InfantSee

I completely forgot to log this, but this past Thursday we took Evan for his first eye exam. Unfortunately the lady who scheduled our appointment didn't think it mattered which doctor we saw and scheduled us with someone who is NOT our doctor. Anyway, Evan did fabulous and passed with flying colors. He's a little far sighted, which is normal, but there are no concerns with his vision right now. He doesn't have to be seen again until he's three.

Snow Ice Cream

Arabella finely got to experience her first bowl of snow ice cream. I loved it as a child and to be honest haven't had any in years, so it's about time right? We finally had enough snow, so I made some during her nap time the other day and after dinner she fell in love. I didn't actually get in shots of her with a spoon in hand because I was feeding Evan dinner at the time, but she thoroughly enjoyed it.



I couldn't resist throwing this one in...so cheesy!



Is he walking yet?

The number one question I get lately is "Is he walking yet?" Well, yes and no. No, he's not walking 100% on his own, in fact he's just starting to make attempts on his own. For the longest time he would try to walk between Adam and I, but he found it easier to give up and just crawl. More and more lately I've been letting him roam the living room with the walker while Arabella is napping. It seems to be motivating him to walk on his own when he's in his pen. Just today I caught him several times taking three or four steps between the sides inside of plopping down and crawling. This means we nearly have another toddler on our hands! Eek!



What?




What's this do?





Isn't this the most handsome little face?



I'm gonna try with no hands...watch me!



Okay, maybe not?!?!?!



I've also learned that he cannot be left alone with the spinning alphabet toy in the play yard. I looked up to find him standing on this toy, while using the fence for balance. Just what we need, another fabulous dare devil!

Any day now, little buddy, you can start walking, okay?

Parents As Teachers

We just finished up another early intervention meeting with our parents as teachers rep, Leanne. Today was a brief visit, aimed at testing Arabella for her fine and gross motor skills. Evan also received a brief hearing and vision test.

Arabella

I had to answer a brief questionnaire with such items as hears well, talks like other toddlers, can you understand the child, and walks, runs & climbs like others. Following those we tested her skills.

Communication - She scored 55 out of 60. When shown a picture she can point to the object she's asked to, without showing her first. She can imitate two-word sentences. She can carry out tasks that she asked without us giving her clues. If you point to a picture and ask her to name it, she can. She can say two or three words that represent different ideas together. And she sometimes uses words like "me," "I," "mine," and "you."

Gross Motor - She scored 55 out of 60. She can walk down the stairs if you hold onto one hand (in fact she can walk down the stairs all by herself). When shown how to kick a large ball, does she try to kick the ball by moving her leg forward? Yes and no. We demonstrated it and she walked forward and kicked it. Generally she imitates me & Adam stopping the ball with our foot and tries to put her foot on the top of the ball when asked to kick it, so she only received 5 out of 10 on that one. She can walk up the stairs by herself. She can run fairly well, stopping without bumping into things or falling. She can jump with both feet leaving the ground at the same time.

Fine Motor - She scored 40 out of 60. She can get the spoon in her mouth right side up so that the food doesn't spill. She can turn the pages of her board books by herself. She uses twisting/turning motions to try and turn doorknobs, wind up toys, and twist tops. In fact she's a pro at locking door. She can flip switches on and off. And where she's lacking: She cannot stack seven blocks on top of each other. She can do 4 or so and then she knocks them over or she knocks the stack down while grabbing for another block. She also cannot lace beads. She was given a lace and some lacing beads  and just couldn't do it herself. Luckily for her birthday she's getting a wooden lacing shoe so we can work on this.

Problem Solving - She scored 60 out of 60. She can draw a straight line on a paper after one is drawn for her. She can turn bottles upside down and empty all the crumbs out of them (which I still need to post a funny story about that). She pretends that objects are something else. She can put things back where they belong. If something is out of her reach she uses her step stool or a chair to obtain them. She can line of four or more objects (such as blocks) in a row.

Personal-Social - She scored 60 out of 60. She can drink from a cup, and put it down with little spilling. She copies activities we do such as wiping up a spill or combing her hair. She eats with a fork. When playing with her dolls or stuffed animals she pretends to rock it, feed it, change its diapers, and put it to bed. She is able to push her doll stroller and basically anything with wheels. She uses I more than Arabella when referring to herself. In fact, she has rarely spoke of herself in third person.

Essentially she is doing great, even above average.

Evan

Adam had to fill out some paperwork for his file. Then Evan was able to play with a can and some small balls. The object was to see if we would place the balls over the can and open his hand to drop them. He did it a couple of times, but not before banging the balls together, banging them around in the can, kicking the can, and leaning forward to yell/growl into the can. Then Leanne did a hearing and vision test on him. And he passed with flying colors. We also let her know that we are participating in the InfantSee program, and he in fact goes tomorrow for his first eye exam. She was excited to hear we had already planned that.

At our next appointment, in March, Evan will get his one year evaluation and Arabella will get a hearing and vision test.

I love my smart little babies!

