New Teeth

Teething is a vicious cycle. Ally has only had four teeth since before her first birthday but all of a sudden new teeth are popping up all over. The entire lower right side has decided to come in all at once, including her molar. The left side has also started to swell and her molar has surfaced and yesterday I could see the two top teeth next to the center ones breaking out. Its crazy! It always seems like her worst teething happens in conjunction with a cold (pediatricians say coincidence but I disagree) so its very tough to tell whats causing her crabbiness and waking during the night. We have been treating with baby orajel since the herbal tabs that were so wonderful have since been recalled. Seems to work okay for short spurts but it doesn't do much for the swelling. She used to like the teething rings but now she is far to busy to just sit and chew on those. I just keep expecting to wake up to a smiling mouth full of teeth soon!

Holiday Greetings from the Kraebbers

Tree Decorating

I put up our Christmas tree the other night after Ally went to sleep and yesterday she helped decorate it. I had put all the lights on and the colored ornaments but I wanted her to help hang her special ornaments and our stockings. She was so happy to see the lights and she loved touching the colored balls. She helped put up Baby's 1st Christmas from last year and the new Baby's 2nd Christmas that I bought for her. We also added a New House ornament since we had one from 2006 when we bought our first house. Its not a huge tree by any means but it works for us and Ally likes it. Some day I want to have a real tree but until the dog and the child can be trusted with it, we will stick to this fake one.

Traumatized by Santa

Does this really need an explanation? Worst idea ever!

14 Months Old

This month has obviously been a whirlwind of activity for all of us. The packing, moving, new job, new day care didn't really lend itself to much picture taking or blogging. Ally has perfected a lot of skills and even has added some new things.

Walking. She can really move now! She rarely crawls at all and is comfortable walking anywhere. Last months she really was only comfortable walking at home and work revert to crawling in public places but not anymore. Lowes is among her favorite places to explore! She is much faster and a lot less stiff-legged these days. She gets a little clumsy when she gets tired but she really does great most of the time.

Talking. Ally's vocabulary includes dada, mama, ella, ball, up, doggie and a variety of sounds I can't yet translate. She is very good at pointing and shaking her head both yes and no which is new. She calls Uncle Corey "co-co" which is so cute so it is becoming very obvious that she knows what things are, but doesn't necessarily know how to put the right sounds together to make the words yet. She can point to many things if you say the words like shoes, jacket, blanket, tree, snack, chair, cup and various body parts. In day care she has been learning sign language and she uses the sign for more perfectly. So perfect that she asks for more when she hasn't even had anything yet. She also puts her hand to her mouth to show she is hungry and is working on the sign for please. I would prefer she learns to talk rather than sign but learning is learning and I will take what I can get.

Eating.Her eating is still a cause for concern with us as she just has not been very consistent. It doesn't seem to bother her that she doesn't take in as much as we think she should and her weight is right on so there is no real cause for concern other than our own stress about it. Each day brings something new- one time she only wants to feed herself, one time she only wants to be fed from a fork, only cheese, no cheese, little pieces only, big pieces only.... She has a few things she really enjoys like string cheese, milk, mac and cheese, corn dogs, grapes, black beans, goldfish but all others are really hit and miss. She is now eating some applesauce and pancakes which she has always refused in the past. Other favorites like peas, grilled cheese, cooked carrots, chicken seem to have been a phase and she wont eat them now. We do find that she prefers big chunks of things she can take bites of versus small pieces on her tray. Meats are the biggest obstacle but we are working on it. Day care hasn't helped in this area as much as we had hoped but she is getting exposed to a variety of foods and only gets jarred baby food on the rare occasion she absolutely refuses to eat anything else we give her.

Drinking. Ally is down to one bottle per day which is bedtime only. She loves drinking from cups and really decided on her own to give up bottles. She discovered chocolate milk and only really like the pre-mixed milk rather than white milk with chocolate added to it (just like Mommy). She likes cups of all kinds and uses a straw like a pro. She gets a lot of juice and milk at day care so we mostly just do water and milk at home.

Teeth. Ally has a bunch coming in right now. Basically the entire lower right side has decided to come in at once so it is very sore and swollen lately. Her molar is poking through and the one right next to the center teeth is almost all the way up. Not fun!

Ally absolutely loves to play with toys of all kinds. She loves toys with doors she can open and close and also with things like shape sorters where she can put one piece into another. She is also very into sitting in chairs and climbing on furniture. Ally is a girly girl right now and loves bags of all kinds that she can put toys in and put on her shoulder, bracelets/watches and lip gloss. We have a few things in mind for Christmas which we hope will help her with these new obsessions.