18 month update

Today is Kylie's 1/2 b-day =)  

Stats:  I think she's right around 24.5lb and 31.5", which are 54th% and 45th%.  In other words she is totally average.  This of course will be corrected by her official stats at her 18 month appointment this Friday, where she will also get a couple shots. She is wearing size 4 diapers, size 4 shoes and 18 month clothes for the most part with some 24 month shirts starting to be sprinkled into the mix.  She has 16 teeth, the canines are about 1/2 in but all the others are all the way in.  

Food:  It appears she might be getting a little pickier here.  We still feed her what we eat and for the most part she eats it.  But there are some meals where she just turns up her nose at everything.  I go away feeling like she's not getting enough sometimes but then other meals I am floored at how much she eats.  I didn't realize that toddlers would be so up and down in the amount of food they eat.  She eats 3 meals a day, two snacks and is still nursing 3x a day (7am, noon, 6pm).  After 4 months of trying to get her to drink milk we gave up and put chocolate in it.  Guess what?  She still won't drink it.  She LOVES cheese and yogurt though so we may just have to supplement her diet with vitamin D chews which I plan to talk with the doctor about on Friday.

Skills:  We've noticed a big change this month in her verbal ability.  She's putting together lots of two word sentences, her first was "bye-bye daddy" but she also says things about the dogs and now calls them by name and even tries to whistle at them.  You can tell she's really trying to tell you things in phrases now.  Usually we can pick out a word or two that she's saying but not the whole thing.  Overall she has probably 40-50 words.  This month we've been working a lot on "please" and "thank you".  It comes out at "peas" and "thannnns you" but she's using it correctly and it's a big improvement from the grunting and pointing at things.  She's walking and running everywhere.  Climbing still isn't big with her which I'm told to be thankful for.  She still enjoys the body part game and making animal sounds when you name an animal.  This month she learned the hand motions to itsy-bitsy spider and wants us to sing it over and over again while she's in the bath.  When flipping through books she's starting to point to the words and babble noises.  Books are still a big thing with her.  I'm noticing that at daycare I'm seeing her interactively play with other kids now and then instead of 100% independent play (or side-by-side play).

Sleep:  She's still doing great here and sleeps 8pm to 7am with a 2 hour nap from 1-3.  Daylight savings time should be something we can opt out of though.  I thought she did just fine with it the first week but then we had about a 10 day regression where she was waking up an hour early.  Hopefully we've gotten past that.

Pictures:

Getting ready for a dip in the tub

Morning smooches from Daddy

New winter garb

Playing in the leaves - love the tongue!

Showing off her new polar bear hat

18 month pictures

Well, we did it!  Yesterdays re-takes were a success.  Let me know what pictures you like the best.  I've included a slide show but you might have to click on the "View all" button and go to photo bucket so that you can see the names of them. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want all of you, my bloggy friends, to know that I am thankful for you.  Thank you for being there to listen to my ramblings and help me think through the things in life that stress me out.  Most of all thank you for following me along on my TTC journey and the arrival of my little baby girl.  

We are hosting my in-laws this evening but so far it's been a mellow day...it's about 60 degrees and we've taken a walk and spent some time playing in the leaves.  LOVE this holiday!  Hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your loved ones =)

 

Here's another example of Kylie's new fake smile...she's too much.

Daddy's Home!

We made it...a week without Daddy and we're still standing =)  M got home Friday night and K is so happy to have him home.  I came out of the week with a healthy dose of respect for single moms and stay at home moms.  Kudos girls!  

Saturday we tried to get 18 month photos taken.  K wouldn't hear of it...she was all smiles at the store until we put her in front of the camera and then it was tears.  So sad!  We're going to try again next weekend but I'm not sure how it's going to go...maybe we'll just have to wait until she's 2.  

Yesterday I got the thanksgiving shopping done and made it to the gym during K's afternoon nap.  Other than that we had a lot of family time around the homestead this weekend...which was 100% lovely =)

Half way there...

M has now been gone since 5am Saturday morning.  He'll get back at 5pm Friday.  We're over half way through this little adventure of ours.  Time can't go fast enough.  Kylie misses her Daddy and I miss her Daddy. Yesterday was our 8 year dating anniversary...crazy that we've been together 1/4 of our lives.  Some people like when they have the house to themselves...I do not.  Come home M, come home!  

