For a little person who is so smart, Abby can be so wierd sometimes. Some of the things she does are wierd, but also the cutest darn thing in the world. Other things just make me go "huh?"
One of my favorite things is that we have our own little made up language. She was babbling something after her bath a few months ago which in itself was wierd because she has been talking really well for quite a while now. So I started mimicking her and she caught on and we had a completely made up conversation. Sharing this with her is awesome but what is so amazing is that she totally understood that we were making it up. Her imagination seems endless these days
Something that she has started doing recently is a funny little walk. She crosses one leg in front of the other and then tilts her head from one side to the other. She knows she is being silly and she thrives off of our laughter. She will walk the length of a room and then run back to start over again!
So those are some of the cute things. For the last 3 nights, after we tucked her in, we heard her talking for about 20 minutes. Just talking to her toys or the wall or the pillow. Then when we head to bed and check on her she has completely stripped to just her undies and is laying upside down in her bed with her feet on her pillow. The first night we thought maybe she just got hot but now I think she is just getting bored!
Those are apparently the only things I can come up with right now, though I know there are more. Short blog for tonight but some things I felt like sharing!
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sick Kiddos
In a word, heartbreaking. It doesn't matter if it is a skinned knee, a raging ear infection or projectile vomiting. Anytime that Abby is sick or hurt and she looks at me with that "please help me/make the pain stop" face I just want to join her in a good cry. For such a strong, smart, independant little lady, when she truly truly needs me I just want quit my job and never leave her again. At 2 years old, Abby is on her 10th ear infection, 3rd one since tubes placed 8 months ago. Oh and the tubes are now on their way out, awesome! That means 10 rounds of antibiotics, 7 episodes of fevers spiking to 104.8 (the last 3 have been miraculously fever free), 10 weeks of taking several doses of tylenol or ibuprofen, 10 times that her little ears cause her terrible pain, do I need to go on. Along with this she has had 3 sinus infections, the 3rd also being right now, and her first experienc with pink eye. The sinus infection leads to drainage which leads to coughing, mostly while lying down, which leads to no sleep, for anyone.
What is the point of this? That even with all this on her plate, she still smiles and loves life. Sure she is a little more sensitive to things like the word "no," but in general you would never know she was sick by the way she acts. This is amazing to me. Where does she find this inner strength to laugh in the face of illness? Most adults I see in my clinic, and me for that matter, look like they are on their deathbed with just a sinus infection. Just one of the 3 things that Abby is fighting right now. Kids truly are remarkable. They bounce back from just about everything and it takes a LOT to dampen their spirits.
Everyday Abby gives me another reason to be in awe of her which makes me love her even more than the day before. She is my inspiration and the joy of my life!
What is the point of this? That even with all this on her plate, she still smiles and loves life. Sure she is a little more sensitive to things like the word "no," but in general you would never know she was sick by the way she acts. This is amazing to me. Where does she find this inner strength to laugh in the face of illness? Most adults I see in my clinic, and me for that matter, look like they are on their deathbed with just a sinus infection. Just one of the 3 things that Abby is fighting right now. Kids truly are remarkable. They bounce back from just about everything and it takes a LOT to dampen their spirits.
Everyday Abby gives me another reason to be in awe of her which makes me love her even more than the day before. She is my inspiration and the joy of my life!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Where did that come from?
So, recently Abby has developed the ability to repeat everything we say. Do you know where this is going? I exhibited some road rage and politely suggested to the driver in front of us that he "move his @#$." Immediately from the backseat I hear "moooove ash!" Not just once, but in broken record mode until I could get her talking about something else. Now it hasn't been said since, but this was the first of what I am sure will be many similar moments. When we are cleaning or moving things and Abby gets underfoot it is not unusual for us to ask/tell her to "move out of the way honey." It is always followed with a please and the tone is not frustrated at all. However, when this phrase is repeated by, oh, say a toddler, it results in some embarrassment at the store. We were in Target and she was in the cart and we had to squeeze past another cart. I politely said excuse me and smiled at the other shopper. Abby, not able to control her tone or remember entire phrases, manages to say "move out the way" while shaking her finger (honestly don't know where that came from). I told her that was not polite and to apologize, which she did, but my face was still a shade of red.
