13 month update!

Yep! She's 13 months old now!

*Same diaper info! Going on 10 months in the same size cloth. They say year 2 is where you start seeing savings :) YAY! Size 4 huggies still overnight.

*The 12 month clothes have pretty much all been packed away. 18 month sizes are in syle now.

*She is drinking 12-16 ounces of whole milk each day. She no longer nurses at night before bed. She does however, still have a mama's diner snack in the morning when she's still in sleepymode at like 5:30am.

*Bedtime is pretty good most nights. Tonight wasn't good - lots of crying, but usually she takes her bottle, lays in bed awake and falls asleep with less than 2 minutes of fussing - sometimes no fussing at all. Bedtime is 7:30ish.

*Wakeup time ranges 6-7.

*She hates her crib. Always has. She wakes up fussing every morning and every nap - but when someone goes to her, she gets happy. I would love to get a cute picture of her standing in her crib with the letters on the wall that spell her name in the background...but the only ones I manage to get are of her screaming. Not quite what I had pictured! (This is nothing new, just something I thought of now)

*Guess where she still sleeps at daycare? Yep, you guessed it. The infant bouncer. She still does 2 naps most days. Sometimes I think she's ready to drop that morning nap though and make one better mid day nap. Like this past weekend - took a 45 minute morning nap and then couldn't settle down for an afternoon nap.

*She is still rear facing in the van carseat. Richie turned her front facing in the truck a few weeks ago. She was always looking into the sun in the truck and even with those sunshades they sell, she didn't like it. She loves kicking Richie's coffee cup in the cup holder now!

*She wears a size 4 shoe, but most days she wears her little brown Robeez still. She knows where socks and shoes go. If I sit her on my lap to put them on, she pulls her feet up and tries to help. The other day, she was sitting on the floor with her socks on and she had a book open next to her. I looked over and she was putting her foot on the page... upon closer inspection, she was putting it on the shoe! There is a lifesized picture of a brown shoe so it looks very much like hers and she kept putting her foot onto it. It was so cute!

*Words:
Keeeeeeeyy (Kitty)
Mmmmmmmmm (Mmmmmm) or (More!)
Bol (Ball)
Yes, she does mama and dada, but not on a regular basis... I'm not worried. This kid is always saying something, even if we can't understand what it means.

*She understands some things we're telling her ... cries when we tell her not to throw her food on the floor, comes to us when we call her (geez...that makes her sound like a dog!), comes into bathroom when we say it's bath time

*She can climb stairs pretty efficiently! When it's time to go down though, I sit on the top step and she runs over and climbs on my hip.

*She has 4 teeth. Two top. Two bottom.

*She eats everything (pretty much...except veggies!). She loves fruit!

*She tackles poor Toby on nearly a daily basis.

*She is walking all over the place - not much need for crawling these days.

*She weights 21 pounds 12 ounces, as of yesterday at her flu-shot/check-her-ears-appoitment.

*She loves playing in the kitchen - the dishwasher is a favorite. She loves getting into any unlocked cabinets too.

*She drinks water from a sippy cup, but still doesn't like milk in a sippy. We've tried tons of kinds of sippies. Really hoping we don't have to take bottles on the cruise!j

*She still takes her paci to help her calm down for sleep.

What do you find in your cabinets?

I find teddy bears.
I find magnets.
I find ugly dolls.

What do you find behind your TV? Tonight I found: 1 toy purse, 1 toy lipstick, 1 toy bracelet, 1 little girls sock, 1 of my socks, 1 lady bug musical instrument, 1 block and 1 set of toy keys. Interesting place to stash the stuff, huh?

Iron Kettle Pumpkin Farm

We took a trip last weekend to the pumpkin farm. It's the same pumpkin farm that Richie used to go to as a kid :) It's become very touristy now, but it's still fun!

Mommy and Laura looking at the pumpkin people - this is the Sleeping Beauty part.
Here she is by the Winnie The Pooh pumpkin people and she loved the yellow rope in front of the characters! She grabbed right on and shook it all over the place.

Awe look - CareBear pumpkin people :)

More yellow rope...

Look how tall she is!

Taking a break from looking at the goats... Check out those two top teeth making their way into view!

Daddy and Laura chillin' by the corn.

And finally - the pumpkin patch!

Bathtub Cutie!

I pulled out my 50mm lens for my camera again - I've not had it out very much since Laura was born - just too hard to get good shots inside since you have to be so far back to get a lot in the frame and in a small house, that's not always possible. I'd rather get a bunch of so-so shots, than miss out on them altogether...but I pulled it out and have been playing again. I forgot how much I really do like using the lens though - I still have to work on getting that good crisp focus that I so dream about...

David and Laura hugging to keep warm today.

