A Sledding We Will Go!!!

Our sled crisis is now officially over.

There was a slight delay in getting Hallie off to preschool today, which was not our fault; the divine Miss Flora is having an arthritis flare up and has been out of work. She thought that she would be able to return today but, alas, was in too much pain. The preschool is fine if Hallie is on her own during the short (2 hour) days, but the long ones are a bit more challenging since they involve a lunch, a nap, and lots of going outside, etc. Hallie's teacher explained it this way: it's not that the teachers would find Hallie terribly challenging--typically, she is pretty good at following directions especially in more structured contexts. It's just that she'd get less out of her day given that she often follows directions without completely understanding why she's being asked to do something. Flora helps by explaining things to Hallie in terms that Hallie understands and keeping her engaged with her peers, etc. Anyway, the agency that hires PCAs found a fill-in for Miss Flora by 10:30, so I bundled both kids into the stroller and took Hallie to school.

That gave me a bit less time to do my own work, but a bit more time than I needed to do the shopping, even accounting for the crowds that, for whatever reason, are intent on buying up all the milk and bread. (What do you suppose they are doing with that stuff? Having french toast feasts while watching the snow pour down? Perhaps....)

Anyway, that's when I got the brilliant idea of seeking out a sled at a brick-and-mortar location. I don't drive, so I was using the stroller on my quest, which sort of complicated things, I later discovered. The first place I checked was City Sports, and while they had something snow related, they had nothing age-appropriate in the sled department. I couldn't imagine bundling the kids into an inflatable inner tube or onto a small round disc and pushing them down a hill or something. So that was out. Onto Modells. Apparently the saying, "gotta go to Mo's" actually is true. Because they had precisely what I needed: a purple long, hard plastic toboggan with a long pull rope that was lightweight enough jam into the rear seat of the Phil & Ted's stroller (where, alas, it kept whacking me in the crotch on the uncomfortable, long walk home. Note to self: grow longer arms next time you attempt this feat).

When Lea awoke from her nap in the stroller and saw it, she was thrilled. And of course she climbed right in. Hallie did the same thing when she saw it after she got home from preschool. She informed me that "Santa riding red sleigh. Hallie go sledding in purple one."

Of course, mommy-brain that I am, I did forget to pick up carrots at Whole Foods, so I had to stop at the store again (and witness yet more milk and bread buying) on the way home from preschool with the girls. I told Hal that we were going to the store to get carrots to build a snowman and she was thrilled. She also requested that the snowman wear a hat and that it be "very very big." From what they are predicting, I think we can pull that one off just fine....

Poor Planning

It was noon today when I realized that even Amazon Prime could not get us a sled in time for this weekend's major snow event. We have our milk, we have our bread, and we probably have some eggs that no one in our household will eat, but we have no sled. And no option for getting one in time for our next blizzard.

But we do have a 3 year old who longs to make snow angels and we do have some mitten clips that have prevented us from losing yet more gloves and we probably can scare up a hat, a scarf, and maybe even some rocks to build a proper snowman. So, as long as Whole Foods hasn't had a run on carrot (noses), all is not lost.

Stay tuned for some pics of snowfest 2010!

The Irony of It All: The Not Quite Lake Woebegone Life we Lead

Lea had her 1 year check up today, and, as it turns out, she is perfectly average, which in our world is a very good thing. She is at the 50th percentile for pretty much everything, and weighed in at about 20 lbs. 6 ounces and about 29 inches tall (please note: the inexactitude is related both to my not having been at the appointment and the fact that, at least where Lea is concerned, we've totally distanced ourselves from trying to make sure we have weights and heights down to the last gram and millimeter, respectively. She has looked fine to us, and that's what counts).

The ironic part: Hallie was bigger both in terms of height (at above the 75th percentile) and weight (at around the 60th) at the same [adjusted] age as Lea is now. Our pediatrician, of course, remembered this little factoid, and so did we. Who'd have thunk?

Of course, Hallie still remains taller than average, at over 40.25 inches (putting her between the 75th and 90th percentiles for height) and at pretty much average for weight, at about 33 lbs. 8 ounces as of last week (meaning that she's put on over a pound in the month of January, during her post pneumonia recovery). We're not sure how this happened, but there you have it.

