3/4

Yup.  Our littlest monkey is, officially, three quarters of the way through her first year.  Holy smokes.  I’m so not okay with how quickly she’s grown.  I mean, really, I’m the mama, I should have a say in this, right???

Addy had her 9-month checkup last week.  And although our conversations centered around her continued inability to sleep (yeah, we’re still up about 4-6 times a night, if not more, with screaming-her-head-of-ticked-off-at-the-world kind of tantrums), it was a wonderfully run-of-the-mill appointment.  We like those. 

She weighed just a little over 15 pounds, and about 26 1/2 inches.  We specialize in mini-munchkins.

So what’s she up to?

• She still doesn’t like to eat.  Not really, anyway.  She’ll go for anything that’s white- pears, apples, cheerios, and plain greek yogurt (yuck!) are her staples.  She did, though, eat a bunch of canned carrots tonight for dinner, so I think we’ll be trying to skip purees and see if it helps any.
• She’ll grab your face and SUCK to give kisses.  And we get a lot.  She’s rather affectionate.
• She plays “chase” with Piper- Piper crawls in front of her, or crawls after her, and they both squeal with delight.
• She’s in love with her own reflection.  Seriously.
• She talks up a storm.  She has about a dozen words, plus a few more signs.  She has the sweetest little voice!
• She’s routinely attacked with enthusiastic hugs and kisses from a certain big sister.  Fortunately, she’s beginning to be able to hold her own.
• She is a tattler.  I have no idea.  Piper can barely touch her sometimes and she’ll get ticked off.  And, boy oh boy, do I know it!
• I’m pretty sure that she and Piper have their own little language.  Kind of like twin speak.  Or ESP.  I’m not sure which.
• She’s figured out how to break into our candy machine.  You know, the old fashioned ones where you put in the coin, turn the knob, and out comes a few pieces of candy?  I have one filled with Hot Tamales at the moment.  She’s watched me, a few times (ahem), and has figured out that you twist the handle, and then lift up the flapper, and there should be something in there.  So for her sake, I’ve had to finish up the supply of candy.  Just to be sure she doesn’t choke.  Yup.
• She’s starting to play pretend with the baby dolls with kisses, pats, and bottles.  There’s nothing more cute than a baby playing mommy.

But the biggest things she’s up to these days?

Yeeeah…  She’s conquering independent standing.  She can stay upright for quite a while, and even twist and turn while she’s up.  Oh- and she’s stepping.  She’ll take three steps between us, or between surfaces, without much thought any more.  I can’t even fathom the level of damage the girls will inflict when they’re both fully mobile.  Oh how busy our world is about to become!

Nine months.  Nine months???  You’re growing too fast, baby girl, but we love you to bits!!!

For the Dogs

My girls love my parents dogs.  In fact, Stitch, my mom’s little Boston Terrier, has been one of the first words both girls have said (and, as a side note, any Boston, or any other square-faced dog, like boxers, are also deemed a “Stitch”).  They also have a giant chocolate lab who’s about as energetic as a doornail, but as good with the girls as a teddy bear.  They love to play with those mutts!

Since Piper’s able to stand, she’s able to hold her own pretty well.  She really likes to watch Stitch run around, and encourages her by laughing so hard she can’t breath.  Addy, on the other hand, is at Stitch’s mercy because she’s at eye level with the dog.  Don’t let the pictures fool you- she seeks out dog kisses. 

As I was looking through these pictures, I didn’t even register this one.  I was so busy watching Addy with Stitch that I completely ignored Piper and Hershey.  Piper is, coyly, feeding Hershey off of a spoon.  What spoon?  I have no idea.  What’s she feeding her?  Not a clue.  I’m guessing it had to be a clean spoon with pretend food.  Poor Hershey.

But one thing’s for sure- when you’re done getting your face washed, Nana’s always there to rescue you!

Happy Valentine’s!

This year we had several of our friends with little-ish kids over for a Valentine’s party.  My friend, Heather, and I tried to figure out some activities that the little ones would enjoy (which is, by the way, a bit of a difficult task for kids from 2-5…)  I think it was a blast, and I’m pretty sure the kids enjoyed themselves, too!

We started out with finger painting.  9 kids.  And paint.  Only it was real paint because we were making real pictures.  I got a blank canvas for each kid and painted a tree trunk on the bottom part.  I cut heart shapes out of butcher paper and taped them over the canvas.  Then the kids could finger paint inside the hole.  When we took off the paper, they could see their “heart tree.”  They turned really cute!  The bigger kids could get more “artistic” with theirs, and the little kids looked like something.  It didn’t matter if there was 18 coats of paint, so they just coated to their little hearts’ content.  And we didn’t get any acrylic paint on the carpet! 

Next they got to decorate cupcakes.  I had the cupcakes made before hand, and they got to pick out the frosting and decorations.  The bigger kids did a great job; the little kids, I’m pretty sure, were more interested in eating the frosting straight off the spoon.  And Adalynn got upset because she wasn’t offered any, so she commandeered the bowl of chocolate frosting.  At least for a second. 