Come on now... Let me hear you all together...
AWWWWWWWWWW!

Poor Laura - Her mama won't Leaf her alone and always has a camera in her face! ha ha ha!

Just playing in the leaves.

Updating...

Whoops! Forgot to swing by for updates! (sorry!)

Thursday was Laura's testing. She did fabulous with it! She screamed, but she sat/laid right still and they didn't once have to retake any of the pictures. She was so good with it all.

Friday we followed up with the doctor. As soon as I walked into teh exam room with Laura she looked at the two nurses and screamed... and screamed...and screamed some more. (Sorry Cindy! - don't take it personally...) Doctor came in and said that everything from Thursdays tests were 100% normal and her UTI back in August must have just been bad luck! YAY! That's what we wanted to hear! Now hopefully she won't have to be cathed again for a very long time...if ever again. Her right ear was looking a little red and her left ear still had a little fluid in there so we finished out the 10 days of antibiotics and hopefully all is well now. She certainly acts like she feels fine.

She's sleeping well overnight. We actually went this weekend and bought a two pack of pacifiers. I know I know... most kids are done with pacifiers by this point or parents are trying to get rid of them, but my kid really likes hers for sleep. We have been functioning with just one lone pacifier for a few months now and I'm tired of crawling under the crib at 2-3-4am to find it after she's chucked it. So, now we at least have 3 floating around at any given hour. Now - if I could just get her to learn how to put it in her own mouth to soothe herself we'd be all set. She's waking up a couple times a night, but since she's feeling better, it's a simple pacifier pop and she's out again - she's been sleeping later too in the mornings :) 6:45 some mornings :)

She has grown right out of most of her 12 month clothing! Whoops! Guess that didn't last long into the cool weather season. Good thing I have about six 18 month outfits. She just looks so much more comfy in the little bit bigger clothes!

I picked up a halloween costume for her - she's going to be a bunny rabbit :) (Thanks for the idea Natalie!) I found it on sale at Mamma Goose for $5. And she'll be a frog next year - couldn't leave that 2T froggy there it was TOO cute! I only wished it fit her this year and at first thought I couldn't get it since it wouldn't fit and then I thought - she'll grow into it! So, for $10 I have this years and next years costumes :) (Debbie - if you want to borrow it when your little guy is big enough, you certainly can!)

We took Laura to sears to get her pictures done. I was so not impressed. I should have known better than to waste the money, but we went anyways - so, $26 later and we have one pose that isn't the best, but it'll do I guess. I really wanted one of her all dressed up in her birthday dress, but the dress is all folded in the picture - and only 2 of the 12 shots the lady took Laura actually smiled for so that limited it - and I TOLD the lady I was after a full body shot to show off the pretty dress too - and she took like 4 head/shoulder shots and 1 shot of her looking down at the tail of the rocking horse she was playing with - so right there we have 5 shots I'm not interested in. Yes, we will be going elsewhere for our family portraits - as soon as my zits and pink eye clear up! Ugh!

Speakign of ... Zits - is that due to a recent hormone change with the decrease in breastfeeding? I'm not liking it if that's the case. However, the drop of 2 pounds in the past month has put me just 6 pounds away from my prepregnancy weight and I'm fitting into my prepreggo jeans - so I guess life's not all bad in the vanity department! ha ha!

Ok, I'm out - and I'll leave you with this cutie patootie picture...

Would you like an apple?

Toby Lover!

Disclaimer: No Kitties were harmed in the process of getting all these hugs ...er... getting squashed!

Believe it or not - she was NOT pulling him up by his tail! He had just walked past her and was rubbing against her and as he laid down, she grabbed his tail...

"Toby, would you like a prune?"

The original kitty squashing incident. Now this is a daily occurrence. I stand by my original thought that if Toby is crazy/stupid enough to let her do this, then I certainly don't have to rescue him and I am free to take as many photos as I want! ha ha ha! He stands it for about a minute or so and then takes off.

She really does love him... look at that gaze she's giving him. She loves her kitty.

I guess this is where I should mention that she loves BOTH her kitties, but Miranda is a little smarter than Toby and doesn't allow such things to happen.

Ava's First Birthday Party (From early September!)

Look at these three little cuties! They all had a blast playing with that little 4wheeler! Laura even pushed the button and was making herself cruise along on the grass by herself.











How cute are David and Laura? Awe!




Sorry these are late getting posted Heather! (You can left click on any picture, then right click on the bigger version and save it to your own computer to print them. They're all sized to print at 4x6 as is. I hope you can use some of these since I heard yours didn't turn out well!)

More teeth (finally!)

