Catching Up - N&Q, The Slide, Purple, and Bagheera

See, this is the problem when you don't blog very much.  You have a lot of catching up to do.  So here goes:

N & Q:  Years ago, Andy and Wendy got us a wooden alphabet puzzle.  It was for Alli, but she didn't do much with it.  Natalie however just LOVES the alphabet, so she plays with it all the time.  Molly uses the letters to quiz her, and yes, at 19 months, Natalie knows most of the letters and their sounds.  But for some reason, N & Q are very special to her.  She walks around with them, cries if she can't find them, you name it.  If we put the puzzle back together, she will always go and grab out N & Q.  Not sure why.  It's really funny though!  And she never picks other letters, just N & Q!!


The Slide:  When Alli was little, I got a hand-me-down plastic slide/climbing thing from a lady at work.  Hard to describe, but it stands about 3 feet tall, has a small slide down it, and has lots of different holes and stuff so kids can climb all over it.  It also has a space in the bottom for a little "club house".  Anyway, it's outside on our patch of grass.  But all summer long, it just sits there and is never used because it's just too hot.  Idea!!!  With our pool project, we kept many flagstone pieces and created a path to a flat area where the infloor cleaner pump is.  We built up that area by stacking extra flagstone pieces and then moved the slide over to it.  Now Alli has a path around the pool to the slide, and she can slide right into the deeper end of the pool.  We broke it in last weekend.  (Sorry, no pictures - we were just enjoying the moment and we were already wet.)  It has been a big hit with Alli!


Purple:  Natalie has 4 pacifiers.  Only one is purple, the rest are pink.  She now calls all pacifiers "purple", but if given the choice, she always chooses the purple one.  So, we really only use 1 pacifier, unless we can't find the purple one, and then she settles for the pink.  Anyway, I recently decided that she doesn't think about the pacifier until she sees it, so I thought taking it away might be a good idea.  I decided she could still have it for nap times and bed.  So the first day we tried it, we just told her we put it away, and Molly put all the pacifiers in a container in a drawer and didn't show Nat where they were.  She's been very easy about it.  We just tell her it's put away and she's good.  Of course now she's chewing on her hand and the drool is horrible.  But I think we are doing the right thing.  She only chews on her hand with teething.  I'm guessing her 2 year molars are on the move.  Poor kid.  She hasn't had a break from teeth since she was 2 months old!


Bagheera:  Well, our beautiful old man finally got too old.  He had degenerative nerve damage down his spine due to old age.  What happened was he didn't alway know where his back legs/feet were.  Eventually, he couldn't always get up.  And sometimes he couldn't feel bowel movements come.  And then for a couple of weeks he barely was able to get up by himself, and even when we helped him, he would take a couple of steps and fall.  It was horrible to watch.  So we decided to talk to the vet because we figured it was time.  And we made the decision.  And then he did great for the whole week while we waited for his appointment.  Stubborn dog!  But the vet said it was still the right decision.  And we put him to sleep on Thursday, May 29.  :(  He was a good dog and we miss him.

Pool Safety / Usability Project 2014

Being carved out of a hillside, our backyard has never been extremely kid-friendly.  And really, neither was the pool we added.  With Alli, we figured 2-on-1, or even 1-on-1 were good odds to keep her safe.  And based on the fact that she is still alive, I think we did okay.  But with two kids, we weren't liking our odds as well, and the pool seemed to get more and more dangerous with different aspects.  So, we embarked on a little pool project this year:  Re-flagstone the patio, re-work the steps to the patio and to the hot tub, and add a railing at the edge.  (We also fixed some pool issues and gave it a good scrubbing so we could really showcase the whole area.)  Here are some pictures of our project.

Steps Before:

Steps After:

Patio Deck Before:

Patio Deck After:

Hot Tub Steps Before:

Hot Tub Steps After:

Cliff Before:

Cliff After:

Natalie at 18 months

Ready for these stats?

Height:  33.25" (89th percentile)

Weight:  19.15 lbs (2nd percentile)

Ok, skinny minnie.  Thanks for not gaining any weight.  That actually bought us an additional weight check!!  

