Happy Father's Day!

Steve and Adele watch the Swan Boats at the Public Garden,
Boston, Mass., June 2009.

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there--I hope today was a good one! Steve, being the Super Dad that he is, is off reading Adele a bedtime story. I couldn't have asked for a better partner in parenting. Adele and I are lucky to have him. :)

And because I love a good trip down memory lane, here are some photos of Steve's first Father's Day.

Hooray!

ADELE POTTIED IN THE BIG POTTY TODAY! Yay!!! She then promptly peed on the floor but hey, SHE WENT IN THE POTTY! Woot! We celebrated with lots of clapping and praising and a jellybean. :) We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I'm so happy she finally went in the potty. Whew.

I plan on having a bigger post in the near future recapping our Boston trip and some other stuff, so stay tuned!

Officially

(If you're just here for the photos/videos, scroll to the bottom.)

We went to the doctor this morning. First, the stats:

Weight: 24.75 pounds (can't remember percentile, but still on the small side)
Length: 34.5 inches! (75th percentile for 2-year-olds)
Weight-to-length: 15th percentile (a little higher than at her 18 month appt)

Doc says she's going to be tall and skinny like Steve and I. Doc is only half right about Steve and I--I'll let you guess which half. ;)

The good news: Adele is 100%, officially, ALL CAUGHT UP! YAY! She's totally on target for normal 2-year-olds in all areas, and even ahead of the curve in some (verbal). Gross motor is probably the only area where she might be on the back end of the curve, but Dr. Murphy said there's a pretty wide range of "normal" at this age so not to worry. For instance, Adele doesn't jump flat-footed and clear ground yet, and kicking a ball is sometimes walking into it, not deliberately moving her foot into the ball. So she'll be a talker and a reader and won't be top of the class for coordination/athletics. Uh, have you met her parents?? I was happy that Adele chose to actually speak at this appt, and even showed off some of her color-naming skills so Doc could see for herself what she's doing now.

The bad news: There is no bad news! Woo hoo!

The plan: Since Adele is now a typical toddler, we don't need to come back until her 3-year checkup. Keep her on whole milk, since she can afford to have the extra calories. Start watching for signs of "toilet-training readiness." Basically, keep doing what we're doing and continue life as normal. We can drop Ages and Stages (Tiny-K questionaire) at any time.

Two things I'm looking forward to: 1) Being able to stop counting her age in months. From now on, she's 2 years old (maybe 2.5 when November rolls around), not 24 months old. 2) Being able to stop adjusting her age. I think this one will be the hardest since I've been doing it for two years now. Always saying "well, she's really only supposed to be X months old." No more. You get no more slack from me, kid! ;) But in all seriousness, this is a day that all parents of preemies look forward to--the day when your kid is just the age s/he is, and not the age they're supposed to be.

Since Adele is healthy (physically, mentally and developmentally) I feel like that "preemie" period of our life is officially behind us. Once a preemie, always a preemie? I don't know. Right now it doesn't seem that way, but only time will tell what/if any issues arise from her early birth. What's different now, as opposed to last year or the year before, is that I'm not obsessed about what COULD happen. I'm just not worried. (Please don't let the other shoe drop now. Thanks!) I know I've said it before, but we're lucky. Blessed. Unusual. Not all the stories have happy endings. Don't think I don't thank God every dang day for what I've been given (and that includes all of you)!

And on that note, here are the pics I promised yesterday. I hope the slideshow embeds properly. Let me know if you want a link to the actual album so you can print any of the pics. (Grandmas? I'm talking to you!) There are videos at the end, too. Nothing exciting. :)

Edited to add: There are videos in the slideshow (the pics that look grainier than the others are video stills), but they're not playing in the slideshow. So here's a link to the actual album so you can play the videos (if you want). http://picasaweb.google.com/Adelevision/AdeleS2ndBirthday?feat=directlink Just click on the button with the little green arrow labeled "Slideshow" and the videos will play IN the slideshow.

Happy Birthday!

