18 mos

Rylee had her 18 month checkup yesterday. It went really well.

Stats:
Height - 33 inches (83rd percentile)
Weight - 23 lbs 6 oz (35th percentile)

This is her first weight gain since all of her "intestinal issues" began back in Nov. so I'm guessing the specialist will continue her on the lactose-free diet (we see him in early April).

I'm glad we've switched back to the female pediatrician. Rylee is much more comfortable with her. She has a little wariness around "guys." Whenever she hears big trucks (which always make Rio bark), she runs over to someone for protection from the "guys." I know she doesn't like when Rio barks her "alarm bark" like that... and I guess I always tell Rio to settle down because it's just the UPS "guy" or Fed Ex "guy"... so apparently now all "guys" are scary. Just one of the ways I've accidentally scarred Rylee for life. :)

**She also has a fear of grass which I may be partially responsible for. The little hoover vac always picks up every little speck of something that she finds both inside the house and outside on the pool deck. When it happens inside, I always tell her it's "garbage" and then we throw it away. (FYI: She calls all garbage "diapers" for some messed up logical association that I think is adorable! Toilet paper is sometimes "diaper" too.) Anyway... when it was happening outside I was always nervous she would try to put the stuff in her mouth and who knows what dead thing/excrement it was. I would tell her "icky" and then throw it in the grass so she wouldn't find it again. After a while I noticed that she would point at the grass and say "icky." Oops! She will not walk on grass in her bare feet and will only marginally walk on it in her shoes. In my defense, Florida "grass" is bizarre so maybe she would never have liked it regardless.

***She does have other foot texture issues like the sand thing which I am not taking the blame for since we have no sand around here and I have made no comments pro or con about sand. Then again maybe I am to blame... I personally hate the sand so maybe it's a genetic thing?! :)

Got off on a tangent there, sorry... all in all it was a great appt. She didn't cry during the exam and only had a couple quick tears during her shots. I was impressed.
Have a great weekend everyone!

Happy (belated) St. Paddy's Day!

I didn't have a chance to get these posted on Wed - too busy packing and driving. The drive through the night went much easier this time - no pukey Rylee! We are all still a little off schedule though, both Jon and Rylee are sleeping in a little this morning.

"Irish gals" Shannon & Rylee in their St. Patrick's Day shirts.

 

It was overcast and chilly on our last day, but we still made it outside for a walk...

 

...and some play time at the park. All in all, a great first beach vacay for Miss Rylee!

 

AL Adv. 4 - Ocean

A couple of quick shots from our time at the beach. Too bad it wasn't Mommy & Me Monday - I actually have two shots of Rylee and I together. :)

 

 

Rylee has some texture issues - she hates the sand. She refused to walk on it without her socks and shoes, but she did lay with us on the towels and catch some rays.

 

Cowgirl Rylee Rides Again

 

I've never really gotten the hang of posting video. Whenever I try to post the footage we take with our video camera, it's too big. I know you must be able to upload to YouTube first (I see Ryan do it this way all the time), but I'm not YouTube savvy so I've never tried. Yesterday Jon took a little video with our digital camera so I thought I would try posting that just to see if it worked.

Rylee's favorite thing about the zoo might have been riding this mechanical horse. She called her "Poco," but her name was really "Ginger." For only 50 cents a ride, she was quite a bargain!


Looks like it works!

AL Adv Part 3 - Zoo

Rylee had a great time at the zoo yesterday. (I was nervous she was going to be cranky since she woke up at 5 a.m. - a little over an hour earlier than normal. Turns out she was the only one who remembered daylight savings time - she was right on schedule.) They had lots of fun animals, like...

lions...

 

tigers...

 

... and goats, oh my! (They had bears too, I just didn't have a photo of Rylee in front of them!)

 

Grandma Gaga (as Rylee now calls my Mom) told me not to let Rylee fall into any of the lion or tiger pens. She didn't specify anything about bunnies though... phew! Rylee did fall into the grass near this bunny (which wasn't part of any exhibit) thus foiling my plans of capturing it and giving it to her as an early Easter present. It's possible Jon pushed her down since he didn't seem to embrace my plan anyway. :)

 

AL Adventure Part 2 - Beach

Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Chip rent a lovely condo off the beach in Gulf Shores, AL. Here's the view from the balcony...

 

...gorgeous!

 

Rylee used one word to describe the area: "windy!" She still enjoyed walking the beach though. (I, on the other hand, wished I had worn pants. The wind wiped up the sand so hard that it was like getting my skin sand blasted!) She especially enjoyed picking up shells and putting them in her pocket - so cute. :)

 

Alabama Adventure (Abridged)

I'm blogging while Grandma Sandy entertains Rylee and Jon and Grandpa Chip cook dinner so this will be brief. :)

We left Thursday night after dinner with grand plans to make an easy (10+ hour) drive while Rylee slept. We were slowed down by the pouring rain, dense fog, and 2 pukes by Miss Rylee. Not sure if she was actually car sick or it was something else, but it turned out to be an interesting drive. Why should I have expected anything less?! We made it - that's the important part. :)

Friday was a relaxing day as Jon and I were going on only a few hours sleep. Luckily Rylee took a nice nap thus so did we and everyone had an early bed time.

Today we took Rylee to a cool park, went down by the beach and hit Souvenir City (the shop with the huge shark mouth). Jon was so excited to take Rylee to Hardees for lunch (we haven't been to one in over a decade), but it was not the experience he was looking for. They goofed up our order three times (gave Rylee the wrong burger twice and forgot our curly fries altogether). It was comical!

Tomorrow we're going to the zoo (or at least that's the plan)...