18-Month Doctors Visit

On Tuesday, right before leaving for Wisconsin, Sophie had her 18-month doctor appointment. All is well. She was sick (just a cold virus), so she couldn't get her only shot she needed...a HepA shot in preparation for her European adventure. But she did get measured. She was 24 lbs. 2 oz. She's been fluctuating for about the past month between 24 and 25 lbs, but she's had an ear infection, a stomach bug and a cold, so she hasn't been eating as heartily as normal. She was measured at 34 inches long. The nurse even commented on how tall she was! This puts her height in the "above 95th percentile" range (surprise, surprise!) and her weight at the 25th-50th percentile range. (This seems low, but if we figure it at 25 lbs, which is what she was at before she was sick, it puts her back to the 50th-75th percentile range.)

Our next visit won't be until she turns 2 years old!

"An Uneventful Week"

I ended my last post with something about looking forward to an uneventful week. I should have knocked on wood! On Tuesday afternoon, Sophie's daycare called to let us know that she had a fever. We picked her up a little early and we could tell she didn't feel well. Her fever lasted until Thursday! I stayed home with her Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! She had a little rash that the phone nurse said was chicken pox, so for about a half of Wednesday, we thought she had chicken pox. That night we went to the doctor because her fever still hadn't gone down and he verified that it wasn't chicken pox; it turns out to be just some viral thing connected to her cold. So, Sophie just returned to daycare today, and I think she was ready for it!

Here are some more pictures from her trip to California. I'll try to post the few pics we have from Buffalo tomorrow.

Grandma and Grandpa Fine and Uncle Matthew took Sophie to the Big Bear Zoo, which is a pretty small zoo in the mountains near their house. She seemed to enjoy her time there and learned to howl like a wolf:



Sophie's Great Grandma Linda and Great-Great Grandma "Grams" visited on our last day there. Sophie enjoyed giving and they enjoyed getting kisses! Sophie kept trying to push Grams' wheelchair around for her!

A Long Week

We're sorry it's been a while since we posted. We have lots of pictures still from our trip to California and to Buffalo, but I'm sure you all will understand when you hear about the last 7 days!

I'm still really busy, so I've pasted here what I wrote to Sophie's Grandma Schmidt yesterday:

It's been crazy around here. Last week Sophie got bit by a mosquito right on the bridge of the nose, and since she's mildly allergic to mosquitoes, her whole eye area swelled up. We took her to the doctor and they just said to keep giving her benadryl.

Then on Thursday night we had a big storm come through, and lightning hit a tree and/or some power lines in our back yard and started a fire at 2am! Because it was electrical, it kept burning and ended up blowing the transformer. Really scary...we had to evacuate the house and call 911! The fire department came and watched the fire, but since it was electrical, they couldn't do anything until the electric company turned the electricity off. It took them over an hour to do that...I think we finally crawled back into bed at 4:30, but then the electric company showed up at 5am to fixed the transformer and lines. All is well and the house is safe, but we weren't sure that the house wouldn't catch on fire for a little while there.

So this weekend was nice, but Sophie's had a little cold. She woke up this morning (Monday) with her eye glued shut by gunk, so I assumed she had pink eye. When we got to the doctor's, they said she has a double ear infection that caused an eye infection as well! Whew! So now she's on antibiotics and should be fine in a few days, but I'm looking forward to a very uneventful week!"

New Favorite Jammies

Sophie has really been into dragons and dinosaurs lately, mostly due to the fact that one of her favorite movies, Shrek, has a dragon chase scene in it. (She also likes chase scenes!) A couple of weeks ago, I found some dinosaur pajamas for her and bought them, and it's been cold enough at night for her to wear them the last few nights. She gets really excited to put them on. These pictures also have her sticker from when she got her shots last week. The sticker stayed on for two days!

15-Month Doctor Appointment

Yesterday was Sophie's 15-month appointment. We thought she'd be getting shots, but they didn't want to give them to her yet because she's had hives for the past 5 days--no other symptoms, just hives. They're reluctant to rule it as a food allergy and think it might just be viral. If it is viral, it should pass in a couple of weeks. We have another appointment next week to either get her shots or discuss her hives in more detail. We'll see.

We have new measurements:

Weight: 24 lb. 2 oz.
Height: 30.75 inches (Although this may be wrong since they measured her at 32 inches at her 12-month appointment...she definitely hasn't shrunk since then!)
Head Circumference: 47 cm

It seems as if she's slowed down a little in her growth (thank goodness!). Her weight and height put her in the 50th-75th percentile and her head puts her in the 75th-90th percentile.

12-Month Doctor Visit

Ian took Sophie to her 12-month doctor visit today, and the results are in: we're raising an amazon!

Her measurements are as follows:

Length=32 inches
Weight=23.4 pounds
Head Circumference=46.75 cm

According to babycenter.com, her measurements in percentiles are as follows:

Length = above the 100th percentile
Weight = between 75th and 90th percentile
Head Circumference = between 75th and 90th percentile

She seems to be doing great. They did an anemia test, and iron level was a little lower than they would have liked, but not in any range that was considered "low." We'll feed her more apricots, plums, prunes and meat, and they'll check her levels again at 15 months.

We'll try to post some pictures from her birthday/baptism extravaganza tomorrow!

9-month Doctor Appointment

We had Sophie's 9-month doctor's appointment today. She's almost 10 months old, but since there aren't any shots at this appointment, the timing isn't so critical. She's very healthy and her ear infection has cleared up. She now weighs 21 lbs. 6 oz., measures 30 inches long, and has a 45 cm head circumference! That puts her roughly in 90-95th percentile for length, 75-90th percentile for weight and 50-75th percentile for head circumference.

So, there you have it...she's a big girl!

Thanksgiving video #2

As promised, here's the second Thanksgiving video. Expect more photos tomorrow, and hopefully another video this weekend.

Sophie had her 6-month appointment yesterday. She's in great shape, 27 1/4" long and 17 lbs. 9 oz. Since her last visit had her at 27" long, we think maybe they mismeasured a little that time. She's still in the 95th percentile for height for her age. She got two regular immunization shots and her first flu shot. It was tough, but after a little crying she was back to her regular cheery self.

The doctor cleared Sophie for eating real food, too, so we TRIED babyfood carrots last night . . . you'll appreciate waiting for me to edit the video of that experience to see how much Sophie loves carrots right now.

Right click here to save this video.