Speech and other things!

Charlie Claire is speech delayed...we knew that she would be because speech is on the left side of your brain so in Charlie's case speech had to transfer over to the right side of her brain.  

Jackson's speech in the last 2 or so months has taken off...dog, duck, light, bird, truck, eat, snack, bubble, bath, nonno, milk, yuck, mickey, baby, pool, grandma (is just ma ma!), lovie, banana, keys, to name a few!!  Charlie Claire says "ga" for most things still...she knows what she wants to say and until you say what it is she wants you to say she will repeat "ga." In the last few weeks she is starting to add more to her repertoire though...she seems pretty found of b's right now...bath, bye-bye, bubble, back (as in "mommy's coming right back) but also says duck, dog, more and cup. 

The last time we were at the neuro he explained to us that receptive language comes before actual speech and receptive language is what you hear and understand.  In this category there doesn't seem to be much of a delay.  We have been all actively working on this with Charlie Claire (with her educator, Kassie).   We ask her to bring us certain items/objects, having her follow 2 step directions, pointing out objects in a book, etc.  

C has also finally crossed off putting items in a container off her list of goals!!! This was one that annoyed me because I knew she knew how she just didn't want to let go of the toy! So now each night she helps me clean up the bath toys (she is the last one out of the tub!) and her and Jackson help clean up their toys at the end of the day! 

I know we have said this so many times but I don't think we can ever really say it enough, we are so incredibly grateful for the life that Charlie Claire has been able to live as a result of her surgery.  We are so appreciative of all the hard work her Early Intervention team does with her as well as me and Jason so that we are able to help her thrive and develop.  We are also firm believers that Jackson is one of Charlie Claire's best teachers and we love that he is so willing to show C the ropes! :) 

"Cheese" face

Sassy Girl!

 

Tiny Dancer

Charlie Claire is quite the dancing queen these days!  It started off just bopping her head to the music in the car but now it's full blown...spinning around, rocking from one foot to the other, etc. What is really amusing is that she has "favorite" songs! Currently "Home" by Phillip Phillips is on constant repeat in our house! While we enjoy the song it loses it's luster hearing it 15+ times a day.  Hopefully soon she moves onto a new song! 

Here is a quick little clip...please note how once she notices that the camera is on her she runs away! :) 

Our sweet faced little monster is so much fun these days...he is a little sponge, soaking up EVERYTHING! He has learned so many new  words and animal sounds in the last few weeks, he loves to be a helper (loading and unloading dishwasher, putting dishes in the sink, giving the dogs their cookies, etc.)! He loves being outside and pointing out cars, trucks, buses, birds, planes, etc. This is such super fun phase with him! 

I am sure I have mentioned on here before that I am just now getting better at going places (aside from someone's house) with both littles, by myself. One of those places is Target.  They have the double cart (which is a MUST!) and I typically need to pick up things from there anyway so it works out well! Until yesterday...BOTH of littles had an EPIC meltdown at the check out over Elmo stickers. We had picked up the stickers earlier in the shopping excursion but I needed to take the stickers from them in order to pay for them. This did not go over well at all. I have been told that this is normal and they are at the age for this and that it's things like this that make parents want to go to the store without their little ones.  I gave them both a little pep talk because I like our little outings together so I am going to need them to pull themselves together! :) 

Much happier now that the Elmo stickers are back in her possession! 

I am also pretty sure it has been mentioned before that Jackson LOVES Mickey Mouse. He thinks that Mickey should be on the tv anytime we are near a tv...not just the one in our house but any tv we come across.  I feel that we do a very good job of limiting the amount of Mickey he watches even though he gets downright mad when we don't let him watch it.  Jackson doesn't just limit his Mickey love to the show...he loves all things Mickey.  Especially this new chair that Grandma picked up for him this weekend! 

We had a super special visitor today.  Miss Nina!!!! Charlie Claire L.O.V.E.S. Nina! She basically sat on Nina (snuggling and kissing her) the whole time she was over. It was so nice to see Nina and catch up on how she has been doing...we miss seeing her every week. 

Keppra...not a baby anymore...and the rain!

We have been given the green light by the neuro to cut Charlie Claire's keppra back some more...she no longer gets a middle of the day dose and her morning/evening dose went from 2.5mL to 1.5mL! We check back in a month and we also have C's follow up appointment with them at the end of September. 

Jackson needed to go to the pediatrician today. He has odd looking little marks (for lack of a better word) on his back, chest and legs. They almost look like little ring worm marks but they aren't.  The rash is no biggie...a virus and apparently it just goes away on it's own.  Good to know since it looks like Charlie Claire is getting a couple of these little marks now.  When Dr. Cotton came into the room the first words out of her mouth were "where have your babies gone?" (she had just seen Charlie Claire last week).  Neither one of our babies look like babies anymore...they look like little kids! YIKES! This was made very apparent today when one of Jackson and Charlie's infant car seats was sitting out for me to drop off to a friend and Jackson climbed in it...

It's crazy to think that he at one time looked like this in this car seat...

Isn't he the most adorable little baby boy ever?!!! :)

After the trip to the pediatrician it was just starting to rain as we were getting home.  Jackson bee lined for the house (probably because Grandma had a slurpee!) but Miss Charlie Cakes wanted to stay outside.  I thought as soon as the rain really started coming down that she wouldn't want to be playing outside in it...boy was I wrong...she LOVED it!!

finding the rain drops very funny! 

Reevaluating the situation!

Taking cover! 

 She was having so much fun running into the garage and then back out into the rain I sort of had a hard time stopping her! :)

And a couple more sleep pictures just because!

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twenty two months

Sweet Charlie Claire and Monster Mash working on his "cheese" face! 

