All Terrain Vehicle

An ATV is exactly what we have needed around here lately; last weekend, we got 28.5 inches of snow and, over the past 24 hours, we've received another 17+ inches. Final tallies are not in yet, but suffice it to say that Philly has now broken the record for the number of inches of snow received in any one season--which used to be 65.5 inches, set back in 1996. They've been keeping records since 1882 and so this is quite a feat. And the winter's not over yet.

You can't use any old vehicle to transport kids under these sorts of conditions: strollers are not very snow-friendly and we've already seen how much the toboggan appealed to Lea. So thank goodness for Gina and Jake. Even though they were both sick and unable to make it Lea's birthday party, we received their excellent gifts just in the nick of time. In addition to getting a shopping cart that makes her very happy, Lea was the recipient of this fine wagon:

As you can see, both kids really enjoy its presence in our home. It's a two seater (with lots of cup holders) and they don't have much to fight over. Hallie tells us when she'd like to be in the "back seat" or the "front seat". And Lea is pretty much happy wherever she is.

Both kids helped Sharon put it together over the weekend when we were cooped up inside the house. They had snacks in the wagon, and its draw on Hallie was so great that she did not really notice or care that she consumed two whole cheddar cheese and peanut butter crackers while spending time in it.

But the kids were a bit bored and stir crazy, having been cooped up inside for so long. So Sharon got the brilliant idea of taking them for a ride in the snow/ice in their shiny new wagon.

This voyage thrilled them:

Lea thought it was great to go bumpity-bump and bopped up and down with glee as Sharon pulled the kids along the icy/snowy stretch on a tiny block around the corner from our house. And Hallie, as her broad smile indicates, of course had a blast.

Thank you, Jake and Gina, for making Lea's birthday and the (many) ensuing snow days such fun. And Radio Flyer might well have a new market for these wagons here in snowy Pennsylvania!

"Good Job, Hallie!"

Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to get this one on camera (could this be, perchance, because I was walking around the living room feeding Lea, who prefers to eat on the go rather than with me sitting in the living room easy chair?) but here's a cute Hallie-ism of the day (that, as you will see, could have ended badly):

Around five this evening, or so, Hallie asked me for some chips (specifically for  "a big round one").  I got out the bag of chips and gave her one (no big round ones left, so she had to settle for a few broken medium-sized ones) when Lea began to cry.  I picked up Lea to walk her around and feed her a bottle when Hallie decided to climb onto the dining room chair and serve herself a few more chips.  She ignored my request that she get down off of the chair before she knocked it over and broke her head (or at least bruised some part of herself badly), and instead proceeded to grab a chip or two from the bag.  The second time she did this (again ignoring my request that she stop climbing), she said:  "Good job, Hallie!"  It was very cute, although obviously it doesn't pardon her from the reprimand she deserved for scaling furniture.

Anyway, Hallie was full of 'good jobs' this weekend.  On Sunday, we paid a visit to Gina and Jake to hang out with them and their whole posse of friends and family and check out the water slide (really more of a water park) that Gina had installed for Jake in their backyard.  Hallie was thrilled and demonstrated just how fearless, brave, and strong she is.  She grappled up the wall (kind of a cross between a ladder and climbing wall) to the top of the slide multiple times and enjoyed splashing into the pool below.  She couldn't get enough of that.

 

And she couldn't get enough of Jake, either.  She enjoyed lounging in his toddler bed (making us consider putting hers together for her before she gets too long for it), trying out his tricycle (Jake has moved onto a cool two-wheeler but Hallie's a bit short for it still, never mind that she's only just beginning to get the hang of the pedaling and steering aspects of riding), and especially taking his roller skates for a test run.  She was remarkably poised on these, so skates go onto her birthday wish list (and not only because she actually seemed to enjoy them either. Her new PT mentioned that having her roll around on skates would help build core strength and balance which might prevent her from falling when walking so much and might assist her in negotiating the stairs.  I think that play is always work for kids, but parents of kids who are developing a bit differently are particularly keenly aware that they are not just buying items to amuse their children but therapy tools).

