Clearly I can't keep a blog

Well if last month was long overdue, I think this one is passed that. Here you are a lovely 17 month old! You are clearly a genius, tying shoes, spelling words, counting to 86 and really good at persuasive essays. We have already started your college applications.

Actually, you are a smarty pants.

I can't get over your jump in speech. You had been parroting back every sound over the past few months. But now you clearly have a great vocabulary. You stick to 1-2 syllables (which is about where Josie is too) but you say everything flawlessly (at least 80% of the time). You label everything you see and know all your corresponding  animal sounds.

You have nearly all your teeth in at this point, not the three year old ones yet, but the... incisors? And you love brushing them.

You are great at climbing and running but still have a tiny bit of a toddle to your movement.

You have slimmed out a lot. You're tall, nearly as tall as Josie and you have a lot of thick short hair.

You are a snug 24 month top wearer.

You enjoy a good puppet show put on by your sister and anything daredevilish.

You LOVE food. You eat everything with the best of em. I spy a hot dog eating contest vocation in your future. You're still nursing but only for comfort and naps or bedtime now. Which is actually still a good chunk of the day I suppose.

You're down to one nap a day, but you need that nap.

You still love shoes ridiculously. I suppose you always will.

Peek a boo is still a super funny game. Especially if its Josie playing with you. You're better at finding at hide and seek than Josie is -- and sometimes you look at her blankly as if to say, Mommy is right there. 

You can count to three, though I'm sure you have no idea why.

And you know many,  many, many signs and the funny thing is while Josie has invented her own version of most of them, you do the majority of them correctly rather than like she does.

You come over so I can kiss your boo boos then run off.

You sulk when you don't get your way.

You still love music and dancing (of course). You've got some pretty funky moves too.

I will post at your 18th month check up how chunky you still are and your height percentages.

All in all you are a sweetie and amaze us daily.

Long overdue (14 months)

Well August is almost over and I have been meaning to update the blog in such a long time!


Little Mary, let's see. What can't you do now? Today you stood on the little rocking chair with one foot on each armrest and pumped it with your legs. I am sure I call you daredevil at least a dozen times a day and your balance continues to astound me.


Today you're cutting your first molars. Poor baby. You were pretty grumpy yesterday, which is unlike you, and today I saw them. Two. One on each side on top! Ouch! So at the moment, you're eating really cold cut up grapes and in a much better mood.

So what's new? You have been signing all the basic baby signs and can say all the spoken words Josie knows. You imitate all of Josie's nonverbal gestures and whining while pointing, so I'm sure you'd be talking more if it wasn't for that. You say Neno like Josie instead of Nemo. But it's still super cute. I've heard you say every sound. You generally stay quiet but if there's an inflection or consonant combo you've not yet tried you catch us all off guard. You can say shoe and bump with all their compound complexity Josie probably won't master before another surgery and years and years of therapy.

The other day coming back from the beach (which you are still not 100% on board with the sand and ocean combo), Josie was whining in the backseat so I said with unusual forced emphasis "I LOOOVE you JO-see" And a split second after the words left my mouth, Brian and I both heard "I love you." In a tiny voice! Shocked? yeah. The l and the y  were both on it, it was just a very small and tiny voice. You have the cutest little timid voice. High pitched and sweet and soft. Oh and the other day driving around I said, "Who wants a Coke icy? Ice-ee, ice-ee, ice-ee?" And Josie said "I-ee" and you said,
"Coke."

What else? You can basically run, wobbly because your legs are still super chunky and so cute. You love to dance and its the funniest thing I've ever seen. Across from Swing and the Monkey.

You definitely have a temper. You want things to go the way you want them to go (sounds like mommy?) and you are very determined to get it to work your way. You were spooning rice into a teapot today and the rice wouldn't stay on the spoon when you tilted it and you were getting pretty frustrated.

What else... Finding Nemo mesmerizes you both. We dance a lot every day. And you love, love, love bath time. Any water play actually. Flour play. oh and painting. You LOVE painting. Well anything messy really. You imitate Josie doing pretend play too, but I don't think you understand why she makes her people dance together, but it's still way adorable.

