m a e & i s l e s

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Babies Wearing Babies

M wanted to be like dad so he made her a front pack to carry her baby doll. Now she can get on with her work while her baby rides along.

Friday, June 24, 2011

A storm came through town Tuesday and we've been without power until 4am this morning. We found out after the fact that a tornado did briefly touch down a few blocks from us. There was a lot of local damage but, thankfully, it was mostly to trees.

Personally we lost a couple large branches and one of the big trees near the edge of our property was hit by lightning and came down on our neighbor's garage. Thankfully no one was hurt, but the clean up has been challenging.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

C l e a r w a t e r B e a c h

I'm almost 35 and I had never been on a vacation that was spent completely at the beach or by the pool. I'm happy to report that I have now experienced one of this variety with my family. And although it was only a long weekend

it was incredible. I love the ocean (our firstborn's namesake for crying out loud) and the beach! ...or in this case the gulf and Clearwater Beach, FL. The sound of the waves crashing against the sand ... the white sand that's cool to the touch ... the warm blue water ... the bright sun and ideal weather... and a lovely grandparent to help with the young folk ... how relaxing.

Maryn loved it too. Previously when she was introduced to sand she wasn't such a big fan, but no more. Here is my child with sensory issues loving the beach. She dug in it, laid in it, raked and shoveled it with her fingers and tools. Her dad buried her legs; she was delighted. I can't even tell you how much sand fell off this girl when we got her back to the hotel. I'm still cleaning some of it out of my suitcase.

catching some zzz's while cooling off at the hotel

yum ... fresh, delicious food

Isla, Mike and our hotel in the background ...it was just steps from the beach

we couldn't believe how warm the water was

Granny and Isla out from under the umbrella for a few minutes

Yep, that is sand on her face... even got a little in her mouth but didn't really care

playing ball in the hotel kiddie pool

I spent 8 hours at the beach one day! The first few hours I was there alone to soak up the sun and my new book. And thanks to Mike and Granny, again, on our last day I got another solo hour by the pool with my book and a drink. I've never had a beer by a pool in my life. I just hit a button next to my lounge chair and a waitress appeared with a menu. Next thing I knew she was back with a cold Stella! I know, I'm easy to please these days.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

My sweet kiddo enjoying some fresh air mid-way through a wet weekend

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

What's up?

What's new with M lately?

She's turning into a little girl. When did this happen and where did my baby go? She wants what she wants when she wants it and isn't really all that interested in how anyone else feels about the matter.

Her speech has made some big leaps recently. She WANTS to use words to communicate some things now ... unless her speech therapist is in the room. She's not a big fan of ST as the focus for so long was on feeding and she did NOT want someone messing with mealtime. It's not the sole focus anymore, but M made up her mind about ST then and isn't very cooperative. Oh that iron clad will of hers ... so 2.

She had an assistive technology appt with Easter Seals a few weeks back. It was a 3 hour appt with an OT and SLP. They are looking at getting her some equipment to help her communicate more until her language catches up (and they believe it will). She needs a large screen because her point isn't accurate enough for small pictures but she can't obviously carry around something really heavy. Early Intervention doesn't currently cover I-PADs but this is what they have suggested for her and we're hoping that might change before she exits the program in late December.

I was amazed at that appointment. They gave her choices and asked her lots of identification questions. For example, there might be a picture of a refrigerator and a picture of a ball. "Maryn, where is the refrigerator?" She got almost all of these right. Now, keep in mind that when we read books and I ask similar questions she usually won't identify much of anything. If I ask her what something is ... something I know she knows, she doesn't indicate that she knows it.

It's hard sometimes. We read books, and play games and puzzles that work on numbers, colors, animals, and animal sounds for example; she enjoys it, but sometimes I get frustrated because I feel like she isn't getting it. Then we go into this appt and she is identifying things we haven't even worked on. She clearly is a sponge soaking up so much of her environment. I need to remember this when I'm being a pessimistic baby. It's got to be about her timeline. Slow and steady ...

Her receptive language is great. She clearly understands so much of what we say and ask of her. She probably uses 20-25 words sporadically and just a handful of words often. "All done" communicated by sign language and/or with her voice, makes multiple daily appearances but "maddie" "bye" and "no" better know as "na na" still top the list

of most used words along with
Isla (pronounced as eye or eye-uh). She's starting to use more simple phrases too, namely, "I love you" and "mama please."

She imitates more and more in both language and actions and I think her little sister will probably have a huge impact on her development when she starts moving around.