Josie is 14 Months

The day after Josie turned 14 months old she started crawling up the stairs. She went up three stairs at first before turning around and basically falling into my arms. After a few days of practice she crawled quickly up all of the stairs. She is so excited when she gets to the top and goes straight to her room to play. Thank goodness for baby gates!

Josie's back right molar has been bulging all month long. I keep waiting for it to break through her gums but it hasn't happened yet. She is chewing (and drooling) on everything! Anything is fair game for her mouth. 

I think after her one year visit, Josie developed a fear of doctors. Sophie had a check-up and Joe took Josie along since I had something else going on. Josie was fine until the doctor came into the room. As soon as she started talking she burst into tears. I guess she had flashbacks of her last visit with all of her shots. 

Keeping with the topic of doctors, Josie spent half of this month sick. The poor kid just couldn't catch a break! When she first started getting cranky I thought it was just due to her molar. Her fevers started around the middle of the month on a Thursday. I assumed that she had an ear infection again since she had some of the other symptoms that I noticed normally come with them (she is teething and had a runny nose, watery eye, etc). Saturday night was rough and Sunday she just wanted to be held the whole day. The only time she felt decent was when the pain medicine kicked in. Sunday evening her fever shot up to 104.4°. I was frantic thinking it was high enough to cause brain damage (it wasn't-it would have to be around 107° for that to happen). Luckily Joe kept calm and we were able to get her fever down. Around 1:30 in the morning she was up again, shaking and whimpering. I brought her downstairs for Advil and she started coughing. She ended up coughing/puking up a ton of white chunks all over me (high fevers + milk = nasty smelling cottage cheese-like puke). She drank some water and was able to sleep the rest of the night once the medicine kicked in. She and I slept on the couch so that I could keep an eye on her. She woke around 7:45 in the morning with another fever. Luckily I was able to get her into the doctor's early that morning. Josie was fine until the nurse started talking and checking on her. She started crying and only stopped when we were alone in the room. As soon as she heard the doctor in the hallway she burst into tears again. When the doctor came he did a quick check-up; Josie sobbed the whole time. He had to clean a ton of ear wax out of her ears so that he could get a good look in there. They were fine, which surprised me as I was sure she had an ear infection. They then did a flu test and a strep test. Both of those came back negative, so they decided to do a urine analysis. The poor girl became even more traumatized because they had to catheterize her. The results came back positive for a UTI. They gave her a shot of antibiotics and a prescription for more medication. They asked that we bring Josie back in after 2-3 weeks so they could do another urine analysis and do an ultrasound of her kidneys to ensure there are no issues going on with them. I still can't believe that she had a UTI. We change dirty diapers right away, wipe her properly, and bathe her properly so it baffled us (and made me feel like I was a bad mom). The only thing I can think of is that one time when the girls took a bath together we put in a bath fizz that changes the color of the water (Sophie loves those and they have never caused her issues before.) That was the first time Josie was even in a tub with those. Things like bubble baths can cause UTIs so I am assuming the bath fizzes can as well. Lesson learned. She is feeling better now that she has finished her round of medicine. Poor girl. I hated seeing her feel cruddy, especially with her high fevers!

My poor girl was so sick!

I'm pretty sure this bath water is what caused Josie's UTI. 

Sophie and Josie's bond gets stronger all the time. It makes me smile every time I see them playing together or Josie chasing after Sophie. They are so sweet. Joe picked up Sophie for a dentist's appointment one day, leaving Josie behind at the baby sitter's house. Sophie was so upset and worried about Josie. She kept asking Joe if they could go and get her. 

 

I hope that next month is a healthier one for Josie. I have felt so bad for my sweet girl.

Here are some more pictures of Josie when she was feeling okay this month:

We've had so many snow days this year. Sophie loves playing in the snow, but I worried about taking Josie out in the cold temperatures. I saw a blog post from another parent that mentioned bringing snow into the house for kids to play with instead of taking them outside. I loved the idea, so I filled their bath tub with snow. They had so much fun! This is definitely something that we will do again. 

