Family,
And a good Monday evening to you from the Queen City, where the Bull is ready to tackle the next 10+ day installment of the blog. I must confess that just having that 3-4 day window of additional time has made this easier, but given all that I've got to report (and likely will have for the next year), I definitely don't want to let it stretch much longer than this! Plenty to report on this go-around, so let's get amongst it, shall we?
Tackling this chronologically, we'll kick the party off with Saturday, where Team Taylor rolled over to Prosperity Park after K's nap for the annual Highland Creek Easter Bash. We didn't get there in time for the Easter Egg hunt, but that proved a non-issue, as K LOVED all the other things to do. As soon as we rolled up, we found a clown creating balloon animals, and K requested a "purple hop hop" (I really do think it's going to be her favorite color - just like her mum). It was chilly at the park, but we had K rugged up properly - complete with one of my old Thorlo socks to cover her toe! Side note about this - we'd learned a valuable lesson after the "Floyd tire patch," as JT spent a good 20 minutes fishing tire bits and other assorted rubbish out of K's cast with a Q-tip that night. It was so filthy that we actually had to do that on multiple occasions that following week - to the point that K looked forward to "Q-tip!" and wanted her own one to play with (translation - rip apart and destroy).
There were several bounce castles around, but obviously K could only look at those. Truth be told, she wasn't that interested, as her focus shifted immediately from the balloon to arguably her favorite thing on earth - a choo-choo train! They had a little train making loops in the parking lot, and K was ALL ABOUT that. In fact, we rode it either 3 or 4 times - even daddy got a turn with her!
The highlight, however, was neither the balloon nor the train. As fate would have it, old Peter Cottontail - meaning the Easter Bunny - himself was there, and K was FASCINATED from the moment she laid eyes on him. Now picture the scene. Here is a child who just THREE MONTHS AGO screamed bloody murder when placed in front of a perfectly normal looking human whose only quirks were a long beard and a red suit. At this moment in time, on the windswept plain that is Prosperity Park, she is staring at a 6 foot bunny dancing to Rihanna and beckoning her over. And then, just when you know the screaming is about to ensue, K does the unthinkable - SHE WALKS OVER TO THE MUTANT BUNNY.
 |
| Love this! No fear of the Mutant Bunny who loves rap. |
 |
| Have sucker, will travel. |
 |
| All's well that ends well. :-) |
First, she dances with the bunny. Then, she high fives the bunny. And then, just when you think "we better not push our luck," the Easter Bunny PICKS HER UP. And the reaction? No scream - just an inquisitive stare. And after he puts her down and starts to walk away the situation becomes even cuter, as suddenly K wants to STALK THE EASTER BUNNY. Seriously - the next hour was spent between the playground, the train, and the Easter Bunny. Too cute! The girl had a blast, and we got some great shots to prove it.
Later than night we had another (completely inadvertent) milestone - K's first time peeing in Big girl potty! We'd purchased one of those booster seats that fit over an adult potty, an on Saturday night we just decided that we were going to put her on it for a few seconds before bath. Well, lo and behold, she'd been on it about 3 seconds when a blast of urine came flying out. Needless to say we make quite the celebration out of it, and K smiled from ear to ear (without really having any idea why).
The biggest event of the following week was Monday, when K FINALLY got her cast off. Now, to put it into perspective, YES - I am conscious that it was only 3.5 weeks. That being said, obviously EVERYONE in the house was ready for it to come off (Sunday's bath had been rough, as K really, really wanted to get into the tub), and we were just ready to get K back on track and running again.
We had a 10:40 appointment, and just like before the entire staff was incredible. Seriously - Levine is a TOP NOTCH place, and every second of the process was smooth and well thought out. For starters, just before cast cutting time, the nurse brought in a "child life specialist." Knowing that most kids don't really like having the cast cut off, her whole job was to keep K entertained and focused elsewhere (and she did an excellent job). That being said, eventually the noise and the ferocity of the blade did start to scare K, and she was calling for JT (not crying but clearly uncomfortable) when they started cutting on the inside. By the time they cracked the shell of the cast, however, she was fine. Kudos to Molly for keeping K occupied!
We then went for lunch, and after lunch K was desperate to stand and walk. Well, thinking that she'd be fine, I helped her to the ground and let her stand. She was good for about 3 seconds, but then her poor little knee - so sore and atrophied - buckled, and she almost fell. The pain that followed must have been quite exquisite, as K started SCREAMING (Father of the Year RIGHT HERE, people). For the rest of the day, she put no weight on her leg but moved back to scooting around on her bum. She didn't cry anymore, however, and there was a VERY nice perk at the end of the night - K'S FIRST BATH IN A MONTH! And let me tell you, she LOVED it.
