New Look

As you can tell, I'm working on a new look for my blog.  I decided I really want my blog to be more about the pictures, rather than the cute backgrounds.  So I've decided to simplify my blog.  I'm hoping this makes me focus more on taking good pictures.  I'm still learning everything I can do, but I hope you all enjoy the new look. 

Sunday

We enjoyed another nice day today.  Emily and I spent some time outside soaking up the sunshine.  These last couple of days make me long for springtime!

Airplanes

We had some great spring weather yesterday.  I think the high was around 75!  Not bad for the end of January.  We knew we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather, so we headed down by the airport to watch the planes land.  It was an usually slow day at the airport, so we were having to wait around 5 minutes in between each plane landing.   Emily stayed interested in the planes for about 30 minutes and then she just wanted to run around.  It was nice getting out of the house and enjoying such a pretty day.  Too bad the weather is supposed to get COLD later this week.

Happy 15 months!

Here's what's happening with Emily at 15 months:

 - She wears a combo of 6-12 month clothes and 12-18 month clothes.  The 12-18 month pants still have to be rolled at the top and bottom, but the 6-12 month clothes are almost getting too short.

 - She's weaned herself off her 2nd nap on the weekends.  :(  At school she only gets one nap, so I'm surprised we've been able to keep her 2 naps on the weekend for this long.  We usually put her down for her nap right after lunch around 11:30. 

 - She's in a size 3 diaper.

 - She has 6 teeth - 4 on top, 2 on bottom - but her 7th tooth (on the bottom) just broke through yesterday.

 - Shoe size is anywhere from a 3 to 4 depending on the shoe.

 - She still hates socks and shoes!  She will pull them off if she can and if she can't, will fuss until we do it for her.

 - She's a full time walker!  She's all over the place and quickly too.  It was almost like she waited to walk until she could do it at full speed. 

 - She loves for us to chase after her.

 - In addition to knowing where her nose, eyes, and belly button are, she also knows her mouth, head, hair and we're still working on her ears.

 - She's completely off bottles and formula (as of tonight)! Now it's only milk in sippy cups.  The transition off bottles was really easy (I'm glad we waited the extra couple of months!)  She's liking milk much more now.

 - She's out of the infant car seat and is facing forward in her big girl seat.  And unfortunately for us, she is even fussier in the car now that she's facing forward.  The portable DVD player has been ordered and arrived yesterday.

 - She loves animals!!  Anytime she sees one on tv she gets so excited.  Especially dogs. She can tell you what a monkey says and what a dog says.

 - She's starting to like tv more.  Her favorite shows are probably the Wiggles and Sesame Street and she loves the Noah's Ark Baby Einstein DVD.

 - She has become afraid of the bath color tablets.  If she sees the water changing colors, she freaks out.  So much for that idea.  :(

 - She talks all the time (even school tells me this), but still very little we can understand.

15 Month Well Visit

I took Emily in to see Dr. G this morning for her 15 month well visit.  Here are her stats:

Weight - 19 lbs, 14 oz (10%)

Height - 29 in (25%)

Head - 18 in (50-75%)

Emily continues to stay on her own curve, so Dr. G was happy with her height and weight.  I realized that her clothes and shoes do make quite a difference after she was weighed fully clothed at the after hours pediatric place a few weeks ago and weighed over 20 lbs.  Since she's so close to 20 lbs though, I'm not worried that we already turned the car seat around.

Unfortunately, this well visit, like many others turned into a sick visit.  Emily's ear infection that she had a few weeks ago hasn't fully cleared up and since she has a bit of a runny nose, the Dr. was concerned it could get worse.  So she's back on antibiotics to hopefully get it cleared up. . .stronger ones this time.  I continue to get frustrated that she keeps getting ear infections!

Developmentally, Emily is right on track.  I was concerned that she doesn't say a lot of words that we can recognize.  She "talks" all the time, just not in recognizable words.  But Dr. G wasn't at all concerned.  He said as long as she points and follows commands well, which she does, the comprehension is there and the words will come.  He said each child varies and she'll start speaking actual words anytime between now and 2 years old.

