Taylor is Three!

And she has been for over a month now.  Yep, behind on blogging again. 
There is a reason why they say "terrible twos" and "thunderous threes."  I hoped and prayed that on Taylor's third birthday she would wake up and it'd be like a light switch and all of her tantrums and defiant behavior would magically disappear.  Yeah, that didn't work.  Taylor is very spirited, incredibly active, and horribly stubborn.  I only have myself to blame for the last one; I'm quite stubborn myself!  I guess the good thing is, she will not grow up to be a wishy-washy person.  In fact, I'm sure she will be quite head strong and not afraid to speak her opinion.  So, she and I butt heads quite often but I'm trying my best to use calm and firm parenting.  I do not want to resort to spanking. It's not that I think people who spank are bad parents (I DON"T); more that I don't think it would be very effective for her.  Also, she already has problems with hitting us when she's angry so I don't think spanking her would send the right message.  What I have found to be effective is taking away toys; specifically "pink Ariel."  "Pink Ariel" is the Little People Ariel figurine and she's wearing a pink dress (as opposed to the mermaid version of Ariel which we also have).  Ariel gets placed on top of our bookcase every 2-3 days.  Every time Taylor asks for her, I remind her why Ariel is up there and that Ariel will come down tomorrow.  It works.  Kinda.
So growth-wise, Taylor is in the 2nd percentile for height and the 6th percentile for weight.  No, I did not flip-flop those!  For the first time in over 2 years, Taylor's weight percentile is higher than her height percentile!  If you're curious what this means in terms of sizes, well she still wears 2T.  She could probably get away with 24 mos. bottoms depending on the brand.  On top she definitely needs a 2T for the length and some 2T shirts are starting to get too short as well.  She's just so darn skinny!  I think she only weighs 25 pounds with clothes on.  I guess that means in the last year she's only gained about 5 pounds (hmph, we should all be so lucky).
So since Taylor turned 3, she has aged out of Early Intervention services.  We were definitely sad to stop our sessions with Miss Amanda.  Technically, she now has an IEP (Individualized Education Plan for all the non-educator types out there) from Champaign Unit 4 schools.  This means that she is eligible to get speech services from them for the rest of this school year.  But that entails her going to the Pre-K center once a week for a half hour during the school day.  Well that obviously isn't going to happen given where Walker and I work and where our daycare provider is.  Unit 4 did their own speech evaluation and based on that, she has qualified for a classroom spot for next school year.  This means she will go there for half a day, every day and she would receive her speech services while she is there.  Of course I had hoped she would have gained enough from her EI services to not need any more speech therapy.  This did not happen.  Don't get me wrong; Taylor definitely made a lot of gains, but at the end of the program she was still showing a 31% delay (compared to 35% delay when she was first evaluated).  That was definitely disappointing to hear.  What's interesting about Taylor is she is on target or even above target in so many areas but then so far below target in others.  For example, 36 mos. olds are supposed to be able to count to 3 to score in the "average" range.  Well, Taylor can count to 20 (and sometimes beyond that if I get her started with "21").  But at the same time 3 year olds are supposed to have an average sentence length of 4-5 words.  Taylor's is 2.5. Taylor has an amazing vocabulary (or so I'm told; I really don't know what kind of vocabulary average 3 year olds have) but she just won't put those words together to form longer sentences.  Taylor still relies a lot on carrier phrases; "I want" still being her favorite.  A new one for her is "it's really" like "it's really hot," "it's really high," etc. 
I don't feel as guilty about her speech development as I used to.  Now I just feel kind of a sadness and longing.  It can be so hard being around her friends (who are all advanced in their language skills to begin with) and watching her struggle to even get out a 4 word sentence.  I think a lot of Taylor's hesitation with longer phrases is her articulation.  She has such a hard time pronouncing words correctly when she's trying to put them together.  If you ask her to say one word, she'll say it near perfect, but when you ask her to say that same word in a sentence, everything gets jumbled up. 
But the great thing is, Taylor only needs the IEP for speech.  The therapist from Unit 4 said there was clearly no cognitive delays.  I was so relieved to hear that.  I guess I kinda already knew it, but it was nice to hear it from someone who interacts with 3 and 4 year olds all day.  Taylor knows all of her letters (uppercase and lowercase) and now knows all of her letter sounds too.  And just the other day she started sounding out words.  Well, okay, she was not putting the sounds together to read the words, but all on her own (seriously, I did not tell her to do this!), she started pointing at letters in words (in order, not just randomly) and saying the letter sounds.  So now I'm showing her how to sound out 3 letter words.  I don't know how quickly she'll catch onto putting the sounds together to make the word, but we'll work on it.  I'll probably start doing some phonemic awareness stuff with her so that she can build a strong foundation for when she's ready to put those sounds together.
Potty Training:  uugghhhhh.  That is how I feel about this subject.  We kinda tried to do it over the summer.  It didn't go so well.  Then we tried again back in the fall.  It went pretty well at daycare (as in Taylor would actually sit on the potty for more than a minute) but at home it was a big disaster.  It got to the point where Taylor was refusing (and throwing a tantrum) to sit on the potty.  We tried reading books, bringing in the iPad, bribing her...nothing worked.  Finally I consulted with my sister (why I didn't ask her sooner, I have no idea) and she said not to push it and that Taylor would use the potty when she wanted to, not when I wanted her to.  I checked with our pediatrician and she said the same thing.  I definitely don't want Taylor to have negative associations with using the bathroom so we're not pushing her.  I do a lot of modeling with lots of excitement (you have no idea how stupid I feel applauding myself for peeing) and we have her dolls and even "pink Ariel" go on the potty (eyedropper filled with water behind their back).  We also ask her if she wants to sit on the potty or go pee in the potty.  About half the time, she'll consent to sitting on the potty but it's only for about 10 seconds.  I know there are people out there who are judging me and maybe even secretly shunning me for having a 3 year old still in diapers...well if that makes you feel better, go right ahead.  Lots of kids aren't potty trained until 3 or even 4.  I figure as long as she knows how to do it by the time she enters kindergarten, we're good (for the record Champaign Pre-K does not require them to be potty trained).  I might break down and buy a really cool toy that she can't have until she's using the potty consistently but at this point, I don't think even that would be enough motivation for her.
I'm not sure there is really anything else to share.  Hopefully I'll be able to post again soon with an update on her behavior, potty training, speech or maybe all three!

