Sunday, January 27, 2013

Pictures from the last month

For some reason when I posted the last time I wasn't able to upload photos. Here are a few from the last month.
Whitney is 18 months old.






Monday, January 21, 2013

A Wisconsin Christmas and 18 month check-up

Wow these past few weeks have gone by in a whirlwind. As many already know, we typically take our “Christmas vacation” in early January to tie in a work trip in WI for me and then we take vacation time to spend with family and friends. It’s nice to extend the holiday season, but it really makes the months of December and January fly by and blur together.

This year we flew to WI on Thursday the 3rd. It was a great feeling knowing Andy was flying with both Whitney and I this time, I had zero anxiety and was actually excited to fly with all of us, our little family. Whitney did great, of course, and I think this must have made her 9th trip back to WI, I have lost count by now, but know she has surely taken full advantage of “kids fly free” under 2 years old.
After some work obligations on Friday and Saturday vacation finally began on Sunday when all of my brothers and sister-in-laws got together at my parents house for another Christmas celebration. We did our name exchange and saved the kids Godparent gifts for this day. It was great to see everyone and I was excited for Whitney to get a chance to play with all her cousins. Whitney makes number 9 for grandkids on my side of the family, so there are plenty of kids running around wanting to “play” with her. They are all so good to her and it was nice to see her not afraid and go off and play with them, just watching them and trying to keep up. She also had her first experience playing in the white wonderful snow of WI. Her and Grandpa went sledding down the hill and she was not happy! She cried the entire time and was perfectly happy getting back into the warmth of the house. I can’t blame her, we ARE the ones who moved to warmer climate.

After a few days in the Green Bay area we headed to WI Dells to spend the rest of the week with Andy’s family. His sister, her husband and three kids also made the trip from Florida, so we got to spend more time with family and Whitney enjoying more cousins. She has two cousins (twins) who are only 3 months older than her and they really could pass for triplets. It was neat to see them all playing together, and don’t even THINK of getting a picture of all of them together including a 4 year old. We had a great time playing in the water park and Whitney seemed much more at home in the water than in the snow. In the wave pool she squealed with delight and could not stop smiling and laughing. She would pull our hands to go back in the water if we were resting on the side. I guess a true water baby, my kind of girl.

After leaving WI we have now been back home for a week. It feels great to be settled back into a routine. The Christmas decorations are down and put away and we are just ready for spring. We were welcomed back home with 75 degree weather, a nice chance to open the windows and air out the house. Granted it is back in the 40’s now, but those few days of unexpected sunshine and warmth was just what we needed coming back from WI.

This past Monday Whitney had her 18 month checkup which I was thrilled about since she wouldn’t be getting any shots, and just a well visit. She weighed in at 25 lbs and 33 inches (both 75% for her age) and surprisingly her head was at 50%. The doctor was so happy with her progress and basically cleared her of all things. Autism, no signs. CP, nope. Growth deficiencies, nothing. He said we should have named her Miracle, because we look at one every day. The one thing he said we now do is just wait until school starts to see if she has any types of learning disabilities, but with her acting, growing and talking the way she is, he is not worried in the least bit right now.

What an absolutely wonderful doctors visit it was. To hear those words, not that I had doubts, but to hear them from her doctor still brings tears of joy to my eyes. Even telling Andy brought tears to his eyes. Our little girl is doing so awesome. She is turning into a little person who is independent and curious. Her sweet demeanor has captured our hearts.  

Whew, that's a long update and I've meaning to post sooner. I'm not even proof reading this, but just hitting submit I'm so eager to get this posted.