Happy 22 months Rowan!

22 months is well underway! What a month we had! We had some interesting firsts, like hand, foot and mouth, locking ourselves in the bathroom and our first real haircut. Rowan, as usual, keeps us at attention! She is a spitfire but such a joy at the same time!

Age: 22 months, (20.5 months adjusted age). We are almost to the end of adjusting her age! For preemies it stops when they are 2!

Weight and clothing size: 

Rowan is now officially 31 pounds and so solid! She's super heavy and my body is constantly sore!  Wearing all 3T clothing, even 4t depending on the brand. Size 5 diapers, shoe size is inching towards 5.5

Eating:

Mealtime is something I have been dreading at times. She can be so picky! It was becoming such a battle and I know her stubborn sass comes from her sensing my frustration! I have really learned lately to rein it in and be creative! My girl baby still really loves her carbs (who doesn't, tbh?), string cheese and peas to name some. Since I feel she is lacking iron I found a pinterest link that shows you the top vegan foods that provide a great punch of iron and protein. And no, we aren't going vegan lol! She absolutely loves gobbling white beans ( a great iron source) amongst other types of beans. She also likes dried fruit as well as fresh fruit. I am thinking of doing a blog post of some healthy recipes that has worked for us! 

Rowan can:

-locking doors. UGH.

-in addition to her previous words, she now says bus, peekaboo, mickey, daddy, "plis" (aka please), goodnight moon (sounds like "muhmight moo").  She also says "mumbo" for Dumbo. She easily is repeating much of what we are saying, which is awesome but kinda scary!

-Says "whoa" and "woooo" when she is swinging or on a ride, LOL!

-if the stove is on or she sees a steaming bowl of soup or coffee, she says "haaa, haaa" while tapping her mouth

-If you ask her what a dog, pig, sheep, horse, and cow says, she can say their sound.

-learning how to lower herself from our bed. I am nervous about when she will do this with her crib, lol!

-loves to climb up slides (YIKES) among other dare-devily things. Oh boy....

-tries to jump though its more like a hop, LOL

Rowan loves:

- The dumbo ride, all the carousel rides and the spinning teacups at Disneyland
-has discovered she has a LOVE for raisins.
-She has a major obsession with the ball pit at My Gym.
-We bought her a Mickey plush (thanks buy one, get one for $1)  and she screams joyfully at them in the mornings when she gets up.

Rowan doesn't like: 

-This hysterically cute, Frozen short on Disney Junior. It straight up terrifies her! I'm not totally sure why, but here is the scary show if you want to be "scared" LOLOLOL

-Since we are talking about being scared, she doesn't exactly love the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland. She actually wimpered through a few parts of the ride, which made me sad 

-sharing. OH LAWD! This girl can be bratty about sharing with others, and she makes it known. This bothers me tremendously, so we have been working hard for her to be a "nicer friend" about sharing. 

-gets stressed out if she pulls off her "pretties". Rowan has a tendency to pull off her headbands and wraps, which DRIVES ME FREAKING CRAZY. However, it somehow bothers her too because tries to put them back on and when she can't she gets flustered and frustrated LOL!

 Sleeping schedule:

Sleep is still the same. Sleeps usually from 7:30-6:30 on school days, when we are home or on the weekends usually to 7:30 or 8! Takes a midday nap from 11-1:30/2. Forever thankful I get decent amounts of sleep! 

 New happenings this month:

-Rowan had her first real haircut! I was super sad to get it cut, but knew it was time! It was so scraggly and she had such crazy length! She got a cute bob, aka Lady Mary Crawley style from Downton Abbey!

-Rowan got hand, foot, and mouth disease, UGH. Catch up here:

- Rowan locked herself in the bathroom. I feel this deserves a post for memory's sake, LOL! It was super scary and traumatic, mainly for me. She recovered fine, LOLOLOLOL!

-We did a super fast, Disneyland trip during Valentine's weekend! It was a quick trip but OH SO FUN!!! Yes, I am working on a post! One of the best things? Breakfast with Minnie, which is worthy of its very own post! Since we have been to Disneyland 4 times now, I feel it gets easier each time with Rowan! We are planning a week long trip to DL  in March during Easter break!



