16 Months Old

It's safe to say we are in full on toddler mode at our house.  Meltdowns and attitudes are a common occurrence.  Yesterday we had a meltdown while trying to get out the door to daycare... I wouldn't let Izzy spend 45 minutes putting her shoes on.  She has yet to actually figure out how to put her shoes on, so it wasn't something that was eventually going to happen.  I can't imagine where she gets her independent attitude from.

Our first milestone this month was celebrating Buddy's 14th birthday!  It's hard to believe he is 14; most days he acts like he's 5.  He has been battling pain in his back again the last month or so.  It started just before Christmas.  I was hoping we would be able to kick it with a quick round of steroids, but this took a full on round of meds and acupuncture treatment.  Luckily, I think we are finally coming out of it and he seems to be doing well.  As usual, we celebrated with a pupcake for both he and Maya.

Izzy continues to develop her personality.  She loves to dance; she must have my genes.  Daddy is already a little concerned about some of her dance moves.  I have assured him they wont last.

We seem to have some discrepancies on Izzy's height.  At her 12 month appointment with the doctor, she measured 32".  When I measure her at home, she is only measuring about 31".  I'm guessing she moved her head the last time we measured her at the doctors office.  She was due to go back to the doctor at the end of December for her 15 month checkup.  With all of the germs floating around right now, I have no interest in taking her into the clinic.  We will get there once this round of germy winterness passes.  Until then, we will say she is measuring just shy of 32".  Needless to say, I'm not sure she has really grown much since turning a year old.  She did actually gain a pound this last month and is now up to 26 lbs and 4 oz.  I can explain this by the pound of green beans she ate just before I weighed her!

Meal time is always a treat with Izzy.  One minute she loves cheese, the next day she wants nothing to do with it.  She was totally into goldfish crackers for a while.  I bought a bunch at the store and suddenly she wants nothing to do with them.  I can't keep up.  I'm sure you experienced parents are laughing as you read this and thinking, "welcome to the club".

We are still in 18 months month clothes, but I have pulled out a few 24 month things.  I stock piled quite a few 24 month winter clothes that I want to make sure she gets some use out of before the end of winter.  I thought I had been collecting some clothes for this summer, but when I went through Izzy's clothes this week I realized I don't have near as many things as I thought.  Before I hit up my favorite consignments shops for spring and summer clothing, I'm going to wait and see if this little sassy pants is about to go through another growth spurt.  I have a hunch we are going to land somewhere in the 24 month to 2T range for the summer.  Shoes are another tough one right now.  We blew through size 4 shoes quickly, so I stocked up on size 5 shoes for the winter and a few size 6 shoes for the summer.  However, her feet have slowed, and now I'm not sure she will make it to size 6 by the summer.  At this point, I've stopped buying clothes for the next season!

This month we have been lucky to enjoy some time outside.  Izzy had her first exploration in the snow.  She couldn't really move in all of her snow gear, but she seemed to enjoy it anyway.  She chased after Maya while Andrew threw snowballs.  Buddy stayed inside and enjoyed the warmth.  With his old age comes an intolerance for the cold.  We have a busy February in store for all of us.  I have a big test coming up next weekend, Andrew has some travel for work, and Izzy will have her first Valentines Day party at daycare.  Through it all, I try to remember to enjoy to the day to day.  She's growing up quickly, and I don't want to miss a minute.

Four Months Old

We made it to four months already.  I say it every month, but the time is seriously just flying by.  Izzy is so much fun right now because it seems like every day is something new with her.  She is "talking" to us all the time now.  Sometimes it's just screeching and sometimes it sounds a little more like actual words coming out of her mouth.  Either way, it's adorable (except when it's at 6 AM on Saturday).

 

This last month was eventful, for sure.  She had her first visit to the doctor for a non well baby visit.  Unfortunately she came out angry after the doctor checked her ears and discovered she had an infection on the right side.  After a forty minute wait at the pharmacy (lucky for them she was asleep during this time), we came away the proud owners of our first bottle of amoxicillin.

