Audrey has had a hard time kicking this last round of colds that came through our house. Last week she was sent home from daycare with goopy eyes, although they were just the result of her head draining. All this week she's been waking up with her entire nose crusted up with boogers, and her eyelashes too, and fighting a low-grade fever. Yesterday, she spent the entire day on my lap, dozing, wanting to get down and play but then realizing she just couldn't, and then coming back for her blanket on my lap. It was pretty snuggley, so I really did enjoy a lot of it, but Emily was bored and Audrey was pretty miserable so it was a tough day. Last night, at 2 AM, she was up howling, and I was awake with her for probably 45 minutes while I debated giving her tylenol and then waited for it to kick in. I was thinking that Travis would probably have to stay home with her, take her to the doctor and then to Walgreen's, rock her in the chair all day while waiting for antibiotics to work. But at 7 AM, she had no fever and no crusty boogers. I optimistically got her dressed, and thought maybe she'd be all right for the morning with another dose of tylenol. Ugh, yes, I was that Mom. I was pretty disgusted with myself, too. Fortunately for me, though, she seems to have come out of it. She was her sparkley wonderful little self when I walked in the door tonight after work. Travis picked her up at normal time and she had had a good day after all!! The difference is just SO striking - her eyes are bright and she looks perky and happy. I'm so glad to have my little wiggleworm back! When I put her plate of tuna casserole in front of her tonight, she did a little penguin wiggle and dove right in. Love that girl!
Things have been super crazy at work for me. My co-worker, who is also part-time, will be starting her maternity leave here pretty soon. She's having twin boys, so it'll probably happen sooner than I am ready for. Fortunately, we had another person start in our group this week, so that will help the workload situation, but it's funny that one brand-new full time person isn't going to be able to fully take on yet the workload of a super-capable, bright, and dedicated part-time person. AND, I have a new manager. I think this will be all right, since I've made a great impression on him already and he thinks highly of me and the work I do, but without that it'd probably be not so great. He didn't really want to manage people, but he really did want to know what was going on in our group. I thought it would've made more sense for us to just have team meetings, but they made this arrangement, so, whatever. He travels a ton and seems confident in what our group is already doing, so I'll mostly just ignore him, like I tend to do with my managers. :) Oh, and he said they're trying to get a person in Zweibruecken, Germany to do our same job for the European division of IVS. Travis is pretty sure I should put my name in, but I'm chicken. This may sound like a specific and strange reason, but as much as I want to do something like that, I don't want to do it now because my grandparents are still alive and I very much want my children to get to know them. If I took them to Europe for 2 years and it happened to be the last 2 years of their lives, I really would be devastated. I've got many years to figure this out, and they're all in their 90's, so I think this is the right call for now. They'd probably take me for that job in 5 years anyway! I have had a couple of highly-visible successes lately that make me feel good, and today I realized my workload would be impressive for a full-time employee, so I can feel good about the job I'm doing there, too. Cool.
Can you believe this - it's been more than a month since Audrey took her first real steps, and she still only crawls! Walking is like a party trick to her, like twirling or somersaults would be to the rest of us. It totally cracks her up and sometimes is useful if she's sure she can make it from the couch to the table or something, but other than that she has no interest. What a funny girl. Her vocabulary is starting to grow, though, and I think it's more that I'm just doing a better job of listening for things. I think her "meh, meh" for her sippy cup is actually an attempt at "milk" more than her standard "maMAA". And I'm trying to teach her "up" so she doesn't just howl at my feet when she wants to be held. Her "nye-nye" for bedtime is ADORABLE, as is her "Nighttime, Daytime" which I think I've already blogged about. And she gives the best hugs - have I mentioned?? She snuggles her head onto my shoulder and pats her little hands on my back (or as far as she can reach). She will crawl to the door of the garage as soon as she hears the garage door open for either me or Dad coming home. She's just great.
And of course, my little Emily is busy doing things, too. She's been figuring out how letters can sound together to make words. She was working on a page that said dogs were saying, "RUFF, RUFF, RUFF," and she studied and studied that for probably 15 minutes. She has been a great helper to me too, getting ready for Kerri's baby shower this weekend. We made chocolate turtles on Monday afternoon, and she came shopping with me last night to pick up a few more things we needed. Tomorrow, we're going to make the cupcakes, and I might ask her to help decorate them with the sprinkles we bought (nothing thrills her like colored sugar!) when Grandma Sullivan watches her and Audrey on Saturday. Travis and I are going to do the BRR ride - a 24-mile bike ride in Perry that's more like a Ragbrai reunion. We're crazy, but the weather actually looks pretty decent, so it'll be a fun way to spend the day. Then we celebrate Baby Johannsen, and maybe hit up a super bowl party, and call it a weekend. whew! I was over at Dan and Kerri's last weekend, and spent a whole day helping them paint their upstairs and get it ready to be a nursery. So exciting! Baby season is beginning!
No comments:
Post a Comment