Mommy's Face is Not a Toy

There is a game that my brother, Tim, used to play with me. Well, not really a game, I guess it was just something silly to make me laugh and I remember making him do it over and over. (Tim, how old was I when you did this?) I don't think that it has a name but it basically goes:
"Knock on the door" (knock on a person's forehead),
"Peek in" (lift person's eyelid),
"Open the door" (push on person's nose to make mouth open)
"Walk in" (fingers walk into mouth)

Well, this 'game' must be something that babies learn in the womb because Alice is trying to play it already. She does not have the actual steps down but she sure is trying. Sunday morning, I was lying on the floor watching her play. She crawled over to me and started playing with my face....slapping my cheeks, squeezing my nose, sticking fingers up my nose (no, not picking my nose), and prying my mouth open with her fingers. Oh yes, and pulling my hair. She is a rough little girl and is very, very persistent. I tried to explain to her that Mommy's face is not a toy but she didn't care.

Alice is starting to cry when a toy or something else she wants is taken away from her. We have started "trading" her for things. If we want her to give up the phone, we have to get her interested in something else. For the most part it works but she is learning the word "NO". She does this little frown and bottom lip curl when we say it to her. Her eyes water for a second and she whimpers. It is the cutest thing and breaks my heart at the same time.

I took Alice to the doctor yesterday. She can't seem to shake the cough from the cold we all had last month. She just cried all morning yesterday and did not want to eat her breakfast. The doctor said that her ears were clear and her lungs were clear but that she had a few white patches in her throat. Said that strep throat is very rare in babies this age so it was his opinion that she just has another virus. He suggested that we give her a small dose of children's Benadryl to help her congestion and help her sleep. He did say that if the cough does not clear up in a few weeks, it might not be a bad idea to start looking into trying out a pulmicort to see if that helps the situation. He said that it might be worth a test to see if she has a mild form of asthma. (Mom, don't freak...this is only a test)

Anyway, Alice did not like the throat swab and made her feelings abundantly clear to the doctor by biting him. LOLOLOL The doctor jumped back and said "Whoa, that hurt. That has not happen to me in years! Those are some killer teeth!" She apparently made a big impression (no pun intended) because all the nurses knew about it by the time we were leaving the office. Guess Alice showed him!!

So, since her crying has been due to a very sore throat instead of teething as we thought, I decided to skip trying to feed her and just gave her a bottle. We sat on the couch and watched the Backyardigans. (a really cute cartoon with lots of singing and dancing. I find myself singing the theme song all day) We had a quiet evening, gave her some Benadryl and she was out. This morning she was so cheerful and very, very talkative. John said that she had a 5 minute conversation with Flash (the dog).

Oh and I almost forgot, yesterday at her appointment Alice was weighed......she is 21 pounds. What a big lobster!!! I admit that I am a little surprised - I thought she was at last 25 pounds but 21 is right on target. She has her 9 month check-up on Thursday so I will be sure to post the rest of her stats.