What I already knew!

Well, Claire qualified for the First Steps program. She doesn't pull the food off the spoon with her lips like she should. She doesn't chew/munch food yet. She can bite food like a cracker, but won't mash it around in her mouth yet. She lets it sit in there until it is wet enough to swallow, then finally eats it. She also will put a lot of food in her mouth like Cheerios, but then will push them back out with her tongue vs. swallowing them. So our next meeting with them is in a couple weeks. She also will not move the food around with her tongue like she should be doing at this age. The 2 evaluators did not think she would qualify because her speech and social skills are so advanced. They basically played for awhile. They brought a shape sorter, a puzzle, blocks for stacking, etc. She just barely qualified. So any therapy we do is up to us. We can quit any time we want, but if there is some sort of program out there to help her eat better...why the heck not take advantage of it!!! I am going to continue to offer her stuff 3-4 times a day, but I'm really looking forward to some advice/tips from them. They again said, she'll probably grow out of it, some kids just start eating at different rates, but I'm ready for her to start eating a little more regularly than she does!

Just when I thought I'd read it all...

and then, I ready this: http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20193.html Now there's always something new!

My Little Ham!

This is the usual state of things: an utter mess. Notice all the laundry in the crib along with the trash can in the back (since she can throw stuff over and in if it's in the front. Also, notice the baby towel hanging on the side. See, cribs can be useful for something, even if your baby will not sleep in one! She is sitting on her suitcase. Believe it or not, I have completely unpacked, done and put away all the laundry, and picked up more than once since I took this! :)

Yes, she has a ballpoint pen. She snatches them off our desks or counters whenever she gets her hot little hands near the edges. She is really good at getting up on her tip toes and reaching stuff off of the edges of tables as well. She has also figured out how to use another object to knock off something. How did she even figure that one out! Notice my ghetto-fab baby-proofing in the background. To keep her from emptying her drawers, I have to tie them shut. She can't reach into the top one yet. She is signing for more in this picture...she is doing that all the time now for everything...

I am practicing with her to get her to look at the camera and say "Cheese!" She is getting pretty good!

I think this is my new favorite picture of her, especially because the hat she has on doesn't really match. She insists on wearing hats around the house. I think it's because we wear them to go outside. It's fine with me, and it's funny to boot!

She really loves to sit in her little chairs and this little highchair that was actually my highchair for dolls when I was little! She fits just right!

Yup! That's my little ham! :)

December

It's December. It's hard to believe that the summer and fall have already come and gone. The time seems to pass by faster and faster each year. Claire is such a happy girl, Maria has done an asbsolutely phenomenal job with Claire -- she is such a good mom and I can't imagine her not being with Claire as much as she is now. You are awesome Maria -- I love you!

Here is a video we recorded on the Sunday after Thanksgiving as we prepared to drive back to Indianapolis from Valparaiso. The background song is 'Silent Night' covered by Sinead O'Connor featured in a recent movie we saw called 'Fred Claus' -- good movie if you haven't seen it yet.

Inject yourselves with insulin, because this is sweet.

http://www.filehurricane.com/media/3557

Sad Story

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/dec/02/na-diluted-formula-nearly-kills-baby/news-metro/ So sad, but I'm glad she shared!

Too old to Breastfeed?

This is from a journal post on CafeMom. I did not write this, but thought it was well thought out. It's from this page: http://www.cafemom.com/journals/read/1316898/Too_Old_to_Breastfeed

She is referring to a YouTube video that often gets talked about.