Your hair is really getting curly. It's still kind of an auburn and your eyes are still blue. Guess they're staying that way! Sure there's more, and more important stuff. Oh your weight is finally around average, 50-70% but if you were just a half an inch taller you'd be in the 95% for height. You are a very tall 14 month old! I can't wait to see how you measure up at 18 months. But let's not hurry to get there ;)

Lastly, you and Josie are still BFFs and love each other though I hate to tell you, she has way more patience for you than you have for her.

All around beautiful baby allstar, math major and pro athlete in the making! Oh and shoes... you are still really, really obsessed with shoes. The other day at mass, I carried Josie's shoes in because she was sleeping and you got SO MAD when I put them on her feet when she woke up. You kept trying to pull them off and shrieking. You love pretty shoes. Let the record show, you love shoes.

12 month stuff

So little beauty, you had a lot of fun stacking some big chunky blocks today. I have no clue where you are in months per skills since you don't get evaluated every few months or followed on a weekly basis by a team of therapists but I know at worst you're right at normal. No worries from me.

Plus (ssshhh don't tell), I think you're a little ahead.

Anyway, you love to dance, fall down when you don't get your way, and basically are toddling / running now all over! You love scribbling pictures and eating crayons still and anyway, just so I don't forget, here are some skills I'm going to try to foster in you since you are ready for a challenge or two.

Beads in a bottle.
Coins in slot.
Kicking.
Body Parts.
Throwing a ball.
More doodling with crayons.
Stacking small square blocks.

Now I shouldn't forget!
http://library.med.utah.edu/pedineurologicexam/html/18month.html

Happy Birthday! Just some stuff off the top of my head...

Little Miss Mary, how did you get to be so big so fast?

Sorry this post is belated; you turned 1 a week ago Wednesday.

You are the biggest little sweetie with the cutest kissable cheeks.

Let's see some of the stuff you are up to...

You love your sister and are BFFs. You hold hands and dance at the hint of music or when you're out on the sidewalk you reach for her hand so you can walk together. You adore Josie, so much.

You are enjoying all kinds of foods mostly if you are allowed to feed yourself. You still love to nurse and have no intention of slowing down just yet. You're getting pretty wiggly during which and too smart -- sometimes you want to help yourself to a snack.

 You are obsessed with shoes. You love everything about them and carry them around as your favorite possession and hold your feet out for me to put shoes on and try on mine whenever you can. I don't care how grouchy or upset you can be, if I bring out a pair of shoes, those tears dry up immediately and you get a big goofy grin. Silly.

You can color with crayons, pick blueberries, run wobbly around the house.

 Your speech is astounding. You can mimic every sound I can say. You say dog a lot and like to squeal at the top of your lungs. You are incredibly smart. You give kisses and haven't figured out that kissing-smack-sounds are make with your lips so you mimic the exact sound with a click of your tongue and lean in and give me, Daddy, and big sis kisses pretty frequently.

You love tutus, puppies, brushing your hair.

You are all about puzzles and shape sorters. You are incredibly inquisitive and go around signing "what" or "why" with your hands at various things.

You're down to one nap now :( In the afternoon around 2pm. You and Jo love to bounce and run around on the bed prior to your nap.

 You love crawling up the stairs and have begun trying to walk up on your feet holding on to the railing.

I have no clue how tall you are bc we missed your 1 year check up (sorry but you look pretty healthy to us). But you weigh 23 lbs. Josie is 26. Almost catching her, but I do think you slowed down on the weight gain. You're still gorgeously chunky despite all your running around after sis.

What else... you love Popsicles, baby dolls (you are already such a cute little mommy), and tackling balloons.

You finally like the beach and going over the waves in Mommy's arms. Not so sure about sand yet.

You are very careful about being messy.

You are getting over stranger anxiety and letting more family members hold you, finally.

And your eyes are still blue!!!!!

All my love, little beauty, little girl, my Mary


Party pics:

Dexterity at 10 Months Old

Like your Dad turned and said to me today,

There's really nothing Mary does now that surprises me.

Yesterday, we thought was pretty cool, you pointed to a lizard crawling on the window. You thought he was pretty funny. And just now, you were pushing buttons with your index finger. Pretty awesome seeing how pretty sure that comes later...

You'd make a really great 14 month old by the way.

