trio of teeth

Matt said today that I need to mention in this blog that Thea is a very happy baby. I think happy doesn't quite cover it. Thea's personality isn't just pleasant in a laid-back, mellow-baby sort of way. She's the kind of person who compels those around her to smile, too. In fact, I've seen many times when she starts doing her adore-me routine with someone who ignores her, she is truly shocked. She stares at them as if to say, "How can you possibly resist smiling back at me???"

It has been a wild week here on Rancho Jamesland. Matt got home on Friday, much to the glee of Liam and eventually, after she got over the scruff-face factor, Thea. After a couple of days of reintegration, gifts, etc, things settled down to the new normal with Dad home and Mom scheduled for a zillion appointments all over town.

Both Thea and I began to adjust to life without milk products, which goes so far beyond avoiding cheese, butter, milk and ice cream, it isn't even funny. Not funny, and not cheap. The second you walk into the "you-name-it-free" aisle of the grocery store, you add an extra $50 to your grocery bill. But her nose completely stopped flowing by Sunday, and her other symptoms have decreased as well.

But on Tuesday or Wednesday, she popped up two new symptoms - eczema on her upper arms and, more disturbingly, a whooping sound when she cries. The whooping sound really freaked me out, and made it so I couldn't let her cry it out at night at all, because she got all chokey and I just couldn't hack it, no pun intended. And of course all my reading about allergies and the links to asthma didn't help.

So I took her in to the doc again, and he said she had some stuff in her chest, but not asthma. He gave us an inhaler, but the thing that made the biggest difference was putting a humidifier in her room. It's always so frustrating to me when the easy fix is the answer and I didn't think of it.

But all told, we are surviving this tumultuous and insane week, and stabilizing after all these changes. Which is good, as so much more are to come. I got a job as volunteer coordinator at the library, which means Thea will be going to daycare soon. And on Monday, Thea, Liam and I head out for our trip to Victoria to meet the grandparents. And when we get back, preschool starts again and hopefully, Matt will be home from his last assignment of the year. Wild, wild stuff, this life business.
Oh, and Thea got her first top tooth on Friday. Gnaw, gnaw, gnaw.