Halloween 2009

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It's been a while

What have we been up too lately?  It seems like it is all school (MDO) and PT (with some speech thrown in there also).

PT is going very well.  We are too the point where her therapist is willing to discuss backing off little by little.  The first major hurdle though is sara has to know how to jump.  As the therapist put it "I need to see more vertical movement."  So guess what Terryl has us doing at home?  You guessed it...jumping!  It's kind of fun, actually.  Sara is very close to  "getting it."  She will bend her legs and attempt to get her feet off the ground.  She's at the beginning stages where it looks like one foot comes up and then the other...like skipping rope...but not that coordinated.  We are incredibly happy with the progress she has made.

Speech is going well, also.  Sara is talking all the time and forming more and more intelligible words.  This is a  relief because I had a feeling potty training was going to be very difficult with words that I do not understand. Sara has never been a big fan of using the signs either.  We are not anywhere close to being potty trained, but she is at least understanding where her potty is and what diapers are.  It's difficult to do when her MDO teachers are not incredibly helpful when it comes to potty training.  Between that and therapy it is hard for me to find long, consistent time periods to practice sitting on the potty at home.  I guess I need to do more in the afternoons or evenings,  but my house is a wreck, dinner goes by the wayside, and my free time in the evenings becomes taken over by cleaning.  I don't know....I've got to find a balance somewhere.  I will let you know when I find it.

Sara LOVES school!  Sometimes she naps there, sometimes she does not...either way she comes home happy as can be.  Through all of this PT she has become a puzzle mistro.

Today we are headed off to the state fair for some fun adventures.  This will be sara's first time.  It's so fun to include her in a tradition that has been a part of scott and my life for many years.  Tomorrow sara and I will join my mom 2 mom group at the arboretum.  Saturday brings the race for the cure in honor of my mom.  An exciting and busy next few days ahead of us.  I hope to have many pictures over the next 3 days!

cousins

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when toddlers help

So as I promised a few days ago, here is my post about sara "helping."  She is in that wonderful (but sometimes frustrating) phase of wanting to help me and wanting to do things all by herself.  The other day she decided that she would "help" put some more food in the cat's bowl.  The tupperware type container I keep the cat food in was on the floor being stored in between that space of the toilet and cabinet (that sometimes bothers me b/c it gets messy easily and is difficult to clean well).  So I a in the living room (probably playing on fb, blogging, or tweeting) when I hear her pour some cat food.  Sara has done this before, and I just have her help me pick it up piece by piece off the floor back into the storage container.  We get to a certain point, and I give in and let the dog finish "cleaning up."  So I walked into the bathroom and saw what was going on.  No big deal I told myself, will clean it up later.  Next thing I know I hear the door shut to the bathroom and sara getting all excited.  I walk back into the bathroom only to find that she had gotten a plastic grocery bag out of the cabinets and tried to "clean" the cat's litter box.  In a I must not panic manner I quickly swoop her up and close off the bathroom in an effort to not let her get any more dirty kitty litter on her.  This was not a good natural consequences moment.  Yeah, I should have had her help me sweep it up, but I did not know how much had already gone into her mouth.  I think I caught her soon enough, but it was a huge mess!  Luckily, scott was nice enough to clean it up for us, and I got my butt off the computer and kept a close eye on her for the rest of the day.  Here is some picture evidence...