Jenny had read how dry K's skin would be (and it absolutely was - K had scratched it to pieces when the cast came off), and the doctor's notes recommended a long soak followed by lotion. We let K play in that bath every bit of 30 minutes that night (she pruned!), and she LOVED it. Oh, and something else she loved once she left the doctor's office? HER NEW SLINKY. Seriously - Molly gave her a cheap (we're talking nickel quality at best) plastic slinky for being such a brave girl, and K has NOT stopped playing with that thing when she's in her room. It is a MUST HAVE every night right now, as she likes to a) ram the toothbrush into the slinky and then b) use the slinky as dental floss. I mean, really? REALLY? Why bother with battery operated toys? :-)
That night we tried the big girl bed (I mean talk about ripping the band-aid off), but it just didn't work. K got up twice during the night (she'd fallen out), and finally JT had to put her back in the crib. We actually asked the Ped's about this as well, and based on her advice (which, I will point out, was Jenny's perspective all along), we're now going to keep K in the crib as long as she'll stay in there. So far she's shown no sign of wanting to climb out (I mean, she can barely stand, so it's not surprising), and that's going to give us time to figure out the approach for the transition (rails, new mattress, etc). The Peds did confirm that we should NOT be using the inflatable big girl bed (again, JT was right and I was wrong), so needless to say I now realize that the Director of Operations should NOT be questioned in matters of childcare. :-)
On Wednesday we had K's 2 year appointment, and I'm happy to report that it went GREAT! K is now in the 80th percentile for both height and weight. This was great news, as it means she's finally caught up and is proportionate (her head is still 25th percentile - LOVE IT!). Dr. Knutson checked and confirmed that one tube was out and the other was no longer being used, which means that K now has fully functioning Eustachian tubes - Yay! As we rattled off all the milestones, she said that she was right on track and actually advanced for her vocabulary. She asked if she used words to communicate, and I proudly noted that she was using sentences to communicate. Side note to this - JT went back through previous blogs to confirm what her word count was at 22 months (it was supposed to be 50, and I said it was closer to 250) - as of her second birthday, she'd used 222 words! Way to go, Munch Munch!
In terms of development, K has continued to add words to her vocabulary. While I'm sure I've missed a bunch at this point, the notable ones that we've caught:
1. Q-tip (LOVES these things)
2. Happy Easter! She got this from the end of the "Hop Hop" book, where the little baby says "Happy Easter" and then shows off all the different kinds of eggs. K's good at saying this one and definitely associates all the bunnies with Easter.
3. Tie-dye (one of the colors of the eggs)
4. Scribbles (another of the colors)
5. Stripes (rinse/repeat)
6. spicy
7. everybody - so this all started with the fact that, when K wants all of the people in the room to do something or to note a commonality, she says something like "Mama riding, TT riding, dada riding" or "Mama walking dada walking TT walking." Well, once the group got to be 5 or 6, I just pointed out to K that she could say "everybody walking," and lo and behold - she dropped that on me at the Tacy's. :-)
8. slinky (as previously discussed)
9. "Toenails too bumpy" - she got this from one of those "That's not my..." books, but the side note is that K now pretends to cut both her fingernails and toenails. Fingernails are just nails, but she will take the clipper, mimic cutting each nail, and then pretend to put the nail onto the bookcase just like Jenny does when she's actually clipping them. Too cute!
10. "Brenda Kathy coming tomorrow" - SERIOUSLY: If you've been around Kaitlyn at ANY POINT for more than 38 seconds in the last 3 weeks, you've heard her say this. Jenny said that they were going to see "Brenda and Kathy tomorrow" a few weeks back before they went to NOMAD, and K has said it NON-STOP since that time. I'm pretty sure that she is more fond of Brenda and Kathy (even though Kathy is sometimes actually Judy) than Dada, but hey - I'm just happy to be here scribing. :-)
11. "No crying, TT!" - Brenda made K promise that she wouldn't cry the next time she came to Childwatch at NOMAD, and now K actually says that periodically before we go to either NOMAD or church. And while it doesn't always pan out, K is getting much better about not crying when dropped off, particularly at NOMAD (it's still touch and go at Freedom House). 12. Church - saying it doesn't scare her. Parking in front of the building invariably does.