Clearly, though, where Lea is concerned, we just don't have to work as hard (and consequently don't work as hard) to keep her at average: we don't worry about whether she eats 2 cheerios or 20; a couple of tablespoons of yogurt or none at all; etcetera. She just does what we does and we do it with her. We follow her lead and she knows where she wants to go.

With Hallie, honestly, most of the time we do the same thing: Hallie's therapies are, for the most part, very much Hallie-directed and that is a good thing. Even her eating is mostly Hallie directed, with the exception of our feeding-therapy directed 'snacks' (which now incorporate tiny bites of banana, much to Hallie's chagrin. But she's pretty much doing it, and that's important since we need to push her a bit out of the comfort zone on the eating front, even if we try not to go too far and only stay within the parameters of the excellent instructions provided to us by her wonderful feeding psychologist). And, of course, we still fortify those darned bottles, but whatever I'm putting in that goat milk really is doing the trick, and for that (and Hallie's decision to eat toast, fries, pizza, cheese, bacon, and now McDonald's hash brown) I am very grateful.

Anyway, we love living here in what is not quite Lake Woebegone: not everyone is above average, and, you know, that's a good thing. Average is just fine with us.

Happy First Birthday Lea!

Today was Lea's first birthday. It's hard to believe that an entire year has passed since she was born and that she's now such a big girl.


Of course, we celebrated in style with close friends and family. We decided, mostly for the benefit of the kids to forgo the adult-oriented party at home in favor of a (less labor intensive, much more outsourced) party at a local gym.


Here are a few highlights of the afternoon, in no particular order:


Lea blowing out the candles on her cake (Hallie has been practicing for days and really had a great time helping her little sister with this one):


Lea hanging out with her favorite green ball (she was chasing this one around for quite a bit of the party):


Lea loves balls as much as Hallie does and has really mastered the art of a game of catch:


Being pushed around in a little tub (kind of a mini ball pit) was one of the highlights of Lea's afternoon):


Lea hanging out in the center of the parachute while the big kids and adults gave her a ride:



Then all the kids got to get in on the action:


Are Eliza, Taylor, and Hallie in jail or the zoo? You decide...


Hallie and two of her favorite buddies, Eliza and Taylor:


Lea making a grand entrance to her party in a golf cart:


Princess Lea in her tiara:


And, finally, out of her dress and into her jammies playing with her blue balloon. What could be a better, more fitting end to a very happy birthday?


Happy Birthday, little Lea! You are such an amazing girl and wonderful sister to 'your Hallie' and our favorite one year old! This next year is going to bring more greate things in your life (and ours)!

Feelings

Yesterday evening, after I got home, Hallie was playing with Sharon and having a blast. She turned to Sharon and said to her: "Mommy, I feel HAPPY!"

We thought that was great. For Hallie to express herself using language is alone a huge thing. Remember, this is a kid who, up until recently only used language to label or describe things she saw (admittedly in ever more complicated ways, so we've heard some "It's dark outside" and not just "Look! It's Sam Wiggle. Sam is Yellow.") or to demand stuff of us ("Hallie wants Pirate Booty!" or "Watch Diego Saves Christmas" sorts of constructions).

But even more impressive is that she is expressing abstract feelings: we've heard "I feel cold" a few times but 'cold' is a fairly concrete concept. "Happy" is not. Happy is an abstraction and happy is what Hallie was feeling when Sharon was playing with her.

Even more significant was an exchange that took place a few minutes later. Lea was in the living room and got upset about something. Hallie went over to Lea, who had begun to fuss and cry a bit and said to us, "Lea feeling sad." Then she hugged and kissed Lea and turned to us and said, "Lea feeling happy." Hallie totally got that a. crying indicates sadness and that b. hugs, kisses and cuddles make you feel happy.

This is HUGE. Remember, Hallie used to laugh when Lea was crying. We weren't sure why, but we were pretty convinced that Hallie was fairly confused about emotions and wasn't making the connection between crying and feeling sad and needing comfort when it concerned anyone but herself: she was pretty clear about seeking out comfort if she was upset but was unable to understand that this applied to others, too. At least where Lea is concerned, that hurdle seems to have been surmounted (though this still requires generalization).