singing the praises of california baby

I don't know if I have told you this before, but I have a always on love affair with California Baby diaper rash spray.  It comes as no surprise to me that sara gets diaper rash easily.  It seems as if any poop that touches her skin brings on a rash no matter how quickly that diaper is changed.  So today Sara and I were at the galleria.  While we were in Slappy's Playhouse store (which is on the opposite end of the mall from where the family restrooms are located), I got a not so wonderful whiff of sara's diaper.  yuck!  So after pealing her away from the toys we strolled to the family restroom area.  Well, as I suspected it wasn't a pretty sight when I opened sara's diaper.  Skip the yuck parts onto the point of this post.  Sara's diaper had been dirty long enough for her to develop a bad diaper rash.  I am talking the raised red bumps that look like infected mosquito/ant bites.  Luckily, I try to always cary this diaper rash spray with me for times like this.  I sprayed the rash down, closed up her diaper, and went on with our shopping.  This afternoon sara decided to give me a bonus diaper (I am lucky, most of the time she has either 1 or 2 a day now).  Guess what?  No sign of diaper rash, at all!  Her bottom had returned to the shiny tiny white thing it is.  I love the fact that this stuff is non-toxic (the reason I tried it in the first place) and it smells so much better than the "normal dr. reccomended" stuff.  It is also much less messy. 

Coming soon to a blog near you...toddler's who try to "help..."

So, I know it has been a long time since I put a post here.  I have no "good" excuses.  I honestly have either been too lazy or just feeling like nobody really wants to hear all about our boring lives anymore.  Well, if the 2nd statement is you...stop reading now. 

September brought the much anticipated return of Mother's Day Out.  I could not have been more giddy the night before school started up again.  Strange though, that that wave of sadness hit me right after I turned her loose.  I guess it is just one of those "she is growing up so fast..." type of moments.  This is her 2nd year of school, and I think she is loving it even more.  The whole being able to walk helps a lot.  Now if we could just get her talking to progress as quickly as her walking did once she started private therapy then she would be giving aunt mere a run for her money.  Sadly, that is not the case.  I may stop sitting in on sara's therapy sessions soon just to see if she might do a little more and fuss a little less if I wasn't there.  She adores both of her therapists so I do not see that it would be a huge deal.  The PT I think would be the same one way or the other.  In some ways I like to watch the sessions so I can know how to reinforce stuff at home.  Speech, though, is when sara thinks it is all about play time and playing the way she wants to play.  Last weeks sessions contained so much of sara just trying to assert her 2 year old will that Holly stopped the session early and didn't even charge me for it.  Sara was mostly upset though because she did not get her snacks on the treadmill. 

As for sara's gross motor skills here is what we have accomplished:  overall walking, walking with legs close together, walking with a heel - toe stride, "toddler" running, being able to go up and down from a squat to standing over and over again, being willing to spend some time playing on her tummy, walking up and down ramps while keeping her balance most of the time, able to walk up and down steps that are her size.  Able to walk up and down staris/steps with holding either a railing with one hand or someone's hand.  Our big think we are working on right now is jumping.  Sara is always "counting" and then bending her legs, but she hasn't quite grasped the jumping part of it all.  I will catch her saying "one two three weeeee" and bending her legs when I am not looking.  So we have some time where we "jump" off of things pretty much everyday.  I think this concept is going to take a little while longer because of the whole being out of control feeling that she hates.  I am not particularly worried about it considering how long she has been walking. 

Oh and in other great news sara's PT told us her fine motor skills are great and do not need any outside support.  I  have always thought this, but it is nice to have it confirmed.  Our PT does give us a few recommendations on some fine motor skill stuff  to work on,  but it is more of just give her more opportunities to play with this type of toy in order to help this skill be a little bit better. 

In other non therapy related  life...sara and I have been going to the children's museum in fair park whenever we get a spare weekday morning.  She loves the place.  It is like one gigantic playroom for her.  We sloshed through the torrential downpours on Monday and rode the bus & train down there since scott took the car for the day. 

Speaking of cars...as most of you know, we sold scott's car in order to pay for sara's PT while not depending on credit cards to balance the budget.  There are days when the whole 1 car, no cable TV, no netflix, very little extra money lifestyle gets to me.  I know having this tight of a budget will only be temporary, but it sucks right now.  I miss my DVR.  I miss the maids.  I miss caller ID on the home phone (ok, that one very little).  Yes, we can live just fine without these things and be perfectly happy, but I do admit that I miss them!  Ok, this post is getting long and less and less about sara so I must go to bed!

