11 months old / first steps!

She's one month away from being a year old -- I don't believe it. Someone has some serious party planning to do!

And to celebrate her new status as an 11-month-old, miss Audrey took a few steps on her own today. The bad: it was for the babysitter. When the husband told me, I burst into tears, causing him to say, "Uh ... I guess I shouldn't have told you?" But then she stood up and took a couple of shuffle-y steps toward me with a big grin on her face, and I decided it didn't really matter that much. I won't lie, though -- I was already struggling with some going-back-to-work guilt and that didn't make things any easier.

Audrey is such a ham -- she loves to laugh and dance, and she's just really ... jolly, as friends call her ... most of the time. I can't wait to see how she and her big sister interact when she's a little older.

long time no blog

First order of business: Halloween!

Olivia and Audrey are pictured with the newest member of our extended family, their adorable candy corn cousin, Mr. T.

I think Halloween sort of blew Olivia's mind. My favorite quote from her was: "I go to the house ... and they give me CANDY?!" She was really, really into it.


She wanted to go home after a few houses so she could eat her candy. Not wanting to deal with a crazed toddler on a sugar high, we gave her a few minutes with a sucker and had her put it away for the next day.

Some random cute Olivia-isms:

-- Enthusiastically exclaiming, "Soor!" (sure) when you ask if she wants to do something
-- Saying a d instead of j: SkippyJon Jones is SkippyDon Dones

Audrey will get her own post in a couple of days, when she turns 11 MONTHS old!

way behind on posting

Audrey turned 10 months old on 10/7!

she:

is getting one of her top front teeth
can stand up without holding onto anything
is cruising all over the place
says dada, mama, and kitty (kih-TAY!)

Olivia is just a few months away from her third birthday, unbelievably.

she:

absolutely loves her preschool class
talks even more, if you can believe that ;)
says jump like dump and chocolate milk as tok-lat milk, which is adorable
can be moody, but so so sweet.

And me? I got a job offer I couldn't refuse and went back to work full time. I miss the girls terribly during the day, but they seem to be handling things really well. I'll try to get some new photos uploaded soon of my sweeties.

first baby sign

Audrey did her usual 11 p.m. wake up last night (this girl just refuses to sleep through the night, like, ever), and when I went to get her out of her crib, she was opening and closing her hand like this:

milk sign

It was so cute! I haven't done a ton of signs with her so far, but I think I'll step it up now that I know she's learning them.

She's also standing up every chance she gets, and more importantly, has mastered how to get down from standing (which means I don't have to rescue her every 5 minutes all night long when she wakes up to practice her newfound skills). She says an excited hard k sound when she sees the cats, just like Olivia did, is starting to learn to clap her hands, and also knows what I mean when I tell her to dance, kick her legs, and pat her belly. She'll sit on the hardwoods and use her legs to spin herself in circles, then laughs when she gets dizzy. As her speech therapist recently said, she's a seriously cool kid. :)

Suddenly, waking up at 6:30 a.m. is her new thing ... which I really wouldn't mind if I wasn't up with her at midnight and then from 3-4 a.m. But I keep trying to tell myself that she won't be sleeping like this forever -- her first birthday is less than three months away, which seems absolutely insane!

big girl goes to school

Olivia started preschool last week. I, of course, was terrified -- how would she do? Would she cry? Would I cry? We talked it up a lot, but then I'd hear her crying in her crib at bedtime:
"Mama! Please! Pleeeeease don't leave me at schoooooool!"

So I was understandably nervous. For her first day, I was scheduled to volunteer in the classroom. She did fine, but I thought maybe it was because I was there. Tuesday was her first drop-off day, and we talked a lot about how I'd give her a hug, leave, and then come back after a while. We got to school that day and waited outside the classroom until the teacher opened the door. O looked a little wary, especially because there were a few kids crying in the hall. When that door opened, though, she started pushing me toward the door, saying, "Hurry up, mama!" I was only there for a few minutes when she asked me if I was leaving and if she could have a hug. I'll admit that I sat in the car down the street from her school for the full two hours, sipping coffee, reading a book and missing her a little bit, not wanting to be too far away.