I don't know where this height is coming from, but I'm guessing this little cutie has my genes where you just eat and don't gain weight, which I'm not all that upset about, but still!!!  All these additional weight checks.  Ugh.  And every visit we have to go over what she eats, and what she drinks, and how we proportion it.  I SWEAR I am not starving my child!!  :)

Kim and I have decided, she's just going to be a super-smart model.  ;)

Update on the Girls - Alli's Reading and Natalie's Clothes

We have noticed that Fountain Hills school district doesn't always do well for kids with special needs, whether they be advanced or behind.  The class that Alli is in seems to have quite a few kids that don't listen and need special attention, which leaves the learning of advanced kids a little lacking.  The kids do have a reading program on the computer and the kids can advance at their own pace.  Alli is a whole grade level above her class...  So this last parent-teacher conference we asked again what we can do to keep Alli challenged.  Apparently, the school offers an "Advanced Reading" program, where the kids check out a book from the library and then take a comprehension quiz on the computer after they have read the book.  This program is available for first graders and older, but Alli's teacher said she was ready, and responsible enough to be able to handle it.  Her first book came home over the weekend.  Sunday night we read it and Monday she took her computer quiz.  A print out came home - 100%.  Woohoo!  So Monday night we read her next book.  I'm looking forward to seeing how she does.  What did shock me was the level of books she is bringing home - way farther advanced than I thought she could read.  And even though she struggles with words sometimes, she is reading VERY well.

Natalie is fast approaching her 1-1/2 year birthday, and with that all her changes - vocabulary, personality.  It's all so cute.  She is such a cuddly little girl and loves to give hugs!!  And of course, we love getting them!  The weather is warming up so we started putting on the shorts that are still in her drawer.  They are 12 month old size.  And they are falling off her waist (or lack-there-of).  She is so tall and skinny that her clothes don't fit.  Even some of her stretchy things fall off because she is just that small.  But she's so tall!!!  It's really crazy.  I thought we had problems with Alli, but Alli was pretty well proportioned, just really tiny.  Natalie is tall and very thin, and we can't seem to find very good clothes to fit her.  Fortunately, she's just so cute in anything we put on her that it just doesn't matter.

Terrible Twos!

I know Natalie is only 16 months old, but I swear she is entering the terrible two's!  She gets so upset about everything that we misunderstand, or if we tell her no, or anything.  Of course, so does Alli so maybe it's just inherent of my children!

We may be in for an interesting year with all the temper tantrums occurring in our house!  Crazy kids!

Smart Little Cookie

Since Natalie still isn't clearly speaking many words, I always think she's still the baby blob of old.  But she's really smart and knows what's going on.

The other day when we were changing her diaper, she wanted to look at her number poster.  So I asked her where the butterflies were.  And she put her hands on the butterflies and said "bu.."  Then I asked where the frogs were and she pointed to the frogs and laughed.  Asked about kitty cats, turtles, dog, bunnies.  She knew them all!  I was pretty impressed.

And this morning, she woke up early and wanted to watch TV.  (That is communicated by pointing to the TV and saying "T?"  I said no, it was too early and I didn't want to wake up her sister.  So I said "Natalie, why don't we read a book instead.  Go get a book."  She toddled over to the stake of books in the living room, picked one out, and brought it back to me.  We sat on the couch and read together.

It's really impressive how much she understands.  Her vocabulary is sorta there - beginning sounds of a lot of words.  Too bad almost all of them start with "b"!

Ow! My Aching Ribs!

Over the Christmas break, we were all pretty sick.  My plans for the break quickly went out the door, and TV, couch time, bed time, and lots of nasal rinses occurred.  There was also alot of coughing, especially for me who would cough so hard my stomach and side muscles would hurt.  Once I started feeling better, I decided to jump straight into work-outs with Kim (since I hadn't been been able to run).  Well, apparently working out and coughing had some side effects.  I wound up with strained muscles in my back, right under my shoulder blade.  I tried ice, relaxing, etc.  After 2 weeks, I gave up and called my Myopractics guy (he's the best healer I have!)  As he was working on me, he said that coughing sometimes can move a rib and you feel the pain at the connection points.  I felt pain all over, but apparently that was because my hips had moved into a very funky position - my left hip was tilted backwards, my right hip was tilted forward.  So he worked on those first (as he always does).  And then he worked up my back trying to loosen the muscles.  He said there was a lot of inflammation.  Once the hips and the back muscles were better, he worked through other parts - the attachment points around the ribs, my diaphragm muscles, etc.  While working through all those, he found that I probably fractured (or ripped or tore whatever the term may be) some cartilage by my sternum.  He said that's not uncommon and it will heal.

So, I walked away, still in pain (because apparently when it comes to ribs, the pain doesn't go away for a couple of days), and with the knowledge that I coughed myself into a broken rib (sorta).  Is this a sign of old age?  This is horrible!!  We'll see how well I heal.  I may have to go back for another visit, but we'll see come Monday.

Natalie's 15 Month Update

Natalie just had her 15th month checkup and all is good.  She has a whole mouthful of teeth (it's crazy) and is now changing her growing curve.  Instead of being in the 80th plus percentile in height and weight, she has dropped significantly and is down to 66th percentile in hight, but 3rd percentile in weight!  We have discussed her weight on several visits now, but the pediatrician has finally said she is not concerned because of all the foods she eats and the fact that she is still growing in height.  (1" in the last 3 months).  She does eat a ton.  She can eat an entire chicken & apple sausage (skin included) and cry for more.  If we let her, she would probably eat 5 bananas in a sitting.  (We limit her to 1 a day).  She has eaten and entire container of blueberries in one sitting before.  The girls eats full meals 6-8 times a day.  Calorie intake is definitely not a problem!

