90%+

School is going well. We have solid As and A+s in everything.  Turns out as of her pediatrician appt this week she is also still in the 90th percentile in height and weight, which is surprising given how trim she is.

Christmas Highlights

Christmas was a success.  Avery was quite pleased with the transformers (along with other gifts) that Santa delivered on. Her big gift from us was an electric scooter, which she has taken to quite well.  She seemed happiest with a last minute gift request that we met - a Nerf gun.  There were several board games added to the collection, a bit of clothes, a few treats, all the good stuff.

From day 1 off Avery has been missing her friends, so I know she will be ready to head back to school.

Yesterday I caved and took her into the Pediatrician.  She's been coughing longer than I did - and I went down right after Thanksgiving.  Dr. D wasn't concerned, so at least I know we're good to go.

She's crooked I tell you.

Her back that is.  I was washing Avery's back; she was leaning forward with her head bent down.  I could see the bones in her back and straight they were not.  I freaked out inside, I'm not going to lie.

Fortunately, our chiropractor got us in, even though neither of us have been there in prb 2 years.  No need for xrays etc, but they did adjust her.  She's was a wee bit sore last night and this morning.  We do go back again next week to make sure she's staying in place.  She did say she felt better ... and here I was not knowing that her back even bothered her!

Fall Fun

Girl has been having a big time so far this month.  She and I have taken off every Friday in October to enjoy the seasonal activities and have cut out a bit early a few days this week to enjoy company.

In September we enjoyed the Oktoberfest here in town.  So far this month we have hit the Houston Pumpkin Festival and their Halloween parade. We would have gone to the Hickory Apple Festival but the rain kept us away.  Instead we hit the apple orchard to get our 'supplies' for other activities (read:  applesauce!).

This week Aunt Jackie came to visit and Aunt Susanne stopped in for a few days.  We've been all about the games and fun.

She did go to her yearly dr visit and comes in at 44 lbs, 3'8" - she is in the 95% for both. Lots of changes in leadership at school going on too, but we're rolling with it.

More Spooky Fun

We did go to the chiro office celebration and the howl-o-ween drive through.  The spider cupcakes turned out pretty well.  She was one of many Spidermen at the school costume parade, but the only one w/ long curls coming out of her mask.

Halloween itself was a bit cool, but excellent weather wise.  She had a blast, the community was hoping.  We hung out at a fire with neighbors across the street and made our way around.  We walked up our street and down one block to the fire truck that was stationed in the community and then back to the house and down the hill to the blockade at the other end of our street.

Avery and I also went and got our flu shots earlier this week.  She was scheduled for the mist, but they were out when we got there!  I wasn't super happy about that but she did awesome.  I took a page from the book of the viral doctor who distracts babies before giving them a shot and messed around with her a bit while the nurse popped her with the shot.  She didn't even cry!  But she did wine about her arm hurting after we left.

Dance has been going decently.  Since using the costume to barter last week worked out well, this week I bartered with the promise of candy.  She did great and had fun.  Yep, I'm blackmailing my kid into participating, no shame.

4 years!

She's 4 years old!  The celebration is being spread out a bit.  I left work a little early on Monday and we went to the town pool.  Tuesday I delivered Spiderman themed cupcakes to school for her to share with her friends, she had her beloved chicken nuggies (actually strips) at the farmer's market, we had cake and presents to open at home.

From family she received books and learning resources, a tall doll, a superman die cast car, cash money, and that big girl bed that her grandparents brought a few weeks back.  Her Daddy gave her a solid silver dino head and we had a remote control Batman car, Frozen light up blue sneakers for the new school year, and a tall car track with multiple cars.

Today she went to the doctor so I can report the official height as 3'5 2/16" and weight as 38.5 lbs.  She was not ready for her birthday to be over yesterday!

I love you (not so) little girl.  Happy birthday!