Today, we got to school and she clapped with excitement when we pulled into the parking lot. I hadn't even been in her classroom for 2 minutes when she TOLD me to leave. "Mama! You go bye-bye now! See ya!" When I picked her up, one of the moms told me that Olivia is one of the most social kids in the class. When there was a lull in conversation during snack time, Olivia said, "Hey! Let's talk about our friends! What are our friends' names?"

a conversation with Olivia

It lasted for what seemed like forever.The phone rang, so I muted the song I was playing for her to answer it. She started whining:

O: bumcontrol!

me: what? what's bum control?

O: I said, bunnkinstrol.

me: (giving up on my phone conversation) Um, Olivia? I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're saying. Can you show me?

O (exasperated, louder): BUMCONTROL!

me: uh ...

O: bumcontrol?

me: does something hurt?

O: NO! i said, bunnkinstroll.

me: what is that? can you show me?

O: look at the computer and see.

me: Oh, it's on the computer? Is it a game?

O: Silly mommy! It's not a game!

me: a song?

O: yes! I SAID: bunnkinsroll.

me: bunkinsroll? a song? how does it go?

O: (hums an inaudible melody)

me: (finally figuring it out) Jenny Jenkins?

O: YES! bunnkinsroll jenny jenkins!

The song I had been playing before the phone rang was Jenny Jenkins by Lisa Loeb ... but I always change one of the lyrics to "roll, buddy bumkins roll" (we occasionally call Audrey buddy bumkins for some reason). She's always been so verbal and understandable that it was really puzzling and frustrating for us both for me to not know what she was talking about!

9 months old

Audrey is 9 months old!

She has two teeth that finally came through ...

and, just like her sister, she has a fun little silly face that she makes when you ask her to. :)

brief hiatus

I've been slacking on updating the blog, but need to get cracking! This week is a big one -- Audrey turned 9 months old on the 7th, and Olivia has her first day of preschool tomorrow.

Another update and pictures soon ...

pulling the plug on the paci

I'm full of dread over this. We should have really done it long ago -- before she was super attached, before she had it so long that it started giving her an overbite, before she could remember that her mean mommy took away her most favorite thing in the world. Alas, we did not, so here we are.

We've determined tomorrow night is go time. We'll both be around all weekend, so I can spend as much time comforting her / helping her sleep as I need to. Dan will have to help with overnights, as miss Audrey is still waking up every few hours. Everyone tells me she'll have a few bad nights and naptimes and then it'll be a thing of the past.

I've been talking up the paci fairy, the idea of her sending her pacis to babies who don't have any, and telling her what a big girl she is, but I think it's still going to seriously suck. I've offered her a trip to the toy store to pick out something new -- anything she wants, even -- but I'm not sure she gets the concept. Last week, I told her that she could have M+Ms if she went on the big girl potty. She walked in, sat on the potty chair for 1.2 seconds, then came over with her hand outstretched, saying, "Mommy, I'm ready for my M+Ms now!" Those two year olds are so darn literal!

8 months / 2.5 years!

Olivia turned 2.5 and Audrey turned 8 months old today!

Olivia, as she likes to say, is "VERRRRRY busy" lately -- her imagination amazes me. She's always doing things to entertain her baby sis, a favorite being sniffing her toes and then yelling, "P.U.!" Such a lady. ;P

She had another tooth incident during the week that was nearly identical to the one last November: running ---> tripping in kitchen ---> tooth, meet tile floor. She'd just been to the dentist the day before for her 6-month cleaning and was very brave ("I just cried a little bit!"), but her bravery waned slightly in the face of a second visit in a week. She did fine, amusing the whole office by stating that she wanted THREE silly bands AND A DUCK TOO! as her prize at the end. We go back in a couple of weeks to have the previously-restored tooth re-restored. Poor OE.

