Playtime

Q does not like to be left out!  No matter what the activity is she finds a way to work herself into it, and I love it!  Y is okay with it most times but it depends on the activity. 

Recently Y has really started to spend a lot of time coloring which she likes to do while laying on the floor.  The problem with that is that Q is always rolling around on the floor (she's starting to attempt to get on her knees now too) and she always works herself over to wherever Y happens to be.  Q will then start grabbing the crayons, markers and the coloring book until Y will eventually get frustrated and move somewhere else.  It'll take Q a while but she always eventually works her way over to Y's new location and it all starts up again!  It can be very entertaining to watch.

So tonight when Y asked to play her ABC board game with me I sat down on the floor with her and gave Q a different toy to play with.  But as evidenced by the photos below she was not interested in  that toy at all - she wanted to play with us!  She was surprisingly gentle with everything and didn't even try to put anything in her mouth.  After watching us move the pieces around the board she started trying it as well.  She's very perceptive and never misses a beat, that's for sure!

Yogurt

As you probably already know Y always, always, always provides us with laughs and today's conversation was no different.  It went something like this:

Y: Mommy lets do some exercises.

Me: What kind of exercises?
Y: How about yogurt?
Me: You me yoga?
Y: Blank stare

And of course once she pulled out the yoga mat and began striking poses, it was my motherly duty to pull out the camera!  She's actually not that bad (but then again, I'm no yoga expert)!

Another Princess

Up until last summer (2011) Y had never seen a princess movie.  But that ended when she went to spend a few days with Grandpa P and Nana B. for the first time without myself or B being there.  Well, ever since then she hadn't stopped talking about princesses (but don't worry she's still a big Tinkerbell and fairy fan). 

It was all quite strange to me because I was never into princesses as a little girl and I can't ever remember seeing any of the Disney Princess movies as a child, in fact watching them with Y was pretty much the first time I had seen them (that's not an exaggeration). 

So even though Y was almost 3 when she first discovered the princesses, that won't be the case for Q!  As you can see below Y has already started to indoctrinate her with all things princess.  I guess at this point I should express my gratitude for our second child being a girl!

Peaches

Q has several nicknames that we use interchangeably around here and I'm thinking that we may have to add one to the list - Peaches! 

I'm a fairly predictable person, I have a banana every morning with my breakfast but on this particular morning I was out of bananas so I pulled out 2 peaches instead.  I didn't plan on eating both but took out a second and cleaned it just in case Y decided she wanted one too.  Well sure enough I take one bite into the peach and Y asks for a bite of it and then asks for the whole peach.  It was no big deal, I was prepared for that happening.

As I began to eat the second peach I noticed that Q was staring at me, well actually she was staring at me eating the peach so I decided to put it to her lips so she could have a taste.  She proceeded to suck on it, I assume she was getting some of the juice from the peach.  After several seconds I took it back and began eating again and Q began staring again so I put it to her mouth again.  She again began to suck on it but then she just reached up and pulled it completely out of my hand - she was gumming my peach and would not let me have it back.  She sat in her chair for another half an hour eating my peach and would not give it back to me until she was done.  And at that point there was nothing left for mommy.

When I posted this photo on Facebook a friend pointed out that it looks like she's prepared to punch me if I tried to take the peach.  I hadn't noticed it previously but she might be on to something there.  Not sure if she would have punched me but she definitely would have thrown quite the fit.

10 Months

It's hard to believe that in 2 more months Q will be turning 1!!!  She is truly such a joy to be around and we are constantly getting comments on how mellow and easy going she is.  She is so loving and playful, it's hard to find her without a smile on her face.

Over the past month she has began to move so much more, I dare say that there's no safe place on the floor anymore.  If she wants it she will find some way to work her self over to it!  She rolls all over the place, she can sit herself up and she's just beginning to attempt to pull herself up from sitting.  I'm sure she'll have to work on it more but she's made so much progress over the past few weeks.

She's at the point where she mimics things, especially hand movements!  She will wave to herself in the mirror and to almost anyone else she sees waving.  Just this week I decided to add clapping to the list of hand gestures and sure enough this morning when I was picking her up to take her to her high chair, I clapped and she started doing it to.  I've now moved on to blowing kisses, hopefully she'll be mimicking that in no time too!

She still loves to play peek-a-boo with herself or anyone else.  When people smile at her or speak to her she likes to bury her head in my shoulder (assuming I'm holding her) and then she'll peek at them, wait for them to smile or speak again, and then bury her head again.  She gets very excited when B comes home from work and still gets upset if either of us walk into and out of a room without acknowledging her. 

We have attempted to add some table food to her diet by grinding it up with a mini prep processor and then adding it to her baby food.  She immediately noticed the difference and wasn't having it, after a few bites she refused to open her mouth again until I made her more baby food without adding our table food in with it.  I'm not sure if it has to do with her not having any teeth yet but so far she's not willing to eat table food.  She will eat crackers and bread so long as she can suck on them to make them soft and more easily edible.  I'm not too concerned, I know she'll get there when she's ready so for now I just stick to making my homemade baby food a bit thicker and chunkier.

