Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Sunshine


Keeping the sun out of Maggie's eyes with this cute hat!
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31 months old

Mena is now 31 months old. I didn't weigh her since the doctor just did. She's wearing size 4T tops and size 3T pants and shorts. We have to roll the pants up but the size 2 pants were starting to look like capri's and it's not quite warm enough for that right now. The size 7 shoes are getting too small, but I heard the Easter Bunny might bring her new shoes on Sunday :)

We're continuing to potty train, but mostly Mena's back in diapers.  We'll try again in a few weeks.  It sure is a long process and I've heard you really just have to wait patiently until the kid decides they want to be potty trained. 

Mena now has a new teacher through LPS.  I didn't feel the old teacher was a good match for Mena.  Gene and I had specifically told LPS we didn't want sign language used with Mena because we'd noticed that when we stopped using sign language that her verbal language started improving.  The teacher ignored this and other techniques that we discovered were working with Mena so I requested another teacher be assigned to work with Mena.  Dianne is her new teacher.  Dianne is bringing a fresh new perspective to Mena's development.  I am impressed with how observant Dianne is of Mena's strengths and how well she is building on Mena's strengths.  I think this will be a better fit for Mena to be working with Dianne.
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Picking Things Up




Maggie's getting good at picking up toys we set in her lap and she's discovered she can grab her feet and pull them up to herself. Her mouth is wide open because she was jabbering away while playing with her feet.
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Fun Times!






Maggie has discovered the fun of shaking her rattle over and over and swinging her arm wider and wider as she shakes it. The only bummer is that she sometimes wacks herself in the head. She doesn't usually cry until she's hit herself 3-4 times! Maggie's rolled herself from back to stomach a few more times, but has yet to figure out how to go from stomach to back.
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Stealing Daddy's Chair


Ha Ha! I'm sitting in Daddy's chair!
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How Tall!


I didn't realize how tall Mena's cousin Jake is until he pulled himself up to stand beside her. He's 14 months old and she's 31 months old in this picture.
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Spelling Our Names


Mena and Traven each made a necklace of flowers that spelled their names. Mena now has hers hanging on her doorknob decorating the door to her room.
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WooHoo!


Maggie has begun holding her own bottle for a few seconds at a time! I like holding Maggie to feed her but sometimes it would be nice if I could just hand her a bottle when I was busy with the other kids.
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Dentist


Mena had her first dentist appoint on April 5th. Gene had just been to the dentist and brought home a bag of goodies so she kind of understood when we told her she was going to be going to the dentist. She was very excited to leave the house with me that morning. She was a bit nervous as we walked into the building and wouldn't leave my side in the waiting room. I went back with her and sat her in the chair. She seemed a little nervous sitting in such a big, strange chair so I distracted her by saying, "Let's take a picture to send to Daddy." She seemed to calm down after that. The dentist came in and showed her the new princess toothbrush he was going to brush her teeth with. He told her he was going to make the chair lay down like a bed so he could look into her mouth and then he pushed the button. The chair started laying back and she started screaming and crying! I had to help hold her laying down. She had a death grip on my arm but she laid down, stopped crying, and said "ah" for the dentist. He brushed her teeth, told me there were no cavities, and let her get down off the chair. The assistant brought her a bag and she turned to me excited, held up the bag, and said, "Dada." I replied, "Yes, you got a bag just like dada did when he went to the dentist!" The dentist and his assistant chuckled at how excited she was over the bag. She then took forever to pick out a tatoo. I had to finish filling out some paperwork so she played in the toy area and then was mad when I said it was time to leave. I think it went well overall and I think she'll do just fine in 6 months since we were able to hang out and get a smile before she left.

Oh, and I thought she hadn't gotten her 2 year molars yet.  They weren't there the last time I counted her teeth, but the dentist said she's only got 1 molar yet to come in.  She really never complains when teeth come in!
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4 Month and 30 Month Dr Check Ups






Both girls checked out healthy at their doctor appointment. Mena is 36.5 inches tall (73%) and 33.4 pounds (89%). Only health discussion the doctor and I had about Mena was concerning her constipation. I'd taken her off the Miralax because it was sometimes giving her very runny dirty diapers. We've been able to figure out that if she drinks 3-4 cups of fluids a day then she's fine without Miralax, but on the days she only drinks 2 cups of fluids then the doctor wants us to give her a dose of Miralax. This new guideline seems to be keeping things soft but not runny so we're happy with everything there.

Maggie is 25.75 inches long (90%), she weighs 16 pounds 11 ounces (95%), and her head measures 16 7/8 inches (90%). The doctor looked at the birthmark on the back of her neck since it's changed color a bit, but he said it was just fine. He measured the strawberry on her left hip and said it's doing fine. Maggie got a set of shots, but Mena did not need any this time. Mena sat to the side reading a book and just ignored Maggie's crying. I guess she figured I was standing by her so everything would be ok. Mena only seems concerned about Maggie's crying if I don't immediately respond to Maggie.
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Children's Museum








In the tree house of the toddler area, Mena is sometimes holding my hand but frequently will now climb up and down all by herself. She fell a few times on the ramp part and laughed when she got back up because she gets going so fast trying to run down the ramp!

The last picture is us sitting in the big fire truck while Mena is driving. That's one big steering wheel!
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Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Lincoln Children's Museum







March 30th, we went to the Children's Museum with Jake and Peg. Mena was mad that we made her sit in the big red chair, but I think it would be neat to go back yearly and take pictures in the same red chair. Hopefully, I'll remember each year to do it once.

Mena's favorite spot in the museum is the grocery store. She loads the cart so it is overflowing with food. Then she took it to the fire truck and put her food in the truck to drive it home. Then we convinced her to put the food in the back so Jake could ride up front with her.
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Creative Mommy


We were talking about Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem. We don't have a rocking horse or stick horse so I printed a donkey head off the computer and taped it over the bristles of the broom. Mena thought this was funny to ride around on her stick donkey!
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Lots of Love


Traven loves to give Maggie hugs each day! Maggie's arm strength is starting to build up with some thanks to Traven's entertaining her during tummy time!
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