What does all this mean? Hallie is developing the ever-important Theory of Mind. If you are a parent of a child on the spectrum, you know precisely how significant this is. If not, here's a good place for more information about why Theory of Mind is so essential to typical development and interacting in the universe. Basically, what it comes down to is this: if Hallie can understand that other people behave in certain ways because they feel particular emotions (in other words, that other people also cry when they feel bad and smile when they feel happy), she will be able to form meaningful connections with them, predict their desires, understand that their desires are not always the same as her own, etcetera etcetra. In other words, Theory of Mind is an essential precursor to friendship.

And there is no doubt in my mind (theoretical or otherwise) that Lea is Hallie's best friend and that Hallie cares a great deal for Lea. That she can take into account how Lea feels and want to make her feel better makes me and Sharon feel very, very happy.

How to Make a Rainy Day Feel Full of Sunshine

Yesterday, the three of us (me and the kids) got stuck in a very sudden downpour without the stroller cover. Hallie and I got soaked (Lea was relatively more protected in the bottom seat of the Phil & Teds stroller) and by the time we got home from our 8 block walk, were quite bedraggled. I pulled Hal's wet clothes off of her and grabbed a towel and rubbed her down and dried off her hair. Then she grabbed the towel and said, "I dry you off now Mama!" How totally sweet. It made getting caught in the rain totally worthwhile (well, sort of).

Too bad there are no visuals to accompany this, but let me just say that Hallie and I were quite a sight to see!

Midweek Update

Just a short post before I get into bed. School went fine today (which was not unexpected; I am hoping that my $13.99 investment in yet another alarm clock continues to pay off; I suspect an earlier bedtime will help, too). The train ride in was great--I am probably the only insane person out there who looks forward to spending a couple of blissful hours on the train when I get to read for class or prepare powerpoint presentations but, let's face it, not much work gets done at home because my kids (quite correctly so) think that Mama is at their disposal for things like being tossed up in the air, tumbled upside down, and having pillows piled upon them. So the two hours a day that I get for work when I don't pay (much) attention to things like email, Facebook (which I am not a big contributor to in any event), etc really matter to me. I am not a big fan of the mile-long hike through unexciting terrain once I get to Lancaster (part of the problem is the lack of a really direct route to campus unless one wants to take a footbridge that is literally rusting under one's feet), but it does give me the opportunity to revisit my iPod's vast and un-listened to contents, not to mention that I could use the exercise. And it was nice to teach--particularly since some of my favorite students from a couple of semesters ago are enrolled in my classes and it's really quite nice to catch up with them.

Things went OK at home. First and foremost, it does seem that Hallie did miss me and that she understood that I was "at work" (though I am not sure that she comprehends what that entails. Really, there are only three things that a mama or a mommy might be doing if they are not in the room with Hallie: a. "Mama is hiding! She is playing hide and seek!" b. "Mommy is taking a shower" (apparently Mama never does...not sure why) or c. "Mommy (or Mama) is at work!" Anyway, she was fine with me not being here and very happy to see me when I came home.

Sadly, Nadia, our nanny, is not faring particularly well. She was running a fever and coughing her head off today and, consequently, Sharon had to leave work at around 12:30 and take over for her. Sharon will be using more precious PTO time tomorrow and Nadia, who visited yet another ER today, is on strict orders to stay in bed and recover. This is not good, and makes the location of emergency back up care all the more urgent for us. Sharon is going to call Hallie's preschool to see if there is any way that they can accommodate both of our kids for the hours that I work on an emergent basis. They are pretty full up, though, and have to worry about complying with state regulations concerning such things, so I am not holding my hopes out on this one. If anyone in the Philly area has any brilliant ideas about backup childcare coverage, please let me know.

Other than that, I just want to recount a couple of cute things about the kids before I roll into bed.

Lea: She's learned the sign for "all done" and uses it quite appropriately. I think it took her all of one day to master this. I've been signing with her---just a few signs, like "more", "eat", and "all done" and "all done" is by far her favorite. She remains a fabulous communicator who lets us know her needs, and this is very, very useful.

