Avery's Big Smile

Emily at 15 months old on Christmas

Emily turned 15 months old on Jesus' birthday and fittingly enough for the occasion she learned how to say Jesus.  I laugh every time I hear her say it and she knows I like her saying it because she smiles when she spits out Jesus' name.  Speaking of new words, Emily's vocabulary has expanded in these last couple of months and she now recognizes the objects with the name.  She can now say Ama, Apa, Nonna, hippo, bottle, up, down, bath, hot, out, and her own variations of sister, Alex, Andrea, Alyssa and cookie.  Emily is also doing great with her baby sign language and can sign when she wants milk or more milk and can say please and thank you.  A new sign she recently learned was the gesture for cookie which took me by surprise. 

Just recently she has been learning body parts at school and will point to her ear when asked, although she points to her ear when asked to point to her eyes.  She does like to touch other peoples eyes but somehow doesn't know how to point to her own.  Emily is also learning new songs and dances at school but still enjoys "The Wheels on the Bus". 

The Monday after Christmas, Emily had her 15 month checkup and is now 30.5" long and is 23lbs, which means she is now ready to be forward facing in her car seat.  I am sure she will love the new view, lately she has been having tantrums when you place her in the car to go bye-bye.  Speaking of tantrums, they are also new in her ever changing world and personality.  Never have I ever seen my child flop around on the floor, wriggling and squirming around for no good apart reason.  I actually had to laugh when Emily had her first tantrum at home, it was that amazing.  After a couple of bumps on the head she finally realized to slowly place herself on the floor with legs and arms stretched out so as not to hurt herself.  Once she is in position then the wailing and fake cries begin.  It is a sight to see!

According to the doctor she is right on track in her development and is still above the average in height and weight.  She can point to body parts, take clothes off her body, say up to 10 words and is eating solids.  She tries to feed herself with a spoon but is still not completely weaned off the bottle.  Emily doesn't drink bottles at school and we are trying not to give her bottles until bed time.  Soon we will send her to bed without her bottle but for now it helps put her to sleep.

Diaper rash is still a big problem and we got the push to potty train from her doctor.  Apparantely our daughter has exteremly sensitive skin and the heat of her diaper is what is causing her rashes.  Just yesterday I was warned from her teacher that she had a major rash flareup.  I put her in her new panties that Nonna got her for Christmas and she had two accidents.  We are really trying to place her on the potty and keep her rashes at bay.  Aside from diaper rashes Emily caught a cold at daycare and that turned into an infection.  So she is now on antibiotics and cough medicine.  It isn't suprising she caught a cold, she was caught kissing a boy at school during nap time yesterday.  Brian wasn't too happy with the news but I thought it was hilarious. 

My little dancer now has some new dance moves with arms going up and down and twirling.  She also loves when her favorite show comes on  (The Fresh Beat Band) and knows part of the theme song, singing "nana, nana" when they do.  She is so funny!

Right after the new year we will meet with a cardiologist to find out why Emily has an irregular heartbeat that makes her turn purple at times.  Check back for a post about that...until then, Have a Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010

The holiday season was crazy as ever this year with two bundles of joy in the family.  Emily and Avery had a wonderful time with family and friends  It is great to see Emily interacting with cousins and getting excited about her gifts.  Brian took days to look for the perfect gift for the girls and finally decided to get them a Red Flyer Wagon.  The wagon is so cute and has two seats and cup holders. It will be great to take the girls outside together and let them have a ride around the neighnorhood.  Little did we know that Emily would hate it (Avery is still too young, of course).  As soon as we placed her in the wagon she started to cry, I still believe that it feels too big to her and scary.  I'm sure she will get used to it soon.

Aside from our gift , the girls got so many toys from their grandparents that I now have to rearrange things in my house to make them fit.  We are so blessed to have great parents and great family members who care so much for our girls.  We hope everyone had a great Christmas and hope everyone has a fantastic and safe New Year!

Sisterly Love



Emily trys to feed Avery



Baby Kisses



Emily loves Avery



Beautiful Girls



Emily

Avery

Breathing Treatment Makes Baby Feel Better

Avery at 4 Months

Cooling down from a fever.  Look at my belly!

