Training Photos

Even when hard at work, we think you'll agree that Sylvie maintains her poise and charm.

Many more in the May Gallery.

Back in Training

Well, those antibiotics have worked wonders, and Sylvie is pretty much her old self again.  Or at least her old self, with a runny nose.  She felt good enough this morning, anyhow, to get back to her crawling training.  As you can see, she's making a lot of progress...

For the record, that bang at the end really did sound a lot worse than it was.  It was just my knee banging against the footboard of our bed as I reached in to keep her head from doing the same thing.  Sylvie didn't even blink.

And in other Milestone News, Sylvie is also getting real close to sitting up by herself.  In fact, technically she already can - she just can't get herself from a prone position into a sitting position yet.

Getting back in the pink

Melissa told me on the phone this afternoon that I'd be a lot less worried as soon as I saw Sylvie, and she was right. She's fine. She greeted me the same way as always, with a giggle and arms outstretched. Then we paraded around the house with her on my shoulders, had a bath, had a bottle and went to bed. The only difference was the little drink of bubblegum flavored amoxicillin - which she loves. She does not seem to be in pain, and her cough is a whole lot better. Hopefully this antibiotic will knock the infection out without too much trouble.
She still has a little bit of a stomach issue, so the doctor suggested we put her on soy formula for a few days to see if that helps. Don't know what people did before... soy.

UPDATE: Friday morning. Sylvie slept through the night without a single coughing jag, so it seems things are looking up already. Her mom reports that her appetite is also back. She is having the usual reaction to amoxicillin (messy diapers) but that was expected. I'm sure the everyone reading this who has reared a child is laughing at my overreaction. I am too. But in my defense, this was the first time she's been sick!

Under the weather

So Melissa got a call from daycare this afternoon, asking her to come pick Sylvie up. She has a fever of 101 and a really bad diaper rash that they thought could be a yeast infection. Melissa got her and brought her to the doctor, where she was seen immediately (one of the many benefits of living in a small town). Turns out she has an ear infection. This, her doctor believes, is the cause not only of her fever, but also the cold symptoms she's had for about a week now - including her hacking cough and runny nose. He said we should see those clearing up quickly. He also thinks she might have a slight touch of some sort of stomach bug, and suggested we try her on soy formula for a few days to try and get her stools firmed up. He does not think the rash is an infection, but gave Melissa a prescription for a cream just in case. Apparently antibiotics increase the risk of infant yeast infection, so it can't hurt to be using the preventative cream anyhow.

The thing that's killing me about this is that she's clearly been uncomfortable for at least a week with this, but she's such a good kid that we didn't think we needed to take her to the doctor! She's been a little bit fussier recently, but not really. We figured her occasional tantrums were because of her cold. She's still almost always in a good mood, sleeping through the night, etc. We didn't want to become "those parents" who rush to the doctor at each little sniffle or cough. That reticence, combined with her pleasant disposition, in this case probably caused us to wait longer than we should have. I guess this is my first dose parental guilt - I suppose I'd better get used to it!

I hope the doctor is right and the cough really is part of the ear infection, because it's gotten pretty bad and was starting to worry me quite a bit. It would be nice if the antibiotic took care of that. Of course the *!#%()!*#% internet has 101 reasons not to give an infant amoxicillin - I guess there was some study a few years ago suggesting infant use of amoxicillin could be tied to a fluoride deficiency in permanent teeth later in life. But I've already learned that when it comes to health care for children, no matter what you do there's something on the internet that says you're a bad parent for doing it. So I guess we'll just go with our doctors.

Anyhow, the important thing is that so far as Sylvie knows, this was just a fun - though abbreviated - day at day care, where we understand she really enjoyed the Music Man's performance this morning.

Will update when anything changes.

She may seem healthy, but she's snot

Several folks have asked for an update on Sylvie's monster cold. She still has it - primarily the cough - but she's getting better. Her cough has been really bad. As some of you know, a particularly nasty hacking attack on Monday prompted me to make our first unscheduled call to the doctor for reassurance. We were told that as long as she does not have a fever (she does not) a hacking cough on the heels of a bad cold is not cause for concern. Still, it's tough to listen to her at night on the monitor - especially when she follows up a jag with a pathetic little whimper.