Happy 2nd birthday, Adele!

Today has been a great day. Adele went to daycare for the first half of the day--Renee was closing early today and all day tomorrow because of a family obligation, so I took this afternoon and all day tomorrow off. Anyway, after a nap (which allowed me just enough time to make a cake), we played outside in the new-to-us playhouse! She loves the one at daycare so I thought it would be a good gift for this birthday. However, I about fell over when I saw how much new ones cost. Luckily, we found someone at church who wanted to get rid of their playhouse, and we jumped on the opportunity to get one for free.

Anyway, after Steve got home from work, we opened gifts! She got something from of all the official gift groups--toys, clothes/pjs, books, money, gift cards--and I know more is on the way. Nope, she's not spoiled. ;) So far, her favorite gift has been the "magic" baby bottles, and naturally, they were also the cheapest gift. Well, aside from the free playhouse!


We topped off the day with homemade birthday cake! Yum! The candles and/or our singing (ha) scared her, so she wanted nothing to do with blowing out candles, but she did enjoy eating the cake.


Like I said, it was a good day. Had a different feel from last year, though. This year was so much more, well, normal. No anxiety. No bittersweet feelings. No overwhelming urge to finally exhale. I don't want to take anything away from today or imply that it wasn't an important day...and definitely not to say last year was a bad day (far from it!!). Just like last year was awesome because it was so significant, today was awesome because it was so NORMAL. Just a regular ol' kid celebrating a regular ol' birthday. Here's to many more like THIS.

Tomorrow we go see Dr. Murphy for the 2-year checkup, and it should be pretty easy. No shots, and since I don't have any concerns about Adele's development, I hope it will be all good news. I'm hoping Adele is officially, 100% "caught up" and that we can be done with Tiny-k. No more monthly questionaires, please! Unfortunately, we do have to make one last trip to CMH for a final neurodevelopmental screening. I had no idea we'd need to do this, but whatever. It's always nice to have the "experts" check her over. I'll report with stats after both appointments.

I'd planned on linking to an album of extra photos from today, but it's taking far too long to upload. I'll try to get that linked tomorrow sometime!

No words

Today is not a day for eloquence. The most I can muster is "Thank you." "I'm so grateful." "I can't imagine." "I hope to God I never have to."

In December, I asked you to pray for Kayleigh Freeman. She recovered from that particular terrible moment and seemed to do much better for a while. She survived surgeries and overcame more hurdles. She came close to coming home a few times. Unfortunately, little Kayleigh is failing, and there's little to no hope for recovery. A large portion of her brain has ceased functioning and her parents are faced with the most difficult decision that any parent could ever have to make. My heart is breaking for them.

My heart breaks for another family who lost their dear Maddie unexpectedly. She was born premature too, but she was 17 months old when she passed.

I've tried writing the rest of this post several times and I keep erasing it. Words escape me.

Some days I love the internet--the days when I find an old friend on Facebook or when one of the parents on my Preemie Parenting board shows off the newest picture of their thriving child. There are other days when I curse how connected we all are, because if we weren't connected I wouldn't be crying about the losses of children I never met.

Adele turns 2 next week. May I never take our good fortune for granted.

Easter 2009

Happy Easter to everyone! Our day--well, weekend, actually--was great. My folks were here, I took Friday off, weather was fairly nice, and we had a great visit. Church services were good, too. This was the first year I'd really participated in Holy Week services. I know I'd gone to Good Friday services as a child, but I don't think I did much beyond that. This year I went to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil AND Easter Sunday. Whew. Mom joined me for Good Friday and Easter Vigil services, both of which were excellent. We decided that the Easter Vigil service is by far the BEST church service of the whole church year. (Yes, better than Christmas Eve!)

