Ugh.

I know it's only Monday, but what a week!

• Ari's talker froze up. Called tech support & nothing worked. I have to send it in for repairs & *fingers crossed* my memory card will be left in-tact so we don't have to reprogram the whole thing.
• Isabella outgrew her prosthesis. Just like that. Her arm got too big to squeeze into it over the weekend or something. Too much turkey. At best, she'll be without a prosthesis for 2 months. At worst, 4? 5? Who knows? We were just getting used to it too!
• Devyn (our nanny) has Strep throat and will be out the week most likely. Doctor's appointment tomorrow for Bella's 1 year appt. (at 14 months no less), and H1N1 vaccines for all three kids. Jake will be gone all Thursday, Friday, & Saturday with the car for his licensing class (so I'll be stuck at home without). Fun.
• Family just got denied for health insurance for the tenth time in two years. Sensing a pattern?
• Gabe has started acting out again. A lot. He'll just plow Bella over when she's trying to waddle around, he's grabbing toys from his sisters, hitting, throwing fits... every 30 minutes.

Can't wait till the (short) weekend is here!

Tonight we were having family home evening, and I read a story to the kids about being a forever family. Then I said to Gabe, "Do you want to be with your family forever?" He enthusiastically answered, "No thank you!". hahaha.

Ariana's Wheelchair Eval.

Yesterday, Jake and I took all the kids down to United Seating and Mobility (an affiliate of CRS) for Ariana's wheelchair evaluation. Unlike Bella's prosthesis evaluation, Ari is a shoo-in for qualifying for a wheelchair (not something I'm really all that grateful for), so this time it was our turn to do the evaluating. It was time to select Ari's wheelchair for preschool (and I can't believe it's time for my baby to go to school already!). We chose the Zippy pediatric wheelchair, which was the best option for support on the sides, capacity to grow with her, durability, and height to reach a table. It is much heavier, bulkier, and harder to fold up than the Kid Karts (which are basically large strollers), but we couldn't sacrifice her comfort and posture for convenience. The Zippy will be customized to her size (unlike the one in the picture which is much larger), and it will be pink, of course! As was to be expected, Ari was very excited about her new tool (overjoyed, in fact), Gabe was jealous and wanted one of his own, and Bella took every opportunity to use the wheelchairs to help her get into trouble. Ari even used her left hand to push the wheel of her chair, propelling her foward, all without anyone showing her how to do it! All the kids thought that this place was an amusement park, and they cried when we had to leave. While we were in the waiting room, we met some people from Gilbert with a 3 year-old daughter with CP who had a lot in common with Ari developmentally (also chose the Zippy in pink). We got their phone number, and I really hope to set up a playdate for Ari and the little girl we met -- finally, a friend for *Ari* to play with!

Ari in a Zippy wheelchair -- just like hers, except too big and purple instead of pink.The kids having a wheelchair race in random wheelchairs that didn't make the cut. They were having a great time, and it was fun then, but something about this photo kind of makes my heart sink.

Visit with Cousins

We basically only get to see Jake's sister, Emily and her adorable family once a year. It is so sad, and whenever we think about them, we just end up wishing we lived closer so we could hang out, like, every day. Our one day visit with them this year just happened to be earlier this month in a Peter Piper Pizza up in Flagstaff, which was a meeting point. Regardless of the lack of time spent together, I feel like the kids know who family is. While Gabe has frequent playdates and trips to the park, he still tends to talk more about his cousins, but especially his most recent visit with Ethan and Taylor (Emily & Eddie's boys). We're missing them already!

Fairy Festival

Last weekend, we took a road trip out to Estrella Mountain Park (in Goodyear) for the Fairy Festival. Perhaps none of you have heard of it? It has kind of a cult following of strange folks, but it turned out to be very magical for the kids, and well worth the drive. Our kids got to meet all types of fairy people, ride unicorns, barter for gifts, frollick in the grassy knolls, dance to folk music, and eat their first veggie burgers (which turned out to be a hit, who knew?).

People kept coming up and taking pictures of this little fairy in the grass.Gabe bartered with this strange creature for sugar sticks and string bracelets.Ari got a temporary tattoo from this fairy. When she asked me what design I wanted, I told her just something pretty. She drew a side profile of a pink and purple butterfly that looked exactly like the HOPE for Ari butterfly. Hmmm...Isabella and this scary fairy had a staring contest. Bella won.Silly pretty.Ari and Daddy danced to the folk music band.Gabe climbed this tree, and wanted to climb higher.

Isabella's Myoelectric Prosthesis Eval.