I don't know why it comes up so frequently.. Maybe because it seems
like an easy conversation topic. Afterall, who WOULDN'T agree that nursing a 7
or 8 year old is "too old"?
When I hear this and the inevitable "Yeah! It's
gross" comments from other breastfeeding moms, I cringe for a moment.
And
then I proceed to ask... "Well... Why?"
The answer always boils down to the
same old arguments.
I'm gonna tell you this now. Those arguments that
breasts are only for babies under 6 months or one year or two years on the
outside? They hold no more water than the idea that breasts are there solely for
the husband's pleasure.
I request this of all moms, breastfeeding or not: If
you're going to say that another mother should do something or shouldn't do
something, at least be prepared with good basic facts and studies that support
your judgement of her.
I'm not even talking about the moms that say "Well, I
don't think I'd be comfortable doing that." I'm really not. Everyone has their
own comfort zones. I'm talking about the moms that are quick to say that full
term breastfeeding is "perverse" "going on too long" "encouraging emotional
dependence", etc. Please, please feel free to provide links to studies that say
that children that breastfeed until 3, 4, 6, 7 8... Have any psychological or
physical trauma as a result. Please feel free to back up your arguments. Because
I've searched long and hard... High and low.. And have found NOTHING that says
that breastfeeding at any age is a negative.
In fact, during my desperate
hunt to find out what age to wean, I've found some interesting things.
Those
interesting things are BIOLOGICAL MILESTONES. Hard set-in-stone gold standards
for when a child is "Supposed" to wean. These biological milestones are based on
the child's physical, mental, sexual, and immunological development...
Milestones that similar species meet.
Milestones that aren't just "Well the
child can survive without breastmilk now, it must be time to wean." Our children
are not puppies that we're desperate to get into homes and out of the house.
Ability to survive without our milk is the first and most crucial step to
independence, sure. But it's hardly the point at which to say "Success! Weaning
time."
A child essentially has a severely compromised immune system until
they are two years old, and does not reach the full adult level of
immunocompetence until closer to 5-8 years of age. This means that their immune
system is still intertwined with mom's BY DESIGN.
A child's jaw and oral
development benefits tremendously from breastfeeding until their permanent teeth
start to come in.
Interestingly enough, the natural disappearance of the
suckling reflex also occurs at about that same time: 5-8 years of age.
Breastfed children that are not introduced to hormone-ridden soy and cow
milk tend to reach puberty later, at around 13-18 instead of the 9-13 which is
becoming increasingly common in this country. In most primates, weaning happens
at about 1/3rd of the way to sexual maturity. With the normal range of sexual
maturity this would have children weaning at about 3-9 years old...
Breastfeeding is so ingrained in our biology that having children and NOT
breastfeeding or weaning prematurely actually effects our health. Breastfeeding
to 13 months or longer decreases mom's risk of autoimmune diseases such as
rheumatoid arthritis. Or... To put it more accurately... Having children and NOT
breastfeeding full-term until at least 13 months INCREASES your risk of
autoimmune disorders, since full term breastfeeding is the NORM. Breastfeeding
decreases our risk of breast cancer, decreases our children's risk of childhood
cancers, decreases the odds of them landing in the hospital or suffering severe
versions of normal childhood illnesses... The list goes on.
If you're going
to jump on the bandwagon and squeal "It's GROSS!" "It's PERVERSE!"... Fine. But
if you do so around me, expect to be engaged in a quiet non-sensationalized
discussion about facts, biological NOT arbitrary weaning milestones, and the
negative impact of premature weaning on our society and our children.
I'm
not telling anyone to breastfeed until this age.
I'm simply asking you
politely to refrain from engaging in unsubstantiated attacks upon women that are
following the biological and healthful norm of child-led weaning and full-term
nursing.
I'm simply challenging you to think before you open your mouth or
tap on the keyboard. If something has SO many benefits, and NO documented
downsides.. If something has the endorsement of every major health
organization... How is it that a mom can be CRITICIZED for doing it?

That is the YouTube video to which the journal poster is talking about. I have read some articles by the woman breastfeeding in the video, and she seems like a very good writer as well.

Poem

I found this on CafeMom. I did not write it. I'm not sure if it's really a poem, or more of a statement, but I thought it was good.

It's not random

Nothing in life is random, my friend. I posted the poop soup video because I was uploading the reindeer post and thought of how they had a blue tarp on the ground in case the reindeer, shall we say, "diddled" on the ground...

K. Night now!

First Steps

So I haven't posted about half of everything that's been going on lately. I never thought my life was interesting until I started blogging! So First Steps will be coming on Friday to do a free evaluation on Claire's eating/swallowing. https://www.infirststeps.com/matrix/default.asp I think that they are going to test her for everything though, developmentally. It will be interesting to see what they do to evaluate a child...lots of playing, I'm sure...

They already came for an appointment last week to do all the paperwork, get the insurance info, etc. Claire has also been sleeping poorly lately, waking up A LOT, but I think that tonight she will be going back to normal. She has slept since I put her down about 8 and hasn't woken up since....knock on wood! But how can I not feed her all night when some days I'm lucky to get 2 ounces of yogurt or a couple crackers in her!

Jingle John

Tonight Claire and I went to a program at the Public Library which was really great! The guy was called "Jingle John" and did an educational program about animals, but he made it really fun for the kids by being overly goofy. http://www.sillysafaris.com/?q=node/8 They had a great turn-out for a cold night!

Did you know that both male and female reindeer have antlers? They do!

The thing smelled a little bit gamey for being in our new fresh-book smelling library!

The reindeer is a domesticated caribou. My Grandparents live on a lake in MN in the summers called Lake Caribou...that was not totally random...

