Who knew Doctors would prescribe chocolate as making everything better? I sure didn’t. I mean, yes, I know that chocolate is the best medicine for anything... but for a Doctor to confirm it, well I feel like the happiest person in the world. That’s what happened yesterday at Emma’s 18-month doctor's appointment. Chocolate really works and does make everything better.
Let me go back a few days to explain. Jamey and I decided over the weekend that we needed to get Emma off the bottle once and for all. Per the doctor’s recommendation we got rid of it cold turkey. We did a little send off Saturday night when I was giving her a bottle but it didn’t resonate with her – no surprise there. When I went to feed her Sunday morning she was not interested one bit in drinking her milk in anything but a bottle. She wouldn’t take it from her sippy cup, an adult cup, her yogurt bottle – nothing. We tried everything but she is so smart and knew that we were putting milk in these things and she wouldn’t budge. That went on all day, night and Monday morning. Thank goodness we were going to the doctor for her well-baby check up. The doctor said to give her chocolate milk and then gradually limit the amount of chocolate we are putting in the milk till she eventually just drinks regular milk. I was a bit skeptical of this but when we left the doctor’s we bought chocolate milk and guess what – Emma LOVED it!! She wanted more and more and that made us so happy! We already are putting less chocolate in each cup so this trick works. She really is my daughter because if you all remember my favorite food during my pregnancy was Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate chips. We of course now brush her teeth really well at night since she is drinking sugar but hopefully she will be off the chocolate soon.
But Emma is so funny and smart. She really notices the little details. She will look at the color of the milk before she drinks it – she has to make sure it has a brown chocolately tint. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for her to go back to regular old milk. Speaking of how observant she is, Jamey and I have electric toothbrushes – Oral B to be exact. There is a little colored ring at the bottom of the toothbrush that you put on to distinguish who’s toothbrush is who’s. Well we took Emma’s ring off because of the chocking hazard and Emma no longer likes her toothbrush. She wants mine or Jamey’s – and she knows the difference. It is annoying but it is cute and kinda cool that she knows.
In addition to us getting rid of the bottle, we are also making a few changes with Emma’s schedule. We are moving her to one nap and we are also pushing her bedtime back to around 7:30pm so she will sleep a little bit later. The doctor said that it will take a few weeks for the new bedtime to take but so far she has been great. She isn’t sleeping as long as we’d like but she is sleeping till 6:15 or so and that is better than her 5:45 wakeup calls. Hopefully she will wake up around 6:30/6:45 so she gets a little more rest but we will see. We also decided it was time for Emma to take one nap. She is super tired in the morning but we have been putting her to sleep around 1pm and the last couple of days she has slept around an hour and 15 minutes. Our goal is for her to sleep at least 2 hours. Hopefully she will.
On Saturday we had a nice day. There was a street fair on 24th Street and we got Emma a balloon. This balloon was a source of entertainment and sadness for the days to come. Emma loved the balloon. She even started to say balloon. She was playing with it and carrying it around with her all over the house. Unfortunately, on Sunday the balloon popped. She was so sad about it. She got over it but then what was remarkable is on Monday out of the blue she went to go look for the balloon. Emma would run to the place in the house where the balloon was kept and would point up to the ceiling and say balloon. She didn’t understand that the balloon was gone and would get sad and even frustrated that it wasn’t there. Her memory of this balloon was incredible. She finally gave up last night but then this morning after she was up for an hour she started talking about the balloon again. We asked Judith to go get her some balloons today so hopefully that will fulfill her balloon need.
On Sunday we went to a birthday party for one of Emma’s friends at the park. It was really nice to meet some of the parents of the kids Emma hangs out with everyday. Emma had a great time and it was really cute to see her play with her friends.
Grandma Barbara also came to visit on Sunday and Emma loved having her around. She learned how to say Barbara and it was so cute. Now she says Barbara so that’s another new word for her. Barbara got her a bunch of books and read to her a lot. She was also teaching Emma her ABC’s. Emma was on her best behavior – she was happy, loving and was her sweet herself. We went out to dinner Sunday night and Emma loved being out. She was observing everyone and she ate really well.
On to her doctor’s appointment: The doctor said something that we already know – Emma is perfect. She said that she is even advanced for her age with the number of words she says. Emma weight 24.4 pounds, is 32 and 2/3 inches long and this puts her in the 45th percent tile for weight and around 75th percent tile for height. We asked the doctor about her feet turning in and she said that it is normal and that her feet will continue to straighten out until she is 5. So there is nothing for us to do because again, Emma is perfect. We don’t go back to the doctor until she is 2 and Jamey is taken aback by this. He can’t believe that she doesn’t want to see Emma for 6 months. The doctor said that when a baby has issues she wants to see them at 21 months but because Emma is perfect she doesn’t need to see her.
Emma’s new favorite thing to say is “WOW.” It is so cute to hear her say it. When she gets something she wants like she wants the keys and we give them to her she will say “WOW.” It is so funny. She also likes to look at herself in the mirror. Take note of the cool shoes she is wearing – Randi made them for her. She really likes them!
Emma also got a new stroller to push around and she loves putting Tulane Monkey to sleep in it. She will put Tulane Monkey in it, give him a kiss, then get a blanket and put it over the stroller. She will then say night night and push the stroller around. She will say shush to us and hold her index finger up to her mouth. It is amazing to see her do this. What is hilarious is we put the blanket over her stroller when we put her to sleep and she caught on to this and does this with her Monkey. She really is one smart cookie.
Here are some other words that Emma says. These are either words I forgot to write down that she said by her 18-month birthday or words she has said the last few days:
Drea (for Andrea)
Ardo (for Eduardo)
Salsa
Hat
Night
Go
Alla (it’s Spanish for over there)
Wow
Barbara
Balloon
I
No comments:
Post a Comment