Happy Easter Little Toddler

10 months old and toddling all over? How bout walking over to and putting your chubby leg over a ride-on toy, sitting and pushing yourself across the room? How bout you walk more than crawl now? Yep, check, check, check. Where did my crawler go!? My baby is growing up too fast.

You have 4 upper teeth now, still only 2 on the bottom. We really need to do some pictures before you, ya know, get your drivers license and move to Denver or something. Course, thankfully that's age-regulated. Whew.

One of your favorite activities is car seat surfing. You probably have outgrown riding in it at this point, it's an infant carrier, but anyway, you stand in it and rock it with your legs and never lose your balance.

 I'm pretty sure you never fall in general unless me or Daddy bump into you or Josie pushes you over. You get into the craziest predicaments and still manage to get down / out / un-pretzel somehow.

As for food, you had your first french fry about a week ago and did so well with it. Actually I'm pretty sure you ate at least 2, but you eat all but the bit clenched in your fat, lil hand then open your hand and it falls to the ground. hehe.

You also matched your shoes the other day, which I'm not even sure Josie could do. You were playing with your shoe on the ground, then you looked up and either saw or remembered where it was and crawled to it with your other shoe in hand. There's a lot of toys and clutter (distraction and obstacles) on our floor, so this is pretty amazing.

Also, you crawled up the slide at the park last week. Forget the little slide you climbed up at 7 months. This one was 6 ft high and spiral and you had BabyLegs on -- so you couldn't even use your knees, just hands and feet. No trouble, WHATSOEVER. And then you got to the top and repelled down systematically.

I told Dad we will need to pick your future career sport carefully because whatever it is you will most likely excel. You already are insanely dominative and stubborn. And obviously, you are coordinated like crazy-go-nuts. Muscle-tone is awesome. I just pray you stay healthy and continually strong and brave. Love you little-miss-10-months-already :)

April Update -- walking (a little)

Well Ms Mary! You took your first couple steps this past week at 9 months. You can stand by yourself for practically forever and often do while you stand and play on your feet, you go from sit to kneel to stand with no effort. Your balance is amazing and your muscle tone is awesome. You'd be walking if you were just a bit more confident, and little by little I see you taking a step here to something or turning around without holding on to take a step and then you realize what you are doing and sit. Mostly we have luck with you walking outside. You don't like the concrete (oh or the kitchen tile, which is how Josie was too) and so you will gladly walk the perimeter if there's anything to pull up on. Otherwise if I take just one hand you will unsteadily parade around wobbling a little.

You also are coming along in understanding language. It's always funny to me to see you around older kids who are at your gross motor level and they respond to stuff so easily; I think, are we behind and then I have to remind myself -- well actually we are a couple months younger so yes, we are behind. haha.
You definitely understand your name, no problem and always respond to it which is comforting to see. And I am 90% confident you know Josie, Momma, and Dada. You would probably know nursing if we called it anything. You know "No" for sure. Not that you always listen, but you start to crawl to or mess with an object and I will say NO and you sit up and start to go to something else. At least you've started this lately. You know "more" but no actual signing just yet though we've started, we're not pushing it so much.

Speaking of nursing you just came over and whined to nurse and are happily eating now. You are starting to develop a slightly demanding temperament which makes sense bc you are 9 months now and practically toddling and also bc you're my kid. Why would you not be stubborn and determined?

You had your 9 month check up about a week ago -- 80% for height and 80% for weight. 55% for head cir. Perfect if you ask me. Big, strong, healthy! I think it's funny Josie's head cir is always right at 50% and so is yours but Josie is always around the 3% for ht and wt and you are equal in ht and wt too just at the other end of the scale.

You LOVE grown up food. You see an apple and you get mad and tantrum and bounce up and down and scream for it. So we always have to get your applesauce. Which you like, but not as much as apples. You love bananas and do very well with them. I just give you a huge chunk and you eat it til it's just a small bit of mush. You pretty much will eat anything, at least the first few bites. You're not too excited over strained peas or green beans, but then, who could be? That'd be a sign of a really strange kid I think.

You still have 4 all-the-way-in teeth but you can see about 3 more uppers. And you bite me with them (though only when nursing to sleep). Which I should note is not as bad as your pinching me with your little fingers which you still do (all the time).

You can crawl up stairs no sweat. You also can lift your leg over objects to crawl in, but you often underestimate what you are crawling into and get stuck halfway when it's taller than you.