What a web we weave

I dropped off things at the consignment store and commented about monitoring their posts for a spiderman costume.  Low and behold, one appeared the next day in the right size!  Halloween costume is checked off of the list.

Still trying to figure out bedding.  She keeps telling me she could do spiderman, but I am not feeling it.  Maybe sheets or an extra blanket, but not a comforter.  She is doing well in her big girl bed, with the support of pool noodles on the side.

She had a dentist appointment this morning.  The kid is so brave!

The feeling is mutual.

Last night during prayers Avery included Luke in her family list. She quickly followed it up with "I love him". I guess given my last post it only took her a little while to realize the feeling was mutual.

We also had Avery's dentist appointment yesterday. Fortunately her buddy Luke told her about his recent trip and she was psyched to go. We had a very good report and they indicated her teeth were very clean. Yay!

Final note -- the threes are hitting pretty hard. Avery's desire to do what she wants is pretty darn frustrating. Mostly I am sure because she's been so easy to this point.

Following up

Today I got Avery to her pediatrician for a follow up check on her injury.  This morning between school drop off and our trip to the doctor the one side of her nose was trying to bleed again. Poor kiddo.  The doctor did indicate this is reasonable and could happen for a couple of weeks.  All in all the swelling is way down and she is looking pretty good.  We're okay.

Humpty Dumpty

On Friday school called me shortly after 10am.  No one was more eager to hear what they had to say than I was after she started out with "we had an accident".  I left the house shortly thereafter to find my kiddo still wailing a bit, to take her straight to MedExpress.  Long story short, she fell in the hall as the class was headed downstairs for playtime and put her upper lip, just below her nose into the metal door stopper.

We are so grateful that God was watching over her. There are no broken or loose teeth, no broken nose, no major damage whatsoever... but it sure didn't look like that was the case.  She has a scratch on her upper lip towards her nose and no cut on the inside of her mouth.  Her nose continues to try to bleed and is still a bit swollen and slightly mis-shapen.  Her lip swelling went down a good bit, but you can still see the bruise just inside of her mouth on her top lip.

She's a trooper.  She still ate well and has allowed me to brush her teeth pretty normally since the day of.  She did bump it last night and cried a bit as her nose bled a little.  I love to cuddle with her and when she came home she was happy to cuddle with me until her nap time -- but I don't want her cuddles if it means she is in pain.

I'm to follow up with her pediatrician.  Since the office was closed when I called on Friday afternoon I have to wait until tomorrow to try and get her in asap.  In the mean time, I continue my prayers of gratitude for how lucky we are and to ask for healing and to have the swelling go away returning her beautiful little face untouched.

Teef

Yesterday Avery had her first dentist appointment.  All looks well, but they did suggest that I start flossing her and using fluoride toothpaste.  I just don't feel comfortable with the fluoride until she is able to spit it out.  But I am going to try and take the floss suggestion.  It's good advice for me too, so I ordered some of those pieces of floss on plastic sticks.

She did pretty well there.  She did cry, but that helped to open her mouth up for us to all get a view.  The view was good enough that I caught a glimpse of the last 4 baby teeth which have broken the gums!  She is such a big girl.

I poop, therefore I am.

We remain binky free.  That was way too easy.  I feel like I say this often with Avery.

She is also telling us "I poo".  Usually it is announced after she's gone, but she even told me in advance one day.  This is definitely the first step towards potty training.  So I went ahead and bought the potty I was planning to get for her.  We won't be trying to train any time soon, but I want her to get okay with it being around and even sitting on it fully clothed for the time being.

I've been hearing the above phrase a lot the last few days.  She's been a bit loose and diaper rashed.  Is it from incisors starting to push down?  I can't tell.  But I know her rear has been quite sore.

