"Polly want a cracker?"

Today, on Stella's 20-month birthday, she played the role of a parrot. it was quite funny. as i was changing her for bed, i started to ask her to say random things. for example i would ask, "can you say daddy?". sure enough her response, "daddy" (acutally pronounces that one pretty well). below are all the words she repeated and their corresponding "stella pronunciation):

mommy - mee mee
daddy - daddee (impressive)
car - kai
bus - bup
choo choo - choo choo (most impressive)
truck - cuck
plane - pane
star - tar
oscar - kakar
luis - luglul
nana - nana
bampi - bimpi
elmo - melmo

Back from Breck into a Big Girl Bed

Stella's had trouble sleeping through the night since November (same time as when her marathon cold began). We've gone back and forth on what the source could be (i.e. nightmares, mental milestone of awareness, too cold, too hot, congestion, boredom, etc.). She was such a good sleeper...literally going down before her head hit the pillow for 11 hour stretches (man, were we spoiled!). At this point, all we know is that she has woken up at least once, if not every few hours for over two months and she is used to this. We have decided to take this challenge and well...make it more challenging.

Enter BGB (Big Girl Bed).

Stella's crib is a convertible. Dad only had to remove one side of the crib and replace it with a guard rail. Last night marked Stella's first night in the aforementioned BGB. She was so excited about her 'new' bed, she got into it few times, said 'night night' and put her head down. Signs looked favorable although jet lag would likely come into play to warp results of 'the experiment'. She did end up waking a couple of times but the turnover rate between waking and going back to sleep was shorter. We'll see in the next couple of weeks if this is a big enough change to spawn a beautiful, long-lasting and sleep-through-the-night era.

Out in the Rockies with the LaCombs

I can't tell you how timely this long weekend getaway was. It's always nice to have something to look forward to after the "holidaze" come to it's much anticipated but always abrupt end. We arrived in Denver on Thursday, picked up the rental car (which was automatically upgraded to a minivan which was sweet), found a Bennigan's (SK's 1st time!) to eat dinner and allow Stella to stretch her legs, and finally proceeded to Breck (about a 2 hour drive). When we finally arrived, Maya was down for the night, Brian was still in Denver, so our gracious hostess with the mostess, Amy, greeted us solo.

That night Stella did not sleep very well if at all. We chalked it up to a new place, overtiredness from traveling, etc. Turned out, she had been brewing a sickness and for whatever reason (i.e. plane filled with bacteria, traveling exhaustion, etc.), it decided to rear its ugly head for the next few days. This was the second time Stella had a high fever...this time it was between 103-104. Thankfully, we had decided to take Stella to her Pediatrician the day we left so we had a whole Rx cabinet stocked for her. We started her on antibiotics pretty quickly not wanting to risk a bacterial infection especially with Maya toddling about. So, needless to say, the meeting of the one-month-apart toddlers turned out to be a very subdued version than expected as Stella was not feeling her best.

At Amy's urging, we did end up leaving Stella for a couple of hours to try the slopes. It was a pretty cold day in Breck but us East Coasters didn't have a point of reference to how warm it could be out West, so it was business as usual. The slopes did not disappoint. We had a blast, the views were indescribable and happy to report that neither of us fell. Whoo hooo! The only struggle was with altitude. Scott and I got winded pretty easily from being 2 miles above sea level.

We had a GREAT time. Amy, Brian & Maya couldn't have been better hosts. Some highlights:

• cooked us this delicious portabella mushroom penne coupled with some very good wine
• watched sick Stella for a few days while Scott and I hit the slopes
• introduced us to scrumptious homemade cookies from their fav joint in Breck
• was the most impressive was that Brian took up (or was cornered into) perhaps the greatest task of cutting/shaving Scott's head.

It was so nice to catch up. Maya is adorable. She talks like crazy and is a very precocious, inquistive little girl who's always down for a laugh. Here are Amy's blog links to the weekend and overall LaComb family happenings

http://www.thelacombs.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=1960

http://www.thelacombs.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=6369&g2_page=2

History of Meds

1) A/B Otic

• Generic Name: Antipyrine and Benzocaine
• Common Uses: Analgesic and anesthetic combination used in the ear to treat the symptoms of an ear infection.
• Stella's Reason: Prevent earache from flying. Relieve pain from as she was so young.
• Dosage: Two drops into each every 2 hours before flight (not more than every 8 hours).
• Dispensed: 09/14/2006

2) Nystatin Oral Suspension, USP

• Used to treat thrush of the mouth in Stella's first year of life.

3) Cefdinir SPN (Antiobiotic)

• Generic of Omnicef.
• Dispensed: 12/12/2007
• NOTE: Stella may be allergic. Broke out in a rash 48 hours after she started taking. Either she had atypical roseola or is allergic to pencillin based medication. She will need to have an allergy test...

4) Clarithromyc 250/5

• Generic Name: Clarithromycin
• Common Uses: Macrolide antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections.
• Dosage: 3mls orally twice daily for 10 days.
• Dispensed: 01/17/08

5) Ceron DM

• Antihistimine/Decongestant/Antitussive
• Used this when Dimetapp Cold & Allergy seemed not effective. This didn't really help the cough either so we moved onto Tusso.
• Dispensed: 12/04/2007

6) Tusso XR

• Rx samples were given to us from Riverside Pediatrics as the Ceron-DM didn't seem to be very efficacious.
• Dosage: 1.2 ml twice/day
• Dispensed: 12/12/2007

7) Z-Dex

• Generic Name: Phenylephrine and Guaifenesin
• Common Uses: Decongestant, cough suppressant, and expectorant combination used to treat cough and to relieve congestion due to colds, flu, or hay fever.
• Dosage: 1 ml orally three times daily as needed for cold and cough.
• Dispensed Date: 01/17/2008 (started 1/22 pm @ twice/day).

8) SSD 1%

• Generic Name: Silver Sulfadiazine
• Common Uses: This medicine is used to prevent or treat skin infections in patients with serious burns. It may also be used to treat other conditions as determined by your doctor (specifically for Stella, bad diaper rash).
  Dosage: Use at each diaper change.
  Dispensed date: 12/06/2007, 01/17/2008

9) Motrin

• Infant concentrated
• Dosage: 1 and 1/3 dropper-fulls

10) Tylenol

• Infant concentrated
• Two dropper-fulls

Oh Marvin...

There are no words, only images...

Bathtime!

Kathrin & Robert went out to dinner on Friday night. We watched Oscar in exchange for Stella babysitting duties on Saturday night. Scott & I were going to dinner with Kristy who was in town for a mom getaway weekend.

As part of the nightime routine, we bathed the kids. Stella, who is becoming more aware of bodyparts found Oscar's little boy part hilarious and would point and laugh. After a few minutes, she decided to look at her part and cracked up at herself. Here are pix from that.