Kat called yesterday and made my day. She said only two things but they were like breaks of sunshine through overcast skies.

First, after listening to me grip about by mucusy, crabby, sicko baby, she offered to take her off my hands for a while so I could nap/rest as needed. Now, that’s a good friend!

Second (and more importantly), she gently reminded me that all kids get colds. This is the way of the world. And although it may seems like Leina is suffering and ungodly amount, in reality, she’s just going through normal baby trials. I guess being a mom and spending all day listening to her cough and sneeze, after a while, I’ve convinced myself that she has the world’s most deadliest cold and is on the edge of no return. Having a sane person gently suggest that maybe, just maybe, Leina is a normal child with a normal cold blew my mind.

After talking with Kat, I threw munchkin in the stroller and headed to the park during a sunbreak and what did I find? Every kid there had a cough just like Leina. Every kid there was using their sleeve as the world’s most convient tissue. Even more amazing, all the parents seem unfazed by all of the sneezing and coughing of their child. They were acting like it was normal!

That’s when it hit me. Ok, Leina is sick. Ok, she’s teething. But you know what? She is also OK and so am I.

Armed with the sudden insight, I felt my chest relax and my stomach unclench a little. I think we’re going to make it after all!

Oh yes, I’m sending out more Ofotos of the munchkin enjoying Cheerios. This one was my favorite. I bet you didn’t know that to truely enjoy your O’s, you must first place a few on your shoulder. This enhances their taste. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself and see!

So what’s worse than a baby getting in a tooth?

A baby who has FOUR teeth coming in at once.

What’s worse than a baby with four teeth coming in at once?

Having a mom who’s sick with the flu while her baby has four teeth coming in at once.

What’s worse than a baby with four teeth coming in at once with a mom who’s sick with the flu?

Having a baby with four teeth coming in at once who is also sick with the flu with a mom who’s sick too.

What’s worse than a baby, with four teeth coming in at once, sick with the flu with a mom who’s sick with the flu?

Having a baby with four teeth coming in at once who is also sick with the flu with a mom who’s sick too and having the dad have to go to work on the weekend while they are home sick.

What’s worse than a baby, with four teeth coming in at once, sick with the flu with a mom who’s sick with the flu and a dad who has to work during the weekend?

Having a baby with four teeth coming in at once who is also sick with the flu with a mom who’s sick too and the dad having to go to work on the weekend while they are home sick and when the dad comes home at 5pm from work on Sunday realizing that your sewer line is backed up and water is running from your kitchen sink down into your basement and into your electrical box!!!!!

So that was Sunday.

Today, things were moderately better. Kevin called into work and told them he was taking a day off. After much cursing and exclaimations of disgust, he managed to unplug the sink line and we have a kitchen sink. However, the munchkin spent the whole day in our arms screaming and/or coughing with mucus running out her nose at an alarming rate. She was inconsolable. I spend much of the day curled on the sofa trying not to cry myself while my own nose ran and my lungs were racked by a wicked cough.

Tomorrow Kevin has to go back to work and I don’t know if I’m going to make it on my own. I suppose it really depends on how good of a sleep I get tonight. Munchkin was up most of the night crying last night and when I wasn’t trying to calm her down I was lying in bed listening to her sobs.

Please, can someone fast forward through this week to the weekend? It’s only Monday and I’m already hanging on by the utmost tips of my fingernails…..

I’m going to have to find time to blog more often because I have so many stories of Ms. Jane. She is growing so fast and doing something utterly amazing every day it seems. Gone is my little blob. Instead I have a real live kid on my hands.

First off, she is still miserable and teething. The second tooth has finally popped through only now I see yet another on the way in. Now, all my baby books state that teeth come in pairs which makes me shudder to think there may be a fourth lurking somewhere just waiting to torture my poor girl. What does she need all these teeth for?!?! All she eats are Cheerios and she can pretty much gum those to death in under 10 seconds. As you can see, she loves her O’s!

Yes, she’s a reacher. She is also a contortionist which means I have learned to put things out of her reach by at least 3 feet. Otherwise, she somehow manages to get her hands on it. Case in point, over the weekend I upgraded her to 6-9M clothing even though it’s a little baggy looking. She was wearing new sleeper and the arms are way long. So where the sleeve ends, you can’t see her hand ’cause it’s hidden up in the sleeve.

So I’m making breakfast Sat morning and puttering back and forth between the table and the kitchen. Fry the egg, put it on the table. Butter the toast, put it on the table. Pour the coffee, put it on the table. I headed for the fridge for some creamer and when I turned around, my heart stopped. Leina was leaning out of her bouncy chair and had just plunged her hand into my hot cup of coffee. I yelled and lurched to the table to grab her poor little hand. Leina, oddly enough, looked up at me and laughed!

