The Trixie Update

There’s a funny TTU mention in the Guardian. They just like us because all Trixie’s teeth are named after British Battleships.

[Read more →]

Last month after Trixie’s top teeth had come in and the swelling and pain subsided, she discovered she had something new up there to bite against. I can’t imagine what a weird sensation it must be to not have opposing teeth (although I’ll probably get a taste of it in about 50 years.) Conversely, it was a curious situation for Trixie as she realized she was no longer biting against soft, wet gums. They had been replaced with hard, enameled, little chisels. And these new things make noise.

For almost a solid week the most horrible, terrifying noises came out of Trixie’s mouth. clik, clik, clik. clik. clik. grrrrrrrind. griiiinnnd. clik. These are faint noises, and you can’t easily pinpoint their origin. Trixie also doesn’t betray herself as the source. She just sits there the whole time, quietly, eyes huge, lips locked shut. clik. clik-click. clik. clik.

The noises are reptilian or maybe insect-like. They are the sounds you hear in science fiction movies right before something very awful happens to a little-known actor. These are the sounds that pierce your brain because they were hardcoded in our primitive ancestors as signs of danger long ago. These are the sounds that make you want to throw on the light after you’ve softly tiptoed into the nursery at 3am because you thought you heard Trixie cry out, but now you just sense some faint movement and feel a pair of giant black eyes watching you out of the gloom. clik. clik.

clik-click… clik

clik

[Read more →]

Trixie is finally making some real progress in the tooth department. We’re excited for a number of reasons. Like she can eat a lot better now. And she’s more dangerous, too — which is something I value highly. But the best part about getting a new tooth is getting to name it. And, too bad for Trixie, she’s stuck with these until her adult teeth come in and she can pick new ones.

[Read more →]

Who was paying attention to the accident record yesterday? Did you lose track of all the leaks? We are having some growing pains as Trixie transitions from size 3 to size 4 diapers. She’s currently stuck in between stages and it’s making life just that much more exciting. How exciting? Well, yesterday we had three full-fledged diaper leaks and one poop in the bathtub. (The bath incident isn’t related to the diaper sizes — just bad luck.)

We normally use generic diapers. But now, at about 20.5 lbs, Trixie seems too big for the number 3’s and she’s swimming in the 4’s. So we’ve been trying some name-brand diapers because they are a little more flexible and fitted. The Pampers size 3’s still works great. The Huggies size 3’s are responsible for yesterday’s devastating diaper failure cascade.

To be honest, I don’t really blame the manufacturer. There’s no way one size diaper can really fit all kids in the 16-28 lbs range. It would be like me buying a pair of pants size 23 - 40 1/2.

[Read more →]

That’s the diagnosis. Our game of Mystery Rash entered the Lightning Round yesterday morning with little quarter-sized patches of rash popping up and then disappearing all over the place. I decided to go ahead and take her back to the doc to see what the heck was going on. I was surprised to find out that it’s hives. My money was on molting.

Tracking down the cause of the hives is apparently a difficult thing to do. It could be the way her body responds to this particular virus, or it could be an unrelated coincidence brought about by either food or environmental allergies. Either way it means it means she’s weak, WEAK like KITTEN. I’m going to drive down to the CDC in Atlanta so we can expose her to some real germs. She’ll build up her immunity and then she’ll be STRONG again — like BEAR. In the meantime, she’s on Benadryl per doctor’s orders. The best part? It causes drowsiness!! First time in 4 days that she slept through the night. Amazing. I think I’m going to go make some Benadryl popsicles.

[Read more →]

She definitely has the same crap that Jenn has been suffering with for the past 2 weeks. Trixie’s waking herself up in the middle of the night with a hacking cough (just look at the sleep log), and based on Jenn’s experience, her throat is sore and painful. We’ve already taken her to the doctor, but they didn’t see anything in her throat, and without a high fever present they aren’t going to do anything.

I thought we would have another chance to go back to the doctor today because Trixie developed an unknown rash last night. It was splotchy, red, had raised bumps and apparently was itchy. We noticed it at 7pm when it was about the size of a dollar bill centered on her stomach. By midnight, her stomach was completely clear, but the rash had spread like crazy all over her arms, legs, face and back. This morning it was completely gone except for a small area the size of a quarter on her thigh. Now, there’s no trace of her ever having the rash at all.

The way it spread across her body makes me think a food allergy, but she hasn’t had anything new to eat in almost 5 days. My other theory is that she’s molting. The worst part about all of this is the inability to communicate with Trixie. She can’t tell us one thing about how she’s feeling, or what specifically hurts. She can cry, of course, and howl, and scream, but that only takes you so far. Jenn was joking that we should just take her to the vet since all they do is work with patients that can’t tell you what the problem is. I’m just not sure if I should take her in on the cat side or the dog side.

[Read more →]

Kids are going back to school. The leaves haven’t changed yet, but it gets chilly at night now. You wake up in the morning and it’s still dark outside. But most importantly, you can almost smell those fresh blog entries as the new fall season creaks and groans to life. We’re back, just moving slower than I thought — kids make you so tired.

[Read more →]