Once they were all sufficiently hopped up on sugar, we sent ‘em all home.  No one offered to take mine, though, so a night of over-tired, excited, sugary goodness was in our agenda.  But, lemme tell ya, once that sugar crash hit, life. was. good!  We really did have fun; I’m thinkin’ we’ll have to do it again next year!

I wonder…

…how long Addy and Piper will both be able to play in the laundry basket together.

…or half of a laundry basket together.

For far too long, apparently, according to Addy Jayne.

pre Preschool

In an effort to prepare Piper for preschool next fall (sniff, sniff- how can that be???), we’ve been focusing on all those school-readiness tasks during therapy for the past few months.  Her therapists recognize that she’s easily frustrated when she can’t do things as well as she’d like, so we hope that by exposing her before the fact, she’ll be more comfortable when she gets there.  Trying to stay one-step-ahead for now.

During OT, we’ve worked on putting on a backpack and unzipping it.  We also worked on taking marker lids off and putting them back on (ironically, she was supposed to be working on coloring; if we had asked her to work on the lids, specifically, you know it never would have happened....)  And because we spend so much time washing our hands these days, she’s learned how to do a soap dispenser all on her own, too (which, for the record, also means that our daily usage stats have skyrocketed.  And that all of our hand lotion bottles are in danger.)

We’ve also started to try scissors.  Yikes.  I wasn’t sure I was ready (or that she was, for that matter), but she’s able to position the scissors correctly and take a single snip.  If I support the under side of her hand, she’s also able to hold the paper with one hand and cut with the other.  I’m pretty thrilled. 

Our speech therapist started using this set with her back early last fall:

It helped start that “scissor” motion, even though they’re a little big and she had to use two hands to make it work.  (She loves this set, by the way- sorting, counting, talking…  All kinds of good things.) 

When we started talking about scissors, I went on a hunt to find some that are small, plastic (Addy may not have any hair for Piper to trim- yet…), and easy to close.  I was going to order a few pair online, but happened to find these at a local specialty toy shop, for the steep price of $2.99 (Grandrabbits, for any of you locals- love that store…)

She’s able to get her hands in the holes correctly with a little bit of reminding (“Thumb in one hole, fingers in the other!”), they’re relatively easy to close, pop open on their own, and cut surprisingly well for being a plastic blade. 

It’s not easy for her, so it’s not her favorite activity.  So for now, I give her the option of trying to cut when we’re already coloring, for example, and try to expose her as much as possible to try and prevent any frustrations at school. 

Anyone have any scissors that worked really well for their kids?  I’m all for trying different approaches!

Oh, the SNOW!

It was GORGEOUS outside this afternoon (Colorado is, after all, known for it’s ability to snow two feet one day and be 40 degrees and not a cloud in the sky the next…  it’s why we love it here) so we bundled up the girls and took them outside and “threw ‘em in a snow bank”, as my dad would say.

Piper decided she didn’t mind.

Addy minded.

But once she got picked up, she enjoyed being out in the sunshine.

Little Miss Matched herself.  But hey, it worked.

And Addy?  Maybe next year…

Snow Day

It snowed here today.  I think the news said we got about 8”, which is a lot less than the 10-22 inches they had forecast last night. 

Luke’s lucky to have a job that he can work from home when the weather’s crappy, so we just enjoyed a lazy, stay-at-home kind of day.

It was lovely.

Piper and I made cupcakes this afternoon, just for fun.  She as happy that Addy wasn’t invited to our baking hour and enjoyed the time “helping.”  Of course, helping meant pour the three eggs all over the countertop, dipping her hands in it, and trying to lick it off.  Yeah, I about had a mini heart attack. 

Tonight when it was time to eat her culinary masterpiece, she was beyond excited.  She also made it known that, seeing as Addy didn’t help make the cupcakes, she as also not allowed to indulge in them, either.  (This has nothing to do with the fact that she hasn’t mastered purees yet, but that’s beside the point.)

Sleep, Iron, and Sleep (oh my!)

Addy’s been on her supplemental iron regime for a little over a week now.

And I’m afraid to say that it’s working for fear that I may jinx us.

For crying out loud, she’s actually starting to sleep.

By “sleep” I mean three-hour stints at night and naps during the day.  Is it sad that three hours at a time at night make me so happy I wanna cry?

And she’s stopped the kicking as she drifts off- it was about to drive me crazy.

It took several days before we saw any kind of improvement.  But since then, we’ve had a couple of GOOD nights (and a couple of not-so-good ones, too.)  And today she actually took two almost two-hour naps (I can honestly not tell you the last time that happened…)

I swear her color looks better.  She’s not as pale in the face.  I was assuming it was a combination of my paleness with Luke’s olive-colored skin.  Yikes.  And the bags under her eyes are starting to let up!  No one should have to start life with bags under their eyes.  It’s just not right.

