Catching Up & Number 2

August 5, 2008: After three months of no blogging this will probably be a long one to catch up on a lot of different areas. Let's start with Casey and how she is doing. We just returned home from her 15 month appointment. She weighed 20 pounds 3 ounces which was the 15th percentile and was 31 1/4 inches long which is the 75th percentile. All in all she got a very good report. We have been weighing the decision about her MMR shot, the one linked to autism in the media. We opted not to give it to her at her one year check up when it is generally given. We planned/hoped to wait another year or so and give it to her broken up into three separate shots. This new pediatrician in CT said we have to leave the practice if we do not schedule it right away, so we are looking elsewhere. Last week Casey had her first major sickness of her short life. She had the coxsackie virus. She had 103 fever for a few days and then developed a rash on her hands, feet, and mouth. She would not eat because of the blisters in her throat. There was nothing we could do for her but wait until it passed. The one day when her fever was really high she was very unlike herself. She was just a lump, would lie on us all day, did not eat, hardly talked at all, and just was sleepy and had no energy all day. It was so weird and sad. Besides that, Casey has not seemed phased by the move to Taft. She is still a very funny and good girl. She is "talking" so much and tries to say a lot of words. As she is speaking more she is signing less and less. We have stopped teaching her new signs and just try to teach her words. Her daily schedule is pretty much the same although her stamina for awake time in between naps is growing and she is showing signs of being ready to adjust to one nap a day instead of two. She has been to the beach this summer, spent a lot of time in "Ya Ya and Deadie's" pool, she is getting more courageous and comfortable in the tub, she now lies on her stomach, likes to dip her face in, blows bubbles, etc. When she wants to go play outside she brings us our shoes, we can hand her a dirty diaper and she will take it to the trash and throw it away, she then claps for herself in delight. She loves climbing, we call her a monkey. When it is time to eat we say climb up into your chair and she does. Loves reading books and remembers the ones we read a lot. She seems so big to me now, like a little girl instead of a baby. On that note, most of you know already but baby number two is on the way! I am due November 8th, which makes me 6 months pregnant at the moment. It has been a healthy and easy pregnancy so far and it has been going by a lot faster than the first did. This baby is a mover and shaker, it seems to be break dancing in there all day and night long. We found out we are definitely having another girl. We are trying to get Casey prepared to no longer rule the roost but we'll see how she handles it. We ask her where the baby is and she lifts up my shirt and points to my belly. My belly has gotten bigger faster this time around but my weight is exactly the same as it was at this point with Casey. Here are a bunch of photos from the past three months....

1 Year Check Up

May 5, 2008: Casey had her one year doctor appointment today. She was 29 3/4 inches tall which is 71st percentile and only 19 pounds 2 ounces which is the 18th percentile. Still long and lean. I was hoping she would weigh 20 pounds so we could turn her car seat around, but not quite yet I guess. We got the OK to start her on cow's milk. We chose Hood whole milk which is growth hormone free. For now I am combining it with formula and will slowly switch the proportions similar to how we did it when we went from breast milk to formula. After much research and thought I opted not to give her any of the shots offered at the one year appointment. We did not do the MMR, chicken pox, or Hep A shot. I am going to wait a few years for the MMR and we'll see when we do the chicken pox. Hep A is only really necessary if you are going to travel outside the country. On the subject of health choices we are also on BPA free bottles for Casey, we use the Born Free company. We switched about 6months ago when the news started coming out. My concern is that we make her formula with bottled water and the water has most likely already been exposed to plastics from the Poland Springs bottles for much longer than the 10 minutes it actually sits in her baby bottle. Oh well, hopefully the media attention will bring some more changes to help this. Besides all that she got a glowing report and seems to be very healthy.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

