Our little one turned 15 months yesterday, on Valentine's Day. And you know, I thought I was really into babies. I mean I am, but I didn't expect to enjoy the toddler stage as much as I do. I loved loved loved caring for Amy Grace as a newborn and little baby, but I am REALLY loving watching her grow and learn and develop into her own little person. She is walking like crazy, fairly well behaved (though she can pout and whine with the best of them), and you can tell she is learning new things every day. She loves to share whatever she finds in the house (including food - she loves to feed us lol!), is so very curious, and full of fun and laughter and joy. I cannot wait to see what the coming years hold. I can't imagine her as an eight-year-old, and certainly not a sixteen-year-old or anything like that, but I have a feeling it only gets better from here!
Our little Dragon still only says a few words - "dada", occasionally "mama", "bye bye", and something that sounds like "dee dee dee dee dee" that means "doggie". She seems preoccupied with getting around, as she always has, rather than talking. I bet that changes in a few months, though!
We are blessed that she has only been really sick twice - once around Halloween (she missed her costume contest at daycare, sad!) and this past week, when it turned out she had a double ear infection. (I had one of those when I was 12 or 13, way past the time when I should have been getting ear infections, and I remember it being brutal!) It was her first ear infection and I was thankful we have gone this long without one! Good ole amoxicillan made a huge improvement in about 24 hours and she was back to her happy self. She had been MISERABLE! We both hated to give her antibiotics as we are both firm believers in letting your body fight things off and not overmedicating, but in the end, I think either one of us would have taken the meds if we had it, lol.
I'm a little surprised to say that Amy Grace is still nursing! We struggled so much in the beginning, and I remember so many times wanting to quit the whole thing when she was about 5 months old and I was still mostly pumping (rather than nursing) at that point due to her issues with gaining weight. I'm SO glad I didn't quit!!!! I eventually came to terms with having to supplement with formula and was more thankful than I thought possible when something "clicked" around 6 months and her nursing improved and I started being able to nurse her a couple of times a day instead of bottle feeding. She is now pretty much completely weaned off bottles and onto sippy cups, but she still wakes up ready and rarin' to nurse in the mornings! I have no idea how much she is getting, MAYBE an ounce or so, but she loves it and so do I. Occasionally she will "ask" to nurse (aka stick her hand down my shirt lol) in the afternoon or evening and depending on what's going on, sometimes we will. I have REALLY been thankful for nursing at times when I've had to put her to sleep unconventionally (such as at a friend's bday party at a local restaurant the night of the national championship), and also when she has been sick, like this last week. The couple of days she felt the worst, she was going for boobie like a woman dying of thirst who's seen her first stream in days :) At times she even refused all liquids from cups and bottles and yet still nursed - so I was glad she was at least getting something. At this point I have no set idea about when to wean her fully. I would think by her 2nd birthday, but we'll see how it goes. Biblically I think it was somewhere between 2 and 3 years old - In Genesis, Abraham actually had a feast for Isaac to celebrate his weaning. I think that would be pretty cool :)
That's about it - hope to start updating the blog more, even just with tidbits from our life. Things are good. We are very blessed :)
