Maya's 3 Year Well Visit

Today we took our sweet three year old into to our pediatrician's office for her well visit!  And Miss Maya is doing wonderfully!  She listened so well and followed all of the doctor's and PA's directions.  She's growing like a weed (28.2 lbs - 20th percentile for weight; and 36 3/4" height - 35th percentile for height).  Our doctor told us she likes to see kids Maya's age grow about 1-2 inches per year and little miss just grew 3 3/4" this past year!  She is doing just fine!

Maya had her eye test which she passed wonderfully and there were no shots on this visit! Of course, everyone got a sticker and a lollipop on the way out.  Best.Doctors.Visit.Ever.

We love our little three year old more than anything!

They both opted for braided pigtails this am and I couldn't NOT
take a picture!  Love these two!

She's on the tail end of naps, but I know she still needs them.
I'm selfishly holding on as long as I can but she's starting to
fight them hard.  Today we got a short one in which I may consider
trying more frequently!  And, once again, I just can't resist a
sleeping baby.

Lining up the trains before our visit!

Stepping on the big girl scale!

Height measurement!

Love her little straight legs and perfectly pointed toes!

Slightly unsure but still very brave!

Blood pressure time!  She's practiced this at home on all of us
thousands of times with her play doctor's kit!

Kisses from big sis!

So 3 year old Maya!

Kate stretches...

...and Maya stretches...

Looking for the smiley face!

She named all of the objects she had to find:
apple - apple
circle - "O"
rectangle - triangle
house - house
And I absolutely loved that she named them right per her description
every time!

Back to the Eye Doc

When Kate was just two months old, we noticed that one of her pupils appeared slightly larger than the other.  We took her into her pediatrician's office who referred us to a pediatric opthamologist.  When we went, all checked out fine and normal and she was diagnosed as having a teensy bit of anisocoria.  They sent us on our way and told us to come back in two years.

Over the last couple of years, the anisocoria seems to have gotten less dramatic.  We notice it more when she is tired or in low light, like when we noticed it at first, but it has since become something that we kind of have to "look" for rather than just see.  Nonetheless, the doc said to come back in two years so that is what we did.

(Side note: As I was going through pictures for Kate's birthday banner a couple of months ago, I noticed a photo where her eye had a white-ish glow instead of the reddish glow from the flash.  I once again nearly gave myself a panic attack after Googling what this could be a result of and have been very anxious about getting Kate into this appointment.)

Our patient patient!

Oooohh!  This area where Mommy told me not to
go looks VERY interesting!

That little stinker!

I captured her, gave her a pop, and we took an
eye doc visit selfie!

Our appointment was just yesterday, and, fortunately, all checked out perfectly fine again.  The doctor said her eyes are progressing wonderfully.  When she dilated them and looked into them she said she saw normal, healthy, red areas which apparently is what you want to see.  Deep breath out.  What a relief!

And Kate did such a fantastic job!  It was a long day!  We were there for a couple of hours because we had to wait while her eyes dilated.  And the appointment spread right over her nap so she was on her best behavior without having a nap!  She listened well to me and to the doctor!  At one point, the doctor put some 3-D glasses on Kate and held up a 3-D photo.  She said, "This is probably too young for her but we'll try it."  And then she asked Kate what she saw.

Kate responded, "Fow-fer!"  (That's "flower" in Kate speak.)

And the doctor then said, "Yeah, she's too young."

I promptly asked the doctor what the picture was of and she said it was a butterfly.  "Oh," I said, "Kate calls butterflies "flowers" right now!"

The doctor was super impressed that Kate was able to recognize and verbally say what she saw once she realized that she did see the image and I was super proud that I spoke up and really got to the bottom of this.  After all, I know my child best, right?!  And I highly doubted that Kate was "too young" to tell us the picture she saw.  Kate is extremely intelligent and I knew she wouldn't just say "flower" out of nowhere if it didn't look similar to a flower.  I was so proud of Kate too!

As soon as we were finished and out to the car, Kate crashed.  And she crashed hard!  It was a long day, but we are all so glad that everything is looking normal and perfect in her beautiful baby blues!

Our little angel.  We love you!

18 Months Old

Kate had her 18 month well baby visit today!  18 months old!!!  Where does the time go?  Seriously.  I'm literally looking forward to an answer.  Never in my life has time gone this fast.

Nevertheless, Kate is right on track with where she should be!  She weighs 22 lbs and 14 oz (55th percentile) and is 31.5" tall (40th percentile) and her head circumference is 47.5 cm (80th percentile).  Is this the first time I've actually remembered to get her head circumference correct?!  Yeah, and it only took me 18 months...

18 month old Kate!  She was ALL ABOUT her
Minnie shoes today and showed everyone she
saw!

18 month old Kate is a trip!  Her little personality is really starting to shine.  When she finds something she is interested in, she sets her mind that she will do it and it will occupy her for a long time!  One such example are buckles.  She loves to buckle things - like high chair seat buckles, stroller buckles, etc.  She will buckle, ask you to open them ("Ohp" in Kate speak) and then re-buckle them as long as you will un-buckle them!

