4 Months already!

Kayden is 4 months old. Where has the time gone?!?! She no longer qualifies as a newborn but just a baby. She is doing wonderfully. She sleeps 12-13 hours at night and wakes up happy. Naps are inconsistent in length but she is easy to put down and stays pleasant even if she is up too long. She is still in love with Keeley and starting to get a little more shy with other people. Rolling from back to tummy, grabbing onto things, talking up a storm, and playing with her feet have been the highlights of this month.

When we went to the doctor, everything checked out great. She's a big girl weighing in at 15 lb 6 oz (82%) and 25.25 inches long (81%). She was a trooper with her 4 shots. Unfortuntately, she cried more when the doctor talked to her or tried to hold her than she did with the shots. She was completely unbothered by the bandaids (although their presence bothered Keeley quite a bit). We left with information about starting solid foods. I cannot believe my baby is about to be starting solids.

Daddy and his girls at the park. Keeley insisted Dad slide even though he had the baby.

Propping herself up when I sit her up. She no longer falls straight down.

Talking. She is always talking.

Holding onto her foot for dear life!

Evidence of a few of the rolls...

Unimpressed with Keeley's reading. Keeley is clearly not pleased with her student.

18 months!

We are into full fledged toddler mode. Keeley is into her world and loving it. We had her appointment today and she got her flu shot and one vaccine. I was pleased to find out that she has no more shots until 4. She hates being examined but the doctor said she is "appropriately" afraid so I shouldn't worry. She also HATES her shots. Everything about them is bad - having lay down, having to be held still, being poked and, horror of all horrors, having bandaids placed on her. Apparently bandaids do not agree with her fashion sense! The doctor said everything about Keeley was great and that we should expect her to have a vocabulary explosion in the next 6 months. She weighed in at 23 pounds (26%) and is 33.5 inches tall (89%). I suppose everyone that has referred to her as a "peanut" lately must be referring to her weight because she is certainly tall for her age. The doctor is unconcerned with how skinny she is because it is staying the same. The doctor said she only wished her proportions were similar!

Her hair is finally getting long enough to do something with. She rarely leaves any of the clips and bows alone for more than a few minutes so I have to snap my pictures quickly.

Reading to an unwilling listener.

Reading with Daddy.

Playing at the park. This has been a big hit over the past few weeks because she has finally learned to climb onto the equipment herself and slide down the slides alone.

I'm not sure two napkins is sufficient! She's eating baby food because she wanted it and it seemed perfect for her "soft food" restrictions. I had no idea what a mess it would make! Fortunately, she's totally into cleaning right now.

She though this was hilarious. By the time she had finished, she had stacked about 20 books this way. It is so funny to watch their little minds work.

Dental Update

I called the Keeley's dentist yesterday (since she had to see the on-call pedi dentist on Friday) to schedule a follow up appointment. They told me that as long as everything seemed okay at the moment, we would need to schedule the appointment about 2 weeks out so that we could see how the teeth were firming up. This was fine by me as I thought the less she had people in her mouth for a while the better. We continued to keep her on her soft food diet and have been monitoring her climbing escapades even more closely than usual.

Well, at 7:40 this morning I noticed that she was bleeding again. I have no idea what prompted it. She was simply running around the living room and I noticed that her drool had suddenly turned bloody. Of course I was nursing Kayden so I couldn't jump up right away but I thought that was okay since Keeley seemed completely unphased by the blood.

As soon as I could, I got up and inspected her mouth. The blood was coming from around those teeth so I let Kelly know and then waited until her dentist opened at 8 to call. They wanted to see her.

We went in and the assistant looked at her teeth and explained that the bleeding didn't seem to be too big of an issue because the gums were still injured the teeth were loose. She said we would probably just need to watch it and follow up in a month or so. Then she asked if Keeley still took a paci and I said yes. I didn't like her facial expression. She told me that using the paci probably wasn't in the best interest of those teeth but that we could talk to the doctor about it. In my head I'm thinking "No way. There is no way we are going cold turkey on the paci three weeks into Mother's Day out and 4 days after her traumatic fall."

