01-15-10

Today is Granny Glodyne's birthday. Happy 79th Birthday Granny! We are going to her house tonight and Mom is making cheeseburgers and french fries. Sounds so yummy to me! I have been craving them.
I have decided I will not be getting a Flu Mist next year. I have been sick three times now already this winter. I am never sick. I didn't think much about the first two sicknesses because Josie was sick and I caught it from her. But this time only Mommy has the cold and I am trying my hardest to not give it to her. Her being sick is absolutely NO FUN!!! She won't let anyone else deal with her except for Mommy. Which I love that she is so dependent on me, but on the other hand it is also very tiring!
For her 2nd Christmas, it wasn't all that much fun. She got strep throat. I took her to the Dr on Tuesday morning the 22nd. They took a strep culture but said it was negative. The poor kid kept running a fever. I was switching Tylenol and Motrin trying to help her with her comfort level. She would do okay about an hour after you would give her one and then about an hour before it was time for her next dose, you could tell she was really uncomfortable and her temperature would get really high. Well the Dr's office called on Wednesday evening right before I left work and said that she did have strep. So off to Marsh I went to get her Amoxycillin. All Christmas this is what we dealt with. She didn't feel well enough to have much fun and no one could touch her except me.
I came down with it on late Saturday evening. I laid around all day Sunday and told Mike that if what I had was what she had I didn't blame her for being so grouchy! That was awful.
By New Year's we were all doing good.
Then she got to enjoy all of her new Christmas presents. She got a bounce house from Grandpa & Grandma Jones. That thing is huge and is taking up my kitchen and living room but she plays in it daily and really likes it. I have been trying to get a good picture of her in it but haven't succeeded yet.
She got a kitchen from Papa Doug and Mama Carole and we have "offee" daily. Along with pancakes. She really likes playing with it.
She got an American Girl stroller from Uncle Rick, Aunt Michelle, Riley and Kayla. The girls always fought over Kayla's at her house so Michelle got Josie her own. She is really getting into playing with her dolls. She will sing Rock a Bye to them. And now she even cradles them and bounces them around the house saying "shh shh". Just like Mommy does to her.
Mommy & Daddy got her a 4 wheeler. When we can get her on it, she likes it but she doesn't get on it much yet. I figure this spring she will have fun with it out on the decks.

Josie's actions and temperament right now at 17 months:

• She loves to color. And when she says color she rolls her "r". Sounds very redneckish.
• Is obsessed with Elmo, we have to tell her Elmo is sleeping. But now she is also getting into the other characters and when you tell her Elmo is sleeping, then she will say Big Bird, sleeping, Cookie, sleeping, Abby, sleeping, Grover, sleeping and lastly Zoe, sleeping. Then she gets off the subject for a few minutes.
• She is singing along with her cartoons now.
• She loves books. She will sit down in the floor open them up and just start babbling as if she is reading them. We took her to Barnes and Nobles on New Year's for the first time and she wanted her coat and hat off right then and just started going through the books. Made Mommy very happy because I love books.
• She is more about fruit than she is about chocolate. She was a sweets baby but now all she wants is fruit.
• She throws everything. Especially when you are getting on to her for something. That gets really annoying and I can't wait til she outgrows that one.
• When she knows she is going to "Aunt Chelle's", she will say "Iley" for Riley but she won't say anything about Kayla, so when you say what about Kayla she will say "Be Nice". Those two fight, take toys from one another and Josie pulls Kayla's hair. Mom says it is getting Michelle & I back for all the arguing we did.

I think I have us all caught up now.

14 Days Left

I can't believe we only have 14 days until Christmas. Seriously, where does the time go?! I am excited to see how Josie does this Christmas. She is starting to understand things. She points at our trees and says "pitty". When we go to bed at night she waves at her snowman outside and her tree in the toy room and tells them 'night night". She is trying to say Merry Christmas but only gets out "mas". She is noticing the houses with the lights on them.

And here I am, it's not even Christmas yet and I'm already obsessed about her birthday party this year. I know she is going to change her likes and dislikes between now and next August but I can't help but think about it. I was thinking about Elmo because she loves him and Cookie Monster but I know that could change by then. So now I'm really thinking about finding either an outfit for her to wear that day and plan it around that or a piece of fabric for the tablecloths and plan around that. Or I've even thought about planning around her birthday month items, such as flowers are gladiolous and water lillies. Something like that.

Really what it boils down to is I love to throw parties and now that i have her i have a reason to do it. I would love to figure out how to get a business up and going around here that revolves around children's birthdays. But I don't know how to go about promoting it.

I called Rising Star yesterday and I think I am going to enroll her in a tumbler class that they have. That is really the only thing I can find here for her age group to get her involved in. Everything that I am finding is during the week and not every Mom has the luxury of not having to work people! You need to have some weekend stuff too.

