Raggamuffin

You would not believe how I sent Ellie to daycare this morning. Scraggly hair, thick yellow snot coming out of her nose, still wearing her pajama shirt, and clashing purple capris. I swore before I had kids that my kid would always have a wiped nose, hair carefully done, and a cute outfit. Um, yeah, not so much. Lately, Ellie has decided she hates for me to change her shirt. She has no problem with me changing her pants, but she screams, grabs at her shirt, and does everything within her power to keep me from taking her shirt off. This morning, at 6am, I just did not have it in me to continue the fight so I left her pajama shirt on. And why bother doing her hair for daycare? It will just be filled with dried bits of food by the end of the day anyway and any ponytails or bows I put in will have disappeared. So yeah, my kid looks all sorts of white trash when I drop her off at daycare. I feel like taking in pics of her wearing cute outfits and her hair in pigtails to prove to them that I am not completely negligent.

As for the rash, my oldest brother, Dr. Dave, will be in town this weekend for Kolby's birthday party and I have already called him to tell him to bring his stethoscope, otoscope, and whatever other types of scopes he has. Because Ellie was sent home from daycare today with a 102 fever and I have no clue what is wrong with her. I have taken her to the doctor twice in the past two weeks and am tired of spending $30 each visit only to be that told my child has a cold.

It's a mystery

Ellie has tiny red dots all over her stomach and back. It all started a little over two weeks ago. I thought it was related to her ear infection. It went away over the weekend, but was back again Monday evening when I picked her up from daycare. The daycare lady mentioned that other kids have it, too. Last week, it proceeded to get worse throughout the week, working its way down her arms and legs and even some on her cheeks. Over the long weekend, they completely disappeared. Then, Tuesday evening, after spending the day at daycare, they were back. What do y'all think? Is my daughter allergic to daycare?

Toddler or baby?

Yesterday the family all met over at Daniel and Sabrina's for games and hamburgers. I was excited to show off Ellie's new words and signs (like a trick pony). But she refused to cooperate and instead walked around putting small objects in her mouth. After we fished the marbles and jacks out of her mouth, she decided to go play in the potted plant by the front door...multiple times. I swear, she really is (almost) 17 months and not 7 months.

An explosion of signs

I have never really worked with Ellie on signing. I taught her the sign for milk a very long time ago and she picked it up immediately. When she was about 8 months, her cousin Kolby taught her the sign for "more" which she has used ever since. Then we strapped in her in front of a TV for 12 hours while we drove across country and she suddenly started doing tons of signs. She loves to watch Signing Time. Every time she is in the living room, she stands in front of the TV, signing "play" with both hands and making this singing sound. If we don't turn it on, she starts crying and signing more frantically. It is bizarre. I don't like to let her watch it too much, because I have these fears of her turning into a hand-waving zombie, but lately I have noticed that when she does the sign, she will also say the word out loud...words I didn't even realize she knew. Example, yesterday we were doing a puzzle and she picked up the dog piece, signed dog, and said "dog." Then she did the same for "fish." When we took our walk, she pointed to a tree, said "tee" and did the sign. And the sign for tree is more complicated, involving both hands! Anyway, I am not trying to be all my daughter is a freaking genius. I am just so amazed how suddenly her vocabulary has exploded...both verbally and, um, signingly. I still think of her as a baby, not as a walking, talking little person.

Yes, No & Fish