I promise to post some pics soon...once I take some new ones that is. 

randoms...

We had a fun weekend...

it included the farmer's market on saturday morning; playing with sara's cousins - Brenna, Connor, and Zach on saturday night at nana and pop's house; big girl sunday school on Sunday morning; lunch with sunday school friends after church; car naps; and finally playing at ouisee and papa hank's house last night while Scott and I took rigs (or as sara calls her -- reeegs) to Lee Harvey's to play with other doggies while we ate and drank outside. This could become my new sunday night habit if it were not having to get a babysitter for sara each time.

on another note. Infertility sucks. big time. I hate it. Once again, it seems as if everyone around me is pregnant, and I'm not. Of course we are trying for #2. We have been for a little over a year now. There are time windows I am trying to squeeze into. For example, the less than 5 years after your first child's birth pre-eclampsia odds. Yes, sara is only 2, but you know.

We are in the beginnings of learning to go potty. For the first time today sara was willing to sit on the potty for my rendition of "tinkle, tinkle little star..." Her reward is what is crazy. She gets to wash her hands! Sounds silly, huh? I am just taking advantage of her OCD tendencies/desire to splash the water around. She is always asking to wash her hands...mostly just to put a little soap on them and fill the sink up with some water and make bubbles. Do not get me started on the conversation I had last night with how much sara reminds my parents of my sister. LOL! Sara does know for sure that mommy and daddy go peepee and poopoo in the potty. She will lead you to the bathroom if you announce that you have to go potty. Then she will help you open the toilet lid and point to the water signifying that is where your stuff goes. Lovely! hah.

Sara starts MDO again next week. Could I be any more excited? Quite possibly, no. I am ready to have some me time again. Luckily the summer did not go by as slowly as I had dreaded. Big stuff got accomplished like walking and growing like crazy.

That's all folks.

Children's Museum

Sara and I ventured down to fair park today. Thanks to my trusty GPS on my phone I had not trouble finding it. Even though I grew up in this area, I have never driven/paid attention to how to get to Fair Park. Part of that stems from the "you might never find your car after the state fair if you dare park there." The other part is just my dislike of being the driver. I don't mind driving myself (and sara now) around anywhere. I just get all nervous and antsy when I have an adult passenger in the car. Back to my point...Ouisee and Papa Hank gave us a membership to the Museum of Nature and Science for sara's 2nd birthday. Today sara and I went and cashed in on the gift by buying the membership. Sara could not have loved the place anymore. My goal today was to explore a little bit of all parts of the children's museum. Thank goodness sara was willing to humor me in that aspect of our trip. So here are the high points from today...

• planting seeds
• grilling an orange

• having a tea party
• crawling through ant tunnels

• looking at snakes and toads
• playing with the babies (dolls)
• sitting on a picnic bench and eating cake
• digging for dinosaur bones
• putting sombreros over the babies heads
• splashing at the water table (and refusing to wear the smock to help keep dry)
• giving a rubber duckie mouth to mouth resuscitation

• climbing on a fire truck and driving it

• picking up the eggs the hens had laid
• riding a tractor trike
• working in a construction zone
• turning the lights off and on in the energy conservation house

• putting some puzzles together in front of the greenroom mirrors
• loving on the frog and elephant stuffed animals
• milking a cow

and so much more!

opinions, opinions

everyday it seems sara becomes more and more opinionated. Most of the time it is over amusing things like where her stuffed animals should be placed on her bed, what books she wants to read herself to sleep with, etc.

Tonight after she had eaten half of her grilled cheese sandwich (not before she had a conniption fit about how the blueberry mini muffins had all been eaten) she started saying shoes and dog. She proceeded to find my shoes and bring them to me and repeat "shoes." All of this meant she wanted to go for a walk. So Scott and I finished up our dinner as fast as we could, changed our clothes, got a fresh diaper on her, and went for a walk. I convinced sara to take her circus train ride on toy with us. She was loving it for the first 1/2 of the walk. She would point and pat to the push handle and demand that either scott or I push her. Seriously it was push her as fast as we could speed. She would of course point to the spots and lecture rigsby, scott, or me with all the words she could muster about where on the sidewalk each of us needed to be. She does get quite upset when we tell her no to us riding on the toy. At one point during the walk sara did say "good dog." that was greatness! rigs was being really good the 1st 1/2 and not barking at other dogs. So now I officially have heard a two word phrase from her.

