Sugar, Spice, and Spunk!

Today Eden turned 7 months old. Seven months... I can't believe it. I know this feeling will only get more pronounced as she gets older, but I just feel like it was just yesterday when we brought her home from the hospital.

Now, she's pulling up on everything in sight, crawling anywhere she wants to go, eating all sorts of foods, making it clear which ones she likes and which ones she doesn't, and working on four teeth coming in!

She's also really started to express her personality-- and she is spunky. I believe she's going to be a climber. She seems to be a pretty tough little girl too. She doesn't seem too fazed by the bumps, bangs, and bonks that accompany a crawler exploring her world. And speaking of banging, she beats on everything she gets her hands on-- and hard! I mean, she really gives her toys and our table tops the what for!

But when she's sleepy, she wants her Mommy, or sometimes she'll agree to snuggle with Daddy while she sucks her fingers. Actually, last night at the dinner table all it took was a good filling of cereal and fruit mix and she fell asleep right in her high chair.

Things are otherwise plugging along in the Neely household. That's the news for now. We'll keep you posted.

Pretty as a Picture

Here are some pictures from Eden's first professional photo shoot at six months old. She did pretty well considering three wardrobe changes!

Leaps & Bounds

It has been a week of milestones and setbacks. This past weekend we traveled to Tampa to visit family for the Fourth of July. While we were there, Eden decided she would show off and pull herself up to standing for the very first time. And this after just last week when she decided to sit up and start crawling. I'm telling you, this little girl is ready to go, go, go!

When we got home, we noticed that her first tooth is also starting to come in. T-bone steaks, here we come! For the time being, I've posted a short video clip below of Eden getting her first taste of bananas. Kendall fed them to her while we were down this weekend.

Ok, so that's the good news. The bad news is that the amoxicillin that Eden was taking to fight off the ear infections in both ears gave her a delayed allergic reaction. When I went to pick her up from daycare yesterday, our fair-skinned little girl had turned into a red bumpy baby covered head to toe with a rash.

I took her to the pediatrician this morning and they said it is not a terribly uncommon reaction to the amoxicillin. Since her ear infections haven't cleared up yet, they put her on Cefprozil, another antibiotic that is another variation of a penicillin derivative. They also gave her some probiotics to clear up some of the other less mentionable digestive side effects of the antibiotics.

All in all, things are good in the Neely household. I've been trying to beef up my Web presence in preparation for the job search this year. I updated some stuff on LinkedIn and Twitter (ufjeff) and am trying to generally get a little more e-socially connected.

In that vein, I thought I'd also shamelessly self-promote my Web page in case any of you want to check it out. It's www.jeffreyneely.com. It's still in progress. I need to update and change a few things, but it's off to a decent start.

Kendall is doing well. She also continues to fight off the lingering crud of back-to-back colds. She seems to be on the mend now, so that's good.

That's the news for now. We'll keep you posted.

Busy summer

Things have been happening very fast here recently. Yesterday was a big day for Eden. It was the first time that we saw her "officially" crawl (i.e. arms and legs moving together in synchronized motion), and she sat herself up all on her own. I guess she just decided that there is a bunch of stuff out there that she needs to check out, so she might as well be on her way. Ah, how it pains a father's heart to think soon she'll have her knapsack packed and be hoppin' some northbound freight train to see what adventure lies before her. Ok, ok... so I'm a sucker for hyperbole.

And you know, judging by her chipper smile and sparkly-eyed coos, you'd never know that she had an ear infection in both ears. Yes, we took her to the doctor on Tuesday because she's had a lingering cough ever since her bout with a virus about a month ago. Like I say, she's been acting so cheery and eating well and playing happily, so I was surprised when Dr. Benton said her ears were infected. She's been on Amoxicillin for the last couple of days, and it seems to be working already, as her congestion seems to be clearing.

Things are extremely busy for Kendall at work right now. They're working with a skeleton crew, as about a third of her staff is out for one reason or another. Hopefully things will get back to normal when they're fully staffed again in August.

I am working on transcribing interviews for my dissertation. Data collection is done, so now it's a matter of analyzing it and getting it written up. I'll also be heading to Denver in August for the AEJMC conference, where I'll be presenting a paper and participating in the job placement "speed dating" meet-and-greet.

I'm also going to start trying to be a little more frequent with posting on this blog. Have I said that before? Well, I'm not making any promises, but I'm going to try.

Anyway, that's the news for now. We'll keep you posted. Here's a few recent pics.