Darcy’s birthday was this past week, and we celebrated as only the most in sync mother-daughter duos can: with a visit to the pediatrician and an ear infection the doctor delicately described as ‘raging.’ I’ve been misinterpreting her ear infection symptoms for a few weeks now (“boy, teething sure makes her cranky!” and “awww, it’s so sweet how she lifts my hand up and rests it over her ear when she nurses!”) and I’m a bit surprised the pediatrician even let me take her back home with me after a peek in her ears (“it’s like a warzone in there!! you didn’t realize her ears were hurting?!” “erm nope”).
Happy birthday baby. As a gift to you, I’ll work on interpreting your pain signals.
Maybe you could also work on learning to speak English? That would sure come in handy in avoiding such situations in the future.
We kept trying to come up with a birthday party theme for her and drew one blank after another. Forrest’s 1st birthday theme was a total no-brainer—his obsession with Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs started young and strong and the love burned with the intensity of a thousand suns, but Darcy doesn’t really have a ‘thing.’ There are no books or toys or characters or shows she is particularly excited about, but we kept returning to one thing. Cheese. Girlfriend loves cheese. So we jokingly called it a Whine and Cheese party (I’ll go ahead and take the blame for the whininess as I pump her with industrial-grade antibiotics—that’s right, the antibiotic the pediatrician normally prescribes isn’t suited for such a severe infection, hashtagmomoftheyear).
I took precisely zero pictures of the party that didn’t involve Darcy going at the cake, but her party was small and fun with lots of cheese. We set up a ‘build your own grilled cheese bar’ with lots of different cheeses and filling options, let people put together whatever struck their fancy, and cooked them up on an electric griddle. Popular combinations were Jalapeno Popper (made with velveeta and jarred jalapenos) and Apple Bacon Cheddar (thin slices of granny smith apples with bacon and sharp white cheddar).
Predictably, Darcy was miserable during her party (the eeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaars!!!) . . . right up until she got her hands on some cake.
Cake cures all ills.
(Although I am told she must, in fact, take the full run of antibiotics, regardless of cake consumption.)
I don’t know what prompted this face but I’ll never stop laughing at it. Never, I say!
At one year old, our Darcy bean is:
- gigantic
- still army crawling on her belly using just one leg like a poor wounded soldier
- a cheese fanatic and aspiring apple juice addict
- Forrest’s biggest fan
- giggly and sweet
- so snuggly
- ^ mostly with her stuffed animals
- particularly attached to one little cuddle bear, who she scoops up and presses to her cheek the second I lay her down in her crib
- an enthusiastic waver
- a discriminating kisser
- just starting to allow Very Frightening Strangers to hold her (such as my Very Frightening brothers and her Very Frightening Papa)
- the cutest, most pleasant little bean ever
Happy birthday sweets. May your next one be every bit as delicious but much less infected.
Aww, poor little babe! May she feel better soon. And don't feel bad for not recognizing it. I hit that "mom of the year award" too when my oldest (now 18) was a baby...I had the poor baby wearing shoes 2 sizes to small until I had his foot properly measured. #feltlikecrud #momfail
ReplyDeleteHappy b-day Darcy! :)
So she's sort of the cutest thing ever. Sorry about the ears. At least she has something to use in therapy later, right? ;)
ReplyDeleteHey I know this post is 3 years old, but this CAL series is one of the best introduction series I've ever read! You go through the complete process from start to end and it's great! So thanks!
ReplyDeleteAt least you got pictures of her first birthday. My son had such a nasty case of strep throat on his birthday that I had to cancel his party (not that I had anything as cool as a whine and cheese party planned) and never managed to get it rescheduled. So the poor boy has NO pictures of his first birthday.
ReplyDeleteShe's so adorable!! Don't worry I am the worst at interpreting my kids' pain signals too. They have survived thus far. I cannot believe she is one. I mean I feel like we just had our babies. Where did that time go??
ReplyDeleteIt is BIZARRE. I swear we were both just pregnant like 5 minutes ago. I don't like this (sob)
ReplyDeleteOh no, poor little fella! How sad to be so sick on his birthday! But I'm sure there is no shortage of pictures of other happy days :-)
ReplyDeleteMy children will have no shortage of therapy conversation starters, that's for sure. But all the most interesting people have wacky issues, so I'm just trying to make sure they turn out VERY interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, by the way! I think she's awfully cute.
ReplyDeleteHaha! We can hardly be blamed when they don't make a big fuss out of things like that, right? You'd think they'd make sure there was no doubt they were suffering.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! I'm so glad it's helpful.
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