Josie is really picking up on a lot of words. She now says:

aner "hanger"

andy "candy"

pease "please"

Thank you

co off "coat off"

at "hat"

ooh-daa "doo-daa" (her play sweeper sings doodaa day)

She also getting to be very independent and doesn't really want your help on much. She is also definitely testing her boundaries. You can tell her no fifteen times over one thing and she will consistently do it while you are telling her no and smile about it. Very frustrating! And Mommy is going to have to get a sturdier backbone. Sometimes she'll push me and it's easy to get on her, others, I choose my battles. It's really easy when its something that will hurt her and she seems to get the maddest about those things when she is corrected.

Tomorrow we are going to see Santa at Fountain Square and we'll see how that goes. We ran into Lisa and the boys at the mall Saturday when we went to get our pictures taken so we took the kids down to Santa and we have a picture of the boys on Santa and Josie on Jordan's lap and she is crying. She might be better with Riley & Kayla but I guess we'll find out.

Then after the girls wake up we are going to do our Gingerbread houses. We didn't do them last year because I wasn't up to it, so this is the first year for Kayla. Riley likes doing them because after Christmas is over, he takes it outside and runs it over with his Gator. Which this year he will have to run over it with his 4-wheeler cause he has outgrown his Gator.

Well that's it for now! I'm tryin to add some photos but this thing won't let me!

Thankful For!

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for:
Josie (so much more than you can imagine)
Mikey
My Family
Having the assistance to be over Postpartum Depression (awful!!!)
My Home
My Job
and everything else the good Lord has provided for us.

Now on to the new stats from her 15 month appointment. (Technically 15 mo. and 3 weeks)
Height: 32.5 In (90-95%)
Weight: 24 lbs 2 oz (50-75%)
Stage of development: 21 month and 1 week (she gets that from Mommy! tee-hee tee-hee)

We have had to move up to size 7 in shoes and I don't think it will be long until it will be size 8. She can wear them now but I don't like putting shoes on her that are too big and she can possibly slide around in. I know it would be cheaper in the long run.
We have been potty training now for about 2 wks. I was going to wait until after Christmas but I think she had other plans. Some days she is really into it, others she could care less.
She got her first really bad cold on November 4th thanks to typhoid Kayla. At least that's who we're blaming. She was sick first. Anyway, Wednesday night she laid in bed with me for about an hour and watched TV. That is so unlike her so I knew something was up. She went to bed that night with a 99 degree temperature. Then Thursday morning when we woke up she was roasting and had a 102.3 temperature. We fought the temperature all weekend. By Monday, it was gone but she still felt awful. Plus on top of that she had more molars coming in. When we went to the Dr on the 20th she was still coughing, although it was better, and she still had a snotty nose. So he put her on Amoxycillin for the first time. She loves that stuff. If she sees her syringe on the counter or her medicine in the fridge. She is pointing, whining and saying "cine". I don't know what we'll do when it runs out! :-)
Speaking of her talking, she is picking up so much now and understands what I am telling her. She is mommy's little helper. I can give her laundry and tell her to go put it in the basket and she will. She also takes her toothbrush to the sink when I tell her, and goes and gets her clothes and throws trash away.
She is in to sitting on the counter while I am in the kitchen working so that she can see what I am doing. I'll be glad when she can stand on a chair and not have to worry about her falling cause it's awfully hard trying to do something with supper and having little hands flying into what you are doing! :-) Especially scrambled eggs! YUCK!!!
If you wash your hands, she is pulling up her sleeves and saying "eeves" and "osh". Kind of makes me not want to wash my hands sometimes cause I know she's gonna be next!
Speaking of talking she says the following:
appy "Happy"
oncle "Uncle" (She is obsessed with Uncle Nathan)
Mama (Mama Carole)
Papa (Papa Doug)
Gma "Grandma" (Angalene)
Iley "Riley"
Ayla "Kayla"
crackie "crackers"
eeves "sleeves or leaves"
spooky "anything Halloween related"
ash "trash"
aci "pacifier"
peepee "potty"
ower "shower"
ath "bath"
urkey "turkey"
eer "ear or deer"
pitty "pretty"
incess "princess"
ookie "cookie"
eat (she has that one down pat!)
ater "water"
ilk "milk"
ogu "yogurt"
uit "fruit"
hi "is either HI or if her hand is raised when she says it that means High Five"
ello "Hello"
Get Down "she has that one down pat as well and has a voice raising as she says it"
It Down "Sit Down and she has a voice raising on that one as well"
Eeth "Teeth" (when she wants to brush her teeth)
Ocky "Rocky" (in the rocking chair)
pus "purse"
ackpack "Backpack"
And when she says "pus" or "ackpack" she will also tell you bye as she is putting either one of them over her shoulder.
She still loves playing in her bed as well. We got her toy room done and she loves being down there playing. Everything for the most part is totally accessible to her and she can do it on her own.
I think I have covered it for the most part. I have already made my New Year's resolution that I will be better at this. So sorry for those of you that read this all the way through!