Two DIY Christmas Gifts

'Tis the season of over-spending, falalalaaalalalalaaa!

Well at least that's usually how it goes in our house every November through December.  Despite me buying Christmas gifts early (seriously I start over the summer) somehow we always spend more than I intended.  This year I tried to be a little smarter and I decided that for some of my colleagues I would try a make-at-home gift.  The nice thing about this is that even though you don't spend as much, the gift hopefully means a little more because you put some time and thought into it.  So this year I made Lemon Sugar body scrub and Caramel Cheesecake dip. 

I got the basis for the scrub from here.  Now I don't know how she got her scrub to be bright yellow like that.  Maybe it was because she used olive oil as her base.  I had a whole big container of coconut oil already on hand and I've read how amazing coconut oil is for your skin so I used that as my base.  It is in solid form in the container so I scooped out roughly a cup and nuked it in the microwave for 30 sec. to liquify it.  Then I added my sugar and lemon juice and mixed it up.  I ended up adding a little more sugar than the recipe called for because I didn't want the scrub to be liquidy.  Then I scooped it into these cute jars I got at Hobby Lobby (50% off!) and tied a cute ribbon around them.  I printed out a label at school that listed what it was and what the ingredients are.  I do think next time I will add a few drops of essential oil to make it more scented.  Maybe lavender....

Cost:
Coconut oil: $6.99 (and I barely used half the container for 4 large jars of scrub)
4 glass jars: (4X $1.14) $4.56
Lemon juice: free as we already had some
Sugar: approx $2-$3. (I don't remember how much a 5 lb bag of sugar costs at Aldi's but it's not much)
Ribbon: free (leftover from different project)

And then I also made a caramel cheesecake dip which I found here.   Now I didn't do the graham cracker crumbs because I couldn't think of a cute way to package them with the dip and the apple. 
I found 2 small jars at Hobby Lobby (again 50% off!) and bought some holiday cellophane treat bags.  I put the dip in the jars, placed that at the bottom of the bag, placed a granny smith apple on top and tied it shut with a ribbon.  And of course I put a label on the outside of the bag so that my recipients would know what it was.  The bonus part was I had leftover dip since I only made 2 jars worth.

Cost:Jars: (2X $0.80) $1.60
Low fat cream cheese: $1.39 (I feel strongly this is the price of cream cheese at Aldi's; we buy it a lot)
Caramel sauce: $2-$3 (can't remember what it was at Aldi's)
Cellophane treat bags: $1.00 for 20 of them
Ribbon: free (already had some)

So there you have 2 cheap but thoughtful gifts perfect for Christmas or whenever.  If you're looking for more ideas like this, just search on Pinterest: there are more than you can imagine.  :)

Halloween Run-Down

Well everyone else is blogging about what they did over Halloween so I guess I should share our festivities.
This year, the girls went as butterflies.  I'm sure most almost-3 year olds can tell you what they want to be for Halloween but Taylor doesn't seem to get it.  And as smart as Lucy is, I'm not sure she got it either, so I chose their costumes for them.  It all stemmed from over the summer when I saw Halo Heaven had butterfly wings for $1.00 a piece.  I was already placing a big order so I added those, got free shipping, and a costume idea was born.  As soon as Target had their winter "basics" wear out, I bought the girls black tops and black leggings.  All I needed was the tutus.  I was going to have a friend show me how to make them but we're both busy gals so I found some tutorials online and spent a few nights putting them together.  I'm not really happy with how they turned out but I probably didn't put as much effort into it as I could have.  I'm not Emily (LOL just kidding Em!  You know I'm green with envy over here every time you show off a new project!).