April 30, 2008: It has been an amazing first year with Casey. Her birthday was fun, but in reality she has no clue what was going on. Lala and Eddie came up to visit for the birthday. We made Casey the same cake that I had on my first birthday, a yellow cake with white icing in the shape of a bunny. She put her fingers into the piece we gave her but refused to try even a bite. We thought maybe she was full from lunch so we tried again later and the next day but she still wanted nothing to do with the cake. So there will be no classic icing all over the face pictures for her albums! Besides her actual birthday it has just been such a fun time with her lately. She is a full-time, confident walker now and does not crawl anymore at all. With the arrival of spring and her walking it has been great to play outside. She loves the swings and usually cries when we take her out. She loves being outside and loves getting dirty. We go through several outfits a day. She is "talking" so much more and makes lots of sounds. She has finally picked up on the sign language. We did the sign for "more" for almost 6 months before she really started doing it back to us and now we barely have to sign something at all before she learns a new one. She is doing more, milk, help, & food and I am starting on diaper change. Her 7th tooth is about to come out and there are three more that are very swollen and ready. Her naps have been great for the past 2 months, maybe the walking tires her out more. We go for her 1 year check up in a few days so I will report back on her height and weight. After her check up we will hopefully have the go ahead to turn her car seat around and also to start up on regular cow's milk instead of formula. It is very hard to believe that one year has already gone by since Casey was born. There were times when minutes seemed like hours, but all in all it seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye. It has been a great year for me and James and we feel very blessed to have such a happy and healthy girl. Here are some pictures of her gifts and cake experience.

11 Months Old

April 1, 2008: Well Casey tuned 11 months old a few days ago, it is so hard to believe she is almost a year. This past month has been so much fun with her as she seems to be developing by leaps and bounds both physically and mentally. We took her to Florida for a week during our spring break and it was so nice to get outside and not have to wear a snow suit. She loved the pool and could stay in there for an hour at a time. She was very curious about the beach and was always trying to eat the sand, shells and seaweed. The day we returned home she took her first steps. She takes some every day now and can get herself to a standing position without needing something to pull up on. She still prefers to crawl 95% of the time. She has really started to make a lot of connections on things we have been doing for months. When we read books she can point out where the fish is, or where the ball is. She plays peek a boo with us where she hides herself under a blanket or behind her hands . She has four big teeth and more coming soon I think. And another big development is that after a few weeks of banging our heads against a wall b/c she suddenly stopped wanting to eat baby food we decided to try table food and she took right to it. So no more baby jars, she sits at the table with us for 3 meals a day. She loves blueberries, bananas, waffles, and yogurt for breakfast, ham, turkey, chicken, american cheese, peas, bread, meatballs. She likes when things are dunked in ketchup or red sauce (just like her mom!). She loves waving to people and things, and also growls when she sees dogs. Casey loves copying us and will laugh, cough, or sigh when we do. She also imitates the sounds you make, for instance if you say thank you, she will do her best imitation of that but without actually saying it. She is still a very good girl and we feel very lucky for that.

Where's The Duck?

February 26, 2007: Here is a short video clip of Casey's newest trick. When we ask her 'where's the duck' she will crawl to the bathroom, stand up on the tub, and pull the shower curtain aside to look at her two rubber duckies which are in there. It cracks us up.

In Good Times and In Bad...

February 20, 2008: Casey is a very fun, easy baby, so do not let this title of this blog entry throw you, but we do have our moments. Here is an update...Her top two teeth have popped out. She discovered them and now loves to grind her teeth. The noise is like nails on a chalk board. We've been working on sign language (more, milk, water, and thank you) for awhile now but she has not done it yet. The trouble for us lately has been with her eating. Previously she has eaten very well and not been picky about anything. Over the past two weeks she has started acting very cranky the minute we sit her in her high chair, and getting her to eat her solids is a huge and growing challenge. We had tried to move her up to stage 3 solids, which are more chunky, and she will have nothing to do with them. We continued to give her stage 2's but she is getting finicky about those now too. Last night I could not get her to eat a single bite of dinner, and I have a lot of tricks in my repertoire to sneak a bite in here and there. Besides those troubles, we are working on her second big cold of the winter which has not been too bad, except for one night of crying. Her mattress is propped up and her humidifier is cranking. We started her on fluoride drops because we make her bottles with bottled water. She is standing alone on her own more and more without holding on to anything and she is also cruising a lot now. Yesterday she said the word "go". We were cheering, 'go, go , go' when she was pushing her wagon down the hallway and she started to copy us. She also loves to growl right now- sometimes she does it when we see a dog which is funny, but she does it other times too. Here is a classic face she makes quite often-and you can see her teeth a little bit. You can also see her messy onsie, from her spitting mouthfuls of food back out me. She also refuses to wear a bib so that adds to the mess.

