Rebecca attacks mommy!

If Madeleine's lying on the ground, Rebecca will sometimes play the attack mommy game. She walks over and throws herself bodily across mom's stomach like a pro wrestler, I think. Very cute.

Anyway, she did this today, but mom's shirt was up a little showing some belly, and Rebecca leaned in and gave her a big zrbtt on the belly, then giggled. A couple seconds later she's walking around and very deliberately sits on mom's head. I think she has my sense of humor.

Yet another new molar!

Today was Shrove Tuesday, so we made pancakes for supper, and invited some friends to join us. I had placed Rebecca in her high chair and was trying to entice her to eat, when Greg decided he would make a "funny" face at her from behind one of our guests.
The most horrible of reactions ensued. Rebecca displayed abject distress and hiccupping sobs, and it took several minutes to comfort her.
It was the most bizarre thing, and very distressing for the Daddy who was only looking to generate laughter. I can honestly say that I've never heard or seen anything like that with Rebecca before.
But - to look at the bright side - before she opened her mouth in a figure-8 shaped grimace to let out a hearty wail, I was able to see that her second bottom molar has finally broken through the gums (well, the points have, the centre is still coming).
So - now on to the uppers! I don't know how I'll ever gauge their progress - seeing the bottom ones was difficult enough!

Rebecca is crazy, but that's the way we love her.

Lots of fun running around the house chasing Rebecca in her new kitten hat knit by great-nan.


Check the molar on that girl!

Also, here's a series where she decides she wants to amuse herself with our video game and movie collections, but never quite finds what she's looking for:





Rebecca also went a little crazy, dumping her potato stars on the ground, stomping on them and then sitting in the middle of the pile and eating them. Quite cute, and it swept up quite nicely.

Still sick...

Rebecca and I are still sick, though I went to work today. I've still got a sore throat, and Rebecca started coughing last night. Took her a while to settle, Madeleine and I cuddled with her for a while after her bedtime and that seemed to help.

She's still our cheery little nut during the day, but has trouble settling at night when she's not comfortable.

Night #2 of the sickie-poo

Rebecca was having trouble again last night. Her nose was getting plugged up. This would wake her up and make her upset. She would cry cry cry, then stop, silence, sucking/blowing through her nose, nothing happening, cry cry cry. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I spent a few hours with her in her chair (putting her down after settling her seemed to result in about a half hour of sleep), but called in reinforcements around 3:30 or so. Madeleine ended up bring Becca to bed with us... not sure what time.

Anyway, this morning she's been cranky and upset, and has no appetite to speak of. I've gotten her to drink a little milk and eat most of a single Mum-Mum, but she turned down yogurt, eggs and toast. Hopefully she'll end up eating something today.

Two sickies

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday. Rebecca refused to sleep and had very little appetite. She wouldn't even sleep in the car on the way home, even though it was past her bedtime. This was very unusual. She did, however, fall asleep when we put her in her own bed. Unfortunately, she woke up several hours later with a fever of 101F. By the morning, her fever was about 102F. After speaking with the very fine people at TeleHealth Ontario, it became evident that Becca had finally succumbed to the virus that has been plaguing Greg all this week. Fortunately, beyond any discomfort afforded by the fever, Rebecca is doing well. There are no complicating symptoms, and I even had her laughing at the breakfast table. All the same, this is the first time she has run a temperature over 100F - so I was somewhat worried last night. Now I have two sickies to look after! (I hope it doesn't become three sickies, but there's not much to be done on that front at this point). Last night, I cuddled her for about an hour and a half in her room. Her little cheeks were flushed, and even her toes felt warm. In a way, finding out she was sick was a bit of a relief because it explained some of her odd behaviour on Saturday - turning up her nose at food, being cranky, and having big mood swings in general. Apparently, she might run this fever for up to 3 days, during which time, it may get as high as 104F. Above 105F is the time to take action. So far, so good, except that it is always hard to know that your child is suffering and that time (not you!) is the best remedy.
We gave Rebecca some Tempra last night, to help ease the fever. Sometimes she will take the Tempra willingly, and other times, she will fight it off. It's never fun when she fights, because ultimately, one of us has to pin her limbs, while the otherforces her lips apart. And now, because she's figured out that we slip the dropper into the corner of her mouth, she sticks her tongue out, so that it's even harder to get the medicine in.
Taking her temperature is far simpler. After I had Rebecca, I was given the gift of a thermometer which takes temperatures from the ear. It's wonderful! It only takes a few seconds, and Rebecca can't do much to stop me (I can only imagine what it would be like to try to get her to cooperate with other routes of thermometer insertion).

14 months old today

There are now at least two points of the new molar showing, but it has not fully emerged. I can't believe she has to suffer for this long! There are days when she spends most of the time with her hand shoved into her mouth - going after the sore gums. Since she has started putting her finger against the bottom gum on the other side, I think it's safe to assume that the other molar is on its way.
Rebecca has three favourite activities right now:

1. Having people read books to her (I know several verbatim at this point)
   
2. Having people chase her around the house
3. "Hiding" from people

Her three favourite books are:

1. Dr. Seuss ABCs
2. Dr. Seuss ABCs
3. and just for kicks... Dr.Seuss ABCs

I say "hiding" because she's always in the same locations. Either she hides behind a door, or behind the armchair in her room. Yesterday, she was playing with her fridge DJ, and she dragged it with her when she "hid" behind the chair. Of course, it was still playing a song. :) The fridge DJ is a toy I got Rebecca for Christmas. It's fun, but it resulted in the song "Annie Ooo" being welded into my brainstem.
Becca has bigger hands again - I don't know when it happens, but suddenly I notice that her hands have become enormous. There's probably a growth spurt on the way soon, but frankly I don't look that kind of thing up anymore. I'm just too busy, and I don't really feel the need to check that she's developing at a normal rate - I know she is.
Except for the sippy cup problem. Rebecca will only drink out of soft spout sippy cups and I can't seem to get her to switch to hard ones (despite the fact that by this age, I could expect that she would have converted). She actually bit through the soft spout a few weeks ago when she was doing a great deal of teething-related chomping. She will accept no substitutes.
I took Rebecca to Eggspectations yesterday for lunch with a former work colleague. She loved it! Eggs are by far her most beloved food (apart from Baby Mum-mums which perhaps should not be considered a food per se).

Definite words

Rebecca reliably says 'mumumumumum' for her Baby Mum-mums now. She also says gogogogogogur for yogurt.

That makes it 4 words with mamamamamama and dadaaaaaa which she says frequently.

She also leads people to her high chair when she's hungry and pulls her blanket through the bars of her crib and starts sucking on it when she's tired.

Quite the little communicator. It's amazing. :)