And by begging I mean as she was finishing her snack in her high chair (after we got home from school), she was saying “Outside! Pease! Outside! Pease! Pease! Pease! Pease!”
Fun with brother!
Got her!
And got this perfect lucky shot in two attempts! (Owen had to have his new Legos in the picture!)
She found both of them and managed to turn both of them on!
Finding stuff to get into while waiting for the doctor.
She got a wipe and was blowing her nose!
Weight: 26lbs. 7oz. (was 23lbs. 15oz.)—78th percentile (was 66th)
Height: 33-1/2″ (was 32-1/2″)—still 90th percentile
Head: 19″ (was 18-3/4″)—90th percentile (was 88th)
And for the sibling comparison, at 18 months, Owen was:
Weight: 32.5# (96th percentile)
Height: 35″ (97th percentile)
I didn’t have any concerns, so I was surprised when the doctor told me that she was on the edge with her language skills—that she’s on the later side of language development. Hoo boy. So was Owen.
Interestingly, I hadn’t read Owen’s same-month appointment blog entry, so when I was reviewing it to write this post, I was amazed at what I read:
We told her we were a bit concerned about his speech (or lack thereof) and she asked us some questions and from everything we told her (him knowing some letters, numbers, etc.) she said she wasn’t REALLY worried (yet) but that she agreed it wouldn’t hurt to get him evaluated.
Wow. So at 18m we had been concerned with Owen’s lack of speech development and he already knew some letters and numbers! Katie doesn’t know any letters or numbers.
She should be copying (imitating) two-word phrases like “Mama eat,” “Owen play,” and “What’s this?” AND saying “two or three words that represent different ideas together” like “See dog,” “Mommy come home,” or “Kitty gone.” But the doctor didn’t seem very worried—she just told me to spend more time reading with her and always talk to her. I guess it could be worse…but we’re keeping our fingers crossed.
Owen came into his room at bedtime, pulled his undies down, and said “Look at my cute butt!” while wiggling it. I don’t know where he gets this stuff.
Hugs for the bear!
I believe this was a gift from Aunt Sue. It’s her current favorite toy.
Today she picked it up and said “Night night!” Then came over to me and did this:
And this:
Wouldn’t it be nice if they liked each other and got along?
Both kids had a blast today! Owen started on just the bounce house…
And Katie was having fun everywhere. She was a blur!
Owen was then busy running and jumping all over! I didn’t even try to get pictures!
She was really good—she just stopped at the top with no interest in the beam!!
The whole group!
Taking a break on mom. 🙂
I was getting dinner ready when I looked in the living room and saw this:
Yes, she had gotten the pony up there by herself then climbed on and was rocking.
He was playing a video game and she had to be right there with him.
I had an oil change this morning, and Katie was awesome. Pulled out the chairs at the kid table and drank her milk and ate her crackers.
She did play with the iPad, wander a bit, and “talk” to some of the other customers, but she was very cute (and quiet) so no one was annoyed with her. Most actually stopped to chat with her!
He did a great job tracing this morning! With zero assistance or prodding from me!
He was a complete pain in the ass from the minute we pulled into the driveway (after coming home from the playground after school): yelling, screeching, stomping, throwing things, hitting things, hitting me and Katie, being completely defiant, being rude…
In all, he had four time outs, TV and video games taken away, early bedtime given (twice!), and eventually a few precious toys taken away which resulted in him screaming and crying. (I even had to interrupt writing the draft of this post to jump up and yell at him for smacking Katie in the face because he was pissed at her. That got him sent to his room.) And I was even ignoring a lot of his more minor events. He even had his B (which I thought would be comforting) but he was even throwing that around and saying he didn’t want it. I asked if he wanted to go up to his room to be alone and he grouched at me about that, too (before he got sent there).
It was exhausting.