Memorial Day Weekend

Summer has unofficially begun!!!  This is the weekend that Y has been waiting for since September.  There was no containing her excitement this week when we told her that the pool would be opening on Friday.  And then each and every morning she would ask me what day it was and if it wasn't Friday she'd proceed to ask me what the next day is up until she reached Friday and she could figure out how many days were left until Friday.  She does this with ANY and ALL things she finds exciting so I try not to tell her things too far in advance because the thought of doing that ritual for more than a few days exhausts me just thinking about it.

On Friday (May 25) we told Y that B would take her to the pool after dinner, I have rarely seen her finish eating that fast and she cleaned her plate!  I decided that while he took her to the pool I would head out and buy swim diapers for Q as well as some much needed items for Saturday when we'd decided to go to the zoo.  When we returned from the store B and Y were still at the pool so we walked over to watch them play.  Y had pretty much refused to get in the water because she thought it was too cold, I think she just needed to warm up to the idea of getting into a pool full of water.  She pretty much refused to go any farther than the top step and so the only part of her to get wet was her feet and ankles.  And even after refusing to go any farther in the water she did not want to leave when it came time to go, we think she was worried that she'd come back and the pool would be closed again for winter.

On Saturday we had decided that we would go to the Detroit Zoo.  We hadn't been since Y was about Q's age, so that makes it about 3 years ago!  We were long overdue for a visit.  Y loved seeing all the animals, her favorite was the lions, or the tigers, or the giraffes all depending on when you asked her - it changed quite often!  It was supposed to be a fairly warm day with a chance of rain showers.  It rained quite a bit before we arrived and then at about the time we were going to stop for lunch it rained again.  It was perfect because the rain was just stopping as we were finishing up our lunch.  And it ended up feeling quite a bit cooler than what was forecast because the sun didn't really break through all the clouds until late afternoon/early evening as we were leaving.  It was Q's first trip to the zoo and I don't think we could have asked for a more perfect day!

On Monday we did our usual Monday grocery shopping and then decided to hit the pool because it was a scorcher - 95 degrees!!  This was Q's first time in a pool and we were amazed at how much she loved it.  She didn't seem to be affected by the coolness of the water, she just wanted to float around and splash in it - she really was in heaven!  Y was again a bit hesitant but once she saw that B, Q and myself were all getting in she climbed in without any problems.  She did insist on B holding her and would not let go!  We had to slowly coerce her to allow him to hold her in the water with her back against his chest so that she could rely on her floaties and noodle to keep her afloat.  After she got used to it he let her go and she didn't think twice.  She was right back to being as comfortable in the water as she had been last year.  We're looking forward to a long, enjoyable swim season!

Tattoos

Hope the title didn't fool you...no one here has any tattoos!  This is not a confessional post ;) It's just another "Y Says" story haha.

While I was otherwise preoccupied with helping Q, Y was being oddly quiet...I knew this was probably bad. So when I emerged from their room after putting Q down for her nap I caught Y's reflection in the TV. I was able to watch her quickly get off the couch and hurry to put her shorts back on. I asked her what she had been doing that required her shorts being off, she didn't reply. When I came closer I realized that she had used her markers (thankfully, they're washable) to draw ALL over herself. Literally, the only clean areas of her body were hidden by her underwear, she even managed to draw all over her back! I insisted that it was bathtime and after seeing how ticked I was she didn't argue.


After her bath she comes up to me and the conversation goes like this:

Y: Mommy, I'm mad at you because you made me take a bath, I didn't want to be clean!

Me: It's okay for you to be mad at mommy but it's not ok for you to color all over yourself.

Y: But now I can't play basketball!

Me: What does playing basketball have to do with drawing all over yourself?

And then I conjured up images of watching basketball on TV and all the tattoos that some of the players have and was able to answer my own question. Then came the long explanation that you don't have to have drawings all over your body to play basketball.  Apparently that discussion was not a successful one because while I was away at the gym she managed to do it all over again with Daddy.

It's been a week or so and it hasn't happened again so maybe B was able to explain it to her a bit better than I was.  Here's to hoping anyway!

Developmental Evaluation

We are blessed to live in a county that takes extraordinary steps to make sure that all children within it's boundaries have the opportunity to be accessed and evaluated for any potential delays or problems.  They like to catch things as early as possible so that they can work with parents to provide the necessary treatment or therapies needed for the child.  While I knew some things about their work, I was still a bit surprised by how helpful and proactive they are at the MISD (Macomb Intermediary School District).

On May 9th I took Q in to have a developmental evaluation performed since she was not yet doing many of the things that a 9 month old would typically do.  When a child is referred to the MISD they evaluate that child for any and all types of delays so I was not just asked questions regarding her physical abilities but also concerning her speaking skills, how she reacted in certain situations, if she would respond to her name, how she responds to strangers, etc.  They want to know about the TOTAL well being and progression of the child.  We met with two ladies, one was a physical therapist there to evaluate her developmentally and the other was more there to evaluate her to make sure there were no learning delays that may need to be addressed.

