March 17 & 18, 2010

Wednesday, 3/17/2010
I didn't realize it was St. Patrick's Day until I walked into the classroom with Kaylynn all decked out in purple. From what I can tell, she didn't get pinched. Her report for Wednesday said, "Happy St. Patrick's Day!! Kaylynn had a good day. Lucky came again today & brought us Lucky Charms to eat for breakfast :) For art, we easel painted with green & white paint & Mrs. Lawrence painted a shamrock on our cheeks. We went on a Lucky hunt trying to find Lucky, but he was too tricky. Played outside on the playground."

When Julian picked her up, she seemed really crabby and not ready to come home. He found out (after she was in the car) that she had a poopy diaper - no wonder she was crabby! Since he wasn't in the best mood, either, he figured it was just a crabby day for Capricorns everywhere. I don't think he checked in with any others to validate his theory, but neither of them had a particularly good evening.

Kaylynn & I walked around outside, counting stairs again. She is learning how to jump, not just in place but over things and down small "steps" (like the curb). She enjoys practicing.

Dinner was green beans and garlic chicken - she scarfed it all down. At one point, Julian was grabbing a pudding for her and she was whining at him. Then she saw the pudding in his hand and it sounded like this, "waa... waa... waa... nummy?"

It was a bath night and she had a lot of fun with the letters - putting them on the tub and on herself - and pouring water on herself (though not over her head). We read books for bedtime and *almost* didn't read "happy-anu-know-it" but, in the end, she asked for it.

Thursday, 3/18/2010
She woke up with a series of cheerful "hi"s. She got to have some yogurt and milk today - her cold is over enough that she can have dairy again. I put her hair in pigtails while she was brushing her teeth, but she promptly took the rubber bands out, so she went without a hairdo today.

Julian has bronchitis. While he was at the doctor, I picked Kaylynn up from school. They were outside playing. She was standing near one of the teachers, who was comforting a kid who was crying. She looked very concerned about it all. I asked one of the teachers if Kaylynn plays on the playground, because any time I see her she's standing by a teacher. She assured me that Kaylynn is participating and is no longer just an observer. I just catch her at those moments when she's standing still. She's also napping relatively easily with the other kids (usually from 1:30 to 3:00 - nap/quiet time is 1-3). She's also eating more of her lunch and generally feeling comfortable. It's really nice to hear about the progress she's made.

The report from school said, "Kaylynn had a great day! For art today, we made green pepper prints with both green & white paint. Our friend, Peter, brought us two books & he read them to us, too :) Mrs. Jean came today for music & we played the fishing game. It was so nice outside we played outside both before & after music."

We got home and had a snack (melon and some juice). Then we changed her shoes into boots to go for our daily walk outside. This time I leashed the dogs and we walked partway down the block. I pointed out grass, leaves, trees, sticks, and pine cones. The dogs didn't have a great time, but Kaylynn had fun practicing her jumping and wandering around. Julian made dinner for them - pasta and a turkey/tomato sauce. I had my own food. She ate a huge portion. We had a lot of wipe-up to do - her face looked just like the pizza picture. She colored for a while and I cleaned up the kitchen a little bit. She had a lovely poopy diaper (immediately after Julian left to go to the pharmacy... interesting timing, little one!). I took the opportunity to put her jammies on, since I like her to have a little pajama time running around before bed. We watched the Bobs & Lolo video that our friends in Canada sent us. Hands down, it's my favorite video. They sing and dance and are generally fun and educational. Kaylynn sat and watched some of it. At one point she stood up from her rocking chair and was dancing. I motioned for Julian to come watch because she was so darn cute, the way she was holding her hands in the air and wiggling her tushy.

Bedtime was fairly routine. We put tzedaka (charity) into her piggybank (named Traify). She was chatty for quite some time after bedtime. Maybe dancing before bed isn't really winding down.

March 16, 2010

Kaylynn woke up really late this morning! In fact, at 6:30 I had to open her door and have Willy tromp around to rouse her. Since we generally try to leave for school at 6:50 or 7:00, we were pushing it. Fortunately, all went well with getting her dressed, fed and to the car, so I made it to my bus just fine.

When we got to school, I put her down for her to take off her coat, and then she looked up at me and said "uppy" a few times. Then one of the teachers said "Kaylynn, do you want to color?" and she switched from "uppie" to "co-wee" pretty quickly and took off for the coloring table. I got a hug & kiss goodbye before the crayons called her name.