We also had a great time (until she got hungry) picking out some new summer time tops for her b/c sara is growing like crazy. So many of her 18 month tops are no longer fitting her (the shorts still fit b/c she has such a skinny waist). Luckily, Kohls had some decent summer clearance prices so it all fit within our budget.

pictures!

here are a couple of pics that show how we spent July...

nose deep in 2 year old behavior...

So today I took sara to the grocery store with me (and her own shopping cart)

I knew it could either be brilliant or a disaster. Thank God it turned out to be brilliant! I wish I could have caught on camera how happy she was to be shopping just like mommy. The only times I got some fussiness from her was when I tried to hold her hand when crossing the street. I have always wondered why grocery stores took away their kid size shopping carts. I used to love using those when I was a kid. It's probably some insurance liability crap. grrrrrr. I do not like people who cannot accept the consequences of their own actions.

As promised last week here are the stats from sara's 2 year old checkup...

Height: 32 3/4 inches -- 25th percentile (wooooohoooo, finally on the charts for height)

Weight: 22 lbs. even -- still in the below 5% range, but she is creeping closer to 5 each time.

Head Circ: 19 --75th percentile as always. The girl has some brains growing in there!

included in the checkup was a sheet that had "normal 2 year old development." Sara definitely qualified as a 2 year old...here are the ones from the list that I thought fit her most...

• Gets upset and impatient easily
• show anger by crying or striking out
• get frustrated when not understood
• wants own way
• may assert self by saying "no."
• has sharp mood changes
• likes to imitate others
• enjoys playing among, not with, other children
• does not share
• claims everything is "mine"
• is constantly in motion
• tires easily
• may have trouble settling down for bedtime
• can button and unbutton large buttons
• Understands more words than can speak
• cannot be reasoned with much of the time
• cannot choose between alternatives

In other depressing news. Someone accused by of being sara's grandma today. Sara and I made a quick run to tom thumb to pick up some corn tortillas that I had forgotten from our grocery run earlier in the morning. I did not take her shopping cart this time knowing it would be a very quick trip. I did let sara hold the tortillas. After we checked out I gave them to sara to take to the car. So some man -- probably my dad's age -- saw me from behind and said something to the effect of "someone is out with grandma today." seriously? is my hair going gray? I would think the bad roots and ugly ponytail would give away the whole mom thing. t-shirt and capri jeans? grandmother's have time to look decent. Yes, I haven't showered in a couple of days. what is new. yea, it's gross, but it requires time and energy I am not willing to give up at this point. I am going to try to get one in tonight or tomorrow morning before scott leaves for work. when you know you are going to be cleaning house and doing laundry all day what is the point? I digress. so this guy sees my face and still says something about grandma and asks "how old is she?" so I say 2. He says "we've got an almost 18 month old." I also do not put makeup on very often b/c I have a 2 year old who screams her head off if I ignore her while doing that. I gladly share blush with sara, but the mascara she wants goes too far. so I try to be sneaky when I take the time to put on makeup.

in other exciting stuff sara is almost running. I swear she will be able to in the next couple of weeks. she was walking so fast in tom thumb today that all she could do is either face plant or run. it was some option in between.

sara's birthday party went swimmingly. It was just as I wanted it to be, very low key and low fuss. sara had a fantastic time and so did the other kids (except for the part where poor connor got smacked in the head with a basketball). The gifts were all just perfect. Sara cannot get enough of her circus train she got from Nana and Pop. Scott and I got her a mr. potato head set, and she loves it also. She loves all the other gifts also, but the last one she opened has stuck with her. I am going to try and upload some pictures tonight so look for them here, facebook, and shutterfly.

you have to actually go to the blog website to view the video. also, if I appear one day with bruises all over me do not wonder what in the world happened to me. They will be from my sister who just might hurt me for posting this, but I found it incredibly sweet and cute!

