Gates Are Up

One of the (few) nice things about having a kid with developmental delays is that you don't have to worry about baby-proofing for a long, long time...  Well, our time has finally arrived!  You can't turn on Nevie for a minute before she is heading up the stairs, pulling something down from a high shelf, or trying to climb something dangerous.  It's almost startling how much she has changed in such a short time.  I feel like our therapist has worked with her on pulling up to stand for nearly three months.  Just this week, she is pulling up on everything!  Now we are going to work on her stability and comfort while standing, getting her comfortable enough to shift her weight to reach, shuffle, or cruise.  Walking, here we come!!!

Making Up Ground

Nevie had another excellent doctor's check-up yesterday.  Since the pediatrician had last seen her, Neve has acquired so many new skills.  The doc was quite pleased.  In fact, her only concern was Neve's relative lack of weight gain, which was easily explained away by her recent bout with a horrid stomach bug (or, the bubonic plague, as we nicknamed it.)  The doctor said that we should see her appetite ramping up to make up for lost ground.  If her breakfast this morning of one entire banana, 15 ounces of milk, one adult-size yogurt, and 3 handfuls of Cheerios is any indication, we agree.  Speaking of making up ground, the doc also believes that Neve will be walking and talking before we see her again at the 2-year check-up.  We'll cross our fingers and keep working hard so that we can reach that goal!!  As for her measurements, they were as follows:  Height - 34 inches (97th percentile) and Weight - 23 lbs., 13 oz. (66th).

Funny Face

Tonight was Michael's second annual Mother-Son Night-Before-Birthday-Dinner-Out.  Yes, yes, we realize that we screwed up the timing, but more pressing functions (his birthday party) landed on the appropriate calendar date.  Our only rule for this special event is that he picks a new venue every year.  His choice this year?  IHOP!!!  Not only is IHOP a restaurant where he can actually find something off the menu to eat, but this particular franchise location also hosts hundreds of motorcyclists every year around Rolling Thunder time.  So, Michael dressed in his finest new Motocross gear (not taken off for at least 36 hours and running) and brought along several of his toy motorcycles in hopes of running into some other bikers.  Alas, not a single motorcycle was in the parking lot...  Undeterred by this slight disappointment, we ordered our decadent dinners and dug in.  Well, correction on that:  even though Michael ordered this awesome chocolate pancake with a whipped cream/choco chip/cherry funny face on top, he didn't touch a bite of it.  (I think it actually scared him a little.)  Instead, he requested a bowl of croutons to dip into some ranch salad dressing.  Sigh....  Anyway, it was a fun evening filled with some actual conversation, some table play (each of the different syrup bottles were Paw Patrol vehicles), and lots of laughter.  Please, kiddo, stop growing up....

Happy Fourth Birthday, MJMIII!!!

Easy Riders...

Here is the "Motorcycle Birthday Bash" crew that helped Michael celebrate his soon to be 4th birthday with an awesome party this evening!  After much angst from Mike and Traci (e.g., watching the weather radar, packing up the car for the planned outdoor party, watching the radar some more, debating, watching, debating...), we reversed course and threw an indoor party at our place due to the steady rain.  The kids...well, they were kids and could have cared less about venue and managed to have a blast.  After decorating motorcycle helmets, donning temporary tattoos, playing pin the badge on Marshall (i.e., a "Paw Patrol" reference), scarfing down some pizza and cake, breaking open a pinata, and, of course, watching the end of the ND football game, all declared the party a success.

Happy almost 4th birthday, Michael!

One and a Half...and Climbing!

Today, our baby turned exactly 18 months.  Wow, did that go fast!!!  In honor of this half-milestone, here is a summary of Nevie now:

LIKES:  Milk (24-hour IV, stat!),  Playing and reading with Katie and Michael, Paw Patrol, Swinging, Sliding, Visiting with neighbors and close friends, Her Dad's goofy style of play, Riding her Jet-Ski (especially down hills...eek!), Trying new words, Long walks in her stroller

DISLIKES:  Being more than inch from Mommy, Physical Therapy, Taking "No" for an answer, Discipline (in any form), Preschool drop-off and pick-up lines, Eating in her high chair for more than five minutes 

NEW SKILLS:  Rolling over, Crawling, Scaling steps (including our rather steep ones), Dancing and "singing" along with kids' songs, Pushing up from a crawl to a semi-stand (see video), Signing "more" and "all done"

Here's to adding so much to these lists in the future!!