Still very big on kisses for each other! 

Sleeping!

Is it just us or does everyone take pictures of their little ones sleeping?!! :)

Since birth Charlie Claire used to sleep like this.  

We used to joke when she was in the NICU under the little heater that she must have thought she was on a beach somewhere! Since she didn't start rolling over until December/January-ish she continued to ALWAYS sleep like this...and I LOVED it.  This picture was after her surgery in December, you can see the little cut on her face from the tape that was on her face. ps can we talk about how much her hair has grown since then?! 

Once Jackson learned to roll over he became a stomach sleeper real quick.  However, with Charlie Claire it took a bit longer.  She learned how to sit herself up last summer but didn't know how to get out of that position so she would be playing in her crib and fall asleep sort of like this (this is a recent picture and rare for her to be sleeping like this now) it was basically as if she just would fold herself in half. 

In the last month or so Charlie Claire has been falling asleep in the funniest little positions and since this is a totally new thing for her we've started taking pictures! Here are some we've captured! 

Yes, Charlie Claire goes to bed with that many things in her crib...don't judge! :) Typically she snuggles with each one and then throws them over the side of her crib one by one.  She then keeps one (normally a mickey, the frog or elmo) with her as she falls asleep.  This night she was entirely to tired to toss any on the floor! 

Now if only we could sleep as well as them! :) 

Sweet dreams! :) 

A weekend celebration!

We had such an amazing weekend! 

Uncle Jason was in town and my mom turned 60 yesterday! :) We had a weekend full of family, fun and food! Is there anything better?!! 

Jason got in Thursday night and since I am an awesome sister I made this awesome goodness for him (thanks Kristen for helping!!). If you like chocolate and peanut butter I highly recommend, it was a big hit! 

Monster Mash loved some Uncle Jason snuggles before bedtime! 

Jason was just in Brazil for work and picked up the cutest little dress for Charlie Claire and her first pair of havaianas flip flops! She is Uncle Jason's little Brazilian Goddess! :) 

I am pretty confident that we have mentioned a time or twelve that Jackson LOVES to EAT! And when Uncle Jason is around he likes to give Jackson whatever he wants...that's what uncles are for right?! What Uncle Jason learned this weekend though is that Monster is still new to the whole sharing thing so once he got his little paws on Uncle Jason's food/drink he wasn't exactly giving it back. 

Some pool time play time!  

Yesterday my mom turned 60!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We woke up to this in the yard...and here is the BEST part...we have NO CLUE who arranged this.  It is driving me INSANE that we don't know.  If you are reading this and you did it, please tell me (I'll keep it a secret!). Jackson and Charlie Claire LOVED all this fun goodness in the yard! It was almost as big as them! 

The Mozart cake from Sugar Plum is a family favorite...we got a small one for my mom to have with Jackson and Charlie Claire on Saturday.  Jackson saw the cake and couldn't control his little self, he had zero patience for us trying to take a picture.  

Please note there are zero pictures of Charlie Claire eating cake...she gave it a good try, she had a couple bites but sister is just not a cake girl. 

Sunday night we had our family over for a little celebration for Mama TC! Which meant more CAKE...to bad Jackson was asleep for this round!

Happy Birthday Mama, hope you had an awesome birthday weekend! We love you! :) 

Wednesday...

I am just going to do this quick like ripping off a band aid so here goes...I have started back at work 3 days a week! 

We have an amazing sitter (Kristen) who loves Jackson and Charlie Claire so much, she is so great with them! She will be with Jackson and Charlie Claire during the week and then my parents and Jason's parents will be covering the weekend. I am excited and nervous about this all at the same time.  I completely trust  Kristen (and our parents!) with my little ones but when it comes to C and her development, I am extremely protective of that and I have a hard time handing the responsibility over to someone else. 

Speaking of development...we had an awesome talk with Charlie Claire's OT today about some anxieties I am having and things I would like us to be working on with Charlie.  I felt really good after our talk because lately I have been feeling that we are not doing enough for CC.  I realize that she is doing a lot of her own physical therapy lately but we also want to make sure that cognitively she is moving in the right direction.  Charlie Claire is making amazing progress all the time but realize that we have another 21 month old around to compare C to so to the average eye while she may not seemed delayed she still is behind Jackson.  We talked about a few important things we need to work on and things that Jason and I ultimately want to see Charlie Claire doing. This conversation brought up the idea of a couple mommy and me classes in the area...we looked into the classes today which seem awesome and we really think they will be great for both Jackson and Charlie Claire.  The bummer is that they fall on the days I will be working.  Enter Miss Kristen...she will be taking J and C tomorrow for a "free drop in" class and if all goes well she will start taking them every week! I am bummed that I won't be the one getting to go with them but I am thankful to have someone who is willing to.  I think this class will be so great for them on so many levels. 

And still on the topic of development...C has been working with her new developmental educator now for a quite some time.  Charlie Claire really seems to enjoy when Miss Kassie is here! C has gotten a bit of a temper these days when she doesn't like what you want her to do (or when you don't want her her to do something!) and Miss Kassie really doesn't fall for it which is good! Charlie has also been in a HUGE mommy phase lately so I have been trying to stay back and watch the session instead of actively participating since C seems to focus on Miss Kassie more that way. I was able to sneak in a few pictures the other day...

Bringing objects to Kassie (working on following directions!) 

Getting the ball

We are working on Charlie looking up over her head at objects 

Listening to Kassie's directions

And side tracked with hugs from Jackson...could there be a better distraction?!!! :) 

These next two pics are just for fun of our sweet little Monster! 

Relaxing (with his mismatched socks that he picked out!) before bed

Is anyone else picturing future groomsmen shaninigans?!!! 

Happy Wednesday!