When Josie was sick the movie Frozen came out on DVD. I had to go to the store to get Pedialite for Josie and ended up buying the DVD as well (per Sophie's request). When we got home we snuggled up on the couch with some snacks and have a nice movie date. 

Kisses from Daddy.

My adorable little girl!

Josie is starting to hate her booster chair so we pulled out our trusty kid table. She loves pulling up on it and grabbing food. 

Mmmmm....breadstick

 

Josie loves grabbing books and toys out of the basket in her room. 

I hate push toys because they are so light and don't support Josie's weight. They either fly out from under her and she falls on her face or back. It always scares her (and me).  

Josie loves her activity center. 

Josie discovered a delicious new food - POPCORN! She couldn't get enough.

Snow day!

I cracked up when I saw Josie lounging on this pillow on the floor. 

Josie started climbing furniture. She loves getting up in this chair. 

Tylenol/Advil kicking in = happy girl again. 

Obviously giving Josie a bowl of fruit wasn't the best idea. 

Josie loves taking naps with Pawpaw Bill.

I love going into Josie's room in the mornings and being greeted like this. 

Patience

Joe had a meeting tonight and I was home with the kids. Sophie spilled pee from her potty seat all of the floor while she was trying to dump it in the toilet. I found about this when I stepped in it. I cleaned it up and then found even more later. Ugh! I was super frustrated and made her go to her room while I cleaned it up (both times). Once everything was cleaned up and we finished up her nightly routine it was time for bed. While saying prayers with Sophie, I asked God to "give mommy patience". Sophie immediately looked at me and said, "You don't have patience. Daddy does." I almost cried. I thought to myself how awful a mom I must be for Sophie to agree that I don't have patience. Then she continued with her thought, "You have students and Daddy have patients." Ha! She thought I was talking about our jobs (I'm a teacher and Joe is a Physician Assistant). Phew!

Josie is 13 Months

Wow! I can't believe all of the changes in Josie this past month! It is like she realized she is one now and thinks she needs to grow up.

The first week of being one she did all sorts of new things. On January 31st, the day after she turned one she was clapping and putting her hands up in the air (future cheerleader??). On February 1st she started saying, "Ohhhhhh what!" On February 2nd I went to get her up in the morning and she was standing up in her crib. She had never done that before! On February 3rd our last tub of formula ran out (we were mixing it with regular milk that last week) and she tried peanut butter for the first time. So many changes in such a short amount of time!

I am so excited about Josie pulling herself up to a stand. I was shocked when I first saw her standing up in her crib. She had the biggest smile on her face that matched my own; I was so proud of her and she was so proud of herself. Now that she is confident enough in standing she does it all of the time. She greets me every morning while standing in her crib and pulls up on everything-toys, furniture, doors, windows, chairs. She isn't cruising really yet, but I know that will come soon. She is very cautious about standing, though still has taken a few stumbles. I am so darn proud of my girl!

Now that we have run out of formula, Josie is drinking whole milk. It was a little bittersweet the last time we scooped out formula for her. It is so much easier and cheaper using whole milk though and she seems to like it. She also loves whole fat yogurt. She gobbles it up plain or mixed with baby food.

Josie loves clapping her hands. Whenever we say "Yea Josie!" she will grin and clap. She also tends to clap her hands when she is upset, which is kinda funny.

Sophie and Josie are still the best of friends. They love spending time together and always gravitate toward each other. Even when they get annoyed with each other they seem to get back together within a minute or two. Sophie is such a good helper to Josie. She loves trying to help feed her and keeps her entertained when we are changing diapers or getting dinner ready. I love seeing them together. They really are the sweetest. Sophie makes Josie laugh, even when she isn't there. I played a video of Sophie making Josie laugh and Josie cracked up just watching the video! It was too cute! I hope these two continue to be the best of friends.

