Cankles

Today, my post is about cankles

Sophie has been on her own schedule for meeting milestones. She was late to roll over and crawl. She's always struggled with food textures and was exclusively breastfed for almost a year because of that. I LOVE Sophie's pediatrician. She has been such a good listener and has that perfect balance of caution and reassurance without being over the type like another certain physician I work with (wink wink to my coworkers haha!).

At Sophie's appointment for her 15 month well-child check this month, the Doctor asked about her milestones. Sophie isn't saying 3-5 words consistently, is not walking, and still has problems with texture and other table foods. That combination and my 'first time mother' concern led to today! We had an evaluation with a program called Early Intervention.

We met with a physical therapist, a speech therapist, and occupational therapist, and an RN. They talked to use and watched Sophie get around and play. They asked A LOT of questions... some about things I didn't think about: like what kind of babble-sounds she is making, and if she rolls her ankles when she walks. The said that she qualifies for the service (which is free or low cost based on a sliding scale for income).

The physical therapist was concerned with the strength in her legs, especially her ankles (as was her physician). They said that her muscle tone and ligaments are very loose in her ankles, which they often see with late crawlers. Her recommendation for us was to wear tennis shoes ALOT to see if that will help with her ankles. She said the next step would be to get some ankle/foot orthotics to help give her extra support and strengthen her ankles. She said that her upper body strength will improve as she continues to pull up on furniture and move around. She said it's great we caught it early because if not the loose ligaments would eventually affect her knees then hips and she would have an onset of severe arthritis by the time she was 30!!

The speech therapist said that her baby-babbles are all very reassuring and she is making repatative sounds and associating certain sounds with objects and people.

The occupational therapist said that she chews appropriately so she thinks that she is just a little 'stubborn' about eating table foods. She wants to give us some tips and help us to get her eating better. She said her fine motor skills are great though.

They take all the questions we answered and what they've seen and put it in a certain program that gives them scrores in each area and an overall developmental age based on the questions. Sophie is about 5 months behind developmentally. I was actually surprised but they said as soon as she walks that bumps her up a couple months. Part of me feels inadequate as a mother because I think what should I/could I have done. The other part of me knows that each child has their own schedule and most kids 'catch up' to each other later on.

The ladies that evaluated Sophie were so nice! I was completely impressed and really appreciate this service that they offer. I have heard about it but always had a picture of these inner-city neglected children and kids with disabilities using this government program. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they help all kinds of kids from infant to 3yr olds. They typically come out montly and give us tips and other exercises to work on with Sophie. She is evaluated every 3-6 months and services are dropped when they feel she is where she needs to be.

So, even though Sophie hates shoes (and socks - she is her mother's girl) we've been wearing them today. (P.S. Nike athletic shoes, DI, $3) It's been funny to watch her - she's been kicking the fireplace and furniture, trying to untie them, and acting like they're SOOOO heavy. Excuse the pjs - we WERE dressed but then she peed through her diaper...

This is that funny smile I keep telling ya about ... the squinty eyes and big teeth smile. I love this girl, she is so dang sweet and spending my days with her are the best!

Sophie and Chief

This morning was awful. A cop pulled me over for turning right without stopping (when the light was green). He was a complete jerk. He was totally condessending and inappropriate. I couldn't believe it. After several attempts at humiliating and intimidating me, he made himself out to be a savior for not towing my car, arresting me, and fining me because my registration stickers weren't in the right order (year first, month second). Give me a break. I hope he poops his pants in public.

Now on to the love of my life... my sweet baby!

We have a dog. He's pretty much useless. He lays around a lot, eats food, and drips water all over the floor. Sophie thinks he is pretty dang cool though! Typically the dog avoids the baby and the baby doesn't show much interest in petting the dog. Not tonight! I had just gotten home, got Sophie in her pjs, cuddled for a bit... then she got down and she started to chase the dog around. She kept patting his head and petting him. It was hilarious... she was chitter-chatting to herself and he just had 'that look' on his face, like save me.


































































She kept trying to convince him of how awesome her blankey is

He moved... she followed...