Avery is now 4 months old and weighs 11 lb. 13 oz. and is 24 inches long.  When at the doctor's office I usually ask where she is compared with other infants her age but this time her sickness was top priority.  Avery has had a nasty cold for the past month and it hasn't gotten any better.  After numerous appointments her pediatrician would not presribe her anything because she is so young.  The only things we could do for her was give saline nose drops and infant Tylenol or Ibuprofen for fever.  Eventually she started to develop a cough and severe chest congestion.  She was tested for RSV or Respiratory Syncytial Virus and came up negative twice.  When Avery developed a wheeze her pediatrician decided to treat her as if she had RSV and prescribed her a nebulizer and medication to help open her airways.  Wow...double wow, who knew this was going to be expensive, even with insurance.  Parents would do anything for their children, especially when they are sick.  After her first treatment you could see a big diference in the way Avery was breathing.  We have to watch her carefully because according to her doctor it gets worse before it gets better.  I just hope she gets better soon.

Aside from her illness Avery is coming along in her development.  She is now grasping at things in front of her face and can hold her head up for long periods of time without getting tired.  The other day I sat her in her bumbo for the first time to help stregnthen her back muscles so it's easier for her to sit.  She did so well and lasted for about 10 minutes before she got tired.  The best milestone she hit is her first laugh.  It is the cutest little laugh and comes at the most unexpected times.  She will only laugh a couple of times and as hard as you try to make her laugh again she will not.  She just looks at you like you are crazy. 

Our little one is a great eater and is eating between 4 and 6 oz.  I think next month I will start her on cereal and see how she does with it.  I never wanted to give Emily food until she was 6 months old, just as the books say, and she never developed a taste for baby cereal.  Next up is Avery'f first Christmas and we can't wait to see what Santa brings for her and big sister this year.

Feeling better after a treatment.

Avery's Baptism

Avery was baptized on November 28, 2010 at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church by Rev. Jerry Zurovetz.  It was a lovely ceremony and we are happy to have Avery's godparents be my sister Andrea Gonzalez and our wonderful friend Samuel Naranjo.  Afterwards we all enjoyed a small luncheon at our home with the friends and family that we able to attend.

Avery's First Time in her Bumbo



Avery is getting old enough to voice her opinions on how to she wants to be held or placed.  I've noticed lately she doesn't like to put down in her swing or bouncer as often as we used to and she likes to be carried faced forward.  My petite baby lets you know right away when she doesn't like something although with a few sweet talks to comes around with a smile. 

Emily was three months old when we bought her a bumbo chair for Christmas to help teach her how to sit and it has been sitting in the closet since she was around seven months old and couldn't fit into it any longer.  Well Avery is well into her third month and so I thought why not give her a try in the bumbo chair.  As I placed her in it I expected her to cry as Emily did but to my surprise she did really well.  She stared at the toy in front of her with fascination and sat in her chair for a good 10 minutes before becoming tired.  I was so proud of my little Avery.  Her neck and back muscles have become much stronger this past month and this was a true test of her endurance.  She did a wonderful job!  Even Emily was amazed at how little sister could sit all by herself.  All of this progression just means she's headed out of what I call her "baby" phase and pushes her more into the infant stage.  Let's see what this next month has in store for her.

Lounging in my Bathtub

14 Months Old on Thanksgiving

Our little princess is now 14 months old and is such a riot.  I can not believe how much she has learned from her preschool teachers.  Emily has a huge personality and she makes everyone around her laugh by entertaining them with new hand gestures she's learned from baby sign language and new dance moves.

 Ever since I started taking her to daycare she has soaked up so much knowledge.  They are teaching the toddlers babby sign language and so far Emily knows how to say please, thank you, and more.  She doesn't know in what context to use them, but if you ask her to show you the sign for please she will make a circle on her chest with her hand.  The sign for thank you is to touch your hand to your chin and then move it outward which looks as if she is blowing a kiss.  I noticed one day that she would take her hands and rotate them around each other but didn't think anything of it until her teacher told me that was the gesture they make when they sing "Wheels on the Bus".  After learning this I sang the song to her and to my astonishment she laughed and started to make hand gestures to wheels go round and round, wipers go swish, horn goes beep, and doors open and shut.  I burst out laughing and was so amazed and proud at how much she is learning.  Ms. Sue and Ms. Crystal (her teachers) also taught her how to blow kisses, so everyday when I pick her up she waves goodbye and blows kisses to her teachers.  So cute!  Now she likes to blow kisses to everyone and they all get a kick out of it.