Fortunately, the dentist agreed with my internal monologue. He said that it might do more damage psychologically to take it away from her after such a big incident and with her still being so young. THANK GOODNESS! He said we could just limit it as much as possible and watch to see if she quit taking it. Voluntarily stopping her paci use now would indicate that her teeth were probably hurting her.

Then we talked through all the scenarios. Best case scenario - the teeth firm up just like they should and she gets to keep both of them. Worst case scenario - one or both abcesses and we have to get them removed. He said he does that with or with out anesthesia depending on parent preference. What parent chooses without anesthesia?!?!? He also said that if he ends up having to take one out that he will probably just take them both out since they are both at risk for needing it. He says that instead of having to possibly go in twice, it made more sense to take them both at one time.

While he is going through all this, I am internally freaking out. Keeley is 18 months old. 18 months. She isn't going to get grown up teeth for a long time. I don't want her teased mercilesslily for being gap toothed. My face, I hope, simply shows my concern for Keeley's physical well being. I'm doubtful that is all it showed, however, because I have a very expressive face. I'm also quite certain there was a dramatic change in my face as soon as he said "If we have to take them both, we can do a pedi partial so she isn't missing those teeth" He then said that even if the tooth abcesses but doesn't have to be removed it might discolor and they can fix that cosmetically too.

Woo hoo! I certainly never would have imagined cosmetic dentistry for a preschooler but I'm glad that it is here to help us if we need it!

Dental Emergency

What is a dental emergency? I've often wondered this same thing. When you call the dentist and get the recording they always say "if this is a true dental emergency, please call....." This always makes me laugh a little and wonder why on earth you would need to call the dentist after hours. I mean really. Even if you chip your tooth, can you not wait until the morning?

Friday night we discovered what a "true dental emergency" is. It started out like every evening we've had since the weather started cooling off. We ate dinner and then went to the park in our neighborhood. This particular Friday, some friends drove over to meet us. Just as we were about to leave, Keeley scooted off the bench and fell onto her glass of water. She cried (but she cries a lot) and wanted to be held so I picked her up. Then I noticed the blood. Lots and lots of blood. Keeley has fallen and cut her mouth before but there was never this much blood. I didn't know what to do outside of cuddle Keeley to get her calmed down and get back to the house. My friend told me that I went into a zone but I didn't feel particularly panicked - more a need to stay calm so I could figure out what to do. She gave me some wipes and I carried Keeley home while Kelly got Kayden in the car to drive home. The walk wasn't far and I just couldn't bear the thought of Keeley being hurt and scared strapped into her car seat.

She quickly calmed down and we talked the whole way home while I tried to get her face and hands cleaned off. We are in the "yuuuuck" phase right now and I didn't want her bothered by the site of all the blood. As we walked up to the house, Kelly walked out with a popsicle for her and we continued to cuddle while she enjoyed her popsicle. Once the she was smiling again, I plopped her on the counter to assess the damage.

Her poor bottom lip was split and the top lip was really swollen. When I lifted her lips to assess the teeth, I came pretty close to freaking out. Her front center tooth looked like it had been broken in half and the one next to it was pointing back toward her tongue. I decided that if a tooth is pointing the wrong direction, that merits a 7pm call to the dentist.

We made the after hours page to the dentist on call and tried to get the girls cleaned up while we waited for the call. When the dentist called back, he said we needed to see him that night. Awesome. We decided to leave Kelly at home with Kayden so at least one of the kiddos was on schedule and Keeley and I headed out to the dentist. Our dentist wasn't on call so we had to drive about 40 minutes away to the on call pediatric dentist.

Keeley was so very, very brave. She cried a lot but she was so cooperative. She even knew when she had to take her pacifier out and did so before we asked. He looked in her mouth and decided we needed x-rays so Keeley has now had her first set of x-rays. Upon looking at the x-rays, the dentist determined that she hadn't broken the front tooth but pushed it way up back in the gum. He also said he was going to need to reposition the other tooth. Poor thing.