I love this girl. She was so excited to see me tonight and I love coming home to such a sweet little blessing. I have to work the next two days, so I am going to bed now.

My 'Toddler'

This picture totally describes Sophie. She loves the bath, she loves patty cake, and she is just a bright-eyed happy beautiful girl! She likes a little water to drip during her bath and she plays with it and tries to drink it and catch it. It's super funny to watch and she gets mad if you turn it off. She loves the water... she likes to put her feet in the sink when I do her hair, she loves swimming and bathing, she always is trying to dumb out her sippy and splash around in it.

Sophie has this 'new smile' that she does. She scrunches up her nose and squints her eyes then gets a huge teeth-y smile. It's so funny. It's either that, or her trying to get away from the camera. Lately she has been very anti-picture... even when I try to be sly about it she somehow knows and refuses to look my way.

Girls are so much fun to dress up. I made some babylegs recently and was excited to find a skirt at the DI to pair with them. Sophie thinks the hardwood floor is so cool. She always studies it and loves that she can scoot and crawl around so much easier on it!

She has yet to figure out the stairs and their possibilities. She'll go halfway up, and cry for me to come get her. She is not brave enough to go down on her own quite yet. I'm ok with that, I haven't had to use a babygate yet and she doesn't really have interest in them... yet. I'm waiting for the day...

Ok you might have to zoom in, but you can see those HUGE molars on both sides of her poor mouth (she's got two on the top to match). It was a long few weeks while those were migrating through her sweet little gums. She is so much happier now that they are through. I am glad to have my happy beautiful girl back.

How can babies sleep in such weird positions?

Sophie hates the car. I mean, I can't even walk near it without her screaming and trying to crawl up me. She fights getting in and I have to wrestle to get her strapped. I thought maybe she hated rear-facing, so against better judgement I even turned her seat forward facing for a week but it made no difference (and we are back to my plan of extended rear-facing). I try all I can, giving her treats and fruit snacks, a drink, toys to play with, we listen to music she {normally} likes, and a few desperate attempts have included me giving her my Iphone with a video playing on it or stopping to buy french fries. If she is happy, it is short lived and she returns to screaming. It used to be very distracting but now I have learned to tune it out as much as I can. I hope she grows out of it.

The Sophie Post

I blog as a my modern-day journaling. I like people to read my blog because I know I love reading blogs and find out how friends and family are doing, but I do censor myself because I know that what I write can't be taken back and could probably be slightly boring! I want to be better at blogging because I want to be able to read about Sophie's milestones and what we're doing as a family!

So I'll start...

Sophie is so much fun! She is very tall (33.5 inches - off the charts). Between 12 months and 15 months she didn't gain any weight but grew 2.5inches! I have noticed this especially lately. Her toes are squished in her pjs, her pants are floods, and her gut is always hanging out! We had to size up to 24 month clothes recently. It's really hard to predict how she'll grow! I am always on the lookout for a good sale or bargain so I try to guesstimate what size she'll be in what season but so fair I have failed miserably. I have a ton of things that she doesn't even get to wear!

Sophie loves me. She is such a mama's girl. If I am around I have to be with her and be holding her. If I'm not around she misses me and her Daddy/Grandma can tell! She has gotten even worse stranger anxiety. If we are out and about, if someone tries to say hi to her, gets really close to her, or gives/takes something she gets upset! I work 2-3 days a week and either Kale or my mom watches Sophie. I always think about her when I'm at work and just can't wait to get home to her! I love being with her and doing fun things. When she goes to bed at night I feel so lonely and just wish I could hold and cuddle her. She has been such a blessing and even though being a mother is challenging, I wouldn't want to be doing any other thing!

