February has come and gone and with it, hopefully, the annual Portland crud that infected everyone in our home.  Many people warned us that having a child means that we will get sick more often, yet it was all the adults that were first to succumb to the cold.  First Shaunna the Amazing Nanny got it and then Bonnie got sick.  I though I had managed to outwit the little flubugs with high doses of Zicam and orange juice, but after attending an art show (ack! public contact) I too got hit.  And then wee little Miss Mia got her first cold. 

What a sad state of affairs it was for several weeks!  Mia had to sleep propped up in her swing and still woke herself up frequently with coughing fits.  Bonnie and I took turns taking care of her and each other, all of us tired and cranky.  One night after a particularly stressful day at work Bonnie stopped on the way home to pick up our ‘medicine’ – tequila and limes for the Mamas and Pedialyte for baby.  For what it’s worth, tequila does a far better number of burning through your system than Mucinex can ever claim.

Although Mia has actually fared better than the rest of us tired old souls for several days we had to call her “Bud the Pug” – a tribute to the pug Aunt Marci used to have that rasped and wheezed all day long.    Mia’s spirits stayed high even when her energy was low, and the good news is that she is now back to normal.  The rest of us are still hacking up hairballs, but our baby girl has one kick-ass immune system.

Yesterday we had her latest doctor visit and immunizations.  At 7 months she is right on track both developmentally and physically.  Mia is still a bit of a pixie at just under 15 pounds and 27 inches.  In the last month she has really improved on her ability to sit up by herself for long periods.  She absolutely loves her Jumparoo, and will eat just about any baby food we try.  In the next week or so we’ll start giving her “real” food – mashed bananas and veggies, even though there is no sign of her teeth coming in yet.  Given that I was eating ground up moose meat at 6 weeks I think she can handle a bit more texture!

Oh, and…this is big…for the last F-I-V-E (yes, 5!) nights in a row Mia Lynn has slept through the night!  This is a first since that sunny Sunday in August when we brought her home.  Dare we hope this could last?  Yeah for 7 months!  Yeah for sleep!

Finally, a few random things I’ve learned in the past month:

1. You can’t hum lullabies with a stuffed up nose.
2. “Chicken Pastina” baby food doesn’t mean it has any pasta in it
3. When you hold your baby and look in the mirror, you see her face first, not yours
4. No matter how tired, grumpy and stressed you might be, the first time your baby girl sees you walk in the door and holds her arms out to you, everything else melts away

— All for now,  J.

Note:

You may notice that we are posting photos more frequently – thanks to both Bonnie and I getting iPhones (LOVE IT).   We can snap a photo and immediately email it directly to Flickr.   We’ll do our best to post a “Daily Mia” photo instead of waiting three months and posting them all at once.