We moved back to the exam area and Keeley and I sat tummy to tummy and then I leaned her back in the dentist's lap. He opened her mouth and then moved her tooth forward and massaged the tissue around to get it to stay. He didn't use any medicine because he said it didn't usually help and once the tooth was back in place it stopped hurting. Keeley cried hard and there was lots more blood but she recovered quickly. We got home and rocked for a long time and then she slept just fine and woke up right on schedule today. She seems totally fine. We have to keep her on a soft diet since that tooth will be loose for a couple of days and follow up with her dentist on Monday. The dentist also said that the tooth that was going the wrong direction doesn't have a great survival chance so our little monkey may be gap toothed for a while soon!

Here is a picture of her this morning. You can see the split and the swollen upper lip.

Random little one updates

How do toddlers always know what the most dangerous item in the dishwasher is? Without fail, Keeley will remove kitchen scissors, knives, and forks from the utensil basket (in that order). If there are only spoons, she always seems to try to unload something glass.

Keeley is taking a nap and she woke up for a moment and said "dada dada dada" and then went back to sleep. I love listening to her practice her words. School is already changing her vocabulary and I am encouraged to hear more and more of her words. They are studying red right now and she can say it - so cute.

Kayden has finally learned to roll from tummy to back. Now, not only will she stop being frustrated when she rolls onto her tummy, she can start to move places more intentionally. We'll see how this developing skill plays out with Keeley. Keeley is starting to get a little bit uneasy when Kayden's feet kick her or if a finger/elbow/arm ends up in teething Kayden's mouth. It is a bit reminiscent of "Mom, he's looking at me..." days.

Day of firsts!

Well, Keeley did AWESOME at school. I stood outside and watched her for a little bit to see if she was happy. She was eating her snack and having a great time. She got a little sad when she saw me, but just a little. As soon as I picked her up, she kissed Kayden's head and was smiling again. And, I know you aren't going to believe this, but she NAPPED at school!!! My child, the non-napper. The one that refuses to nap at my mom's actually laid down and took a nap with no fight. Now, it was only a 35 minute nap for the day but I was amazed. I just about fell down with shock when they told me. As we were leaving, I put Keeley down to buckle Kayden into the car and Keeley actually tried to go back to school. Amazing.

I was a little nervous about how the afternoon would go when we got home since she woke up at 6:30 and only took a 35 minute nap. We got home and she was in such a great mood. She ate a lot of food (not her normal 6 grapes for the day) and was so into playing by herself! Kayden took a long afternoon nap and Keeley and I went outside to play and she only checked back in with me occasionally.Gathering all her water bottles for her snack.

Her ensemble when I told her she needed a hat to go outside.

It was such a great day. When Kelly got home, we ate dinner with Kayden in her high chair for the first time. Then we walked to the park and Keeley had so much fun climbing up the playground equipment and sliding down the slide by herself. She was like a different kid.

Such a happy baby.

Big girls at the table.

Kayden's not sure of the kisses from Keeley.
Keeley had to find a step stool to get high enough to kiss her.

I think I am going to really enjoy having some special Kayden time on Mondays.

Day 2 - Progress?

Well, today was the second day of Mother's Day out. Yesterday I put Keeley in the church nursery for the very first time. I've been wanting to do that for a while but have been fearing the inevitable crying. One of her MDO teachers is also a teacher on Sunday morning so I thought it would be good practice for her and a shorter time frame to get used to. She did okay in the nursery but still wasn't terribly happy when I dropped her off or picked her up.

I had high hopes for today. Every time we talked to her about school, she was excited about it. This morning as I gathered all her things together, she insisted on carrying them to the car.

Look how big the bags are compared to my tiny girl!

When we got to school, she saw some other kids with their things going inside and wanted to go too. I tried to help her but she wanted none of that.

So cute! She's so determined to do it all by herself.

She insisted on doing it all by herself the entire way into the school and all the way down the hall. As we got a little closer to the nursery, she wanted to hold my hand. Seeing the bye bye buggy made her want to get in my arms. Looking into her classroom made her cry. Handing her to the teacher made her scream. However, I went around the corner and the frantic crying ended in less than a minute. MUCH better progress than I anticipated for the second day. It appears to me as though she really wants to go to school and knows she will have fun but is still not sure she's ready to be that independent yet. Something tells me that this is just the stage we are in...