She is also Hallie's #1 fan club member. She wants to do anything that Hallie is doing and gets very frustrated when her comparatively less agile body gets in the way of such endeavors. She is cruising and thinking about walking, but not quite strong enough to do so. But that does not stop her from climbing up onto the chair that Hallie turns into a trampoline and trying to jump up and down on it. She is very pleased with herself when she does this (which is now quite regularly).

Lea is also mastering the art of stacking blocks. She saw me do it once or twice and took over from there.

She knocks them over often and thinks that's pretty hilarious too.

Lea is chatting and babbling up a storm and a couple of times I could swear that I have heard "shoe," "Hallie", and "Lea," but no "mama" or "mommy" quite yet.

Here's a cute shot of Lea lounging on the chair on top of Hallie, who of course was quite happy to be smushed by her sister:

Hallie regularly asks to hold Lea and is always excited to see her. Whenever I pick up Hallie from preschool, she squeals with joy when she sees her little sister.

Hallie also likes to "pretend to be Lea" and much of this pretense involves sitting in the swing (for which she is at least seven pounds to heavy, but I suspect that Fisher Price takes this into account in its design process since all the older kids I know who have long outgrown their swings like to get in them and try to strip the mobile at the top by pushing it in the opposite direction simply because it makes a really cool, yet quite grating, sound). Here's a shot of Hallie pretending to nap in the swing:


Hallie is not only acting super cute these days, but she's turned into a championship level eater (comparatively speaking, that is). She has been regularly downing 24 to 28 ounces of her super-charged goat milk, which has me a bit annoyed (I cannot believe that I am actually writing this) because I have to make a lot more batches than usual and this is consuming more time than I'd like right now. Additionally, she has developed a fondness for what she calls "chocolate popsicles" (known more conventionally as fudgsicles) and had two of them at Aunt Laura's the other day (she would have had a third...of course, they were the sugar free kind, but hey, 40 calories apiece does add up). She had one last night and part of one tonight. Hallie loves chocolate and has asked for "chocolate sticks" (Hershey's bars) several times now and has actually eaten part of them, which I think is great. At the very least it's allowing us to whittle away at the remaining Hallowe'en candy (we are not big candy consumers around here so we still have quite a stash on hand). Hallie's also been demanding snacks more regularly and tonight even ate a quarter of a grilled cheese sandwich and pronounced it "delicious." She's been rubbing her tummy and declaring things yummy and saying "mmm...that's good" about lots of stuff. Of course, she still refuses to eat vegetables and prefers junk food to everything else, but I am not too concerned about this. She gets her daily recommended dose of vitamins in her bottles and I think it's grand that she is not only willing to eat but that she eagerly requests food. I will be very surprised if she hasn't gained some weight over the past two weeks; she looks really good. Not much vomiting lately, either. We are up to 15 days without regurgitation after a pretty bad start this year, and that is a grand thing.

Hallie is also making some progress on the potty. She has earned four stickers so far and will get a prize tomorrow if she goes on the potty again. She still cannot/does not let us know when she needs to pee, but we are not pressing this matter too much just yet. She is excited to get stickers and, hopefully, by establishing some sort of routine, we will eventually get her potty trained. I think we'll try in earnest around her fourth birthday -- I'll be home full time (since the semester will be over by then) and can take charge of keeping her pull up free and deal with the inevitable consequences that arise from this.

That's about all for now. Time to turn in!

"I Make A Face Now!"

Hallie loves to make notes (scribble) in one of my (expensive Levenger) notebooks. Tonight she made this:

Not a bad face, no?

In other notable advances, she announced to Lea today, after we got home from preschool and Lea woke up from her stroller nap (this is where she naps most afternoons): "Hi Lea! You're awake! I missed you." And when Sharon got home from work, Hallie announced, "Mommy's here! Hi Mommy! I missed you!"

I hope that she misses me, too. Tomorrow is my first day back at school after leave and it's going to be hard to be away from the kids for so long, but it's really nice to know that I'll probably be missed.

