Sniffles Won't Stop Our Party

Calder was awfully tired all day on his birthday and by Thursday we figured out it was because he had a cold. Poor guy. Here I was all bothered that he wasn’t grinning ear to ear for his photos and he was feeling under the weather. His coming down with something was not a shocker, given all the people who’d been in the home on Sunday for the shower. Besides, the photos still turned out well; the photographer did manage to capture at least a few smiles, so my kudos to her! In fact, she may have spoiled me, and I will be scheduling some fall photos for him in DC. Hey, I didn’t get engagement photos, so I’m allowed one extra photo shoot, right, Kraemer?

gossiping? negotiating?
what's going on here.

 

Speaking of birthdays and illnesses, what would a milestone with Calder be without a little drama? We had consulted with three different doctors about Calder being given the opportunity to participate in the latest baby birthday fad: the smash cake. Each physician said it would be fine, no caveats (well, okay, since we asked Ginny before having tested the dairy, she said just as long as he wasn’t allergic.) Predictably, because why *wouldn’t* this happen to us on his birthday, Calder had a reaction to the cake. Minutes after I carried him from his high chair (yes, the high chair you see in these photos dates back to my time in the seat, and, I believe, even about a year earlier, to my cousin’s time) to the kitchen in his skivvies I noticed some red splotchiness across his chest and his arms, each splotch accompanied by a small raised dot in the center. I’d never seen hives but this had to be it. 

So I got the doctor on call on the horn because, well, I’m starting to get over my hesitation about calling doctors after hours (justified now, I think, given my past experience). She listened patiently to my standard delivery of Calder’s history and then asked whether, per chance, there was dye in the icing for the cake and whether it might just have been blue? Why, yes, yes, it had. She proceeded to tell me that it’s very common for babies to have a reaction to blue food dye in particular, that fortunately when they are this young it’s highly doubtful that they are even experiencing much discomfort and that I shouldn’t be alarmed if the hives reappear over the next several weeks randomly after a nap or a bath.

Crisis averted.

Kraemer is convinced his first word
needs to be and will be "giraffe."

Flash forward a couple days later when Calder experiences a pretty intense bout of coughing to the point where he cannot seem to catch his breath and to such a disturbing degree that we basically have the whole family packed into the car on a Saturday night and about to head to the emergency room. Of course, Kraemer was able to slow the panic train down and ask whether I’d called the doctor. Got the doc on the phone (aaahgain, aaafter hours, different doc, fortunately), and she told me he was probably fine unless, you know, he REALLY couldn’t breathe, and that we should just call our pediatrician first thing Monday morning. We did, he prescribed two different steroids to be administered via the nebulizer, and Calder already has demonstrated marked improvement.

This week held a couple other big firsts. He had his first trip to the zoo, this time with his dad, Getch and Grandad. I heard he was more interested in his Wubbanub than the wildlife, but I’m sure this time next year he’ll be all about those monkeys since he is, arguable, one himself.

He also took his first dip in the pool, which we were optimistic would be a hit given his love of all things water, and if his spastic legs are any indication, he was having a pretty dang good time.

I got this

 

The car ride home, by the way, was amazing. AMAZING. We stopped for gas, stopped at a rest stop, stopped for DQ (that’s right. Always time for Dairy Queen when you ain’t dairy-free.) But most impressively, Calder slept for 2.5 hours right off the bat. Then another one. Then another two. And then we were home. If he’s this good when traveling, maybe I’ll take him on another vacation someday.