Reagan's First Childhood Illness

It's a rite of passage around here. The boys have collectively experienced croup, bronchiolitis, impetigo, scarlet fever, strep throat, stitches, broken bones, nephrectomies, tonsilectomies, UTI's, and all manner of bugs and goop. Reagan has had her fair share of colds, and a few sinus infections, but this is her first actual childhood illness... PINK EYE. She even came down with it before her brothers, so she was a leader in the pink eye crusade! Way to join in Team Aho traditions, Reagan!

On a related front, can I just say that putting eye drops in small children SUCKS. They scream and squirm and shut their eyes tight and cover their eyes with their hands. I'm not sure how much antibiotic is actually getting to the eyeball, given the fight before hand and the amount of tears afterwards that washes it right out. UGH. I've been saying that alot lately. UGH.

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Scarface

In one of the scarier moments of my life (one of way too many), I watched my baby girl tumble down an entire set of steep stairs, log-roll style, to land flat on her back at the bottom. It took a good 20 minutes for my heart to start beating again, I swear. So helpless. Anyways, guardian angels were with us, as she escaped uninjured with the exception of a few rug-burns on her face and this scratch down the side of her face, compliments of a tv remote she happened to be carrying at the time. It's taken me 3 days to calm down enough to be able to blog the incident. When does this constant fear of losing a child stop? It's exhausting, I tell you!

The Sports Star

Reagan LOVES balls. And being outside. Maybe she'll be our sports star someday. NCAA, here she comes!

Hair Do Milestone

Reagan's hair is long enough to put in ACTUAL (very short, stick-straight) pig-tails now. Momentous occasion, as it gives us another option for controlling her crazy, unruly mop.

To Earn A Dollar

It's Reagan's 17 month birthday today. I was in the kitchen ATTEMPTING to clean when I heard crying from Reagan's room. It wasn't Reagan. It was Quinn. Reagan was rolling around on the floor, bare butted, and Colby was chasing her with a diaper. There were little hard turds all over the floor.

Mom: "WHAT is going on here?"
Colby: "Quinn's sad because I'M earning a dollar."
Mom: "Really? How?"
Colby: "Dad said that if I learned how to change Reagan's diaper, I'd get a dollar."

Great. Reagan was having none of it. She was squirming, screaming and wiggling, and making life thoroughly difficult for her brother.

Colby: "Mom, you've got to help me!"
Mom: "Not if you want to earn that dollar. You've got to do it all by yourself."

He EARNED that money, let me tell you. Threw the old diaper away, pinned Reagan to the ground, got the new one on (kind of), and then had to put on her pants - which I assure you is no easy task. Reagan tried to bite him several times. I just laughed. Quinn cried the entire time.

Afterwards, Quinn and I had a talk.
Mom: "Quinn, do you think that Reagan will suddenly STOP pooping?"
Quinn sniffled and shook his head no.
Mom: "Do you think that she'll suddenly start using the toilet all by herself?"
Again, he shook his head no.
Mom: "Do you think that maybe, just MAYBE, she will conviently poop another diaper in the very, very near future, and you will be the lucky one who gejs to change it next time?"

He finally stopped crying. REALLY. We'll see how long it lasts, this excitement to change their sister's diaper.

Reagan Update

Today, Reagan asked to go to bed by saying "Ni ni" for the first time! She's been consistently standing up in her highchair and telling me "ah-duh" (all done) for about a week now. Also noticed that when someone compliments her shoes, she immediately looks down at them - definitely recognizing that word. Last night she woke up several times (teething persists - two canines on bottom working their way through), but this morning starting yelling "ahhhhh duh" to get out of her crib as soon as the sun arose. It was so cute, I couldn't be irritated. She does a fair-to-middlin' job of using a spoon to feed herself, and we've initiated liquids in a cup without a lid (she gets wet. We'll keep practicing). Photo shoot this afternoon, trying to use the manual focus rather than the dummy focus. We'll see how they turned out. She's such a little ham. She gets this cheesy grin on her face whenever the camera looks at her....

AHA

Since she was a tiny baby, Reagan has been adamant about having a bottle at bedtime. To prevent the tooth-rot that I know usually accompanies this, I generally give her water only - but it's enough to get her to sleep. Bad habit, I know. It is what it is. Today, though, I broke her of the habit, completely by accident. She had gotten ahold of one of the boys' electric toothbrush, and it must've felt really good on her gums. As I couldn't get it away from her, it went into the crib. Viola. No bottle fuss! WHEW. The creativity never ends when you're a mom.