20 months

Last week Sydney was 20 months old!  My how time flies when you are having fun!  There’s not really anything new to report other than her vocabulary seems to be growing daily.  She is extremely fond of the word NO and uses it whenever she is asked any question…even if the answer is ‘yes’ she’s going to tell you no…LOL.  She loves her ‘shoooose’ and if she can’t find something she asks ‘where it go’?  She is also extremely independent but loves to help do things around the house.  Every morning she helps feed that cat and empty the dishwasher.  She also gives the dog his bone too.  She loves being outside and swinging on the swing.  Now that it’s been staying nice outside we try to spend time outdoors as much as we can. 

PT is still every other week and no real changes there either.  She’s not getting worse but they still want us to work on getting her to stop shifting her weight to her right hip when she’s seated and also using her left hand more.  We’re working on it….

This week, my nephew Mason came to Virginia from Florida to spend spring break with the family.  We all went to the Metro Richmond Zoo.  Sydney loved feeding the animals and Mason deemed himself “the bird whisperer”….LOL

 

19 months!

I’m a few days late on posting her 19 month update but I wanted to wait until I had something to show you J but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Sydney is allll over the place and into everything!  Her current favorite things are watching Thomas the Train (she dances to the theme song and calls it the “woo-woo” – kinda like a train whistle) and she loves to color….more so on the kitchen table than her paper but that’s okay, it comes off pretty easy since it’s just crayons.  She’s learning more and more words and her new favorites are cup and whoa…LOL.  We’ve not really pushed the potty training yet.  She likes to play with her potty seat but the drawers in the bathroom vanity are just much more exciting when she is in there.

She is back to PT every other week again.  We are seeing a new (old) physical therapist, Shannon, now.  I say old because this therapist is the first one we saw when Sydney started going to PT but she went out on maternity leave shortly after we began visits.  Now she’s back once a week and our normal therapist, Brianne, was booked solid so we ended up back with Shannon.  Shannon asked that we start bringing her back in every other week so she could monitor her a little more closely since she hasn’t seen her in a very long time.  Sydney is still holding steady in her measurements which is good and bad.  It means she’s not getting any worse but isn’t progressing either.  We still put her in her TOT collar too.  Hopefully we’ll be cut loose sooner rather than later.

This is why I was waiting to post the blog.  We got Sydney’s pictures done….it was supposed to be for her 18 mo b-day but things kept pushing the session out so it’s for her 19 mo b-day. J

 

18 months!

Yesterday Sydney had her 18 month check-up.  She is 31 inches tall (45%), weighs 24 lbs and 14.5 oz (80^%), and her head is measuring at 50.5 cm (upper 98% as usual).  The doctor said that we need to watch her carb intake (such as crackers, goldfish, juice, and packaged foods).  She said that Sydney is not “fat” or “overweight” and that she might be stockpiling her pounds right now in preparation for a growth spurt but just to be safe only give her those types of things every now and then.  This is kinda funny since one of the only multi-syllable words she can say and we understand is cracker….LOL. 

Her doctor said that everything else looks good and even commented on how her speech is good for her age.  She said the words she does say are very clear understandable and that’s great! 

We did ask the doctor about the rough patches of skin Sydney has on her upper thighs, back of her arms, and cheeks – I’ve tried using Aveeno lotion, Lubriderm lotion, and changing her bath soap…pretty much everything to get rid of those patches and nothing works!  As soon as the doctor saw and felt it she told us it was Keratosis Pilaris or “Chicken Skin”.  She said that it is basically an overabundance of skin cells around the hair follicles in those areas that cause the skin to have bumps – to me it feels like fine grit sandpaper and is usually always pink or red.  She also said that the symptoms are sometimes seasonal (we didn’t notice it was so bad until around December).  She gave us some hydrocortisone ointment to use on those areas to see if it helps any.  She also said there is nothing really that can be done about it and it’s not bothersome to Sydney so that is a good thing! 