On November 16, Isabella had an evaluation for her first myoelectric prosthesis (electric prosthesis that responds to muscle signals to operate). Children's Rehabilitative Services doesn't cover myoelectric prothetics, they only cover body-operated manual prosthetics (where the child has to make a gross motor movement such as turning the shoulder in order to operate the hand), so we had to apply for funding through a special private source called Inner Wheel, which is a charitable organization that provides funding specifically for myoelectric prosthetics for small children (a myoelectric prosthesis starts at $20K). Isabella and I just underwent the first of many steps in obtaining her first myo prosthesis, and so far, I think we're doing pretty well. I had to answer a series of questions, and Bella had to demonstrate some tasks as a measure of how well Isabella is using her prosthesis and how comfortable she is with it. In order for her to even be considered for a myo, she needs to be a very successful wearer of the passive prosthesis, which she received when she was 8 months old. I have to be honest, I really was nervous about how well Bella would act with her prosthesis around the prosthetician. She is supposed to be a full-time wearer, meaning all day, every day with the prosthesis. She isn't... but I said she was, because I knew that one little question was a major qualifier or disqualifier. And Isabella did not make a liar out of me. Bella touted that plastic arm like it was her proudest possession; she used it to climb up on a chair, hold and eat an animal cracker, push herself from sit to stand, catch herself in a fall, drink her sippy cup. When the prosthetician took it off her arm, she whined at him, held out her short arm, and pointed at her nub as if to say, 'put it back, buddy!'. We were both so impressed. Only I didn't act impressed, I acted like this was just normal, everyday behavior. Needless to say, Bella passed that eval with flying colors. When I asked how long it would take Bella to grow accustomed to her myo prosthesis, the prosthetician replied "Well, every kid is different, but judging by how well she's done with the passive one, I'd say pretty quickly." So happy! Step two in this process will be to get Dr. Ot to give us the prescription for the myoelectric arm. His reputation precedes him in how he is known for his reluctance to write scripts for these devices because they are so costly, so quickly outgrown, etc. We just have to convince him, and the insurance, and then some more people after that. We'll get there though.

Ari's "Talker"

About a month ago, Ariana got her Springboard Lite augmentative communcation device. This computer is extremely sophisticated and has the potential to take Ariana's communication to a much higher level. It is also designed to grow with her as her vocabulary expands, and it is completely customizeable to her needs. The state of Arizona provides us with this piece of equipment until Ari outgrows it or no longer needs it at all (fingers crossed!), at which point, we'll give it back so they can tune it up and pass it along to another child. Ariana LOVES her "talker", and she insists on having it by her side whenever she spots it. She will whine, reach her hand out, and say "uh uh!" until we realize what she's after and hand it over. I can get Ariana to eat complete meals just by insisting that she take bites in order to keep her talker turned on and beside her. After several hours of programming by Ari's speech therapist and training for me, we have finally gotten the talker to a point where we feel comfortable using it everyday. Do we use it all the time? No, not yet... baby steps. We use it mostly at meals (particularly breakfast, lunch, and snack), at the beginning of playtime activities, and during therapy. Right now, she's in what I call the "exploratory stage", meaning that she is still pressing buttons just to see the cause and effect reaction, and not specifically to communicate her needs. However, she is learning certain sequences for communication, and I am really impressed at just how fast she is catching on the the concept of it. Her favorite sequence right now that she has just about mastered is "Want eat cereal (yogurt, fruit, cracker)" (2-3 buttons), "Want drink milk please" (4 buttons!), and "My birthday is February 19" (1 button) -- don't ask me why she likes that one so much, I think it's the picture of the cake). Ariana's favorite thing to do with the talker is to play songs. She LOVES when it sings "I'm a little teapot", for which she does a modified version of the hand motions, "Happy Birthday", "It's a small world", and the Disney "Welcome" song. We listen to the Disney Welcome song probably...fifty times a day. And it's just the first verse over and over. And I love it. But I digress... Anyway, I'm slowly learning more programming, and Ari is learning to navigate her talker at about the same pace. But we are getting there, and it's a good thing. Gabe still loves the talker, but he is getting used to the idea that it is Ari's talker and not his. I try not to let him play with it hardly at all, which may seem mean, but it's really not. Gabe needs clear, defined boundaries, especially when it comes to ownership, so he respects 'all or nothing' much more than he appreciates 'here and there'. I keep reminding myself and others that this talker is not going to take the place of verbal communication for Ariana. When I ask her to say something on the talker, I also ask her to say it using her words. I will not be satisfied with Ari using the talker alone, no matter how proficient she gets at it. This is, above all, a means of expanding Ari's expressive verbal communication and vocabulary. It is a way for her to learn sequencing of words like other children, without having the early experience of speaking them. And, of course, it will her communicate her needs directly through it.