Here is with a Dove, but sadly, not the candy kind:

Here is is with some yappy little dog I want to kick across the room. And then step on... Oh sorry. No, I'm not anti-dog, I'm anti-animal in my house. Gee, that's not apparent. Haha. Claire is making this difficult for me because she LOVED my parents cats and dog Daisy this weekend. She kept signing more and panting like a dog when we got home. See, we had 2 cats from before 2001 until last Jan. I just couldn't stand the mess anymore with the cat hair everywhere. We "re-homed" them with a good college friend who takes such great care of them! THANKS CINDY! YAY! Another long story...we tried posting them on Craigslist and they spent 2 nights and somebody's house before they decided they didn't want them last December...that's another long LONG STORY...I still find cat hair...it haunts me! I actually do love animals, just not their mess...
Here you can't see the animal he has, but he's not blocking the view of our friends, who I stalkingly took a picture of...oh yes, Christy and Catrece! I know you'll put this one on your bloggy! HEY! I COPYRIGHT THAT WORD TOO! It sounds catchy! :) BLOGGY! Say it with me now...it rhymes with FROGGY....I really need to go to bed...
And here some kid walked in front while it would have been an otherwise decent photo! Dang kids. Oh wait, I went and made one of these creatures, too...
He has a snowshoe hare here. I wouldn't mind having a rabbit. Man...how many freaking animals did we have growing up...we had a rabbit, a rat, mice that reproduced, fish, a newt, a snake, various dogs, cats, a cat named Caribou that Holly and I brought home from Lake Caribou that birthed three kittens, one started to come out on Richie's lap...lol, not to mention various hamsters...again, another post...this is why I hate animals. And no, we did not have all of these at the same time. I know one thing about critters. They are too much work. They stink and make messes. Hmm. Wait, that sounds kind of like Claire sometimes...I see a connection here! Claire...please never ask for an animal. K. Thanks. Bye.


A video. If you want to embed this, just go here: http://filehurricane.com/media/3545 and go to the EMBED link. I <3>! YAY!

Poop Soup

Ok, this video is not for anybody without a kid. I WARNED YOU. If you don't want to look at the still of this, then don't watch the video and YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO COMPLAIN. K, so if you don't want to watch, then don't. SO WITH THAT SAID...I still think this is funny and this was from when she was like 11 months old. I learned about EC when she was about 8 months old, and do it part-time like when at home.

Why is this funny? I don't know. Maybe I need to get out more often...but really...moms need to laugh about this kind of stuff because it keeps life interesting. And no, I don't have too much time on my hands to be blogging, I would just rather be writing than sitting on my ass watching TV sometimes ;) LOL! And the videos/pictures don't take that much time because I do them as I am living life anyway. And our computers are so fast that this stuff uploads before I can blink. After being on my parents' computer this weekend, I know why they think I spend a lot of time uploading and doing stuff. :) GET A NEW ONE.

When Claire poops in the potty, it's great because 1. it saves a diaper and 2. it saves me from having to wipe her really good...it's much faster and quicker when she's seated on the potty as you can surely imagine!

Playing with Puzzles and Shapes

This morning Claire and I had a blast going to a LLL meeting. I need to remember to bring my camera to one of these next time! We also went out for lunch and Claire ate 6 crackers!!! I was so impressed. I think she liked them because they were the yummy salty Saltine kind you get with soup!

Then we came home and played around after she had a little nap. She loves her puzzles so much:




And here she is with her shape sorter. She loves this as well. She can do all the shapes, but is really more interested in taking them out and stacking them lately! She likes to find other little objects that will fit through the holes as well! Hey! Watch this to the end...she stacks four all alone!

Winter Wonderland

Here is Claire walking outside in the snow. It was the Lake effect junk that Valpo gets! I so do not miss it! I do miss how good they are up there at salting and clearing the roads effectively. I love this outfit so much! Sometimes you just wish the outfit would grow right along with them, although this might look funny if she wore this to HS! :) I also got a bunch of awesome stills that I am saving for my Xmas card photo which I ordered, but want you to see for the first time in your card. Hey! If you read this blog and I don't have your address, leave me a comment or email me your address. Don't email me at my Gmail...I NEVER check it...I use it as my spam account. I know, that's terrible...but use my comcast or hotmail ones! K. Thanks. Bye!

Blast From the Past

Saturday we enjoyed Thanksgiving 3.0 with my brother David's wife's family for lunch. Kristin's mom cooked an awesome meal and carrot cake that was to die for!

That evening Josh and I went to our 10 year HS reunion. I would scan in some pictures and upload them, but that would require too much time...maybe someday!

Have you ever been shopping and bumped into someone you haven't seen for a long time and then ended up talking to them for 10 minutes and catching up? That's basically like how our reunion was! In case you didn't know Josh and I started dating the fall of 1997 which was our Senior year fall! That means we've been dating for over 11 years. CRAZY! I had an absolute blast the whole evening and the food wasn't bad. My parents and Holly had a fun time playing with Claire, and she ate some food for them! Yay! :)

If you are ever in doubt about going to a Class Reunion, GO! It's a lot of fun!!! Josh had fun talking to some of my old boyfriends from HS with me. Josh's comment on the way home was, "That was fun talking to your old boyfriends because 'I WON!'"

