Sicko

Apparently Lila has inherited my habit of being sick while having no symptoms that a doctor can do anything about. She continued to run a fever all night and into this morning, so I made an appointment with her pediatrician for 1 p.m. It was a bit soon to worry about the fever, but I didn't want to get into the middle of the weekend and have her suddenly get worse.

Well, we went to the doctor and she couldn't find a thing wrong with her. She's just got a fever that hovers around 101 degrees (without tylenol) and is slightly more tired than usual. That's it. So, it's the Wait and See Game. If she develops other symptoms of a cold - fine, she's got a cold. If she continues to have this low-grade fever with no other symptoms all weekend, then I'm supposed to call again on Monday. If her temperature spikes up to 102.5 or higher and she has no symptoms, then I'm supposed to call the on-call doctor for this weekend. Or it could just go away and we'll never know what happened.

It's possible that she's teething, but unlikely. Every other time that she's teehted, she had a nasty cloggy runny nose and was insanely cranky. So, if this is just teething, then she has changed her M.O.

...pause while i change a diaper and take a temperature...

Her temperature is currently 100.1 degrees.

Go Back A Seep?

Things have continued to be silly and eventful around here (i would expect nothing less). Lila took a pretty good nap with her new pacifiers yesterday and was reluctant to give them up when naptime was over. Within an hour, she was requesting to "go back a seep?" I was pretty sure this was more about wanting her pacifiers than about really being tired. I told her she was just going to have to wait until bedtime. So she spent the rest of the day periodically requesting to go night-night.

When bedtime finally did come, she was very enthusiastic about it and went to sleep without a peep. She then slept until 8:15 this morning, which is at least 45 minutes later than she usually sleeps! When Doug got her out of bed, he said she felt pretty hot. We checked her temperature, and, sure enough, she had a low fever. So maybe there was something to those sleep requests after all. [sheepish grin]

She seems to be fine now, though she has continued to ask for night-night whenever she thinks of it (which is usually when she's just been denied something she wants). She has also been taking her stuffed animals' temperatures all day... rectally. She spent most of the time I was in the shower this morning taking Snoopy's temperature and, after I was out, declared that his 'tee-tee hurts'. Alas for poor Snoopy!

UPDATE: I just took Lila's temperature again and the fever is back, higher than this morning. She's acting like she feels fine though, so I guess we'll just see what happens.

Baby or Fish?

Lila and I have had a very full day already. It started off with swim class, which was lots of fun, as always. When Lila got up this morning and I told her we were going to swim class, she got very excited and spent much of the intervening time saying she was going to "jump in da wa-wa!" And she has totally turned into a fish since last week's lesson. She was fearless today! Woohoo!

After that we ran to Babies 'R' Us to buy some new pacifiers. That is part of a long story that I won't relate all the details of, but it invovled me making the decision to start weaning Lila off of her pacifiers without really exploring why I was doing it. After doing some research and discussing it last night, Doug and I decided to give them back to her. There is no reason to take them away yet.

From the store, we had to rush home so we would be here when another mom and her baby showed up. This was a work meeting though, not a play date, so Lila was only around for the first 15 minutes. After that, she went down for a nap (with her new pacifiers, freshly sterilized), and I did my Community Leader thing. This other mommy, Jen, has a baby boy who is only 6 weeks old and already weighs 16 lbs! Wow!

Brag Post

Okay, I have to brag about what an amazing memory my child has. She already recognizes (and can name) all of the 'big' letters and most of the 'little' ones. I made some flash cards with all of the letters (26 bigs and 26 smalls) and we were just going through them. Even when presented in random order, she got most of them right. I could totally understand why she missed some of the ones she did. For example, she called 'little a' a 'little o'. Well, a 'little a' is a 'little o' with an extra line on the side. Rather confusing, I'd say.

She just blows me away sometimes! We have a few CDs of kids music that we have listened to ad nauseum. She can recognize and name a few of the songs after hearing only the first two notes! I can't even identify them that quickly! There have been a few times where she said or did something that left Doug and/or I sitting there with our mouths hanging open. I don't even know where she learns some of this stuff!

My apologies for not being able to include a photo of the little genius today. The website is having some sort of problem and can't upload the file... Okay, and I'll be honest. Even if the tool were working, I was planning on posting a picture of Charlie, not Lila.

A weekend I don't want to repeat

Whew! What a weekend. Honestly, it was long and insane and I don't want to talk about it. If you are in town and you'd like to see our short film, along with the other teams' films, you can do so on either Tuesday or Wednesay evening. They are screening all the films submitted for Austin at the Regal Arbor Cinema on both nights. Gateway's film is called 'A Long Time Coming' (i think).

I missed my husband and baby terribly this weekend. When I get the house to myself for a couple of hours now and then, it's a marvelous treat. But to have the house to myself all weekend - it was an unnaturally quiet and lonely experience. I thought I'd be busier with the film project, but we did most of the filming on Friday night. I also thought I'd spend any free time I had with friends, but that didn't happen.

When deciding what I should do with my free time, I pondered all of the normal options: go to a movie, spend time at the bookstore, etc. However, I decided I wanted to do something that I cannot do when Lila is around. So, I spent much of my weekend sitting on my tush and watching bad Lifetime Movies. I clearly watched too many of them because I had a dream last night that one of my friends was in an abusive relationship and I was trying to help her get out. Yikes.

