Grandma Judson's Birthday!

We celebrated Grandma Judson's Birthday yesterday with lunch at Mimi's Cafe. We were glad that the whole family was able to come, and a good time was had by all. Even the kiddo's. Despite being trapped in their chairs for a whole hour!

After dinner, we went back to Grandma Judson's for cake, ice cream, and presents. Thanks Shelly for making your delicious Chocolate Kahlua Cake! It's too bad that birthdays are not like when we were kids, when it was all about toys, toys, toys! Grandma got a new card table, and a new cordless vacuum. Well, I guess that's what happens when you're all grown up . . .

Happy Birthday Grandma! We Love You!

The Girl with a Short Memory

Just a quick update - Taylee is still footloose and bottle-free! We never did allow it to make a re-appearance in our lives after it went away back in January- despite all of her pleading, sobbing, and screaming. And we are sure glad she has a short memory, because the bottle is not even a thought in her busy little head. Yay for doing the right thing! On a side note, the sleepytime woes are better right now. Once again, doing the "right thing" has been working, and she is back to a normal sleep schedule, with only a minimal fight at bedtime and naptime. Knock on wood . . .

Primary Children's Speech Therapy

This week Taylee had an evaluation with the Primary Children's Speech therapy team. Our pediatrician thought we should pursue further speech therapy, and we thought "why not?!" The evaluation was quite thorough, lasting over 2 hours - which is a really LONG time for a toddler. The evaluation involved mostly play evaluation (yay!), and an interview session with Kent and I (not so fun for Taylee). As usual, Taylee was at times cooperative, and at times, very NOT cooperative. Long story short - the "official" evaluation is still pending, but the therapist did feel that she does have a language delay - both receptive and expressive, as well as a speech delay. She has definitely made some significant improvements since we began speech therapy with early intervention (when she was 12 months). However she still has some delays, primarily in receptive speech. She just doesn't respond to the things we say to her appropriately for her age. When the therapist would give her a "command" (ie give the ball to mommy), it took several repetitions to get Taylee to follow the command. But, maybe this is just her personality, right? Well, either way, the therapy can't hurt. Her speech delay seems to be related to her cleft palate. She is using a nasal tone to say her words. Turning b into m, and d into n. Baby is mamy, ball is mall, daddy is sometimes naddy. The therapist thinks this is because the nasal tone was easier for Taylee while her cleft was open (in fact, maybe the only sound she could make). Now that her palate is closed, she is either used to this feeling, so is still trying to make her sounds nasally, or her palate isn't working as well as it should be. We need to teach her to use her palate and force the words through her mouth. No problem, right?! Well, our first homework assignment is auditory bombardment. We are supposed to fill her world with sound - especially b's, p's, and d's. Which is pretty much what we've been doing for months, but we are even MORE focused now! Go Baby! (not mamy)

Sleepytime Woes (The Story of our Life)

Once again we are struggling with naptime - and unfortunately bedtime, AND sleeping through the night! What has struck our happy household?! As I've blogged before, the naptime routine has gone back and forth - one nap or two naps for several months now. Unfortunately it seems that no matter how many naps we shoot for every day (today just one), it's never easy these days. In fact, it's naptime at our house right now. Am I listening to the soothing sounds of a quiet house? Nope - I'm blogging as an attempt to distract myself from the sad sounds of my baby girl whining, crying, screaming, anything to entice me to get me from her crib. We're at the 30 minute mark now. I know, I feel like a horrible mommy - as I am writing this it is making me cry because I feel like a heartless monster. But what do you do for a little girl who desperately needs a nap, but won't let you rock her to sleep, won't even sit still for 1 minute to fall asleep unless left alone in her crib? Yesterday's nap only involved 15 minutes of crying - almost seems easy at this point. Bedtime was only a 10 minute sob-fest. I felt pretty good about that. Until she got up at 1:30 am and whined and cried until I got her out of bed at 2:30. The minute I got her out of the crib she was perfectly fine, pointing out to the living room and saying "plee, plee." After laying down on the couch with her for an hour, she fell asleep (I was shocked!). Sadly, moving her back into her bed wasn't so successful. She was immediately furious and indignant that I would even consider such a ridiculous idea! I was determined to get her to go back to sleep in her crib, so I dragged my aching heart from her room, and listened to her cry for over an hour. At 4:30 am we both got back to bed. She was up at 6:30 this morning. Taylee has never been a great sleeper, but what is this craziness?! We've analyzed all the possibilities - her cold, teething, night terrors, separation anxiety . . . who knows. As I finish this rant, it's been quiet for a solid 2 minutes. Oh, please, please, please. I'm not sure my sanity can take any more of listening to my baby cry.

Valentine's Day 2011

Yes, we do still celebrate Valentine's Day in our busy, toddler-chasing household! This year we were CRAZY and braved the crowds to have a romantic dinner (at Chili's ;) on Valentine's Day. Whoa! By calling ahead and dining with the senior citizens, we only waited about 10 minutes. The best part? We ate a very peaceful meal while Taylee played with Grandma and Grandpa Judson. Dining with Taylee is fun in it's own way, and an adventure to say the least. But we definitely enjoy an occasional adult meal. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Our dinner was yummy, casual, and easy. Afterwards we picked up Taylee to head home for bathtime and bedtime. All was well, except that Taylee's bedtime blues were creeping up, and she was NOT happy about bedtime. We, sadly, ate our Valentine's Day dessert, and opened our small gifts to each other to the tune of Taylee's sad crying. It was unfortunate, but she was asleep without TOO much drama, so we were able to relax for about 10 minutes before our 10 o'clock bedtime. Ok, we really go to bed at like 9:30, but we really pushed the envelope for Valentine's Day! Hope you had a great Valentine's!

We LOVE the Itsy Bitsy Spider

Taylee loves music, almost any kind. She has a couple of music DVDs which she loves to watch, and are sure to get her dancin'! She particularly loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider. When I sing it to her, she starts trying to do the fingers imitating the climbing spider and the falling rain. It's pretty darn cute! Well, today I took Taylee to a dr's appt, and she was NOT pleased about getting in the car. She wanted to play outside with the basketball. I loaded her into the car seat while she tried to throw herself out of the seat and kicked and screamed. It was fun. We headed out, and she was a screamin' demon. I put on "her music" to no avail - until the itsy bitsy spider came on. Suddenly it was quiet - I didn't know what was happening, until I looked back and saw her doing her spider hands. So cute. Thank you Itsy Bitsy Spider, for a quiet ride in the car!

Nana's Birthday!

Nana's birthday dinner started off a little rough, with a visit to the InstaCare for poppie, with a little appendicitis scare. Fortunately, a CT scan and a big bill later, poppie has a clean bill of health. Thanks for the gold star treatment at the InstaCare Aunt Amber! Nana picked Olive Garden for her birthday dinner, and it was (as usual) delicious. Nana really likes the Five cheese Ziti Al Forno, which is fortunate, because Taylee does too, and Nana is happy to share!
After the yummy dinner, we went to our house for cake, ice cream, and presents. Cake is a passion we all share, and this cake did not disappoint. It was a decadent, RICH, chocolate and caramel "turtle" cake. Mmmmm! Poppie surprised nana with beautiful clock from Pottery Barn, which she loves! For some reason I've included a picture of the box it came in, rather than the clock itself. You can see it's big, and you'll have to take my word for it - it's gorgeous! Happy Birthday Nana! Love you!