Almost February

I am going to start this blog by updating by people, then move on to the last week or so.

I will start with Kasey. She's moving right along, literally! She crawls faster than lighting! We are now in phase where if you want to open the fridge, you do it fast and shut it as fast as possible, because if you stand there with it open little Miss Lightning McQueen is going to be IN it before you can blink! She has also figured out how to climb the stairs, all the way to the top! So, we now have to keep the gate on the bottom of the stairs all the time. Which our 3 year old doesn't appreciate now that her playroom is upstairs. But safety comes before entertainment.

Kasey is in the phase where she likes to take things out of boxes. She emptied Courtney's shoe bin the other night, and she will continually empty her plastic boxes that hold her toys. She loves it, it's so cute!

Kasey is also now walking behind moving things! It's a big step and a step closer to walking!
She has been driving me nuts this week. She has been a little grump for some reason, and not wanting to eat from a bottle. I even had to feed her twice overnight this past week. I finally took her to the doctor thinking that maybe she had an ear infection for some odd reason (she hasn't been sick). But her ears are fine. The doctor thinks it's probably teeth trying to come in. Good golly teething is not fun, for anyone!

She has been sleeping through the night, for the most part. She did have the two nights where she didn't eat much before bed, so she woke up and demanded food in the middle of the night. But last night was a little better. Tonight she ate pretty well before bed, so I am really hoping that means tonight she will sleep through the night!

Her psychical therapist has moved her to once a month now. This will hopefully extend her 20 visits allowed per year by Kaiser (our insurance company). She is on track now as far as her crawling and standing, but she still stands and walks a lot on her toes. So, we are now working on that.

Courtney is doing well. She is 3 and hard to live with because of it. Her OT is helping her with several things. We are doing this "brushing" technique to help her with her sensory issues. Another example of her sensory issue: she thinks that any water that has a hint of warm is HOT. So if she could have it her way, she would bathe and wash her hands in cold water.

She has bath crayons, and she likes to pretend they are lipstick.
Hubby is hanging in there. Work continues to be slow, the recession has really hit his company now. Life is still unsteady and scary, as are pay-days. They have been busy working to get a lot of proposals out to companies, so hopefully things will start to pick up soon.

I am doing well. I came down with a bout of either food poisoning or the 24 hour stomach bug on Tuesday night. I was down for the count for 24 hours! Almost to the minute! I was miserable! It has been a long long long time, if ever, that I have felt that bad. Thankfully Hubby was able to stay home from work on Wednesday because it was all I could do to get out of bed. I feel much better now, a little weak still and some foods still bother me a bit, but nothing like how I felt Tuesday night and Wednesday! So glad that is over!

Let's see, I ended the last blog post on a Sunday a few weeks ago. Last week in zoo preschool we talked about zebra's. Zebra's are sure cute! Here is Courtney diligently working on her zebra craft.
Here is Kasey hiding in her seat in the stroller because it's been so cold around here recently. She had a hat on (that Aunt Nancy made), but pulled it off.

Friday was MOPS as usual. And as usual I enjoyed it very much! Friday afternoon our neighbors came over and we made terrariums!
The next day was a busy one. Hubby went one way with Courtney to run errands. I went another way with Kasey to run errands. Divide and conquer so to speak. That really worked out well! I think we will have to try that again in the future.

That afternoon I took Courtney to see a local performance at a high school. Her babysitters (who are also sisters) were performing in a Disney signing event thing. Kelly and Kinsey met us there. There weren't able to stay for the whole thing, but I think they enjoyed what they did see! Courtney really liked it and she got to see Cinderella sing a song. She also got to meet Cinderella afterward, so she was pretty happy. Also Amber had a friend give Courtney a flower and Courtney thought that was just the best thing.

That night we had a few neighbors over, plus 2 cadets for brisket. Hubby smoked a brisket all day, and everyone else brought side dishes. It was all so yummy! It was a great time had by all.

My sister came down from Greeley on Tuesday. My mom took us out to dinner that night at the Melting Pot for a girls night. There was lots of laughing and lots of eating. It was fun!

Wednesday was the day I was sick, so Hubby took the girls to their therapy sessions.

Thursday my sister went with us to the zoo for preschool. We learned all about giraffes! She got right in there and helped Courtney make her craft. Kasey even tried to help too!


After crafts and our learning time it was time to head down to feed the giraffes the crackers we decorated for them!