Emily got 3 shots today.  She cried during them, but considering she also has an ear infection and has been teething all week, I think she did great.

She'll go back again at 18 months.  And that will be a shot-free trip!

Tomorrow she will officially turn 15 months, so I'll post her chair pic and monthly update then.

Emily's Robe

Who's Reading?

I use this blog as a scrapbook to record all the things we do as a family.  More importantly, I use it to record all the major highlights in Emily's life.  I'm not so great about filling out her baby book, so I make sure to get it on here.  I write it to also keep friends and family up to date.  It's much easier to put pictures in one place then having to email pictures to tons of different people.  So, this got me to thinking, who really reads my blog?  I may only have a few readers and that's ok, because I do this for me, Shawn and Emily more than anyone.  But I am curious!  So if you do read, please sign up as a follower over to the right!

Sunday at the Park

We headed to the park in our neighborhood this afternoon to let Emily run around a bit and also feed the ducks.  We haven't been to the park since she started walking and we thought she might enjoy it.  It was colder than we thought, so we didn't stay too long, but Emily liked seeing the ducks and playing on the playground.

Since it was cold out, we drove instead of walked

1 cracker for the ducks, 1 cracker for Emily. . .

 

She wasn't so sure about this one

Back at home, in the warmth.  She was acting silly.



Dallas World Aquarium

After Emily woke up from her nap yesterday afternoon, Shawn declared it Baxter family fun day.  We knew we wanted to get out of the house, so we decided to check out the Dallas Aquarium.  It was pretty neat.  It's set up like a big rain forest and has 3 levels.  You start at the top and work your way down.  We saw lots of animals.  Everything from flamingo's, monkeys, penguins, sloths, to sharks, jelly fish, turtles and manatees.  I think Emily enjoyed herself.  I was really bad about taking pictures as it was crowded and I was trying to navigate the stroller.  But here are a few.

Be Careful What You Wish For

For the last several months, all I wanted was for Emily to start walking.  I figured it would make going out to places so much easier.  Everyone told us to be careful of what we wished for.  They said as soon as she started walking, she would be in to everything.  I just kept thinking she crawls so well, that she's already into everything.  Well, I should have listened.  It's not that she's into everything now, it's more that she's all over the house quickly!  Don't get me wrong, she was a quick crawler, but at least I could hear where she was.  Now, she moves quickly and quietly. 

Shawn let me sleep in this morning and so he was on Emily watching duty.  He ran to the bathroom real quickly while Emily was playing.  When he came out, he saw that she was nowhere to be found downstairs.  He saw her toys at the bottom of the stairs and knew immediately she was upstairs.  She had climbed all the stairs and was upstairs playing in the gameroom like it was no big deal!  I couldn't believe his story!  Well, I got my own glimpse of this just a few hours later when Shawn was grocery shopping.  I was using the dust buster in the kitchen for literally 2 seconds and she was gone.  I started calling out for her and got nothing, so I ran upstairs, nothing, finally I heard her rummaging through her diaper bag in our downstairs guest room.  My heart was pounding out of my chest.  I don't know how I'm going to deal with this!  This afternoon I kept her in her squeaker shoes so I knew where she was at all times. 

Shawn and I took her with us to run some errands this afternoon and now all she wants to do is walk around whatever store we are in.  Oh boy, that makes for some fun errands!  I have definitely learned my lesson!  Next time around, I'm hoping my child doesn't walk until they are 2!  :)

I have to post some pictures from today.  I put her hair in pigtails again.  Shawn and I couldn't believe how much older she looked when I put her hair up.  We're not ready for her to be a big girl.

The Little Gym

This morning Emily and I signed up for a free class at the Little Gym.  Our friends Jenny and Aubrey joined us.  Emily had such a great time!  So much so that it wore her out by the end and she's taking a nap now.  During the class all Emily wanted to do was explore.  We had such a good time, that Emily and I signed up for classes.  We'll go every Saturday morning for the next few months.