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Dad here.
Gena took Zoë to the dentist today for a one month follow up from her incident. The good news was that the bone looks good, the bad news is that the gums are still soft and so the tooth is still loose.
The dentist said she could still end up having the tooth discolor or it could even remain loose for an extended period of time. The dentist recommended that we start giving her harding things to bite which could start to force the gum to heal up a little.
We were disappointed to hear that it hasn't healed up better, we were expecting better news because the tooth looks much better than it had.
Dad here.
Yesterday Gena and I took Zoë to her 15 month well check. Everything went well. It's funny because Zoë is always so curious and rambunctious while we are waiting for the doctor but when she's being examined she sits still and fully cooperates.
She had four shots yesterday and while she was probably better than usual with them she still had some tears. The good news is that there are no shots at her 18 month checkup.
Her height is 32 1/4 inches which is 90-95 percentile.
Her weight is 24 lbs. 3 oz. which is 50-75 percentile.
Her head is 19 3/8 inches which is 97+ percentile.
Her percentiles have been pretty consistent at every checkup.
She will have a follow up appointment with the dentist on Friday since it has been four weeks since she bumped her tooth. The tooth is actually looking really good. As the swelling of the gums has gone down the tooth has straightened out quite a bit. It's barely even crooked anymore. I'm not sure how firm it is yet though, we'll let the dentist check on that.
Dad here on day 3 of the Toothtanic incident.
Zoe had a good day today. She didn't seem too bothered by her tooth and at the dentist's recommendation we moved her back on to some solid foods at dinner tonight. She had a banana and a pear and some corn and ate it all right up.
She had a fun day at the mall with mom, she got a new bath toy and some new clothes. Gena said that she insisted on walking so they walked around the store Gena had the car in one hand and Zoe's hand in the other. In the afternoon I took her to grocery store and she was laughing hysterically for no reason in particular. She was making everyone we passed in the store laugh and smile.
The swelling in her gums seems to have gone down some but we don't dare check to see how loose the tooth is.
Dad here.
Zoe had a little accident at daycare on Thursday. She was walking and stumbled forward and hit her lower teeth on a bookcase and knocked one of her lower teeth loose.
If it does heal up well she'll still have a crooked tooth. The worst case scenario would be that she would lose the tooth and there's a chance if that happens that her adult tooth in that spot would never come in. We're giving her just baby food now but the dentist recommend getting her back on softer foods that she will chew soon which might actually help the healing by stimulating the gums.
Gena and I are obviously having a hard time with this but Zoe has been a trooper. Both dentists told Gena that they've never seen a child that age be so easy to deal with. She's been pretty good for us, yesterday she seemed bothered by the tooth but was mostly in a good mood. Today she didn't seem too bothered by the tooth.
You can't see it on the picture but her gums in front of her tooth are pretty swollen and and dark. It's really hard to see that and to know she's hurt. Hopefully in a couple of weeks it will all be healed up.
Dad here.
Zoe has been walking more and more. Friday when I dropped her off at daycare I set her down on the floor. Usually her legs go limp and she sits, but this time she just stayed standing. She didn't walk that time but I had her daycare teacher stand her up again to see if she would walk to me and she did.
This afternoon Gena and I took turns having her walk between us. We sat about three feet apart and she walked between us repeatedly, each time she would get to one of us she would give us a big hug. She was all smiles every time, she was so proud of herself.
One funny thing she does every time she walks is she stands for a moment and then when she is ready to walk she puts her hands over her head and then scoots forward. We couldn't figure out at first why she was doing that but later in the day I realized why. Usually when we practiced walking with her one of us would stand behind her and hold her hands but she would have to have her hands up over her head to reach our hands. So she's used to walking with her hands over her head!
Zoe is very excited to walk and we're excited for her although there are downsides. Walking is so exciting for her that she wants to do it everywhere. We went to Sears this afternoon to buy a new oven range and she was restless. While Gena handled all the paperwork for the stove I had to let her walk all over Sears and then repeatedly go up and down the escalators.