Audrey has been having a big couple of weeks: learning to sit up on her own, working on honing her crawling skills, showing the first signs of her two bottom teeth peeking through (finally!), saying dada and mama, and just today, pulling herself to standing while holding onto a toy. I wish I'd been quick enough with the camera, because the look on her face as she stood there was something like, "Hey wow look at this cool thing I did hey mom look I'm standing up OH MY GOD HOW DID I GET LIKE THIS AND HOW DO I GET DOWN?!"

We went to a picnic for families of kids with hearing loss today, and everyone was absolutely gaga over her tiny pink hearing aid. Some of the older kids who had hearing aids themselves came over to see it, and it was really great to see these kids, some of them with profound loss in both ears, even, doing just fine. She starts speech therapy next week, which I'm really excited about!

solo sitting up

Two nights this week, I've woken up (at Audrey's request, natch) and found her sitting up in her crib, sort of like, "Oh, hey! What's up, mom?" I still haven't seen her do it live, but suspect that this newfound skill of hers along with her recent scooching development may have something to do with her sleep getting even worse. Oof. Good thing she's cute!

nearly mobile!

I think this might count as officially crawling. I just watched Audrey scooch her way across her playmat, onto the hardwoods, turn around and go all the way back again. She also made a beeline for my laptop that was on the floor, as well as a couple of Olivia's toys that she shouldn't have.

Two mobile kids? Hold me!

you know you go to McDonald's too much when ...

... your almost-2.5-year-old has the following conversation with someone in your family:

Olivia [to brother-in-law]: Let's go to McDonald's to get a happy meal for you! Produces two different Happy Meal toys, procured during two stops during our 2-day, 13-plus-hour car trip, to share with him

brother-in-law [ever the good sport with Miss O]: Ok, great!

O: Let's get some chicken nuggets.

BIL: That sounds good.

O: Then we eat some apple dippers.

BIL: I like apples.

O: And maybe get a small french fry?

[at this point, I'm doubled over with laughter in the kitchen -- such attention to detail, specifying the size of fries. Though I suppose I should be glad she didn't say something about large or super-size options -- I have been on Weight Watchers, after all.]

BIL: What will I have to drink with my happy meal?

O: a diet coke!

Note to people reading who may be aghast at the notion that I serve my toddler diet coke -- I do not! I do, however, allow her to eat nebulous blobs of chicken that may contain an ingredient similar to that in Silly Putty -- they're sadly one of the maybe 10 foods that she'll eat right now -- but she gets milk with her anti-foaming agents.

7 months old!

Our sweet baby Audrey/Oggie is 7 months old today!


She is such a sweet little chunk of chub. Check out her jolly demeanor:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuTrWxj129w

Editing to add that she's been saying "mama" for a couple of weeks now. According to the baby books, they can say mama and dada indiscriminately at 6-7 months, so it's not that surprising ... but it is super heart-melty when she turns and says it when I walk into the room. Sweet Ogg.

Audrey's timeline

I had to get this together for a hearing loss advocacy group that's helping me fight to have speech therapy added for Audrey -- it was declined due to her age and because she hasn't been diagnosed with a delay -- so I thought I'd post it here. A little keepsake, if you will. Maybe another overwhelmed mom with a newborn who has just been diagnosed with hearing loss will stumble across this via Google and it'll help somehow ...

This timeline doesn't include every single one of her audiology appointments, and I don't have our meetings with the parent advisor from the advocacy group listed, either. And I wonder why I've felt so busy.

12/7/2009 – Audrey born

12/9/2009 – told upon leaving hospital that she failed her hearing screening twice (didn’t know about first test); were given pamphlet for First Steps

12/17/2009 – First Steps intake appointment

1/8/2010 – 1 month old; ABR at St. Vincent

1/13/2010 – ENT appointment

1/20/2010 – CT scan (advised by audiologist and ENT) at St. Vincent under general anesthesia

1/29/2010 – First Steps evaluation

2/2/2010 – pediatric opthalmologist appointment

2/11/2010 – First Steps IFSP meeting

2/17/2010 – hearing aid evaluation/fitting appointment with audiologist

3/4/2010 – first meeting with parent advisor

3/11/2010 – pick up hearing aid (just a few days past 3-month birthday)

3/18/2010 – parent advisor meeting

3/25/2010 – audiologist

4/8/2010 – another audiologist appointment

4/8/2010 – parent advisor meeting

4/22/2010 – parent advisor meeting

4/29/2010 – audiologist … again!