I picked her up and saw the report. "Kaylynn had a great day! We made a leprechaun for art, played in our room and rode bikes downstairs." One of the teachers was putting the papers in the kids' folders, and I asked her if all the kids have "great days," since it seems that Kaylynn usually does. She assured me that they're truthful in their reports and that Kaylynn is cheerful and has a lot of fun.

We came home with "nummies" on the brain. She got pudding for a snack and then Julian had dinner ready for them - pizza. And that's where today's picture came from. Needless to say, she put her 'all' into dinner tonight.

After dinner we went outside with the dogs. While we were in the front yard, I heard neighbors & their dogs walking toward us, so I had Murphy stay put for as long as she could. She did fairly well, but did bolt when she saw it was her friend, Lily. Lily was with her new neighbor, Cooper, and Cooper's dads. They all went off leash and ran around the yard. She loved watching the puppies.

We came in with just a little protest and kind of played in the living room for a while. She still has her cold and "blew" her nose, then calmly stuck her finger in it and put it in her mouth. I could see Julian about to pass out... he calmly put her on his lap and explained how incredibly disgusting it was to eat out of her Kleenex. I'm sure she understood thoroughly.

Julian brought her beads out and showed her a magic trick, pulling a bead out from behind her ear. She quickly imitated and pulled another bead from behind her ear. I can't describe how incredibly cute it was watching her try to imitate his moves.

And last, she needed to feed her baby. She got her pretend plate of food & the small spoon. She fed her baby, then me, then Julian, then Murphy (who was laying on my lap), and then she went to feed Willy. Poor Willy was actually expecting some food. He licked the spoon and then put his paws over his face as if he was deeply disappointed. We need to have the video camera going all the time to get this stuff. I was laughing so hard I started to cough.

We read 3 books, sang songs and she went to bed, chatting to herself for a while, as usual.

March 15, 2010

We must have done something right with the school she attends - she ran in and pounced on the kid-sized couch, saying "co-wee" (color) over & over. She barely had time to take her jacket off and she was rarin' to go. Julian thinks she must have had a dream last night that she absolutely had to get on paper.

When Julian picked her up, she was really happy and playing on the playground. She carried her lunch bag & the daily note all the way to the car. Julian held on to her hood because she likes to take off if you're not holding on. They talked about her day and she seemed really excited to share with Julian. Here's what the note said. "Kaylynn had a great day! Lucky came and played some tricks on us today. He tipped our chairs, walked on the tables and turned our milk green. We played outside and made a Lucky finder for art."

On the way to pick me up from work, she got hungry. Again - thank goodness for emergency car-snacks. She not only ate all of her snacks, but she ate some of Julian's too. We have to re-stock. The reason they came and got me was that Julian & I needed to sign our taxes. We got that done and she just kind of chatted to us and our accountant throughout it all. At the end he said, "thank you very much" and she said "much." Adorable.

We came home and had some fabulous soup for dinner before going outside to play. She likes to sit on the logs near the fire pit. Then we went out front and started to look for the ball she had thrown for Murphy the day before. We couldn't find it, but we just kept circling the house, counting the stairs as we went up and down and watching Murphy follow us and delight us with her spinning and romping.

Kaylynn wasn't too happy about coming in until Julian showed her that her bath was ready. They had a great bath, playing with letters and squirty toys, washing hair and naming what they were washing. I could hear her giggling as I was cleaning up books & putting away some clothes we had gotten for summer. Yes, we're already set for summer clothing-wise. Very exciting. She asked for "nummies" so she had some applesauce and animal crackers before we started reading books and winding down for bed. Not only did she want "happy an-you-know-it" but she knew that after clapping hands came "boo hoo" and after "boo hoo" came stomping feet. It was adorable. The great outdoors seems to tire her out quite a bit. The bedtime routine really helps, though. When she protests about going to bed, we tell her "we do this every night - it's the same thing" and she seems to understand that. It calmed her down tonight when she wanted "uppy" and she was quiet soon after we left the room.

Tonight is the 5th night she has been bottle free! It's quite a milestone. She gets a sippy cup with water in it and is just fine with it. There was no protest about the change at all.