Sophie has always been a pretty good sleeper. When I stopped breastfeeding/pumping she has woken up more at night though. A good night she will sleep from 7pm to 9am. A lot of times though, she'll wake up between 3am-6am and can't go back to sleep without a bottle. I think she uses the bottle as a pacifier! We just put about 2oz of warm water in the bottle and she'll go right back to sleep. I have tried no-bottle bootcamps but honestly it's not worth the tears from both of us! She is using it for comfort right now and I don't feel like taking that from her. She'll give it up when she's ready. She doesn't use a bottle during the day, just for a nap and at night to get to sleep, and luckily it's just water. She was always such a great self soother - this all started around 11 months. She sleeps in her crib. She has two blankets that she loves, and her baby and a stuffed frog. She loves the corners of her blankets. She holds them and sometimes will chew or bite them. It's funny because I had a special blanket when I was little too. The past month she has figured out that she can stand and bounce in her crib. It's been a bad thing because in the night if she wakes up and stands up or sits and leans against the side, she can't quite figure out how to lay back down so she'll just cry until I come help her.

I love going into her room first thing in the morning. She'll wake up and talk. I'll hear her and go in there and usually say "where is my baby?" and she gets so excited! She starts flapping her hands and smiles and reaches for me! We usually come down to the living room and hang out and have breakfast.

Sophie is a picky eater! She still does mostly baby food purees but we're trying to move away from those since the nutrient content is low. She loves scrambled eggs, toast, and bacon for breakfast. She likes baby food fruit purees, applesauce, plain yogurt, apples, and corndogs. She is pretty picky. She'll usually eat off our plates but is resistant to trying new things of her own. It's made it challenging to feel like she gets enough. Days when she doesn't eat well I give her a Toddler formula to make sure she's got what her body needs. I am able to get up to about 3-4oz of milk each day without having problems with her digestion. It's a delicate balance! I am glad we've been able to watch her diet an avoid any constipation.

After we eat is her happiest time so that's my window to do things. I usually run an errand or get a few groceries, head to the bank, or we do an activity. We probably go out about twice a week. She loves to go swimming, go outside, and our latest favorite: the library! They have so many books she loves to go look through them. They have a big lego table and a bunch of wooden puzzles. She can play there for almost two hours! Once a week they do story time. Last week was the first time we went but it was so much fun I wish I had been going more! The gal reads stories and sings songs and there are a TON of kids. They group them so Sophie is in the 1-3 year olds. There were probably over twenty. Sophie was in heaven, she just had so much fun with everyone singing and there was so much to keep her attention. After the stories and songs they let everyone color and do bubbles. She loved it and cried when it was time to go! Other days we stay home and play. She really likes being in her element here. I can tell sometimes she just loves being here and dreads having to go out. I try to coordinate my errands with Kale so I can leave her here because it's hard on her.

She hates the car! I have tried everything I can to make it enjoyable but she just hates it!

I can't wait for warmer weather. Last summer we had so much fun at Lagoon, I hope to get season passes again this year. We took Groupon up on their recent offer for a season pass to the Dino park. I have thought about a treehouse pass also. I can't wait to go for hikes, go to the park, and just show Sophie the world! It's so fun to see her grow and learn and experience new things.

Sophie loves to stand and cruise around. She is not walking yet. Her pediatrician said that her ankles are weak and is going to have her work with physical therapy. I am excited about that and hope it helps get her legs get stronger so that she can get walking because I know she'll LOVE it! She crawls all around and loves to 'get into' things. She always wants to pry open our entertainment center, pull out drawers, open cupboards, and open and close doors. I keep her toys in little wicker baskets and she likes to pull them out and dump them all over! I just follow her around and tidy up her little messes. We got a little bookshelf for her a few days ago and it's her latest attraction. The top shelf is books and she loves to pull them down and look at them. I have had such good luck at finding books at the DI lately. We have gotten a lot of board books (less destroyable).