She had a few rough night's of sleep in a row too.  The first night she woke with a squealing cry, the one that tells me to get up directly, not to wait it out.  I found her feet through the slats fairly far.  I was able to get her back down within a reasonably short amount of time, prolonged only by my attempts to get a blanket on her after I put her down (if she starts to cry and stands it comes back off, obviously).  The next night we were in the midst of the loose stool.  She woke crying and I decided to go in to check to see if she went, rather than leaving her to fall back asleep with a poopy diaper.  Sure enough she needed changed.  From there she didn't want to go back down as easily.... at least not until she pooed again less than an hour later.  Then the third night, shortly before bedtime the power kicked out.  Her room is shockingly dark without her clock or sleep machine glowing, so it wasn't the easiest put down.

Tonight we head to the doctor for her 18 month appointment!

Daycare is going well at drop off now, but she continues to come home with report cards that say she's not eating much there other than bread and fruits.

A shot in the wrong arm

The pediatrician gave Avery a break last night.  Instead she only had her well visit, no shots.  Instead I got a flu shot there.  Here are her current statistics:
24 lbs 6 1/2 oz (75%)
31" tall (75%)
18 3/4" head (90%)

Feeling better

Avery's rash has tamed back down again, thank goodness.  I have seeing that girl in pain.  Amusingly though she starts wiggling her little butt the second you go to use a wipey on her.  I am sure it is anticipation of pain, but absent that pain it is pretty amusing.

We went to the pediatrician on Monday, scheduled for the MMR vaccine, but were advised to wait a little longer between the variacella and MMR, so instead she got her flu shot.  I need to go get one myself.  We'll be back to the doctor a couple more times in the next month for the second flu shot (which they advise for little ones) and her MMR.  It could be a rough month if any of these make her feel less than well.

On a bright note, we were scheduled for another 30 minute photo shoot yesterday - a "milk and cookies" session.  Avery started crying right at the onset again, I don't know what it is about our photographer that makes her wig out a little.  This time it didn't last too long (I'm sure handing her that cookie helped) and I am pretty sure she got some cute photos of her.

Snuggling up on cold nights

It's been an interesting and varied week.  Sunday night Avery woke back up at 10pm crying.  She was thrashing and hard to even keep a hold of at points.  Several attempts to get her back down later I finally figured it had to be teeth bothering her.  15 minutes later the half dose of children's tylenol settled her down enough to sleep.  I'm glad that happened the night it did, because if it happened the next day I would have been quite worried.

That next night, Monday, Avery got her varicella (chickenpox) vaccine.  She only took a very slight fever after, but did end up a bit unwell on Wednesday - mayhaps unrelated.  She threw up once at daycare in the afternoon, but looking back on her day sheet she ate her lunch and a yogurt around noon, went down for a nap, woke two hours later, and drank her bottle.  We've had a runny/stuffy nose off and on, again probably thanks to those teeth, so we think there was also some mucus in effect on top of all of that food and out some of it came.  She didn't want to eat later, but who does after they've thrown up?  Thursday she seemed okay, despite not being a voracious eater, so back to school she went and fortunately hung in there without issue.

During this week the weather went from summer to very autumn with the temps now going into the 40s over night and the day time not warming up.  Our walks are nice, it's brisk and only long sleeves/pants and a blankie for Avery and we're good to go.  The house however has cooled off enough that I did have to turn on the heat this evening just to take the chill off.  We also pulled out Avery's fleecy nighties, so no worries, her hands were nice and warm when I kissed her little forehead goodnight.

Heavy Metal Baby

Avery was 9 months old yesterday!  Unfortunately for her, other than a few photos with a 9 month sticker the biggest event of the day was heading for her 9 month well visit.  Fortunately she only needed one shot on this trip, but she also had to have her sweet little toe stuck for blood.

Even sitting her down on the table in the examination room just to get her down to her diaper she knew something was up (I swear she remembers it already) and she started crying.  When I picked her up she nestled into my chest hiding.