You also have an obession with playing with the laptop. It's so alluring.

Oh and earlier this week, Monday, you pulled my coffee cup over and it was completely full and it spilled EVERYWHERE and you got mad and threw a tantrum as soon as I picked you up to clean you up. Likewise, Tuesday you pooped the worst poop ever all over the living room rug and were playing in it (for the 5 seconds I had you out of view) and threw a tantrum when I removed you from that as well. Man that was really a disaster. Took me an hour to clean up and then I rested and realized I still had to scrub the carpet stain, mop the kitchen and bathroom floors and scrub the shower.

Speaking of sensory play (ew just kidding), we did an April / Easter sensory bin with artifical lillies and paper grass and plastic eggs and baby chicks. You love the plastic eggs. You love exploring and discovering. It's getting harder to entertain you. Although you LOVE your sister and she usually does a great job keeping you busy.

Waving?!

Sweet girl, mom is clueless. I have been watching you open and close your little hands all day and it never dawned on me you were performing a milestone. Haha. You are totally waving. I just asked Josie's OT this morning about your clapping bc you haven't done any in a while (despite me freaking out and singing tons of songs to get you to try). You were just working on something new! Oooh.

Tons of waving practice is coming in handy apparently. I barely need to suggest things to you though and you nail em. Smart cookie!

The tea olives smell goregous out and we've been getting in so much fresh air and trips to the park.

Keep up the fun.

love you!
--mom


P.S. You just saw me looking at you and you waved. But ya know it could be a variant on asking to be picked up, as Josie does that all the time. Hmmmm... not sure -- regardless you are so genius.

Surreal

Let me tell you, healthy babies are a piece of cake. Heck, they're easier than that -- they're a nice, surreal cake smoothie or something. No effort required. They eat, they poo, they burp, they say dadada and mamama with no effort. They get over colds appropriately. They are stimulated by the appropriate stimulants and they initiate oral exploration and generally want to find out about people and things. They sit straight when you sit them, they do things the first time they try it sometimes, and know how to fall and how to catch their balance. The crawl on time, or even ahead of schedule. They want to walk. They don't need therapy 4 times a week. They look chunky, healthy and the right size and people don't offend you when they guess their ages. They nurse and enjoy food, right off the bat! They don't need multiple operations or come missing pieces or parts. Totally, completely, healthy babies are surreal and crazy and amazing and I am loving it. And this is just off the top of my head lol.

Mary is blowing my freaking mind.

Clapping and advanced things

Happy Valentine's 2011! Right now every body's napping while dad's at work. We had an interesting loss of electricity this morning but glad the power is back on in time for lunch.

So Miss Mary, we just had an unofficial eval earlier this morning, and at worst your development is about a month ahead around 8.5-9 months. At best you score in at 14 months developmentally. Just so you know, you are not old enough to score this well. You are still 7 months (well technically only for today though, you'll be 8 months old tomorrow).

We are definitely very proud! Your gross motor is your best but fine motor is awesome too. You do amazing things like stand unassisted (your record is 3 seconds, then you realized you weren't holding on), walk when we hold both your hands (I tried getting you to walk while holding only 1 hand but you wouldn't try it). You clap and have a nice primitive pincer grasp (you can pick up anything as long as you can rest your hand or wrist on a surface).
And last Friday you clapped for the first time :) :) :) soooooooo cute!
When you lose your balance standing unassisted you sit down quickly so as not to fall instead of falling. And sometimes you think you can walk, and you just turn to go and fall on your face. You will probably... most definitely... pretty sure be an 8 month walker if not then definitely by 9 months for sure. Which really blows my mind. We JUST did this with Josie! And she didn't clap til she was just over a year! I don't know what to think. But this is definitely easier. You don't need me as much, but it's ok. Mommy gets to watch :)

We didn't eval speech. I will probably ask Janet (or maybe Auntie Robyn) for some guidelines just because I am very unversed in normal speech progression . But sometimes I cannot tell you and Josie apart when you both babble. Your voice is deeper and while you have more consonants than she does, you stick to single string babbling. Da da da da da ba ba ba ba baaa. And little screeches. And lots of maaa maa mo mo mo mo mos. :) Loving it.

