It’s a worrisome fall to be the parent of a young child, even when you try not to be an alarmist. Flu season has hit Austin early and hard, resulting in “flu triage” tents outside of emergency rooms.

So when Amelia came down with a fever with sinus congestion and a cough at midnight on Thursday, I worked very hard not to freak out. I called the nurse at our family practice and talked to her about Amelia’s symptoms to see what her recommendation would be. She told me what to look for as far as “worsening symptoms” go, and told me to nurse as much as possible, and encourage Amelia to rest. Heh.

Amelia was in good spirits most of the time Friday and Saturday, and her fever was pretty easily controlled by ibuprofin. She slept badly both at night at for naps, but hell – she’s teething, almost walking and has sinus congestion that makes her snore like a lumberjack – who would sleep well in those conditions? On Saturday I nursed her for a solid two hour nap, which I’m thinking put the lid on the whole virus. She hasn’t had a fever all day today, which is awesome because both Tom and I need to take Friday off for ACL Fest and it would be awkward to have to take Monday too!

I hope this was H1N1, honestly, because then it’s behind us and she’s only at risk for one strain of influenza for the rest of the season. Again, I try not to be alarmist, but then her school puts out a pamphlet from the State on how a 3 year old came down with the flu, went to the doctor, got on antivirals, laid down for a nap… AND DIED. This is to get me to immunize my kid against flu. I am still only 50% convinced about getting Amelia a flu shot, but I am now certainly scared out of my wits about her getting the flu! Thanks, State of Texas. Glad to know my property taxes are touching my life in such a personal way. Gah.

We did get a fair amount of work done this weekend on the house; Tom steam cleaned the living room carpet, and made some crazy-delicious pulled pork on the smoker. High volumes of laundry were done, and we did some deep cleaning in the guest bathroom and the kitchen. I filed about 5 months of mail. We had a nice visit with Tom’s dad, who decided this morning that he wanted to drive up and see his granddaughter. All in all, it was a good weekend, though it would have been better with fewer sick infants and more dates celebrating our wedding anniversary. But Amelia’s better and no one will be writing a pamphlet about us, so I’m thanking heaven for small favors.

The reason, in case you’re wondering about why I’m not writing much, is two-fold. Things have been a little hectic lately Chez Nous, what with Amelia teething and approaching the Walking Milestone and thus not sleeping well. Then we’ve been busy with other things that do not merit airing on the interwebs, per se.

The other side of the reason is that in the few moments I have to myself, lately, I’ve wanted to just do whatever I wanted… rather than to update the blog, which can feel very much like a duty at times. (I said “duty.”)

Of the many things – almost every thing – in my life that has changed since Amelia came into my life, lately I am missing my volition the most. I don’t begrudge Amelia her place in the center of my universe (well, 98% of the time I don’t), but I really, really miss being able to just read or cook or chill or watch a DVD without having to coordinate with Tom and “manage.” As parents, Tom and I have to work in offices but are very committed to spending all the time with Amelia that we can, which leaves us both feeling like we have Not One Moment To Ourselves. This is not news to any parent reading this, I’m sure – I don’t mean to whine, really. It’s just I never thought I would struggle so with my lack of freedom.

Anyhoo, this causes me to rebel against the blog on occasion when I feel particularly suffocated with duty. If it makes you feel any better, the Wine Scamp doesn’t even get excuse posts anymore.

Photos for you, as a palliative. Ciao.

Some of our favorites:

Amelia is SO close to walking, she can almost taste it. She doesn’t quite realize, we think, that she can keep her balance without someone’s steadying her, but she can. Paradoxically, she’s also getting much closer to crawling – wouldn’t it be funny if she learned both at once?

Of course all these impending milestones, in addition to the continuous teething, mean that sleep is pretty restless these days. We made a big change (which I think will work well in the long run) to our bedroom when we got back from vacation – we put our futon mattress on the floor and put Amelia’s crib mattress next to it so that everyone can sleep together with a lot more room! I’ve realized that I really cherish the time Amelia and I spend snuggling at night, especially considering how little time we have together during the day, and that I’m OK with a few night wakings as long as I’m confident that she’s waking me up and not vice versa. So we’re going to keep sleeping in a family bed for the time being, and having more room is really helping me, even if she’s sleeping badly these days.

The poor sleep has obviously taken its toll on the blog; my apologies there. We had a blast in Oregon but it was hell on the routine, so the last two weeks have been a lot of chaos yearning toward order. I was given some of the toys from my childhood when I was in Oregon and I shipped them to Texas. I am so grateful that my mother preserved these blocks, books, puzzles and other wonderful wooden toys that I remember playing with – every time I see Amelia playing with them, I feel so happy! And I can’t wait to introduce her to the books that helped shape my childhood so profoundly. Looking through them brought back fond memories and even if everything isn’t perfectly PC these days – I’ll take some pictures of our beloved cloth book about pockets (“For Girls 2-6″) – it’s still awesome cool to pass these toys on to my daughter.

So a neighbor couple we’re friends with had a baby about 4 months ago, and they’re going to look into hiring a nanny. We’ve been discussing a nanny share arrangement for a while now, in fact. We have similar parenting styles (on the AP side, no TV, etc), so I think we’d want the same things from a caregiver.

And now Tom and I are quite torn – in fact, we’re nigh paralyzed with indecision – so I thought I’d solicit the magical intertubes for additional opinions. (As a parent I have learned that additional opinions are wonderfully interesting, if frequently helpful only to make one feel guilty about not following one or another camp’s advice. Not dissing you, just saying – there’s always a way to castigate yourself after the fact, and I usually find it.)

