Thursday, April 15, 2010

Developmental Testing


This is Mena playing in her new sandbox in the backyard after the physical therapist had left this morning. The PT did some standardized tests with Mena and determined that her Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Problem Solving, and Personal-Social are all above the 18 month age expectations. The testing confirmed that Mena's communication/language is behind for her age but these tests did not tell us how far behind. We will see the physical therapist in a month and we'll continue to see the language teacher weekly.

Gene and I talked about how different the opinions are between what the pediatrician was saying at her 18 month check up and what the physical therapist was saying this morning. Gene and I feel the physical therapist using standardized testing in our home was probably more accurate than the pediatrician just taking 15 minutes to observe her in the exam room. The pediatrician was talking off the top of his head whereas the physical therapist was able to give us documentation to show why she placed her where she did on the developmental charts, so that seems more valuable of an opinion to us.


Yea, Mena has come so far in the time I've been home with her!


Update: Gene and I went back through our copies of the standardized tests previously done on Mena. By reanswering the questions we were able to determine that Mena has jumped 40 points since January. She was below the 12 month mark in January and is now between 12 and 14 months.

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

19 Months Old


Mena is 19 months old today. Our home scale shows Mena weighs 27 pounds. She now has 12 teeth (8 front teeth and 4 molars). She's wearing size 2 tops and size 18 month pants. The nice weather has meant we could pull out some short sleeve shirts and Capri's. I've seen her tug on her shirt sleeves like she thought they weren't pulled down her arm all the way! She's also been able to go bare foot around the house and she's fascinated with her toes. She keeps signing "more" for "This Little Piggie."

Mena can now walk all over the house and she's begun picking up speed. She has also figured out how to push or pull a toy without leaning on the toy and she's rediscovered a few toys that she'd previously not shown much interest in because they wouldn't support her while walking. The physical therapist is disagreeing with the pediatrician as to how far behind Mena is in her gross and fine motor skills. The first thing the physical therapist did was give me some new activities to do with Mena to improve her balance which has resulted in her much improved walking. The next thing the physical therapist wants to do is some tests that will show what developmental age Mena's skills are putting her at. The physical therapist has agreed to come twice a month and the speech therapist is continuing to come weekly. Mena isn't speaking any new words but she's learned to sign "up" and "all done" which have both proven helpful. Mena is also starting to respond to regular phrases that we're repeating a lot, like "let's go brush your teeth" or "time to put your pajamas on." The fact that she's understanding us more is really nice.

This picture shows Mena with her new peg board. She stacked 7 pieces high for the first time so I snapped the picture.
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Easter at Home



Mena's third egg hunt was at our house after nap on Easter. She was really excited for the Easter Basket of goodies. She liked the bunny bells and her book, but she wasn't much interested in picking up all the plastic eggs that we'd hidden in the living room.
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Easter at Grandma Olson's




We celebrated Easter with my family at Grandma Olson's house. In the first picture Mena is playing with her new tea set with Grandma Frye. In the second picture Grandma Olson is showing Mena her cousin Jake. In the last picture, Mena is finding plastic eggs hidden in the living room. She had a better idea of what to do this time around. We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa Olson, Uncle Jim (Grandma Frye's brother), Grandma and Grandpa Frye, Aunt Beth with cousins Peyton and Tyler, and Aunt Peg with Uncle Jon and cousin Jake.
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MOM's Group




Every Tuesday Mena and I have been going to MOM's group. The Tuesday before Easter we did an egg hunt out in the yard for all the kids. It was Mena's first egg hunt and she didn't quite get the concept. She started by picking up the eggs and putting them in her bucket like I showed her. But then she thought since there were so many on the ground that maybe she should put hers back on the ground next to the ones she was finding! Aunt Peggy and I started laughing. Peg and Jake are also going to MOM's group but Jake's still too little to play with the other kids. The little girl with the purple jacket on is Brinn and she also goes to the same story time at the library that we go to each week.
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Coloring Easter Eggs



Mena had fun dyeing Easter Eggs. She got excited each time I pulled an egg out and it was colored. We did 12 eggs and then I told her we had to stop. Neither she nor Gene will eat boiled eggs so that was plenty for me to eat for the week.

You can kind of see the mark below her right eye. She got her first black eye when she fell in the backyard and landed just right on a walnut shell! Poor kid.
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Going to the Park


Mena's favorite place is outdoors now. This picture shows how she's learned how to walk up and down the stairs while holding onto a railing. She's getting stronger and better balanced and is so proud of being able to do these things herself!
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Getting Ready for Amber's Wedding


Mena thought the flowers Amber bought to make her bouquets were very pretty. She was thrilled to "help" us and we were thrilled that the flowers bounced back to shape after her little hands squished them up!
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Happy Birthday, Peyton!


Luckily, Mena's cousin Peyton is a great kid. When Mena helped rip open his present, he didn't get mad. He turned to his mom and said, "Mommy, she's helping me!" like it was the greatest thing Mena could have done. Peyton is a big 5 year old and seems to do well in the roll of big brother and big cousin.
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Watching the Workers


Mena is watching the workers install the fence in our backyard. Mena and Emmy Lou can now run around the backyard without either of them escaping onto busy 48th Street. So far we've gotten a play house, some balls, and a sandbox. I'm watching for a used climbing structure to add to the backyard.
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Playdate!



My friend Nicole went to Florida for a week to help her parents so while her husband was at work the kids came to play with Mena and I. Mena enjoyed introducing Gavyn to her puppy and she enjoyed playing with Finley. Mena really thrives on interaction with other kids and made a lot of growth during the week Gavyn and Finley were here. So much growth, in fact, that the physical therapist told me I needed to increase the amount of time that Mena is around other children. I now have Mena regularly going to 3 different weekly activities. I'm still working on starting my in-home daycare. I have my city permit and the Nebraska Secretary of State has approved my business name so Light of My Life Child Care is now open for business. I just need to find two full time clients so Mena can have some regular playmates here at home.
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Happy Birthday, Aunt Debbie!


We went out to eat with Aunt Debbie and Grandma Hogan to celebrate Aunt Debbie's birthday. As Mena's getting older she's getting more comfortable around her extended family and interacting a lot more with everyone. She really likes playing with Aunt Debbie who got some great smiles and laughs out of her!
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So Cute!



Mena learned a new trick to look between her legs. The physical therapist has us doing a bunch of exercises to improve Mena's balance. She doesn't balance very long to look between her legs but she's getting a lot better!
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Eating at Burger King



Mena eating her first kid's meal at Burger King (not just some of our food like usual). She did NOT like the pickle, but chowed down on the french fries and hamburger. She liked getting the little toy, too!
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