Sicko

I feel like Eliza is constantly sick. Every weekend at work, my co-workers ask me "How's the baby?" and I feel like every week there's something wrong with her. She sounds like a sickly child, but I think she's actually a very healthy kid.

Her record recently has been against her though; She's had a really high fever this week, last week she had a cold with a really REALLY runny nose, the week before that Eliza was throwing up, and don't forget about the intermittent but constant teething too.

(We took a bunch of pictures at this lunch, but
Eliza's mouth was full in every single one!
She must love Sesame chicken as much as her momma!)

Mom said that she learned in one of her classes that children may have six to ten colds a year (and up to 12 colds a year for school children) and so if those colds last for a week or more, that ends up being about half of the year that HEALTHY kids have some sort of cold or illness! So that made me feel a little better about Eliza's weekend sick report.

(Here's the only Happy Valentine picture we got of Eliza)

Her latest malady has actually been quite the mystery. We THINK we've narrowed it down to an illness called Fifth Disease which includes high fever for several days and then a development of a red, "lacy" rash on her upper arms and legs which are the most common locations (but she didn't have the classic symptom of red cheeks that most kids get). The rash can last a couple of weeks but supposedly once the kid develops the rash they're usually no longer infectious.
Eliza has had fever since like last Thursday or Friday and has been sooo sleepy (kinda nice) and fussy (not nice), and I took her into the pediatrician yesterday. After nose swabs for flu, the normal checking of the other orifices and heart beat and lungs, and a sad catheter to get a urine sample, they found that they had no idea what was wrong with her. So the conclusion was that it was probably a virus (which we would just have to let run its course).

This morning I thought Eliza was feeling a little better, so I went ahead and took us to the gym then met Steve for lunch, and then Eliza and I went to the library. Eliza ended up needing a diaper change and when I was changing her diaper in the library bathroom, I realized that she had this little speckled "lacey" rash alllllllll over her tummy and back and the back of her neck and on her forehead too! I was really freaked and called my mom AGAIN (thanks for letting me bug you so much, mom! I don't know what I'd do w/o you!) and then called my pediatrician again.

So, Fifth disease it is. Poor girl.

(If you look really closely you can see the rash on her forehead and neck)

So we've gotten some great sick-looking pictures of Eliza lately:

Eliza has also recently become quite elusive when the camera is brought out. I swear I call out her name and she crawls away from me faster, the little booger! So I end up with a lot of pictures like this:

and this:

and this:

But I still wanted to update on Eliza's recent discoveries amid her flurry of ill-health.

Her crawling keeps her sooo busy, it's so funny to watch her tour the apartment, usually tagging along behind the kitty or cornering the dog. She also took her first few steps last week from the couch to me! It is SO impressive. But alas, I have failed to capture the wonder, much to my bloggish dismay.

Eliza has been saying "Hi!" to people for months now along with her waves, but these last few weeks she's added another great word to her repertoire. No she waves and says, "Hi, 'Itty! Hi!" and waves at none other than her favorite little kitty, Finnegan! That's right, "Itty" is Eliza-speak for Kitty.

Oh, and she also says ball and mama and dada, but I'm not sure if she's really assigned the meanings to those yet. It's SO cute to hear her talk to the kitty! It's totally worth changing the cat litter (I just need to convince Steve of that)!

Steve and I have really enjoyed Eliza's new intelligence and curiosity and ability to play that's come with her older age. It's made it a lot more fun and exciting to take her to discover the fun at places like the playground, the library (she loves books more than anything!), and other fun kid zone kinda places.

I've really enjoying finding free kids' activities posted in the local free newspaper, C'Ville. It told me about Mother Goose story and singing time at the library on Monday mornings and also about this free marionette performance of Pinocchio last Saturday. I was working, but Steve and Eliza had a blast together!

Eliza's joyous on the inside...

Steve said the theater was a really neat little place and
they even let the kids play with the puppets after the performance!

*The painting at the top is the neat illustration that Steve painted for my mom for Christmas.