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY, SARA!

today sara turned 2...

two years ago today I was told...it is time to get this baby out and rushed off to the operating room for an emergency c-section. Sara's tiny body was not tolerating the induced labor/contractions. So my little 3 lb. girl met the world this day 2 years ago. Luckily, the dr.'s were talking about tubing -- one of my favorite summer activities -- so hopefully that will make her develop the same love for it one day!

for this post I will try to just talk about what she can do...

• put the "ah" sound after just about any consanant (hence, why we are in st)
• walk and walk really fast while screaming happily
• talk about dog's incessantly
• talk about ball's incessantly
• talk to all of the stuffed animals on her bed for hours in order to avoid taking a nap or going to bed
• rock puzzles like mad
• rearrange furniture
• gladly overuse the words "no" and "mine"
• say nigh nigh in the sweetest voice there possibly is
• throw very loud full force toddler temper tantrums
• eat chips and salsa like there is no tomorrow
• she would be happy if her diet consisted of: grapes, rice, beans, tortilla chips, salsa, chocolate milk, cheese, and dr. pepper (she has had a taste from the remnants of "empty" ones left around the house and is always wanting to get sips of mine -- note for the record I do not let her and she screams her face off about it)
• her favorite thing to do is play in her kiddie pool with the water hose on
• she adores her blankie(s) and swinging

there is so much more, but since it is 11:49 at night I better get some sleep. I will try to add more to my list tomorrow.

my to do list for the week (caution, this post might put you to sleep)

so here is my to do list for the day/week/month/life, etc. Just wanting to feel accomplished in some ways...

• pay for sara's orthotics (Dave Ramsey would be proud, I waited until scott got paid on Friday and put it on the debit card))
• take my mom to Costco so she can buy beer for my dad's b-day party
• go to bed on time
• finish our family budget for Financial Peace University (aka, find an extra 800 a month)
• put away the rest of the laundry
• resist having my crops harvested on farm town (facebook) so the girls can do it tonight.
• figure out dinner for scott, sara, and myself.
• take a shower
• unload dishwasher and re-load with dirty dishes waiting in the sink
• invite friends to come over and play thursday morning
• finish scoring my spiritual gifts inventory from yesterday morning
• get sara to take a nap
• start redoing my itunes playlists (stupid itunes wiped them out for some reason)
• make and take sara through an obstacle course of sorts in the house so she can practice stepping up and down.
• clear out more clutter in order to make walking through the house much better
• water the compost
• run the roomba and the scooba
• practice raspberries and tongue clicks with sara at least twice a day
• continue to take sara to many different parks/places to give her different experiences
• cancel maid service since we can no longer afford it
• call exterminator and set up appt. time for our quarterly service
• put up at least one tub of clothes/toys/junk every night
• put away winter clothes for the summer in order to free up more room in my closet
• exchange dress I bought on saturday
• email sangria recipe to my mom
• order 2 boxes of contact lenses
• find and put in a safe spot my new glasses prescription
• clean out under couch and find sippy cups that have rotten milk in them. suck it in and run them through the dishwasher
• figure out and purchase birthday present for my dad
• lose weight
• stop cheating on my gluten/soy free diet
• find someone besides scott who I can talk to about all this crap....plus other stuff...
• go to the grocery store to buy milk and corn chex (so excited that these are now gluten free)

sara is a water girl even though she is a Leo

Via scott's phone...

http://twitpic.com/7yb7w - Sara at Wet and Wild!