Abby does pick up on things really quickly and remembers what to say in certain situations so now we just say "hi" to the same person 50 times or "excuse me" until they are out of site or "thank you berry much" until the other person stops replying with "your welcome." We are making progress!
The blessing right now is that we can hold very short conversations with Abby now. She is enunciating really well and is speaking in sentences, it is awesome to be able to communicate finally. The curse however is that she can say exactly what she is thinking, wherever we might be. If I lift her into the cart at the store and her leg gets a little stuck going in, she will let me and everyone else around know that "mommy, you hurt my leg." Luckily this doesn't upset her and cause tears and a scene, she is simply telling me exactly what just happened. The guy in the other aisle doesn't know that though. Life is full of this type of situation currently. I am just glad that for the most part I really don't care what people, who don't know me and I will never see again, think of me.
The last thing I want to share is pretty cute. I mentioned in another post that Abby has been having some problems with pooping. Well, the other night she was fussing right after we got her out of the bath. I asked her what was wrong and if something hurt. She said "my tutty hurts." Your what? She just kept repeating until I asked her to show me. She pointed at her bottom. Ahhhh, your bottoms hurts? Yep. So we know what the problem is and take a peak and use a little diaper cream to sooth said area. Then I tell Jason that I would love to know who taught her to say that when referring to her bottom. We do nickname some things but they need to be names we have decided are appropriate alternatives, not someone else. He looked right back at me and said "Umm, what do you call her every time she passes gas?" Well I call her Tooter Pants...oh, right. We always ask if she just made a tooter or we call her tooter britches or other equally mature names. Seems Abby called it exactly what she thought it was!
Abby does pick up on things really quickly and remembers what to say in certain situations so now we just say "hi" to the same person 50 times or "excuse me" until they are out of site or "thank you berry much" until the other person stops replying with "your welcome." We are making progress!
The blessing right now is that we can hold very short conversations with Abby now. She is enunciating really well and is speaking in sentences, it is awesome to be able to communicate finally. The curse however is that she can say exactly what she is thinking, wherever we might be. If I lift her into the cart at the store and her leg gets a little stuck going in, she will let me and everyone else around know that "mommy, you hurt my leg." Luckily this doesn't upset her and cause tears and a scene, she is simply telling me exactly what just happened. The guy in the other aisle doesn't know that though. Life is full of this type of situation currently. I am just glad that for the most part I really don't care what people, who don't know me and I will never see again, think of me.
The last thing I want to share is pretty cute. I mentioned in another post that Abby has been having some problems with pooping. Well, the other night she was fussing right after we got her out of the bath. I asked her what was wrong and if something hurt. She said "my tutty hurts." Your what? She just kept repeating until I asked her to show me. She pointed at her bottom. Ahhhh, your bottoms hurts? Yep. So we know what the problem is and take a peak and use a little diaper cream to sooth said area. Then I tell Jason that I would love to know who taught her to say that when referring to her bottom. We do nickname some things but they need to be names we have decided are appropriate alternatives, not someone else. He looked right back at me and said "Umm, what do you call her every time she passes gas?" Well I call her Tooter Pants...oh, right. We always ask if she just made a tooter or we call her tooter britches or other equally mature names. Seems Abby called it exactly what she thought it was!
The terrible twos (TT's)
There must be a secret handbook delivered to all children on their second birthday via a similar system as the tooth fairy. I thought for sure that if we were always loving on Abby and talking to her calmly when she was upset or did something wrong that we could perhaps prevent this stage. Part of me still believes that. I find it so hard to accept that for the next 1-2 years I will just have a brat for a child and I refuse to just blame it all on her age. Being a nurse is amazing, but for me it is also a curse. Knowing what I know and seeing what I see, it is hard not to try and diagnose my child...daily. I want a reason for the way she is acting, not just an excuse.
