Margo did not need prunes in June, but Cary still makes me swoon!

This month I watched my sweet Margo suffer her first illness with the most horrible stomach virus I have ever witnessed. Poor baby managed to catch a nasty bug at her nine month check-up. Since she is not in daycare, she is not exposed to anything and I am guessing that whatever she was licking off of the mirror in the exam room infected her with a vengeance. I know, as a mother, I should not have let her lick that mirror, but we had been waiting for at least 45 minutes and I just could not contain her anymore. I have been trying to be a little less sanitary, so Margo is exposed to a few germs and hoped that the mirror was sanitized after each visit. Clearly, the physician’s office is not as clean as it should be.

Margo’s bottle, food and everything in between went straight through her at least 15 times a day. We are now on day seven and she is still ill, but improving everyday and went the whole night without a dirty diaper or waking. You would not have known she was sick though, watching her laugh, play and eat as usual, except when it was time to change her diaper. Margo never cries, much less screams, and to endure daily screaming episodes up to 15 times a day was torture on my heart. She would shake in pain it hurt her little bottom so badly. We eventually started washing her in the sink each time which helped and thanks to Michelle, we were given the miracle cream, Resinol. If you are a mom with a child in diapers, buy this now to keep on hand. It is hard to find, so you must order it online in advance, but it has been a true Godsend. It is better than Margo’s prescription, better than Triple Paste, better than Dr. Smith’s, better than anything I have tried.

Sick, but happily playing under a chair.

So… back to that nine month appointment. Here are Margo’s stats:

Weight: 20 lbs. 6 oz. (75.57%)

Height: 27 1/4" (37%)

Head: 17.13" (34.17%)

She is clearly short and chunky… all you have to do is look at her adorable rolls to figure that out! The appointment went well and although Margo is still refluxing a lot, we have quit her meds. The MD just doesn’t think it will make a difference at this point, so why unnecessarily medicate? I desperately hope that by the time she is a year old, it will be gone. We were also referred to a pediatric dermatologist to look at the beauty mark on Margo’s face. It is tiny and I do think it is truly beautiful, but I just want to make sure the MD thinks it is ok, given I have a history of melanoma in my family. Otherwise, Margo is right on track and I am going to be introducing meats and other finger foods after her body is a bit more recovered.

Poor Cary spent his first Father’s Day helping me tend to Margo since it was a two-man job. He has proven over and over what a great dad he is, but during this extremely stressful time with Margo he was truly amazing! He was so loving, comforting and patient to both Margo and I. He woke-up without complaint, tended to her with perfect care and was a great support system for me. I must say, when the going gets tough, Cary and I are a great team! Margo is so lucky to have such an attentive, wonderful father.

The best daddy ever!

I too, am so blessed and lucky to have such an awesome husband in Cary. Today, Cary and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary! I cannot believe it has been a decade and what fun it has been! It is amazing how solid and bonded a relationship becomes after 10 years. Cary and I have experienced so much joy, pain, adventure, loss, triumph and struggles throughout the past decade, but one thing has always remained steady… our incredible love for one another. I would be lost without Cary and he truly makes my world go round. Cary loves me unconditionally because goodness knows, I have lots of “conditions”—ha ha! If I could write a definition of Cary, it would include kind, genuine, loyal, honest, funny, sentimental, determined and so many other awesome traits. Who wouldn’t still be madly in love with a man like that after 10 years? Becoming a parent with him this past year has taken our relationship to new heights and there is just about nothing more special that watching him be a father to Margo. I cannot wait to share in many more decades with the man of my dreams!

The day Margo was born, a great memory for our 9th year together!

Month Eight was Great!

Words cannot even express the fun we have been having in month eight. Margo’s little personality is really blossoming and she is such a hoot! Everyone who meets her says she is the best baby they have ever been around… she takes after Cary… we are so lucky!