so far so good

so since sara started walking yesterday she has been happy to oblige me when I let go of her hand and encourage her to walk on her own. She has fallen a couple of times but picked herself up off the floor and gotten back to walking again. We went back to My Gym today, and sara loved it more than she ever has. She was all over the place. I think she will be ready to graduate up to the next age group when she turns two. She still screamed and fake cried some while there. The thing is moms always stare at us when that happens. Are their children perfect or something and never have attitude issues? Do they not have opinions that differ from yours? I have always wondered about that. Maybe those kids save it all for the teenage years. Just some thoughts...

the video of walking

we're walking, yes indeed

So for anyone that is not on twitter or facebook but reads this blog...sara is walking! She can take multiple steps w/o holding on to something multiple means 20+. She did it for the very first time in PT today and has not stopped being willing, yet. I am sure her stubborn streak and two year old attitude will reappear in the very near future, but I am thrilled for now. So in honor of her walking here is my list of things I am looking forward to not hearing again about sara (at least in terms of walking)...

she is just stubborn,
she has her own time line,
she's working on other skills,
she is cautious,
she was carried to much as a baby,
she's just spoiled,
she's your first so she doesn't have to walk.
you don't want her to walk b/c then your life will be over (in the manner this is said, my life was over when she started crawling --- over a year ago),
she isn't caught up yet (in terms of being a preemie),
my kid was a late walker (oh yeah? were they almost 2 when they started walking by themselves),
doesn't your insurance cover the therapy or isn't it free (yes, insurance covers some, but we have to wait months to get checks to be reimbursed -- early childhood intervention is "free," but they did nothing for sara. Their approach did not work well for sara nor did she like her ECI PT. As scott said "it was like talking to sandpaper" when you tried to have a conversation with her. If you know scott he does not say bad things about people very often, he gets along with just about anyone, etc. I love that about him. You know it's bad if scott says that.
she's just a climber (I even said this one for a while)..it is true, she likes to climb, but that had nothing to do with her not walking.
she must not have gotten enough tummy time as a baby (oh really? do you know how good of a parent I was trying to be when she was an infant? I was all about plenty of tummy time.)
She's faking it (yes, she is a bit of a drama queen, but she was never walking behind my back...kids her age aren't that creative in doing things to spite their parents)
Do you just keep in a car seat, stroller, crib, what have you all the time or just sit and watch TV? (ok, this was never said to me, but some looks that were given to me when people asked her age meant this)

I am sure there are more, but this gets the statements I get a lot!


The great thing about sara walking is it gives me hope. Hope for our financial situation, hope for sara having a "normal" childhood, shoot this morning I probably could have held hands with everyone around the world and sung kumbaya or we are the world w/o a sarcastic thought entering my mind. That's what a relief and great hope this gave me for the future. Short term it also gives me great hope for my summer. I had made a promise to myself that I would work as much as possible with sara this summer to help facilitate walking. Here it is, our third week of summer, and I seem to have accomplished this goal. So many things will be much more fun now for sara....the park, the splash park, the playgrounds, my gym, play dates, etc. It's crazy how many things are centered around kids walking. It feels like kids cannot do fun things until they are walking. The looks I get at the playground for bringing a crawling child are ridiculous. Seriously, people, did you just want me to not let sara do the same thing as her peers?

On another note...sara's b-day part will be taking place August 1 from 10-12 at our church's gym. I am very excited about it because we will be able to invite friends. woooohooo I also do not have to worry about the weather. Can you believe sara is turning 2? As for me, I can. I live with the 2's every day. She definitely acts her age (not her shoe size). Speaking of shoes...she got fitted for orthotics on Monday. We (the PT and me) hope this will accelerate her gross motor skill development and make her more stable. Not a total surprise that she has to have these since I got them when I was in middle school. Scott also had foot/leg problems as a kid and had to have corrective surgery to help him out.

I will try to get some video footage and post it at some point so other people can witness our amazing daughter!

what have we been up to lately?

