Holy Smokes....Daphne is 17 months old!

So, on June 2^nd Daphne turned 17 months old. We can't believe she will be an 18 month old in less than a month! We are enjoying her at this stage. She is learning and growing so much and so fast!  We are so blessed.
At her last doctor appointment, Daphne weighed 19 pounds, 8 ounces.  Yes she has almost made it to 20 pounds! As for her appetite, she is eating like a typical toddler. She loves a variety of foods; definitely fruits and veggies. We’re not that surprised at how much food Daphne likes and, therefore, eats. So far, the only thing we have noticed that she doesn’t really care for is tuna; that could have been because of the way it was prepared (in a wrap for lunchtime) or maybe she didn’t like the dressing it was mixed with. She also loves her sippy cup with whole milk.

Daphne's language is really blossoming! She is saying more and more words or at least closer to words.  She is saying "bye bye" (complete with hand waving), "ball", “up”, “ka-ka” (cookie), “dee doo” (thank you), “buu ba” (for bubbles – also for Bubba the dog), “yeah”, “no”, and of course "mama" and "dada". She also loves to give kisses - complete with the *MUAH* sound.

She has started learning her animal sounds:

oof, oof for doggie

moo (comes out sounding more like maaa) for cow
quack (comes out sounding like just the Q and K sounds) for duck
baw, baw for chicken
ggrrraaarr for lion
haa, haa (Rachel didn’t know what sound the bunny made when they saw one in the back yard, she quickly said the bunny goes Hop Hop and Daphne now interprets that as haa haa, complete with jumping up and down as if she were a bunny)

There are others – but more importantly she understands what we are saying when we ask her things. She will promptly answer “yeah” or “no” when we ask her if she wants this or that. She frequently ‘tests’ her voice in a place where she knows it will echo – down the aisles in BJs club, Babies R Us, doctor office waiting rooms, etc. We are also starting to incorporate some basic Polish words too.

 

Daphne climbing in the playground

 
Some of you may know that Daphne has experienced febrile seizures – with the most recent one a couple of weeks ago (right before Memorial Day). They are frightening to witness – this is one of those things that parents shouldn’t have to see, right up there with parents outliving their children. Luckily, the majority of febrile seizures are short and harmless to the child having them. One of the ER doctors told us the rule of thirds – one third of all children will have at least one febrile seizure, one third will have additional seizures (this is Daphne), and one third will not experience them at all. It could be that these seizures are hereditary and while we wait to hear from Daphne’s birthmother, we really have nothing else to go on as to why she had this most recent seizure. The first seizure (back in Dec 2012) was determined to be brought on by the diagnosis of RSV (that nasty respiratory virus that gets most kiddos).

We were referred to a pediatric neurologist this week and after giving Daphne the once-over determined that she would like to perform an EEG (Electroencephalogram) – to measure the electrical activity of the brain. Not that there was anything alarming to this doctor, she just wants to see what might be going on in there – if anything.

Here is a link given to us from her pediatrician regarding Febrile Seizures. (if you’re interested)

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/febrile_seizures/detail_febrile_seizures.htm