While I will absolutely admit that this age can be very frustrating for a child which in turn can lead to some epic tantrums and meltdowns, I also believe that there is a reason behind everything if we are willing to do the research before allowing our tempers to match that of our child.
Over the past several weeks, Abby just turned 2 a few weeks ago, Abby has gone through quite a bit. Nothing serious mind you, but lots of little things that could wear on most adults, let alone a toddler. Let's first look at her birthday and the events surrounding it. First of all I disrupted her sleep at 4am, removed her from her cozy bed and placed her in a car seat so we could make the 10 hour drive to Kansas for the occasion. While she did remain mostly asleep through this transition, I don't sleep well sitting up so why would I think a 2 year old can. She did pretty good and slept the first 4 hours of the trip and then we made our first gas and potty stop. It was just the two of us for this leg of the journey, Jason had to meet us the next day. Because of this there was no one to play with and entertain Abby on the drive. She still did remarkably well and we made it, just in time to take her out of a car seat and tell her it was nap time. Raise your hand if you think this went smoothly. Put your hands down! Some might view the resistance that I met as age related. I would say it is completely understandable for any human being to not want to sit for 10 hours just to be told to go to bed without running around and stretching their legs, not a result of the TT's.
The weekend went very smoothly until the drive home. Jason was with us so I sat in the back to play with Abby. Our 10 hour trip became a 12.5 hour trip due to traffic and construction and we lost an hour due to timezones. Use your imagination to paint this picture, it shouldn't be hard. Again, TT's or crappy situation?
We return and develop a cough. But when do we cough? Mostly at night, prohibiting restful sleep, resulting in a crabby child. TT's or normal behavior for any human who doesn't get good rest for several nights in a row?
We are finally getting over the cough and enter belly problems. We had her 2 month check up when we got back and one concern was Abby's abnormally large #2's. There is that number again, forget about unlucky 13, 2 is starting to get a pretty bad rap at our house! The doc suggested a daily sprinkling of Miralax to at least soften everything up so she doesn't have hemorrhoids before she's 3! 4 days after starting this regimen, (4 is a multiple of 2, just sayin') Abby stops pooping. Hmmm, before laxative pooping, after laxative no pooping, awesome. So now we have a constipated 2 year old. On day 3 with no progress we were about to have to take extreme measures. Her belly must have known because the dam broke! Funnily enough, right after that her mood got a little better. Not so fast, lets add a stomach virus so that we can wake up 3 times that same night and vomit, everywhere. Followed by 2 days of the opposite of constipation. Would you be in a good mood? Would you eat all of your supper? Would you cry for apparently no reason?
Now these things are obvious causes of crabbiness. What about the subtle causes that get missed and result in blaming the TT's? Abby has been pretty sensitive lately and cries at the drop of a hat, or the word "no." I start to think, must be the... hang on a second, why has she been putting her finger in her mouth? She is too old for that and never really did that before anyway, except when she was... Ah ha! We take a peak and sure enough her 2nd molars are coming in. Do I need to point out which molars again or do you see a trend?
So there is my rant. Yes she is testing limits and exploring and trying to push boundaries but is she really doing this to make us mad and get her little tush popped? No. The tantrums and meltdowns are because something has upset her, whether we feel it is valid or not, and we need to allow her to feel and express herself the way she currently knows how to. We can calmly try to redirect her and talk to her and explain that there are better ways to do things and just be understanding of what is going on in our sweet, precious, currently possessed by the devil, child!
While I will absolutely admit that this age can be very frustrating for a child which in turn can lead to some epic tantrums and meltdowns, I also believe that there is a reason behind everything if we are willing to do the research before allowing our tempers to match that of our child.