As far as there being any learning disabilities or hiccups, they feel that she is right on schedule for a 9 month old.  As far as her motor skills were concerned she was at the level of a 6 month old, so it's not terribly far behind but we have a lot of work to do.  One test that they preformed was taking her foot and seeing how far they could bend it forward - she was able to bend Q's foot all the way up to her shin.  She should not be that limber!  The physical therapist said that if she stays that limber then we need to get her in gymnastics as soon as she is old enough!  But what this showed them was that she has very little muscle tone and that is a huge reason why she's not doing many of the things she should be doing at this age.

Since the MISD operates under the school system they do not operate during the summer months.  The therapist recommended that if we do not see improvement by the middle of June then we should seek treatment through private means just until school would open again in September when she would be able to work with the MISD.  Either way, they will give me a call in September to schedule another evaluation with her just to see how she has progressed and if she needs any further assistance.  For now we are just supposed to do exercises with Q several times each day to help build the muscle tone and encourage her to crawl and pull herself up.

**UPDATE**
Q is already making lots of progress!! She can almost sit herself up from laying without any assistance and she has no issues getting where she wants to be.  She is starting to show so much more interest in everything around her and if she sees it and wants it she will find a way to get to it!  She's much more steady now while sitting and rarely, if ever, tumbles over.  She's also beginning to use one hand to stabilize herself while using the other hand to reach across and grab something (this is great for strengthening her upper body).

Hip Dysplasia - The Final Say

I'm way behind in writing this post, I fully realize that, but I've just been a bit busy lately. So bear with me as I play catch up!

Back on May 8th, Q had an appointment with an Orthopedic Surgeon to have her evaluated for Hip Dysplasia.  We again went to DMC and we were given the all clear!  While the doctor did hear/feel a clicking in hew knees and a bit in her hips as well, after reviewing her previous ultrasound and having X-rays done on her hips he was very confident that she does not have Hip Dysplasia and should not develop it from the clicking that does exist.  As for the clicking that is currently going on he believes that it will disappear completely by the time she is 3 or so years old.

We're grateful and relieved to know that all is well!

Not Out of the Woods Yet & Q's 9 Month Stats

You may remember a few months ago our pediatrician heard a "clicking" in Q's hips when he was giving her an exam and sent us to the children's hospital to have an ultrasound done of the hip.  A few weeks later we received a call and were notified that the ultrasound had come back negative, showing no signs of hip dysplasia.  As you can probably imagine we were very happy to hear that.  Even though it can be corrected through the wearing of a brace, every parent's biggest desire is to have their child completely healthy and strong 100% of the time.

Today was Q's 9 month well-baby visit and when Dr. B was rotating her hips he was hearing a very noticeable "clunk" (which we know is much worse than a "click").  After coming home B mentioned that he could hear the sound that the doctor was referring to as Q was on his lap during that part of the exam.  If I'm honest I must admit that while I watched Dr. B take so much time and focus so much attention on rotating her hips my heart began to sink.  To make a long story short, he heard a clunk and even though the ultrasound came back negative he wants to have her evaluated by an orthopedic surgeon to find out once and for all if there is something going on with her hips.

This evening before putting the girls to bed I called a friend of ours who attends our ward and is an orthopedic resident here at one of the locals hospitals.  I asked him if he would mind rotating Q's hips himself to see if he heard or felt anything.  He said he'd be glad to do it but did give a warning that he hasn't had a lot of experience with that sort of thing so he may not be the best source but if it was a definite "clunk" he would know, it's the slight "clicking" that he may not be the best at identifying.  That was more than acceptable to me, I'd just like to have another opinion on the matter if possible and preferably without shelling out several hundred dollars if not necessary. 

As for other stats from the appointment she weighs 17 lbs. 14 oz. (approx 38th percentile) and is 29¾ inches long (95th percentile).  For comparison's sake Y was 19 lbs. 5 oz. (approx. 55th percentile) and was 28¾ inches long (75th percentile).  Y has always been tall for her age but it's looking like Q might be even taller, but at this age things change quite often so you never know.  As far as all the health stuff is concerned she's doing great and honestly that's what matters the most.

But, with that said, we have been referred to the MISD (Macomb Intermediary School District) to have a developmental evaluation performed on her.  For a 9 month old Dr. B did not feel as if her gross motor skills were nearly where they should be.  She is sitting on her own but only the tripod seating, she's not pulling herself up or even acting interested in doing so.  I'm not completely surprised that he's sending us to have her evaluated, last week Y spent much of the week watching videos of herself when she was Q's age and even though Q was "late" doing many things she was still farther along than Q is.  So taking her in to make sure that all is well will actually be a relief.  What I later realized that I should have asked the doctor (and I may call tomorrow to ask) is if the "clicking or clunking" in her hip may have any affect on the delay of her gross motor skills?  It may be a shot in the dark or it may not be, but it seems like a good question to me!