We have a few events and get-togethers coming up that we're looking forward to. Headed to Beloit next weekend for Jeremy's birthday--it will be the first time since Thanksgiving, I believe, that my whole family will be together. Can't wait to see my nieces and nephew, and let the little kids go crazy in the Grandparents' house. Ha! It should be fun! Next thing we know, it will be May, which brings Adele's 2nd birthday! Yipes. Then in early June, we're headed to BOSTON for a week! Whee! Got a line on a free place to stay and we found some decently priced flights and thought we may not get a better opportunity to go. You only live once, right? Besides, our friends Ben & Lindi, Carina and Izzy live there and have for, what 9 years?, and we've never visited! Izzy is Adele's age--more or less--so she'll have a playmate, we'll have someone to borrow kid gear from, access to a full kitchen/home, and better yet, a friend to hang out with and help us navigate the city.

Adele is doing fine, as usual. We're working on counting and letters. She's able to count to three on occasion, but isn't very consistent. She's got one and two down, though. One, two socks! One, two, toes! One, two, Elmo! She surprised us when she recoginzed A and B. They must be working on letters at daycare more than we are at home. C is still hit and miss--most of the time she says "A, B, moon!" Even her mistakes are adorable! ;) Still haven't received our 22-month eval for Ages & Stages (Tiny-k). Would like to receive that so we can see where she's charting.

Speaking of her birthday (I was while ago, anyway), we're thinking about getting her a twin bed. We still co-sleep, and she's gotten big enough now that she's the only one getting a good night's sleep. Most of the night she's spinning or kicking or flailing or talking and keeping Steve and I awake. Besides, it's time. She's almost 2, and that's old enough to be in her own bed. We contemplated getting a toddler bed, because at least we could use the mattress and bedding from her crib, but I think it may be helpful to have a bed an adult can lie in, in case one of needs to cuddle her to sleep. So, a twin bed makes more sense there. Besides she can use it far longer than she could a toddler bed. And of course, since it's me and I'm a big Mushy McMushersons, I'm already getting sad thinking about taking down her crib. Waaaaah! I don't know why I get emotional about something she's not even using! Sheesh.

Anyway, on to pictures...

Easter 2009. I had a better pic of her in her dress, but the computer ate it. :(

G-ma and Papa P.

For Grandma V.H.: Adele loves her new book!

Her hair is finally long enough for tiny, tiny, pigtails.

Don't know how well this photo will translate, but I was trying to show you how curly her hair is when it gets wet. This is her typical post-bath hair!

You say strawberry, I say bay-ya-ya

Ahhh, decoding toddler language can be so frustrating--for all parties involved. It took Steve and I forever to understand that "bay-ya-ya" was Adele-speak for "strawberry." The only way we even figured it out was when she pointed to a strawberry in a book and said "bay-ya-ya." Eureka! It seems for each word we decode, another unintelligible one is there to take it's place.

So, Adele is 22.5 months old now. I can't believe we're closing in on the 2-year mark! Since we don't see Early Intervention anymore, I have no gauge for where she is on the adjusted/actual age spectrum. We are still doing mail-in evals with EI, and the letter we got after we turned in her 18-month sheet (they have been going by her adjusted age) said she was doing well enough they'd start evaluating her based on her actual age. We'll get the 22-month in April and the 24-month in May. I'm anxious for those to see if she's getting close to being officially "caught up."

The weather has been beautiful (although we've had some terribly windy days), and we've been spending as much time as possible outside. Adele loves her tree swing and we broke out the sidewalk chalk and bubbles this past weekend. We've also been exploring some neighborhood playgrounds and parks. Our favorite so far is the Ryan Gray Playground for All Children. Since it's a fully accessible playground, there are ramps and walkways everywhere. Perfect for the toddler who wants to go everywhere! My only complaint are the slides. They have only metal or rollers (like a conveyor belt), and Adele seems to be scared of both kinds. She seems to like the plastic ones at other parks just fine. Ah, well. At least it's one less thing I have to drag her away from, right? She does seem to like the swings a great deal. (More pics after the video!)

From last Saturday, one of our gorgeous, wind-less, spring days.

Sunday's goin'-to-church outfit.
We don't do dresses very often, so I thought it was an event worth documenting.

We've been working with Adele on colors. She'll get 'em eventually.