scratching everywhere (which appears to be very difficult when you aren't so good with your hands yet). The doctor is afraid it might be an allergy. He gave me Dermasmoothe to put on, so we'll see how that goes tonight. It is oil- and cortisone-based, but at least it smells pretty. As soon as we run out of regular formula, though, we have to switch to soy. He said it could be a milk allergy. I really hope it isn't. I feel like that might be an annoying allergy.

Anyway, back to the point of this blog. I asked about the Crisco, and he said it works. Another doctor in the practice often recommends it. But this prescription he gave me should do the same thing...it is peanut oil (among other familiar oils) based. So my friend wasn't crazy after all!

But before we got to use it tonight, she scratched her arm so much, she started bleeding. :( I really hope this helps.