Here are a few shots of Hallie hanging out with Jake and trying out his stuff:

And here's a lovely picture of Gina, Jake, and Lea (or "Baby Lea" as Jake likes to call her):

And, speaking of Lea, Lea is now chuckling and laughing a lot. I am assuming that she's doing so with us, and not at us (though the latter would make some sense, too!). Lea finds us very amusing, and is particularly enamored of Hallie. The feeling is quite mutual. Often, when Hallie wakes up, the first thing she does is say "Hi, Lea!" to her sister (ignoring the two of us until she wants something from us) and, today, after spending some quality time pretend playing with her various Sesame Street pals, she decided that they each needed to kiss Lea, one by one. It was very cute to watch her bring over Abby and Zoe and Elmo and Telly, one at a time, and put them close to Lea's face and go "Oh...Lea!" And tonight, after dinner, while playing the "turn-taking game" with us (this involves Hallie coming over to us, usually while we're still eating, and telling us that it is our turn to do something like dance with Hallie). Usually she just says, "Mama, come dance!" or "Mommy's turn!" but tonight she incorporated Lea into her routine and expressed that it was Lea's turn to pretend to be various animals. Indeed, she was more interested in Lea having her turn as a cow, moose, and dog than she was at involving us in her game. I sense that Lea will experience much more of this as she gets older and more able to participate in Hallie-directed antics.

Which brings me to the final observation of the day: Hallie was very much alpha girl at gym class today. The class was much bigger than usual and there were about fifteen kids there instead of the more typical ten. Most were newcomers to the class and not terribly familiar with the general structure, which involves a bit of free play followed by circle time, skill building, ball playing, bubble catching, and the goodbye song. Miss Kristen, who runs the class, had been out for a few weeks and its structure had devolved in her absence. So few paid attention to her attempts to run the show today. But not Hallie--Hallie was in tip top circle time form this morning. The second Miss Kristen made a move to get the rubber circles, Hallie was right behind her offering to help distribute these. She gave me one and then proceeded to help distribute the rest. Instead of sitting with me, she took her place right next to Miss Kristen and was thus the first to introduce herself. Usually she whispers "Hallie" very softly to Miss Kristen's inquiry about her identity, but today she shouted out her name. Then she went around with Miss Kristen and high-fived the other kids who identified themselves. She handed out the bells and really got into the routine (though she was a bit flummoxed about where her hip was located when Miss Kristen asked the kids to ring the bells on their hips). And she collected the bells and circles the second Miss Kristen asked the kids to do so and then Hallie proceeded to take my hand and the hand of another kid's mom during our little dance around the room and was happy to demonstrate her backward walking skills when asked to do so. All of this happened with at least ten kids and their parents still racing through the gym and jumping on trampolines and the like. Her friend Gage's grandmother, who was down visiting the class for the first time, was so impressed with Hallie that she called her the "class leader." I was very proud of how organized and together she was today (and this after no naps this weekend and getting home really late last night). And I was also impressed at how social she was with the other kids (saying hi by name to one little girl she knows from class whom she's also seen on the playground; offering balls to a little boy who is one of the youngest and shyest members of the class; playing catch with a third). It's moments like these when I think that she really is ready for preschool and that she'll be totally fine there.

So, all in all, good job, Hallie!

Hallie and Eliza Grace's Ring Around the Rosey

Yesterday, we had a very fun playdate with Eliza, her mom, Anne, and her grandmother, Bessie. We were too lame to remember to bring our camera (imagine that!) but Anne took some great pictures and video footage of our girls, who demonstrated that they are very much into joint attention play and not parallel play.



This playdate came on the heels of another fun day spent at Jake and Gina's (pictures to follow), which immediately followed our impromptu belated celebration of cousin Hannah's sixth birthday. The week also included a grueling 2.5 hour assessment of Hallie for preschool services, a fun visit by my best friend from college, Steve, and his charming daughter, Nina and a meeting with the developmental pediatrician at CHOP who, for now, cleared Hallie from a diagnosis that places her on the autistic spectrum (though she warned that we need to follow Hallie and might reassess this later on; meanwhile, she's just registering as a kiddo with an expressive language disorder that hampers her pragmatic use of speech who has raging sensory issues). I will blog about these events later on but I just wanted to provide yet another series of excuses about why I am such a lame blogger right now!

Not only am I a lame blogger, but we have also neglected to form a real team for this year's March for Babies. So, at the eleventh hour, I'm forming a team for the sole sake of trying to raise some much needed funding for the March of Dimes. Click here if you'd like to contribute in honor of Hallie and Lea and in memory of Olivia Skye. And check back later this week for a longer update that will hopefully include an even greater VFQ (vomit free quotient), which now stands at 65 days and counting for 2009.

Life with The Girls: A Pictorial Retrospective of the Last 10 Days

There's nothing quite so lovely as seeing the girls loll about on the bed on a Saturday morning of what has turned out to be a relatively lazy weekend. For once we've stayed at home, which has provided me with some time to catch up on things like filing taxes and doing laundry (well, sort of, anyway; anybody ever notice that two kids produce far more than double the amount of laundry of one, not to mention an exponentially increased number of diapers?). It also gave me a bit of time to upload some of my pictures from the various cameras that we use and post them in draft form on blogger. So, in no real order, here's what's been going on at our house lately.