Over the past several weeks, Abby just turned 2 a few weeks ago, Abby has gone through quite a bit. Nothing serious mind you, but lots of little things that could wear on most adults, let alone a toddler. Let's first look at her birthday and the events surrounding it. First of all I disrupted her sleep at 4am, removed her from her cozy bed and placed her in a car seat so we could make the 10 hour drive to Kansas for the occasion. While she did remain mostly asleep through this transition, I don't sleep well sitting up so why would I think a 2 year old can. She did pretty good and slept the first 4 hours of the trip and then we made our first gas and potty stop. It was just the two of us for this leg of the journey, Jason had to meet us the next day. Because of this there was no one to play with and entertain Abby on the drive. She still did remarkably well and we made it, just in time to take her out of a car seat and tell her it was nap time. Raise your hand if you think this went smoothly. Put your hands down! Some might view the resistance that I met as age related. I would say it is completely understandable for any human being to not want to sit for 10 hours just to be told to go to bed without running around and stretching their legs, not a result of the TT's.
The weekend went very smoothly until the drive home. Jason was with us so I sat in the back to play with Abby. Our 10 hour trip became a 12.5 hour trip due to traffic and construction and we lost an hour due to timezones. Use your imagination to paint this picture, it shouldn't be hard. Again, TT's or crappy situation?
We return and develop a cough. But when do we cough? Mostly at night, prohibiting restful sleep, resulting in a crabby child. TT's or normal behavior for any human who doesn't get good rest for several nights in a row?
We are finally getting over the cough and enter belly problems. We had her 2 month check up when we got back and one concern was Abby's abnormally large #2's. There is that number again, forget about unlucky 13, 2 is starting to get a pretty bad rap at our house! The doc suggested a daily sprinkling of Miralax to at least soften everything up so she doesn't have hemorrhoids before she's 3! 4 days after starting this regimen, (4 is a multiple of 2, just sayin') Abby stops pooping. Hmmm, before laxative pooping, after laxative no pooping, awesome. So now we have a constipated 2 year old. On day 3 with no progress we were about to have to take extreme measures. Her belly must have known because the dam broke! Funnily enough, right after that her mood got a little better. Not so fast, lets add a stomach virus so that we can wake up 3 times that same night and vomit, everywhere. Followed by 2 days of the opposite of constipation. Would you be in a good mood? Would you eat all of your supper? Would you cry for apparently no reason?
Now these things are obvious causes of crabbiness. What about the subtle causes that get missed and result in blaming the TT's? Abby has been pretty sensitive lately and cries at the drop of a hat, or the word "no." I start to think, must be the... hang on a second, why has she been putting her finger in her mouth? She is too old for that and never really did that before anyway, except when she was... Ah ha! We take a peak and sure enough her 2nd molars are coming in. Do I need to point out which molars again or do you see a trend?
So there is my rant. Yes she is testing limits and exploring and trying to push boundaries but is she really doing this to make us mad and get her little tush popped? No. The tantrums and meltdowns are because something has upset her, whether we feel it is valid or not, and we need to allow her to feel and express herself the way she currently knows how to. We can calmly try to redirect her and talk to her and explain that there are better ways to do things and just be understanding of what is going on in our sweet, precious, currently possessed by the devil, child!
Giving credit where credit is deserved
Everyday there is something new. Abby is constantly learning, developing, or perfecting something. We had our parent-teacher conference at Abby's school today and I walked away feeling so proud. Whether the words actually came out of the teacher's mouth or not, what I took away from the meeting was that my child is the smartest kid in her class. Hearing her say things like "Abby is so advance," and "I can always count on Abby to answer questions or participate in group circle time" just makes my heart melt. She is only 2 for goodness sake and we are hearing comments like this! This is my blog so I get to brag about my kiddo as much as I want!
It has taken a while for me to be able to just take the credit for how smart Abby is. I would tell people that we have an awesome daycare, which we really do. Or I would say that Abby is just a little sponge and picks up on things quickly. After much encouragement from Jason I can finally say "my kid is smart because I work really hard with her all the time!"
