Red

I was transferring the Red Vines to a Zip-lock bag.  The kids were all downstairs except Seraph, so I thought it was safe. Seraph said, "Mommy, I want some RED."
Now, that counts as talking, right?  Can she officially be a talker now?
Yes, I gave her the candy.
Yes, she promptly threw it on the floor instead of tasting it.
I guess one miracle is enough for today ;)

Get a Kix out of Food

Kix Cereal is fantastic for feeding therapy. Here's the game we played with Seraph today:

1. get a small bowl and some Kix Cereal (or anything small and spherical) 
2. put one Kix ball just inside your mouth and then blow it out into the bowl and count, "ONE"
3. Now put a Kix ball in Seraph's mouth and tell her to blow it into the bowl and count, "TWO"
4. Let her have lots of turns, but do it again yourself if she starts freaking out.

The beauty of this game is that you're telling her to spit it out.  So, she doesn't freak out that something is in her mouth.  Yet, it's in her mouth long enough for her to lean over the bowl. This gives her time to taste it AND time to manipulate it around her mouth with her tongue.  Put it under her tongue or in her cheek.  Yes, she let me put it in her mouth. The most important part is that you're showing her to spit it out...and telling her to spit it out.  This is what makes the game non-threatening.

Other games we play with Kix cereal:

1. pick up the balls one at a time with fingers and drop them in the bowl and count them
2. blow them across the table
3. put them just inside your lips and then blow them with a puff of air (Seraph finds this game so hilarious, she forgets food is touching her mouth).

First Sentence -

Per the speech therapist's instructions, I don't lift Seraph out of her crib until she says "up" or at least points up.  More often than not, she needs prompting.  Today I was a bit late getting her up.  As soon as I came into sight, she yelled, "UP!!!" Then when I got to the crib she surprised me with her first full sentence: "I need you lift help me to up."

Then when we got downstairs she said, "I need you to help me Dora." Wow. I found the kids' Dora Movie and got her a Dora shirt for good measure.  She's playing along with the Dora Movie and giggling.  Yay!

Tulips and Italian Chores

July 2008 - the twins were less than a month old. I was still nursing Angel. Seraph was in the step-down unit of the children's hospital (better than ICU and almost ready to come home).

I was invited to a lunch for moms with heart babies (babies born with a congenital heart defect.)

Seraph was asleep in her hospital bed (with nurses watching over her) and hey, free food, so I decided to go.

I remember four things about that lunch:

1-everyone thought Angel (5 lbs and looking every bit like a preemie) was my heart baby and that I (being completely crazy) had somehow unhooked her from all the monitors and snuck her out of the ICU.  I got dozens of odd looks until one mom finally confronted me about not being allowed to take babies out of their rooms.

2-The (crazy-pushy) lady sitting next to me decided I was fat and proceeded to tell me that I should go on a diet immediately and lose 30-40 lbs.  She used to be fat and now that she'd shed all that extra weight she felt much better and her husband was happier with her now. This after I mentioned the yummy blueberry cheesecake offered in the hospital cafeteria. Yes, I put on weight when I had the twins....but going on a diet with a newborn in the hospital didn't seem like an excellent plan.

3-The heart-baby story about wanting to take a trip to Italy and ending up taking a trip to Holland instead.

4-"don't treat your heart-defect child differently....give her chores just like the rest of your kids."

Chores.  cool.  OK.  I'll do that.  Lame.  Why would any parent need to be told that?...then Seraph's therapist said it again 2 weeks ago. "Give Seraph chores."

What? You mean now? already?

Ok, so...I give Angel chores.  *but* Angel talks.  Angel understands me.  Angel does the job I ask her to do.
I don't give Seraph chores.  What would be the point?

Seraph's new chore is taking her (wet but not poopy) diaper to the diaper pail. At first she'd throw it on the floor and then clap her hands.  Great fun.  Then I'd pick it up with her hand and walk her to the pail.  Four times later, I just tell her to do it...and she does.  Wild cheering and high fives follows.

With my mom watching, I handed Seraph her old diaper today and told her to throw it in the diaper pail.  Grandma's jaw dropped as Seraph walked down the hall, tossed it in the pail, cheered for herself, and then came back for high-fives.

I love my little "Holland" girl. She is fierce and full of joy.

Use your Words

Seraph said a few new words today: "wow" (to copy a toy), "die" (much to the delight of her big brother).
She also made a recognizable attempt to sing the ABC's song.

She's right on the verge of talking...and I'm sooooo excited.  In a few months I won't be able to remember when she couldn't talk.  But, for now, I am trying hard to remember how long it took my kids to start talking once they reached this "almost" stage.

On!

No, this has nothing to do with certain rival football teams.  Angel really, really, really wanted to wear the red one....and then Seraph wanted one, too.
Seraph has been sticking up for herself more lately.  Angel was drinking from Seraph's sippy cup earlier...and Seraph made a HUGE stink about it.
 She's also tall enough to grab all the spoons out of the drawer and throw them on the floor.  She pretends she doesn't know she's not supposed to do it, but I know better!
I used to avoid putting Seraph in blue at all costs....(it makes her skin look even more purple)...but she loves this jacket and often brings it to me and makes me put it on her.  and I'm a sucker for every bit of effort she puts into communication.

