Back To Real Life

Brinley is all better now! She just had a real light case of the chickenpox and they didn't seem to bother her too much. She did want to be held a lot more than usual especially during naps and she rubbed her eyes a lot, but that was about it. I really enjoyed staying home with her last week besides the fact that we couldn't go anywhere. One of my favorite things about the week was when I almost had Brinley asleep for her nap, Alex came home to say hi to us real quick. Of course when he left, she was wide awake. So I sat her down on her floor to play quietly. I layed down on the floor to watch. She crawled up to me, layed down next to me, put her arm around my neck and her check on mine. She stayed like that for only a few seconds, but it was so sweet. This week she is back at the babysitter and I am back to work.

The Diagnosis

Well, today Brinley went to the doctor and she does have the chickenpox. Of all times for her to get them, this was not so good. Over the weekend we went to Missouri to see my brother, sister-in-law and their 3 month old baby, Chase. That is when the bumps started multiplying. Hopefully Chase does not get them.

My niece, Camdyn, went with us to Missouri. She has had the vaccine, but there still is a chance she can get the chickenpox. Camdyn loves holding and playing with Brinley so we told her she might get the red dots if she touches Brinley. So every time Brinley touched her, Camdyn would come running to me all concerned she was going to get the dots. To make it okay, we had to clean the spot she was touched with a wipe. Anyway, the worst part is that Laura, Camdyn's mom, is going to have a baby any day now. We were supposed to take care of the kids if she went into labor. Now we can't even be around them for the new baby's sake.

I have done some reading about the chickenpox. Brinley's doctor said he has seen 4-5 kids with the chickenpox in the last month. So here is what I have learned. It takes about 14-16 days for the rash to show up after someone has been exposed to them. A day or two before the rash, some symptoms are loss of appetite, fever, tiredness, headache and sore throat. Some kids don't get any of these symptoms. Once the bumps appear, the will blister up, burst, dry and then crust over. It can spread from 2-3 days before the bumps appear until the last bump crusts over. This whole cycle usually takes about 10 days.

By the way for those that go to Bible class with Brinley, we didn't go last Wednesday so no need to worry.

Spots

We are not for sure what is causing Brinley to break out. We have a couple of ideas, but we will see what the doc says tomorrow. Thursday she had one or two stops on her belly. We figured it was something she got bit by rolling in the grass the night before. Friday, she had a couple on her head. By Saturday, she had several spots on her head and a few on her back. After the spots appeared, they would kind of blister up and then turn into a scab. We started to wonder if she had the chickenpox. More and more spots were showing up mostly on her head. She probably has ten to fifteen on the rest of her body. She doesn't seem to be to bothered by them. She has been a little fussier than normal, but she is also getting more teeth so it is hard to tell what is really bothering her.

On the Go!

Brinley is very mobile now. She is constantlly moving and staying busy. In fact since she has become busier, she has not been wanting to take naps. On average she probably sleeps for about an hour total during the day. At least she is still in a good mood for the most part.

And of course, along with moving and exploring comes bumps and bruises. In the past 2 days, she has gotten 2 bruises on her head. Both from bonking her head on the kitchen tile. She is a very tough little girl though and hardly cried at all. Her first bruise is above her right eyebrow (it's kind of hard to see in the picture). You can also see her two little teeth.

This bruise she got today on the side of her forehead Also, look how much hair she is getting!

Saturday, we trimmed our trees and planted flowers. We are very limited on what we can plant in our front flower bed because it gets around an hour of sun first thing in the morning and that is it. As I was finishing up planting the flowers, our neighbor came over and wished us luck. He said he planted caladiums and they already died. That would have been good to know a couple hours earlier. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Brinley has been pulling herself up on things for a couple weeks now, but Thursday she discovered she can pull herself up in her crib too. It makes putting her down for naps a little more challenging.






Brinley and Daddy reading books before bed.

The Month of April

Brinley is constantly changing. I know I say that almost every post but she is either growing or doing something new every week. She has 2 teeth now. She is getting more and more hair everyday. It is very fine and light so it is hard to see in pictures. She started crawling almost 2 weeks ago. She is a little slow and doesn't go very far unless she has something motivating her. She likes to pull up on things and stand up. She actually perfers to stand up on the outside of her exersaucer rather than sitting in it. She also started clapping last week. It is so fun to see her learn and develop. Here are some pics from April.

Brinley when she was trying to crawl.

A walk in the park.

For Alex's birhtday, I got him ranger tickets. His brother and his brother's wife were going to be in Arlington the same day so we met them for lunch.

Brinley and Adam playing at the Arts Festival.

Brinley dancing to the music with Matt at the Arts Festival.

Catch Up Time!

Okay, so I am way behind on posting. A lot has happened in the past month and Brinley is changing constantly. So here is what Brinley has been up to.

Brinley started eating solids, but a couple days later she caught a nasty cold and didn't want to eat anything for about a week. Two days after she started feeling better, she ran a fever for about a day with the peak being 103.7. Again, she didn't want to eat anything for a couple days. She has now tried all the vegetables and pears. So far she has loved everything she has tried. Her favorite so far has been the pears. They have been my favorite too because of the faces she makes when she eats them. She also got her first tooth this past weekend.

Brinley eating pears.

Brinley has started moving around a lot more. She rolls all over the living room. She can get on her hands and knees now. It won't be long before she starts crawling.

This was her first time to swing at the park. We went with her cousins and she loved it.

We spent Easter with the Kings. She had her first easter egg hunt and found 2 eggs filled with money! I just realized I didn't get a picture of her in her easter dress.

Since I have told a lot of Brinley's "firsts" in this post, I have to mention a certain first for her daddy. Monday was her first opening day for baseball. Go Cubbies!


Here is some pictures from the past month.

Starting Solid Foods

We started feeding Brinley cereal about a 1 1/2 weeks ago and she loves it! I think her babysitter enjoys it too. She hasn't had a blow-out since she started eating cereal. At least 3 days a week, Brinley was in a different outfit when I picked her up from Amanda's. Last week, she stayed in the same outfit all week!

As you can see from the picture below, she likes to grab for the spoon and feed herself. We usually end up playing tug-of-war. If she isn't grabbing for the spoon, her fingers are usually in her mouth. We're going to have to work on her manners.

Brinley is into the grabbing everything in reach stage. Saturday, I was about ready to feed her some cereal while I ate my sandwich. I ran into the other room to grab a bib. When I got back into the kitchern, I was surprised to see Brinley trying to eat my paper plate. I walked to the other side of the counter and there was my sandwich all over the floor. Before we know it, she is going to be getting into everything.