Little Lobster

Bella and I were invited to our fun neighbor's house for a witchy Halloween Party. We had a great time and the little lobster got lots of attention.

We have a monster lady hanging in the window of our front door. She's spooky!

hoof in mouth

Hee hee - it's not really hoof in mouth, it's hand, foot & mouth disease. Bella probably has it. She has a fever. Matt took her to the doctor. She had to be catheterized to get a urine sample - yikes! She had her toe pricked for blood too! We'll find out exactly what's going on on Monday when the cultures come back. Poor baby! Besides a pinky finger that has a rash and a few little bumps on her face, she doesn't seem so bad. We have antibiotics so that will get rid of any bacterial infection. We think she may have a urinary track infection too. All this with new teeth coming in. Yep, she's got two, almost 3!

Matt's been teaching Bella to "moo" but she hasn't caught on yet. She does pretty consistently say "dadada" or "pbffft" (sticking her tongue out and blowing).

Needless to say, our halloween is going to be spent at home making sure we're all well and not spreading viruses.

dancing

Bella and I had extra time this morning to just hang out. We have an ipod in her room with a mini-speaker that Bella loves to listen to. We've picked out all sorts of songs. Air Supply came on and Bella and I danced and danced to the whole song! Click and listen to the song: Out of Nothing

UH CCC

We're in! We're finally in at the University of Houston Child Care Center - effective February 15th, 2010. Yes, Bella will be a year old by then and we would have been on the waiting list for 1 year and 7 months. It better be worth the wait!

transillumination

Bella and I returned to the ophthalmologist to ask more questions and he gave us more details.

She definitely has iris transillumination which is a marker for ocular albinism. She may not even have ocular albinism, but he's never seen anyone with iris transillumination who didn't have OA. OA can be genetic or not. She'll probably have 20/30 or 20/40 vision, but she can still drive a car. She won't wear glasses because glasses would only help focusing and she doesn't have difficulty focusing. He can't explain why she doesn't recognize me when I'm 2-5 feet in front of her. (Of course, when I speak, she jumps, laughs and wants to be picked up.)

We will be on the look out for nystagmus (shaking eyes). If she makes it to a year without the shakes, then she won't have any serious vision problems. Mild OA will be most apparent when she reads...or has difficulty reading. She's 8 months old now - 4 more months to go!

first tooth

Bella's first tooth popped up! The tippy top of her tooth is showing through her bottom gums. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it as we didnt' notice extra drooling, fussing or anything out of the ordinary. It was just there one day. We're looking for more teeth because we're ready for more real food. Baby food is making us go broke! We've trying making homemade baby food and we're somewhat successful. It's just easier to pop open a jar and serve than to get a container out of the frig and warm it up. However, Bella is getting better at eating an appetizer (puffs) while waiting for the real stuff.

snot or oatmeal?

It's both! Snot out of her nose and oatmeal all around her mouth. Disgusting, huh?

Dress rehearsal

Bella loves being put into her Halloween costume just about as much as the dogs love being put into theirs.