You can do Ls and Ms and Ps and Fs (Whoa!?!!!!) and Ws and Bs and Ds and Gs and Ns and Vs and Yas.

For vowels you have all manner of A sounds, O sounds, Es ... you aren't much limited actually. Your range is now better than your sister so hopefully you can push her along.

Other than this, you are delightful and sweet. Of course.

You still prefer baby oatmeal to purees but you like solids like gerber puffs and pizza crusts (you did AWESOME actually) and cookies. You still nurse as often as ever so you are just incredibly fat now. So it's probably good you get in some more mobility ... exercise :)

You love swinging in the blanket and copying you sister the best of course. You adore her. Over all, so excited how you are blossoming. Autopilot!

Slow down!!!

Dearest Little Mary,

You are 7 1/2 months old and you are CRAZY! You think you are at the very least 9 months.

You pulled up to a stand at 6 1/2 months old. I screamed and you fell over. You repeated and have been pulling up on everything (including your sister) constantly since.

You have gotten over your stranger anxiety. Everyone says its supposed to hit around now, but yours was at its worst about 4 or 5 months old (back in Oct) and has subsided. I don't get it. I mean, if you see me leave the room you scream like crazy, but you will now let others hold you (yey!).

You have a PERFECT pincer grasp. Like PERFECT. Like you can pick up anything without any effort.

You can stand for a second or 2 unassisted and as of last week you walked down the entire length of the couch AND back. You started using your push toy and walking behind it, though you don't always remember to walk behind it.

I love that you are so advanced but it's sooo weird. And I will miss your legs being so chunky. And I hope nothing will turn up wrong with you (bc I am always paranoid like that in general).

You have been reaching for me to pick you up (yey so cute!) and you giggle like crazy when Josie plays with you or even looks at you.

Your favorite game is peek a boo and taking things out of a box.

You have 2 teeth. You can see your uppers but they stopped coming down which is fine by me, bc I got a first bite and it really hurt!

You got your first cold last week. You screamed at me and would not let me put you down for 1 second no matter what I did or what you were doing for about 5 days straight. It was not fun. But you got over the cold  really well considering it just about knocked out me and Josie.

What else? You are pretty chunky. I have no clue how big; we should weigh you soon. I am still hopelessly behind in shots for you bc insurance is once again cancelled but we'll get caught up somehow.

Right now you have a poopy diaper -- just noticed. SO that will be the end!

Beginner crawling, sitting like a pro, big girl bath, 1st Christmas, 1st tooth!

What a terrible blog post title. Oh well. So Christmas week you really started moving forward with crawling. So early! Only technically 6 1/2 months old. I have 2 therapists, PT and OT who confirmed you are advanced for your age in motor skills and Speech says you are right on target with your baby sounds. I love it. You are on auto pilot and all I have to do is sit back. I can't believe it. Healthy babies are a snap compared with special needs delays. I know however, while your milestones come so early and so easy, we really got to celebrate Josie's so we're good all around, equally, doubly blessed!

Today  you crawled under the baby swing -- over the first bar, under it completely, nibbled on the tag a bit, then over the second bar, then across the room. You instantly learned to sit from a crawling position, first try, and your stability is honestly better than Josie's. You look all over and when you begin to wobble you catch yourself with your awesome muscle tone. You make everything look so so soo easy. I think you have better balance than I do already.

My little Mary Therese. So sweet. Biggest baby grin, only likes mom and dad to hold you, and so adventurous and aware. You scope out a room top to bottom when we visit anything new.

My great breastfeeder. I know a lot of moms have mixed feelings over breastfeeding, but after going through what we went through with Josie and the feeling of loss particularly in that area, I have to say, I am IN love with breastfeeding much to my glee and gratefulness. I love feeding you so much and I love how you need me and want me when you bump your head, you cry until I pick you up then the cries die down suddenly as you snuggle into me suddenly forgetting your ouch. I love it but...

we did start solids. You're not too keen. We've tried all sorts of things anyway. Yogurt, oatmeal, cream of wheat, peas, squash, sweet potato. You don't seem to hate them per se, you just think its weird. But hey, it doesn't get into your nasal cavity when you eat so I'm sure you will love it shortly, no surgery needed! That I am so happy for.

Still a solid sleeper and such an easy baby. An absolute joy :)