March 14, 2010

This morning started early, as usual. Julian's cold was getting worse and I am still exhausted from surgery, but I was functioning better than he was, so I got up with Kaylynn to get her day going. We had some cereal and "na" (banana). She wasn't feeling too well - I think it was 1/2 her teeth & 1/2 her cold - so she was a little crabby and impatient with me. We got her crayons out and she climbed up on the couch (and off the couch, and on the couch, and off the couch...) to color. Meanwhile, I put a DVD on in the background that seemed to catch some of her attention. It's "Bobs & Lolo" - a kids' entertainment duo. The DVD was sent to us by our friends, Doug & Marsha. I absolutely loved it & played it in the background 3 times. Kaylynn watched on & off. Their music is fantastic and the video for their songs is really fun. More Bobs & Lolo stuff is definitely in our future.

I needed to be at the synagogue at 11:30 today and didn't know that Julian was going to feel so crummy, so I called our friends at 8:30 (probably woke them up, since they had been at the party) and asked for help. Thankfully, they were free and more than willing. They went above and beyond. Not only did they come and play with Kaylynn, they brought the makings for a fabulous, healing chicken soup, some cough syrup, and some ginger & lemon juice - all wonderful things to make Julian & Kaylynn feel better. When I left, Saren was sitting on the couch with Kaylynn, playing with some brown rice puffs - hiding them and "finding" them in mock surprise. Kaylynn was giggling and seemed to be feeling better.

The report when I got home was that Saber & Saren took Kaylynn outside to play. She loved just walking around on the grass, going up & down the stairs, and generally being outside. When it was time to come in for lunch and nap, she protested vehemently. She did, however fall asleep quickly.

I took a long nap myself. She came in to wake me in time to get to the synagogue again. We went outside and walked all over the place before I left. She threw the ball for Murphy several times and giggled when Murphy ran to catch it. Again, she wasn't too excited to come back inside. Saber & Saren came back to help Julian while I was out for the night and it seems they went outside yet again and followed her around the yard and circled the house a few times.

We had her wearing her "pajama day" rain boots. They're PERFECT for her to tromp around in. She walks really well in them and they're just fantastic in the mud. It's nice to have them and know that she'll be able to wear them next spring, too.

Kaylynn was absolutely exhausted at bedtime, as was Murphy - hence today's picture. She didn't talk to herself or count or anything. She gave a few whines, said "uppy" and was silent for the rest of the night.

March 12-13, 2010

So, Friday was another banner day for all of us. It was Julian's last day punching a time clock - ahhhh, management - my last day of lifting restrictions, and Kaylynn's "pajama day" at school. You could almost feel the excitement buzzing around us.

We had borrowed some kid-sized rain boots from friends. They're adorable but still a little big for Kaylynn - perfect for putting over footie-pajamas. She brought Puppy (her stuffed bunny) to school, too. Here's the report. "Kaylynn had a good day. We had fun watching *Monsters, Inc.* and eating popcorn. We also rode bikes and played downstairs."

When I picked her up, they were all dancing around to silly music and pretending to be doggies or snakes or who knows what else. Kaylynn had eaten all of her lunch, which is always encouraging. Some days I just don't know what to send, so it's always nice to get it right :)

She still has a pretty nasty cold, so her mom decided to leave her here with us this weekend. We were trying to figure out what to do Friday night with her and then decided to go out to Chili's for dinner. It's quite kid-friendly! She ate a little bit of chicken and some mandarin oranges and she colored a lot. We played for a while when we got home and it was pretty clear she was tired. We did change her pajamas into fresh ones for bedtime, though it would have been quite convenient to just leave her... but we couldn't do it.

Julian has Kaylynn's cold, so he needed to get some really good sleep. Kaylynn went to sleep at a little after 8 and Julian & I went soon after that. We chatted & read and wound down a little before nodding off.

The first I heard from Kaylynn in the morning was at 5:45. It was just a little rustling and one word of some sort. I waited for more, but she went back to sleep (whew!) until 6:45. We had breakfast and colored and watched a new Sesame Street video (thank you, Saba & Savta). We got dressed and tried not to wake Julian, but to no avail. I found out that an indoor playground opened up at 9am on Saturday, so she & I went to play. She had a BLAST! She tried the ball pit and wasn't a huge fan, but she LOVED playing in the hollow tree and she must have gone up and down the same slide over 50 times. I should have counted but there was so much going on it was hard to keep track. She was in constant motion and I only had the camera on my phone, so the picture is a bit blurry.