Eyebrows on Film

I have an appointment today, at 5:30 p.m., to have my eyebrows lightened. My hair has faded to a nice, fiery sort of strawberry blond. It's not what I expected, but I can live with it. However, between the lighter hair and my fair skin, my eyebrows stand out like two woolly worms on my face. I don't expect to leave the salon with my eyebrows the same color as my hair - that would probably look odd, really - but I do hope that they are lighter and more camouflaged.

I am mostly concerned about this because I could, possibly, be on camera this weekend. I'm part of a team participating in the 48 Hour Film Project, and I'm hoping to be an actor. Even if our script ends up not needing me to act, I'll still be a part of the crew. It's going to be a fun weekend and I'm super excited!

Since I will be out-of-pocket, Doug and Lila are going to Houston for the weekend. I might not be home much, but when I am here, I'm sure I will miss them a lot! Especially at night... [sigh]

Brusha brusha brusha

Lila had her first appointment with the dentist on Monday. We talked about it all morning. "We're going to the dentist today! That's like a tooth doctor. He's going to look at your teeth! How fun..." She was excited and talking about it as we drove to the office. "The dentist. Look at the teeth!" She even brought along one of her teddy bears, Barbecue, to join in the fun.

It was all good until we got into the waiting room and then it registered that this was some sort of doctor's office. And rarely do pleasant things happen at doctors' offices. At that point she suddenly became rather clingy. By the time we got into the exam room, with the pre-dentist (i don't think she was a hygienist, but she wasn't the dentist), Lila had decided that this was all a scam and she wanted out.

Thankfully, things weren't too bad, but no amount of putting Barbecue through the paces first was going to convince her she should relax or cooperate. They were able to look into her mouth and they found that she has two teeth that are fused, but no cavities or other noticeable problems. They also told us we need to be brushing her teeth more like three times per day (as opposed to the once per day we'd been doing). That's easier said than done. I've had to lay down the law - You cooperate and help us brush your teeth (or at least let us do it) or we will sit on you and brush them anyway. And I'm not kidding.

She's just about to get out of the bath now and we'll see how it goes this time. :)

The Girl's Got Style

We chose Lila's outfit today in the same fashion we always do. That is, we grabbed the next outfit in line out of her drawer and put it on her. My intention with this post is to discuss today's outfit, but first I will take a slight detour to justify this method of choosing clothes.

First of all, it makes sure that all clothes get even wear (as opposed to only picking out favorite things and wearing them out faster than the things we like less). Also, since we mix t-shirts, dresses, and everything in between, you never know what's going to be next. It's kind of fun to have no special plans for the day, but still wear a pretty dress - just because! Anyway, this will all end once she forms an opinion on the matter.

Back to my story... Today's outfit is a yellow sleeveless dress with a kitty on the front. I put a white clip in her hair and that was that. Lila did the rest of her accessorizing. By the time we went to the gym, she was wearing her new glittery white shoes, a very fashionable black belt (from another outfit), a yellow mardi gras necklace, and her red sunglasses with white polka dots. This was definitely an attention-getting outfit. I don't think she really understood why everyone was fussing over her, but I enjoyed it!

P.S. - Can you spot Lila in this photo?

It is currently my bedtime, but I happen to know that certain members of my family are on the verge of holding their breath if I do not post a new photo of Lila.

Does anyone read my blog to find out what's going on in MY life? I'm feeling bitter.

Angela the Cranky Vampire Actress Sidekick

I'm doing another skit at church this week and I'm very excited. We (the writer/director, the other actress, and I) spent about four hours at the church yesterday, rehearsing. Doug was kind enough to "work from home" so that I could go. He did work when he could, but it's not so easy to do with a toddler running around. Anyway, if you'd like to see my second stage performance, it's this weekend at Gateway Church - service times are 9:30, 11:00, and 12:30.

Once I got home from all that rehearsing, I was exhausted and cranky! I was a very minimalist mother yesterday. I didn't have the energy for things like... speaking... or moving. I don't know if the irritability was due to the fatigue, PMS, or the fact that I spent four hours playing a character who is sad and angry at herself and the world. Either way, I am pleased to report that a good night's sleep and a nice, sweaty workout this morning have restored my sanity.

I had a lot of strange dreams last night and in one of them, I was part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For those of you who watch the show, instead of the three friends being Buffy, Willow, and Xander, it was Buffy, Willow, and Angela. The most disturbing thing about the dream was when a lady fell off an amusement park ride and bounced a couple of times. In true dream fashion, however, she walked away from it.

Who are you?!?

Lila has suddenly developed the ability to play on her own. I don't know whether to be overjoyed or concerned! Mostly I'm just amused by the things she chooses to occupy her time. A couple of days ago, she spent about 15 minutes trying to put her red shoes on Barbecue (the teddy bear). At one point, she was also flinging him violently around by one arm and declared that he was spinning.

Yesterday, she spent half an hour cleaning house. She was carrying a baby wipe around and using it to 'clean' things. She did a very thorough job on our kitchen windowsill and (with a little prompting) even cleaned a spot of chocolate off the back of one of the kitchen chairs! I sat down to play with her at one point, but she was so absorbed in what she was doing that she paid no attention to me.

Just now, I left her in my room where she has been changing my teddy bear's diaper for the past 10 to 15 minutes. The bear is wearing a pair of children's panties (and has been for so long I don't remember) and when I first spotted Lila she was trying to figure out how to get them off of her. She finally gave up on that though and started pretending to change her imaginary diaper. She has peeked down into her undies and declared (approximately 100 times) that it's "just pee-pees!"

This kid cracks me up!