Just Everyday Miracles: June 2009

I feel like a broken record here -- but this is going to be a long post. Some months are full of milestones, what can I say? These are the best months, in my opinion. Milestones are a very good thing, especially in our family. This month, Ari and Gabe turned 27 months on the 19th and Isabella turned 8 months on the 27th.

Starting with my youngest, Isabella has been doing lots new this month! Her gross motor milestones this month include army crawling (fast), four-point rocking and crawling a little, pulling to stand (a couple of times so far), and standing supported. She has given up the rolling for the most part, favoring crawling as her primary mode of transport. Bella is very mobile. She gets wherever it is she wants to go in a matter of seconds, getting into things that I didn't know could be gotten into. In a room full of toys, Bella still manages to scan the room for the one thing(s) that I don't want her to get a hold of and rapidly obtain it (a shoe, keys, the changing pad, etc.). It amazes me how strong and determined she is. Despite the fact that Isabella only has 3 1/2 limbs, she uses whatever she has to get around. She is strong enough to be crawling on hands and knees if it weren't for her physical differences, but that doesn't hinder her one bit.

Isabella also has started *dancing*. Like my other children, she loves music. Whenever Isabella hears a rhythm, she will start bouncing and moving her arms to the beat -- not haphazardly, to-the-beat. All the while, she has a huge grin on her face. So far, she has shown no preference for music, and will dance to anything from trance to jazz to rap to lullabies. I've mentioned it before, but Isabella's flexibility is just kind of off the wall -- we're talking contortionist here. Bella can do complete splits in every which way and she enjoys it! I'll often find her playing with her legs in a split in the air, earning her the moniker "Bellarina".

In reference to her prosthesis, Isabella is tolerant of it. When I first try to put in on her, she puts up minimal resistance. Once it's on, it usually holds her interest for a good fifteen minutes or so before she starts to get annoyed with it. During this time, she'll usually bang it around, put it in her mouth, play with it with her other hand, or use it to manipulate some toy. After that, however, Bella typically wants to start moving again, and the prosthesis tends to get in the way. She can army crawl with it, but the awkward and unfamiliar shape and just the pure heft of the object tends to slow her down a little. Not too much, but just enough to make her squack in frustration. Soon, she'll try to remove it, and then I'll have to replace it when I find a free five minutes to track it down, find the sleeve, and pin her down long enough to get it back on. I keep telling myself that it will all be worth it if it can help her down the road.

Isabella is sitting in the highchair for meals now, and she has started self-feeding finger foods. I have given her cereals, bread, little pieces of fruit and cooked veggies, crackers, and cheese, and she gobbles them up. I sometimes feel like I can't feed her enough fast enough. Isabella also loves her baby food, although she has from day one. She usually eats one jar of fruit mixed with 1/4 cup baby oatmeal in the morning, a jar of veggies along with some finger foods at lunch, crackers for afternoon snack, and a jar of baby food dinner plus a jar of fruit in the evening. In between, I'm still nursing her roughly five times a day. I love that she's such a good eater. Really, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel so grateful for this. After what I went through with the twins' eating, this comes as such a relief. Isabella also loves to drink out of a sippy cup, when given the opportunity.

Last but not least, Isabella has started saying "Dada" to her Daddy. She loves her Daddy, and she's has been known to chase him from room to room, calling his name as she crawls. This is her third word (the other two are ' Mama' and 'hi').

Isabella is still just a complete joy of a baby. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel completely overwhelmed with gratitude to have her. She smiles and laughs all the time. She squeals with delight constantly. She hardly ever fusses, and when she does, she is so easily appeased. I love just spending time and cuddling with her. It doesn't hurt that she's so affectionate either -- when I ask her to give me a kiss, she'll either plant a big wet one on my lips or hold out her short arm for me to kiss. It's so cute!