After the zoo and a quick stop at my parents' house, we all met my mom for lunch at Guiseppe's Depot. Courtney enjoyed watching the trains go by and ate like a champ! After leaving there we headed home where is was a quick nap time before I had to take Kasey to the doctor. So, Courtney didn't get a nap. Apparently that caught up with her because I was making dinner and Hubby was out shoveling the sidewalks and driveway (it had been snowing all day) she crashed in the chair. She had been sitting there listening to music. Hubby put his hat on her and she didn't even wake up! Here she is all crashed out:


Today was a MOPS day. And this morning we left the kids at the Church and headed out to breakfast at a local place. We went to a new crepe place that was really very good!

Hubby's cousin Mike was here last night, visiting from Indiana. He is here tonight too, but has to leave early in the morning to head back home again. It's always nice to have family visit!

Next week seems to be shaping up the same as this week, but no zoo preschool (bummer). Big news is that Hubby will be turning 40 on Tuesday! How did that happen? I am in denial....

So big, so fast!

This past week has been a busy one for us. Monday we had Courtney's psycho-therapist appointment. I finally had a break through with some of the stuff he said. He has been telling us the best ways to handle children with special needs, but he finally put it in a way to me that really hit home and it has really worked out well for me this past week! So for me, things have been a lot calmer this past week. Granted things are not 100% normal, or happy, but getting better!

Tuesday was Kasey's 9 month old appointment. 9 months? How did that happen? She checked out well, came in at 18 lbs, still has a big head, but overall is happy and healthy. Only issue is the fact that she was still waking up 2-3 times a night and eating. So, we waited until the weekend and we are working on 're-programing' her. She is used to getting all her calories in a 24 hour period, we have to teach her that can't be, she needs to get her calories in about a 12 hour period instead (or a little less, but you get the idea). How do you do that? Well, the easiest way for me is to just ignore her crying at night (which, by the way, isn't actually easy for me). The doctor said we could go in and comfort her in her crib, but if I did that I would give in, pick her up and probably end up feeding her. The doctor said we could also ignore her, I choose that option. The first night she woke up twice, she cried for about an hour the first time and about 30 minutes the second. Last night she woke up once and cried for about 20 minutes, so we are headed in the right direction! Hopefully tonight will go just as smooth!

Wednesday was therapy day. Courtney is really enjoying her occupational therapy, as am I. She should have been in OT a LONG time ago. Her therapist is wonderful and has helped us in SO many ways, not just the therapy way! I am thankful we have found her!

Kasey had her psychical therapy and of course she screamed the whole time. It breaks my heart. I hid around the corner so she couldn't see me to see if it would help. It did a little, but not much. She's not being hurt, she just doesn't want to do what the therapist wants her to do. She's uncomfortable doing some of the stretches which is why we are there to begin with, so she just HAS to do them! I really look forward to the day that we don't have to do this anymore!

The next day was zoo preschool day. Hubby has been going with us. So, we all went and learned about Lemurs. The theme for this month is Madagascar. Courtney hasn't seen the movie, so we have it coming as our next movie from Netflix so she can figure out what they are talking about at preschool.

Speaking of which, Hubby and I watched the Curious Case of Benjamin Button this week. Great movie! Highly recommend it!

Anyway, back to the zoo, Courtney can't leave without feeding the giraffes. So, for her very first time, we let Kasey feed the giraffes too! She loved it and fed them several crackers. I guess from now on, the two girls will be feeding them!Friday was a MOPS morning. As usual I really enjoyed it. However, in our small group we have several moms that are experiencing different health problems in their lives right now, and it's tough to hear. I want to help them, but at this time there is nothing I can do. It's hard to feel helpless.

Saturday was a busy day around here also. Our neighbors next door got a dog over the summer and crazy Maggie has been trying to dig THROUGH the fence to get to it. Both her and Bristol go bonkers when the little dog is out next door. So, Rick and Brian covered the fence with plywood so they can't see through it anymore, or dig through the fence slats.

That night Hubby had planned a date night for us. It's been a LONG time since we have had a date night. We went and saw Avatar. We really enjoyed that and we are glad we went and saw it in theaters!

Hubby's work continues to be stressful. They have reached a real rough patch right now. The next few months are going to be long, and interesting.

Kasey is really big into waving and saying HI, it's so cute! She also started on a sippy cup this week! Plus more finger food, she had her first taste of meat the other night, and what did she have? Lamb. Yes Kasey's first meat was lamb. Hey, it's what the pediatrician recommends because it's softer. That or veal and we don't eat veal at the house so lamb it was!