Snow Day

Playing peek-a-boo with Mommy

Today it snowed...and snowed...and snowed. It snowed for over 24 hours. AWESOME! It's only awesome because I don't have to get out in it. Of course this also leads to my hubby busting out the snow blower and of course teasing Arabella. She really, really wanted to go out and "play" with Daddy in the snow. I, however, wasn't in the mood to clean up after her so I kept her inside. That didn't keep her from attempting to escape and bang on the front door for Daddy to "Open, go out!" LOL. Kids are so funny.

Trying to escape.



PANDA!



Before bed time we broke out the infamous pillow pets. Evan hadn't had a chance to play with the panda yet, but Arabella had. I tossed Panda into the crib and he started pummeling that poor thing; yanking it's tail, biting it's ears. It was too cute.



Unicorn ride! (Ignore the dirty floor and mess in the background. Mommy has been lazy.)



Arabella LOVES her unicorn and frequently takes him for a ride. She also is perfecting "It's so fluffy I'm gonna die" as Despicable Me (or Minions as she calls it) is her favorite movie right now. Usually she winds up screaming "gonna diiiiiieeeeee" so it doesn't always make sense, but it's cute none the less.

My babies.

Truth be told, I should have let her go outside today. It's supposed to be +3 in the morning and blistering winds all day long. I may bundle her up in the morning and let her play for a few minutes, but that all depends on what Adam thinks when he gets home. I love the snow, but hate the cold.

More Molars

First off, here's a picture of Arabella's little predicament. Not a fun one, huh? So amidst all that commotion, she also had both of her bottom molars poke through yesterday. Fabulous. You can only imagine what this does to her appetite.

Twins?

Yesterday evening while we were out and about I was asked for the first time if the kids were twins. Imagine the lady's shock when I politely smiled and said "No, just thirteen months apart." In the kids defense, Evan was in the stroller and Arabella was walking with Daddy, so they may look similiar in height but I honestly don't see the age thing. Maybe it's just because I am their Mommy?

24 Month Stats



She was measuring herself for the nurse at the doctors office.


I realized I forgot to post Arabella's 24 Month stats. Oops. She's staying at 27 pounds, but she has shot up to 35 and a half inches. No wonder her pants aren't long enough.

And our fun loving growth charts will now come to a close for her as they only extend to 24 months. Perhaps I can locate another chart, but we'll see.

First Hair Cut

Well, we made it two years without even so much as a trim. Today after the dentist Daddy & Bubba needed a hair cut and we decided to have Carl take a look at Bella. Now you're probably thinking we're nuts for letting someone in a barber shop cut her hair, but relax, Carl is a cosmetologist so he knows what he's doing. Arabella did amazing at sitting still. We used a toy and my phone as distractions to get her to look where we needed. Carl said it looks like she's going to have thicker hair for a blonde, which is great because my hair sucks. Looks like she picked up the curls and thickness from Adam. He also said it's possible that the curls will disappear more and more with each trim, but only time would tell for sure. After she went home and took a nap her hair was curlier than before her trim, so I'm not so sure that's he right about them disappearing. She even showed curls up front which she's never had.



1. Spraying on some "juice" 2. First trim 3. Mommy distracting her by letting her take a picture in the mirror 4. There goes a little more 5. Being distracted in a good way 6. First hair style!



What do you think? She looks much better in my opinion, just taking off the stringy ends did wonders. 

Pediatric Dentist

Today was a very busy day. A good and bad day. Good because we met with a new pediatric dentist for the kids. Arabella had only seen our family dentist, but we recently discovered she had a spare tooth causing problems in the front of her mouth. So we decided it would be better to just take the kids to someone who specializes. We met with Dr. Thomas and are very impressed with his handling of children and everything in their office. It's all geared towards children and they use alternative terminology for common dental terms so as to put the kids at ease.

Arabella started off by showing the dentist how to brush the fish's teeth (pic above). She did a very good job and followed directions rather well. After "exploring" her mouth and "tooth counting" he wanted to get a "picture" of her teeth to determine how far up into her jaw the tooth is. So she got to sit on Daddy's lap with the lead apron and "bite a cookie" while the assistant took her "picture." Oh and of course we brought P.J. for support.

After reviewing the x-ray he gave us two options. 1) We let the new tooth grow in as far as it can, let it push her teeth around even more and cause her pain in the process and make for a more difficult procedure later or 2) We pull the tooth that is already in as it is the "spare" tooth. This will allow her baby tooth to grow in, in the proper place, and she has an 80% chance of the tooth twisting into the correct position. Once in, the teeth surrounding it should be relieved of pressure and the gap should fill in once the teeth move back to their original positions. Of course if the tooth doesn't twist properly it isn't that big of a deal because it is only a baby tooth.

Given our dental history she's going to need braces anyways, so no harm, no foul. We obviously decided to go with the second option and we will go back in two weeks to have her "tooth wiggled out after they give her some sleepy juice." We do have the option to put her under general anesthesia, but that costs $500 up front and then we would get reimbursed, but I'm not concerned about her needing it. I think she'll be just fine with the shot (aka sleepy juice) and I will be holding her while she gets the shot. The upswing is once she's all ready to she'll be able to stare up at the ceiling and watch cartoons. He also said that the numbing part is the longest part of the procedure, the actual pulling (aka wiggling of the teeth) will take a whole 30-60 seconds. I think in the end, this is the best decision for her and she'll be much happier once she heals. Maybe then she can get back to eating normally, given she's still working on three more molars.