Ariana has also been hitting some major milestones this month, and we just couldn't be prouder. Ariana has started nodding her head 'yes' and shaking her head to mean 'no'. While previously Ariana had a certain smile and kick and hand gesture that, when used simultaneously, meant 'yes' and another hand gesture and sound that meant 'no', it was not until recently that she has learned to use her head to communicate this. Go Ari! Ariana has started drinking from a straw this month. We have been trying for months to help her achieve this milestone, but she just had to come into it on her own. We were at Schnepf Farms Peach Festival, and she was very thirsty, when she finally took to it. She did it then, and Jake and I almost cried for joy. She has been practicing her new skill ever since. She is so proud of herself! Her big grin says it all. As if that wasn't enough, Ari has been starting to drink out of an open cup too (with someone holding it). Previously, the liquid just used to spill out of her open mouth. She has come such a long way! Along the same lines, Ari has been practicing using the spoon and fork. While she still needs some help, she insists on eating her cereal this way every morning, because she sees Gabe doing it. I love that she wants to be a big girl. :)

Along the same lines of oral motor, Ariana has been responding to the verbal cue "swallow", when she is about to drool. Because Ari has low oral motor control she often drools excessively (like a baby, who's oral motor coordination has yet to develop). When we notice this, we'll simply ask Ari to swallow, and she'll respond by closing her lips and swallowing what's in her mouth. This is so huge for Ariana for so many reasons. Not only is she able to physically coordinate swallowing, but she is aware enough to understand and follow the command. Similarly, Ari has been blowing bubbles in the pool. This may not seem like a big deal, but those muscles that are required for blowing (and closed lipped swallowing) are the same ones that are used for, guess what? Talking.

Ariana has had a few feeding therapy sessions this month. I felt like I was in feeding boot camp with Nanny McFee (from Supernanny). Okay, it wasn't that bad. But I did have to make quite a few adjustments to the way we feed our kids. First of all, I was told that *my* feeding schedule is lacking structure. Wow, it wasn't meant as a compliment, but I never felt less compulsive and more laid back in my whole life. I was too unstructured when it came to feeding my kids -- what a relief! Here, all along, I felt like a walking billboard for feeding neurosis. So, for starters, we need to have at least 4 times a day (preferably 5 or 6) where we actually sit down at the table to eat. I was told that meals and snacks need to occur at the same time every day and in the same place (provided we are at home). This means that we can't eat fistfuls of goldfish crackers in the playroom or even tote a sippy cup around with us. It means that we can't feed the kids a piece of cookie (or anything for that matter) when we are grazing on one between meals. Each of their meals and snacks needs to include a fruit/veggie, protein, and carb. No exceptions. If, for example, Ari refuses to eat the protein, I can't make up the difference by giving her extra fruit. She'll simply be hungrier at the next time we visit the table. Also, I have to stop making repeat trips back to the refrigerator or pantry to get more food out once the meal has begun. The kids need to know that whatever is on the table is what we're eating, and they can decide how much of it they it. I am *allowed* to hide some foods under a napkin at the table just as long as I don't give Ari the impression that if she rejects a food, I will just get her something else. I am instructed to not let a meal last for longer than 30 minutes and a snack last for longer than 15 minutes. At that point, I need to cut it off, regardless of how much is still on the plate. Last but not least, once Ari starts to throw her food or reject her food (provided she has at least tried it), I need to say, "okay, you're all done with that", and move on to the next food or (if there are no other foods) end the meal. All I can say is Ari has started eating more. Last night, she was literally shoveling pizza into her mouth (for those new readers, Ari used to only eat sweet foods i.e. fruit). I am SO happy!

Ari has been showing us that despite her delayed expressive language, her receptive language and memory are augmenting very consistently. It's hard to explain in print, but Ari shows us that she understands what we are saying. She is very good at following directions, she laughs at everything that's supposed to be funny, she answers yes or no questions correctly, ect. Recently, she has started demonstrating her level of understanding in more complex ways. Here's an example: We have a book called I Love You Through And Through, and in this book, there is a page that reads 'from your fingers to your toes'. Ari happened upon this page of the book during a time it was not being read to her, and held up her left hand and wiggled her fingers in front of her face. She recognized the page, remembered what it said, then identified the correct body part.

Lastly, Ari's biggest milestone of the month (in my opinion) is that she has started commando crawling (a.k.a. belly crawling, army crawling). Our sweet, determined, little Ariana has figured out how to move herself fowards using her left arm to reach, right arm to stabilize, and left knee to push. We couldn't be prouder. More importantly, she couldn't be prouder of herself. True to my goal for her that I set a year ago, she started crawling the very same month that Isabella did -- inspired to chase after her no doubt. What actually happened to make it all click? Well, I was sure that, given some firm urging and repeated demonstration that Ari was finally ready to go for it. So that's what I did one night before bed with her. Ashamed to admit that I didn't let the poor girl go to sleep until she crawled. It was an hour past her bedtime when she finally, giddy with exhaustion, creeped across the room! This was over three weeks ago, and she's been doing it ever since -- getting better at it every day, to be sure! It comes as no surprise then (but I want to mention it anyhow) that Ariana can move herself on her Maddacrawler assistive crawling devise using her hands. Her knees are still a little short to make contact with the floor, but those casters sure do reward her efforts.

