52 Weeks = ONE YEAR

Although there were many wonderful things that happened with Isla this week, if I had to pick one word to describe it, I'd have to chose ROUGH, but we'll discuss that more later.

Isla went to her 1 year well check up and is right on track! She is still our "Peanut," weighing in at 18 pounds, 6 ounces (10th %ile), length of 28 1/2 inches (25-50th %ile--she had a growth spurt!) and head circumference of 18 inches (50-75 %ile). Can I just say that I LOVE our pediatrician? She is awesome! I don't think I could have picked a better one. The first thing she did was tell us congrats for making it through the first year and give us all sorts of other encouragement. We talked a lot at the appointment about sleep and whether we should work toward dropping Isla's 5 AM feed and let her cry it out and go back to sleep (answer: YES!!!) We discussed weaning strategies and introducing whole milk (she had her first glasses today!) 

Back to the ROUGH stuff. We spent the week away on a road trip with my family (NOTE: my family was NOT the rough part, they were actually the lifesavers!) Isla was an absolute champ for the first part of the trip as we drove all the way to SE Idaho. But a couple days in, she spiked a fever that ended up lasting 3 days. She was fussy, restless and acting just plain uncomfortable. She wouldn't sleep at night and cried about every 15 minutes until we finally let her come sleep in our bed (a huge no-no in our books) to try and keep her quiet since we were sharing a room with my sister and brother-in-law. Anyway, then came her finger chewing and sticking out her tongue and acting like her mouth hurt. We were SURE she was cutting all of her teeth at once. Then the fever went away and a rash appeared all over her body. So weird. After 4 horrible, sleepless nights, we were excited to visit our pediatrician on Wednesday and hear her announce that our daughter was indeed getting her first teeth. No. Such. Luck. Apparently there is still absolutely no indication that the girl even has teeth in there (although our Dr is confident that she does). So, guess we're going to see a dentist in the next couple months if she still doesn't get any....Baby dentures anyone?

So why the fevers/sleep issues? Our Dr thinks she had a bout of roseola, a common virus in kiddos that exhibits Isla's exact symptoms. I guess it's nice to have a reason for our rough week but I'm a bit bummed that we didn't get any teeth out of all that pain. Hopefully that doesn't mean the worse is still to come.

Now, for all the cute positives. Isla took a major interest in spoon feeding herself this week. As with most things, it happened out of nowhere. She was refusing to eat the spoonfuls of the restaurant soup we offered her for almost a half hour. Finally, my dad decided to let her bring the filled spoon to her mouth. I guess that's all she wanted because she was suddenly thrilled to eat the soup. Of course, now she always wants to be the one holding the spoon but she usually likes to play tug-of-war with you to get it which means food usually flies everywhere when you let go.

She's also gotten really into stirring her food on the table (which usually means it gets pushed onto the floor) and also stirring her water with the spoon. The other odd quirk we noticed is that she's started testing the water in her glass with her finger before drinking it. Is she checking the temperature? I have no idea!

We taught Isla how to take care of her stuffed ducky this week. She likes to offer him water from her sippy which is pretty cute. She "talks" to him in this funny high-pitched voice, kind of like the voices us adults adopt when talking to babies. It's hilarious!

Isla is doing a great job at identifying family members. If you ask her "Where's ____?", she look up at the appropriate person. She occasionally points too but usually she just looks up at the person asked about. Smart girl!

She figured out how to "comb" her hair this week. Adorable.

Isla went to Montana and Wyoming for the first time. She got to visit many sites at Yellowstone and saw her first buffalo and elk.

There were a couple times this week where Isla stood alone for a couple seconds! She certainly wasn't doing it on purpose as she always likes to be holding fingers but she mistook some toy for a finger for a brief moment and stood without help! I thinking walking is still a few months off but we'll see.