She can sometimes have a short fuse with her inability to do something she is trying to do.  It's like her mind is working faster than those little hands are and she gets frustrated.  We try to remedy the situation by explaining that she just needs to ask for help and once we can get past that, she is good!

Kate's Loves:
Kate loves pushing her stroller around sans baby.  We typically find matchbox cars and baby bottles in her stroller because she has yet to want to put her baby in and push her around.  Kate also loves Leapfrog's Letter Factory - a thirty minute cartoon about all the different letters in the alphabet.  She quite often refers to this as "Tad" and points to our television.  She also loves a series called Word World that we stumbled upon when I found a DVD on sale for $4.  It's pretty cute if I do say so myself!

I would argue that Kate's favorite meal is chicken biriyani from the Indian take away that we get every once in a while.  I am AMAZED at how much biriyani this girl puts down!  Applegate All Natural Turkey Dogs are probably a close second!  She has just recently tried ketchup and loves to dip her turkey dog bites in her ketchup!  She also loves cottage cheese, applesauce, all fruit, cheese, cheerios, goldfish, and the fruit and veggie squeezes that we get.  You can't go wrong if any of those items are on Kate's plate during mealtime!

Kate loves her blanket and her bink.  That combination of items solves nearly every problem in Kate's world right now. It surprises me how much she enjoys her bink when the first year of her life showed little to no interest whatsoever in a pacifier. Still, I figure there is a reason she likes it and I'll let her tell me when she is ready to give it up...within reason.

Kate also loves the "transportation" page of her Baby Einstein's First Words book!

Like, LOVES!  Which totally surprises me!

Speaking of books, 18 month old Kate totally prefers Grover over Elmo when it comes to Sesame Street.  We read her Sesame Street book all.the.time and she is constantly pointing out Grover without even batting an eye at Elmo!

Kate's Schedule:
On weekdays Daddy takes Kate to daycare in the mornings around 7:30 am.  She plays with her friends at daycare until around 4:30 when Mommy comes to pick her up.  When we get home it's dinner, clean up dinner, a teensy bit of play time, bath, books, cuddle time, then bed.  Again, as long as Kate has her bink and her blanket she is good to go.

On weekends we try to enforce sleep in time/family cuddle time but around 6:30-ish Kate is pretty much up for the day.  There is no convincing that we can sleep in a little.  I've tried to bring her into our bed on weekend mornings when she gets up to see if she might want just a bit more sleep, but I've found this typically back fires.  She just ends up wanting to play with everything on my night stand - my phone, the light remote, books, etc., so I usually get up when she gets up.

Our day then revolves around making sure she gets her nap in because at this point in our lives a happy baby equals a happier evening and an easier time getting to sleep at night!

Bed time is typically around 7:30, though it's taking her longer to fall asleep now than it has in the past.

Kate's Personality:
Kate is still very much a Mama's girl, and I love that!  Like I've mentioned before, there will come a time and day where Kate doesn't want me around as much so I am soaking up every ounce of Baby Kate that I can. If she wants me around than I will be there.

Kate is also very independent.  She loves to help and do things by herself.  Putting a little soap tablet in the dishwasher is a great example.

She is a very smart cookie.  I long for the time to work with her more but our time is so very limited during the week and weekend that I want to be sure we have a good balance of learning and play time.

Kate is also a very good listener.  Even the teachers at her school say she listens well and understands so much for kids her age.  It makes us so proud when we hear things like that!

18 month old Kate continues to surprise us.  I can't name an animal that she doesn't know the sound and/or motion to!  She has made life an absolute joy and the love that we have for her is deeper than any love we've ever known.

Happy half birthday Kate!  We love you!

Polka Dot Princess

We attended Kate's 15 month appointment today and learned that she is now 21 lbs. 14 oz. (70th percentile for weight) and 30" tall (30th percentile for height).  Our doctor was very impressed with Kate's vitals and abilities and we went over what to expect in the next 3 months!  She is healthy and happy and growing like a weed!  We also reviewed Kate's current vocabulary which includes:

Dog (Pronounced "Dah")
Dada (Sometimes Daddy - spoken like, "da-DEE!")
Mama
Ball ("Baah")
All done ("Ahh dah")
Bubble ("Bah-bl")
More ("Mah")
Hot dog ("Hah dah")
Outside ("aht-sigh")
Hi (She is very good at this one!)
Steps ("Steh")
Top
Dots (And this one is so cute!)

Kate can wave hello and bye-bye, she claps and blows kisses,"winks", does an alligator chomp and a fish mouth and makes a snake sound, can crawl up and down steps (and now ladders - see below), and will follow simple commands such as, can you put the top on, please? or, please put your toys in the bin.  She absolutely loves to help whenever and wherever she can.  For example, she likes to help take things out of the fridge and/or put them back after we've used them or help stir ingredients in a bowl on the counter, etc.  She loves to assist!  She also is able to follow simple commands like, please give this fork to Daddy, or, please put this in the trash bin.

