Maren is One Year Old!

Once again I have too little time, so I am going to be concise.

Up until this week, the weather was beautiful. We got in some good outside time. I was reminded that it felt like summer up until the day Maren was born last year, then quickly got cold.

And now it's getting cold again, and Maren is a year old! On her birthday, she opened presents throughout the day so she wouldn't be overwhelmed. Some highlights:

We had her last monthly photo shoot:

Then last weekend, my mom came for a visit, and we had a little birthday party. Maren ate "cake" for the first time (apple spice cupcakes sweetened with applesauce and prunes, and cream cheese prune paste frosting - no sugar).

The day of her party she was starting to get sick. She was pretty subdued and needed lots of cuddles for a few days. I stayed home from work and had my TA cover one of my classes.

Then she seemed to be getting sicker and sicker. We took her to the doctor for the second time on Wednesday, and at that point she was sent for a chest x-ray, blood work, a urine sample, and put on antibiotics and a special diaper cream. By that time she had a double eye infection (which we had been giving her antibiotic drops for since Saturday), infected diaper rash, and a chest infection. Poor kiddo! Also might have been having some side effects from immunizations the previous Wednesday. She is still not 100%, but is doing much better after starting antibiotics. Now Jeff and I both have colds and I have lost my voice. Hoping we will all be healthy again soon!