Week 67

Dear Jorie,

What a week! This letter is being written late, because you've been sick this week. You were home from Daycare Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Your father stayed home with you Tuesday, I stayed home with you Wednesday, and you stayed at Nannie and Grandpa O's on Thursday. Today you are finally back at Daycare. Even before that it was a busy week!

Saturday we watched your cousin for the first half of the day. It was great having both of you for that long, and letting you guys play. Wes was a sweetheart and very laid back all day. You did get a little jealous of all the attention he was getting, although you really seemed to enjoy actually getting to play with him a bit.

Monday after work, your father and I put you in the jogging stroller and got out for our first run in a long time. It was a great day for a run, and you seemed to enjoy zooming along in the stroller. We only did a little over 2 miles, but it was great to get out and run again!

Monday night, when I was putting you to bed you seemed rather warm, so I decided to take your temperature. It was a troubling, but not horribly worrying 100.5. We made the call to keep you home on Tuesday, and your father decided to stay home with you. Sometime in the middle of the night, your father woke up to check on you, and your temperature was higher, around 102, so we decided to start giving you medicine.

Your father stayed home and kept up the medicine all day on Tuesday. He let you watch some television during the day to keep you entertained, although you didn't really seem that interested in it he said. Your temperature came down with the medicine, but would start climbing as the medicine started wearing off. Late Tuesday night, before me and your father went to bed, I decided to take your temperature. When I picked you up out of the crib, you were very warm, and started to shiver. We had given you medicine a few hours before, and had a couple hours left before we could give you more. When I took your temperature, we were shocked to see it top 104. We called the doctor and got the ok to give you an additional dose of medicine, which thankfully brought your fever back under control.

Wednesday your temperature was really low, so I didn't give you any medicine all day. I got to stay home with you, and really enjoyed the extra time. You didn't really nap like you usually do, and you weren't really eating a lot, but other than being super clingy, you seemed like you were in a good mood.  I let you watch some television in the afternoon, just some sesame.street and then later we watched Lilo.and.stitch.

Your temperature came back up before bed to around 100, so on Thursday you stayed with Nannie and Grandpa O. They said you had a great time, you went for a walk in the stroller, and ate outside on the deck. When I came to pick you up you were sleeping. When you woke up and we went to leave you cried when I took you from Grandpa. You really love your Grandpa!

Luckily, your temperature did not come back, and you're healthy and at Daycare today. One of the things we learned while trying to keep you calm while taking your temperature is that you LOVE playing with the touch screens on our phones. We're debating getting something so you can play with one of our old phones. I'm hesitant because I have been trying to keep you from having a lot of screen time, since studies show that any screen time before the age of 2 can aggravate any predisposition to ADD, which is present in both sides of your family history.

I love you baby girl. Hopefully next week's letter will be full of more fun things, and no more of this sickness!

Week 66

Dear Jorie,

This week me and your father were busy bees. We decided on Saturday to clean all the carpets in the house. So we rented a carpet cleaner, and I spent the rest of the day cleaning carpets. We had planned on attending a birthday party for one of our friends children on Saturday, but he got sick, so the party was postponed.

Because we had planned on the party, we had dinner at Nannie and Grandpa's on Friday night, and then, because of wet carpets, again on Saturday!

On Sunday, we had brunch with Andrew and Micha and then we had Bill, Jamiee and Zetta over for a while. You and Zetta had a great time playing around each other on the floor while the grownups talked. The main reason for them coming over was so that Zetta and you would get used to being around each other, which we all hoped would help on Monday, since Zetta started at your day.care on monday!

Also on Monday, you had your 15th month check up. Your father brought you. You were a rockstar for the exam, but you were very upset by the shots. You are now 31 inches tall and weigh 26 lbs 4 oz. In case you care that's the 66th percentile for height and 89th percentile for weight. Not bad after the initial worry about you not gaining enough weight!

Last night and Grandma and Grandpa R's, you had a great time playing with a bunch of toys, and demonstrated that you most definitely know which parts go to which toys. You  put bat.man in his car and wonder.woman in her plane!

Your newest word is Bottle, although you are not very good at saying the "t" sounds. You also like to stick your tongue against your top front teeth and go "Ttttthhhhhh". You have recently shown an increased interest in your books too. You know what we mean when we say "go get a book" and will often say "bouh" (which sounds kind of like book without the k) and go pull a book down, bring it over and sit in our laps. Sometimes you want us to read to you, and some times you just want to sit in our laps while you "read." You've also started pulling your pink caterpillar by it's string around the room. I'm going to have to get you one of those pull along puppy toys!

Another super cute thing you've started doing lately is this all out dancing to music. Before you would kinda sway and bob your head, which was also super cute, but lately you've added in wildly waving arms. I'm hoping we'll be able to get a video of it soon!

It seems every time I stop and look at you, you've gotten bigger. It's hard to notice every day, but when I look back at pictures from a month ago even, you're so much bigger and more confident. The shyness is still there whenever someone new talks to you (or even someone you haven't seen in a while,) but when you're around people you know, you are a walking, babbling, happy go lucky kid.

The only times you're really not just a bubbly ray of sunshine is when you are tired, hungry, or teething! Recently you've had a run of teeth coming in (I think we're on numbers 7 and 8 right now.) They're coming in more than one at a time, which I'm sure is really uncomfortable. I can usually tell that's why you're cranky since you'll start sticking your fingers in your mouth, Usually you don't suck on your fingers. You're even down to just using the binky at night, and your father has been thinking about starting to wean you off of that. I'm not so sure I'm ready for that. I kind of like the bedtime routine we have right now.

