Not that we're begging, but I've put up a link to Sophie's Amazon wishlist on the sidebar. What can I say? That girl has a voracious appetite for literature.

Sophie's weekly fireside chat

We think Sophie is teething. In fact, we hope Sophie is teething, because, if she isn't, she's been possessed by a demon that wakes her up every two hours and causes her to generate an amazing amount of drool.

It's an early work, sure, but I think it shows a promising sensitivity to color and shading.

For those Grandmothers who have considered themselves unloved when Sophie cries at them

Please also consider that for the last two days, Sophie has also cried at Christie whenever she puts her hair up in a ponytail.

Sophie's latest trick

She's playing peekaboo now, but she really likes to be the one in charge of the game. She clearly gets it when someone else is doing the peeking, but doesn't find it nearly as amusing.

RSV

An infant girl at Sophie's daycare went to the hospital the other day because she was having trouble breathing, and she tested positive for RSV. Time for dueling Wikipedia quotes:

"In the United States, 60% of infants are infected during their first RSV season, and nearly all children will have been infected with the virus by 2-3 years of age." - Great, so it's nothing to worry about, right?

"The Centers for Disease Control consider RSV to be the 'most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia among infants and children under 1 year of age.'" - Well, shit.

The truth is that it's a very common infection and generally nothing to worry about, except for the immune compromised and babies who were born premature. But it can settle in the lungs fairly easily, which is apparently what happened to Sophie's classmate.

So I'm taking her to the doctor this morning, and we'll see what he/she says. She slept quite well last night, though it was hard getting her to sleep. I think part of what helped her sleep was that we had three humidifiers and a kettle going, which brought the humidity in the house up to about 45%. The nurse on the 24 line was kind enough to give us some warning signs to look for, and S's respiratory rate is normal, and her skin color is good, so I'm not exactly freaking out.

But there's this rattle in her chest that chills my bones. Here's hoping it's nothing.

Update: Well, it's not exactly nothing, but her blood oxygen levels are good and the doctor thinks she looks healthy. A lung x-ray shows some inflammation of her bronchial tubes, but there's not much we can do except wait for her to get better. Basically, it's what we already knew. She has a bad cough, and we need to keep an eye on it. The difference is that I have some very specific things to look out for now.