15 Months....Already?!?

On February 16, Emerson turned 15 months! Where has the time gone? When did this happen? Our little baby is turning into a little girl.

Some fun facts about Emerson:

** She is over her "no eating" phase and eats everything. She has a good appetite. Her favorites are ravioli, oatmeal, rice and waffles!

** She has finally cut 2 more teeth...both upper teeth and it looks like there may be some more on the way. She hasn't cut a tooth since September.

** She isn't an independent walker just yet, but she's close. The bony abnormalities in her neck have held her back a little, but she should be fairly mobile VERY soon...within the month. She keeps working with Christie, her dedicated physical therapist to overcome these obstacles.

** She is still a champion sleeper...down at 8pm and up between 8-9am. She has the odd false start or night waking, but they are far and few between.

** She's still a horrible daytime napper....1 hour max. She has graduated from the crib to the cot at school.

** She has a few words now...Mama, Daddy, Hi, Bye and a few others that we can't quite understand.

** She is proficient at Patty Cake and is getting the hang of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

** She is beginning to understand cause and effect. She loves to grab the TV remote and push buttons. She seems to realize that pushing certain buttons makes certain things happen....like the Wonder Pets get really loud then really quiet.

** This girl LOVES books. She likes to read and point, and of course be read to. And she doesn't even care what order the pages are in...just read and she flips.

** She's graduated to sippy cups without any fuss. She would like to graduate to her own fork and knife...but Mom isn't ready for that yet.

** This girl LOVES LOVES LOVES her Dad.

** 15 Month stats: Wt. 18.5 (less than 5th), Ht. 29 (5-10th). Yes, she is officially underweight...but her pediatrician isn't concerned, as Emerson looks healthy and is very active. She even has fat rolls...go figure! Her pediatrician and I agree that it's better for Emerson to eat healthy and be thin than have a bad diet for the sake of putting on weight. That said, I also admit that nothing goes into Emerson's mouth that does not have some sort of caloric value.

Everyday with Emerson just gets better and better. We are all getting some sleep and life is good. We feel blessed that Emerson came to be a part of our family (well, Ana and Monique don't feel so blessed). Just look how lucky we are....we couldn't ask for more!

Brazilian gone bad

Last week we took the cats to the vet for their annual check-up and mentioned the unmentionable. Sometimes, Ana Nicole has a little trouble keeping clean down there. You know, sometimes when you have long hair and need to do a few crunches, it's a little harder to stay as fresh as you'd like. And thankfully, the vet had a solution. Apparently unwanted hair removal is not limited to humans....these services are available to cats as well. The vet said that this is actually a common problem with long haired cats and recommended a Brazilian. They don't actually use wax on cats, but they do clip that area very close so it's easier for the cat to keep clean. Well, apparently, there was some miscommunication. Ana got her Brazilian alright, and then some.

This is called the "Lion Cut" and Ana got a very poor version of it. I guess when we told the groomer she needed to be shaved around her girl part, they took it to mean ALL THE WAY AROUND the girl part. Poor girl, she is miserable and hasn't recovered. On the plus side, she is now colder and requires lots of body heat and snuggling to stay warm at night.

She's got legs!

If my legs were half this awesome, I'd wear a miniskirt too!

We HEART Dr. D!

This post could also be titled "Good Bye Margo Moo". Emerson is breathing much, much easier thanks to Dr. D. Emerson was referred to Dr. D., pediatric allergist, by her very wonderful, but very frustrated pediatrician, Dr. T. At about 4-5 months of age, when the smoke from Mulchie got really bad, Emerson began experiencing varying degree's of nasal congestion....some days were good, most days were bad. And we tried EVERYTHING to make it better. We stayed indooors, we sat around hot steamy bathrooms, we nebualized this, and vaporized that, irrigated this and suctioned that. And lots of meds. But NO MORE. Gone are the wheezes, the sneezes, the chest rattle, the productive cough AND the nasal congestion that was so bad, poor girl would wake up with her hair "gelled" to her scalp with snot. NO MORE, as she has been cured. Dr. D. did a simple pediatric allergy panel skin test and Emerson is not allergic to anything....NOT ONE THING! We were floored. He has diagnosed her with "vasomotor rhinitis". He took her off all her meds and we tried 2 new ones....Entex to thin the secretions and Flovent inhaler to "heal" the lungs. And after about 10 days of "getting worse before getting better" she did get better. Hallelujah and Amen, she got better. Now we have our 1cc of Entex twice a day and our 1 puff of Flovent twice a day and we are good. No more Margo Moo, no more coughing, no more plastered hair, no more problems drinking milk!
Thank you Dr. D.!

WE LOVE DR. D.!