20 Minutes With Elizabeth

"Helping" Mommy with the coupons

Mad that Mommy moved me away from the coupons

Even Madder!

Maybe a snack will make me feel better?

Great idea Mommy!

On second thought this bowl makes a better hat!

Update

Elizabeth turned 22 months on Sunday. Hard to believe!

She is still very tiny; weighing 17 lbs 9 oz last week. Just after Thanksgiving she was sick with a stomach bug and lost one pound, she is still catching up from that big weight loss. She is still in size 6-9 months, but can wear one piece 12 months for the length, even some of her 6-9 month size pants fall off when she walks. We should all have such problems!

Elizabeth’s speech is really coming along well. She has over 35 words now, the most recent additions – Elmo (mel-mo), milk, hot, out, thank-you (dank-u) & no-no. Her speech therapist worked for several weeks on no. Now she uses it to answer any question. She also uses it to correct herself- throws all her dinner on the floor and looks at me and says “no-no” It is really hard not to laugh.

I haven’t seen any red flags as far as cognitive delays; I try not to check the list of milestones. There is a chance we may not notice anything until she is in school where she may have some kinds of learning disabilities. Right now our only real struggle is her eating and weight gain. Elizabeth just isn’t that into food, especially her own. A cookie she will take and demand in fact if she sees one. “Real food” on the other hand is just better to throw. It is very frustrating, I try not to make a big deal about it, but I do wish she would be a better eater.

Elizabeth’s reflux has had a HUGE improvement now that we have switched medications. I think she may have vomited once since November. This is a great improvement as she was vomiting several times a week before. Right now Elizabeth is taking 4 daily medications and we have 2 more on an as needed basis.

Sick...again

Well, Elizabeth is sick again. Runny nose and cough today. She had a low fever last night, which hasn't come back yet today. We are doing breathing treatments as needed, have not had to go to every 4 hours yet. We have a plan this time to call her pulmonologist and he will walk us through oral steroids and try to avoid the ER if the cough gets bad enough that she needs breathing treatments more frequently. Our pedetrician office will send us in to the ER if she needs breathing treatments more than every 4 hours.
The one shinning cloud over this bout is that Elizabeth has learned a new "trick". She is just so darn cute! She will take a tissue and blow her nose all by herself, and she actually blows and cleans out her nose.

Ahh Sleep!

Not too long ago we had a little girl who who didn't sleep. I am so happy and rested to report that BOTH girls have slept all night long, 3 nights this week. (Ava actually slept all night every day, but once in a while she gets "lonely" at 3am or our favorite is when she ran into our room in the middle of the night, flipped the lights on and told us to get up it was time for breakfast!) Three nights may not seem like a lot to some people, but it is huge for us! Three nights off full sleep, I was even up 1/2 hour before the girls, eating breakfast in peace! Ahhh, lets just hope it lasts.

Side note- Elizabeth sees the doctor Friday, so I will have a new weight to post and I am also working on a post about her language development.

Here are some pictures of Elizabeth playing in flour. What a mess!!! Not sure what I was thinking, but it kept both girls busy so I could make dinner - but then I spent all night get flour out or off of everything!

Happy Birthday Ava!

Ava is turning 4, hard to believe that so much time has passed us by.

Ava has grown into such a sweet and loving little girl, we are so proud of her. Her preschool teachers tell me that she is kind to all of the children, although Ava tells us she doesn't play with boys! Ava is so loving and protective of Elizabeth. Ava makes sure that Elizabeth is safe and will alert us if she sees any danger, this of course does not hold when Ava herself is the one causing the trouble! Ava also makes sure to give us lots of hugs and kisses and has recently become more generous in giving them than she used to be.

What else is she doing?

She is beginning to read- Ava can read many books word for word from memory and is starting to read simple 3 letter words as well as familiar environmental print words (stop, McDonald's, cheerios, etc).

Ava can write her name and a few other letters and is able to spell mommy, daddy, pie, and Elizabeth. She is starting to do simple addition and subtraction as well.

Ava is as she always has been- BUSY! She is in constant motion, doing flips and flops around the house, jumping, and generally not keeping still. She loves soccer and gymnastics both of which we hope to start up again in the Spring.

Ava is into- being "Little Mouse", she pretends to be a mouse and this extends to the whole family, anything princess, Sleeping Beauty being the favorite. Angelina Ballerina is also a big hit lately and was her Halloween costume this year. Dress up, playing with dolls and "activity characters" (which are little plastic Disney people) take up most of her day at home.

We are so blessed to have this special little girl in our lives.

Here is a little video I put together of Ava's 3rd year. Hope you enjoy it.
Happy Fourth Birthday Ava!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We're tired

Elizabeth has been a little wild lately and her sleeping has been terrible. No clear reason as to why, but regardless of the reason Matt and I are exhausted!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

YIKES!!!

Yes that is a trampoline on Matt's truck! The wind was so strong the other day that it blew it over the neighbor's 6 ft fence and onto the truck taking the gutter out along the way. The truck only had ad few minor scratches - the trampoline is ruined (it later blew into a lamp post after it was taken off the truck).