Well, Maeve hit the 18 month mark on Monday and promptly fell ill. It was like that...woke up from her second nap lethargic and flopsy and scared the crap out me. Hot, hot, too, so we traipsed off to the doc's and he dubbed "it" a virus, prolly wouldn't go gastrointestinal, who knows how the rest would manifest. Three hours later, she puked all over me. :) Classic, no? Anyhow, the fever lasted until late yesterday, the congestion kicked in in full swing yesterday, too. Today was a challenge, also, the wretched cough has kicked in, but I'm hoping tomorrow will bring her some relief.



On top of the illness, she finally poked her 5th tooth through today. Huzzah! Her gums are bumpy pretty much all the way back, and I can see two more teeth right on the edge of popping. I imagine that she's pretty uncomfortable. Damn, it *sucks* to be a baby.

Meanwhile, she putters along, just tripping me out with her associations and leaps. Today, she opened this little Avon "pencil" (from my childhood) that we wiped all the perfume out of and announced, "Ih-ee!" before tossing it down. (If you've ever smelled Avon perfume, circa 1970-ish, you'd know why.) I cracked up. Someday she'll get the hard "k" sound down, but for now, I'll take ih-ee.

She's also shoe obsessed, in an Imelda sort of way, as I may have mentioned. She loves to wear ours, or anyone who takes theirs off at our door. She keeps track of who's wearing what shoes, so she can deliver them back to the right person. She points to where her "too big" shoes live on the back of her door, "Beeg," in hopes of a pair finally fitting. We tried out a new pair the other day, with socks, making them close to ok, and she was SO pleased. She asked me, "beeg?" then when I told her they fit with socks, she pronounced, "Shoes. NEW!" The new shoe tip-tappy dance was also fun to watch.

Yesterday (I guess this is all about yesterday), we were playing "Philadelphia Chickens" on the cd player (if you have kids, you may be familiar with the Sandra Boynton, if you aren't, for shame!) and out of the blue, Maeve started saying and signing, "book" emphatically. The song that was playing was "Snuggle Puppy," which indeed, is one of the S.B. books we own. She was listening to the lyrics, obviously, and the light dawned. She repeated this on two other song/book pairs on the album. ("Belly Button" and "Pajama Time," in case you care.)

What else? Drumming class continues to go swimmingly, and she loves it. Swim class started this week, but does not go drummingly. :? She loves it, too, though.

Other than the intense kidlet stuff this week, and having to cancel the week, basically, we are doing well. I've made dinner twice this week to great success, and my mothers' helper idea is panning out with our neighbor's daughter starting "training" with me next week. Is good.