Christmas and Beyond: A VERY Belated Post

As Sharon just helpfully pointed out, I never did manage to do the Christmas post. I have also not managed to post much of anything else. The heart is willing, but the blogging hands are tired is all I have to say. Things have been nutty around here lately: we are currently experiencing a rare moment (that I am no doubt jinxing as I type this) when both kids are well, but between Thanksgiving through the end of the first week of the New Year, one or the other kid was sick, and quite dramatically so. Then they both recovered but Nadia, our mother's helper/nanny, contracted pneumonia (unrelated to Hallie's; she came back to work on Monday already showing symptoms of distress) and she's been out of work most of the week. So I've been doing pretty much all of the daytime childcare AND trying to prepare to start teaching full time again in a couple of days. Needless to say, blogging has suffered.

So, in the spirit of trying to catch up before the proverbial crap hits the fan, here goes:

Christmas:

We have crappy pictures that do not do justice to how much fun the kids, and especially Hallie, had at Aunt Laura's on Christmas eve (sadly, Santa neglected to leave us a D-SLR under the tree; we are trying hard not to believe we were on the naughty list). Both of the girls were thrilled to see their cousins and things got even more fun after Hallie cracked open a Christmas cracker and found a very small ball inside. She located a cardboard tube from some wrapping paper and initiated a game of 'blow the ball through the tube' with Hannah. What's notable here is that it was Hallie who came up with the idea for this game.

As usual, Hannah was thrilled to play with Hallie. She is a great older cousin and Hallie has benefited so much from being around her quite a bit this year.

Lea had a lot of fun, too. She spent a considerable amount of time at the chalkboard practicing her writing skills:

Now, while she did not in fact write the names on the board, she is really interested in writing/drawing because she sees Hallie doing it so often. She can smell a crayon a mile away and she has successfully drawn a few scribbles on our easel at home. She also enjoys biting off and swallowing the tips of crayons, so we tend to keep her away from them as much as possible.

We ended our Christmas eve soiree by going outside and scattering reindeer food for Rudolph & co. As you can see, we still had a whole lot of snow left over from the two-foot snowfall of the previous weekend. I find it much easier to believe that Santa comes flying in on his reindeer-driven sled when there is some snow to cushion the landing. And, since Sharon had been tracking Santa's progress via an app downloaded on her iPhone, we knew that the big guy was getting near and that it was time to get the kids in bed.

By the time we got back to Grammy's that night, Hallie was thoroughly exhausted. Perhaps she was coming down from a slight sugar high (her Christmas eve dinner consisted of two two-bite brownies; what they lack in nutrition, they make up for in calories). She opened her Christmas jammies, put them on, hit the bed, and crashed for the night.

As is typical, Lea completely came into her own just as Hallie was going down for the night. (This has become a source of great distress to me, by the way, since it bodes poorly for me getting my work done in the evening after Hallie goes to bed).

The first project that Lea undertook was stealing (and eating) Santa's cookies:

Then she moved on to Grammy's dish of Peppermint Patties. She found the shiny silver paper very alluring and the minty chocolate contents even more:

The kids slept in, but we finally shook them out of bed around 10:00am. Hallie clearly had no idea that Santa, Mommy and Mama, and Grammy had left a huge number of presents under the tree for her and Lea. It took a bit of time for us to manufacture the requisite excitement of opening presents on Christmas morning, but by the time Hallie was done, we think she got it. She certainly was into the presents -- which is not at all surprising and, for several weeks running, would regularly ask to open more presents from Santa. This, of course, was reinforced by the fact that we saw lots of good friends and family after Christmas was over and exchanged gifts with them then. I think that by the time New Years Day came around, Hallie was pretty convinced that every day is Christmas.

Anyway, I digress. The big ticket item that Santa got Hallie was a red guitar.

By evening Hallie was strumming away at it quite naturally. We've downloaded an iPhone app to help us tune it but we've yet to find an app that will prevent Hallie from turning the keys and loosening the strings again.

Hallie especially enjoys playing along with the Wiggles and Muno (from Yo Gabba Gabba). Lea's gotten in on the act, too. While the little red guitar is way too big for Lea (which of course does not stop her from cruising over to the guitar stand and plucking at the strings and occasionally threatening to drag the whole thing down on top of herself), she has taken to putting the guitar strap over her head (yes we watch her carefully when she does this, and the strap has a 'breakaway' feature) and playing the toy electric guitar that we inherited from brother Jake. She is so cute and so smart and reminds us a lot of Hallie in a very, very good way.