October Milestones

In the month of October, Gabriel & Ariana turned 32 months, and Isabella turned 13 months. October has been good to me. A couple weeks ago, we got a new respite provider (nanny, mother's helper, babysitter, whatever you want to call it), and we're keepin' it all in the family... no not our family, haha. That's a good one. Brooke's family! Brooke was our previous nanny, and we grew to love her so much. Since pregnancy has not been easy on the poor girl (morning sickness, back pain, & everything else), her sister, Devyn has come to fill in for her. And let me tell you, it has been quite a relief. For the first time in months, I'm acutally getting to run errands, go to the gym (I've gone 3 times so far!), and cook dinner in relative peace! I'm one happy Mama! My kids love her too. The other day, as she was leaving, Gabe just ran up to her, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and exclaimed "I love you so much!" It was really cute. :)

Yeah, I'm not much for crafts, myself.

As for milestones, Isabella has been cruising right along. Since last month, Isabella has started standing unsupported, then walking while having her hand held, then finally taking her first steps on October 26th, just a day before she turned 13 months. It also happened to be her my mom's birthday, so that was a extra special for Nana. Isabella has also started dancing while standing upright; complete with head bopping, booty shaking, arm flailing, and foot stepping. She's been walking just about everywhere around the house, sometimes even toting several items along with her (in her right hand, under her left arm, and in her mouth at the same time). When she's in a huge hurry, she'll still tummy crawl, but those times are getting fewer and farther between. Which means that her clothes are staying cleaner for longer periods of time between changing! Yay, no more swiffer mop designer duds! I can start to put her in light colors again! It's a good thing.
Isabella's gross motor acheivements has been getting her into some trouble, as should be expected. She traverses the stairs as she pleases, since I no longer need to shut the gate because she's such a pro and going up and down safely. And just like that, she's out of my sight and... flushing, yes FLUSHING all of her bath toys down the potty. Jake had to take the toilet off just to clear the pipe. A grand total of seven tub toys lodged in there.

IsabeIla has, for some time now, loved bestowing kisses upon request. But lately, she has been showing affection to inanimate objects that she personifies, such as her multitudes of stuffed animals. She hasn't committed exclusivity to one or two lovies yet, but I think she's getting pretty serious about a little white bear with wings and her hot pink doggie, who we call "Candy". She totes them around with her as she's toddling around, occasionally bringing them up to her lips for a kiss. It's very sweet.

Bella has also cut another bottom tooth this month, making a total of seven teeth so far. She has also gone down to one nap, most days, which is so nice for our famiy schedule. Bear in mind that Bella would take two naps a day if I gave her the opportunity, but she has been a really, really good sport about waiting until 1 or 1:30 PM for her first (and only) nap of the day. If I think it's going to be a long day or a day when we'll be out and about, I'll either put her down for a short nap early (then wake her after about 45 minutes) or I'll let her doze in the car (which amounts to a cat nap too).
This month, Ariana has been using her aug. com. device ("talker") a lot more. I got a couple hours of training on it, so I'm able to finally do some *basic* programming to customize it to her. She LOVES it, and is constantly begging to use it. We use it mostly at mealtimes and right before we begin any activity. She is getting good at it, and I have to say that I'm surprised at how fast she's picking it up. Although she is still in the exploring stages, so she plays around with it a lot more than she uses it for formal communication. More on this in a later post.

Ariana's verbal communication, on the other hand, has been ebbing and flowing this month. Rollercoaster. Big tease. I'm frustrated, can you tell? For instance, one night I was having Ari point to and identify the members of our family. This is par for the course for her, so I decided to step it up a notch. When she pointed to Gabe, I asked her to say "Gabe". After a couple tries, she did it. She said "Gabe" over and over that night, probably twenty times altogether. We were so happy for her. The next morning, it was gone, almost as if she had never said it at all. While that only lasted one night (not really long enough for us to get attached to the notion), words have disappeared after longer periods of use. For the first half of last month, Ari had been saying "pees" for please spontaneously, whenever she wanted anything. She would also say it upon our request. We were all overjoyed! It was so consistent, and so intentional! Two weeks later, it was gone. Now, when we ask her to say please, she gives us her default reply, which is "aba". I asked Ari's therapists about this, and they all told me that this was pretty common for a child who has motor planning difficulties as Ari does. Ari has the word in her brain, and her mouth is physically capable of making the appropriate movements and sounds, but when she tries to make a bridge between her brain and her mouth, the communication shuts down. No bridge. The therapists told me that we'll likely hear her say words when she's excited or not trying to say the word; not thinking about it. Just the other day, Ari was playing with a cat puzzle piece with her OT. Her OT said, "it's a kitty, Ari!" to which Ari echoed, "KITTY!", just like that, clear as a bell. I have never heard her make those sounds before, but the word has been there all along (which I knew), and it just slipped past her brain controls that time and right off her tongue. The only new word that has (so far) stuck with us is the best word in the English dictionary: "Mama". Of course, when I ask her to say it, she just babbles something that doesn't sound like Mama, but when she wants my attention, she remembers my name (and very loudly too).

