Sammy is Walking (and has a third tooth)

It's official.  Sammy is really walking at 11 months, 1 week.  She first started taking steps at 10.5 months when we would encourage her to walk to us.  But now, she is just walking instead of crawling to her destination.  She walked across our entire den.  She walked down our entire hallway.  Sometimes she evens claps when she walks.  She's extremely proud of herself and I'm amazed by how quickly she figure it out.

Other Sammy news:

1.  She is finally cutting her third tooth on the top right.  It's been 4 months since she got her two bottom teeth and so I'm glad that we're finally seeing some progress after so much drool!

2.  Sadly, Sammy has yet another nasty ear infection, only 6 weeks since the last one cleared up.  Last Saturday night, she had a 102 fever (after having a cold and yellow snot for a couple of days).  I was hoping for the best when I took her to the doctor on Sunday morning, but when they looked in her left ear, they said "Well, that's about the worst it can get."  Her left ear was super red and filled with pus.  Her right ear was just beginning to get infected.  Ugh.  I really wish Sammy exhibited symptoms of her ear infection before it got so bad!  My husband and I haven't decided yet whether to get her tubes.  We're hoping to push off the decision until next winter since we'll soon be out of cold season and maybe in another 6 months, she'll outgrow these ear infections.  But until we get her tubes (if we get her tubes), the minute her snot goes from clear to yellow, we're taking her into the doctor to get her ears checked.  Hopefully, this time around, she'll be able to clear the infection without only one round (instead of FOUR rounds!) of antibiotics.  We went straight to cefdinir which is in the same family as suprax but way cheaper.  It started working after 72 hours.

3.  Now that I'm winding down breastfeeding, we decided to give Sammy whole cow milk and see how she reacted. I gave her 2 ounces the other night and she drank it and was totally happy.  No reaction - no vomiting or diarrhea.  And I gave her 5 ounces the next day and it was fine.  Woo hoo!  So now I feel really good about winding down the pumping because I know that I can give her cow milk instead of formula.  And I'll still nurse her in the morning and at night.  Man, it will feel so good to get rid of that pump!