Obligatory Rowan dump:

the adventures of hand, foot, and mouth disease

Oh, the joys of hand, foot and mouth. 

If you don't know what it is, you basically need to know it sucks. Its a VERY CONTAGIOUS disease that causes high fever, sores on around the mouth, hands and feet (hence the name). It can be extremely uncomfortable, and very painful. I'm writing this post to share of a wonderful remedy that helped us tremendously! There was literally nothing online on how to help heal, nothing even the mommy blogs. I taking it upon myself to write this to be helpful to someone in the future!

I had heard stories of this stupid disease. It happens to even kids who stay at home with their parents, as well as daycare kids. It can be on any surface and it's easy to contract. I was praying to the good Lord Rowan wouldn't ever get it. Well, that dream was shattered.

It all started when  a preschool mama friend sent me a text about her daughter, Rowan's mate. She had left preschool early on a Friday due to a high fever that came on suddenly. Then, her mama noticed she had a blister on her mouth. Fearing the worst, she texted me so I knew, and to prepare myself it could HFM disease. 

At that moment, Rowan was fine,  but I was praying nothing would happen. Saturday came and she was fine...till nighttime. Rowan was tossing and turning, and being super whiny. Sure enough, she had a fever. Come Sunday, the bumps came around her mouth, and the fever shot up to 103. Rowan was miserable,  She wasn't very hungry and very clingy. Poor baby! Hubby made lesson plans for work, while I made an appointment with her pedi for Monday. 

Monday morning at her appointment, it was confirmed she had HFMD and there was nothing they could do, just motrin for pain. She also saw sores in the back of Rowan's throat. We were told to be even more diligent with cleaning and anything that goes in her mouth has to be washed! It was so stressful! Rowan was very miserable, but ate better than the day before. We were beyond frustrated as to what to do, especially since we could possibly contract it. 

I am an expert at consulting with Dr. Google (LOL) but even with extensive research, there wasn't any good remedies to help with the sores. Literally nothing at all. We finally read somewhere that Milk of Magnesia was good for the skin. This was after combing through pages of google results!

We weren't sure about it, but my mom found a bottle and gave it to us. Soon enough, this beauty down here became our BFF :

We very carefully would apply this to Rowan's sores 3-4 times a day, using a washcloth. Poor sis had so many around her mouth, hands and feet! Even her tummy! We had to be really careful and make sure she didn't put her hands in her mouth, as it can cause crazy poo (since it's a laxative). However, the sores were calming down, even disappearing after a day's worth of consistent use! It was amazing! By Wednesday, her sores were nearly gone! Rowan was much happier and way more comfortable! 

So, what did we learn?

1. HFMD sucks. Duh. 

2. Milk of Magenesia is your BFF for this disease. Buy the actual Phillips'  kind. Apply 3-4 times a day. Rowan doesn't sit still to save her life, but watching Mickey saved us. Use whatever you need to keep them distracted when you apply it. 

3. The fever comes first, but usually goes away by day 2 or 3. 

4. Smoothies were king in our house. I packed mine with extra peanut butter and even spinach for iron and protein. 

5. Clean, clean and then clean some more. This made my OCD shoot through the roof. Again, anything they put their mouths on has to be cleaned. It can be so hard, but this HELPS in spreading it! We are proof of it, because neither of us got sick!

6.If a grown up gets it, it shows up more as a fever and sore throat. 

7. This one can sound yucky, but toenails and hair can fall off, even after 4 weeks after exposure. This can happen though it doesn't happen often. So far nothing weird on Rowan!

So there ya have it. We lived to tell! My sister and husband remarked that they were proud I wasn't a basketcase! I think I am starting to finally toughen up a little!!

As usual, there's a photo dump. I know its ridiculous that I took pictures, but I know seeing pictures of other kids with HFMD helped me as to know what to expect! Hopefully none of you will have to deal with it!

Before she got her sores, day 1. She was so miserable :(

Day 2, the sores came on something fierce! Made my heart ache! 

Some of the blisters on her hands :( 

Even with blisters, I love those chubby rubber band wrists! 

End of day 2, it was getting worse but then that's when we started our milk treatment! Within a day after using, it was disappearing!