Cooking, Father's Day and Long Chats with BSG...June 18-24, 2011

I was a busy girl this week, what with continuing to try to grow my tooth and entertaining my parents :)  I'm becoming a regular frequenter of my Mommy's kitchen and trying to help "cook".  No one tells you how fun all these bowls and spoons and pots and pans are, but man...I can make some music on them!



I had a really nice weekend and got to spend time with friends and family.  My friend, Madison, turned 2 on Sunday and we got to go back to the park and play on the swingset.  I do love the park!

Sunday was also Father's Day and we went to my Uncle Allan's house to celebrate with our whole Spivey family out here.  We had a lot of fun and I got to play with all my cousins and their kids and spend the evening learning all about how to cook large volumes of meat from my Uncle Allan (he made 1lb. hamburgers...I couldn't eat a whole one! :))  My Mommy forgot the camera, however, so we didn't get any really good pictures.

I also met with Ms. Gay Lloyd and Ms. Colleen at my therapy center this week.  Ms. Gay Lloyd said I was doing really well with keeping my tongue in my mouth when eating.  Unfortunately, when I'm tired, and playing, I don't do such a good job with it.  So, we'll continue exercises to get my tongue to be a little less lax.  As you can see below, one of the good things I do now is try to feel my newfound tooth with my tongue.  I'm constantly playing with it...it feels very strange. Mommy says it's a "razor sharp fang".  I'm starting to use it to try to mash my food...it feels good to grind food on it.  BUT...mostly I just feel it with my tongue...ALLLLL the time!  (Good exercise though!)

Note the tongue action on my right front tooth-in-progress...

We actually had SUNSHINE this week on several days and Mommy took advantage of that sun to get to dress me in some summer clothes that I've been unable to wear up until now.  I mean, I like the sun and all, but probably not as much as my Mom.  It gets in my eyes, then my eyes water...but Mommy swears that someday I'm going to love it as much as her, especially after one of our VERY long Seattle water-filled-winters!

This is apparently called "playing in the sun"...I do love my Jesse dog's ball!

In other news, I will soon be transitioning out of Ms. Audrey's class into Mrs. Linda's class.  Mommy and Daddy met with Mrs. Linda for the first time to talk all about me and what I can do and what I can't eat (dairy, mandarin oranges, and recently applesauce ... all big-urp foods!)  They had a nice time and think Mrs. Linda is very nice, but they sure are going to miss Ms. Audrey.  After they met with Mrs. Linda, I got to go over to her classroom and go outside with the "big toddlers" and play a couple of times and that was fun. The big toddlers have a nifty little playground that I can climb on and, well, I do love to climb, so that part of it is ok with me.  I hope Ms. Audrey will come visit me once I move!!

As I'm a big girl now, I've been having some heart-to-heart talks with my Baby Sister, who we'll call "BSG" for now.  I do like to stand on her head while Mommy rocks me at night, but I also like to pat on her when she kicks me when I'm climbing on Mommy.  Mommy calls this "abuse from both sides", but I think it's great fun!

Discussing the future with BSG...

I'm excited for BSG to come visit.  Daddy keeps telling me it's not just a visit, but we'll see!!!!

Kissing BSG...

Well, that's all the news that's fit to print.  Next week, lots going on, including A PLANE RIDE to New York to visit family and see Mommy's cousin get married.  I can't wait! :)  Have a good week!

Teeth, Dr. Visits, Playtime & IFSP updates...Oh My! June 11 - June 17, 2011

Hello!!!  There is big news this week...I HAVE A TOOTH!  Mommy couldn't get a picture of it and it's JUST started to poke through, but it's definitely there!  It's my bottom right front tooth and I'm very interested in feeling it and playing with it with my tongue.  I'm very excited to try it out as it grows in!