She’s not as emotional- she’s always been happy, but it seems like she’s more able to put up with, well, everything (being pushed over, falling, being put in her car seat…)

She’s talking more, which just thrills me to no end.  Her new word is “boom” every time she falls down.  Unbelievably cute, that one…

She’s on ferrous sulfate elixir, which doesn’t taste nearly as bad as I had anticipated.  Only about 5086 times less gross that Poly-Vi-Sol crap that they made me choke down Piper for months…  And it’s “cherry” flavored.  She doesn’t particularly like it, but she does tolerate it. 

Low iron in babies isn’t common, but it’s not rare, either.  You DO want to make sure that you go through your pediatrician before starting any supplements with it, though, because it’s very easy, and very dangerous, to overdose with it.  We’re hoping that within a few months, we’ll be able to stop it all together.

Also, as an aside, did you know that Costco is THE place to get prescriptions?  One of the ones we get is a quarter the price there than at Target.  That adds up quick.  Also, did you know that you can request anything that’s over-the-counter there, too?  They can have it ordered and there in about 24 hours.  Go figure!

Potty Q&A

For the record, I was not anticipating STARTING to potty train Piper until this summer.  I was hoping that maybe, by the time preschool started in the fall, she’d be starting to get the hang of it.  But, apparently, just like everything Piper does, she’s been watching, analyzing, and figuring it out long before I knew.  After a few times of her telling me she wanted to go potty, I decided that I really needed to give it a go.  Even if I so did not have it budgeted into my schedule right then…

A couple of answers to questions and a few of the tricks I used:

• We went straight to panties and kept her in them whenever she was awake.  She still uses a diaper at bedtime and for her naps (although she stays dry about half the time for naps now- hoping that we’ll be able to phase them out soon.)  I found that the Hanes brand at Target were the smallest around the waist.  I bought a BUNCH of pairs, took them home, and washed them in as hot of water as we could.  It shrunk them quite a bit, and although they’re baggy, they at least stay up around her middle.  My mom had bought her a lot from Gymboree, that are WAY cute, but they were too nice and just didn’t shrink enough (which is actually a good thing- hoping that she’ll be able to have fancy panties when she goes to preschool.)  I looked at Fruit of the Loom, but they looked like they would wash about 2.4 times and then die, and I knew that we’d be washing them a few more times than that…
• We used cling stickers to the bathroom mirror as her reward.  They were BIG, she got her choice of which one she wanted, and it gave a visual reminder of what she was supposed to be doing.  She’d ask several times a day to go look at her “st st st” and we could take her in to see how many times she’d been potty.  They were well worth the buck a sheet at the dollar store.  They’re still up on our mirror, but getting ready to get taken down.  She hasn’t asked to see them in a few days, so I think it’s time they retire.
• I will also admit that we used the training potty….  in the living room.  It served several purposes- it was always in eyesight, so she was constantly reminded about it, we spent lots of time on it in the early days and I could distract her with the television while we waited, and I could watch Adalynn a lot more easily, too.            
• There were times when it was a “game” to see how long I could keep her sitting.  The biggest issue with that, of course, was her attention span and willingness to sit.  We watched this video and this video about 1.3 million times.  Both are worth watching, by the way.  The dog one, however, has had the unfortunate consequence of being something like Pavlov’s dogs- she watches it, and it invokes her peeing.  Almost without fail.  Which is great, except when I’m typing this post and she’s sitting on my lap.  It’s not watched as much these days…
• Once we conquered pottying at home, we had to conquer pottying away from home.  There is no way she’d be able to sit on a regular toilet- her little fanny is just too narrow.  So, thanks to my mom, we have a potty seat with a nice bag (to camouflage the seat, obviously) to take with us.  The fold-up seats aren’t really meant to shrink the seat, so I think that, for the time being, this is our best bet.
• We’re working on getting her to VOICE the need to go more efficiently.  Her “word” for potty is popping her lips, and because of our voicing issues with her, she sometimes thinks she says it without actually saying it.  I can usually catch her with body language as she’s usually really antsy.  And often squawking.  Seems to be, though, that the more she has to go, the less she’s thinking about voicing.  If I look up, she’s often lipping the word with no noise.  Frustrating?  Yup.  But we’re getting there.
• She’s still too short to get up to the big potty without any help.  Even with a step stool.  I really like the idea of these, but not sure I like it $130 worth.  Anyone use one? 

I think that’s about it.  I won’t disillusion you and say that it was easy.  Those first few days were…  intense…  (I was just about ready to give up one morning, and by afternoon, she’d pottied every time ON the potty…) but once she got going, it really wasn’t too bad.  I looked at some of the three-day methods, but I just couldn’t quite get on board with some of the parts; I just felt like she was too young to make her sit on the potty first thing in the morning for as long as it took to go potty (“hours, if needed”.)  So while that was our goal, it wasn’t really the way I wanted to go.  To each his own, right?