Kylie went to the doctor today because Tiffany noticed that she had little bumps that looked kind of like pimples on her hands, bottoms of her feet, around her mouth, and her diaper area. By the time they got to the doctors she had them going up her legs as well, and during the examination the doctor stated that she also had some on the back of her throat. As it turns out Kylie has the Coxsackie Virus, more accurately she has hand, foot, and mouth disease, which is a type of Coxsackie virus syndrome. According to the CDC (see the previous link), HFMD is usually not serious and “occurs mainly in children under 10 years old.”

Infants, children, and adolescents are more likely to be susceptible to infection and illness from these viruses, because they are less likely than adults to have antibodies and be immune from previous exposures to them. Infection results in immunity to the specific virus, but a second episode may occur following infection with a different member of the enterovirus group.

Kylie’s doctor basically said the same thing and that it was not really something to worry about. Even though certain people believe they know better than the doctor, I think he was right on the money, amazing how that whole seven years of medical school thing works, huh?

In any event, Kylie is going to be fine and there is nothing to worry about. Although this does make it a little difficult as Tiffany will now have to juggle some schedules to make sure Kylie has someone to watch her, as she is going to stay away from other children for a few days to prevent possible spreading. But in a few days things will be back to normal.

Every night, at the end of Kylie’s bath, Tiffany will say “Ok Kylie, are we all done? Time for the water to go bye-bye” and then she will reach down and pull the stopper so the water can drain. Well tonight as Kylie was playing in the water at the end of her bath Tiffany again asked Kylie if they were done and this time Kylie stood up and went over and pulled the plug herself and said “bye-bye” to the water.

Kylie had her latest checkup today and we are happy to report that the doctor says Kylie is doing great! He says she is still advanced for her age and that he is happy to hear of all the things she is capable of doing. I was obviously not able to attend this doctor’s appointment so Tiffany was kind enough to send me all the information. Kylie is now 30.5 inches tall (2.5 feet) and is weighing 22 pounds and 4 ounces.

Tiffany tells me that Kylie still loves to dance and will even dance in her car seat if a song with a good beat come on. We are thinking that when she gets a little older that we may enroll her in some type of dance class if she continues to show a fondness for it. She also shows a fondness for music in general and still loves the playhouse Disney songs. When Tiffany sings her “she’ll be coming around the mountain when she comes” song from on of her CDs, Kylie knows how to do the “toot toot” motion of pulling the whistle for the train and actually make the “toot toot” sound.

A while ago Tiffany bought Fridge Phonics by Leap Frog for Kylie to play with and help her learn her alphabet, and Kylie has learned how to put the letters into it and press them so it tells her what each letter is. Eventually we want to get Kylie the Word Whammer as well. She has also become very good at playing with her shape sorter and knows what shape fits into what hole. Her motor skills continue to improve as she is becoming more dexterous and is getting better at feeding herself with a spoon and a fork. She also knows the difference between a hair brush and a tooth brush and how to use them. She enjoys brushing her teeth and does so when she gets her hands on her, or Mommy’s, tooth brush. In addition Kylie’s verbal repertoire continues to grow as well. She is now starting to pronounce “issy” for Aunt Sissy, and she also says “duck” and knows that they go “quack.”

She has also reached the stage where she is learning to throw passive aggressive tantrums. This is displayed when she decides she does not want to go somewhere so she decides that she will just lie on the floor instead. In addition to this she is now learning that she can display other emotions as well. For instance when she is mad or frustrated she will hit Mommy to display it. Tiffany is trying to teach Kylie that though it is ok to be frustrated or mad and to feel those emotions, that it is not ok to hit people. So instead she is allowing Kylie to hit the floor or a pillow while she tries to figure out what it is that is frustrating Kylie. This is a difficult stage because we don’t want to discipline her for being upset and unfortunately at the time being this is the only way she has to communicate that she is feeling such things. We are hoping that as her vocabulary continues to grow that this phase will pass.

Tiffany informed me today that Kylie has gained 2 more teeth, bringing the grand total up to six. The two top ones to either side of her very front ones have finally dropped, as we have been waiting on them for at least a month now. I am hoping to see them for myself tomorrow as I did not get a chance to see her today.

On a somewhat unrelated topic (the connection is Kylie and will be apparent shortly) I saw 3 rainbows today while I was out running my numerous errands, and when I saw them I immediately thought of Kylie. I thought about how much I am looking forward to seeing a rainbow with her and how fun it will be to go out with her and see if we can find the end of it.

For the past few weeks we have been working on transitioning Kylie from bottles to sippy cups, and with the exception of her bed time bottle, we have finished this task. Kylie will now drink all of her day time drinks from her sippy cups; these drinks mainly consist of juice and water. In addition to this she also understands that she needs to be sitting down when she is drinking and will regularly walk over to the couch and climb up into it when we give her her sippy cup. On the few occasions that she does not go directly to the couch, we simply ask “Kylie, can you please sit down to drink?” and she will either then proceed to the couch or on some occasions Daddy’s La-z-boy and then have her drink.

On a number of occasions, like when we are at a restaurant, we have given her the opportunity to drink from the establishment’s child cup, which is usually a plastic cup with a cover and a straw. However, Kylie has not gotten the hang of the whole drinking through a straw procedure yet. That is until today. Tiffany said that earlier today Kylie drank almost an entire cup of water through a straw at Big Boy. So as of now Kylie is drinking through a straw in addition to her sippy cup.

We are very happy with this progress and will continue to attempt to fully transition her off of her bottle. I think once we get her used to drinking her milk from a sippy cup, her night time bottle will be more easily transitioned away from.

Kylie turned 13 months old today, this last month didn’t seem to go buy as fast as all the others. Not really sure why, but in a way i liked it, I don’t feel like my time with her is flying by. I know all parents say that time goes by fast when their children are young, and this past year I really realized what everyone means. So seeing how this past month seemed to go by at a “normal” pace, it was real nice. This past month wasn’t all that busy, Kylie did a few new things but basically she is right where she should be developmentally, now we are right about at the point where she is going to stat picking up on new words and/or phrases. This month she did start walking backwards, made her first phone call, and had her second ear infection along with an eye infection. She has also picked up a few new words as well, and her new favorite phrase is “What’s that?” while pointing at an object. She also expresses her interest in things by pointing to them and saying “Oooo”, which is really cute to see. The only other new development is that Tiffany thinks she is starting to learn how to throw little temper tantrums, as she will more easily now when she doesn’t get her way. Like when we put her down for a second and do not immediately pick her back up and things like that.

I suppose I should also address pictures, or the lack there of as I am now a month behind, something that has not happened in a long time. I have somewhere in the vicinity of 500 pictures for month 12, this can be attributed to Kylie’s first birthday party and Nana’s visit. So it has taken me an abnormally long time to process all the pictures, as of right now I still have roughly 70 more pictures to process and get ready for posting, as soon as they are done I am going to get them up in the gallery. As for this month’s pictures, well I think it should go without saying that if I am a month behind they are not ready either, but in addition to this I don’t think we took to many this past month, so when the do make it up don’t expect a lot.