We're still happy to see her so excited about walking. The past few weeks have been hard because she is getting maybe four teeth right now. She's got a molar most of the way in and maybe another molar on the other side in addtion to both of her incisors. All of that teething has made her pretty uncomfortable and she's been crabby because of it. So we're glad to see her taking so much joy in walking.
Mom here.
On Saturday, Sept. 26, I was playing with Zoe in her room. At one point she was sitting on a pile of foam puzzle pieces when she suddenly stood up unassisted. She proceeded to take three steps forward, then lost her balance and fell. I was so proud and surprised that I yelled for Brian to come into the room. She wouldn't do it again that day, but the very next day she repeated the process. I think our little darling is going to be walking very soon!
On another note, we are excited that Gary and Irene (Brian's parents) are coming for a visit Oct. 22 - 26!
The picture above was taken the morning of picture day at Zoe's daycare. Her daddy is so excited that we can finally get barrettes to stay in her hair. And yes, that's a tutu she's wearing. Mommy likes to dress up her little girl:-)
Dad here.
Today we had a nice warm day without the usual long list of chores to do so we decided to take Zoe to Como Zoo. The nice thing about Como Zoo is that it's free (although we do make a small donation when we go) so we can go without feeling like we have to stay for a long time to make it worth the money.
We had never taken Zoe to the zoo before and we weren't sure whether she'd really get anything out of it. She had a great time. She always loves going places where there are a lot of people to look at but she also really enjoyed looking at the different animals. She wasn't particularly interested in the lions and tigers which surprised me because she loves our cats so much. But she really liked looking at the different monkeys.
The Como zoo has an amusement park too with an old carousel. We were debating whether we should let her go on it or not. She was getting tired and had been out in the hot, muggy weather for quite a while. But we decided to give it a shot and we were glad we did because she just loved it. There were a couple of other babies her age on there who cried through the ride but she was all smiles.
Dad here.
Gena and I took Zoe to her one year well check today. Her weight is 22 1/2 lbs which is 75th percentile, her height is 30 3/4 inches which is 95th percentile and her head is 18 3/4 which is 97th percentile... daddy's girl.
The big transition now will be taking Zoe off the bottle. We talked with the pediatrician about how we'll do that. It's such a part of her routine for naps and going to bed at night that it will be a challenge for us but I'm sure she'll do fine.
She got three shots today including chicken pox (they still recommended that we do that even though she had it) and MMR. She also had to have some blood drawn for an iron test and a lead test. Both came back in great shape. She still had a hard time with the shots but she calmed down pretty quickly, she's a tough girl.
Dad here.
We had a birthday party for Zoe and Ashlynn in Montana and plan to have a joint party for Zoe and Lauren in St. Cloud so tonight was a little quiet.
However, we were able to set up a video chat with my parents, Miranda and my Grandmother so they could watch Zoe eat a birthday cupcake. After a bath we let her open presents. Gena got Zoe a really cute card with a fuzzy duck on it that squeaks when you push its tummy. She also go Zoe a couple of presents, a bag of Mega Blocks, a Mega Blocks dump truck, a puzzle and a couple of books.
Gena put the presents in a paper bag and we handed her the card. She was so sweet the way she studied the card and enjoyed having us squeak it for her. Then she would examine each gift we showed her and she seemed to enjoy all of them. That I love my child is a given, but moments like these remind me how lucky I am that I really like her too. I love the way she takes an interest in things beyond what you would expect from a one year old.
After a cupcake dessert and some new toys Zoe was pretty tired and went right down to sleep.
Daycare took the picture you see above and they also made a collage for her which had balloons each with the handprint of each of the other kids in her room. Gena's work friend Susan also made a nice collage of different pictures of Zoe.
It's not easy to make a day special for such a young baby but I think Zoe had a great day!
Dad here.
I can't believe Zoë is already a year old and yet I can't even remember my life before we had her. All the sleepless nights, and stress and expenses, and hard work have been worth it. I can't wait to see what the coming year will bring as our little girl continues to grow and develop.
