The Lily Pad

Happy eight months little girl! This morning you woke up for you 8 month birthday with a fever of 101.9. I know that doesn't seem too bad, but with our history of fevers and ER visits it sent Mommy and Daddy into a tizzy afraid of you having another UTI. We called the nurse line and decided while waiting for a call back to drive to the ER, on the way there your fever broke and you continued to babble and play so we turned around and came home, knowing that if we showed up with a baby with no fever and an excellent mood we'd never get seen. A dr. visit later we know that everything is OK and you probably just have a little virus, but I still don't like it. Not at all. So how about you put all fevers on hold until I'm dead OK? You also have a new tooth peaking through, top right incisor. You are a big drool factory. I thought you drooled a lot but you have shown me that I didn't know the meaning of drool. Yesterday you smiled at the chiropractor and I swear an entire...

Yesterday was the first time in Madelyns 7 1/2 months of life that I left her with a babysitter for a significant amount of time. The only other time she has been with somebody other than Chris or I for a meal is when she was 3 weeks old and stayed with my parents while we went to the Marine Corps Birthday Ball. I stressed for a week about what all she would need and how she would react to being fed and put to sleep by somebody other than me. I wrote out a huge long "owner's manual" and loaded 4 bags with everything I could possibly think of that she would need. It's amazing what I think she needs for 10 hours. She probably needed only half of it. At some point it hit me that my real worry was for myself and not for the baby. I knew that she was going to be cared for, I knew that she was in capable hands and that she was going to have fun. I just didn't want to admit that she would be OK without me. I know deep down that she needs to be OK without me, that i...