Though I'm very excited about my tooth, I did have a little bit of a bad week because I ended up with a staph infection on my girl parts and bottom! :(  Last week, when I hurt my eye, Mommy and Daddy also had the doctor check out what looked like the beginning of a diaper rash.  He gave them a prescription cream to use on my "area" for up to 10 days.  So, Mommy and Daddy used it and my "diaper rash" steadily got worse.  In fact, on day 9 of the 10 days, it got really bad, where I had some of the sores starting to ooze and let me tell you, when I peed, it HURT!!!  So, Mommy took me straight to Dr. P.  She saw my bum area and said, "Oh My!"  She said it wasn't a diaper rash or yeast infection, but looked like strep.  She ran a strep test, which came back negative, and then said, "It's appears to be a staph infection."  Mommy felt really awful, but Dr. P assured her the issue was that the medicine the other dr. gave us just exacerbated the problem.  In any case, she gave Mommy some new antibiotic cream and some special "Triple Cream" to put on my lady parts and bottom.  I'm happy to report that 4 days later, it's starting to go away and I'm back to sleeping through the night without waking up screaming from my diaper area!  Mommy knows now that pediatricians, NOT urgent care doctors, know best about baby's sensitive areas!

In other news, my school had a really nice picnic over the weekend and I went.  Ms. Audrey and Ms. Elsa, Ms. Jayme and Ms. Ellen were all there and I got to picnic and play at the beach park where the picnic was.  It wasn't a "warm" day, but it was not raining, so we'll take it!  While at the park, I got to ride on the swingset and...a MOTORCYCLE!  I also got to eat part of a HOT DOG for the first time...now THAT is good food!

Kaety riding a "motorcycle" with Daddy's help

I did a lot of playing with new things and displaying new skills this week as well.  I am a BIG FAN of riding in my little red wagon that Uncles Kevin & Tommy gave me for my birthday...

...and I learned how to use Nester as an acrobatic platform (Mommy's not entirely thrilled with this new feat!)...


Kaety standing on Nester's back!

...I've also figured out how to stand up and open the cabinets in the kitchen.  Let me tell you, there is some FUN STUFF in there!

This makes GREAT noise!

We also updated my IFSP with Ms. Colleen and Ms. Donna this week.  I accomplished about 95% of the items from our update 6 months ago.  Things I still need to work on include:

• sounds other than "dadadada"  (I do say bababa, mamamama, though infrequently)
• learning to sign words and more sign understanding
• working on tongue control
• continued focus on building core strength so I can stand and walk on my own. 

Things I'm going to work on in the next 6 months in addition to the continuation of the above include:

• differentiating objects from flash cards
• learning at least one word that means something
• eating with utensils (what are those?!)
• more learning on "nice touches" so I don't continue to pull hair and supposedly to prepare me for when Baby Sister comes in a few months. 

I'm excited to try new things, and I'm sure I'll continue to surprise everyone with how much I want to do!

With all the things to work on, I have several things that I'm doing that surprised Ms. Donna in particular such as: 

• turning and moving from one object to another while "cruising"
• climbing up 2 stairs
• making choices in objects (though Mommy doesn't think I really do it too consciously yet!). 

In addition, Mommy's going to start taking me to swim lessons as soon as I'm 13-14 months old and they'll let me in the class.  We're already on the wait list, but we'll have to see when I get in.  I'm pretty excited about that! :)

Finally, the other news this week is I got my "walking" papers!  Officially on July 5th, I'll start to transition out of Ms. Audrey's room into a new classroom with other toddlers.  Mommy's sad we're leaving Ms. Audrey, but happy that Baby Sister will be in Ms. Audrey's room this fall.  I'm going to be going into the same classroom as my friends Peyton and Christopher, so that should help the transition a bit.  Stay tuned for more information on how this goes in the coming weeks!

Have a GREAT week...Ta Ta For Now... :)

Being One Year: The First Two Weeks: May 28, 2011 - June 10, 2011

I'm Back!  You may have noticed that I took a week off from writing after my BIG birthday.  We had a lot going on here and I got a little tied up with all the activity, so please forgive me.  I'll try to be better from this point on!