Stability

Neve is definitely progressing with her physical therapy work.  She has become much more willing to accept our help with some of her mechanics, and that has enabled her to move along with some goals.  For example, she is just about ready to climb stairs on her own, although she still needs a little help with stability.  Speaking of stability, I asked the PT why she seems to have so much difficulty holding herself up in a standing position when she can clearly move her legs quickly when crawling or pushing a ride-on toy.  She tried to explain the difference between slow-twitch muscle fibers (think of the muscles that hold your body in place for a long time or allow a runner to run a complete marathon) vs. high-twitch ones (those that would allow a sprinter to quickly burst forward at the sound of a gun).  It seems that her slow-twitch muscle fibers, specifically the ones that allow her legs to hold up her body weight for long periods of time, need more work.  Combine that with her hyperflexibility in her hips and ankles, and it makes for a hard time just standing up.  The PT actually thinks that she'll more easily learn to walk forward since her fast-twitch muscles seem to be hitting the right cylinders.  Now, just pretend you understand what I just wrote and nod your head, because that is what I did to the PT.  No matter what, progress is being made!!!!

Lil' Monkey

Last year, Katie was pretty upset when some classmates teased her for not being able to cross the monkey bars.  We simply advised her to shake off the teasing and to keep trying to reach her goal.  (We figured that our combined genetics might make such upper-arm prowess an unattainable goal, but the hard work would benefit her nonetheless.)  Well, here we are nearly a year later at her school playground.  She ain't afraid of no stinkin' monkey bars!!!  Take that, playground meanies!!

M-M-M-M-Madness

Holy cow...the impossible can be done!  Mama actually got herself out for a night of fun and revelry...even on a school night!!  Her good friend Asa scored some tickets to see Muse/Cage the Elephant downtown  and Mike agreed to hang with the kiddos.  (He came home early from work so that Traci could...gasp...shower and put on some make-up!!!!)  The night was such a blast:  wonderful wood-fired pizza, great conversation, fantastic music.  We only wish that our husbands could have been there with us.  Of course, reality came crashing back down on Traci the minute she arrived home.  Upon checking on the kids, we found Neve completely covered in vomit.  So, the nice clothes, jewelry, etc. quickly got yucky as well as the clean-up began.  Hey, the kids had to remind Mom that she was back on the clock....

Big Man on Campus

It was finally Michael's turn to start school today!  You could tell that he has been eagerly anticipating his first day as he had been wearing a backpack to Katie's bus stop for the past week.  After attending a pre-pre-K program once a week last year, Michael was ready to step into the big time of regular (aka - no diapers) preschool today.  Since a lot of his classmates had never been in a formal preschool setting before, Michael definitely had a little bit of advantage (feeling less anxiety, understanding circle time, etc.)  He had fun diving into the cars, trucks, blocks, town sets, kitchen stuff, and dress-up.  It was funny going through this with a boy, where dress-up consisted of police helmets and construction vests instead of princess dresses and tiaras.

Here's Michael sitting attentively at circle time.  (We'll have to work on him actually facing the teacher...)  We are really excited about all that he will learn this year, and we can't wait to meet his classmates.  (He hit it off with Landon today...who just so happens to be the little brother of one of Katie's preschool buds!)  We'll have to see if there are any major tears tomorrow for his first real day away from Mom and Neve!

Third Trip through Purgatory

We have found, through our previous experiences, that it is NOT the first cold/flu season of a young babe's life that kicks his or her behind.  It's the next one:  the one without the benefits of nursing, the one where the kid becomes mobile, the one where her hands go everywhere they shouldn't.  If history repeats itself, this coming fall-winter-spring will feel like one long infirmary stay.  Well, here we are in the second week of September, and we have already had multiple fevers, countless snotty noses, and two different bouts of stomach bug divided between our three kiddos.  Neve is taking the brunt of the germ attack right now.  She is absolutely down for the count with some atrocious stomach/upper respiratory two-for-one combo.  (You know it's going to be a bad day when you have to start the morning with a bath just to get her nasty smells off of her.)  We're just praying that it doesn't get passed on to anybody else because we have a super-busy couple of weeks ahead of us.

But, so that you don't get a sad, sad impression from this posting, here was Neve at a somewhat happier point of the day.  (Granted, these moments were far and few between.)  Just wake us up when this entire cold/flu season is over.  Whoever said that parenting is blissful obviously did not have a sick, hacking, puking kid at the time!!!

