18 Months Old and Rockin' the Specks

Where has the last year and a half gone? Seriously? Scout is now 2 pregnancy's old. When you start thinking of it that way, it really seems crazy! I'll tell you this, it's been the most exciting 18 months of my life. Scout teaches me more than I would have EVER known. I love being her mama, she blesses me so much each and every day!

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been very busy, as usual. We've been enjoying all of the free "Christmas in the City" events in Knoxville. Scout's loving every minute of it.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to "Regal Celebration of Lights" where they lit the Knoxville City Christmas tree on Gay Street and you could enjoy other lights in Krutch Park and festivities in Market Square. We didn't stay for long because it was so cold, but we did get to enjoy the most important part, lighting of the tree.

On Friday, December 3rd, Scout attended her very first parade. WIVK/Fowler's Christmas Parade going through downtown Knoxville. She really enjoyed herself despite being bundled up. She danced to the beat of the drums as the marching bands went by and loved seeing all of the lights. This Friday, we'll attend the Comcast Christmas at Chilhowee Park. They have a forest of lighted trees on the lake and lots of fun activities. We might take time to see Santa again and even go for a carriage ride. I can't wait!

This past Sunday, we attended our first ever "Living Christmas Tree" at Thompson Boling arena. I was a little concerned that Scout wouldn't cooperate because she is just 18 months old and sitting for a long period of time can be difficult for her at times. She proved me wrong once again. She was outstanding other than playing musical chairs in Grumpy, Gran, Papa's and my lap. She ended up crashing in my lap towards the end. As for the show, I was amazed! I will never miss another "Living Christmas Tree"!

Scout recently went for her 18 month check up. She received her last immunization until she's 5 (Kindergarten Check up). It's kind of sad to think about her going to kindergarten, but they have to grow up as much as we don't want them to. I would love to keep Scout young and innocent forever. Scout's check up went well. She's up to 20lbs 15oz in weight (we're almost to 21lbs!!), she's 31in long, and her big ole' head circumference is 50. Her body is finally catching up with her noggin'! She's still "petite", but as Dr. Rimer says, she isn't scrawny! He said when you see her age and weight in the chart, you would think she's a little, skinny toddler, but really she's filled out nicely. I was happy to hear that! They did an autism screening on Scout, which was a Q & A for Adam and I to fill out. They didn't tell us what it was for until after he gave us the results. I guess so we wouldn't cheat. Anyhow, good news...she has no signs of autism. As far as her development goes, she's above a 2 year old level. She was off the chart actually! We are very proud of our smart girl!

On a not so good note, we found out yesterday that Scout will need to wear glasses. We are hoping this is just temporary. A couple of months ago, Adam started noticing Scout's right eye floating in a little bit. I guess I was in denial because I didn't notice it until a few weeks back. I ended up calling a pediatric opthamologist to schedule her an appointment. She's way too young to go to an optometrist. She saw Dr. Allyson Schmitt and was diagnosed with accommodative esotropia. Basically, it means you are "cross eyed" due to being farsighted. The good thing is, Scout's case is not severe and it doesn't cross all the time. When she tries to focus on something at a distance, her right eye floats in. Dr. Schmitt said patching her good eye will not fix the problem because her left eye (based on examination) has the tendency to do the same thing. So, if we patched the eye, we would be creating another problem. Our first option to fix the problem is to get Scout glasses. She has a very simple prescription +2.25 for both eyes. It may seem like a lot, but toddlers eyes are very different than adult eyes. They still aren't fully developed at 18 months. Dr. Schmitt said Scout's vision is actually average for her age, which was a huge relief knowing family history on Adam's side. Wearing glasses may or may not fix the problem. If it doesn't, surgery is our next option and it's a definite fix. Since this was caught at such a young age, Scout may not have to wear glasses when she gets older, as long as it gets corrected. I'm not going to lie, I did cry after we left the doctors office. I was a bit overwhelmed. We've never had to deal with anything other than her normal check ups and an occasional sick visit. I kept questioning myself, "why??" am I having to deal with this as a parent, but then I looked up and saw the pediatric cardiology office that we were passing by to get on the elevator and I realized that we are really blessed to have such a healthy girl. I am still having a hard time dealing with this soon-to-be change, but I'll be fine. I'm mostly frustrated that I can't find cute toddler frames. I had no idea it would be this hard. We'll get through it and who knows, Scout may only be rockin' the specks for a few months before her problem is fixed. It can make a difference that fast. I'll keep everyone update on our eyeglass finding adventure and will post pictures as soon as we get them. Please just pray that she takes to them well and doesn't break them within a week. Glasses aren't cheap!!





Attempting to Get Scout's Picture in Front of Our Christmas Tree

It's really hard to get Scout to sit still long enough for a picture these days. 1st attempt at getting her picture in front of our Christmas tree.

Several attempts and minutes later, I thought I'd bribe her with Smarties candy. She LOVES them!

As you can see, she out smarted me. It didn't work!

Nearly 10 minutes later, she's over and decides to go play with her toys.




Scout's 18 Month Photo Shoot and Our Family Christmas Pictures
Taken by: Days Go By Photography (Tammy Keith)
Location: The Museum of Appalachia (Clinton, TN)

What Is Scout Up To These Days?

I can't believe how fast my baby girl is growing. It seems like each day she is learning something new. She has the best sense of humor and keeps me laughing all of the time. She's usually happy and is so easy going. I know I am blessed regardless of what my child looks like, acts like, etc...but REALLY, I am BLESSED!

So, what is Scout doing these days? Well, she's added another word to her vocabulary recently. Actually, she's said it several times before, but is really starting to say it a lot and knows what it means. She says "baby" all the time, but is sounds more like "baaabeeey". She drags it out and sounds so sweet. She walks around with her baby dolls saying "baby" constantly. A few of her baby dolls giggle when you squeeze their tummy and that always makes her laugh. I love it.