Emily has also started to try and run although she is still perfecting her walking.  She doesn't know depth perception yet so steps are still dangerous but once she learns how to go up and down a step she'll want to do it over and over as if it was a new game she learned.  The weather has been a mixture of hot and cold with some really nice days in between.  During the nice weather we will take Emily out on her learn and go tricycle.  She loves to ride on this thing and has now realized she has to keep her feet on the foot bar in order to go forward.  I'm sure within this next year she will learn how to peddle so we are trying to teach her that the street is not a place to go.  If let loose on her own, the street is the first place she heads towards, so it is really important to us that she learn not to go there.  She isn't tall enough to open doors yet, but she is getting there.  I noticed the other day while at the grandparents house that she loves to go in their pantry.  To gain access all you do is pull down the handle which she has observed us do so many times that she actually tries to do it herself but can't reach all the way over to pull it down.  I give her two more months and Ama and Apa will have to start baby proofing their house.  She has already tried taking our Ama's nice Royal Doultan china our of her bottom cabinets.

Emily's vocabulary hasn't increased greatly yet, she still says mama and of course loves to say dada, but her "baby" is starting to sound more like it should than what it did.  When she said baby it would sound like bebe, more French sounding.  Every morning we watch Baby Einstein's Baby Noah and she has started to come up with a variation of the word Hippo that sounds like Hhh-aa-ppp-mm.  Close enough in my book.  She always gets a big applause from mom and dad anyway.  Aside from that she is always trying to sound new words out so she's headed in the right direction.

A new milestone this month...Emily tinkled in her potty!  She has been learning that you are supposed to sit on it instead of just take it apart as she likes to do.  One day as I was running her bath I took her clothes off and sat her down.  I guess with the running water she got the need to go and went.  YAY!  I was so excited and am now placing her on her potty sporadiacally throughout the day and then running the faucet.  Most of the time she does a tinkle and then we clap.  We are headed towards potty training.  I'm hoping by the time she reaches the age of two that she is completely potty trained.

Speaking of potty, Emily is known at her daycare as the child her goes poop alot.  At first this wasn't a big concern but then she started developing really bad diaper rash because of the amount of time she would go.  So we decided to switch her to whole milk that is lactose free and so far I think it has done the trick.  She doesnt' go as much and her rash is starting to disappear.  I'm so glad because she was really having a hard time and hates to be changed.  It is a feat everytime we need to change her diaper.

A couple of weeks ago we had a little scare with Emily.  I got a call from her preschool and was told that she was turning purple.  It first started with her arms and then moved to her legs and then she started getting splotches on her face.  Well I rushed to pick her up and took her to her pediatrician.  At first it seemed as though the doctor wasn't understanding how she turned purple.  At this time Emily was now back at her normal color.  Four witnesses at her daycare all said she was purple, with how fair she is she was probably a shade of blue and red that made her seem purple.  The doctor couldn't explain it as nothing else was wrong with Emily at the time she changed colors.  She wasn't lethargic and she was breathing normally.  In fact she was playing inside with her other peers.  During the checkup Emily was asleep on my lap so she didn't throw a fit when the doctor started examining her and to our suprise, the doctor found that Emily had an irregular heart beat.  The irregular heart beat would lead to a cirrculation problem which could cause the outer extremities to not get enough blood causing them to appear blue, or Emily's case a shade of purple.  So in January we are going to meet with a Pediatric Cardiologist to have Emily checked out.  We are all praying and hoping that she doesn't have anything wrong and that it was just a weird incident. 

Aside from the scare, Emily is doing great and got to meet Santa the other day.  I didn't take her to meet him last year at the mall, he came to our house instead.  I noticed while shopping that he wasn't busy with lots of children so we went up to say hello and snap a picture of our first meeting, or rather second for Emily and first for Avery.  As soon as we placed Emily on his lap she went into hysterics and immediatly started crying at the top of her lungs.  Avery on the other hand was perfectly fine and sat still for the camera.  Needless to say, the image that we have of the meeting is hilarious.  Emily is staring at Santa with her mouth wide open in a yell and Avery is staring straight into the camera with a blank look on her face.  Oh the memories!!!