Today our friends baby got baptized. So, we went to their church (St. Francis of Assisi) for the service. I am always lost at catholic mass, but got through! Natalie is a cutie, doing well and off oxygen! We left our kiddos with my parents. After running one errand, we went and picked them up. It's been a busy week and it starts all over again tomorrow!

Hope all of you are well!

Tired

Man, I feel wiped out. Maybe it's all the running around I do after 2 kids. Maybe it's all the stress in my life right now. Maybe it's because I stayed out until almost midnight last night with the ladies from my MOPS group. Who knows, maybe it's all 3, but I feel wiped out!

Kasey has started waving. It's so darn cute!!! She was waving in her own reflection in the wine fridge today. And tooth #6 has FINALLY broken through the gum. Of course that sucker took a LONG time to get here!

She has also hit a phase where she doesn't like to be fed off a spoon. She prefers to feed herself. So now we are trying to get creative with finger foods for her to eat. Currently her favorite is toast with a little butter. She could munch on that for an hour. We also have introduced her to fries, surprise surprise she loves those too. But we are struggling trying to find her soft things to eat that are nutritious that are finger foods. We tried some pasta the other day, and it didn't go well. So we ended up having to take that away.

Courtney got a dress up Cinderella dress for Christmas and has been in love with it since she got it. She wore it almost daily. Well, her friend across the street, Ava, who is about 6 months older than her, just discovered Princesses in the last week. Not that she didn't know about them before but all of a sudden she got "into" them. Ava came over to play on Friday and she wore Courtney's Cinderella dress the whole time and poor thing had a melt down when it was time to go home and she had to take it off. So Hubby and I decided we should probably get a second dress up dress of some sort. We went to Toys R Us on Saturday morning and what did we find? We found an Ariel (the Little Mermaid) wedding dress. Courtney was so excited she held it in the car between errands and the whole way home. And every chance she could wear it she did (we make her take it off for nap time and when she eats). And you know she has been very into "weddings" and "marriage" ever since Esten and Julie's wedding. So, she is so excited that she has her own wedding dress now! And it even came with a veil headband!

She kept pretending to marry me, and give me flowers etc. So, Saturday night I took her to Micheal's and let her pick out some fake flowers with some other decoration things. We brought it home and Hubby and I made up 2 bouquets for her. 2 because when she has a friend over to play 2 is always better than 1.

Let's see, what else has been going on? Well, my MOPS group started up again. We were on hiatus for the holidays. I am thankful for starting up again! It had been almost 2 months since we had our last Friday morning meeting. It's amazing how much more balanced and put together I feel after those! It's much better than any kind of therapy! We decided Friday morning that we all had a rough holiday season so we all needed some alcohol to make us feel better. So sitting there we decided we would meet up at a brewery the next night for some beers. We did and had a GREAT time! We LAUGHED and laughed! It was great!

We still have snow on the roads somewhat and large patches here and there although it has not snowed in a few weeks! It has just been so cold that stuff isn't melting! Hubby and I don't remember a time when we have had snow and ice stick around this long! I did read somewhere the other day that this is the coldest winter we have had since 1983 so far.

So, when we were out running errands the other day, we stopped at Hooters for lunch because we were at the mall. We put Kasey in their "highchair" and this is how she looked from the table:

Poor thing wasn't actually very high...

Well, I guess that's about all I have for now! Hope all of you are well!

Fast Food

So, my smart little one who acts like a 5 year old when she is only 3, now knows her fast food restaurants. Not that we eat fast food all that much, but she is just too smart for her own good. However, she does tend to the the names confused. She calls McDonald's "Old MacDonalds". Her favorite place to get nuggets and fries is Wendy's, and let me tell you what, you can NOT pull the wool over her eyes with a fast food joint. She knows exactly where you are, if you are pulling into a Burger King, you can not tell her it's a Wendy's, she knows better! Yesterday she told me she wanted to go to "King Booger" to get a hamburger, (she meant Burger King). Silly kid, that made me laugh, which in turn made her laugh even more so now she thinks its hilarious to say King Booger!

I have been trying for some time to get her into the Child Find program in our school district. If you are not familiar with Child Find, in a nutshell, it's a free preschool program designed for "special need" children and it's nation wide. They have physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech therapists on site at the school to do therapy with the kids. The way the program is worded, Courtney should qualify because of her delays in fine motor and gross motor skills. However they have been telling me since July that she doesn't qualify, without evaluating her. FINALLY we got an evaluation done yesterday. They told us at the evaluation that she still does not qualify as her delays do not impact her educationally at this time.