Whether it is teaching colors, numbers, ABC's or focusing on using our "nice" words when asking for things or talking to people, we are always teaching. Abby knows over 36 signs and actually understands them, she doesn't just use them when we ask her what the sign for something is. This is because as soon as we started giving her rice cereal I started using the signs for "more," "please," "thankyou," and "milk." Shortly thereafter she transitioned to the class that was using beginning sign so it just supported the work we had already started at home. From there we purchased a book with a few more signs and just went over the book daily until after about 2 weeks she suddenly got it and did every sign in the book.
When Abby was about 14 months she started telling us when she had gone potty so we got a potty chair. She would sit on it everynight while her bath was running, she didn't do anything but she got used to the idea of sitting on it. We took a break between 18 and 22 months when she lost interest completely. Then she started again so in one weekend I stayed home with her and we got potty trained. We sent her to school with a pull-up and day 1 she told them everytime she had to go. Day 2 was a success as well and by the end of week one they changed her status to "potty trained." Go me!
We started singing the alphabet to her by the time she turned 1. We bought letters for the bath at about 20 months and by 21 months she knew the song and could tell me what the letters were. By 22 months she could pick up the letters at random and tell us what they were. She was transitioned to the 2 year old class because when the school curriculum picked back up in August and they started to tell the class they were going to do their ABC's, they couldn't believe when Abby just sang hers. They said she was too advanced and ready to move up! We are almost there with signing it.
Counting was next. Abby can count to 20 in English and 10 in Spanish and French! She will even tell you which one she is going to do!
Abby turned 2 on October 22 and she is potty trained, knows the alphabet and understands the concept of signing the letters (her little fingers just can't make all the signs), counts in 3 languages, can tell you the basic colors and sign them, knows over 36 signs, knows her basic shapes and can hold a short conversation. To take a page out of my mother-in-law's book, when people tell me how lucky I am to have such a smart kid (in her story it was well behaved kids) I will stand up for myself and say "I am not lucky, I worked damned hard to get here!"
It has taken a while for me to be able to just take the credit for how smart Abby is. I would tell people that we have an awesome daycare, which we really do. Or I would say that Abby is just a little sponge and picks up on things quickly. After much encouragement from Jason I can finally say "my kid is smart because I work really hard with her all the time!"
Whether it is teaching colors, numbers, ABC's or focusing on using our "nice" words when asking for things or talking to people, we are always teaching. Abby knows over 36 signs and actually understands them, she doesn't just use them when we ask her what the sign for something is. This is because as soon as we started giving her rice cereal I started using the signs for "more," "please," "thankyou," and "milk." Shortly thereafter she transitioned to the class that was using beginning sign so it just supported the work we had already started at home. From there we purchased a book with a few more signs and just went over the book daily until after about 2 weeks she suddenly got it and did every sign in the book.
When Abby was about 14 months she started telling us when she had gone potty so we got a potty chair. She would sit on it everynight while her bath was running, she didn't do anything but she got used to the idea of sitting on it. We took a break between 18 and 22 months when she lost interest completely. Then she started again so in one weekend I stayed home with her and we got potty trained. We sent her to school with a pull-up and day 1 she told them everytime she had to go. Day 2 was a success as well and by the end of week one they changed her status to "potty trained." Go me!
We started singing the alphabet to her by the time she turned 1. We bought letters for the bath at about 20 months and by 21 months she knew the song and could tell me what the letters were. By 22 months she could pick up the letters at random and tell us what they were. She was transitioned to the 2 year old class because when the school curriculum picked back up in August and they started to tell the class they were going to do their ABC's, they couldn't believe when Abby just sang hers. They said she was too advanced and ready to move up! We are almost there with signing it.
Counting was next. Abby can count to 20 in English and 10 in Spanish and French! She will even tell you which one she is going to do!
Abby turned 2 on October 22 and she is potty trained, knows the alphabet and understands the concept of signing the letters (her little fingers just can't make all the signs), counts in 3 languages, can tell you the basic colors and sign them, knows over 36 signs, knows her basic shapes and can hold a short conversation. To take a page out of my mother-in-law's book, when people tell me how lucky I am to have such a smart kid (in her story it was well behaved kids) I will stand up for myself and say "I am not lucky, I worked damned hard to get here!"
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