Seraph's Vocab

 Words: moo, meow, ruff, tweet, oh oh, up, down, jump, more, purple, thank you, ma, da, Elmo, blue, woah!

We watched the first half of the game.  Go team Go!!!

One little, two little, three little...

ninjas-in-training

Delightful Finch woke me up around 5am.  She seemed upset but I couldn't understand what she was saying.  I gave her hugs, told her the sun wasn't up yet, and sent her back to bed. Two hours later I came downstairs to find her eating dry cereal and watching Dora.
I'm pretty sure she just stayed up.  She's crashed on the couch tonight. I hope she isn't having nightmares again.
She still refuses to use any potty but the one in the kids' bathroom.  Instead of diapers or pull-ups, I've been putting her in swim diapers. They're great because they really don't work.  She peed in the first one and it leaked all over and ran down her leg which totally freaked her out.  Since that first time she's been keeping the swim diapers bone dry.  She comes and tells me when she needs to go potty....almost like she's asking for permission.  She hasn't gotten to the point where she just goes by herself.  I'm plan to leave her in the swim diapers for a week or two.
Seraph's speech therapist came today with lots of presents!  (little cups of food!) We discovered that Seraph hates Nutella and deviled chicken slightly less than she hates other food. She also cries when she's thirsty and can't reach her sippy-cup.  She points and tugs on your hand 'til you get in the right spot and hand it to her.
We watched Dora the Explorer while waiting for the therapist to arrive.  Seraph picked up some new words: "backpack" and "ya!!"
It was a good day :)

When the therapist told us to explore new flavors with Seraph....

I don't think she meant shoes.

Slurrrrrrrp

Speech Therapy

Today was our first day with the new speech therapist.  We'll miss our friend, Dee, who'd been with us off and on since Seraph was 5 months old! (It's totally weird not having her over weekly now.)
Angel completely freaked out having someone new in the house.  I had to hold her the whole time.  I thought she'd grown out of this phase.  Nope.
Seraph did well. She played with water and made lots of sounds and successfully played with spoons and cups without food while completely shunning anything that had even a tiny bit of food on it.  She fed me Popsicles...and sorta tolerated it when I snuck her a few tastes.
We're supposed to touch her face more and have her sit at the table during meals and give her stuff to make messes.

Nut Shells

I had fun with Seraph's physical therapy today.  We mostly played with a hat.  Props are good!  She's getting more brave with her balance every day :)

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• Thank the heavens that Sexy Haqon is back from his super long business trip that went really well but it was crazy hard to deal with the kids all week without him and thank heavens for family who dropped by and called to keep me sane. (I always feel weird telling people that he's gonna be gone all week cuz it makes me feel more vulnerable when more people know he's not here....but then if I don't tell then I don't get the extra support which I really need. I haven't figured this one out yet)
• kindergarten orientation.
• kindergarten forms
• track sign-up for next year
• doctor appointments for said forms
• reschedule seraph's dental appointment
• Physical Therapy (play with Seraph who has extra big smiles today and call it a chore ;)
• skip Seraph's food therapy three days in a row
• figure out if I have a cold or allergies -- either way I can't breath!
• put up new calendar (yes, I do this 2 months at a time...it's just easier to organize my desk that way)
• fax those documents to that lady 
• call that office that'll keep me on hold for an hour
• buy new rechargeable batteries for my camera (somehow they always end up in the Wii remotes)
• sign tax papers
• fill out more papers
• fix my computer so it won't restart itself at in the middle of webinars I've waited all day to watch.
• cross my fingers that it's really fixed.
• play my turn at scrabble
• stop putting off writing on my blog just cuz I don't have a picture to post with it
• sleep
• get Delightful Finch's hair cut!!
• play text twist
• learn that my phone's screen turns a funky kind of plaid if I don't recharge it on time
• learn that my phone's plaid screen will go away if I charge the battery for 10 minutes AND then push the camera button.
• thank the heavens for google.
• see what Ms Baby Plan is up to today

Call Me Sneezy

I'm hoping it's just allergies. Strong Bear, Angel, and I have runny noses. The kids are all getting their flu shots tomorrow (Sexy & I got it last week).

Last year Beautiful Rabbit had a huge fit because the nurse didn't wait for her to be ready. Yesterday she let me in on a little secret - it didn't really hurt. I'd been dreading her flu shot all year! She hates shots but loves protecting Seraph. The other kids are too young to know they can complain about it.

Beautiful Rabbit is out of school for fall recess. I'm sad 'cuz it won't be much fun with me walking around sneezing and wanting to stay inside. So far she hasn't noticed - spent the day reading 2 books she loves. Tonight she went roller skating with friends. Phew!

Seraph's ST wants us to start reading board books to Seraph. She's eating really well lately. She leans towards the food and opens her mouth when it gets close. She still likes to be in control of the spoon after it's in her mouth, but she lets me put it all the way in most of the time now.

Angel is teething - 4 molars at once.

We're dry walling the basement this weekend. It'll be nice for the twins to have their own room. Yay :)