Well child visit (15 mo)

Rose is still growing right on track! (We had her 15-month doctor's appointment on Monday.) She has definitely learned to associate the doctor's office with pain, however - getting cathed during her kidney infection will do that! - and having 3 vaccines and a blood draw today certainly didn't help the matter. Poor girl. Good thing she only has a couple more shots at 18months and then she'll be DONE for awhile!

Two months
weight:  12# 6.4 oz (85th %ile)
height:   23.5"  (86th %ile)
head:    15.5" (66th %ile)

Four months
weight:  15# 10oz (86th %ile)
height:   26"  (95th %ile)
head:    16.75"  (85th %ile)

Six months
weight:  17# 7oz (78th %ile)
height:   27.25"  (93rd %ile)
head:    17"   (72nd %ile)

Nine months
weight:  19# 9.6oz (65th %ile)
height:   28.75"  (87th %ile)
head:    17.5"   (66th %ile)

Twelve months
weight:  20# 9.6oz (61th %ile)
height:   30.5"  (89th %ile)
head:    17.75"   (55th %ile)


Fifteen months
weight:  23# (70th %ile)
height:   32.25"  (91st %ile)
head:    18.25"   (67th %ile)

In other news, I'm hard at work on BALANCE again. It seems like a pretty constant theme in my life, especially in the last year or so. And every time I think I've addressed it, I must get complacent or something because it comes right back up again!

Recently work has been taking over my life. I love my job for so many reasons, but I don't love the fact that I get about 20 emails per hour, that all my peers are checking emails at all hours of night and day (so it feels like the expectation that everyone do so), and my "to do" list is never ending.

Monday I left work an hour early for Rose's doctor's appointment, so of course it was fine that I was sending emails for about an hour and a half at night after Rose went to bed. The struggle I'm having is about all the other days that I'm at work by 6:30 or 6:45am, I'm seeing clients or in meetings every hour until 4pm, and I still come home with a laundry list of things that need to be done before the next day.

I'm building more "admin" time into my schedule, so I'll actually have time to do the work that comes up in the meetings.  I'm optimistic that will help once it eventually goes into effect. I'm also trying to be gentle with myself since I haven't exercised in about a month and I haven't had any time for quilting/baking/blogging either - yet I also know how important it is to do those things!

If only there were more hours in the day - or if only I could get by with fewer hours of sleep each night! Sadly, I have to accept that I NEED eight hours of sleep per night, or else I get sick within a couple weeks. So how do I get my sleep, and also meet my other needs, such as hobbies and exercise? Because I'm learning that those truly are needs - I can't just work and do the basics at home (groceries, dinner together), but I also NEED time to turn my mind off and relax.

I think I'm going to turn my work email off on my phone. While I like having it constantly available, it also ends up creating more work for me since I read the email once on my phone, then have to read it a second time when I finally get to a computer to type out a response (I hate typing on my phone, and my phone is also not letting me send any reply emails for some reason). Hopefully the combination of that and the built-in admin time at work will allow me to do some hobbies after Rose goes to bed (instead of more work), which will then help me sleep more restfully, which will then allow me to actually exercise in the morning (instead of sleeping in or obsessing about emails already), which will then have additional positive effects going forward.

Sigh. All I want to do is be healthy and balanced for myself, AND to set a good example for Rose.

At least Rose makes sure I slow down each night to savor milk cuddles and bath time. :)

Science is fun!

It was raining this morning, so Mike decided to show Rose a chemistry experiment!

First Mike lit the candle in the jar:

Then he mixed up a magic solution in a beaker:

Then he poured the special air (but not any liquid) into the jar, and the flame blew out! Magic!

Rose was impressed and kept signing for "more"!

Although I think she was just interested in the flames and smoke, and not so much the "magic." :)

Then we also spent some quality time with the cats this morning. Mac tends to carefully place himself out of reach when he wants to sleep. Here he is atop the scratching post:

Lucy had been asleep on the bed:

But then Little Miss wanted to pet her:

"Here I come!"

"Hugs!!!"

Ah, poor Lucy.


In other news, here's Rose's "official" 15-month picture:

Have a great week!

Mary's retirement party

My mother-in-law retired this year, after 40 years in education (20 teaching and 20 in administration). Mike and Anne hosted a garden party at our house in celebration!

Claire did an excellent job greeting the guests and passing out leis:

Her sister Ella showed everyone her newly lost tooth!

Our guest of honor seemed to have a good time!

So did our other guests!

There were 3 sisters in attendance...

...and also three Mary's!

Mike gave a great toast to his Mom.

My parents are just too cute for words.

When Rose woke up from her nap and joined the party, it was a real shame that there weren't any extended family members around to shower her with attention (ha ha).

It was a success! :)

bathing beauty

I took Rose to the splash pad this afternoon since it was about a bazillion degrees outside. She was *very* slow to warm up to it, but that seems to be her personality. Mostly she just enjoyed sitting back and watching the big kids play.

Rose loves applying sunscreen (and reapplying, and applying again!)

She was content to sit and watch on "our" chair. (I ended up on the ground.)

Eventually she got close to the little fountains.

And even touched it a few times!

Yummy.

Toward the very end she did venture off a couple times...

...but frequently hurried back to safely whenever she got even slightly splashed! :)

Cruiser!

I got a request for another "cruiser" video... here you go!

(Let me know if the video doesn't work - I was having blogger problems yet again, so I had to go through this totally convoluted process...)

Isn't it amazing how steady she is after only a week of being a full-time walker?!?

In other news, we tried to go strawberry picking yesterday but were turned off by the HUGE line of cars waiting to get in. So instead we stopped at a farmstand and bought pre-picked strawberries. (Which I think was actually preferable for the slightly hungover and sleep-deprived gentlemen I was with, even if I was a bit disappointed!)  The strawberries were delicious! We ate at least a quart before we got any of them home. :)

"The berries were so good, I even ate the stems!"

Yesterday we also had brunch with our Philly friends, Brad and Katie, as well as dinner with our local friends, Zach and Vanessa (and their daughter Clementine). It was so nice to "break bread" with some wonderful people. I feel like we're finally starting to emerge from the cocoon that we were in for the first year after Rose's birth. We were on survival mode for so long, and it's nice to now have the energy and interest in being social and having hobbies.

Speaking of which, I've started running again!  I had several false starts in the past year, getting curtailed every time by Rose's sicknesses, my sicknesses, or just general new parent exhaustion. But I've been running a couple times per week for the past month or so, and I'm hopeful that I can keep it up. Now I'm looking for a race of some sort to keep me motivated! I'll let you know once I find one.

Have a great weekend!

More pictures!

My friend Megan gave Rose some freshly picked strawberries. As you can see, Rose was VERY appreciative! We're going to have to find some strawberries to pick ourselves before the season ends! (Thanks again, Megan!)

I also finally was able to upload the final pictures from Milkapalooza a couple weekends ago. As I said in my last post on the topic, Rose LOVED it.

And here's the photo of Rose chasing Mac, who was chasing a squirrel while leashed to a bucket. (It's never dull in our backyard!)

Finally, for the good news: Rose is really getting confident with her independent walking! I'll have to take some more photos and video. And for the bad news: She is doing some serious teething, which she counters by sucking on her fingers - and now her fingers are raw and cracked! Poor girl. If anyone has home remedy ideas for this, let us know! It looks pretty painful.

Hope you're having a great week!

another video

Rose entertained herself for about 20 minutes last night. Then she fell and started crying, but when I picked her up to comfort her, she cried even louder and pushed me away! She was still crying as she crawled right back to the gate to continue walking back and forth through it for another 10 minutes or so.  :)