This week marks the 2nd full week of summer for us. So far the relaxed schedule, sesame street, errand running, house cleaning, pajama lounging, and practice walking have been just fine with sara. I think she is enjoying the extra mommy time. She has always been quite clingy to me so this fits her. Honestly, I was worried about going from a twice a week mommy break to no scheduled break was going to be difficult. Well, so far so good. I am sure there will be a post a few weeks from now asking if summer is over yet. The good thing about staying home a lot more is it helps assuage my guilty feelings that I do not do enough practice walking (or other suggestions from the PT) with her.

Sara is so close to walking. I am realizing though this is a continual journey with her despite the fact that she has everything physically in her toolbox she needs to walk. Now my goal is to get her more comfortable with moving in free space. So that means making her walk places just holding one hand. It is chanllenging to me b/c despite the fact that she does a great job of walking this way she fusses the whole time. It is hard for me to deal with in public especially around people that know her but not the whole situation that well. Like I told scott, though, I keep saying to myself, PT costs $270 a week and speech costs $90 a week. So we've got to work hard with sara at home!

Scott and I are working hard on a budget for us to generally follow so we can help reduce our CC debt. The problem seems to be finding any room for anything other than the bills plus food. Well, as scott and I put it PT and speech are not optional for sara so we will deal with going into more debt for as long as it takes to get her "caught up." So if you do not see much of us here lately or we become extra boring well then this blog post explains why. We are at home trying to entertain ourselves to save money!

guess what?

After PT and speech therapy this morning sara and I stopped by ouisee and papa hank's house. Sara was playing with the big exercise ball. She let it go and took about 2-3 steps on her own! Amazing!

Hopefully more steps will follow. Sara worked very hard at PT and speech today. She walked a toddler marathon on the treadmill, swung on her tummy in the "hammock" style swing (you know the ones where you usually sit in them), walked up and down stairs and a ramp, sat on a big exercise ball while the PT messed with her balance, fed a stuffed animal some bananas, eggs, mac and cheese, milk, and juice; ate a piece of orange flavored liquorice so the SP could get sara to use the right side of her mouth a little more, plus other things I cannot remember.

All this means is this: you have one very tired mommy on your hands who was stupid enough to not lay down and take a nap right now while her daughter is snoozing away. le sigh. I never can predict when she will take the long naps. I am happy though about everything above. Yea for progress! yea for hope! yea for confidence! "I have confidence in confidence..."

My miserable attempt at "supermommyhood" today...

So here is how my wed-fri. have played out so far...

wed:
go to PT and speech therapy for thing in the morning. We are there from 10:00 until 11:30 (did I mention we have to leave the house at 9:30 to get there on time? sara has been "sleeping in" here lately until about 7:45, 8ish. That is a huge treat considering the fact that facebook sucks me in until after 10:00 every night and nothing gets accomplished after the 7:00 hour in our house. Did I also mention that scott gets home from work between 6 and 6:30 (last night it was closer to 7 -- he usually leaves for work around 9)

After our therapy morning I slack off and go to lunch with my mom and sara. I am good and turn down the invitation to stay and visit a while in attempts to go home and get sara to take a nap (but guess who does not take a nap??? hint: it was a creature of the two legged variety not 4).

So then, sara so lovingly has a humongous dirty blowout style diaper that needs to be changed. I quickly get that done so we can head out the door to go play at the CDC playground with my mom to mom friends and friends of friends. We play until sara turns bright red (despite the fact that I had sprayed both of us down with spf 55 sunscreen until the hair on my legs lay down quite nicely). I had been a good mom and stopped at Sonic's happy hour and gotten us drinks to have while playing. Of course sara refused hers most of the time. Then I stupidly accused Scott of forgetting about our sara hand off deal we had worked out for the evening when I called him and his phone was turned off. We had agreed before he left for work to meet for dinner and switch cars and sara b/c I had a meeting at church that evening. OK, so then we rush through dinner, switch cars, praise God scott's car started and the engine was not revving. I get to my green team meeting about 5 minutes late. ugh. I made up for it by correctly guessing a "green" trivia question and winning a door prize. Go me! If you want to know what it was about, follow the link here...muhahahahahha.

