I am quite jealous of/impressed with my mommy friend (you know who you are) who does such a great job documenting her daughter's goings on so regularly and amusingly. She keeps me inspired to continue to document Emily's milestones this way, so three and a half months later, here it is!
At Emily's 15 month visit with Dr. Nash she was 23 pounds and 29 1/4 inches. So far,
she is in the 75th percentile for height which surprises her short mom and also does not fool this same short mom into thinking that Emily will continue to top the charts! Her biggest developmental milestone has been that she has started walking...really walking! It took 15 months, but she finally got there and is enjoying every minute of her new found independence! She started to just get braver and braver with the amount of steps she was taking in between stationary objects and then, before we knew it, she had no use for us or tables in order to stable herself.
Although this past three months has been full of joyful events, there were a few weeks in August that can only be described as a waking nightmare. We have appreciated and adored Emily sinc
e she took her first breath (actually long before), but watching her battle an illness and the chance of losing her only strengthened our feelings. Two weeks after her one year immunizations Emily came down with a disease called Stevens Johnson Syndrome. None of us had ever heard of it and if you google it, you will wish that you had not. Thank goodness Emily's case was more mild than most and she had amazing medical care. She still spent one week at Cook's and suffered much more than a one year old ever should. The infectious disease doctor attributes the reaction to her Chicken Pox vaccine. We are so blessed that Emily made a full recovery and, other than some remnant redness/roughness on her knees, there is no evidence on her body that she ever had it. Emily could have lost her eyesight, a lot of her skin, and even her life...and for all this, we are eternally grateful that she only lost a week of her innocence.
In her continuing effort to keep Cook's in business (with her friend Noelle's help), Emily landed herself in Cook's last month with fever and ended up having a febrile sei
zure (scary, but not an epileptic seizure or anything that could threaten her health). Here is to many well-deserved hospital free years ahead of her!! Dr. Nash laughs because she refers to Emily as a healthy child, but realizes that is an odd thing to say about a child that has spent a lot of time in the hospital.
Unfortunately, at her 15 month vaccines, Emily had a very mild reaction again that resembled Stevens Johnson. We and Dr. Nash have decided it would be best to go ahead and postpone anymore vaccines for Emily for about a year. To me, it is a double edged sword...getting vaccines and not getting vaccines both have risks for Emily. Time will tell and we will be doing a lot of praying.
Back to happier things..while Emily took her time with motor skills, she continues to amaze us
with her verbal skills. We attribute a lot of it to Gail and her friends at daycare. Here is a sampling of some of the words that she says on a consistent basis now: thank you, ball, monkey, puppy, green beans, happy girl, good girl, oatmeal, egg, nana, cheese, baby, home, shoes, socks, ice, cookie, mommy, daddy, book, read, water, more, fish, car. She also can point to her hair, teeth, knees, nose, head, feet, eyes, (although she typically points to her ears!!), and mouth. She also gives fantastic kisses, but can be stingy with them when she wants to be! She still loves her nightly baths and being read to before bed.
At Emily's 15 month visit with Dr. Nash she was 23 pounds and 29 1/4 inches. So far,
she is in the 75th percentile for height which surprises her short mom and also does not fool this same short mom into thinking that Emily will continue to top the charts! Her biggest developmental milestone has been that she has started walking...really walking! It took 15 months, but she finally got there and is enjoying every minute of her new found independence! She started to just get braver and braver with the amount of steps she was taking in between stationary objects and then, before we knew it, she had no use for us or tables in order to stable herself.Although this past three months has been full of joyful events, there were a few weeks in August that can only be described as a waking nightmare. We have appreciated and adored Emily sinc
e she took her first breath (actually long before), but watching her battle an illness and the chance of losing her only strengthened our feelings. Two weeks after her one year immunizations Emily came down with a disease called Stevens Johnson Syndrome. None of us had ever heard of it and if you google it, you will wish that you had not. Thank goodness Emily's case was more mild than most and she had amazing medical care. She still spent one week at Cook's and suffered much more than a one year old ever should. The infectious disease doctor attributes the reaction to her Chicken Pox vaccine. We are so blessed that Emily made a full recovery and, other than some remnant redness/roughness on her knees, there is no evidence on her body that she ever had it. Emily could have lost her eyesight, a lot of her skin, and even her life...and for all this, we are eternally grateful that she only lost a week of her innocence.In her continuing effort to keep Cook's in business (with her friend Noelle's help), Emily landed herself in Cook's last month with fever and ended up having a febrile sei
zure (scary, but not an epileptic seizure or anything that could threaten her health). Here is to many well-deserved hospital free years ahead of her!! Dr. Nash laughs because she refers to Emily as a healthy child, but realizes that is an odd thing to say about a child that has spent a lot of time in the hospital.Unfortunately, at her 15 month vaccines, Emily had a very mild reaction again that resembled Stevens Johnson. We and Dr. Nash have decided it would be best to go ahead and postpone anymore vaccines for Emily for about a year. To me, it is a double edged sword...getting vaccines and not getting vaccines both have risks for Emily. Time will tell and we will be doing a lot of praying.
Back to happier things..while Emily took her time with motor skills, she continues to amaze us
with her verbal skills. We attribute a lot of it to Gail and her friends at daycare. Here is a sampling of some of the words that she says on a consistent basis now: thank you, ball, monkey, puppy, green beans, happy girl, good girl, oatmeal, egg, nana, cheese, baby, home, shoes, socks, ice, cookie, mommy, daddy, book, read, water, more, fish, car. She also can point to her hair, teeth, knees, nose, head, feet, eyes, (although she typically points to her ears!!), and mouth. She also gives fantastic kisses, but can be stingy with them when she wants to be! She still loves her nightly baths and being read to before bed.In late August she got to visit with her favorite NJ! She loved seeing her and spending time with her...all redheads love NJ! She also got her very first haircut (Deeda was very ple
ased). It was special because Harold cut her hair and he had done Kyle and Ashley's first haircut as well. She got some bangs so she did have a bit of a bullet (baby mullet) but it worked for her!
ased). It was special because Harold cut her hair and he had done Kyle and Ashley's first haircut as well. She got some bangs so she did have a bit of a bullet (baby mullet) but it worked for her!In September, she had a great week with her Deeda and her Gigi and Papi when Kyle and I went on vacation (a delayed one year anniversary trip since we had a 2 week old at our one year anniversary!) In October, she had a fantastic visit
to the zoo (monkeys!!) and had a great Halloween dressed as the world's cutest, most feminine lion! She has enjoyed a lot of football watching these last several months and has unfortunately been taught to say "Aggies"...which is all that they can get out of her when they try to push "Gig 'em Aggies"!!!Emily is still making her Nickell and Jeroslow heritage proud by being a good eater! She has been known to eat THREE e
ggs and a pancake and part of a "nana" for breakfast...and can tackle a whole piece of stuffed sole with some veggies and fruit for dinner!We are looking forward to the holidays with our amazing friends and family and will continue to relish the little girl that is Emily Grace.
I will end with a quote from Gail. I texted her to see how Emily was doing one day. She wrote back: "Wonderful, so sweet!" I asked if she had done anything in particular and she wrote: "No. She's oozing sweetness!! Such an awesome personality!!"
We could not have said it better ourselves!
