Of snot, sadness, words and Dada

Aida spent her 16 month birthday with a 100.3 degree fever, a cough, a super snotty nose, an ear infection and a visit to her doctor. And because she was sick, it also means she spent it with me.

I'd like to think that if Aida could speak full sentences, she would agree with me that this is the upside of her suffering, this unanticipated mommy-and-aida time.

She napped for about an hour all day, and not without significant protest accompanied by great wailing and gnashing of teeth. The downside.

I tried to soothe her. I held her and rocked her til her sobs turned to humming and eventually sleep.

The upside: She patted me on the back when I patted her on her back. She sang into the silence when I stopped singing for her.

Even sick, she's pretty cool.

Because we were feeling so raw and sad and sick and bluesy, we decided to listen to Billy Holiday a lot of the day.

Our CD player gets stuck on "The Very Thought of You." Which is, I guess, the downside.

Aida rocks from side to side when she hears the beat of the relentless skip. The upside.

The girl is blowing my mind lately.

She's started standing and spinning her body in circles for amusement. Spinning is kind of an exaggeration, since it's deliberate and kinda clumsy looking. But so, so cute. She thinks it's a riot. She's been trying her hardest to jump. "Jump!" we say, and she bends her knees then pushes up with enthusiasm, her stubborn feet never lifting off the floor. So funny.

Her vocabulary alone is keeping us on our toes. She hears a bus pass outside and she says, "bus." The birds chirping elicits a "behd," for bird. She's been saying "hot" for a long, long time now, but yesterday, she applied to the steam she saw rising from the humidifier in her room. A couple weeks ago, she wrapped a strand of Mardi Gras beads around her wrist, looked up at me and said, "bracelet."

Now it sounds like she's asking questions, "Whatdis?" and making demands, "Read-dis."

Yesterday, while she was sick with snot pouring down her nose and into her mouth like a friggin water facet, I sat on the couch and gave her orders.

"Aida, bring me your dog." She would look at me, turn, toddle into her bedroom and then come back with the stuffed Dr. Seuss dog.

"Aida, bring me your duck," I ordered again. She turned, walked into her room, and came back out with the duck.

By the end of our game, I was sitting on the couch with a dog, a stuffed broccoli, a Winnie the Pooh, a duck, a snake, a frog and a teddy bear (though I didn't order the teddy bear...she just volunteered that one).

I was so impressed. Sweet little snot-head.

One other thing. Steve's been out of town since Thursday and Aida's been saying his name at times when she would normally see him.

Like the first thing when she gets out of bed in the morning. For the first two mornings he was gone, after I took her from her crib, she ran toward our open bedroom door, "Dada! Dada!" she said again and again.

When I told her Dada was at work, she grabbed my iPhone from the end table and suggested he was there. "Dada?" she asked.

No honey. I'm sorry. He's normally on the phone when he's not home, but no. Not this morning. He's in Austin working.

"Dada!" she exclaimed again when we were returning from a stroll. Usually, he's sitting at his desk in the back of the house and is there to greet Aida when we come inside. "Dada!" she says when she spies him through the glass door.

"Dada's at work, honey."

We used FaceTime to talk with him every day but today, and she was overjoyed to see him. It's the first time I've really seen her register clear recognition and show the ability to communicate with someone we were video chatting with. She waved hello and bye-bye. She laughed when he stuck his hair in the camera. When he made a "pfffft"sound with his lips, she did the same. It was so funny.

"Dada!" she said this morning when she heard my mom come in the back door.

Dada will be here tomorrow, honey. Thank goodness.

Sixteen months old. Sick and sad. With stickers.