We are also closely watching her words.  She has a lot of words, but they are very unclear.  Our family and Molly understand her words, based on context and her beginning word sounds (which is typically the whole word for her).  But other people probably wouldn't understand.  The pediatrician said she should clearly have a handful of words in the next three months or we will be doing some hearing tests.  Of course, Natalie understands a great deal, so I question whether there is a hearing issue, but I'm fine with conducting tests if there are indications of a problem.  We can tell her "Go find sissy in the green room" and she will take off across the house to the green room and look for Alli.

Of course, one day after the doctor visit and she started saying "Ma" clear as day.  Not Mama, but Ma.  I'm good with Ma.  And then Molly said she swears she said "iPad" clear as day yesterday.  I told her Kim would be thrilled, but there is no way "iPad" is going down as her first clear word.  So I say "Ma".  And of course Kim says "iPad", even though none of us have heard it yet except Molly.  And of course Alli, Ms. non-biased 5 year old, corrects all of us and tells us that Natalie's first clear word was "No", which is probably the most accurate account.

So here are her stats:

Height:  31"  (66th percentile)
Weight:  19.2 lbs (3rd percentil)
Head Circum:  45-1/2 cm (37th percentile)

Yes, still not quite at 20 lbs, so we are keeping her rear facing in the car seats.  She doesn't seem to mind, and she doesn't look too uncomfortable.  I know we kept Alli rear facing until about 18months when we noticed she was craning her neck to look out the window and we figured that would do more damage than turning her around.  We are waiting for Nat to start doing the same and then she will be flipped right away.  We'll see what happens.  Natalie is typically entertained by her sister, not things outside the window.

Beautiful weather for outdoor play

My Has the Family Changed!

I knew I hadn't blogged in a while, but wow!  I whole month?!?  Things have changed.

Alli is about the same.  I mean, she's 5, so life doesn't change very quickly on her in a month.  She just recently started getting an allowance.  Her chores are to set the table, to pack her backpack in the mornings, and to hang it up after school.  And she makes $2/week.  This all stemmed from some dance pictures that were taken of her during class.  She wanted to buy them, I didn't have money on me that night.  So she was going to give me money to help and I told her I wouldn't take her money at all unless she had a way of making money to replenish it.  (Of course, she wanted to buy $60 worth of pictures!)  She actually mentioned that some kids in her class get an allowance, so I told her that would be fine, but we also discussed that in general, you should do things around the house because you are part of a family, and not because you get paid to do it.  She hasn't stopped helping in other areas, so I think we are good there (for now).

Natalie has gone through many stages to become a bonafide toddler.  She went from furniture surfing, so getting brave and taking a few steps in between the furniture, to walking many steps between furniture or a wall, to letting go of furniture and going to the middle of the room to pick a toy off the floor and then going back to the furniture....  Yes, many stages.  The thing that turned her into a bonafide walker was gymnastics.  We were there while Alli was in class and I told Molly that I needed to get a video of Natalie walking with her arms up for balance cause it would go away soon.  So Molly whipped out her phone and started calling for Nat.  So Nat started walking towards Molly, and with video rolling, decided she didn't need to hang on to anything anymore and just kept walking around and around.  She then put her arms down for balance and was holding her belly, like "look at me!  no hands!"  So, go figure.  The old video camera peer pressured her!  Now we get the pleasure of coming home from work and having a happy little toddler walk down the hallway saying "Hi....hi....hi...." and then landing on us for a big hug.  OH I LOVE IT!!!

We are trying to prepare for Christmas.  Between figuring out gifts, shopping, working, and trying to get 120 cards in the mail, we are busy.  Oh and the cards this year?  Not so easy.  The printer ran out of ink - twice!  I ran out of address label stickers and have to purchase more.  I still haven't bought all my stamps because the post office's automated machine will only let you purchase $40 at a time with a credit card...  All these road blocks!!  What's up with that!?!?  It's not that I'm actually "ready" with my production line of card mailing, but still!  (Yes, I'm OCD in that respect.  I have to set up my whole production line before I begin.  I could very well have gotten a few cards done, but no.  If I don't have the means to finish all of them, I have no desire to start.  What's up with me?!?!)

Oh, and one more item on the agenda.  We are working with a landscape architect to fix a few issues with our pool, to re-flagstone our patio deck, and to finally put a railing up along the patio edge.  My goal is to have it complete before swim season next year.  We are still waiting on some bids and my fingers are crossed it all comes in within our budget.  It would look so amazing, and I would finally not be so worried of Alli accidentally tripping and falling off the edge onto jagged rocks below!