7 months!

Warning - I'm not posting pictures today.  We've hardly taken any in the past couple of weeks.  Bad us.

First of all, congrats to Max (first baby in the series on the right), who is 1 today!  Go Max.

In Charlotte news, she had her first high fever last weekend.  It started with some fussiness on Friday, which we attributed to constipation (may have been true, as it has continued).  Then on Saturday she had a mild temp in the am that hit 103.5 in the afternoon.  So we called our pediatrician's nurse line.  She asked us a bunch of questions and determined that it was most likely a simple virus.  She said the fever isn't bad in and of itself, which we had also read in our books, but we could give acetaminophen or ibuprofen, and that we should call if it went over 104 (armpit temp).  It was down to 102.something the next time we checked, so we didn't giver her any medication, but then at her first night nursing it was 104.1, so we called back (and opened the ibuprofen bottle).  The nurse made us do a rectal (our first attempt - not as hard as I expected, though the poor girl was a little lethargic, so that might have made it easier).  104.7!  She asked a few more questions, told us to give the meds, and said to call back if her rectal temp went over 105 and to come in on Monday if she was still sick then.  The temp was a bit better on Sunday even when the meds wore off,  but Sunday night was also tough, so we made an appt on Monday.  But by the time we got there she was already quite a bit better, and has continued to be fine.  On to the next rite of passage. 

 That first bout of constipation was cured with prunes, which she didn't care for, but boy oh boy were they effective.  She was having trouble again today, so we tried again with a smaller amount of prunes snuck into her lunch.  We promise not to keep you posted on the results.  In related news, we may have found a good solution to the poopy diaper problem in fleece diaper liners.  They are much easier to swish out in the toilet.  We already ordered a bunch more.

OK, on to happier topics!  Remember how I said a while back that I thought hair was coming in?  Well, in retrospect I don't think it was, but now it really seems to be.  So maybe I'll finally take those photos I promised.  She seems like she might be crawling before too long.  I really hope she takes her time on that, but when she's sitting and wants to get to a toy, she reaches out and over and pretty soon she's in a sort of crawling position.  The funny thing is that she still hasn't rolled over.  I think she probably could if she wanted to, but she doesn't spend enough time on her back or her tummy to really bother.  My mom reports that I didn't roll over, either, but I can roll over NOW, so I assume eventually she'll figure it out.

We haven't had as much chatting lately.  Guess that will come in waves?  I think her first word might be "kitty" or "gata" (Spanish for "cat"), as she is fascinated by the cats, especially Melina, who is the one who hangs out near her more often.  Since she spends so much time looking at the cats, she hears me label them often ("object labeling" when the baby is looking at the object is the key to early vocabulary, according to the language chapter in NurtureShock).  The other objects that get labeled a lot are her paci (aptly called a "bobo" in Spanish, which means dumb) and her Daddy ("Papi" in Spanish, though I don't call him "Papi" nearly as often as "Daddy", whereas the other two I do about half and half).  I was afraid for a while that her first word was going to be "booby", but they're receiving less emphasis what with the solid foods, and we're trying to refer to them as "milk" as she gets closer to talking.

Well, boobies seem like a good topic to end on.  We'll try to take more pictures and videos this month.  I can't believe how the time is flying by!