9 Month Check Up

Jan 31, 2008: Today Casey had her 9 month check up at the doctor. She weighed in at a whopping 17 pounds, 5 ounces. We were happy because that puts her in the 24th percentile, up from the 10th at her 6 month check up. She is 27 and 3/4 inches long, which is 58th percentile. Besides that the doctor said she looks very healthy.

What A Monkey

January 24, 2008: Casey just cracks us up all the time. She is into everything now. She loves going into the bathroom- she pulls up on the tub and cracks herself up by pushing the shower curtain back and looking for our feet if someone is in the shower. She also loves dipping her hands into the toilet so we have to always remember to keep the lid down now. She has also unrolled two rolls of tp into heaps on the floor. She likes looking into the refrigerator and even crawled up onto the shelves the other day (see pic). We push her around the house in her wagon or her car and she loves to go zooming really fast down the halls and will squeal with delight. She hates to wear her bib during meals now and will always pull it off which makes for a lot more laundry. Her newest thing at meal time is to take little pieces of food and "hide" them down by her seat buckles. She sleeps thru the night on a regular basis, although last night we were up for about an hour at 1:30am because she was crying. I think it it because her top two teeth are just bursting thru her gums ready to come out. In the morning she will crawl around on the bed and loves to smoosh her face into the soft blankets. Casey likes clicking her tongue and will sometimes do it to imitate me. Also we have started working on some sign language with her. She has not really done any of it yet, but it is fairly early on in the process. She is still very wiggly and changing her diaper is always a challenge. She is loving the bath and likes splashing in it now. I think we are going to sign up for a class where I can take her in the pool. She is still just crawling all over and pulls up on everything very easily. She stands on her own for very short moments, so we are just waiting for those first steps to happen any time now. Lately James has been playing the didgeridoo to her and she acts really funny when he does it. We gave her a paper towel roll to play her own (also see pic). James will blow into his and then she will make noise in her paper towel roll. It's funny. Casey goes in for her 9 month check up next week. We are very curious to see how much she weighs and how tall she is.

First Christmas

December 30, 2007: Casey has had a busy vacation so far. She went to a wedding in NH on the 22nd (see Christmas dress), then down to CT for Christmas eve with her mom's family, and up to Boston for Christmas day for a week to be with dad's family. Here are a bunch of photos from break. Casey is 8 months old today, which blows my mind how quickly the time has passed. She is a real monkey and pulling up on everything. She crawls so fast and loves to play hide and seek. You crawl around with her and get ahead and hide behind a corner, she knows you are there but gets a big laugh when you pop out. She can clap now and even does it when you say 'clap'. She is more and more vocal, loves saying 'dada' even though we don't think it is in reference to James. She has also slept thru the night the past three nights which has been amazing. We have not even heard a peep from her. Today she was pretty cranky, we think she is getting a tooth, but we'll see. Off to FL tomorrow if the snow lets us get out.

Oh Holy Night

December 20, 2007: The moment we have been waiting 7 1/2 long months for finally arrived; Casey slept through the night! We had started closing her door so we would not hear every single peep she makes but I still would have to go in to give her the paci a few times. I know she wakes up a few times but on this night she got herself back to sleep on her own each time and I never went into her room from 7:15pm-7:15am. Hooray!! More picture updates to come soon. Heading onto the holiday road for two weddings, and Christmas in CT and MA then to FL for a week.