In good news I'm still loving my new car =)  And Kylie loves it too.  I'm hanging my head in shame because I turned her front facing in the new mobile.  She is so much happier in the car...and I feel safer since I don't have a screaming child distracting me.  I hope it's the right decision though...I know the recommendation is to wait until they're 2.  

Here's a picture of the little miss playing with some plastic bracelets we got her for $0.25 at Walmart...she loves them.  She's also giving her new fake smile...like when you say "smile for the camera" this is what she's doing.  She makes me laugh!

 

New ride!

Let me start out by saying that I love cars....fast, sleek, sports cars.  I have had a Mitsubishi Eclipse and a BMW M3 that were my loves.  We sold my M3 in 2006 when we were preparing to have a baby.  I was so bitter that I was driving a Mom car while struggling with IF (2006-2009) and felt like such an idiot for jinxing myself with such a purchase.  The mom car (a Volvo S60) that I had been driving is a sedan but has 240 horse power so it's not exactly a slug and it has been ok for transporting a baby but it is hard to put her in the backseat without hitting her head on the sloping roof line.  This year it's started having some major repairs but we hoped putting a new t-case ($2500) in May would be the last one it needed for a few more years.  Our plan was to buy something bigger so we can take road trips and such.  But two weeks ago the t-case went out again...and the car has 104k miles on it and is in need of the $1k service to replace the timing belt.  So...long story short we bought a new car yesterday.  We intended just to drive it but they made us a deal we couldn't refuse.  Here it is!

It's a Mazda 5 Grand Touring and is kind of a combo of a station wagon and mini van.  Can you say not my kind of car?!?!  But I am in love with it anyway.  It's on the Mazda 3 frame so it drives like a car.  It has seating for 6, although the back seats are kids seats really.  And I think it will give us room to grow and travel.  

Anyway...thought I'd introduce the mom-mobile!  Now lets hope it's not a giant jinx for a sibling for K...

So very tired

Last Thursday Kylie woke up with a fever of 102.5.  We couldn't get it to come down below 101 the whole day even rotating ibuprofen and Tylenol.  Friday she woke up with 101 fever but it came down with meds by 10am or so.  No other symptoms other than being SO CRABBY!  I took her to the doc on Friday evening and her ears and lungs are clear and they didn't even see any redness in her throat.  We have been theorizing on what is going on because the crabbiness continued through the weekend.  Our best guesses were a growth spurt, teething (tooth #16 just broke through the skin over the weekend), virus, or a combination of those.  Well last night I got the fever and it was accompanied by body aches and chills.  I was up a good portion of the night putting on clothes or taking them off - hot then cold, then hot...you know the drill.  Now I'm guessing we have a mild case of the flu.  Lame!  At least Kylie is feeling better now =)  For those keeping track this was illness #23.  Hopefully we both are 100% soon.  M leaves early Saturday morning for a work trip to DC...and won't be back until Friday.  That's right, a full week alone.  My parents, who live close and help out whenever I need them, are also out of town.  Wish us luck!

17 months

Wow, 17 months already.  Can't believe we are only a month away from the official 1.5 year mark.  Whew, time flies!  I'm starting to feel like a broken record saying that.  This stage is SO much fun!!!

Stats: Our unofficial home stats are 30.5" ( 30th %) and 24.75lb (60th %).  It seems like she's going through an "out" stage so I expect an up stage anytime =)  She's still wearing size 4 diapers, size 4 shoes and 18 month clothes.  Some of the tops are getting tight in the tummy though.

Food: Still loving just about anything and everything...except cow milk.  She nurses three times a day (7am, noon, 6pm) and eats three meals and two snacks.  This month she figured out how to strip artichoke leaves.  My 30 year old brother in law can't do that ;-)

Skills: She's very sturdy on her feet now and investigating.  Her two favorite games are animal sounds and body parts.  She knows about 10 of each and loves to play them over and over.  Books are still a highlight and she now sets them down, turns the pages and babbles words as if she's reading them page by page.  She hasn't picked up a bunch of new words from last month but they are getting more clear all the time.

Sleep: Still sleeping 8pm to 7am and napping from 1pm to anywhere between 2:30 and 3:30pm.  With the time change coming up we're feeling a little anxious about how to move her schedule an hour.  Here's hoping it's one of those things you worry about that turns out to be a non-issue.

Pictures:

Since yesterday was Halloween I'm going to use the photos from that even though she was 17 months and 2 days =)

Ready for trick-or-treating at "school"

With our dog, Paco, showing off matching costumes