She loves her new kitchen. I noticed she had a fascination with stacking bowls and cups lately and trying to put lids back on things, so I thought it was the perfect time to pull out the play kitchen for her to play with! I found it at the DI almost two years ago. It came with food and dishes and was in awesome shape so for $5 I couldn't pass it up! I've been storing it and was planning on giving it to her for her second birthday but she has just loved it I am so glad!

She loves TV... kind of in a bad way, ha! When we're home I like 'background' noise so something has always been on TV and I didn't even realize how often we were watching her shows until the last month or so. I've tried to be better at not having the TV always on, so we've been getting CDs from the library. She likes the Yo Gabba Gabba soundtrack, Rockabye baby, and Elmo Orchestra.

Her new smile is so funny. She squints her eyes and get the biggest grin. It makes me laugh, oh man, it is so funny. She loves to point out eyes and nose too. She loves the dog and tries to pet him but he usually gets up and moves somewhere else. There are two stray kitties that come to our window that she loves too. I felt bad for them so I put a little house out there and I feel them every few days. They come up by the window and she'll go over there and shriek at them. She loves the window too, her latest thing is kissing and slobbering on windows or mirrors.

We used to bath at night but we've been taking baths before her nap lately. She LOVES LOVES LOVES the bath tub. She likes to lay on her belly and kick around. She has been getting a bit more brave and even has started to put her face in the water. She bathes for like 40 minutes! Sometimes we bath twice :)

She naps for about two hours, and she's pretty predictable with her nap time (goes down at 12-1230). After her nap we usually have lunch and play. This is usually the time that I am finishing up cleaning or working on a project so it's usually when we watch some of her DVR'd shows. Her daddy gets home later and sometimes she'll eat dinner, other times she won't eat so we just give her some formula before bed. She gets tired quick so we watch for signs, usually rubbing her eyes is our cue. She is in cloth diapers throughout the day but we put one disposable on every night. Since she gets the water right before bed and sometimes throughout the night she is such a heavy wetter and it's too long for her to be in cloth. I love doing cloth diapers though. It has saved me so much money and I love feeling a little bit more environmentally responsible. Not to mention the soft cotton on her bum instead of paper products and chemicals. I never pictured myself doing cloth but it's been so easy. I wish more people would look into it! There are so many myths about it I think and people think of the 'olden days' type diapering.

OK I feel like I've caught up on all of Sophie's latest news. I hope I can keep blogging about what she's doing because time goes by so fast! It makes me sad to think my newborn has turned into a Toddler! I look forward to doing new things and having fun with her, but sometimes I wish I could freeze time and just cuddle and love on her.

2011

My sweet Grandpa is home, after many trials/tribulations! He went from the hospital to a rehab center and my mom was not happy with the care. It makes me sad to think there are so many elderly people in care centers and that no one is there to advocate for them and make sure they are taken care of. He still needs help getting up and down so someone is staying at his house 24/7. We went to visit yesterday. He LOVES Sophie and she surprisingly lets him hold her. She only lets me, Kale, and my mom hold her so that's pretty good. She was having some BBQ chips :)

She's got two HUGE teeth coming in. Not the canines so they must be molars. Man they have been bothering her too. She is so grumpy and needy. For the past three days she has been a monster! I love her and know she doesn't feel good but I've resorted to bribing her with suckers and having the TV on more than normal so I can keep my household running. Thank heavens for the Beco carrier!

My cousin and I went swimming to the Bountiful pool last week. It was pretty fun. I remembered it being a lot warmer when we went a month or so ago though. We stayed for about and hour and a half. Sophie loves it there. Her favorties are the Lazy River and the shallow section - she just crawls all around in the water and laughs pretty much the entire time! I taught her to hold onto the side by herself, it's super cute!

I can't believe it's already 2011! My new year goals:
*Lose weight (specifically 40lbs) by working out 4-5 days a week for at least 45 minutes and eating smaller portions.
*Pay off Kale's student loan by working 2 extra shifts each month
*Read the BOM as a family by reading at least a chapter every other night
*Build my foodstorage by setting aside a budget and getting something every month