I was actually pretty upset that after only three and a half months she needed to be on antibiotics; the joys of daycare.  Luckily, there have been some other nastier bugs going around at daycare that we have so far been able to dodge.

In addition to talking, our little lady is really trying hard to roll over.  She can get onto her side, but she just needs that final oomph to push her over.  I have read most babies roll from their stomach to their back first.  This kid hates being on her stomach for more than five minutes, so I'm guessing she is going to roll from back to front first.  Of course, she might go from her stomach to her back first in protest of being put on her stomach.  She does already have a bit of a tude, so it's quite possible she would do such a thing.

All the ladies in her room at daycare think she is pretty hilarious and adorable.  Of course, that might be helped by the fact that there is only one other girl in her room right now and she is only there part time.  Most days, she is outnumbered by dudes.  I'm sure she makes the best of it!

These past few weeks, Izzy has really gotten into toys.  She grabs at them and of course puts them in her mouth.  Her feet and hands are constantly going.  She actually has spots on the outsides of both little toes right now where she has slammed them into things.  Andrew says she wouldn't be his daughter if she didn't constantly have some kind of injury; Lord help me!  We transitioned her out of the infant sling in her bathtub, so she gets to sit down in the water more now.  She loves splashing in the water!     

At her four month appointment, she weighed in at 16 lbs and 4 oz.  That puts her somewhere in the 80th percentile for her weight, which is perfect.  She measured at 26 1/4 inches, which puts her in the 99th percentile plus for her height.  This might explain why she isn't able to fit in a lot of one piece outfits.  She grew out of her 3 month one piece outfits shortly after turning three months old.  Depending on the brand, I was able to get a little more time out of her 3 month onesies, but have now had to pull them out of her wardrobe rotation.  That meant putting away the onesie she wore for her newborn photos in the hospital.  Yes, I might have cried a little when I did that.  I have pulled some of the tighter fitting 0-3 month pants out of her drawers as well.  She currently has a range of 3 month, 3-6 month and 6 month pants in her dresser (typical woman to have multiple pant sizes).  She fits in 6 month sleep and play outfits perfectly in terms of length, but is absolutely swimming in some of them everywhere else.  I told Andrew Izzy has more clothes than I do.  He just smiles and says, "she is your daughter, are you surprised".

While most of this post is all about the exciting things Izzy is up to, we also celebrated Buddy's 13th birthday this past week.  Most days, you wouldn't guess he was 13.  He may not keep up with Maya at a full sprint in the yard, but don't count him out.  He still chases after rabbits, squirrels and squeak toys like he isn't a day over five.  This past year with Buddy has been the hardest of all the years since we got him.  He reminded us of his age a few times.  We made the decision in the spring to put him on heart medication for his heart murmur.  We did a short trial, and found that he was quite a bit more active while on the medications.  Don't get me wrong, he still does his share of napping throughout the day.  We joke that he has a skill at finding soft, warm spots to sleep.

We, of course, celebrated Buddy's birthday with pupcakes and new chew toys! 

 

12 Years Of Buddy

Today, we celebrate Buddy's 12th birthday.  Next month, we celebrate four years of having him in our family.  We knew when we adopted him that he was a senior and each year we get with him is a blessing.  We like to think that his life is a little better now than it was prior to joining our family.  He was previously owned by a breeder.  His life in our house is filled with hours of sleeping, plenty of warm places to curl up, a yard to patrol and good food in his tummy.  Most importantly, his life is filled with lots of love!  We hope to spend many more wonderful years with our adorable senior citizen!

 This is where we found him... at the Animal Rescue League! 

 An injured nail he wouldn't stop licking

 Warm spots are great!

 He is safe from the storm in the fort daddy built!

 Are you done working, mom?

 Fireworks are bad, guys...

 This is soft...