After my big day, that first weekend, I had a really nice party at a kid's museum here in Seattle.  I had lots of friends who came to my party and my Grandma Ward was here for the party as well.  My Sissy came to spend the weekend with me and she played with me a lot during my party. 

I received a lot of really neat gifts including a photo album of my first year from my friend Kayla, a bobby car, my very own beach chair and cooking pots, some really fantastic books and puzzles, a drum and musical instruments, and a beach towel for when I start swimming lessons!  You can see that I really enjoyed myself and my presents!

The following week after my party, I went to visit Dr. P for my one year checkup.  Dr. P was really pleased with all my development.  She said the only things from her perspective I really need to work on are talking and keeping my tongue in my mouth.  We're still working on the reflux issue, but it IS getting better.  I just have to keep to soy milk and not eat things like yogurt, or put too much in my body at once and I can mostly keep it under control with my daily Prilosec.  Which is good, and is proven by the fact that Dr. P says I'm a BIG girl, but still have a little head...here are my one year stats:

WEIGHT: 22 lbs, 12 oz.  (75% on a typical scale)

HEIGHT:  28.75 inches (50% on a typical scale)

HEAD:  17 inches around (5% on a typical scale :( )

Daddy says that though my head is small, it is just efficient. :)

The next big events after my doctor appointment was a weekend full of FUN FUN FUN!  My best bud Kayla turned one year old (we're very close in age!) and I got to go to her birthday party. 

Kayla!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day here and we spent it at a park at her party, looking out over the water and Olympic mountains in the sunshine....AHHHHH!

Kayla and me

I also got to eat cake!  Have I mentioned how much I LOOOVE cake?  MMMMM! :)

The day after Kayla's birthday, I got to go to my very first Special Olympics!  Mommy's old boss is the event director for the Athletics events for WA State Special Olympics, so she got us passes to attend.  I saw lots of people running and jumping and walking and it was very exciting.  Plus, they had a petting zoo there and I got to touch both a chicken and a kitty.  I even did nice petting on the kitty!  Mommy was very proud of me.  We met a very nice lady named Elizabeth who is 44 and has Down Syndrome too.  She was extremely excited to meet me, a baby with DS, and made sure all her friends knew I was special like her.  She talked to Mommy and Daddy for a while.  She lives in Olympia, WA in her own apartment!  Her brother lives in Australia, which is very exotic.  She was a really nice lady.

Unfortunately, while we were at Special Olympics, I had a moment when Daddy was holding me where I got VERY upset.  We're talking MAJOR meltdown, which I hardly ever do.  Mommy and Daddy thought I got stung by an insect or something happened because all of a sudden, my right eye started watering and got purple and started swelling.  Pretty much from that point on, I was not a very happy girl.  Mommy and Daddy left and tried to go to a nice lunch at the beach at Alki, but I was REALLY upset and just kept crying and crying.  Finally, Mom and Dad decided a trip to the Urgent Care was in order.  So, we headed over right before they closed and lo and behold, the dr. saw that I had a big ole' scratch across my eye.  I guess I did it with one of my fingernails (which were immediately cut the minute we got home!).  SO...they gave me eye medicine and put a patch over my eye.  I didn't even mind the patch, I was so relieved not to have light hitting it and from that point on, I played nicely the rest of the day! ;)

Later on in the week, my Aunties from the East Coast, Liz and Jacqui, sent me some wonderful gifts for my birthday.  One of them was a REALLY cool car that I absolutely LOVE!  Daddy put it together for me and I've been begging to ride in it pretty much every day!  Sissy, Mommy, and Daddy have all helped me move around in my new car.  Have I mentioned I'm a REALLY lucky little girl?!

Well, I think we're all caught up now.  I've got lots more fun things to share next week...stay tuned!  Have a great week! :)