I love you Baby Girl!

Week 65

Dear Jorie,

This week was all about recovering from Vacation, and getting ourselves back into the rhythm of our normal lives. It was hard to get used to being back from Maine. I still miss the smell of the Ocean, and the softer rhythm time had there.

This weekend my parents were out of town watching your Uncle Chris compete in an IronMan! Since they were out of town, Saturday we didn't do much, except the grocery shopping and some cleaning around the house. It was actually really nice to have such a low key day.

Sunday we had a Jamiee, Zetta, Your Uncle Mike and Aunt Becky and Wesley over for brunch. Your Dad made blueberry pancakes, Jamiee and Zetta brought Fruit Salad, and Becky brought this delicious Breakfast cakey thing from Wegmans. It was great having a relaxed breakfast with all you kids playing on the floor. You all seemed to play together really well too!

Your Uncle Mike and Wesley stayed after everyone else left to watch the Football Game. Now, when you're older you're going to find out that we are Fans of the Buffalo Bills, with all the pain and excitement that comes with it. It was a great game, but they lost unfortunately.

Now, all day I had been getting updates from my Parents about your Uncle Chris, and how he was doing. Once everyone had finally left for the day, I started following his progress online, on the Ironman.com website. We made the decision to stay up and watch your Uncle finish the race. We were watching the Live Stream around 11:45 at night (our time) when he crossed the finish line. Your Uncle is and IronMan!

After he crossed the finish line, Your Uncle proposed to his girlfriend (now fiance!) Kim. So much happiness in one day!

This week, you've been "talking" up a storm. You say Mama, Dada, Bye, Ball, and I think Blue. You have a word for doggie and a word for kitty. You recently added the sign for please to your repertoire. You have what sounds like full conversations with us, with your toys, and sometimes just with yourself. It's completely adorable.

The shyness is still around. You are very outgoing, as long as the person is more than 5 feet away, but as soon as they get close, you get shy. You warm up to people after a while though. We've also noticed that you get super jealous whenever Me or your Father is playing with another kid. As soon as I have Wesley in my lap, or your father is helping him walk, you will be right there, pulling on our arms or climbing in our lap. I'm hoping this wears off, since we're planning (hopefully) on giving you a sibling in a few years.

On Sunday, while I was waiting for updates on your Uncle, I made some food packets for you with our "packet filling station". I made two kinds, one with Quinoa, Applesauce and Spinach blended together and one with blueberries and yogurt blended together. So far you've loved both blends, and it was really easy to fill the packets, so I'm going to try to come up with some good puree's and fill some more this weekend.

This week we also made you your very first box fort. You love it, and really enjoy sitting inside it and poking your head out of the window your father cut in the side. He made doors on it, and you love opening and closing them. It's so much fun watching you play in the box and babble away.

Since Maine, you like to walk everywhere. You've gotten pretty good at following us when we tell you to, and walking while holding hands. Sometimes though, it's just easier for your Father to throw you up on his shoulders.

You've still got six teeth, but I can see another couple that are getting close to coming in. The teething is making you a little fussy sometimes, but it's hard to tell if it's your teeth or you're just cranky most of the time, since the cranks usually happen right around bedtime.

I love you Jorie Bear, stop growing up so fast!

Maine

Dear Jorie,

Our adventure started Friday, when we packed up the car and headed over to My parents. We helped them finish packing up the Van, had some lunch, and started out on the road. We drove for about six hours on Friday, getting into our Hotel outside of boston late at night. It was a really nice hotel, and you had been really good on the drive. We had a suite with my parents, but we didn't really have time to enjoy it, we all just went to bed since we had to get up REALLY early to get back on the road.

Saturday morning we were all up really early (like around six am) we had breakfast, packed everything back in the cars and were back on the road quickly. You were really good again on the drive, you seemed happy enough to just stare out the window or play with Violet (the talking dog toy you have.)

We got to Rockland around noon, and got on the next Ferry out to Vinalhaven. It was a lot of fun having you on the Ferry, but we couldn't really let you run around and explore, since it was definitely not kid safe! You were mesmerized by the foaming wake for a while, and seemed to enjoy the wind in your face when we were out on deck.

After we got on the Island we got my Parents settled into the Cabin, and we settled into the big bedroom in the main house.

The time on the Island was amazing. While it was not exactly relaxing for your Father and I (nothing is kid friendly there, think lots of cords to pull, sockets for little fingers, precipitous drops and unstable furniture), it was amazing to be there.

You were able to go wading in the tidal pool that James, his father, and his grandmother grew up playing in. We had dinner all together each night in the main house. We explored around the island and were able to let you run as far as you wanted down the road that leads to the house and cabin.

On Thursday it was time to pack up and we left Friday, catching the 1:00 Ferry back. We split up from my parents, and they headed down to York Beach while we met up with Kim, Robin, Abby, Finn, Tristan and Grace for coffee. You got very attached to Finn, you were constantly trying to hug his arm to your chest, and at one point started licking his arm! You were very upset when I took his arm away from you.

The drive back was a bit more difficult. I think all the change and weird scheduling had you off your game. You were a bit grumpy on the drive to the Hotel. We stayed at the same hotel on the way back, although in a different room. You were a bit fussy, but went to bed quickly as soon as your Father and I got into bed.

In the morning you got very upset when we packed up the pack-n-play. I think you had just had too much change in such a short period of time. You were fussy the rest of the drive back, but we stopped often enough to keep you from completely cranking out.

And now, for the pictures!

I love you Baby Girl!