Of course, Lea got her own musical gift from Santa. Here she is unwrapping her Bee Bop Baby Band set:

She enjoyed the band set, but her real thrill came when she emptied her stocking. Here she is sampling her binkies:

In this next shot, Hallie is posing with her favorite gift of the day, which Grammy got her:

This remains her favorite and, today, several weeks after Christmas, Hallie took a bath with the Wonder Pets figures (we think she is partial to Ming Ming) and had them floating in a makeshift flyboat.

Grammy let Santa know what she was getting Hallie, so he also brought her a Super Hallie cape so that she could be just like her heroes. Unfortunately, the tight velcro around the neck bothers her, so we need to fashion a device to make it a bit looser for her. I think that one of the new mitten clips that we bought would work just fine. (Several times now Hallie has helpfully informed me, when I have inquired about the whereabouts of one of her mittens or gloves, that she 'put it on the floor' -- meaning that she had thrown yet another mitten onto the sidewalk during one of our walks. Even at three dollars a pair on sale at the Children's Place, all of these lost mittens have begun to add up so I've diverted our resources toward the purchase of super cute mitten clips from Etsy; one of them can be repurposed for our little super hero's comfort).

After we finished unwrapping our gifts and had time to test all of them out, Aunt Laura and Uncle Bryan and the extended family brought over Christmas dinner. The kids had a blast playing together and Hallie was very much part of the mix. Here, Hallie is playing with her cousins Hannah and Adam and their cousin, Quinn. The three older kids got Nintendo DS's for Christmas and Hannah shared hers with Hallie after Hallie asked for a turn. Hallie loved being part of the older kids' games.

She also really enjoyed pretending to be one of the five little monkey jumping on the bed and alternatively rough housing and cuddling with her cousin. Hannah makes Hallie very happy and I know that the feeling is quite mutual:

Lea also enjoyed playing with her cousins in her own Lea-like way. Here she is running her hands through Adam's hair (which is super thick). Adam was great because he also tolerated lots of face-patting (and slapping) and hair pulling from his littlest cousin.

We left Grammy's exhausted and in good spirits. The next day, more fun was in store because we had Boxing Day plans with Anne, Eliza Grace, and her Nana. Hallie was super excited when we pulled up at Nana's condominium complex. She knew exactly where we were (she has a phenomenal memory and sense of direction; perhaps she can get us out of all of those jams where we get lost and circle round and round when she gets a bit older). And she was thrilled to be there.

Here's a lovely shot of Anne with Hallie and Eliza:

We hung out all day, exchanged gifts, played hard, ate a couple of meals together and generally enjoyed the company of good friends. We love it that we manage to get Hallie and Eliza together pretty regularly and wish only that we all lived even closer to one another.

The girls ended the day with a nice bath and had a brilliant time splashing around in the tub and playing with Eliza's excellent array of tub toys:

After her bath, though, Hallie's face got very flushed--which is always a sign of a fever--and I became a bit worried. She seemed a tiny bit warm, but the condo was very hot (we had the oven on to cook dinner), and we attributed her slightly more subdued nature to lots of play and no nap. Hallie kept wanting to pretend to take a nap in Eliza's bed, and I suspect that she really did want to sleep, but there was too much going on to really settle down.

That was the evening that Hallie came down with pneumonia. Thankfully that's a thing of the past...at least where Hallie is concerned. Now let's keep our fingers crossed that Nadia (our nanny) recovers in time to take over for me when I need to return to work on Tuesday...

Stay tuned for more (and hopefully shorter and less delayed) developments in the life of our little family during the month of January....

20-10

Hallie loves playing with her legos, and is particularly enamored with the set of little lego people that her brother Jake and his mom, Gina, got her for Christmas. Here she is counting them (after having line them up). It became clear to us that Hallie could accurately count to 29. And what number, might you ask, follows 29? Why 2010 (twenty-ten), of course!

LEGOS

Lest you think that Hallie only lines up her Legos, here are a few shot that demonstrate otherwise.

We're pretty sure that the lego people in this car are practicing some sort of cheerleading exercise:

Here Hallie is building a tree:

She was very proud of the way it turned out:

In these shots, Muno (from Yo Gabba Gabba) and the Wonder Pets are going for a ride: