Breakdown of Taylor's Birthday

Oh this post is way over due.....
When it came to making plans for Taylor's birthday I thought about doing a party with some of her friends, but then I started thinking of how much money it would cost (even if I did things on the cheap), how we didn't have room for presents (even though I would ask people not to bring them; whoever pays attention to that?), and how really, she still doesn't get "birthdays" and she wouldn't remember if she had a party with friends or a party with the 3 coolest people on Earth (a.k.a.her parents and sister).  So we decided to just do a small party at home.  So if you were wondering why you weren't invited to a party; that's why.  So don't feel left out because really, we left everyone out.  =)

Anyway, we celebrated the Saturday before Taylor's birthday.  I made her a super yummy and super cute (if I do say so myself) cake. 

 

It may not look like much on the outside but check out the inside:

I saw this idea on Pinterest, and it was actually a rainbow cake.  That's what I was going to do until I was in the middle of making the cake, opened the cabinet to find we only had green and red food coloring.  So a graduated pink cake it became.  I'm actually quite happy with how it came out.  =)

Anyway back to the birthday fun.....

Taylor liked opening her presents but she still seems to like the tissue paper more.  

A potty!

A bowling set!

Puzzles!

Elf on a Shelf!

And of course after the presents we had the cake.  Taylor didn't understand to blow out the candles until I pointed to them and said "hot!"  Then she blew on them.  =P

On her actual birthday, Walker's dad came over and she opened more presents (lots of books!!) and we went to dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse (which was really good!!).  

I'd say Taylor had a very enjoyable 2nd birthday.....well other than Walker and I waking her up at 6 AM to sing to her:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5wSYEqUN8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Showing Off

So I guess Taylor knows more letters than I thought.....

We'll start working on the sounds of the letters next ;)

Christmas Card

Why is it so hard for me to pick out a Christmas card to send out?  Because Shutterfly has too many choices!  Yes, this is another blog post on why I [hear] Shutterfly.
Now I pretty much have our card designed, but I won't post the final product on here (what fun would that be?).  Instead I will share some cards that I was debating between.....

Now, since the photos I'm using are black and white, I had to look for cards that would look good with that (so unfortunately, I  wasn't able to consider any cards with a brown background).
I like the flowers on this one:

And the colors on the letters really pop with this one:

And this one is just plain cute:

Right now, all photo cards are 40% off so if you plan on getting your cards from Shutterfly (and I highly recommend you do- they have GREAT customer service!) you better do so soon.  And also they're offering free shipping, and buy one get one 50% off on products like photo books, calendars, etc.  And thus ends my post on why Shutterfly rocks.  =)

You can check out ALL of the current Shutterfly promos here

Taylor Turns Two!

Weight: 21.4 lbs
Height: 31.25 in.

I was kind of surprised the doctor didn't comment on this.  All she said was "well now she's at the 1% for weight."   I didn't ask her if I should be worried....maybe I should have.   But I guess I think that if the doctor was that worried, wouldn't she have told me that Taylor needs to gain weight?  Or we need to give her some sort of dietary supplement?  I get the feeling that our doctor doesn't like to bring up things that could be wrong with children.  And the more I think about it, the more I start to worry again about how little she has grown.  Okay, moving on before I drive myself crazy.

Developmentally, I actually know exactly where Taylor's at.  Her language (both expressive and receptive) is at about a 15 month level.  The good thing is, this qualifies her for services and hopefully those start soon.  And I'm apologizing right now if I've already shared this on here....I know I composed a blog post about the results of her evaluation in my head; I just can't remember for the life of me if I actually posted it.  Anyway, since the evaluation, I feel Taylor has made some big improvements in her language.  She repeats more words now and she's starting to use more and more on her own in context.  And we've even had a few phrases come out.  Like this morning, I was taking a shower and she came to the door of the shower and I said "Hi Taylor!" and she distinctly said "Hi Mommy!"  That may not seem like a big deal, but I have been waiting two years for that, so to me, it was huge.
Now even though Taylor is delayed in her speech, she does know several letters.  I kid you not- she will see letters and start naming them.  So far the ones she absolutely knows for sure are i, s, o, t, and y.  She also is getting better at a, b, j, m, q, u, and z.   Taylor loves looking at her alphabet book and she will sit down and look at the back inside cover (where all the letters are) and she'll start pointing to the ones she knows and saying what they are.  And last night on our way down Prospect Ave, she was naming letters that she saw in the signs of the stores and restaurants.  I cannot get enough of seeing her do this.   As a reading teacher, it makes me very proud!
Taylor loves to do many other things: coloring (with a very good pencil grip by the way; we don't even bother with toddler crayons anymore- she likes the regular ones), twirling around and laughing hysterically (Ring Around the Rosy is huge in our house), puzzles, playing her little keyboard book, and singing.  Right now, her favorite songs are ABC, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Row, Row, Row Your Boat so I get to sing them over and over and over....
Taylor is still quite the picky eater.  In fact, I feel like she's become even more picky.  It is so hard to get vegetables in her!  I actually have resorted to feeding her baby food a few times because she will happily scarf down purees. I'm sure her picky eating has something to do with her size.  It's not just that she is picky, but she just doesn't eat a lot in general.  For example, most mornings we give her a piece of toast or a frozen waffle (okay not the best breakfast but it has to be something quick and easy so we can all get out the door on time).  She usually does not finish eating either of those things.  If anyone has insight on getting your child to eat more, please share it!  Otherwise I might have to resort to toddler formula or something!

And lastly, the pictures.  Have you ever tried to get a 2 year old to sit still for pictures?  Practically impossible.  I tell her "say cheese!" and she'll say "cheeeese" and run towards the camera.  So this was the best I could do...=)

I Set a Date!

December 15th is the day.  The day that I will pump for the last time....probably in my whole life.  Walker and I discussed this about a week ago and we decided it was in our best interest for me to wean myself from pumping.  We did not make this decision lightly.  I don't want to say I've enjoyed pumping for the last 7+ months, but I have greatly enjoyed being able to provide Lucy everything she needs nutritionally.   Now, Lucy could still be on straight breastmilk and solid foods right now, but I chose to introduce re-introduce (I forgot she had it as an infant) formula.  I wanted to make sure she would take it- that would be horrible if I went through my entire freezer stash and then found out she wouldn't drink formula!!  But thankfully Lucy is taking her formula bottles just fine.  The other reason for  giving her formula now is I can really build up my freezer stash now so that hopefully Lucy will still get at least some breastmilk every day until her first birthday.  That was my initial goal: breastmilk for the first year.  I never said how much breastmilk!  So right now, she gets breastmilk at daycare and formula at home.  This means I only need to make sure she has 12 oz and the rest I get to freeze! 
So why December 15th?  Well, the day for the start of the new month of pump rental for me is the 18th.  Obviously I won't be turning in my pump tomorrow.  So I want to turn it in by Dec. 18th in order to avoid paying for a full month's pump rental if I only have it for a few days for that time period.  Dec. 18th is a Sunday so I plan on returning it the Friday before, which is the 16th.  So I've worked out a schedule so that I'll be ready to return it then.  I realize I might have to some hand expression after the 15th but I really don't know how much I'll have to do because the schedule I worked out has me pumping twice for 5 minutes on the 15th.  I really don't think that by that point, I'll be so full that I'll need to hand express.  I'm sure by that point, I'll be getting very little from pumping. 
Anyway, I might write more later on how I'm feeling about all of this in another post.  But for right now, I'm counting down to the 15th; maybe I'll make one of those paper chains.....

Update On Taylor

I realized today that I never updated after my last (rather whiny and ranting) post about Taylor's language development.
So last Friday, 2 ladies from Early Intervention came to our house to do the evaluation.  One was a speech language pathologist (SLP) and the other one...well I can't remember her official title but she looks at children more globally; basically all areas of development. 
So the two ladies (of course I can't remember their names) spent about 45 minutes playing with Taylor, and asking me questions.  The SLP did an oral exam of Taylor's mouth to make sure everything looked good.  Taylor actually did very well with that part- she didn't cry at all!
What they concluded is that Taylor is behind in language and cognitive development.  However, they said that her cognitive functioning is at 18 mos. but that score is largely affected by language and since her language (both receptive and expressive) function was at about 15 mos. they're not too concerned about the cognitive score.  She actually came up advanced in fine motor skills.  That one didn't surprise me really- Taylor knows her way around the iPhone apps and she has a great pencil grip.  She actually prefers to color with regular crayons rather than the chunky ones we have bought for her.
So what does this mean?  Well her delay in language is 35% which is just high enough to qualify for services.  So as soon as they find an SLP to provide services she'll get therapy (at our daycare provider's home most likely) once a week.  She has a Individual Family Service Plan which is like an IEP.  She has a goal of increasing her vocabulary by 100-150 words in 6 months.  That sounds like so many right now!!  But I'm hoping with the intense services she'll meet that goal easily. 
In the short time since the previous post, I feel like Taylor has increased her vocabulary a little.  She is saying more animal names and sounds and she is repeating more words in general.  I'm also very proud that she knows the names of some letters already! 
I'm not sure exactly why we've started seeing more gains lately other than I know Walker and I are being much more focused on language with her.  We've looked at a few resources for parents of "late talkers" and they've been very helpful. 
Taylor's language delay still bothers me a bit here and there but I have been feeling more at peace with it knowing that she's going to get the help she needs and that even in the time we've been focusing our energies on language activities with her, she's made progress. I'm thinking that with the therapy and our support she will make great strides and get caught up in no time.

Lucy is 8 Months!

I really need to think of a more clever title than "Lucy is __ months!"  Anyway....
Weight: 15.4 lbs
Height: 27.75 in.

Those are unofficial.  I'm sure the weight is pretty accurate because she was naked.  The height I'm not sure on just because it's kinda hard to measure her (she's so squirmy!).

Physical development: well, still no crawling.  I swear she's getting closer.  When she's sitting up she'll lean over to one side with her hands on the ground like she's going to take off but then nothing happens.  And when she's on her tummy she'll push herself up to all fours and rock, but then she'll flop down on her belly again.  But I know once she's crawling she'll get into even more things so I'm fine with this for now.

Language: man is she a talker!  Lucy is constantly babbling.  She has many different consonant sounds.  And I swear she said "mama" several times last week and she was looking at me.  Could this be a first word?  Well it's too early for me to say for sure. 

Sleep: awesome as always.  In bed by 7, up at 6; I can't complain.  Naps are great too. 

Teeth: ha- what teeth?  Lucy is still gnawing on everything but those teeth are determined to stay hidden.

Food: still doing 2 meals a day.  We did try 3 meals over the weekend and Lucy got a little constipated.  I think it was because she didn't have as much liquids.  She's still getting plenty of breast milk.  I really need to write a whole different post about the breast milk situation.  But she definitely loves food and she really likes the fruits and veggies we give her. 

And the real reason for this post:

Reason #23 I switched to cloth diapers: how cute is this print?!?

  

 

 

 

 

I know this isn't a particularly good picture but I just had to document how chunky her legs are.  I never want to forget this chub!!!