Ena has a cold

The past seven days have held a number of firsts for Ena. Her first apples. Her first broccoli (which she did not like - we will keep trying). Her first unassisted sitting. Her first roll from back to tummy. And, her first cold. E and I both got sick after he went to Kitimat for the drama zones. Gone for four days, none of us got much sleep. E was busy monitoring his students, trying to make sure that they didn't do any of the stupid things we all do when we are teenagers. I was busy trying to get Ena to sleep. She was busy trying to keep from sleeping. We were all so run down it was really just a matter of time before we became ill.
Ena has been the last of our lot to get the cold. E and I are almost runny nose free but Ena is still suffering. This past weekend she had a couple of terrible nights, whimpering and waking regularly. We finally decided to give her some children's tylenol and it did seem to help. Because she can't breathe through her nose properly she has been drooling like crazy. We have to keep putting fresh bibs on her to keep her dry. She's also been a bit grumpy and who can blame her? I hope that she gets over it soon. For all our sakes.

First solid food

Now that Ena is 5 months old we have decided to try introducing solid foods. Yesterday I made up a batch of brown rice and we pureed it with some breast milk. We planned to offer her some after her dinner time feed. Unfortunately she became fussy in the evening and we thought we'd have to call the whole thing off. We were quite disappointed. I think that she was disturbed by the sound of the blender. Anyhow, with a little creative thinking E and I managed to get her back in a good mood. E sang/played The Grand Old Duke of York with her - lifting her up and down on his lap to the song "when they were up they were up and when they were down they were down and when they were only half-way up they were neither up nor down." I sang her recent favourite, The Wheels on the Bus. She seems to love watching the hand movements.

With Ena back in a good mood we decided to try to food after all. I didn't have high expectations but surprisingly she seem to quite enjoy it. We planned to give her only a teaspoon but she responded well so we fed her four or five small spoonfuls. Of course, of this likely only a teaspoon was actually digested. Most ended up on her hand, her bib, and me. Still, we were very proud of her. Another first. What a delight it is to watch her grow and change.

p.s. That tooth is very sharp. It is above the gum now, though it still doesn't look like a tooth in a photo. She keeps pulling our fingers into her mouth for a good chomp and I keep expecting her to actually break our skin. Ouch.