Last Gasps

One of the perks of living where we do is that we our summers usually last well into September.  Another is that our suburban/urban area truly believes in preserving plenty of green space for fun outdoors.  Even though we have lived here for seven years, we are constantly finding new hidden park gems everywhere around us.  We walked back deep into a wooded riverbed park in Arlington today and discovered a perfect playground, a canine water park, and some wonderful kid-friendly waterfalls all within minutes of each other.  Here's Katie doing her best monkey impression at the playground.

Since we are now post-Labor Day, all of the area pools are closed for the summer.  But, that doesn't stop our temperatures from reaching the high 80s-90s at times.  The river was the perfect place to hang out and cool down today.  Plenty of other kids were out picnicking and river-splashing as well, so the kids had a blast with the crowds.  Alas, back to real world tomorrow for Katie.  Michael starts school on Thursday!!!

Witch's Fingers

We haven't shown you a picture of Nevie lately, so why not a cute one of her playing with her food?  Here she is making her "witch's fingers" with a Bugle chip.  (It's a silly game the bigger kids like to play:  cover all of their fingers with a Bugle and then cackle like a witch.)  Neve is getting really good at mimicking all of us, so it's fun to see what we can get her to do.  It's nice to know that she will probably not ever go through speech therapy like Michael as she is picking up vocabulary left and right.  And, she's getting stronger by the day with her physical skills.  We can't wait until she's off and running....soon!

Firttthhhht Tooth!

Guess who finally lost her first tooth today?  After wiggling her front tooth for what seemed like months, Katie finally found the courage to just yank the thing out.  And, following normal Katie-mode, she immediately felt verklempt rather than joyous.  As soon as she saw the blood, she said she was dizzy and had to lay down.  Then, to her utter horror, she noticed that she was not "talking right."  You know, the normal, cute lisp that comes with a tooth lost.  She unceremoniously announced that she would not go back to school until she could properly say her "S"s again and that she was so embarrassed.  It was hard not to snort and chuckle.  We think she pepped up a little when we reminded her that the Tooth Fairy would be coming, but then Michael said he was scared of the Tooth Fairy and would not go to bed tonight.  Sigh...the dramas of our household.  As of right now, we can hear Katie practicing "S" words to herself in the bath tub...  Happy Firttthhhht Tooth Day, Guythhhhh!

Uno

Geesh, she doesn't look like such a little girl anymore, does she?  Unbelievably, our first baby started first grade today!  Unlike last year, there was no fear, no trepidation.  She knew the drill.  As a matter of fact, I have a feeling that she is going to ask us to stop walking her to the bus stop soon.  Although she never spills much about her school day, I was able to gather a little info:  a.) she wishes she didn't have to take Spanish, b.) she met a new friend at lunch named Grace, c.) Grace shares her love of the American Girl doll Saige, d.) her teacher is nice, and e.) she loved seeing some of her old pals at recess and lunch.  She happily climbed into bed tonight, so the day must have been a success.  Now, on to getting Michael ready for his big day next week!!!

Playing Through

Neve was feeling a little under the weather today, so Mike took the big kids into the city for lunch, a matinee showing of "Planes," and some mini golf.  The kids did very well taking in one of their first full-length features, despite past sensitivities to theater sound systems.  Even Michael made it through the whole movie (minus one potty break), when properly plied with licorice.  And Dad was ecstatic with their patience when standing in line for 75 minutes to try the National Building Museum's current "Mini Golf" exhibit.  Still not sure if it was worth the long wait, but the kids did seem to be entertained by each hole's custom design by leading Washington-area architects and contractors.

In honor of tomorrow's first day of school for Katie, here she is putting out on #7's "Homeroom."

Stay tuned tomorrow for a status report on our growing "1st Grader."

Happy End of Summer!

Happy Labor Day Weekend!  Since thunderstorms are in our forecast for tomorrow, we decided to get one last day in at the pool.  A big thanks goes out to our friends Maureen, Brian, Connor (6-years-old) and Maddy (3) for inviting us over to their pool for a swim and some pizza.  Their pool was awesome, with its own sprayground area, a zero-entry baby pool (which Neve loved!), and a cool diving board.  Of course, the big kids had fun with the diving board.  Here's Katie's attempt at a dive....not quite, but almost there.  We'll certainly miss all the fun we had swimming this year, but Traci is definitely ready for a break from the effort it always took with three kids there.  On to next year!