Even though Kate is still learning her words, she understands nearly everything that we say.  If we ask her if she hears the airplane, she will look up and say "aht-sigh" (see above for definition).  If we ask her if she would like more, she is able to shake her head yes or no.  Sometimes she will tell us "mah! mah!", also signifying that she would like more.  She has started using her spoon and fork a lot more regularly and can even take a few supervised sips from a cup without a top!

She loves to play and be silly and the facial expressions that this little lady has keep us all cracking up!  She is extremely intelligent and is able put all of her peg pieces on the right colors - yeah, the ones that we went bass fishing for - and will also point to an object if you, say, ask her where the light is.  She is our little ar-teest and if there is a pen/pencil/marker/[insert writing utensil here] in sight, she will clamour to get it in her grasp and then search frantically for a piece of paper to doodle on too.  (We are thankful she has not yet discovered the canvas of walls throughout our house.)

She loves her pooch, but is very wary of his chompers and how quickly he grabs his ball or treats (or any food item that is in his reach for that matter).  She loves to give Jack treats and will usually give him 5 or so more than he would've gotten from Brian or me, so you know he loves her too!  The two of them like to play ball, hide and seek, and chase together too - usually with parental assistance to be sure it doesn't get too rough.  They are becoming quite the pair!

She is a pretty amazing pint-sized 15-month old!  She learns more and more every single day and we continue to be so extremely grateful that she is our little girl!

Just arrived at the doctor's office.

And she absolutely had to use my pen after I signed her in!

This one cracks me up!

Is she a righty?!  That concentration would lead me to believe so,
but I think it may still be too early to tell.

Trains!

It's impossible to get pens away from her right now.

It's also impossible to get chapstick away from her right now.

First ascent on a ladder!

And so proud of it too!

Our Social Butterfly

Kate had her 9 month pediatrician appointment today and she did so well!  She's shown a few signs of not wanting to be held by strangers but she didn't seem to mind the nurse or her doctor one bit!

She weighed 20 pounds 6.5 ounces (85th percentile for weight) and was 28 1/4" tall (70th percentile for height).  Kate is growing just as she should be!

Remember the last appointment we were at?  Kate tore the bed paper to shreds??  Well, this appointment she was much more mobile!  I'll tell ya, if you can get two and a half weeks of crawling under your belt you are good to go!  She is quick!

9 month old Kate! (And Mommy.)

Making her way over to the cotton balls and tongue compressors.

The nurse was nice enough to let us play with a tongue
compressor!

And believe me when I say I think it was a highlight of
Kate's day!

Do you want to play with this here tongue compressor, Mama!?

Still at it on our way home.
(Note: we put the compressor playing on hold for the car ride.)

I cannot believe our next appointment with Kate's pediatrician will be for her 12 month check-up!!!  How is that even possible?!

Pretty Perfect

Those were our doctor's exact words when describing Kate at her pediatrician appointment today (although Brian and I both say it nearly every day!), and it was music to our ears!  (I think she is trying to get some brownie points...) Our Baby Girl is progressing just as she should be and it appears that we are doing something right!  She weighed 18 lbs. 9.5 oz which put her in the 90th percentile for weight and was 26 3/4 inches long which put her in the 75th percentile for height.  Trust me when I say her noggin' has been a-growing too. Again, I didn't write down what exactly her head circumference was, but it was good.  She's absorbing information about the world around her and that little brain of hers is expanding!

More interestingly though was the paper that Kate sat upon while waiting for the pediatrician to do the check-up.  Kate could not get enough of the crinkly material that was sooo much fun to rip apart. And Brian and I couldn't get enough of watching Kate play!

We thought bringing a little teether would occupy Kate...
Boy, were we wrong.

Once she discovered that she sat upon a long sheet
of paper that teether saw no love.

"Look, Mama!  I can pull it!"

And then she figured out she could rip it...

"It's just so much fun to tear it to pieces!!"

"Can we get some of this at home, Mama?"

This is what the pediatrician saw when she came in...
...We promise we are responsible parents.

See Kate in action below!

For the record, we apologized to the pediatrician for the mess and we cleaned up after our child ourselves.  Our pediatrician did not mind one bit.  After all, a girl's gotta explore, right?!

Kate's Pediatric Adventure

We took Kate into the pediatrician today for her four month check up.  She weighs 16 pounds 4 ounces (85th percentile) and is 24 3/4" long (60th percentile) and her little noggin is 41.5 cm (75th percentile).  Our baby is certainly growing!

Rather than me tell you how it went, I'll let Kate tell you:

So I went to the doctor today and she told me that I would
be getting a shot.

What?!  But I thought one shot is better than five shots!

But that was until I saw the size of the needle.

I swear it was this long, and I thought to myself, 'You
have got to be kidding?!"

My pediatrician was NOT kidding.

So she stuck me smack dab in the leg.
Get a close up, Ma!

You see?
Then she stuck a fancy bandaid on my battle wound.

Fortunately, I can still do ballet.

 And I am still the happy baby that I always was!

And there you have it - Kate's Pediatric Adventure!