Just a couple of days ago that top left tooth popped through the gum line. Just enough for her to tap her bottom tooth on it and make an awful crunching sound. I fed her a piece of chicken the other night and it sounded like she crunched on a bone - best guess is she was cracking her teeth together. I hope she doesn't start grinding them - *cringe at the thought*

And today I noticed the right one on top is SO close to popping through the surface.

And - since we're talking about teeth - she finally has let me brush them the past few days! I had tried baby toothpaste about a month ago, but she still wouldn't let me put the brush in her mouth. Now she goes "mmmm" to the banana apple flavored toothpaste and lets me get in there to scrub them a bit.

Poked here and there and everywhere!

Poor Girl.

Thursday had another temp - daycare said it was 102.9 underarm just before I got there. She was super clingy and wouldn't even let go of the pacifier when I picked her up. Got her home shortly later and her temp was 101 rectal. We had planned on having Katie and Owen over that evening for dinner and a play date - and the food had already been ordered. We managed to get some ibuprofen down Laura and she actually perked up and we all had a pretty good evening.

She went down to sleep before 8pm and slept soundly for ... an hour. That was when she woke up screaming - and screaming - and screaming. I took her into bed with me and tried to calm her down - as only holding her helped. Richie took the couch for the night. She slept about another hour and then we tried to give her more ibuprofen. She fought it SO hard and cried the hardest I think she ever has. We couldn't calm her down. Then, about half way through the dose of medicine - she passed out on my lap. Just passed out fast asleep. She'd wake up whining occasionally, but overall the night was okay after that. She stayed in bed with me the whole time.

Friday morning. 102.3 rectal. Uh-oh. Our first thought - another UTI. Called at 7am and got her in with a doctor at 8:30am! (Did I ever mention I love that we can get in so easily at the peds office?!)

Anyways, I explain to this doctor (it was one we hadn't seen before) that I think she has a UTI. She explains that with her history, it doesn't make sense to even try a bag specimen because if it's dirty, then we have to cath - so might as well go for the cath right away. She then says "and lets just do a quick head to toe assessment to make sure nothing else is blatantly wrong".

Left ear - filled with wax and behind that - a big ol' busted ear drum. Yikes! How did we miss that? Once that wax was out there was quite a bit of clear/white drainage. I hadn't seen her pulling at her ears at all - although Richie claims he saw her do it a couple times. Poor thing - all week we thought it was teeth!

Does the "mommy guilt" ever go away? I feel like I should have seen something as obvious as an ear infection coming on.

So, Left perforated ear drum, but with UTI history - they still had to cath her. So, they did that and seh did surprisingly well with it.

The urine was clear! YAY!

Then the doctor came in and told me we had 3 options for treatment.
1) 3 days of shots
2) Shot of antibiotic that day, then follow with a week of oral meds
3) all oral meds
I had already explained to her how absolutely HORRIBLE it is to give Laura any meds by mouth. She talked to me like I was a child and had no idea ~how~ to give meds. "Well, once you get that syringe between her gums you just put it into her mouth one drop at a time and there is no way she can get it out. Of course, you don't squirt the whole dose in at once or you'll choke her." Um - okay - thanks for no help at all. And has she seen Laura take her meds? Because she certainly does get that syringe out from between her gums and RIchie and I end up both wearing medicine spit on our faces.

So, I choose option 1. Yes, I choose 3 days worth of shots. A few seconds of screaming three times is much better than 15 minutes of screaming twice a day for the next 10 days.

She then tells me I can't really choose option 1 becasue it's a Friday and there are no office hours on Sunday, so nobody to give the shot Sunday. This is where I tell her I'm a nurse and ask if I can do it at home. She looked suprised that I'd ask and then said "no". I asked why and she skirted around the answer with "Because you're mom" (whatever THAT means!) and "Because we wouldn't be there to monitor if she had a reaction". Ok, but you're not here to monitor if she has a reacation to the oral stuff either! Grr. So, I choose 1 shot and a week worth of meds.

She gets the (two) shots of rocephin (one in each leg) and we wait for 20 mintues - no reaction. We leave with the script for amoxicillin for 10 days and a followup in 1 week with her primary.

When I picked up her script yesterday, I also picked up a box of tylenol suppositories. I don't believe tylenol works as good as ibuprofen, but it's a heck of a lot easier to give and it'll at least work on any fevers and maybe take the edge off of whatever pain she has - teeth/ear/UTI whatever.

So, I repeat - poor girl - yesterday was not fun - ears prodded at, cathed, 2 shots, and a tylenol suppository to end the day with.

She woke up this morning totally acting her normal happy smiling babbling self! Woo!

Oh, but our success of the week... she takes whole milk now :) Straight! I didn't have to wean her by mixing the milk with my milk at all. She just took right to it. I had hoped I could go right to a sippy cup with the whole milk, but she's still using the bottle. Oh well, 1 change at a time I guess.