She also got two shots.  The first one wasn’t so bad but she tensed up for the second one and the crying began!  She was okay by the time we got her dressed so it didn’t last long.  Sydney’s next appointment won’t be until she is 2!!

For Valentine’s Day we got Sydney a potty…hahahaha…no really, we did.  She’s starting to tell us (by pointing to her diaper) that she has gone potty and she’s been staying dry for longer between changes soooo….it’s about that time!!  She’s interested in the new potty because it has a top that opens and closes so she likes doing that.  We practice sitting on it each day just to get her used to it so hopefully potty training will go smoothly!!  We shall see!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

 

This is her most favorite thing to do when she's REALLY sleepy...suck her thumb and play with her belly button...this is what she does every night before going to sleep.

 

17 month pic & Snow day

It has FINALLY snowed up here!  We got about 4 inches yesterday and a dusting today.

She was not happy about the face plant she did into the snow!

Couple of Christmas Pictures

Christmas & 17 months

I’m only a few days weeks late posting this but we’ve been busy trying to get back to some normalcy with the holidays, Steve being off on vacation, Steve and my birthday, and me having the flu (yay!).  Christmas was a bit of a marathon.  Sydney would open a gift or two then want to go play with her Santa gifts (her power wheels trike and bean bag).  Then she would come back for another gift and the cycle would start all over again.  We Skyped with the Basham’s in the morning then Sydney took a nap and I cleaned up all the paper from gift opening and when she got up from her nap we Skyped with the Rhody’s and started the opening process all over again.  Hopefully next year she’ll be a bit more into tearing up the paper and really getting into her gifts.  We went to moms for Christmas #2 and Christmas dinner.  Sydney was showered with love and gifts from all as usual…she is a lucky girl!

Sydney is walking allllll over the place…it’s hard to believe that only a couple months ago she was so unsteady on her feet!  She is still on the once a month PT schedule so our next appointment isn’t until next Tuesday.  Hopefully she’ll have more progress since her walking has really taken off.  She is talking a little bit more here and there…her favorite words are uh-oh, cat, dog, car, socks, up…there are a few more but those are the ones we can make out .

Pictures aren't uploading tonight....I'll try again tomorrow.

16 months!

I waited until today to post Sydney’s 16 month update because she had her monthly PT appointment today but I’ll get to that in a bit.  At Sydney’s 15 month well-baby, the doctor discovered that she had an ear infection and prescribed antibiotics.  Well, after 5 days on amoxicillin, the cold/cough that she also had was not getting any better and we weren’t even sure how to know if her ear infection was any better since we never knew she had one until the doctor checked her ears.  I called and got her an appointment the day before thanksgiving just to check her out.  The doctor said that her ear was still slightly red and checked her for flu, RSV, and Whooping cough just to rule everything out.  All tests came back negative so he prescribed her a different antibiotic, erythromycin.  Welllll…….Thanksgiving morning, Sydney woke up with a rash on her legs and torso.  As the day went on her rash got worse and her lip was starting to swell so we took her to the ER to get checked out.  The ER doctor said that she had an allergic reaction to one (or both) of the antibiotics.  We were able to make it to moms in time for Thanksgiving dinner J  Sydney was speckled for a few days but with the steroid he prescribed everything has cleared up.  Here’s her speckled look and first hospital visit picture:

Sydney visited with Santa last weekend and she was super excited about it!

 

 

Today was Sydney’s monthly PT appointment.  She is holding pretty steady with a slight tilt still.  We have to be diligent with using her TOT Collar and focusing on her using both sides of her body equally (stepping up with both the left and right leg – she tends to use the right leg more) but at this point the tilt is more habit than anything else.  Her neck muscles weren’t tight and she has good range of motion.

She is walking more and more every day and is starting to stand up on her own (instead of pulling up on everything).  Today she was able to show me where her nose is when I asked her!  Also, she doesn’t really bother the Christmas tree at all either so we are hoping that continues!  Here is her 16 month picture...I had this hat made for her, it's a Hippo :)