Josie is still a super happy girl. She's getting some of her molars though so that has made her fussier than normal and is interrupting her sleep at night. Still we can always get a smile out of our girl with a quick game of 'Peek-a-boo' or faking sneezes (those never fail to make Josie smile).  I love that gap tooth grin of hers!

While Josie does love yogurt that is about all that she will let us feed her. Instead she wants to feed herself. She is enjoying picking up food and trying to use utensils. Whenever she has a spoon or fork in her hands she will flick her wrist back and forth until the food goes flying. She get really tired around dinnertime so she usually ends up rubbing food all over her face and hair, which is one of her signs that she is ready for sleep. I suppose we should probably start feeding her dinner earlier.

Oh...my...mess!!

At the beginning of the month Josie seemed terrified of baths. As soon as we would start the water she would whimper and would burst into tears when we put her in the water. Now loves them and crawls quickly when she hears the water running. She pulls herself on the edge of the tub and bounces around excitedly. When she is actually in the water she will splash around and laugh. She likes bath time the best when Sophie is in there, too. The only bad thing about bath time is that she loves sucking water out of washcloths (Sophie did does, too). That wouldn't be such a big deal if she wouldn't choke on the water from the washcloth, which happens half of the time. As soon as this happens she cries and is ready to get out of the tub. At least she has a ton of fun before this happens!

Josie's strangest thing that she started doing this month is pulling on the carpet with her teeth. She will bury her face into the carpet and tug at the carpet fibers. You can hear the tearing sound as she pulls at the fibers. Usually she will tear out at least one fiber, which we have to pull out of her mouth. I am hoping this is just a temporary thing though it is better than her biting us.


Here are some more pictures from this month:

She loves crawling to the fridge and taking off the Leap Frog Phonics toy. Her eyes light up when she sees it back on the fridge and she speeds over to it so she can grab it off. 

Josie loves crawling through the hallway to get from her room to our room. Thank goodness for baby gates!

I love the gap in between her teeth! It is so cute when she smiles and shows the gap off. 

Play time!

Josie is obsessed with the little wooden hole coverings at the top of the stairs. I thought that Sophie had pulled all of the loose ones up when she was younger, but apparently not. Josie found 2 loose ones. We haven't gotten around to gluing them back down, so the holes are open and you can see the screws. Josie loves to put her finger in there to play with the random sawdust. Every single day she is playing with one of them. 

Josie loves opening and shutting cabinets. She has been playing with the one in the living room for months. Since she is crawling all over the house now, she has discovered new cabinets and drawers to open. (child locks have been installed on ones that didn't have them already.) She discovered this cabinet in the dining room. I had to lock that one up really quick due to the fact that it has some of our china inside! Of course even with it being locked she still tries to get inside.

My beautiful, happy girl!

I had to pull up the blinds on this window because Josie loves crawling over to it to look outside. Cosmo loves it, too. They sometimes compete over window space. 

Happy girl!

Looking at pictures on Daddy's phone. 

I took this of Josie on the day she turned 13 months. I somewhat miss doing my monthly photo shoots with her, but she is too much of a busy body now for that. 

I bought Josie a '1' balloon (like Sophie's '3' balloon) for her birthday. We've all had a lot of fun with it. Our favorite thing to do is to tie a pacifier to it. Josie loves chasing it and making the balloon bounce while the paci is in her mouth.

Our couch potato loves getting up on her knees to try to be closer to the TV screen. *shakes head*

Car rides used to always put her to sleep, but not so much anymore. When she is tired though she will fall asleep quickly!

Angry waffle face! (Don't let the look fool you...she loved it!)

We stayed all night in a hotel in Lexington with Joe's side of the family. Josie wasn't too keen on having to sleep in a pack n play. (Look at all of that hair! It has really grown this month.)

Chomping down on her Josephine Mouse. (I think it is awesome that Vulli sells Sophie the Giraffe and Josephine the Mouse. Both of my girls have a chew toy teether with their names on them.)

Opening up one last birthday gift from Rachel!

Hour delays = more snuggle time with Mommy in the mornings

Josie loves playing with her Activity Garden.