Over Anxious Mother

Charlie, Grandma, and I just got back from the Urgent Care. My mom had been watching Charlie all morning while I worked from home in the basement. She came down and said there's no way this is just a cold. He won't play, he's breathing like a raspy old man, he's got a smoker's cough, and he's not interested in his bottle.

He's been this way since Sunday and I'd already called his doctor once and they said don't bring him in until he's had a fever for 3 days. So I called again today and went over his symptoms again. This time the nurse said bring him down to Urgent Care right away. Not sure if the first nurse wasn't listening when I called on Monday or if I sounded like an over-anxious mom and she thought I was over-reacting or what.

So anyways, the diagnosis is that there's nothing really wrong. The doctor said his temperature was normal and his breathing sounded normal. They did a swab for RSV and influenza and gave us the results which came back normal. The doctor said he likely has some kind of viral infection which just needs to run it's course.

The doctor said just keep him hydrated and hopefully this will pass in a few more days. That's the update. He's upstairs cuddling with Grandma while I continue to work from home (by work I mean update his blog...hopefully my boss doesn't find this website).

Still Sick and Sad

Charlie's still sick. My mom just got into Spokane today and plans to stay about 2 weeks to watch Charlie while his other grandparents are on a cruise. Hopefully he'll start feeling better so he can show her how much fun he's become these last few months. Above is my nose and Charlie sitting in the recliner. This is where we've been spending most of our days, chillin' out relaxin'. Below is Matt and Charlie eating popcorn and watching the Zags win.

Grandma and Charlie are reading That's Not My Robot. Each page has a different fun texture for baby to feel. We decided it's a modern day Pat the Bunny. Thanks Aunt Ginger for the great book!

Sad Clown

Charlie's teething symptoms morphed into cold/flu like symptoms sometime this weekend. We took turns holding him and trying to console him. He seemed to only be happy when he was being held, such a sad little clown. Danielle and Brenda drove over to see us this weekend. Fortunately he was still in a relatively good mood when they arrived on Friday. By the time they left today though he was in a whole new state misery.

Bed Head

Ever wonder what a teething, cranky, runny nosed baby looks like after his first 3 hour nap in his entire lifetime looks like? The best part about grown up Charlie is he puts his pacifier in by himself when he starts crying. He lets out a little peep to let me know he's awake and then plugs himself up. It's awesome.

More Teeth

We think Charlie is getting 2 more teeth on top in addition to the 2 on the bottom. We can feel them but can't see them very well yet.

Below is Matt packing up the baby in his duffel. Matt had more fun with this activity than Charlie for some reason.

This is my attempt at taking pictures of the teeth. He's not so good at opening wide and smiling on cue just yet.

He is very good at looking totally serious and bewildered though.

Tooth or Maybe Even Teeth!

Charlie finally got a tooth yesterday! We think there might be two but he's been so crazy fussy that he won't let us put a finger in there to find out. I tried to get a picture but he's not so great at holding still these days.

This was his only smile yesterday. I think it was the new clearance Captain Heartbreaker valentine's day pjs that did it.

Valentine's Day

Today Charlie and I went to a little play-date/Valentine's Day get together with some other moms and babies we met on meetup.com. What we took away from today's excursion is that Charlie needs to get out and interact with more kids more often. When he wasn't taking the other kids toys (see 2nd photo) he was batting at their faces or climbing up their mom's legs. Oh, or my personal favorites: reaching for their food and crying when he sees their bottles (thankfully no photos have surfaced yet).

Guess the kid has gotten a little too used to being the center of the universe. Time to figure out how to teach a 10 month old some manners!

Fort

Grandma and Grandpa Ring got Charlie a little fort for Christmas. We finally got around to setting it up last night. Charlie wasn't sure what to do with it so Matt crawled in first to show him how it's done. After watching Matt, Charlie decided it was safe so he followed him in.

I don't think he knew what to do once he was in. He kept trying to stand up using the cloth walls for support. Not the best plan on his part but it kept us entertained for a while.

Lazy Sunday

We had a pretty laid back Sunday today. Highlights include Charlie helping with laundry (those are Matt's boxers around his neck).

Practicing drinking from a cup. Someone else's cup is always more fun than your own, notice Charlie's sippy cup is sitting untouched on Sir Hawthorne.

And going to the mall (sorry, no photos). Thankfully we chose the downtown mall because when we got home we learned of a mysterious chemical exposure at the Northtown Mall, which is the one we usually go to. The 'mysterious exposure' took place by the Gap at the same time we were at the other mall's Gap. Eerie.

Those were basically the highlights of the day. Our snow pretty much melted today and we experienced some very Seattle-like weather for a change (read: rain and overcast skies). I'm kind of hoping the snow stays away so we can start walking outside again. That's the update from the bluff!

Caden Jacob Finnegan

Charlie's cousin Caden was finally born yesterday. He was 7 pounds 1 ounce and has red hair like his Grandpa Rick. What a good lookin kid!

Spaghetti Attempt

We put a sheet down and let him go at it. He started off buy picking 1 noodle up at a time and working on it for a while. Then he pretty much dug in with both hands and went crazy.


I don't know whose side of the family these crazy eyes came from but I'm hoping it's Matts.

Pictures From Our Phoenix Trip

Going for a walk to try to get the baby out. This is as close as Charlie got to baby Caden.Taunting Piper and Rocky.

Eating in the Bumbo chair.

Still no baby

We have to leave Phoenix in a couple of hours and there is still no Finnegan baby to speak of. I'm begining to think Charlotte's just put on weight and there never was a baby brewing in her belly. This whole thing was just a ploy to get Charlie and me to come down for a visit.

Fun in Phoenix

So we're in Phoenix waiting for baby Caden to be born. We're 2 days past Aunt Charlotte's due date and there's still no baby. We thought he was coming last night so Char and Justin got all packed up and went to the hospital around 10 p.m. They came home 3 hours later with no baby.

We leave tomorrow and probably won't get to see the little guy before we go. Enjoy the pictures of Charlie in Phoenix.

No Swim Class Today

We're skipping swim class today because Charlie has a little bit of a cold. I thought I should get some fresh pictures up even though we're not doing anything too exciting.

Charlie's new trick is to stand up in his crib when he's done sleeping and cry until you come get him. It's pretty fun, especially at 3 a.m.
We're leaving for Phoenix tomorrow so Charlie's getting a jump start on the packing. He crawled up on the suitcase all by himself.