Words are Emerging

Adeline is finally talking!! I couldn't be more excited. We have moved away from signing and are now working on vocalizing. She gets it!! Adeline concentrates on my mouth as I say a word repeatedly and then with a little grin she tries to say it back. Most of her words only I can understand but that doesn't matter one bit. She understands the purpose of language and she is applying it to her everyday life. Words she has recently picked up:

Sticks (veggie sticks)
no
yogurt
Charlotte
night night
car (she transitioned nicely from the sign to using the word)
Oscar
Cookie
Ernie

I am surprised how much influence Lila Grace has on Adeline's speech. I figured most of the learning would be done when observing Savannah. Today, as we were pulling away from Charlotte's house Lila Grace was saying, "Charlotte, Charlotte." Adeline chimed right with her own version of the name.

Sisterhood

Today, when unbuckling the girls during preschool pickup, Lila Grace grabbed Savannah's Bunny from her car seat and yells, "Anna!" She hops out of the van and walks very purposefully (holding my hand of course) to the school's door. Once in the basement, I let go of her hand and she ran right for Savannah's classroom. She got a bit confused and poked her head in the wrong door and then was thoroughly confused by the door being shut to Savannah's class. She ran around the large room and looked in every classroom in hopes of finding her sister. Once the door to Savannah's class opened, Lila darted in and handed Savannah her Bunny. She was so proud. She can be so sweet.
Even better is watching the two of them navigate the parking lot hand in hand. Lila behaves much better for Savannah than she does for me.

Heaven Post 2,398 - or so it seems

As we were driving to preschool this morning Savannah asks me, "Why is daddy older than you?" I told her that he just is. Well, that wasn't good enough so she answered her own question with, "Is it because he was in Grandma's belly before you were in Grammy's belly?" "Yes," I say quite impressed that she GETS it. Savannah then tells me that she thinks babies are actually BUILT in heaven and then put in the right mommy's belly. I grin and think to myself, "She is so stinkin smart!"

A Perfect Morning

The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced that this was a perfect morning. I dropped Savannah off at preschool and then strapped the babies in their jogger for a run - more like run/walk since I haven't done it in three months! They sat for 40 minutes without a peep. Once we got home, I let them play outside while I stretched out and talked to our new OT about scheduling. Again, not a peep. I looked at my watch and decided I needed to shower so I brought the girls inside and locked them behind the gate. Oh, I love the gate! I even turned on Elmo's World since it was just starting (I am working very hard on not feeling guilty about it) and took a nice long shower. Not a peep!

I am now in the office writing this post as the girls are laying on the couch/floor of the playroom. They are happy to relax for a few minutes before we pick Savannah up.

I don't know how I got so lucky but there is something magical about the gate during morning hours. We usually have therapy or I have errands to run but on mornings I don't, they just play without me. I need to remember this morning and commit to running and make my reward, time behind the gate! I just wish the gate worked during evening hours.

Do I Dare Say, "On the Charts!"

Not something I put a lot of stock into but being on the charts is better than being off of them. At age two, both girls made the leap and are tracking on the charts for both height and weight. Lila Grace is holding strong to 10th percentile for weight and 25th percentile for height. The Belle is holding tightly to the 4th percentile for weight (I realize she could fall off very easily) and 5th percentile for height.

Adeline and Lila Grace are still the size of a 12-18 month old child and most often appear MUCH smaller than their peers. I am okay with it. Being small and thin has its advantages. I can snuggle them like babies much longer than the average child.

Proof . . .

that all three of my girls can play independently at the same time. Alex caught them playing by themselves in the family room the other day while I was out and about. Why don't they do this for me?

Ants in her Pants

Believe it or not, that describes my youngest a couple of nights ago. I decided to let the girls play on the front porch and sidewalk while I sat in a beach chair relaxing. It was quite nice because Adeline was entertained by the steps, Savannah was playing with the neighbor kids that stopped by and Lila Grace was sitting behind my chair doing and undoing the buckle. Buckles are her favorite.

After about five "hands free" moments I wasn't surprised to hear Lila start to fuss. Our neighbor girl said that Miss Grace had ants on her feet. At this point she was crying and I was getting up to get a good look. Lila is the type of kid who cries if she gets marker or dirt on her hands. A couple ants would definitely set her off. After I brushed about 10 ants off her legs I couldn't figure out why she was getting more worked up. She was wearing a dress so I decided to strip her to make sure there weren't ants hiding anywhere. When I lifted her dress, I saw over a hundred ants swarming my little girl's body. Trying not to panic which would surely make everyone more upset, I calmly brushed them off of her body. They were in her diaper cover, all over her torso and working their way into her diaper. At this point, it was obvious they were biting her because they were biting me. After two or three minutes she was ant free and wanting her Bunny. Come to find out, Lila wasn't the only one being attacked. Bunny was covered which upset her even more.

Eventually, I got both Lila and Bunny ant free and snuggled them both. After a few minutes I took her up for a bath while my neighbor rounded up my other two so I could assess the damage. Poor Miss Grace! She had white welts covering her body. Thank goodness she is tough as nails or I would have been up with her well into the night.

To end on a brighter note, I am posting a picture of Lila's work. Believe it or not she can unload the dishwasher. If it wasn't her for her vertical challenge she would have put everything away. Instead, she handed me things that went up high and put the pots and silverware away herself. She is too short to see in the silverware drawer so I was pretty impressed that she got everything in. I guess I can finally let her touch the things in the dishwasher. Up until now, this has been a very big NO TOUCH!


Although it is blurry it is clear that Miss Grace is quite proud