At around 11 she got hungry. I had some snacks, but not nearly enough for the appetite she worked up. So we came home for lunch. She was not too bad about leaving the place, especially when I explained that there were snacks in the car. Thank goodness for the emergency stash!

After lunch she asked for Elmo. Am I playing too much video for her? Well, she doesn't really sit & watch it much anyway. We put in "potty time," which she completely ignored. I enjoyed what I saw, though. One of Julian's friends stopped by with a load of books & kids' CDs that her kid had outgrown. Thank you, Beth! Then it was nap time. I'm pretty sure she fell asleep moments before her head hit the pillow.

After nap & snack, I decided to pack her up and go to the playground again. She didn't complain - she was excited to be there and jumped right back into the routine of going up & down the slide. Unfortunately, there were a lot of older kids in the toddler area, so I had to stay pretty close to her (as opposed to watching from the bench) and ask the bigger kids to be careful. I was pretty upset - the toddler area is supposed to be for 3 & under, but no one could be found to enforce it.

We had big plans Saturday night. Our friend, Max, had a surprise birthday party brewing. Kaylynn & I were part of the "ruse," while Julian helped set up for the party. Basically, we needed to show up for dinner, which was supposedly the surprise. Meanwhile, Max's partner, Tyler, got "called in to work," but actually went home to set up for the party. Kaylynn was amazing at dinner. We got corn-dog appetizers and she ate what she needed to. She didn't really try the tater tots or any of my salad. I brought quite a bit for her to play with, but she was focused on "super nurse" and our friend, Jed, who loves little kids and sat next to her, making faces and playing with her. She sat contentedly on my lap for all of dinner and seemed entertained & engaged. Then we went to the party already in progress. Saber & Saren, who she knows well, were there. Our 6-year-old friend, Addie, was there & very excited to sit down and hold Kaylynn. As Julian put a very content Kaylynn on Addie's lap, Addie let him know that "it's OK - I'm good with kids." Good to know. Kaylynn was "uppie" with Julian or me most of the time, but we planned it so she wouldn't be there too long. Since Julian wasn't feeling well, he took her home soon after we got there put her to bed. I stayed for a bit to catch up with friends, some of whom didn't know Kaylynn was staying with us.

It looked like he gave her a bath and my bet is she fell asleep really quickly. It was a big day for a little girl, and she had a blast!

March 11, 2010

First, a forgotten story from yesterday. Kaylynn and I were sitting on the floor rolling a ball to each other - or, I was rolling it to her and she was rolling it part way back to me. I told her to push hard on the ball, so she put her hand on top of it and pushed down (toward the floor) very hard. Needless to say, the ball did not roll my way.

Today was a day for thinking. Kaylynn did a lot of it. You could see her little brain working - it was kind of fun to watch.

Today we had the visit from the Early Childhood Intervention program that our doctor recommended. So Kaylynn stayed home in the morning. We followed a similar routine to other days this week - Julian would get her up and change her diaper; I would spend a couple hours with her so Julian could sleep, since he worked the later shift. She was fairly well occupied with breakfast. A new discovery - she really likes cantaloupe. I gave her pineapple, strawberry, grape, honeydew... and the last thing I had to give her, she liked. Because of her cold, I was really pushing fruit and other non-dairy foods to keep her from getting more congested. In fact, she had rice milk in her cereal and ate every bit and drank some of the milk.

So, Linda and Cheryl from the Early Childhood Intervention program arrived. Linda was the "adult" intake person and Cheryl was the one who played with and assessed Kaylynn. They brought some of their own toys, and Kaylynn was quite interested in what was in the bag. I think she took out just about everything to play with. A lot of the assessment was as we thought. She has incredible fine motor skills. In fact, she pulled out a pair of (safety) scissors and Cheryl showed her how to use them. One demonstration and Kaylynn was hooked - she was cutting paper all over the place and doing it rather well. That's actually an advanced skill. Her vocabulary continues to improve and Cheryl and Linda were not as concerned that other people can't understand her as our doctor was, but they told us to keep repeating her words correctly (e.g., "ba ba" - say "bottle" back to her) and just talk to her all the time about what we're doing, what she's doing, what's going on around her and her language will continue to improve. Her gross motor skills are also good as is her understanding of multi-step instructions (example: please pick up the book and bring it to Wendy). They did recommend a hearing test be done, so we're trying to figure out when to schedule that.

