I feel bad that Maeve’s 13month update just never happened. She hit the 13month mark on the last day of GenCon and it was enough to get my thoughts down about that whole experience that I didn’t have time/energy to notice what new things she was doing.
Just before GenCon we added another local mum and baby to our little circle of friends. Maeve now has Elena (who’s just hit the 10mo mark) and Christiana (who’ll be a year on the 25th). She finds these babies fascinating. It’s amusing to watch her play with them and realize they can’t do all the same things she can, that they are ‘babies’. When she plays with Simon and Riley she definitely feels like one of the big kids. And I love watching her play with Simon! They look at each other and babble away and are definitely trying to communicate and play with one another. It won’t be long before they are getting into mischief together!
We started a new term of swim class. It’s the same level as last time but it’s a good way to keep the kids familiar and comfortable with water and swimming and make new friends. The parents in this group seem to be far more friendly than last term. I already know the names of 5 mothers (Anne, Susan, Jeni, Brett and Jackie) and am trying to schedule an after class lunch date with a couple of them 🙂 After the first class we met up with N, E and the girls and it turns out that one of the ladies in swim class (Jackie, who’s also British) is friends with E 🙂 So we might be adding Jackie and her little girl, Maisy, to our little group 🙂
Maeve enjoys playing in water, but there are parts of the class that are very upsetting for her (specifically laying on her back stuff). This week she got so upset I had to give up and just hold her in an upright position or she would scream. This evening in the bath she was bobbing her head into the water. She would be standing and then splash down really quickly and bob her head to the water and stand up again. She kept doing it over and over. I guess she’s trying to get comfortable with water in her face, but I ended up stripping off and climbing in the tub with her. I thought that maybe we could play some swim class games together in a ‘safe’ and familiar place. She still stiffens up certain limbs when we’re playing certain swimming games like when I’m trying to get her to move her arm through the water in a swimming fashion one arm will do it but the other arm locks up. I should talk to the teacher.
Maeve is talking more, but no real words. She says ‘mama’ and ‘dada’ but seems to use them interchangeably or call me dada. She will only use mama when she’s upset 
She went through a week or so of saying menumenumenu all the time and now says things like takeabite and other multi-syllabic ‘words’. She sounds Polish or Check or something 🙂 She will bring over a book (or a toy) and hand it to us saying “mee?” and then “takeabite” while she climbs onto our lap.
She continues to hate being lain down on her back. She will fuss and cry during changes unless we do them standing up. She still hates changing tables in public restrooms, she gets scared when I put her on one. She hates the part of swim class where we lay on our backs.
She’s showing signs of understanding us. I can ask her to go find one of her toys (a lion or a dog or a monkey, or her baby doll or cow) and she’ll try to find it. She still has issues with toys that aren’t those listed above, but it’s progress! She will also make some attempt at finding a specific book. Like she knows what story comes from what picture book and will study the cover to think if that’s the right one. At least that’s what I tell myself. We have a few books that are part of a series (Maisy, Spot, Llama Llama, Eric Carl) or by the same author/illustrator and she seems to know this. I can also ask her to find her bottle or blanket or shoes and she’s getting better at finding them. The other week I asked her if she was tired and wanted a nap, wanted to go to bed and she walked into her room and pointed at her bed!
Oh! Reflux update! At the end of August we stopped taking the Prevacid completely! She started spitting up again on occasion, and has been a bit fussy about some things, but is generally still sleeping okay at night so I think her fussiness might be more to do with teething. I think tooth #7 is coming in and she has been snotty and drooly and off her food the past week or so.
Sometimes I feel a little lonely. I can go to a party or brunch or whatever occasion and see all my friends, but I spend most of my time following Maeve around making sure she doesn’t fall down stairs or get into things she shouldn’t, making sure she eats enough and doesn’t just throw it all on the floor. It’s better than when she was puking and crying all the time I guess, but I miss having a conversation with my friends. I’m happy that I have a few local mums to meet with as they understand the stilted conversations that now occur.
Last week (Friday the 13th, wouldn’t you know) we met up with N and Elena at the park. We were hoping to meet E and Christiana too, but apparently E lost her phone for 2hours and had no way of contacting us. We met another local mum (Jenny) and her kids, Rebel (almost 2) and Sunday (3mo). Maeve was having a great time running around with Rebel and Elena was practicing her walking. At one point Rebel and Maeve went to the jungle gym and I wasn’t quick enough to get up there with her so I walked along the outside trying to get her to hold my hand. She walked all the way across the wobbly bridge by herself then sat down and rolled off the far side of the bridge between the gap in the railing! She must have fallen 4 and half feet to the ground! I felt awful that I hadn’t managed to even attempt to catch her and she cried for a couple of minutes but then got straight back to climbing! I managed to distract her away from the jungle gym and she was running around again when she tripped and fell and smacked her face on the low wall surrounding the play area. She actually slammed her bottom teeth into her upper pallet and was bleeding a bit. It looked really bad and I was shaken up just seeing all the blood (even though I know mouths bleed a lot and heal quickly). We got some ice for her to suck on but she was crying for almost an hour and I don’t blame her.
This week was N’s turn to panic about Elena. All weekend Elena had had a fever but was feeling well enough by Tuesday that we were able to meet up at the park for a little bit. Nuria was changing her diaper and noticed a rash on her tummy which we both put down to a reaction to detergent. A little bit later I get a call from Nuria saying that the rash had spread all over her torso and up her neck to her face and head and she was taking her to the doctor! Turns out she had Roseola (which I’d never heard of). Thankfully because Maeve and I had been suffering from a cold I’d been keeping my distance from Elena whenever we got together during what turns out to have been the contagious period. Roseola starts with a fever for 2 days and loss of appetite, then the fever goes and a rash appears.
Chasing The Stormbringer 