5/3/2010 – decide parent advisor isn’t good fit due to insistence upon heavy sign language use; call First Steps to terminate advisor. Request new parent advisor and to add speech services to IFSP at that time

5/13/2010 – you guessed it: audiologist

6/9/2010 – 6-month audiology booth test

6/29/2010 – receive paperwork to add new parent advisor to IFSP

6/30/2010 – request for speech services declined

100% pure toddler

I took Olivia to get her hair cut today, something she's been dreading pretty much since the day she last got her hair cut over a year ago. I started talking it up a week ago, explaining all the steps: first, she'd go into the salon and meet Yvette (who also cuts my hair). Then she'd sit in a special big-girl chair that goes up and down. Yvette might spray a little water on her hair, and then she'd use scissors to cut it, and it wouldn't hurt at all. And the best part -- that when her haircut was done, she would get a sucker and a sticker.

She talked about all the steps in the car on the way over, even cheerily adding, "And then we be all done and I get lollipop, sticker AND a balloon!" She did fine walking into the salon and greeting Yvette and my sister, who graciously agreed to swing by and wrangle Audrey so I could give O my full attention.

But then she got in the chair and the tears and "NOOOOOO!"s began. We decided she should sit on my lap so it would be less scary. Yvette busted out a sucker for her and explained that people love to get their hair cut. Then, in a moment of brilliance, she suggested that maybe she should cut mommy's bangs first and then Olivia could have her turn. "NO!" she interjected through her tears. "It's MY TURN!"

If you ever had any doubt about her nearly-two-and-a-half-ness, you need look no further for proof!

scariest parenting moment ever

We were in the Starbucks drive-through on Friday and I heard Audrey making a gagging noise as I pulled up to the window. I thought maybe she was spitting up, but she whimpered in a weird way, so I flung my door open as the barista was trying to hand me my drink and opened hers to check on her. She seemed ok ... she had a wet chin like she'd just spit up, so I got back in the car, got my drink, and started driving. Then I heard the gagging noise again and something just didn't seem right, so I looked for a parking space -- there weren't any at Starbucks, so I sped to the next parking lot over and screeched to a halt.

I got out and unbuckled her from her seat, and it definitely seemed like she was choking on something, but I didn't know what -- she didn't have any toys in the seat or anything like that. I thought maybe she'd spit up, aspirated it and couldn't catch her breath, but I turned her over my knee and started hitting her on the back because I was sort of at a loss for what else to do. I flipped her over and noticed that her lips and feet were sort of turning blue, but she was still whining and conscious, just getting more limp. Gah. My heart is racing just typing this.

When I saw the blue lips, I grabbed my phone and tried to call 911. But first, I accidentally hit redial on one of my friends, then a freelance client who lives in CA -- stupid easy-to-redial iPhone + shaking hands! I vaguely remember a women in her car one parking lot over staring at me -- I wondered briefly if she thought I was losing my temper with the baby or something. I just kept pounding her on the back, and she finally coughed up a bunch of foamy saliva all over me and the ground.

She didn't cry, but the awful gagging/choking noises and the strange whimpering had stopped and I could hear her breathing clearly, so I told the 911 dispatcher I thought everything was ok. She told me the paramedics were almost to us and to just stay where we were. While I was standing there in a daze, I looked down by my feet and noticed a folded up pink band-aid. Then what happened hit me -- when she had her shots on Monday, one of her band-aids came off when I was putting her in the car and got stuck to the seat back. I meant to take it off and forgot, and then didn't even notice it when I put her in the car. I guess she kicked it off the seat and somehow managed to get it in her mouth. To say I feel like mother of the year is an understatement. :(

The paramedics were so nice -- Audrey charmed them with her babbling and grinning like nothing happened, and flashed a super huge grin at the very cute EMT. I called the pediatrician's office when I got home, and they said as long as she could eat without an issue, she didn't need to be seen. The nurse said, "Great job, mom -- you did the right thing!" But I don't feel like I can take any credit for it ... the right thing would have been to have gotten that band-aid out of the car when it happened.

