15 month check-up....

Our little girl is growing up and out. Yep, that's right, she is growing. She is now 17 pounds, 12.5 ounces, just 3 ounces short of gaining 3 full pounds since we brought her home. When we took her to her first visit, they said she was 14 pounds 15.5 ounces. She has also grown 2 1/4 inches. When we brought her home she was 28 1/4 inches and now is 30 1/2 inches. I guess that explains why we had to buy her some longer pj's and finally bigger shoes. When we got her she was wearing a size 3 shoe and this past week when we took her to Little Gym, she let us know that they were to small. So, I felt them and they were definitely to small. So, on Thursday we went a bought her a size 4 tennis shoe and sandals. Finally, she's growing. She is still wearing mostly 6 to 9 month clothes, a few 12 month shirts and pj's, but that is it.

At this visit she was suppose to also get 3 vaccinations, but since we had the little mishap on the way there, we opted to wait until her 18 month visit....this kid will do anything to get out of a shot...ha, ha!

Additionally, we talked with the doctor about Jetta getting an MRI for her tethered spinal cord. When we first came home, the doctor told us that she thought Jetta might have a tethered spinal cord, which today doesn't mean much, but in the next year or two it could create problems. The most common problems would be bowel and bladder problems, as well as possible paralysis. When we first got home she wasn't quite big enough for an MRI, as they will have to sedate her, in order to get a good scan. However, with her weight gain, she is now okay to have the test. We are waiting to hear from the doctors office on when the appointment will be, but are anxious to get the test done and to determine if its anything with need to be concerned with. The doctor says that 85% of the time it is nothing, but it's better to be safe, than sorry. As of now, I'm not to concerned, as she seems to be just fine, but don't want to have problems in the future.

In addition to her growing and gaining a few pounds, she is now getting 5 new teeth (all at once). When we saw the doctor I told her that I had almost given up on her getting any new teeth, as it had been months since she got her last 2. In fact it was when we first got home from China 4 months ago. She said, well, typically they get 4 teeth every 4 months. So, surprisingly that works out for us.....5 teeth and her last 2 were 4 months ago. So, once she gets these in, she'll have 11 teeth. She is doing really well chewing with the 6 she has, but I'm sure the other 5 will come in handy. She's been a drooly mess, but otherwise not to bad.

I think that pretty much covers her visit and we don't have to go back until she's 18 months, so we have 3 months before that, but am sure it will go by to fast. My little girl is growing up so fast, but I am so pleased with her progress and can't wait to see where she's at when we have our next visit.

Grandma Alexander visits....

Shannon's mom came to visit us this past week. She came in on Tuesday and left on Friday. It was great to see her, as it has been quite some time since we last saw her. Jetta and her became fast friends and really seemed to enjoy each others company. Of course, just like her other grandma, she came bearing gifts and enjoyed spoiling Jetta just a bit more. It was Grandma's birthday on Tuesday when she arrived, so after we went to Little Gym, we took her to dinner and gave her her present. We gave her a collage picture of Jetta from her first photo shoot and a necklace that we brought home from China. She loved them and we were glad she was able to be here to share her birthday with us. Unfortunately the whole trip wasn't as pleasant....Jetta broke grandma in and broke her in she did. On Thursday we went to Jetta's 15 month doctors visit and on the way Jetta decided to share her already digested milk with us. Not fun....this was the first time she has thrown up since we got her. However, grandma was great, she ripped off her seatbelt and pulled her head forward, once I got to a place where I could stop, I got out of the car, went around, pulled her out and got a wiff....whew not pleasant. I took Jetta around the back of the car, opened it up and stripped her down, so all the passerbys got a glimsp of my half naked baby. Meanwhile, grandma grabbed the wipes and went to work on cleaning up the carseat and the back of the car. Once we got things cleaned up the best we could and got Jetta calmed down, I called the doctor and said we were gonna be late. I had to head to Target to buy a new outfit for Jetta and some air freshner. Yep, that's right, I had to go buy clothes, as I only had the small diaper bag with me and didn't have a change of clothes with me. However, I do now, along with a pack of back-up wipes, air freshner and towels. Once we got that all done we headed back to the doctor for her check-up. I'll write a separate post with those details. We had planned to go sightseeing that day, but figured it was best to just stay home. On Friday, we had to take grandma back to the airport and tell her goodbye. It was a great visit and we enjoyed our time.

Three feet....

This is a picture that Shannon took last weekend. He had taken one with just he and Jetta's footprints and I said it would be neat to have all three of us. So, here is a picture from last weekend when it was raining and we were able to get all three of our footprints on the front porch. I love the picture, hope you enjoy it.

Jetta's driving....

Well, not really, but she did get her first trike and as of right now she can't reach the peddal's, but she loves getting on it and having us push her around. She climbs up on it and will stand on the seat, she is quite the little dare devil. She doesn't seem to have a "fear bone" in her body. It has blinkers, a horn and music, and when she hits the music button she dances to it. She seems to really enjoy it and I love seeing her on it. I'll include a few pictures.

Daddy's little helper and our last picture of Sammy....

This post is a tough one....while the picture is very cute of Jetta helping her daddy put mommy's new elliptical together, it's our last picture of Sammy. It was a rough week for us a few weeks back. We unfortunately lost Sam, our sheltie. He was 7 1/2 years old and was a great dog. He had been sick with his thyroid for quite some time and had been fighting a weight problem. Unfortunately 3 weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon we lost him. He was here at home with us, which I'm grateful for, but it still was very hard. He was such a good boy and we miss him immensely. We had him cremated and got him back last week and Shannon put his final touch on his box....he didn't have Sammy put on the tag, rather he had Chubby and for any of you who know us, Sam went by many names, Chubby, Chubs, CB, Table Top to name just a few. There are many more, but these are the ones that we used the most. I do however feel grateful that we lost him here the way we did, because just a few days later, our neighbor's car went through our garage and may have hurt him to a point that we would have lost him anyway. The side of the garage that the car went through was the side he laid on and with him being so heavy, he may have not been able to get up out of the way fast enough. Fortunately both Peanut and Takai were able to escape unhurt. They were both just shaken up and Peanut had made .6 miles of a trek away from home. We finally found her 5 hours later and she was very glad to see us. I'm sure glad that even though she crossed two major roads and was gone for an extended period of time that we got her back safe and sound. So, as I said, the picture is very cute and shows just how big Jetta is getting, but it is also hard for me to write about this. So, for now Chubs I write this to you and you will always have a special place in our hearts and memories. I've also included one of our favorite pictures, the black and white one of him, it shows just how sweet he was.