 Okay enough with costumes.  Our first event was Boo at the Zoo at Scovill Zoo in Decatur.  This was our 2nd year doing it.  Last year we went later at night and it was COLD!  So this year we met some friends a little earlier (at least during daylight hours) and I think a much better time was had by all.  We even spent a little extra to ride the train.

Ready to ride the train!

aww so cute!

On Monday night we went to the Trick or Treat event at the Savoy Rec Center.  I'm sure we would have enjoyed it more if we had not had to chase Taylor everywhere.  And then Lucy insisted on being carried because she was a little overwhelmed by all the people there.  We didn't get to stay long and I definitely didn't get to take any pictures.

On Halloween we were going to try and do some actual trick or treating but Walker's dad invited us to attend the Halloween party held in his neighborhood for the kids.  They had a really nice set up in the clubhouse- there were games, snacks, and even a little haunted house in one of the rooms.  The girls loved playing the games (especially the fishing one!).  However, the girls didn't get to eat a good dinner before the party so we were only able to stay for about 45 minutes before they started to lose it.  At that point, we knew we just needed to skip the trick or treating and go home.  They still got a lot of treats from the party and with all the goodies they got from Miss Monica at daycare, they're set for a while.  I wish I could have gotten them to sit together for a picture but we're at the precious toddler stage so that makes posed pictures a nightmare challenge.

playing the game

picking out her prize

nom nom nom!  this is a good dinner substitute

frosting face!

it was almost impossible to pull them away from the fishing game!

Lucy is, no, was 18 months

Oh behind once again....Lucy turned 18 months on Sept. 7th...almost a month ago but that's okay.  I wanted to get her stats before I posted and I was late in scheduling her check up, and then last week happened....
Anyway, Lucy is 22 lbs 15 oz but that is with a cloth diaper on (I think it's weird our ped. office doesn't weigh them naked anymore) so I'm guessing she's more around 22 lbs.  She is also 31 inches tall.  I was not expecting that quite honestly; she still seems so little!  Comparatively this puts her around the 20th percentile on both charts.

Developmentally, I'm pretty sure Lucy is on track with her gross/fine motor skills.  She can walk and run, hold a crayon (no toddler crayons over here!), feed herself, use a spoon, etc.  She tries to jump but can't figure out how to get her feet to leave the ground so mostly she just bounces.  Oh and Lucy loves to dance and has mastered several dance moves like stomping, swaying, turning in circles, etc.

As far as her language goes....okay I guess I need to just insert a warning here that extreme bragging is coming.
So I think an average 18 month old has around a dozen words (at least according to babycenter.com).  Lucy has more like 6 dozen words.  That is not an exaggeration!  She repeats everything we say (yes even the f-bomb which I accidentally let loose when we were lost in Milwaukee).  And not only does she repeat it, she will store it in her brain to practice later.  I've been telling everyone lately about when Lucy and I were at the store and she all of a sudden started saying "I said no!  I said no!"  Ummmm gee I wonder who she heard that from?? 
And not only does this girl have a large vocabulary already but she is quite adept at stringing those words together.  Lucy speaks mostly in 2-3 word phrases and quite often throws 4-5 word sentences in there.  Those usually tend to be ones she has heard us or her sister say though.  I don't think she has come up with her own 4-5 word sentence yet, but I gave up trying to track all the things she says long ago.
And if I could just brag a bit more....Lucy knows most, if not all, her uppercase and lowercase letters.  I didn't explicitly teach them.  She just picked them up from watching Superwhy, Sesame Street, and reading alphabet books with us.  Lucy also can identify 0-10 and she can count up to 13 (and then jumps to 16; I don't know where 14 and 15 went).
And as far as colors go....well Lucy knows all the color names.  Sometimes she'll still mix them up.  It's so weird; one day she'll identify all of them perfectly and the next day she gets them confused.  That is happening less but sometimes I do still have to remind her that the frog is green, not red.  I was starting to get worried and then I was like "duh, she's only 18 months...I'll worry if she doesn't know them solid by 3 years."

Okay end of bragging.....

