CootieGirl had her latest doctor appointment today. CootieDad took her over there and said she is she cried when she got her latest two shots. I had debated as to whether to give her the MMR shot (Measles, Mumps & Rubella) because of studies that link it to eventual autism, but I went to the CDC website and they confirm that the studies are extremely flawed and that the MMR vaccine is not harmful. So I told CootieDad to go ahead and get CootieGirl done. She got another shot as well, but CootieDad couldn’t remember which one when he emailed me.

As for her growth, CootieGirl is in the 75-90% bracket for weight and the 75% bracket for height. Whoo Hoo!!!! A whopping 26 pounds, and 31 1/2 inches tall!

CootieDad recently read something about eventual height of kids when they are adults – I can’t remember if it was their first birthday or their second. But either way, supposedly you can measure they’re height at that age, and if you double it, that’s how tall they’ll be as an adult. Well, if we were to go by TODAY’S date and presume it’s double as of their first birthday (which CootieGirl is 3 months past), then CootieGirl will be taking after Grandma Cootie and will be barely or less than 5 feet tall (31.5 inches = 5 ft 2 in tall).

All moms do it – it’s innate and practically a requirement. The maternal bragging about one’s child. You know, the child that is the smartest, prettiest/handsomest, kindest, sweetest, most perfect child of all.

1. CootieGirl knows how to throw away her garbage. If she has something in her hand, all I have to do is point to the trashcan and say, “Throw it away!” and she’ll walk over, open the lid and toss in her trash. Of course, moments later she’ll open the lid and take it right back out, but the point is, she does know what a trash is for. Sort of.

2. CootieGirl picks up words very quickly. Her latest word is “Bubba”, which is her way of saying “bubbles”. Sadly, now EVERYTHING is called Bubba, and I fear our son will not be known as CootieBoy but as Bubba. Shudder to think. She also still calls CootieDad, “Mama”. She was so good for a while at saying “Daddy”, but now it’s all-Mama, all the time – and she’s not talking about me.

3. She’s precocious. Or strong-willed. Take your pick. Tell her no, and she’ll definitely stop whatever it is you want her to stop doing. But then she gets a glint in her eye, smiles serenely at you, and goes right back to the forbidden behavior. The key is to not laugh when she does this, but it’s so hard because she’s so frickin’ cute.

4. She loves the slide at the playground. Same with the stairs. She has learned that to go down the stairs she has to sit on the edge of the stair and scoot down. This has resulted in her ability to also go down the slide or get into the pool – she knows she has to sit first, THEN go down the slide/the stairs/into the pool.

5. She’s independent. Don’t DARE hold her hand when she’s walking somewhere in public. That’s for babies.

6. She goes to bed with no fussing now. I’ve mentioned this before, but even when I mentioned it before she’d still fuss. Now – no fussing whatsoever. We go in her darkened room, I cuddle her, she puts her head on my shoulder, and moments later I place her in the crib and she lays contentedly waiting for the sleepy fairy dust to settle around her. Hope she does the same when her screaming baby brother shares the room with her come mid-November.

Someone complained that they can’t be bothered finding the Photoblog link on the right (talk about LAZY!), so I’ve added a link above all of the posts that appear here. This way it’s literally impossible to “find” the link to the photos. Of which there are two new ones today, by the way.

If you guys want to see new pictures of CootieGirl, they are now located at the Cootipie Photoblog (link is in the right menu bar)…

CootieGirl’s Aunt Jen stopped over this weekend for a visit. Here are two pics of the girls together and one of the cute cootie in her new hat.

It’s such a small thing, but I love when it’s time for her to go to bed and carrying her, I walk into her darkened room and she automatically puts her head on my shoulder and just RELAXES against me. And if she lifts her head to look at something, all I have to do is whisper, “Head down” and her head will drop back onto my shoulder without a fight.

We cuddle for a couple minutes and then I lay her in the crib, and it’s rare for her to fuss as I leave the room.

But it’s her head on my shoulder that makes me melt. What a sweetheart she is!

So over at Scratch Mittens I inadvertantly started to talk about CootieGirl’s move from the crib to the bed, and decided I’d start over here instead.

Different opinions have been expressed so far, but here’s what I’m leaning towards:

Take out the headboard and bedframe, and leave boxspring and mattress on the floor. Push the mattress against the corner wall and buy one rail for the side of the bed facing the room. This way if she does get up, she’s actively doing it as opposed to falling out of the bed. And a headboard and bedframe are MUCH easier to store away until she’s ready to be in an actual “real” bed.

As for safety in her room, I’ll need to take out a couple things she reaches for – the sidetable, for one thing. She’s fascinated by the small stereo we have for her, so I’ll have to put that up high and out of reach. We already leave her door open at night while we sleep, but I’ll add a gate at her door so that she doesn’t wander at night if she wakes up. We already gate the stairs and close the bathroom and other bedroom doors at night (with doorknob guards), but I’d rather have her not come into our room until she’s older and actually NEEDS us (read: nightmares).

The good thing is we don’t have to do any of this stuff until October, when CootieBoy is settled into a routine and outgrowing the bassinet we’ll keep in our room. By then CootieGirl will be 18 months old and I’ll be able to better judge the bed situation.

Here are a few pics of CootieGirltaken at the playground on Monday. That’s ice cream on her face. The last two were snapped today. That’s a new outfit. She’s a hoochy mama.

CootieMom and CootieGirl took a dip in our neighbor’s pool yesterday afternoon. They were going to go in again today, but the weather may not cooperate, plus CootieMom is going out for a haircut. Doesn’t CootieGirllook cute in her swim suit? She loves water. We did mention she loves taking baths. CootieMom even dunked her. You can see the series of those shots.

Okay, so we’re done! Cleaning up Cootiepie and all her pictures was easier than we thought it would be. The number of pictures has been dramatically reduced throughout Cootiepie, and now all pictures will be put directly into the Photoblog, which will be updated regularly.

The link appears on the right, but I’ll add it here too for those that dislike using menus and want to cut to the chase!

The way it works: Click on the pictures along the bottom to move among the pictures. Upon leaving the “main” picture (the one that appears when you first visit the page), the next most recent picture appears on the far right. Then use follow the arrows to see more pictures – click on the left arrow goes to older pictures, to the right to the newer ones. The picture in the center of the five choices is always the picture that’s enlarged on the screen already. You can also click in the “Albums” link at the top and see they are sorted by month and category. Enjoy!

And yes, you can make comments at the photoblog.