1st Emergency Room Visit

I guess I jinxed myself yesterday by updating the blog!
Josie was at Aunt Michelle's yesterday morning and Michelle called me around 10:00 and said that Josie kept pulling on her leg and whining. She took her pants off of her and didn't see anywhere that she had hurt herself. She called back around 10:45 and said she was still doing it and just as bad. So I told her to just give her some Tylenol. She then called back around 11:00 and said that something was really wrong with her.
So I called the pediatrician's office and they couldn't get her in to check her until 6:15 that night. OK, we'll give her the Tylenol and wait it out.
Then I get to Michelle's at lunch and the poor kid is screaming her head off. Anytime you touched her right leg she would cry really hard and grab for it. So I decided I would just take her to the Emergency room. I called Mama Carole and she rode in there with us to keep her calm in the backseat on the way in there.
We get to the hospital and they take us back to the room. The Dr and nurse come in to check her and decide to do an X-ray. So she and I go to the X-ray room and they took about 5 X-Rays of her leg. The poor kid is crying this entire time and they also won't let her eat anything just in case something is broke and they have to do surgery.
The Dr checks the X-ray's, says that nothing looks broke and that he is going to call Malone's office because he feels that Malone needs to check her later in the evening to make sure nothing gets worse.
So he leaves the room to go call the Dr. Josie falls asleep on my chest. The Dr comes back in and says that Malone wants some blood drawn to check her blood count and to check for fluid in her hips and knees, because sometimes kids have that. So we wake her up and the two nurses come in to draw her blood.
I set down on the bed to hold her and the one nurse lifts up her sleeve while the other is getting the needle ready. Lo and Behold! there are teeth marks on Josie's lower right arm. The nurse says looks like she's been bit and tells Josie she's had a rough day and needs to go home and start over.
Here I am all nervous anyway because my daughter has something wrong with her, No one seen her fall or anything and you hear all the horror stories about them grilling you in case of child abuse and then we find teeth marks on her arm! Thank God they were small and you could very obviously tell that they weren't from an adult.
Anyway, the nurses stick Josie and can't get any blood, so we woke her up for nothing and have to wait for Lab to get there to do it.
The tech comes from Lab and draws blood out of her arm and we are released.
We stop at McDonald's because none of us have ate. Mom fed Josie the peanut butter sandwich that Aunt Michelle made her on the way to McD's. She ate the whole thing and was still hungry.
We drop Mom off and go home, Josie was really good until I went to change her diaper. When I went to take her pants off she started in screaming again!
I finally got her calmed down and then she just sat on my lap for about 1.5 hrs and we watched cartoons.
At around 6:00 last night she seemed to be coming out of it and so far today she is fine. The Dr called and the blood tests all came back good.
I was always thinking in the back of my mind how well I would be able to handle her first real "sickness" and I am very proud of myself. I was well controlled and able to pacify her! I guess it does come in the thick of things that a Mother will know what to do!
But I hope we don't have anything like that for a while and thank God she didn't break anything!

Wow, really bad this time around! Almost 2 months with no posts.

Let's see, not much has really changed.

This past Saturday at almost 15 months we are no longer doing night time bottles. Josie will not drink milk out of a sippy cup. The only milk she was getting was her nightly bottle. I knew the Dr's didn't want them taking a bottle after 12 months but what do you do when they won't drink milk from a sippy cup? We had tried 4 different types of cups. She would sip milk out of the last cup we found but she wouldn't drink milk. Well the Dr confirmed what I was thinking of doing so we did it! She gets nothing to drink but 1 glass of water a day with her medicine in it and the rest she is only getting milk until she starts drinking like she is suppose to. Well it seems to be working. We filled up her milk glass 3 times yesterday. One cup use to last us a whole day, in and out of the fridge of course. The Dr said you have to be more stubborn than they are.

I was afraid she would really have trouble without that night bottle and start waking up again. But it's been two nights now and knock on wood, she's slept through the night both times.

Michelle and I took the kids to the pumpkin patch up by Morgantown yesterday morning. The kids seem to have alot of fun. We got us a big pumpkin. I think Josie's favorite part was probably the pumpkin patch. She just kept walking around and trying to pick up pumpkins.

That kid will pick up anything. Last night when daddy got home from hunting, she carried her riding toy to him so he would push her. I tell her she is a he-woman like her mommy!

Well that's it for today! I'll try and be better, I promise!!!