We brought her to school a little late because of the meeting. It was "western day," and the best I could come up with were some overalls and a black turtleneck. Some kids were decked out with cowboy hats, but we didn't have stuff like that. Today's report was, "Kaylynn had a really good day :) She got to enjoy the last few min. of music - she loves getting her stamp at the end of the class. Because of the rain we went downstairs and rode bikes. We also got to ride in the wagon. Kaylynn liked riding in the wagon." She ate all of her soup and her fruit leather but wasn't interested **at all** in the egg. I didn't think she would be, but it's always worth a try. They say to offer a new food at least 7 different times because it may take that long for kids to try it at all, so I'll keep trying.

After school we did an errand, returning some clothes Juilan had picked up and buying some play-doh (though I intended to buy a humidifier...) She got a little whiny about the play-doh (wanted to hold it) and I asked her to say "please." I also did the sign for please. She imitated the sign and I decided that was as good as an ask, so I gave it to her to hold. From then on, she called it a "please."

On the way home, I gave her some raisins and dry cereal to snack on, since she's usually hungry after school and dinner was going to be a bit late. When Saber (still my "muscle" while I can't lift) handed the raisins to her, he referred to them as "humiliated grapes" (a line from one of my favorite movies, Benny and Joon). I started laughing, Saber started laughing, and Kaylynn thought the whole thing was funny. I could hear her giggling behind me. When she was done with the raisins, she held out her hands to Saber and said "yucky." We didn't have anything handy to wipe her hands and tried to tell her that. She repeated the word and gesture several times. She was quiet for a moment and then said "y u ck y" - very slowly, as if Saber was just not understanding her and she had to slow it down for him. We cracked up, which made her start to laugh again.

So... dinner... I gave her the rest of her soup and some pasta. She ate the chunks out of the soup but didn't want the broth. She had a few bites of pasta (after playing with it & the fork for a while) and then she started... well, watch the video. (Long story short - pasta and soup were combined into one big gooey mess.) The entire episode lasted for at least 7 minutes. It ended when it all started dumping on the floor and the dogs were getting to it... I didn't want them to get sick. Before I started filming, she was able to get the food back and forth between bowls without spilling, which is why I commented that she was starting to get sloppy - she hadn't spilled much at all up to that point.

Tonight, bath time was brought to you by the letters Z, C and W and the number 0. We had a fun bath and she produced lots of "boogies" for me to suck out of her nose. The humidity was helpful. She played with water running out of the faucet (kind of a trickle) while I sponged down her hair with a wash cloth. Julian was right - it is easier when she's distracted and she didn't get upset about it at all. When she was playing with the squirty toys, she squirted some water on her own face and into her eye. I think it's good for her to get comfortable with water on her face when she does it herself.

I was supposed to pick up a humidifier tonight (or a mister, I'm not sure which Julian wanted...) but couldn't find one at the store we went to and I needed to get home for dinner and bath time, so maybe we'll pick one up tomorrow. I'm inclined to get a mister, like I had when I was a kid. We don't need whole-house humidity, especially at this time of year. Any ideas where I can find one?

March 10, 2010

Well, we don't have a picture of Kaylynn today, but Merlin took advantage of her chair and I couldn't resist.

This morning we had milk, banana, raisins and some crackers. We played with the usual toys and went to daycare with Julian at around 8:15. It was "preschool prom" day, so we dressed her up in her nicest outfit - the purple corduroy jumper. The report from daycare was, "Kaylynn had a great day. At Preschool Prom we danced & danced - to both fast & slow music. She danced a little, but she also liked watching all the other kids dance. We drank punch & had cookies :) The kids also got their pictures taken by the preschool prom sign."

She was all smiles and hugs when I picked her up. We came home and set to work playing with beads and coloring. I took a break to make dinner (yes, Julian was working so I had to 'cook'). I went the easy route - chicken nuggets and peas. She was really whiny and only had a few bites of chicken nuggets, though she ate all her peas. I tried giving her some Popsicle to soothe her teeth but she didn't want it. I gave her some ora-jel and Motrin - that helped. We played more, but she was really not feeling well and continued to whine, so I spent a lot of time distracting her. We put on the Sesame Street ABC video and Kaylynn jumped on the couch and pounced on my belly... a little owie for me. Julian came home just in time for bedtime. We read 3 books and sang songs and she went to sleep after a little protest. It's a tired day with a 2 year-old who is teething and has a cold.