Gabriel has also made so much progress too. I mentioned previously how Gabe is becoming more comfortable with the water every time we go swimming (although he is still not as much of a water baby as Ariana). He has been blowing bubbles in the pool and jumping into the pool from standing on the two foot tiled wall. He has been a little more reticent lately since Jake has been allowing his face to go under the water when he catches him, forcing him to hold his breath (which he does).

Gabe has made some big boy moves at the table as well. Gabe is no longer sitting in his high chair. Gabe is sitting at the table with Mommy and Daddy in a booster chair, which he calls his "blue chair". He has a placemat, his own plate, and fork or spoon at every meal. He knows that he's sitting in a big boy seat, and tries so hard no to make a mess, as compared to before in the highchair, he would purposefully make messes. He is also having to make extra effort to have good posture, because he doesn't have the same kind of support that the highchair used to offer. Either he sits up straight or his food falls straight into his lap. This reminds me so much of when I was a little girl; I was always having to be reminded not to recline at the table. Along with this transition, I no longer feed Gabe any foods. I put his food on his plate or in his bowl and he's responsible for how it gets in his mouth. Consequently, he's gotten much more proficient at using fork and spoon, although this is still the area of his development that could use the most work (fine motor).

Cognitively, this month Gabe has demonstrated a mastery of both the upper and lowercase alphabet. He can identify both sets of letters in any context. He has started trying to sound out words and is very interested in telling us words that begin with each letter of the alphabet "A is for apple, B is for blanket," and so on. He doesn't do this from memory because he tells us different words all the time. Gabe has also started using more complete sentences that include conjunctions (i.e. "and"), prepositions ("under"), and articles ("the") as in the sentence "The blue and green car is under the bed". His pronunciation of the words is still a little lacking, but it is getting better. Also getting better are his manners -- of this I am so proud. He really does use his please, thank you, you're welcome, and excuse me on a frequent and consistent basis. We are trying not to instill in him that manners are a courtesy (something from which he's likely to rebel), but that they are just a part of language and the way we speak. One of Gabe's most words to most recently make it's debut is "why?". That word has been getting a lot of air-time. I don't know how he picked it up, but he *talks back* a lot now using his new word, and I think it's just plain cute. Not even a little annoying -- not yet anyway.

Gabe has officially learned to sing. He all of a sudden has picked up the lyrics to pretty much every nursery rhyme I know, and he sings them in tune around the clock. I love his little singing voice, and I encourage his musicality as much as possible. He doesn't seem shy about singing at all, and always makes requests as to which songs we should sing next. If he hears a song that he doesn't know the words to, he'll make them up and try to sing along with the tune. Cutest example is "Whiskey Lullaby" by Brad Paisley (country singer) -- Gabe was really crooning that one, facial expressions and all. I made sure to take him very seriously, because I didn't want him to feel one bit self-conscious about his songbird tendencies.

Gabe has started saying his first prayers this month. They are so sweet and reverent (I don't know where he gets it!). He always whispers them, and they usually go something like this: "Heavenly Father. Thank you day. Thank you family. Thank you Daddy. Thank you Mommy. (et. al. family members). Please keep healthy. Jesus Christ. Amen." Gabe has started to love Isabella. He hasn't really resented her for many months now, but he is just so into her these days. It melts my heart. He is always so concerned about her. Whenever she is not in the room (napping), he asks about her. In the morning, he always asks me to wake her up and follows me into her room with a huge grin on his face. He frequently is spotted kissing her or patting her on the head or giggling hysterically at her. With prompting, he'll happily tell her "I yuv you Bella". *Note* Gabe has always adored Ari, notwithstanding their healthy dose of sibling rivalry. Our latest and biggest achievement in Gabe's world is potty training. Although he isn't fully and completely trained yet (he doesn't ask to go potty and he will have the occasional accident), he's pretty darned close I think. I've never done this before, but I think it's gone pretty smoothly. Gabe has learned to pee and poo in the big potty. I have a toddler potty seat that goes on the potty when he needs to go #2, and he stands up on a step stool or I hold him up to pee (public restrooms). In recent days, he has stayed dry pretty much the whole time including naps and once even at night. When he's sitting on the potty, he likes to read books to himself and sing songs. It's taken us about two weeks to get to this point. He has a sticker book in which he collects a 'Cars' sticker for every time he goes potty (a small one for #1, a big one for #2). We've run out of pages in this mini sticker book, but he hasn't seemed to care. He likes just looking at the book and admiring the existing stickers whenever he's had a particularly rewarding potty experience. I hope we can be done by the end of June. Until next month, those were our milestones!

