Happy Easter!

16 months

aubrey turned sixteen months about a week ago. here's an update:

skills

• 10 days before she hit sixteen months, she chose to walk rather than crawl! after months and months of practice, she realized walking's not a bad way to get around.

• no more whistling. i don't know if it's that she's forgotten how or that it's lost its thrill, but she no longer whistles with us.

• she pees in the potty every night right before her bath. :) we haven't tried putting her on the potty at other times of the day because it's still early - we're just introducing her at this point.

• she brushes her hair and teeth

• aubrey LOVES to dance! and i love to join her. :)

vocabulary

• spoken words:

1. hi
2. ooh-ooh-ooh (her version of "woof" in response to seeing or hearing a dog, or hearing the word dog)
3. mama (means "i want something")
4. uh-oh!
5. ahh-ahh-ahh (monkey noises in response to the word monkey, her Curious George doll, or pictures/drawings of monkeys)

• signs:

1. hi/bye
2. done
   
3. eat
4. bird
5. cat (can you tell that the child loves animals??)
   
6. sleep

she doesn't have much interest in TV but she has a sign-language dvd that she LOVES. she brings it to me at least once a day so that i'll play it (on my computer). she's glued to the screen until it's over (45 minutes later), and then cries that it has come to an end. she loves that video! except when this one fish comes on... she cries at that fish, for some reason.

teeth
aubrey cut her top molars at about 10 months and her bottom molars near 12 months, bringing her to 12 teeth (incisors and first molars). right now she's working on cutting her canines, but it's slow progress. she's soooo drooly!

i had incorrectly been saying that she has her second molars... i was thinking top molars were 1-year and bottom were 2-year - d'oh! so to correct the record, she just has her 1-year molars (first molars).


health
a couple of months ago (february 6), we put tubes in both of aubrey's ears. it was harder on us than it was on her - she's a champ.
2 weeks later (february 18) she had her follow-up appointment with her ENT, who said her ears looked great.
the following week (february 27) she had her 15-month well check with her pediatrician. again, ears look great!
but the very next week (march 3), she got yet another freakin' ear infection!! we were so frustrated, but at least it was easier to treat than before. instead of having to go to the doctor and put aubrey on antibiotics, they were able to give us a diagnosis over the phone and the ear infection was treated with ear drops.
the ear infection cleared up but the congestion lingered and she was super drooly (more so than what we usually see with teething). then a cough and fever developed, so we went back to the doctor. at that appointment (march 16) she was diagnosed with Hand Foot Mouth Disease due to the spots the pediatrician saw in her throat. UGH. that cleared up in about 6 days, but the cough lingered and by the weekend, the cough was very wet sounding and gagging her as well as giving her coughing fits for up to 3 hours in the middle of the night. plus she was super congested again, and was breathing hard. so we went back to the doctor on monday (march 30).
at that appointment (march 30), her pediatrician gave us a nebulizer, a torture device from my childhood that i had hoped aubrey would never experience. we give her a breathing treatment 3-4 times a day, and it almost makes me cry. i hate that i passed this on to her. i hate holding a mask over my sweet baby girl's face. but she handles it really well - just watches her sign language video. since doing the treatments her coughing has improved (no longer gagging or keeping her up at night) but her breathing still isn't clear and she's still very congested (despite our frequent saline flushes). and yesterday she developed a fever again so i called the pediatrician this morning (april 3). she ordered chest and sinus x-rays and called me with the results this evening. aubrey has a severe sinus infection and pneumonia. :( we'll keep her on augmentin (a penicillin antibiotic) for 21 days. her pediatrician said to call if i'm not confident that she's improving by monday night, and also wants to see her in 2-3 weeks to make sure she's completely clear. she also wants to talk about why aubrey keeps getting sick. for most kids, getting ear tubes makes a night vs. day difference. but aubrey's still getting sick - the infection's just not only in her ears anymore. she mentioned getting a CT scan to check for issues such as a deviated septum or malformed sinuses. For a toddler to get a CT scan, they are sedated and given an IV, and it costs about $1k. Another option would be to see an allergist, but it's rare to see allergies under the age of 2. However, given my history, I think Aubrey most likely has allergies and asthma. And I'm afraid that if she keeps taking antibiotics she's going to end up with a penicillin allergy like her dear ol' mom, too. The pediatrician also said that if Aubrey gets a second set of tubes (after these fall out in 6-12 months), they'll most likely remove her adenoids at the same time, which might help.
*sigh* So, say a prayer for Aubrey please. She's really handling it all very well - you wouldn't even know she was sick if it weren't for the cough. But I don't want this to be chronic. I don't want her to repeat my history... I was really hoping (and praying) that she'd inherit Ken's immune system, not mine. I don't want her to be sick every Christmas. Or to be the kid in gym who's not able to run. I want her to be healthy and happy...