Health-wise Lucy is okay.  Still allergic to peanuts (and has now been exposed to them 3 times accidentally) and her eczema is really bad.  It was getting better over the summer but the past 2 weeks she has been covered in splotches and her skins is sooo dry.  We've gone back to coating her with straight vasoline several times a day.  We are out of her prescription cream so that could be part of the problem.  Our ped. suggested eliminating dairy since that also came up as an allergen for her but honestly I haven't seen an improvement, if anything she has gotten worse since we took it out of her diet.
And Lucy finally has more than 6 teeth!  Just in the past few days 2 more have broken through.  Her ped. also said her gums were swollen so maybe some molars will finally be on the way.  I know that will make eating so much easier for her. 

I wish I had some nice pictures to share but I've been so busy taking pictures for other people lately I haven't had hardly any time (or motivation) to take pictures of the girls.  I think I'm going to have to take a step back from doing sessions for other people for a bit but that might be a post for another time.

One Week Down

I did it!  One week: no chips.  I even managed to do that with half a bag of tortilla chips sitting in our cabinet (it's still there).  I'm going to keep going with this streak.  Now I am not going to pretend I made wonderful food choices all week; I did not.  But at least I didn't eat any chips! 

Hi I'm Joanna and I'm a Chip-a-holic

It's true...chips are a huge downfall for me when it comes to dieting maintaining a healthy lifestyle.  I am one of those persons who could sit on the couch and easily polish off a half a bag in one sitting.  Obviously this does not bode well when I'm still trying to shed 20 lbs of baby weight (and yes that "baby" is turning three in November).  I started thinking today about those "small steps to weight loss" that many articles have talked about: things like cutting out pop (I rarely drink pop anyway), drink more water (um that's pretty much all I drink), work out (check), etc.  The problem is I already do all those things and have been doing them for around 5-6 years now so those won't help me lose weight.  So what other change could I make?  Cut out chips.  Completely.  I won't even eat the baked chips or other supposed "healthier" chips.  I'm going cold turkey (God I can feel the withdrawal coming already).  I'm going to start with a small goal: go one week.  One week, no chips.  If I do it, then I'll try and go another week.  I'd like to see how long I can keep this going.  My hope is that I'll go SO long without them that I'll lose my taste for them.  Oh sorry, I just fell out of my chair laughing.  But seriously, I know that can happen...I'm just not sure I'll ever go long enough to lose my taste for them (they're SO good!).  Okay blog readers (all 11 of you), help me out.  You need to hold me accountable.  I will check back in next Sun.  One week.  No chips. 

Another Trip to the ER

Wednesday morning began like any other morning.  I got up and ran as usual.  Walker got the girls dressed and fed as I showered.  I was putting on make up Actually, I was about to put on make up but my contact was bothering me so I was cleaning it when I heard a thump and a loud wail.  I knew Taylor had done something but figured it wasn't a big deal until I heard Walker yelling, "there's blood!"  So I go running out into the kitchen to find Taylor sitting on the edge of the sink while Walker was pressing a paper towel to her forehead.  I grabbed an old bath towel for him to use since the paper towel was already saturated.  Taylor was crying and was not at all happy with us trying to clean the blood from her face.  Walker moved the towel away from her head and I got a good look at the wound: about an inch long cut slice (I think that's a much more accurate word) on her forehead that looked pretty deep.  I actually got a little sick to my stomach looking at it so I turned away (FYI: I don't do well with open wounds).  How did she do this?  Well we have one of those rolly chairs for our desk and Taylor loves to stand on it and lean against the desk.  We also have a drawer on the bottom of the desk that does not like to close all the way.  Put them together and what do you get?  The chair rolls from under Taylor's feet and she catches the drawer face first.  We decided Taylor needed to go to the ER so Walker called in to work and I finished getting ready.  Lucy was quite perplexed by all the chaos.  We got the bleeding to slow down enough to put a couple of bandaids on Taylor's head so she wouldn't bleed all over her carseat.  I also took her shirt off and gave her one of her many "loveys" to hold.  Walker and Taylor went to Provena, while Lucy and I headed off to work. 
At the ER Taylor quickly started acting like herself: running around and climbing everything.  She seriously does not learn.  Luckily the doctor said since it was a clean, straight cut, stitches weren't necessary.  The cut was repaired with Dermabond (glue) and Walker was given the instructions to keep Taylor's head out of direct sunlight for at least 3 months (to minimize scarring).  No concussion or other head injuries...thank goodness!
I have to admit, I wasn't completely freaked out by it.  Call it mommy gut or whatever, but I knew Taylor was going to be just fine.  I think a part of me is becoming a little too used to her bumps and bruises but also, me panicking and driving myself crazy with worry isn't going to help these situations.  I have a feeling we will have many more to come.  Oh and the rolly chair is gone: today I brought home my wood desk chair I had at school that does NOT have wheels.

All "glued" up and ready to go

Nothing a little donut can't make better