Update

November 25, 2007: Casey is changing so much and is such a funny little person now, it amazes me. She is crawling around, pulls herself up on everything. She drools like crazy. One thing that has been very interesting is how her patterns change. One week she will do something the same everyday and I think we've got a routine going, but then one day she does not do it anymore and its gone. For instance, some weeks she will lie down for her nap and fall right asleep, this might go on for a week or two. Then one day she will cry and protest and I will have to go in to settle her down several times. When she first figured out how to stand up in her crib it took ages for her to get to sleep at nap time b/c all she wanted to do was practice her standing up skills. Changing her diaper and clothes has gotten to be a big challenge as she does not want to lie still for the two minutes it takes. She flips over and wants to crawl off of the table towards something more interesting. She is not pooping in the tub quite as often, although it still happens occasionally. She tried fruit for the first time this morning, some mushed up banana, she is not sure she likes them just yet. Last night she went to her first hockey game. It is really cold up here and she was bundled up like a pink Michelan man. She seemed to enjoy the game and followed the action around the ice with her eyes.

Florida

Here are some pix from our trip to FL a few weeks ago.

On The Move

November 12, 2007: Casey is officially on the move! She is sitting up on her own and she has started crawling in the last 10 days or so. It is not a very fast or efficient means of transportation yet, but she can get from point A to point B. She likes to stand up on her toes and make a sort of bridge with her body. Last night she crawled to one of the end tables in our living room and pulled herself up to a standing position. We just got back from a week in Florida with Lala and Eddie and it was very nice. Casey was great the whole time. She got a second tooth while we were there. We did some swimming and went for lots of walks in the nice weather. I will add FL pix as soon as I get them.

6 Months Old

November 2, 2007: So much to report...Casey turned 6 months old on October 30th. I can't believe that she is 6 months already. She celebrated the big day by getting her first tooth. The right/bottom one was the first to pop up. It is just barely above her gums. I wouldn't say that she had too much trouble with it. She has always put everything in her mouth and always drooled a lot. Both of these picked up a little bit, but nothing horrendous. For her first Halloween she was a pumpkin during the day and 'Tigger' at night time. She had no clue what was going on but we thought she looked very cute. Yesterday she went for her 6 month check up. She weighed in at a whopping 13 pounds 11 ounces, which is the 10th percentile; still a peanut but healthy as can be. She had to get another full round of shots, plus a flu shot, and she was a very cranky baby all day yesterday because of it. I was expecting a horrible night of being up taking care of her, but instead she slept thru the night for the first time ever. I put her to sleep at 7:30 pm and had to go in to give her the pacifier 3 times, but she did not wake to be fed until 6:30 am. After feeding her she went back to sleep in our bed until 8:30 am! The shots must have done her in. We've been enjoying the fall weather up here, going for hikes and watching football. Casey had her first cold which lasted about two weeks. She is still not quite crawling but will be any time now. When we go in to get her from a nap she is always on her hands and knees in the crib. She is more and more vocal and does something that sounds like she is gargling now. Unfortunately the pooping in the tub was not a one time affair, she does it several times a week.

Fall

October 16, 2007: Just some fall pictures...

Baptism

October 13, 2007: Today Casey was baptised at Resurrection church in Rye, NY. The same church that I was baptised in 29 years ago. Godparents Geoff Duval and Alyssa Murphy did a great job and Casey was happy throughout. Right now she has her first cold. It is not too bad, just a really stuffy nose. We have not gotten much sleep for the last 4 nights, when she lays down she just cannot breath well I guess. Casey has started to have solid poops because of the solid foods which has been a funny change. But they are much smellier than before so that is not too funny. Also, she pooped in the tub the other night for the first time which cracked us up. She is really wanting to move. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks a lot and sometimes lurches her legs forward but ends up face planting. My mom took all the pix from the baptism so I will add some as soon as I get them.