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went on our first camping trip as a family. Jake and I always really enjoyed camping together before having kids, but going with three babies seemed like a little more of a daunting task. However, when the opportunity presented itself, we just couldn't say no. Our friends, the Goulds, invited us to go with them to their land up in Strawberry (near Payson), AZ, and it ended up being so much fun!

I nearly chickened out at the last minute when I started feeling overwhelmed at the amount of work I had cut out for me, but I knew that if I could just get myself over my mental hurdles with preparing, I wouldn't regret going. It turned out I was right. It was time for us to spread our wings a little as a family of five, and it was the perfect first camping experience. Seriously, it could not have gone better given our circumstances. It definitely helped that our hosts are such a fun, friendly, and prepared bunch; that their camping land had well water, a ramada, a fireplace, swings for the kids, and picnic tables; that Russ is a Scout Master and helped Jake pitch our "Tent Mahal" (10 person, 3 room tent); and that we were lent a backpack carrier for Jake to carry Ariana our our hike. Really, I just get so relieved when things go well (and I mean very well) that I could go on and on and on. And I will, so bear with me for a minute.

We got to Strawberry around mid-day on Saturday. We set up camp and went shooting. I hit the bulls eye every time (okay, that's a lie). That evening, it rained (the one and only time on the whole trip) as we were eating dinner under the ramada beside a roaring fire. Then we put the kids to bed and spent the rest of the night making s'mores and hanging out.

The kids slept surprisingly great both nights. I'm pretty sure that they were just so worn out from missing their naps that they were out cold. Each of the twins had their own pack-n-play in their own separate room in the tent. It was chilly at night, so they wore 3 pairs of pajamas, 2 pairs of socks, and cuddled under 6 blankets a piece. Bella slept with us. On Sunday, we went on a hike with the Goulds after breakfast, and the weather was beautiful -- sunny and mid 70's. We got some great family pictures from the hike, but as luck would have it, they (and about 20 other pictures) got deleted -- boo. At the campgrounds, Gabe was hardly ever by our side. He had an adorable grin plastered on his face for pretty much the entire duration of the trip. He played with the other kids in the dirt, watched "motorcycles" (quads) come and go, played with toy trucks, chased someone's pet piglet "Lulu" everywhere she went, went crazy naming things in nature (always novel); played around in the tent excitedly announcing that he was "camping"; and helped shoot the potato cannon (which he's still talking about to this day).

Ariana also loved the novelty of camping and being out in the wilderness. She loved rolling around in the tent, giggling the entire time; swinging in the toddler swings and hammoks under the ramada; being carried piggyback in the backpack carrier; and being with other kids. Isabella enjoyed being passed around from one doting set of arms to another.

I always expected that once we got on the trip (assuming we steered clear of catastrophes), we would have a great time. What surprised me was how relaxing the trip turned out to be. Yes, I actually felt like I was getting a break. Don't get me wrong, a ton of preparation went into it, and we were still "on" the whole time we were there (as in, doing the parenting thing), but it was just so refreshing to have that much of a change of scenery that in some ways, it seemed like a vacation. More pictures to come!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Selling Baby Items

June Fundraising Stats

Monday, June 29, 2009

Ari Army Crawler

Taylor Brothers Reunion

Monday, June 22, 2009

Gabe is Potty Trained!

Ari's Stander

Happy Fathers Day

First Newspaper Publication!

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Nonprofit Status

Jake's Birthday

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

May Milestones

Monday, June 1, 2009

First Camping Trip

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