OK, so obviously when I got home that night sara was asleep but did I do anything of use? NOPE!

after some sleep I took sara to mother's day out. I did go to yoga against my own internal monologue (and enjoyed the practice). Then I slacked off the rest of my time w/o sara and hung out with my mom. So you would think after sara gets home from school that I would pay so much attention to her? nope, facebook sucked me in when I got home so I played with my computer while she played in the playroom. She did try to draw on my computer so that is when I decided it was time to shut the puter down. After that I did some straightening up while she watched 2 TV shows, and I started dinner cooking. Since Scott was not home by 6:15 I gave sara a bath and put her in her PJ's. It was going to be an early bedtime for her kind of evening b/c she seemed very tired when I picked her up from MDO. So Scott did walk in the door just in time to "listen" to the story I read to sara. Off to bed she went...and guess what? once again nothing productive happened. (FYI, my house once again looks like a tornado hit or it hasn't been lived in for a while -- we have ants and fruit flies that are trying to make their home in our house, you cannot walk through the front door w/o tripping over something, laundry is piled up on the chair and couch, junk mail and bills are scattered all over the floor and the computer desk, and you can barely eat at the Kitchen table)

So this morning at 10:00 was physical therapy. Then after a snack sara and I headed to Arbor Hills playground to play (along with half of Plano and their kids, it was pretty crowded). Sara and I both enjoy going to different parks and different playgrounds all over the city, but the gas/money/time it takes sometimes takes it toll. The Physical therapist did say it was important to go to many different places to help sara get to walking.

On a more positive note, sara did go from crawling to standing in free space (in a normal manner that kids her age stand up). She did it 3 times in a row for me. That was a great moment to see that all the $$$ we are paying is worth it.

So after once again turning red sara and I headed off from arbor hills to get some lunch. Yes, I cheated for the gizzilonth time on my gluten/soy free diet...and had cicic's pizza. That's probably a big reason I am so tired, is that I have been eating gluten here lately. That plus stress. Anyway, I had big plans to mow the yard while sara took a nap (which she should be extremely tired after walking on the tread mill and playing outside). I got the front yard mowed (easy peasey there) and guess who has not slept a wink besides 5 minutes in the car between the park and pizza place? Once again, it is a creature of the two legged variety. le sigh. I had awesome plans to be superwoman today, but they are just not working out. Maybe one day my house will be straightened up (not just the maids coming in and throwing everything that looks out of place in a bag then me tearing it all up the next day to try and find the stuff that was left out).

Now onto figuring out the rest of our afternoon and what will be for dinner tonight.

life...

we started speech therapy yesterday. I think sara is really going to enjoy speech therapy more than physical therapy. I mean, it seems like all play to her. She has two people completely focused on her and neither of them are making her practice walking! Sara was diagnosed with "overall low lip tone" basically our steps will be similar to physical therapy in which we work to build up her lip strength and have her more comfortable with moving her tongue around. I have a feeling sara will progress quickly in speech therapy since she loves to watch and imitate as much as possible.

The conference I had with sara's mother's day out teacher went much better than I had made it out in my mind to be. Her teacher said she has made huge progress in terms of her gross motor skills over the past month or so. That makes me feel wonderful because that is about the time we started private physical therapy.

Physical therapy homework is nothing new. Keep her wearing the hip helpers for a hour a few times a day. The therapist encourages us to "rough house" with her so she is used to moving through free space in different ways. I "torture" sara quite often now by making her practice walk. The great news is she is tolerating it a lot more than she used to. I don't know how soon it will be when she walks on her own, but I cannot wait for this day! I will be so proud of her, relieved, and will be celebrating her acting like other kids her age. I am beginning to have hope that it will happen one day. I can finally imagine what it will look like.


Our days are busy but fun! Sara is blossoming and learning so much everyday.