Harper is powering through her first cold. It started after immunizations (made her susceptible) and has persisted for about 10 days now. We thought it was allergies at first (and it may well have been) because her eyes were red, her snot was clear, and she sneezed a lot. They're shaking the walnut trees and as any good Valley person knows, that wrecks a lot of people. But then she added fussiness to her symptoms. She just wasn't comfortable, and wasn't her usual cheery self. We got through those sorta sad days. Now her snot is thicker, but she is happier and back to talking and smiling all the time. I brought her in to see Nagatani yesterday. (He knows us pretty well already!) Since her snot was thickening and her chest sounded congested, I figured I'd better just go to the doctor to be sure... it's worth the $10 copay for peace of mind. I was pretty sure this was nothing serious, but I'd rather err on the safe side. He confirmed it is just a cold and told me to use a humidifier and to drop some saline in her nose before using the nasal aspirator. Harper hates that, but it does help to suck some snot out, especially in the mornings. Nagatani again remarked at her how alert and strong she is. "Just 2 1/2 months old... she seems to be listening to every word I say!" Harper squirmed around when he put the stethescope to her back to listen to her lungs and tried to shake her head away when he stuck the instrument in her ears to check them. "Only 2 1/2 months and already difficult to examine!"

I've been experiencing technical difficulties posting some pictures on shutterfly-- talked to customer service and I'm waiting for a call back. I should get the next album up today or tomorrow. It'll be called "Harper reaches milestone" because she has! She quite purposefully reached out, grabbed, and shook a rattle the other day and I caught it on camera. We played that way for about 20 minutes-- very fun. In a couple of the shots she's smiling really big (proud of herself) because I was positively reinforcing this behavior with loud squeals and high-pitched praise. It is so fun to watch her grow up!

I laughed at myself this morning because I too reached a milestone as a mom. I found myself using the sleeve of my sweatshirt to wipe Harper's snotty nose, as I've seen Carie do for one of her sick kids.

On another note, Harper has just about mastered the thumb sucking. She only gags herself about every 20th attempt now, and quickly removes her thumb before she pukes. She was worrying me there for a while-- the vomiting-on-mom was getting old and I was anxious for that coordination to kick in. It finally has! We think she may be teething because she loves that thumb and is drooling now too. Carie says the drool could mean teeth show up next week or two months from now... you never know.

Harper continues to be a great joy.