Saturday, November 20, 2010

and the last bit of updating....

We have our bird feeder loaded up and hanging outside our kitchen window. It's a great place for it. It's busy there, both the feeder and our kitchen. The birds are always shy at first but they soon learn to ignore us and I smile every time I see them there...lots of robins right now, chickadees, a purple finch, a few sparrows...we have a pair of cardinals that I love to see every year. So far I have seen the female, but I haven't seen her mate. This is unusual because they are always together.

So, let's see...next up is Tessie. She's 2 1/2 now. We took a crack at potty training before our new school year started and it failed miserably. Oh, she could do it. She knows when she needs to go. When we tried potty training, I bought some pretty panties to put on her and told her to keep them dry. So when she needed to go, she would take them off and pee on the floor! The idea of sitting on the potty seriously freaked her out though. So, we just backed off and put the diapers back on her. We're reading potty books and watching potty movies and talking about using the potty, but that's it. I think we'll try again over Christmas break.

Tess was such an easy, sweet baby. She is definitely a firecracker now though! But still, she's not a terror or anything. She's just two. She's very sweet and funny, really just a lot of fun to have around. She's always been a big Daddy's girl, but the last few weeks she seems to have suddenly realized that we have a new baby around, so now she's all about Momma. I'm not sure why things changed...maybe because Henry is older and seems more like an actual person to her? But she's a bit insecure right now. She's my little shadow, often right behind me imitating whatever I'm doing. So I'm spending extra time with her and making sure we get plenty of snuggle time and hoping she will learn that she is still my sweet baby girl. In spite of it all, she seems to love Henry and is always very sweet to him, snuggling him up to her and saying, "My sweetie, my sweetie", :).

Tess reminds me a lot of Maria at that age. She loves music and loves to dance. She is watching the Wiggles right now and dancing along in front of the screen. She also likes Signing Time and has learned quite a few signs already. She loves going to story time at the library. She loves books and will often collect a stack of them and then sit down and thumb through them, "reading" to herself. One of her favorite things to do is to go outside and play in the yard, so I try to do that a couple of times a day. Often I will send Maria outside for the morning outside time (much to Maria's irritation) and then I'll go out in the afternoon. Kain loves to go outside and is always up for playing with anyone, but he's not quite ready to be responsible for Tess in the yard...too distractable. Maybe when she's a little bit older.

The quirkiest thing about Tess right now is her stashing. She has these little hoards all over the house. She collects random little bits of things from all over and hides them in a cabinet or corner, or in her purse. She's quite obsessed with her purse and spends a lot of time filling it up with treasures, emptying it out and laying out the contents carefully, then gathering it all back up again. There was a little meme going around recently in which you were supposed to empty your purse or diaper bag and take a picture of the contents. I'm so messy that this would probably be very funny, but I had actually just cleaned out my diaper bag and so there wasn't anything unusual in it at that particular time. Instead I emptied Tessie's purse and took a picture of that...it was hysterical! And now my camera's missing....sniff...

Ok,,,,last but certainly not least, Mr. Henry! Gosh, I wish I could post some pictures!! Maybe the camera will turn up in our weekend cleaning. Anyway, Henry is almost seven months old now. He's already got four big ole teeth! He cut his first tooth at four months, much earlier than any of the others! He's so much fun...he jabbers and play with toys and scootches all over the floor. He's always very happy and rarely cries. He loves all the other kids and watches them play, and you can tell he can't wait to get down there and join in. He's still very long...we recently had his six month check up and he was in the 95th percentile for length! But only the 40th or so for weight...long and a bit skinny. You wouldn't know it to see him fully dressed because he's got big fat cheeks, but he is a bit thin further down, at least compared to the rest of my chunky monkeys. But it's not a concern...he's gaining well enough and nursing very well, and he actually is eating baby food,,,my first baby to do so. The others never really got past the sampling stage with the baby food, but he really likes it so far. He's got next to no hair and looks rather like Elmer Fudd...hehe....big round face and head, no hair....



Here you go...a picture of Henry...heehee...

The doctor said that his muscle tone is still noticeably low, but not terrible, and he's meeting all of his milestones. She said she would refer us for a PT evaluation but that she was comfortable waiting if we wanted to wait. I tell you, it was Jack all over again! I mean, at every well child visit they would say that exact same thing! Not for PT, but for speech therapy. But really, what's the point in a PT evaluation if he's meeting his milestones? He sits up, he rolls easily, he's scootching...I don't know, I just don't see the point right now. But I've been in a bit of a panic over it ever since, because how I wish I had taken them up on having Jack evaluated earlier. And so if it is still an issue at his nine month check up, I think I will take her up on it. After all, what can an evaluation hurt? If they say, "Nope, he's perfectly fine", well then, that would be nice to hear for a change, huh? And if he does need some therapy, better to start early.

We are still in liver limbo with Henry. They attempted to recheck his liver enzymes last week but the phlebotomist couldn't get any blood after two sticks so we are going back to try again next week. Every time they check his enzymes are better...but they are not down to normal yet. Every disorder they have tested him for has come back negative. He still shows no other signs of any liver problems...no inflammation, no jaundice, nothing like that. So, we are still praying that his enzymes will return to normal and this will all be done with.

Ok, I've got to run. It's getting so late! We are meeting with Kain's cub scout pack to design a float for the Christmas parade. John is working, so I've got to take him. Hope it's not too cold out there!

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