The most important thing is that she's ok. Me? Not so much. I keep flashing back to it, remembering how I kept saying, "Audrey Audrey Audrey!" and telling Olivia to be quiet so I could think. My dreams the last two nights have been filled with topics even the most novice dream analyst could figure out: planes crashing before my eyes, horrible car accidents, Audrey choking on grapes, toys, plastic bags, you name it. And there was the dream about Bret Michaels hitting on me, which ... who knows about that one.

Olivia keeps saying things like, "Audrey coughing and the am-ba-wance came!" She pretended to choke while she was eating and told me to call the ambulance (not funny mere hours after The Incident, but pretty hilarious now!), and says "Mama hit Oggie's back and the red firetruck came!" -- that line will surely be the one she yells at top volume the next time we're at the store. ;)

6 months!

She's starting to sleep for several hours at a time now -- last night, she was only up once, but it was from 3-5 a.m. Baby steps. She rolls from back to belly and belly to back, and is starting to get the hang of sitting up, though she's still super wobbly.

At her ped appointment today, she weighed 15 pounds 8 ounces (45th percentile) and was 26" long (60th percentile). She's definitely more of a chunk than her big sister was at this age, at least from looking at her chunka chunka thighs.

She has 6-month testing at the audiologist tomorrow, which I'm a little nervous about for really no reason. I know I'll be holding her in the testing booth, and that she'll be wearing her hearing aid and will have her other ear plugged for the test, but other than that, I'm not sure how it'll all work. More on that tomorrow.

crocodile roll

Audrey can apparently now roll herself over and over and over to get somewhere. How do I know this, you ask? I haven't yet witnessed it personally, but I put her on her playmat this afternoon, went in the kitchen to get a drink, and came out and she'd rolled herself partially under the entertainment center. Thankfully, the Wii Fit board kept her from going all the way under. I'll take that mother of the year trophy now!

We joined the summer reading program at the library today. Olivia got a card with her name on it, and she'll get points for every book I read to her. Right now she's loving "If You Take a Mouse to School" and "Please Baby Please." Audrey and I also got cards, but I'm thinking neither of us will be doing much reading right now. ;)

Olivia cracks me up lately -- she says some of the cutest and funniest things. Tonight when I was getting her ready for bed and hugged her, she said, "Once upon a time, mama gave OE a big hug! Once upon a time, OE gave mama a big kiss!" Sweet, right? While changing her dirty diaper, she proclaimed that it was full of "walrus pebbles." I think she must have gotten that from daddy.

And last -- but definitely not least -- Audrey only woke up once last night for a bottle. Thank you, baby sleep gods! I apologize for cursing your name repeatedly over the last 5.5 months.

sibling rivalry already

Olivia had her first major encounter with someone who completely ignored her in favor of her little sis. We were at Target, OE in the cart, Oggie in the bjorn. An older woman walked by and started loudly oooooohing and aaaaaaaahing over Mr. Ogg. She even went so far as to squeeze her leg chub (which is plentiful). This woman went on and on and on about how cute Audrey is: those eyes! those dimples! that CHUB! Olivia sat there totally silent -- if you know her, you know how rare that is -- and gaped at this woman. I could tell she was probably thinking, "Really, lady?" She finally did turn to O and tell her she was cute, and she replied, "Yep." I had to laugh.

So we're sitting here eating dinner (well, I'm eating; she's eyeing her food with distaste and begging to get down). I break out paper and a marker for her as a stall tactic. She starts writing and says, "I'm making a naughty list!" [note: this is from a Dora Christmas episode we last watched in December, not some parenting threat I'm busting out. Though now that I think of it ...] She finds a piece of scrap paper with a picture of a baby on it, starts scribbling on his face, and says, "Look! That's baby Audrey on the naughty list!" I asked her what Audrey did to get on the list: "She talks like a baby." Watch out, Audrey -- this probably won't be the first time Olivia throws you under the bus.