I've always loved school and all the extras that go along with it! My favorite memory from pre-school at the Little Brown School House would be the Mr. Potato Heads and the Lollipop Tree that the teacher tied lollipops to on Grandparents day, the read a story about a tree that grew candy and then our grandparents helped us pick candy off the tree. COOLEST THING EVER for a 4/5 year old! :) I could go on and on about the reunion, but basically it was awesome just seeing everyone again and getting back in touch with people...exchanged some phone numbers and emails, etc. Man, some people need to get on FACEBOOK! The food wasn't bad and the drinks were strong. Hehe. It was basically like a really good HS party, but there was a cash bar! We even had the same DJ which was Boomer's Dad! I think our class was right about 600 and there were about 140ish people there according to someone. There were only 4 name tags left on the table when we left, so not a bad turn-out for $30 each...

Fetal Cookies

Wow. I thought you'd get a kick out of this too http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/2008/12/fetal-bites.html Sign up to follow that cake wreck blog. There is some great stuff on there. Quick, funny pictures!

Holly's Birthday

Claire had some fun with Tante Holly. She got her first professional hairstyle.
Holly also got to open her Bday gifts as her Bday is in December!

See, Claire does have hair! She looks kind of cute, here, huh!?! :)

Isn't this the cutest wrapping paper ever!?! It's from the movie A CHRISTMAS STORY http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/

Black Friday

Friday we just hung out at my parents house enjoying the company of family! When I heard about the shooting at the Toys R Us and the stampede at Wal-Mart that KILLED someone, it made me feel sick. How terrible. I celebrated NATIONAL BUY NOTHING DAY by BUYING NOTHING. NOT EVEN ONLINE! :) http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com/2008/11/26/what-will-you-do-on-buy-nothing-day/ I think I will continue this tradition in protest of consumerism. Really. People think they need every frigging thing out there.

My mom made some awesome Swedish Cabbage Rolls for dinner with a tomato sauce. YUMMERS!
Josh's brother Aaron also joined us for our Thanksgiving in Valpo!

Thanksgiving 2.0

We enjoyed Thanksmas with Tante Holly, who collects turtles. She got Claire this talking turtle who teaches colors.
We finally got her to stop playing with the box to check out the turtle!

Claire standing up in her car that she got from Oma and Opa for "Thanksmas!" If you don't know what Thanksmas is it's Thanksgiving and Christmas combined!

Cousing Evan trying on his new awesome hat!

Evan and Davis are checking out Claire's new ride!

Davis playing with toys. Some of these toys are from when I was little! Yay Fisher-Price.

Do you remember this Fisher-Price Barn that moos when you open the barn doors!!!???!!!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving Dinner in the evening at my parent's house in Valpo.

Thanksgiving 1.0

Early Thursday morning on Thanksgiving Day, we ventured up to Timbercrest to visit my Grandpa and Grandma...err...just my Grandpa. I keep saying that wrong! Here is a wedding picture of them almost 59 years ago:
I wanted to take a picture of Holly and Mark. I told them to put their head together. This is what I get:

Well at least you can see their faces now:

Me, Josh, Claire and my Grandpa Vernon.

Holly, Me, Claire, and Grandpa Vernon

We then ventured down to the cafeteria for some pressed-formed turkey and instant mashed potatoes along with some burned pumpkin pie and some jello salad with bits of pineapple and cream cheese in it that absolutely made me gag. But it was only Thanksgiving 1.0. HEY! I copyright that! How does copyright stuff work on a blog anyway? I call leftover food 2.0, 3.0, etc. to make it more appealing to Josh! :) Computer boy!

So far behind!

So we got home last night after a HORRIBLE drive south on 65. There was some snow in Valpo that threw everyone for a loop apparently. It took nearly 4 hrs to get home, when normally it is just under 3.

We had a great long weekend in Valpo! More on that and photos soon!

I just ordered my photo Xmas Cards from Shutterfly! They are the cheapest from Wal-Mart at only 33 cents each. But Shutterfly always has a ton of deals and coupon codes. Shutterfly is different because you have to order a "set" number and the more you order, the cheaper they get. If you only get 12, they are 69 cents each. I got mine for 50 cents each. But if you order 50, you get 25 for free. You can also get free shipping if you enter SHIP25 for at least through the 3rd, I think? SO I actually got a pretty good deal. Yay! I always try to get things done early, but oh well!

Now I have a mountain of laundry to do from being gone. I think this is the first time EVER since Claire was born that I haven't had to do a single load of laundry at my mom's house. No poop explosions or major food stains...yay.