Despite her cold and a really uncomfortable day, Sylvie made the trip last evening with her mom into Boston for her dad's first campaign fundraiser, hosted by his former boss Kerry Healey. We almost had her sit it out at home - she was in pretty bad shape yesterday around noon. But as she always does when she has an audience, Sylvie rallied and was in fine form at the reception. In truth, nobody would have suspected she even had a cold. She was all smiles, laughs, and grasping hands. Needless to say she was the hit of the event. The event itself was a great success. It was a full house in a beautiful apartment overlooking Boston Common. People actually seemed to have a good time - a rarity at those things!

No going back now...

Sylvie's Dad's campaign website is now fully deployed (that's web developer lingo I learned during this process).

Please take a look. If you live nearby enough to help out, make sure to click "volunteer" and get on the list. Even if you don't, you can sign up for emailed news and campaign updates - not everything makes it to the blog.

Editorial comments welcomed!

Attack!!

A quick cell phone vid of Sylvie's first (okay, second) taste of ice cream (don't know what's up with the audio):

Sunshine and ice cream

A BIG day for little Sylvie. The family took full advantage of what was easily the nicest day of the year thus far. Sylvie is still feeling pretty low with her cold, but as you can see she rose to the occasion. Many more shots, as always, in the May Gallery...

First, she and mom donned their sun hats (Sylvie's courtesy of Grammy).

Then it was off to Ashland State Park, Pax's favorite place in the wide world. Aunt Emily has a hat too!

No hats for Daddy. They itch.

Sylvie doesn't understand what's the big deal about swimming.

Then we headed to C&L Frosty, maybe Sylvie's Mom's favorite place in the wide world.

Sure looks like Syl knew what was coming...

We'd agreed, no Dairy for Sylvie until she's a year old (that's what "they" say is best these days) but...! An instant after this shot, her fists closed on the ice cream, and cherry dip went all over Sylvie and all over Melissa. Sylvie was well-pleased.

Rollin'... al fresco

We think even those of you who saw Syl as recently as last week will be impressed with how mobile she's becoming.

On the cold front, poor little Syl has a pretty bad one.  Bad enough, in fact, that it's 10:30am and she's been asleep since 8 pm last night!!!  Her dad is getting a tiny bit worried, but I just checked on her and she's sleeping contentedly, sucking her thumb, and she does not feel feverish.  So I guess her body is just resting up and fighting the cold.  

They said this would happen!

Sylvie started daycare this past Monday. Melissa has started doing contract work for her firm, from home. While the flexibility of the arrangement is worlds better than the situation she'd be in if she had returned to the firm full-time, it remains the case that her work requires a lot of concentration - concentration that simply cannot be had with a cute, giggly little baby around (or, less often, a screaming-for-attention baby). So on Monday Sylvie spent her first day at Next Generation Children's Center in Franklin, about 20 minutes from home. As you can probably see from the web site, day care has come a long way. She gets tons of stimulation - what could even be called "education," crazy as that sounds for a six month old.

Unsurprisingly, her teachers told Melissa Monday evening that she'd had the best first day they'd ever seen - no fussing, a lot of smiling. They love her. So that made both of her parents feel a lot better about the whole thing. From here on out she'll be spending most or all of every Monday and Thursday with her friends at Next Generation, while her mom gets some work done.

But to return to the subject line: everyone has told us that the one real downside of day care is that as soon as a baby starts day care, she'll have a runny nose forevermore. Like clockwork, little Sylvie's nose started running like a faucet last evening! But as with prior colds, her spirits remain unaffected, and she's still sleeping fine.

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Swing!

Sylvie enjoyed a nice time this weekend at the O'Learys' house. In addition to meeting new friends the Cobbs, she also experienced her first time on a swingset! She seemed... uncertain but willing to tough it out.