Current daycare PROS:
awesome program
fabulous teachers
I visit at lunchtime to nurse Amelia
close to work in case of emergency or routine dr appointments
3:1 student teacher ratio
fun toys
good for pushing milestones (we’re bad at that)
older kids to help Amelia learn from example

Current daycare CONS:
hella expensive, for us
Amelia spends 1-1.5 hours a day in the car
lots of exposure to colds, etc – Amelia gets sick a lot and then we have to stay home from work unexpectedly which sucks
there has been a lot of teachers moving through Amelia’s classroom in the past few months – I’d like it better if she could mostly work with just one or two

Nannyshare PROS:
less expensive – maybe, possibly just barely reasonable enough for us to have another kid without having to quit one job
Amelia spends less time in the car
only one other kiddo to share germs with
more adult attention (2:1 ratio, not 3:1)

Nannyshare CONS:
no nursing at lunchtime – I wouldn’t see her from 7ish to 5ish, ack!
paying someone to care for Amelia during our commute time
farther drive home in case of emergency or dr appointments
only the developmental toys we currently own or might buy in the future – don’t laugh, it adds up and we’re ignorant
no older kids for Amelia to draft behind, development-wise

What do you think? The lack of lunchtime visits is a big con for me, honestly, and I would even miss dropping her at school every morning, though I bet Tom wouldn’t miss her crying all the way home half the time. Her school is such a good one, with really dedicated, wise teachers, that I wouldn’t even consider another school – but who knows what kind of awesome nanny we might find?

Argh. Thoughts?

Here’s a photo to keep your interest. More updates next week, unless we get really ambitious on Sunday!

I promised some folks at Montessori to post some updates as we traveled. It has been quite a trip so far. Our first milestone was realizing on the way home Tuesday I noticed Amelia had two little teeth poking up through her gums. Andrea and I both a little anxious for this milestone but I don’t know if was our preferred timing.

Getting out of Texas was tough in and of itself. We made it to Dallas no problem but after everyone was on the plane they realized the a/c was toast. So after an hour of fiddling with it we ended up getting off. They found us a new plane in another hour or two and we were off. Amelia was quite a trooper though it all. Only getting really fussy as we descended into Portland.

We spent the weekend on the coast at a great cabin in Netarts. Amelia splashed in the chilly Pacific ocean and got re-acquainted with her family here. We ate delicious fresh seafood and played in the sand.

Yesterday we visited the Hoyt Arboretum and The Rose Garden. Amelia loved tooling around in her stroller and touching the trees. She didn’t seem too impressed with the roses partly because she couldn’t walk around there.

Tomorrow is the zoo with her west coast boyfriends and possibly the Japanese gardens.

I made a run to Babies R Us today for a new monitor but ended up re-directed to their parent store, Toys R Us. I don’t think I’ve been there since the wigglet was born and I realize now that’s probably a good thing. I found what I needed within moments of walking in but just had to wander around a bit. That was my downfall I think.
A hundred years ago (it seems) I worked as a bicycle builder and bulk items pickup guy in the back of store 7013 in Baytown, Texas. I was 17 and this was my first “real” job. I probably complained about it but really it was a perfect job. I got to build bikes and climb around the stock room racks like a monkey. At Christmas we would stock in the middle of the night and play video games or ride the bikes at lunch. This was the age of Nintendos and TurboGrafix16. I have an old love for TRU even if they are a huge, manipulative corporate giant.
So I’m wandering through the store, thinking about Amelia’s first birthday present. I wander into the doll aisle and I’m mesmerized by the ginormous doll houses. But I also secretly hope she won’t go for that type of thing. Andrea and I want to encourage Amelia to play with whatever toys she wants, not just “girl” toys. So I wandered some more to the Playmobile aisle.
Oh my! There were sets for pirates, Huns, Egyptians, firefighters, veternarians, almost anything you can imagine. Now that’s my idea if doll houses! She’ll be able to make up all kinds of stories and adventures. Like the Huns assisting a band of pirates build the piramids of Egypt and starting a fire department. Then I saw this other collection of mideval buts with a huge, authentic looking castle with knights and horses and seige engines and and…
Then there were the Legos! Oh the legos. A whole aisle of sets with themes like pirates and Star Wars. Kits for cars, dirt movers, and robots! Andrea’s dad has been involved with Mindstorms competitons for school kids in Portland off and on for years. And there’s a series of architectural models which has stuff like the Sears tower and Falling Water. And another that you build an entire city of builings and vehicles of legos. Why settle for one house when she can have a CITY!!??

Now that she’s loving the cruising, Amelia is also LOVING the coffee table. She can go all the way around the table, chew on the corners and, most importantly, LOOK THROUGH the table. This is a particularly enjoyable exercise, as it involves crouching, bending, and then craning forward to see through a neat hole. Lately we’ve been putting toys in the cubbies to keep the game fun, but these photos were taken before she started to get bored with the “look through the cubbie” game.

Is it just me or is Amelia getting more beautiful every stinking day?

Last Saturday we invited the DeBusks to come over to our house and play games… kind of a game night, but in the afternoon so we could let both of our kids have a normal bedtime. As it turns out, we just sat around and played with babies for 4 hours or so, which is I guess a sort of a game.

Amelia was SO. EXCITED. when she saw little 3-month-old Elijah! She was only mildly interested in him when they saw each other 2 months ago. This time, she squealed and just kept wanting to grab him – it was awfully sweet. It would have been sweeter if her nails didn’t hover somewhere between needle- and razor-sharp. I promise I tend to them as often as she’ll let me, but she invariably scratches her face up pretty often, and I was quite worried she’d hurt poor defenseless Elijah with her enthusiastic pawing.

Funny how just visiting and watching babies play can absorb one for hours… that and snacks! It was great to have the excuse to clean the house up, too. With all the work we did to be ready for guests on Saturday, we were able to be utterly indolent on Sunday, or indolent for us, which was a rare treat.