11 Months Old: Teeth, Talking, and Tylenol

I cannot believe that in less than a month, my baby girl will be one-year-old. That is insane. She is so big now, it makes me sad how fast she is growing.

She walks like a champ now and spends most of her time getting into drawers and pulling everything out of them. Surprise, surprise. She also has three little teeth now, with her 4th one on the way. Poor thing has swollen gums and is not a happy camper.

She can also say a few words. She says mama, dada, and kitty cat. Or at least she attempts to say kitty cat. It comes out more like KitKat.

Now back to this whole teething thing. Maybe I'm just behind the curve on this one, but I think Tylenol has been pulling a scam on us moms. I try to avoid giving my daughter Tylenol for teething pain. She usually does just fine with teething rings or Hyland's teething tablets. However, if she is clearly in pain, I'll give her some infant Tylenol.

Infant tylenol.

I've been under the assumption that infant Tylenol is somehow different from children's Tylenol. I believed this because one box says Infants while the other says Children age 2-11. Obviously, if they are packaged this way they must somehow be different. The concentration of acetaminophen must be higher in the children's Tylenol.

Wrong.

Both packages say 160mg of acetominaphen per 5ml. Both boxes say for children under 2 years and under 24 pounds, ask your doctor. They are the same exact thing.

So what's the big deal? Money.

People with babies are willing to pay significantly more for a product labeled "infant" than they are for a product labeled "children." They think it is designed for babies rather than a full grown child. They think it is somehow better for their baby, so they will pay more for it.

Don't believe me?

Pop on over to Target, Walmart, or any store that carries Tylenol. The examples below are from Target. I highlighted the label information in a red box on each image.

Here is the link.

Here is the link.

You will pay $5.69 for 4oz of children's Tylenol ($1.42/oz) vs $7.99 for 2oz of infant Tylenol ($3.99/oz). That is almost 3X the cost. The difference? A picture of a baby vs a picture of a child on the box.

Note: This is NOT true for Motrin. Motrin has different concentrations for infants and children. Always be sure to read the label. If I had been, I would've caught on to the Tylenol shenanigans before now.

10 Months Old: Baby's First Christmas, Baptism, and Walking

It is official. E is walking. She can clear a room at a run before atomic butt plopping (as my dad calls it). We took off her helmet for Christmas day. I figured one day out of the months she will have to wear it is not going to ruin everything ever.

E had so many Christmases: one with hubs and me, one with my dad's side of the family, one with my parents, one with my mom's side of the family, one with family friends, and one with hubs' family. In total, we shipped 68 lbs of gifts back home. E is not a spoiled baby at all, nope.

Here is her 10-month side by side comparison. As you can see, she is super not cooperative anymore when it comes to lying flat on her back.

Here is my favorite outtake.

She had a blast at all her various Christmases. Here are some of her outfits.

Reading books with daddy.

Santa baby!

Christmas baby with her GG!

She had another pretty green dress, but she didn't want to stay in any of the dresses for long (they impeded her crawling). Someone else got a picture of her in it though, so I'm sure I'll see it eventually.

Here is Christmas day!

E loves baby dolls.

E also had her first taste of chocolate at a family friend's Christmas party.

E's great aunt Bonnie knitted her a Santa hat. Super cute.

Baby selfie.

Hubs and I got quite a few gifts ourselves. I think this is one of my favorites. My mom ordered it for me from China.

After Christmas, E was baptized in the chapel off of the church where hubs and I got married. She had the sweetest baptismal gown the hubs' mom bought.

She fell asleep shortly before the baptism and woke up briefly to frown at us for letting someone pour water on her head. She promptly went back to sleep.

Hubs and I got to go out on a baby-free date (thanks mom and dad!), which was awesome. We also went out for New Year's with hubs' brothers and their wives. We went to a winery where there was a photo booth, a food truck, and dancing. Here is one of the photobooth strips.

Unfortunately, I awoke the next morning to a severe sore throat and a fever. The fever broke that day, but the sore throat persists. I went to the doctor yesterday and apparently I have the flu. Oh yay. Otherwise, I've had a very pleasant holiday :)

9 Months Old: Taking Steps, Growing Teeth, and Traveling

November was a big month for baby E. She got her first tooth a few weeks ago, took her first steps the day after Thanksgiving, and then cut her second tooth the day after that.

She is becoming increasingly difficult to photograph lying down. Why on earth would she lie flat on her back when she can crawl away, pull up on the sofa, or try and catch the cat? I finally had to bribe her with Patience the Pink Pony.

Here are some outtakes

I will smile, but I'm not gonna unbend my knees

You get the butt.

We spent Thanksgiving with some of my extended family in Colorado. E got to meet a lot of cousins and a Great Uncle. She'd already met her Great Aunt Lori, but she was just a wee lassie (because she's old now?).

Kinda pixelated, but I love her little expression!

Here she is with her cousin James :) She liked to stare at his beard.

I FaceTimed with the rest of my extended family and immediate family throughout the day. Each phone call provided more and more entertainment as the drinks flowed more freely.

After Thanksgiving, we went out to lunch with my cousin Julie. Julie has known me my whole life, but I've never made it out to Colorado until now. She bought E a super cute coat for the winter.

Here is the coat!

Who needs knuckles when you can just have indents instead?

E also got to meet another baby her age. She gave him kisses and then stole his toys. How nice of her. She loves other babies, but I guess she loves their toys more.

She had her nine-month well baby visit, and everything was good there. We are getting her a stinky helmet tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it at all. Apparently, the babies don't mind them after the first couple of days, but I mind it because she isn't going to be snuggly anymore. Oh well, it will help fix her funny shaped head.

We're also going to PT for her torticollis. It's gotten a lot better, but it's still present. Hopefully with some more work at home we can get rid of it entirely.

I've also happened upon my new favorite second-day hair style. Ever since giving birth, I've had significantly less time to play with my hair (imagine that). My hair is curlt and ridiculous, so I can't just wash-and-go. I can slp it up into a messy bun, but that gets old fast.

Bobby pin the top section of your hair up into a poof, then grab two large sections from either side of your head and bind them with a hair elastic. Split it in two above the elastic and flip the ponytail up and over through the middle. Repeat once more.

Grab the remaining hair and flip it through the last section you tied off and pin it in place. I had to flip mine through twice since I have longer hair.

I pulled out some tendrils to hang around my face because, in the immortal words of my Aunt Wennie, "I'm classy as shit."

The next time I do this, I'm going to be more cognizant of my bobby pins holding my poof so they aren't so sloppy. I also need to get some clear elastics. Regardless, easy and quick second day hair that doesn't look like a blob on top of my head.