When I take something away for, say, him being cranky, he seems to think that if he apologizes right away and says he won’t be cranky anymore…that he’ll get whatever I just took away (like TV). Nope, kid, that’s not how it works. You get a warning (sometimes two) and if you keep on, you get the punishment—and at that point it’s too late to recover from the punishment. And I’ve told him this REPEATEDLY and I NEVER give in so it’s not like he’s thinking I did it once so I’ll do it again. And he apparently hasn’t fully caught on that when I say NO TV, I mean NO TV. Sometimes it’s just one show he loses. But today was full on TV. But he kept asking every half hour or so—and when I kept telling him no, that would set him off again (even though I kept asking him if he remembered WHY he lost TV and he did—he would tell me because he was cranky, etc.). So then he throws a toy or throws a B or hits Katie (which are all obviously not allowed) and it just escalates. He’s actually pretty good about sitting in his time out—and we go through the whole Super Nanny thing of me telling him I love him, me asking him what he did wrong (he always knows), him apologizing—and 10 minutes later he’d be back in another time out after being warned.
Lather, rinse, repeat…for a good three hours.
I actually thought he recovered after a pizza dinner and a bath (two of his favorite things, during which he was his normal, happy self!) but then he got cranked up again while getting ready for bed (he was upset that he missed a few chore chart items—he definitely lost Show Respect today, as well as Pick Up Toys and Share) and therefore lost his snack so he was NOT happy.
WHAT. THE. HELL?!
As I was saying good night, I told him tomorrow was a new day and it would be a better day…and he said “Yes! No more throwing things, hitting mama or Katie, and being grouchy.” So we’ll see…
P.S. In a hand-me-down sweater from…I think friend Angie!
Of course since I had Gramma Jean sew a bunch of Baby Bs into blankets for Katie, now she likes the singles. She asks for one at naptime and bedtime—but tonight she wanted the 4B blanket PLUS the other single Bs that were floating around. You can’t clearly see them all, but she’s laying on them all and loving it!
She loves playing with wipes. 🙂
I’m guessing Owen sang Old MacDonald at school today… And listen to what he says for Katie on the farm. 🙂
So we had another follow-up appointment with Owen’s pediatric GI this morning. He asked me how it was going and when I said “About the same—lots of poopy undies even after almost-weekly clean outs…” he felt Owen’s abdomen and told me he would definitely suggest another hospitalized clean out (he can still feel poop up too far). He basically said “What are you doing this weekend?” And I was honestly like a deer in the headlights because I DID NOT expect that.
I asked how that could be since I’ve been much more aggressive with the clean-outs—doing them more frequently and REALLY making sure he’s cleaned out (i.e. waiting until we get multiple instances of very watery diarrhea)—and he said I probably AM cleaning him out to a certain extent, but that there’s just too much in there so I’m getting (say) the first “chunk” (so to speak) but not the rest. So, if I KEPT going, I’d likely get more. Also, the doc said that since I’m still letting Owen eat during these clean-outs, that just adds more…
So…I said that this weekend really wouldn’t work because it’s hard to get a sitter. The doc suggested Owen was old enough to stay by himself—but sorry, even though we’ve been there once and he wouldn’t be unfamiliar with everything, there’s NO WAY I am leaving him in the hospital by himself. I told him Tom was coming home in a few weeks and asked if we couldn’t wait until then and he said that was fine—it took a year to get to this point, another few weeks isn’t going to make a big difference.
Owen didn’t seem to freak out at the thought of having to go again, but when I asked if he wanted to try a no-food clean-out at home to try and avoid going to the hospital, he said yes. Now, I’m sure it SOUNDS good, but when the time comes for him to only have juice and NOTHING else, he might be singing another tune. (He can have popsicles and broth, but he doesn’t like either of those.) He was concerned about what TYPE of juice he could have and when I told him he could have apple juice, he was happy. So we’ll see. I can call the doc’s office at any time to tell them we’re ready for the hospital…and in the meantime, I have to keep doing the same clean outs to keep him as cleaned out as possible.
Good times.
I found these jammies while I was looking for something else—I swear I had pics of Owen in them but I can’t find any…
ALNO!!!
“Hello!”
I was scurrying around after the kids’ [post-school] snack and heard lots of giggling. I came in to see this:
It was a balmy 66° when we were out this morning running errands…before it’s supposed to be 0° or below 0° tomorrow.
I just told Owen there was a new Star Wars Mythbusters and he was positively gleeful.
My friend called it “Nerd parenting at its best!”