First time parents with a first time fever

I had, in my head, an idea of how I had hoped Jo's first 4th of July would go.  It was something along the lines of baths, feedings and pj's complete, followed by a later than usual bedtime so we could sit in the drive way and watch the fireworks.  I was excited to see Jo's reaction to the fireworks, whether good or bad.  And naturally, I was excited to document her first 4th through photos and eventually a blog (ahem). 



Ahh...one can only dream of making their child's first 4th this memorable.

The older Jo gets the more we realize our "ideas" of how an evening or event should go may or may not go as planned.  There were a couple of things I really did not factor into my "plan" for Jo.  First....the wretched heat.  Wednesday was yet another triple digit day in East Tennessee.....yuck.  Second....fireworks generally don't start until after it gets dark, which means keeping Jo up past 9pm.  Which is nearly impossible.  Third......7 1/2 month olds probably don't really seem to care about fireworks (hmmm). 

Or, at least I assume 7 1/2 month olds don't really care about fireworks.  I really wouldn't know as we never even got close to finding out.  About 6pm on Wednesday evening Brandon and I noticed that Jo seemed to be pretty warm.  By 6:45 we checked her temperature and sure enough she had a fever. Although I did not realize that a baby isn't considered to have a fever until their temperature is above 100.5...so technically at 100.3 she didn't have a REAL fever.  But, don't go telling that to first time parents experiencing first time fevers/sicknesses.  You might as well have sounded the alarms in the Bice household.  How is it that parents who seem to stay fairly calm and collected 90 % of the time (at least we hope) can fall apart in a moment over something as simple as a low grade fever?  Although, I will say, in reality we stayed pretty cool......for the most part.  So our 4th of July ended with baby Tylenol, extra cuddles and an earlier than normal bedtime for Miss Josie.  As it turns out, our little sweet potato has her first ear infection.  Both Brandon and I agree that making it to nearly 8 months of age without any ear infections is pretty darn great for ANY daycare baby! 

On a brighter note....

Brandon and I are so excited to spend some time with his family soon!  His sisters and aunt/uncle/cousins have never met Jo and it will be so incredible to introduce her to all of them.  We also have a new niece we have never met!  We so look forward to this time with them!  It's hard to believe we haven't seen some of his family in two years!  Two years can seem like a lifetime when families are growing and changing so quickly.