Scout has been blowing her nose, which seems amazing to me, for sometime now. When I say she blows her nose, I mean...she really blows the snot (sorry for being so nasty) out of her nose. It isn't a pretend kind of thing. It's the funniest thing. I'm really glad that we are to that point. No more having to suck the snot out with an aspirator and ticking her off. She really enjoys blowing her nose. As a matter of fact, any time she has a tissue or a baby wipe, the first thing she does is blow her nose with it. Is this really such a good thing or a bad habit? Hehe!

Scout helps me a lot around the house, well...sort of. I like to make her think she is. She loves to help me Windex the glass coffee table and storm doors. She helps dust. She likes to "help" put the dishes away and of course fold laundry. She has the most fun pushing the laundry basket around the kitchen and living room. I hope she is a clean fanatic just like her Mama. Well, some say I'm OCD. ;-)

Scout seems to be very musically inclined. She plays her keyboard quite well, but about a month or more ago discovered how to play her recorder. She blows in that recorder like she's been doing it the whole 15, nearly 16 months of her life. She is always so proud of herself. We usually take turns playing. Scout can also whistle. Yes, you read that right, she can whistle more beautiful than any bird I've ever heard! I whistle quite a bit, and so does Adam. I guess she just picked up on it. On Friday morning, she was playing and I was whistling a tune of some sort. She kind of laid back and started trying. She formed her pretty little lips into this perfect circle and started blowing. She blew until she heard herself whistle. I think I was more proud than she was. She really didn't realize what she had done. I encouraged her to do it the rest of the day. I hope she doesn't forget. It seems she is really good at blowing...she blows her nose, the recorder and can whistle. I know, I think my child's a genius, but don't we all? :)

Let's see, what else is my little tyke up to? We are working on learning what different animals are. She thinks most animals are dogs and refers to them as dogs, which she says pretty good. She also knows that dogs say, "Woof Woof" and can impersonate them pretty good and cute, too. At least now she doesn't call all animals "Lily" or Lola", that's our dogs names. We have also been learning body parts, but mainly focusing on the face right now. So far, she has caught on to "nose". Nothing else has stuck just yet. It's really cute watching her point to her nose when you ask her where it's at.

Scout has also learned to say "Ssshhhhhhhhh" while putting her index finger over her mouth. She's picked that up at day care. It's cute, though. Of course, everything she does is cute to me. :) The dogs were barking at the neighbors the other day and I told them to hush. Scout proceeds to say: "Huussssshhhhh" and puts her finger over her mouth. Hilarious. I hope she forgets the word hush, it's not such a nice word for a little girl to say. Speaking of bad things, Scout has figured out how to stick her itty, bitty pretty finger in her cute, little, pretty nose. Ewww! I'm glad she isn't picking it just yet. She knows it's bad and knows she will get in trouble for doing it. Although, she likes to test me and sticks it in her nose anyways while giving me that "I'm not liiiiisteninnnng" look. She's such a stinker.

Scout has really improved her walking skills over the last few weeks. I'd say she has mastered it and is on to running now, especially in circles. I swear, she doesn't stop. I only wish to have half the energy my child has. When I picked her up at day care last week, she was at the door looking out the window waiting for me. I was walking up the drive way and she hits the window to get my attention. She was so happy to see me, or so I thought. I open the door, she proceeds to practically run down the drive way towards the car, but was so excited, she passed it up. It was too cute.

Scout has always had a special love for the outdoors, but it's becoming an obsession these days. She stands at the door and cries to go outside. I'd say I can blame my mother for that. She keeps Scout one day a week for me at my house and takes Scout outside often. She loves it! The bad part is that the mosquito's love her.

We bought a potty chair last weekend. Scout seems thrilled about it (she likes to climb on it), but still doesn't understand really what it's for. However, we are trying to teach her. We have been sitting her on it often and making a big deal about it. At 15 months, it probably seems a little too soon to start potty training, but it doesn't hurt to try and keep working at it. We had read that before disposable diapers existed, the average age for being totally potty trained was between 9 and 12 months. So, there's proof it can happen. Scout is certainly giving signs that she is tired of her diaper.

That's all I have for now. This seems like it's more of a bragging post than anything, but if you're parent, you know what it feels like to be proud of your child's accomplishments, whether they are big or small. They all count and make us smile!

This post will be without a picture. Adam and I both have very, very little space left on both our lap tops, therefore, we have LOTS of pictures still on the memory card. As soon as we buy more memory, like an external hard drive, I'll upload some recent pictures of my pride and joy. I hope everyone has a blessed week and is enjoying this cooler fall weather.

Walking? YES!!!

That's right, I feel like I can FINALLY say...Scout is walking!!! Nope, she isn't your average toddler that was walking 3 months ago at 12 months of age. She can, however, play a recorder instrument, like no other and blow her nose all by herself. :)

I didn't think this day was ever going to come. She's been "toddling" around for a couple of months now. She'd tease us and taken about 5 steps and then not walk for days. Well, today, Scout woke up and confidence and is now officially, a WALKER! Okay, I'm probably going overboard here, but I am little excited. I know she's still going to have "not-so-good" days, but I really think we've overcame this obsession with crawling. At least I'm hoping that's the case!

The only video proof I have is on my cell phone and I'm not sure how to get that on here. Maybe my computer savvy hubby can help me with that in the near future. :)

Scout will be 15 months on Wednesday. I'm hoping to find time to post pictures from the 1st of each month over the last 15 months so we can reminisce. My, how time flies! :(

I'll leave you with this picture. It shows so much of Scout's personality...She's ROTTEN!