15 months

At the zoo on Mothers Day

15 month stats:  31.25 inches and 22 lbs.  She's long and lean like her parents!  And she is now 100% a walker--if she does start to crawl, she will immediately stand up and try to run instead.

Gabby's 15 month check-up went very well.  I had suspected for a while that she has allergies, and not only did the pediatrician confirm it, he also said they seem to have given her an ear infection and probably sinusitis!  She's probably had both for about a week, but the only unusual thing I noticed was a cough.  I assumed it was kennel cough (what I call the perpetual cough that comes from sending your kid to daycare), and thought nothing of it.  Especially since she was acting fine, had no fever, wasn't pulling on her ears, and her nasal discharge was completely clear.  So I was really surprised to hear about an infection!  She's on antibiotics now, so the infection should clear up in a few days to a week.  I'm just really glad we had the appointment--who knows how long it would have taken for me to notice something was wrong!

The pediatrician was really surprised when she smiled at him when he came into the room.  I've noticed that as long as I'm holding her, her stranger danger isn't really too bad.  I know daycare is to thank for that, since it's not like I take her anywhere myself!  He was also impressed with her words--I think she says 20 or so (for the record:  mama, dada, something that sounds like zoe without the z, ball (bawl), bye-bye, hello (hewwo), hi, nose, eye (both of which she can also identify on herself and others), this (disss--accompanied by a finger point to show what she wants), mail, all done (da-done), more (ma), uh-oh (she's like an uh-oh bird right now), banana (na-na), go go go (doe doe doe--we say this when it's time to go somewhere and she's picked it up to use when she wants to leave), o (for Cheerios), booty (for her favorite snack Pirate Booty; this one is odd--she'll say the boo and then almost swallow the "dy" at the end, kind of like she burps in the middle of the word), and she'll say "bang" with accompanying hand gesture after we sing the theme from the Big Bang Theory to her), and knows the baby signs for more, all done (she signs and says these at the same time, which is how I know what her noises mean), milk and eat (she's very intense about eat--she'll look you dead in the eye and poke her mouth with 1 finger until you get up).  I think it's hilarious to hear her pronunciations--it really brings home what words sound like to little kids, and how little control they have over their mouths and voices (as you can probably tell from above, Gabby usually says a "d" sound whenever she tries to say a word).  Again, this is all daycare!  She may have said her first sentence (bye, Daddy), but it's really hard to make out what exactly she's saying.  She loves to go outside, and if she sees her shoes she will carry them to you and insist that you put them on her, and then walk to the door and try to open it (or just say "doe doe doe!" to get you moving).  She's also good at carrying out simple instructions (throw the ball to mommy, bring that to mommy, etc).  It's amazing how much she has learned!

Gabby loves to draw, and has a ton of sidewalk chalk that she uses whenever she's in the back yard.  She and Brian fill the watering can with water (accompanied by quite a bit of splashing by Gabby) and water the plants every night after dinner.  She likes to play with her ball, but that really only lasts for a few minutes.  We got her a balloon at the store the other day, and she carried it around squishing and hugging it the rest of the night.  She also loves books, and is starting to really sit and listen to me read rather than just turning the pages as fast as she can.  Her favorite thing seems to be her Little People--we got her the Noah's Ark for her birthday, and she loves to dump the animals out, put them back in, and then dump them out again.  She also loves watching Brian and me make them hunt. 

She also loves the park, particularly the swings and the sandbox.  She loves nothing more than having me fill up the bucket, and then dumping the sand down her front.

Her eating continues to be really good.  She's decided recently that she doesn't want to eat peas or corn at dinner, so we're struggling a bit to get her back to eating them, but the girl loves bread, cheese and fruit.  Daycare comments on how much she loves food as well.  If I get there while she's eating a snack, she will either hurry up and shove the food in her mouth, or just start handing it to me to take with us.  It's very funny.  She also tends to shove things into her mouth whole.  It's not been a problem yet, and I really hope she continues to handle it (her 4th molar came in, so that probably helps a ton).

My parents have been here this past week, and we've been having a ton of fun.  We went to the Sacramento zoo for Mothers Day on Sunday (it was also Intel employees get in free day--score!), and then went to the park after Gabby's nap.  My parents went up to Tahoe for a few days, but in between, we've just hung out and enjoyed spending time together. 

We got her to push her own stroller for a while. Another family saw us and thanked us for the idea!

She loved watching all of the animals, especially the leopard and the giraffes (since they were the only ones moving)

The leopard was going to town on a plastic container.

I didn't let Brian photo-edit, so the lighting is off, but this is Gabby trying to get away from Grandma.

This rotation is annoying, but here's my big girl walking.

Mom's side of the family.

All tired out after lunch.

 On the job front, I finally have more hours this fall.  Another adjunct at ARC got the job I didn't get interviewed for, so I'm taking over his class, as well as the make-up lab he ran.  The hours are not ideal--Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30-10:00 pm, but at least I have an entire class of my own and not just a part of someone else's!  The make-up lab is Fridays 1-4, and should be a challenge--basically anyone who's missed a lab that week comes to the Friday session in order to make up the work.  I've heard stories of 12 different labs going at once!  I'm looking forward to it!

 I'm done with the classes for this semester, but still have the final on Monday.  I start the summer class on June 10, and it goes 8 weeks.  It should be a really fun time, and it will be good practice for this fall.  Apparently all I need to do is write about how badly the job situation is for it to change!