All is well with her, except the blood test says that her lead levels are slightly high.  You can imagine I'm surprised and my mind is everywhere trying to figure out what on earth could be the cause, such that I can eliminate it.  The house is newer, so it isn't lead pipes - at least not IN my house, but at the same time, I make all of her formula from bottled water, not tap.  I was ready to take her pacifier clips away, as she insists upon putting the metal end in her mouth if she can get to it, but all of those clearly state on their listings that they are lead free.  I'm thinking through everything we have for her.

The more you look into it, the scarier it becomes -- baby food testing positive for lead and arsenic, toys.  Does Amazon sell a baby bubble?  Oh wait, that could be contaminated too.

I did mention it to daycare, just in case another parent reports something similar - and they said they'll reassess toys again too.  Maybe it was from while we were on vacation?  The only thing I know for sure is waiting until her 12 month appointment to test again seems like a very long time.

She weighed in at 20# 5 1/2oz, measured 26 1/2" tall, and had a 18" noggin.  She is low in the percentile for height (no surprise if that measurement is right as she only grew a half an inch) but higher on the weight.

That's how we roll

This week we added pumpkin and turkey - our first meat!  This kid is officially ready for Thanksgiving, but I guess we have plenty of time for that.

Yesterday I took Avery to the chiro after mentioning to her at my appointment the day before that she only seems to want to roll from her back to stomach in one direction (over her left arm) and that she wasn't really pulling her legs up in attempts to crawl yet.  She was adjusted in the lower back/sacrum area and she popped a little - enough that it scared Avery (I hope not hurt her) and she gave a hard cry, even after I held her close for a little while.  But I'm happy to report that when I picked her up at daycare she showed me she can roll over that right arm - and she did it a few more times at home, immediately followed by pulling those knees up under her a little.  She is still moving only backwards when on her stomach, but I do believe that this correction was good for her.

After the chiro we went to the doctor's office for yet another round of shots.  Thank goodness the little one is finally getting a month off - and we don't need to return until her 9 month checkup.

She remembers.

Last night Avery returned to the doctor, this time for her 6 month visit and two more shots.  She looked at the doctor a bit skeptical during her exam.  While we waited for the nurse to return we giggled and played peek-a-boo.  All of those giggles came abruptly to an end when the shots came.  This time there was screaming.  I picked her up and she would not take her eyes off of the nurse.  I'm pretty sure she was burning this lady's face into her brain.  She also cried most of the ride home and was a bit cranky this morning.  Poor girl.

Yesterday we weighed in at 16lbs 15oz, putting her I believe they said at the 75th percentile for weight; 26" I believe was 50th percentile, and a big ol noggin at the 90th percentile.

The only other food addition since my last post was whole wheat (cereal) as to give us a little more mixing variety.  Tonight we're ready to add something else to the list - what will it be?  I'm thinking maybe mango or pears, although I'd like to get the blueberries sampled as well.

Visiting with Aunt Jackie

Kiddo returned to the doctor last night for a few more shots (it seems like there is an endless list of them).  Since we were already there I did ask them to have the doctor come in to peek in her ears and listen to the rattly breaths.  All seemed fine to the doctor.

Today Avery stayed home from daycare to hang out with Aunt Jackie, as she will a few days during her visit.  This will give us more opportunities for her to nap in her crib and to get her eating off of a spoon.  This week we have an avocado ready to mash up for her.  Late last week she got through a small container of apples.

Lucky number 13

Avery's 4 month appointment was a little late what with her actual 4 month mark being Christmas eve and all.  But we were at the doctor's yesterday, despite the cold weather.  I've known she's gained a good bit of weight but now we have proof.  Avery is now 13 lbs 2 1/2 oz, putting her in the 50th percentile and 24" tall also putting her in the 50th percentile.  Her head on the other hand is in the 75th percentile - and the doctor told me I have a big head too... so I have that going for me.

She just glared at the doctor and started crying when the doctor took her to weigh her.  It is early for her to not like strangers.  But after two shots I'm sure she'll remember the doctor for next time!