Ari has started crying at bedtime and naptime more this month. I would see this as a regression if it weren't for the fact that Gabe is doing it too, so I'm thinking it's just a phase. I really hope that this isn't a sign that Ari isn't wanting to outgrow her nap, because I'm not!

This month, Gabe has made some gains in his fine motor area, which is where he's been having the most trouble since he was a baby. Gabe has never been much of a drawer (or a scribbler even), but he started drawing lines, circles, and ovals this month, which is a big improvement. Also, Gabe has started pulling down his own pants (and sometimes even pulling them back up). On several instances, he's even taken himself potty without telling us, which is a little nerve-wracking, because I'll walk into my bathroom later to see pee on the wall behind the toilet. Normally, I help the guy with his aim.

This month, Gabe seems to have had an awakening of sorts. He's started identifying emotions in himself and in others. One of those emotions is fear. Not terror by any means, but regular imagination-run-wild, psyched himself out, little kid fear. He is frequently telling me that different things are "scary", such as our neighbor's Halloween decorations (complete with life-sized skeletons and monstrous spiders... love it), when a car drives by him in the parking lot, the Peter Pan ride at Disneyland, the green light on his baby monitor, and a number of other things. I'm trying to teach him the difference between 'exciting', 'spooky', and 'scary', which he seems to use interchangeably.

I don't know if this is related to the fear issue or if it's just a part of the age, but Gabe has been fighting bedtime pretty hard lately. He has a number of different requests to postpone bedtime, such as needing to go pee, needing to go poo, wanting water, wanting another kiss, another hug, his bear wants a kiss, his feet need to be "down" (covered by his blankets), his "pillow" needs to be "fixed", and the list goes on. I have been excited to get him into a big bed (tentatively Christmas) for some time now, but I'm getting nervous with his protesting sleep. Will I want to put him back in the crib after a week of horrible bedtime episodes? Will I need to just lock the door? I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. His new bedding is really cute though.

I love how Gabe asks for things. He's been saying this for a while, but I'm only recently able to decode it. When he wants something, his request goes like this "Mahv some _____?" I was like, mahv? What's that Gabe? He got a little frustrated with me until I figured out that what he was trying to say was "May I have", and he just made it a contraction.

Gabe-isms this month:

• "Pacaderms, Mom! PACADERMS!" -- while pretending to fly around the kitchen a la Dumbo

• "Mommy, I'm gonna getcha... tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle!!!!" -- chasing me, hands outstretched, menacing grin on his face.
  
• "Gabe's okay... Gabe's okay" -- exasperated, after he had a coughing fit
  
• Gabe: "I'm all done" Mommy: "Please have some bread" Gabe: "Please have some ALL DONE!"
  

• "I'm sorry Dumbo!...It's okay Dumbo...Stay there Dumbo (in tears)" -- his reaction to having to wear (ahem, violate, in his opinion) his Dumbo costume for the first time. He grew to love it though :).

• "Mommy, I'm scared of the stinky one!" -- about our cleaning lady, thank goodness she couldn't hear over the vacuum... and she doesn't speak any English.

• "Mom, it's Jesus" (bearded man)..."It's a big whale mom. A baby whale and a mommy whale and a daddy whale. That's a big shark. The shark eat the baby whale. That makes me cry, Mom. The whale makes me cry." -- narrating a storybook to me (and that's not a version he's ever heard from me before)

Halloween!

Dumbo the flying pacadermHOPE butterfly (HOPE for Ari mascot)

Bellarina

A new Halloween tradition has fallen into our laps, and I'm so happy it has. This is the second year in a row that our street has thrown a Halloween block party, complete with a costume parade, kids of all ages, candy passer-outers (for those of us who want to go trick-or-treating with the kids), dinner and delicious treats for everyone! It is also the second year that the Edwards family has joined us for this event (see last year -- thankfully, this year came without any tragedy). We had such a great time this year. The kids have figured out that if that say "trick-or-treat", they get candy in their pumpkins... magic. Even Ariana got to say the magic phrase with her talker, a.k.a her augmentative communication device.

Here's how the trick-or-treating went...

*ding dong*

Kids: "Trick or treat!"

Adult: "Oh, how cute. Here you go!"

Kids: "Thank you! Happy Halloween."

Adult: "Happy Halloween."

Kids: "CLOSE THE DOOR!"

So nice :). (Chrissy, I warned you).

"Oooh scary! Scary man mom. I wanna see the scary man!"

This series of pictures is entitled 'the slowest walking, most distracted trick-or-treaters on the block':

Gabe: "C'mon Lana!"

Lana: "C'mon Gabe!""Lolipop POWER!"