They whole thing is very frustrating. The biggest reason I want to get her into the program is because our insurance only gives her 20 visits per therapist per year (a year being when you start with that therapist). That really isn't very much. So, she may end up having a huge gap in services, which isn't good! And its not like we could afford to pay for those therapies out of pocket!

Anyway, they did "bump up" her priority on the waiting list and she is now in an "at risk" group meaning her delays MAY at some point impact her educationally so they need to keep an eye on her (so to speak and in a nutshell). She should be able to get in when the school year starts again in August, however, by then she will have been out therapy for a while, which worries me.

This whole process is very frustrating. I just am really worried about her having a lag or long break from her therapy, especially her occupational therapy. We have started to discover in the last month that she is pretty delayed in the sensory area. It's hard to describe, but it's not the senses like seeing, tasting, etc, but sensory. Which is why we have trouble with potty training, and why she thinks any water that may be remotely warm is HOT. The sensory delays are also liked to her behavioral problems. Yes, the kid has behavioral problems.

Good news (and no surprise to us) is that she excels in other areas such as comprehension, math, language. She is one smart cookie and comes in at about a 5 year old level in those areas (so they say).

Going through all that we have gone through with her has taught me a lot. One thing I have learned is that there is a program for kids birth-3 that offers free therapies and help. Of course I found out about that after Courtney was 3... BUT had I known about it, she would have been a candidate for the program, and she would not be having the issues she is having getting into Child Find. So that is frustration, but there is nothing I can do about it now. However, I am sure to tell anyone who has kids under 3 that may show ANY signs of problems about it. And since Kasey is in physical therapy I called today and Kasey will get evaluated by them. I have learned my lesson once the hard way. I am not going to let this happen again and if Kasey ends up not needing the program, good! But if she does, I will be very happy to have her in it!

ANYWAY, moving on. Hubby's Uncle Paul came to visit. Well, more like he was in town on business and was able to stay with us for a night. Courtney LOVED it and immediatly was smitten with her Uncle Paul. Of couse, that could also be because Uncle Paul brought her a princess laptop... But she really loved having him around for the evening. The last time Paul saw Courtney she was about 5 months old! She has changed a bit since then. And he got to meet Kasey in person!

After the girls went to bed, we spent the evening introducing Paul to the Nintendo Wii. He mentioned that he had not experienced it and was interested in trying it. He sure ended up liking it! I wonder if there is now a Wii in Paul's future. He is a big tennis player and so he really liked playing the tennis game. I told him that now he can play tennis in the comfort of his own home! And golf!

I also recently bought a game called Little Big Planet. Our friend Kelly gave it to Tony for Christmas and I was looking at it before she wrapped it. It looked so fun and then I started to ask people about it. Lots of people have heard about it, but not played it. So, I used one of my gift cards from Christmas and bought it. Hubby has played it and he played it with Paul last night. I have not gotten a chance to try it out yet, but even just watching it is fun! It is super cute!

Let's see, what else? Oh yes, Hubby's company is going through some big changes right now. One of the owners, the majority owner, left effective Jan 1. So, now the company is going through some restructuring. AND the company is really starting to get hit by the recession so things are tight and super scary right now. Especially for us since we are currently a one income family. In fact I have been working on updating my resume and starting to look for possible jobs. Do I want to go back to work? Heck NO, but it may come to that depending on what happens with the company. I really enjoy being a stay at home mom, playing with my girls all day, making dinner, making homemade baby food, etc. I enjoy the zoo preschool and my MOPS group. All of that would be really hard to give up if I need to...

Well, it's nap time, and I think I am going to take advantage of it and go try my game out. If Kasey will go back to sleep.... Hope all you are well!!

Welcome 2010

Well, 2010 has finally arrived. I have to say I am glad to have 2009 gone.

Kasey is moving right along. She is furniture surfing now. She doesn't take steps holding on to our fingers, but she will when holding onto furniture. She also tends to stand on her toes a lot, so her psychical therapist is going to work on that.

Courtney got her official diagnosis. She has 'Static Encephalopathy Central Hypotonia'. Basic definition is that her brain doesn't work right, which we already knew. She finally has an evaluation tomorrow with the child find people. I have a feeling I won't be happy with them or the outcome, but she is at least getting the evaluation.

Now that I think about it, 2010 hasn't started off really great, but I am going to try to continue to focus on the positives and hopefully things will improve soon. In fact, I am going to go play one of my new Wii games! That's always fun! Hope everyone is well!