Summer in the desert

Well, we're about to head East for the month of July. It's just too hot here. We're blessed to have family to escape to. Though some of that time will be in Alabama where I don't think it's going to be that much cooler - not to mention the humidity factor.

We went back to the Plastic Surgeon to get our postop appointment with him. He rubbed her head all over, double checked a few milestons and gave her the ok. We had been concerned about a small bump on her forehead that was sticking out. It looked like a mosquito bite. He assured us that it was just a leftover stitch from her surgery and that it would dissolve soon. In fact, it was so quick, I didn't even really get a chance to take a good picture of it. As the swelling continues to come down, more bumps and unevenness show up, but he reassured us that it would all even out over time. Here's a before/after shot of her head...unfortunately, my photoshop skills aren't great enough to get rid of the shadow in the after. But you can see that the triangulation/egg shape is pretty much gone. You can also see that the scar is just barely visable. Yay!

Florence is continuing to heal and is growing and developing right on schedule. She is sitting up now - it's amazing, one day she couldn't do it, the next day she could. We went to Kiddie Kandids the Friday before Father's Day pictures, and they asked if she could sit. I said "barely" but she is upright in all her shots, and from there it was no turning back! Now she'll actually sit in the middle of the floor and play with toys or watch tv for 15-20 minutes alone before she starts to get tired or lonely. She is still inclined to topple - in the picture with the legos, you can see a little redness over her right eye.

We had started baby food over Memorial Day weekend. We noticed some intolerance to the rice cereal, so we kept taking a break and starting up again. Eventually we just moved on all together to other types of baby food. She started out ok, but then started refusing food all together. This, coupled with a temperature and a swollen fontanel (the soft spot) led me to take her to the Doctor. It turns out that she had an ear infection. She's already shown reactions to amoxicillan so we went to Zithromax. She was ok for this until about 2 days in when she broke out in a rash all over her trunk in a matter of minutes. Fortunately, we happened to be at the Dr. for her 6 month checkup, so she wrote us another script. She also told us to lay off the food until she was totally feeling better. I'm bummed for her, but in a way it was just a useless exercise since she wasn't really eating. Hopefully she'll do better next time we try. She is also cutting her bottom teeth - the poor peanut can't catch a break. By the way, when we called the Neurosurgeon with concern over her swollen fontanel, the nurse told us that all babies' fontanels swell when they are sick, but that most parents don't pay such close attention to changes in their babies' heads.

In other news - I do have three other children, and no other website - the summer is flying by. Charlie has started violin lessons - I am teaching him and he seems to have a real knack for it. I'm hoping to teach some piano lessons in the fall in order to afford a real teacher for him. Lucy has been continuing her gymnastics - class attendance is small, so it is almost like private lessons, however, I really regret not putting her in camp. Maybe next year. Alexander is getting so grownup I can't stand it. I'm hoping to find an activity for him in the fall - something with balls, no doubt, so that his only outlet won't be riding in the car to the others' lessons. He also has a really musical ear, but I think he is still too young for any musical training. We've been hanging out quite a bit with our neighbor friends, though they just left for Montana for three weeks, so we'll be on our own for the remaining 10 days until we leave. We're also trying to organize the house a bit - get rid of clothes that don't fit (bye, bye maternity clothes!!!! finally!!), make room in Lucy's room for Florence (she's still sleeping in my room), we brought the arcade that Tony built in from the garage - it got too hot to play out there. Most days I don't feel we accomplish anything great, but the days disappear just the same. We're really looking forward to our trip out of town and will probably start packing soon.

Oh - and we did get fantastic news about my dad's prostate cancer. After surgery, they biopsied some lymph nodes to make sure it hadn't spread and he is completely clear. So while the recovery is tough, it's wonderful to know that he has no chance of getting prostate cancer again. He and my mom seem to be getting on well given that he is now home 24/7 and probably a little frustrated with being unable to work. Mom is busying herself with home improvements and dad is absorbing probably a book a day and catching up on movies.