Many more in the May gallery.

Holy Photos!

Whew, that was a lot of photos to go through!  Made it though, and here they are: the "Sylvie's Baptism Weekend" gallery.

Many thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate.

And special thanks from Syl to her Godparents, Aunt Willow and Uncle Pat.

So sad!

This is how Sylvie feels about all of her company leaving...

Thanks to everyone who came and visited and made Sylvie's Baptism such a special occasion.  We miss you!  I promise to have MANY photos of the week up just as soon as I can.

Baptized!

Well, she did it.  And as you can see, she was pretty happy about it!  I have no fewer than three cameras worth of shots to wade through!  In the meantime, here's a good one from church...

Spending time with company, and on the campaign trail

As you can see, Sylvie has had a very busy week leading up to her Baptism. Many more photos to come, of course... And more in the May Gallery.

She's a natural

Sylvie was the star attraction at her dad's campaign kick-off yesterday morning at Holliston Town Hall. These photos are courtesy of Dad's pal, professional photog Tom Fitzsimmons (who is excellent for event photography, if you happen to be in the area).

This first one is of Syl being introduced to Bobby Blair, the "Mayor of Mudville." Bobby is quite a guy - he makes the national news a couple of times a year these days for the very moving (and time-consuming) telephone pole tribute he puts up to fallen soldiers on Memorial Day and Veterans' Day.

Here's Sylvie meeting retiring Representative Paul Loscocco, on hand to give her Dad his very kind endorsement.

Dad shamelessly exploiting his daughter as he gives his kick-off speech.

The family.

And what's a campaign kick-off without a little PAIN!?!?


The Metrowest Daily News ran a good article, and HopNews.com was kind enough to put up the following video (which is even more painful for dad to watch than was Sylvie's attention to his hair).

Supportive Sylvie

Sylvie probably wouldn't admit it if you asked her, but I think she was having some misgivings about the time this whole campaign thing might take from her quality time with Dad...

She wondered, it seemed, where she would fit in to all of this.

Ultimately, though, she decided to suit up and join in. Dad is convinced she's his secret weapon.

Keen observers have likely already noticed that Sylvie's Dad now has a campaign web site. It's in its very preliminary stages, with only a cover page. But it's up and running at www.danhaley2008.com.

Locomotion

Today when I was busily posting the photos of Syl and Aunt Emily, Sylvie was on her tummy on a blanket behind me.  After a few minutes I turned around and she was  a good three feet from where she'd started, still on her stomach.  So while I didn't actually see her crawl, there was pretty convincing circumstantial evidence that she'd at least done a trench crawl a few feet.  I put the camera on her for an extended time, and you can see she definitely knows what she's supposed to be doing.  Won't be long now...

Aunt Emily

Yesterday Sylvie got a new housemate, playmate, diaper-changer and occasional DBS (Designated Baby Sitter) for the summer!  Her Aunt Emily has a 12-week internship with Elder Hostel in Boston, so she'll be staying with us and giving little Syl someone else to learn from.  Sylvie is most pleased.

With a new month comes a new photo gallery, so be sure to check occasionally at the May 2008 link in the photos column.

Grammy and Grampy

On Wednesday Sylvie's Grammy and Grampy Haley arrived from Florida, the first visitors to get here for Sylvie's upcoming Baptism.  As you can see, Sylvie (sporting the latest in urban infant-wear, courtesy of her Aunt Amanda) was very pleased to see them.

In unrelated news, Sylvie's Dad got some welcome and unexpected exposure when he somehow landed a quote on the front page of today's Boston Globe, above the fold.  It isn't the greatest quote in the world, but there's no such thing as bad publicity, as they say.  And Syl's Dad wasn't disappointed to see his opponents referred to merely as "two Democrats."  By the end of the day, as a direct result of the Globe placement, he ended up in an AP story and a column in the State House News that gets syndicated statewide (will link to it when it is published).

Not a bad day for the campaign.

Why is Sylvie's Dad typing about himself in the third person?  He does not know.