13. "Happy Birthday to TT!" - Okay, so there's no two ways about it - this kid is firmly convinced that EVERY DAY IS HER BIRTHDAY. Now, in her defense, between her actual birthday (which has now been celebrated THREE TIMES with multiple cakes and cupcakes), Marshall's party (where K received FOUR presents), all the gifts from the Easter Bunny, and all the get well presents from the break, it's easy to see how it's really a "birthday month and change" vs. just a single day. Regardless, what I can confirm is that this child now sings "Happy Birthday to Kaitlyn" (it was TT, but she's saying her name better lately) all the time. I can't help but crack up every time, and I will say that she's actually carrying the tune a bit.
The other new activity to note - the Balloon Flying game. Basically, it consists of Jenny and I blowing up balloons, counting to 5 (Kaitlyn has to count with us), and then letting them go. We do this over and over until a) I nearly pass out, b) K loses interest, and c) the balloons get so nasty that you want to just take them out and set them on fire. But hey, it's cheap entertainment, so who am I to complain (actually, full credit once again to JT, as she was the one who introduced this uber-cheap entertainment into the mix).
In terms of other activities for the week, Jenny got Kaitlyn back into the pool this week, and she LOVED IT. Jenny said that she played non-stop and was really active, even doggy-paddling at one point. She loved it so much that she would only get out once she was shivering. But then again, what did we expect? She's a Pisces for crying out loud. :-)
Dad arrived late Thursday night, and K was THRILLED to see "Granddaddy." It was so cute, as she wanted him to read to her that first night and didn't understand why he said good night, gave her a kiss, and then headed downstairs. Friday was an EPIC day, as we took K over to UNC-C to watch her first ever collegiate softball game! Pattie and the MTSU Blue Raiders were in town, and so the fam headed over to watch Conference-USA action at its finest. And while the game result did not end up favorable to Raider Nation (we lost both games), K LOVED being outside and played for 2 hours on the bleachers. She kept saying "hop hop Kaitlyn" and jumping on one leg, using the bleachers as support. And while this was GREAT, we think she overdid it on Friday, as Saturday she wouldn't put any weight on her foot. I think part of it was that she did a lot of walking in the house as well, including a lot of time spent "putting her heel down." And while she might have overdone it, credit to dad for being the one who first successfully convinced her to put her heel down. And in case anyone's curious, she started taking steps again today and is already walking again with assistance - you can't keep this girl down!
The weekend itself was a blast, as Dad and I had some great bonding time with Pattie, the Raiders posted a win on Saturday, the weather was absolutely beautiful, and life was good. Dad even read to K on Saturday night (it was really cute), and we ate like champs the entire time. Dad left early on Sunday, saying Happy Easter and good-bye to the Munchkin before heading up to Virginia to be with Alice (she'd left on Saturday after surprising us at Pattie's game; unfortunately, her father passed away Saturday evening after a protracted illness).
Prior to attending church on Sunday, Kaitlyn awoke to find that the Easter Bunny had visited us during the night. :-) She walked toward "room" (aka the Bonus room), where she saw quite the collection of Bunnies and baskets. Again, ALL CREDIT IN THE WORLD goes to Jenny on this one, as she did a great job of planning out the display for K. Wife Muffin had play-doh arranged, Matchbox cars in the basket, and bunnies all over the place. She and I then "hid" some Easter eggs in the room, quite curious to see if K would know what to do when she saw the empty basket. 
K LOVED going through the Easter basket, and she was quite excited about the play-doh (we made her wait until the afternoon, however). Once the basket was empty, Jenny and I said, "Wow, sweetheart, I wonder if the Easter Bunny left any eggs for you to find." This didn't seem to phase K in the slightest, and so JT and I had to slowly point out a few eggs and make quite the show of "WOW! How did this get here?" Then, suddenly, she was ALL ABOUT egg hunting and proceeded to "find" all the rest. We'd hidden them in the doll house, couches, and along the furniture, and it was quite adorable watching her crawl and scoot toward each egg, bringing it back to the basket each time before resuming the search.
So there you have it - 10+ epic days, a fully healed daughter, another holiday, and some more great memories in the books. Who knows what the next 2 weeks will bring? Stay tuned. :-)
That's all the news that's fit to print. Chat soon!
Love,
Sam and Jenny
No comments:
Post a Comment