This month Margo has learned to go from her belly to sitting and does this over and over. It is funny to go in her room and see her sitting up and holding the rails in her crib or standing. She is basically crawling, but will only go a few movements before she sits back up. Her new eagerness to stand and pull up is taking the focus off of the crawling and she now seems to enjoy sitting and standing more. We do not have any play areas where she can actually pull up onto something, but she has just started pulling up in her crib and uses Cary and I to pull up all the time. We do this over and over and she cries when we stop. I have to walk away and leave her to play alone because my arms get so tired of holding her up. So… we got one of those great sit-to-stand walker toys and she seems to really like it. The fact that it is on wheels though, and she is not ready to use it as a walker, requires careful supervision. She can pull up on it alone and it’s pretty cute to see her excitement at herself. She opens her mouth big and wide in awe!

I had also been getting concerned because Margo could roll over from her belly to her back, but could not go the other way, yet was hitting all of the other usual developmental milestones. FINALLY, this month she can roll from her back to her belly and now I know if she is fussing in bed, I can leave her to go to sleep because I know she can’t be stranded on her back!

Margo is an early riser, which is really hard for me, but she sleeps great… 10-11 hours a night. When we put her in bed, she plays for a few minutes and goes right to sleep usually without any problems. We have never had to battle crying it out, thank goodness, because I don’t think my heart could handle it. She also still loves to nap to a point that I am getting concerned that she is napping too much for her age. She naps three times a day for a total of 3-4 hours. It is hard to get out during the day because she will not nap on the run and we only have a few hours out at a time before she gets fussy. By bedtime around 7:00 pm, she is utterly exhausted. We cannot go out to eat or take her anywhere in the evenings because this is her fussiest (which is not really all that fussy) time of day. With her bath at 6:30 and bedtime following, it doesn’t allow of much of a life for us, but I know I am doing what’s best for her and that is my #1 priority.

Margo still does not have a tooth and poor thing has been teething for months now. She scratches the insides of her ears from tugging on them and has intermittent fussy days that I know are due to her teething. I will be so glad when she gets a tooth just so I can know how easy (hopefully) or hard it will be. I love that toothless grin though and will miss it when teeth do arrive. I have just started to introduce finger foods in the form of puffs. Margo didn’t know what to think of them at first, but loves them now and in a few short days learned to pick them up and put them in her mouth. Her pincher grasp is getting better each day! She is a great eater and I can barely seem to make enough food to keep up. Every few days I am making a new batch of something and she almost always likes it pretty well. I love that I can make her a huge variety of healthy choices and get her interested in so many different flavors. This week it is edamame, which is nutrition packed! As we move on to meats, I will probably buy the jarred stuff. There is just something gross about pureeing meat to me!

Margo is also making lots of new sounds. She purposely says “moo” to imitate a cow and has started saying ba ba ba. She is also forming a lot of other new sounds that sometimes make it sound like she is having her very own conversation with herself… wish I knew what was going through her mind.



This month we have introduced Margo to water play and our sweet little water baby just loves it! Her splash pad is a blast and she was so excited by swimming I could not believe it. She wasn’t even afraid to put her face in the pool. We will have to be paying our friends with pools lots of visits this summer! Her other favorite toys are the jump-a-roo and she still loves most of her old stand-bys. The new toys never seem quite as exciting as the old ones, which surprises me. I guess she is a creature of habit like her mama.



Margo also spent her first weekend away from us this month and did fantastic! GiGi and Grandpa watched her at our house, so she would have the comforts of all of her things and she didn’t even really miss us at all. Cary’s mom watches her once a week, so Margo was already familiar with her and I had the comfort of knowing that Georgie already knew how to handle everything. I definitely think the weekend was harder on me than Margo, but it was also nice to have a break.

Margo & GiGi

Things with our sweet Margo could not be better and we are so lucky in love with our precious angel! I cannot believe she will be one-year old in just three short months. Let the party planning begin!!