Ever since Sharon returned back to work three weeks ago, Hallie's been utterly fascinated by Sharon's motorcycle helmet. Sharon doesn't have a real cycle (thank heavens!) but a Honda Metro moped, which is a very convenient and inexpensive way of getting back and forth between our house and her office, which is about ten or so blocks away. Hallie loves to sit on the moped and eagerly awaits the return of mommy each night from the office (she hears her pull up, runs to the door, and shouts out: "Hi Mommy, Hi!"). She also loves the helmet and insists on wearing it. It's pretty heavy but Hallie has a strong neck (and a stubborn streak to boot; in Hebrew, the words "kshei oref" mean 'of strong neck' and were used by God as a fairly pejorative way of referencing those pesky Israelites who wandered through the desert during the 40 years following the Exodus from Egypt. Hallie is already quite adept at following in these tribal ancestral footsteps). Anyway, Hallie loves wearing the helmet around the house. Sadly, the only picture I could get was a bit on the blurry side, but you can see how much she is enjoying herself here:

 

All that helmet wearing is going to come in handy for when Hallie really masters trike riding. She's still a bit hesitant about riding the trike that Mark, Vanessa, and Karina gave her for her second birthday, but she had no problem pedaling away on this somewhat smaller model that she borrowed in the playground a couple of weeks ago:

 

 

And, speaking of enjoying herself, Hallie had a fabulous time hanging out with Jake and his mommy, Gina, last weekend. Gina made sure that there was lots of fun stuff to do, like decorating Easter eggs:

 

Hallie also had fun prancing about in Jake's easter bonnet:

 

When she wasn't excavating all of the toy bins (in other words, trashing the house; thank you, Gina, for being so tolerant of her curiosity!), Hallie was horsing around with Jake. Any time he was off in another room, Hallie would come looking for him, shouting, "Where's Jakey? Where'd he go?" and then, when she found him, would exclaim, "There he is!" The kids had a fabulous time playing together:

 

 

 

Hallie was also a very fine dinner companion for Jake. Or, more to the point, Jake was a total gentleman who sat beside Hallie the entire time and even put her favorite programs on for her (tolerating Sesame Street and Barney when he would have much preferred to have been watching the Disney Channel). Hallie not only ate her usual fare (hot dogs and fries) for dinner but also tried, and loved, the spaghetti we had ordered for her. She did a great job of twirling it onto her fork and actually getting some of it into her mouth. This love of spaghetti (mostly the sauce) has persisted and spaghetti eating is now an emergent skill that she has. Here she is at home enjoying some italian fare:

 

And here's a lovely picture of Gina, Jake, and Baby Lea:

 

We can't wait to hang out again with Gina and Jake next weekend!

Last Sunday, we not only attended the Regatta on the Schuylkill River, in which the girls' oldest cousin, Sarah, who is a freshman crew champion, participated but also had a lovely dinner at Ethan and Cole's granparents' home. Here Hallie, Ethan, and Karina are enjoying some quality time in a Radio Flyer wagon being furiously pulled by yours' truly:

 

Needless to say, everyone was plum tuckered out on Monday!

The rest of the week was fairly quiet (unless you count about a dozen or so assessments and therapy appointments), and, like I said at the outset, we really did enjoy recovering at home this weekend. But this did not mean we were housebound: we did manage to do a Target run that has resulted in the further progression of our living room into a sensory gym. While out shopping for various and sundry birthday presents for other people in our lives, we acquired an inflatable ball pit that the girls absolutely adore. It did take a while to blow up (even using a very noisy air compressor; we are grateful that Hallie demonstrates little in the way of auditory sensitivity) but the wait was well worthwhile:

 

Hallie's not the only one who got in on the fun:

 

 

And apparently the ball pit is useful not only as a place of frolicking, but also napping. Sharon turned her back for a minute and this is what she saw when next she glanced over at Lea:

 

Speaking of Lea, our little one is not only getting bigger by the day (and has now completely outgrown her newborn duds and some of those sized for 0-3 months) but she's also doing more stuff. She's been playing a lot more in her little gym:

 

 

And on April 8th, Lea emitted her first real squeal, much to our delight and amazement. Hallie never squealed (or cried, either; this is a direct byproduct of her vocal cord paralysis and swollen upper airway). So we were thrilled to hear little Lea's voice get so big with glee.

Lea also wore her first jeans a couple of weeks ago and looked quite fetching in them:

 

And, all in all, she is quite a beautiful little 10 week old (if I may say so myself):

 

She's quite the champion:

 

And so is her funky older sister:

 

(Speaking of which: we're now up to 60 vomit free days and Hallie had her first taste of, and seemed to enjoy, some pork breakfast sausage this morning. It would go quite nicely with the bagel she not only gnawed on but even ate a small bite out of yesterday).