My first though was “my goodness she has a high pain tolerance”. Upon further inspection, I realized that her hand was, in fact, hidden up in the sleeve of her sleeper and she had only managed to dunk the end of her sleeve in the coffee. Needlees to say, I was THIS close to having a major heart attack. I’m telling you, she’s Trouble!

Leina is bravely going through another round of teething. Just like last time, she’s getting two right in a row. The top right has broken through but that upper left one is a big nasty white bulge right now. How miserable. Who’s idea was it to make babies teeth? Why couldn’t they have been born with chompers like every other animal? This teething phase means anything that can fit in her cute little mouth gets gnawed on. This includes fingers, noses and even toes. (Learned the last one the hard way.)

But lately, I’ve discovered something very interesting about Leina. With her, I’ve been inducted into a new club…. the Parent Club. Before Leina, I discovered the Dog Club. I’d be out with Artie and find myself chatting away with total strangers about our dogs just as natural as you please. I’d wave and people with a pooch on leash and smile at every person driving a car with a dog hanging out the window.

Now, with Leina, I’ve graduated to the next level. The Parent Club. I can’t set foot out my door with out being stopped. I’ve had people stop their cars in the middle of the street, roll down their window, and start chatting. How old, how big, what’s she up to? When I mention teething, I get sympathetic “ahhhhs” and lots of interesting advice. The most original came from the Safeway fish stocker. (He has a 3 yr old boy and an 18 month old girl.) His recommendation? Beef jerky. Yup, he said for his son’s molars, nothing worked like a stick of beef jerky. Got everywhere but the kid was happy. I shudder to think what Artie would do if he saw Leina with a stick of beef jerky. He already loses control when he sees her eating Cheerios. Of course, I’m even more afraid of what her diaper might look like after a stick or two of jerky. Bleck.

But this Parent Club is so wonderful. Everyone nods and coos condolences when I tell them she isn’t sleeping through the night. They kindly comment on how cute/sweet/chubby she looks. Often, I get offers from complete strangers for outgrown clothing or baby toys. My favorite is the reaction of the older kids when they see Leina. “Baby!” they cry and head straight for us. What is it about babies that makes little kids so excited? Do they remember being that small? Do they sense a fellow munchkin in a world of giants? I don’t know but yesterday, a mom slowed down her car just to let her 2 yr old daughter in the back say hello to Leina as we walked around the block. Yup, I’m digging this parent thing.

I heard someone say it’s ok to not like dogs or cats or children but if you don’t like all three, something is very wrong with you. Being a proud member of the Cat Club, Doggie Club and Parent Club, I can tell you each is well worth the effort but so far the Parent Club blows the other two away!

The munchkin has a new game she’s playing with her daddy. I like to call it the Look At Me Game. Kevin discovered it the other night while getting her ready for bed. He put her in the crib, turned on the mobile, and turned to get her sleeper. As soon as he turned away, she started to cry. He quickly turned back and gave her a little toy to play with and then turned back to the closet. Yup, as soon as he wasn’t looking at her, the water works started up. He called me in as a witness as sure enough, every time he stopped looking at her, she’d start wailing. Now he wasn’t leaving the room or even going out of her line of sight. No, we was merely turning away and breaking eye contact.

Yes, our baby girl has turned into a little prima donna. It seems she expects us to spend every moment gazing at her lovingly. Of course, she probably expects this because, well, we do!

I also gave her her very first Chreerios and she went wild! I put about 20 or so on her little feeding tray and began unloading the dishes while she played with them. After a few minutes, I turned back and they were all gone! I figured she had pushed them overboard and Artie had cleaned them from the floor so I poured some more on her tray. A few moments later, they were gone too! Suspecting foul play, I added a new pile of Cheerios and stepped back to watch. Sure enough, things were not as they seemed.

As I watched, Artie sauntered up to her side and craned his neck over her tray. Sticking out his long tongue, he began to lap up the O’s. Leina, delighted, began pushing any wayward O’s toward him. In a few moments, both Leina and the tray was covered in a fine sheen of dog slobber. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the morning teaching Artie not to eat the food off of Leina’s tray. Instead, he resigns himself to waiting at her feet for those tasty O’s to come flying over the side which, inevitably, they do. But boy o boy does she love those Cheerios!

One more month has flown by and Leina keeps on growing. She’s gotten so big we’ve had to upgrade her to the rocking chair for her monthly “Pooh Pic.” See how big she is:

Check out all her monthly pictures at her official calendar site: Leina and Pooh