Dentist

Here is Holly at her Dentist.  I was so proud of her she did such a good job.  She got through the cleaning and flossing and the counting and checking.  But then they did the polish.  I wasn't sure if it was the taste or if it was the way the tool swirled around each tooth but she flipped.  She couldn't handle it, she tried to be brave and she tried not to cry but she couldn't.  So they stopped the polishing and called in the Dentist to do the rest of the exam.  Next time I really have to have him come in first before she gets so upset and crying.  He was able to look at all the teach and check them and scrape them a little bit.  She had a little plaque behind her front teeth, as behind those teeth is a stop I forget to brush and also her front teeth are really crowded.  She came back with a clean bill of health, no cavities.  Though they didn't get to do as much of the deep cleaning as I had hoped because by then she was super done.  But she still did fabulous.  Waiting in the car for her from the Tooth Fairy was Periwinkle, the newest Fairy from the Winter Woods, Tinkerbell's sister.  She was so happy that the tears nearly dried up in minutes.  She new the Tooth Fairy was bringing her something which gave her the motivation to try so hard to keep it together, but the gift was so much better then she was expecting and just what she had been asking for.  Here's to reflecting and thinking of what we can do to make things even smoother next time.

Random Picture Post

 Every once in a while I take a few pictures that are not part of an event and I stick them in a folder called "At Home"

These are pictures from that folder from over the last several months.  Here Holly rides her bike around the neighborhood.

 Here is Holly playing with her princesses for the first time.

Here we are making some yummy cheesy croissants

Ahh a Bath Tube Pictures, as they get older I know its less appropriate to post so this one was strategically taken with bubbles as to allow it.

 Yikes a scary noise on the back porch and just like those stupid people in horror movies we sneak out of bed to go and see what the noise is....

 But its just a possum in the recycling... So Cute.

 So these pictures are from the Eclipse.. Do you see how cool those shadows are?

 This is from special paper contraption thing Joel made to allow you to view it.

 Since you can't look at it directly.

 I just love how the shadows look so neat and crescent shaped.

 So these are pictures of Holly's very first dentist appointment

 The sunglasses were to protect her eyes from the bright lights and the mirror so she can see whats going on.

 She had to get an x-ray and she was so brave

 Here we are shopping with friends at target

 Tanta Kat helping Holly build her Merida Castle

 The Pink Cup Cake Truck

 Holly playing with her Merida Castle

This is Holly's Bow and Arrow, it took weeks but she is actually a pretty good shot now.  Its cool.

These were left over pictures from Easter.  I loved these marbleized eggs we made and I realized I never posted the pictures because they were hiding in my random folder

Just a Rainy Day

It’s been a lazy rainy day. Sally came over today and she got to chase Holly all over the house and was very impressed with her mobility, especially all of the “squatting” she does. She brought over the red horsey for Holly to bounce on and play with and had a chance to stretch out some of her muscles and said she seems to be getting a teeny bit looser. She played some reaching games with her and saw some good head extension and reaching, but now she is extending her head only at the neck not arching her upper back between the shoulders. That area is still super duper tight.

She worked on some rotation, and some cause and effect playing. She was working on “Push” and getting her to push some of the toys she has. The Little Orange Panda pops out when you push him, and we have another toy then you put the top the little balls inside all spin, and finally there is one shaped like a top and when you push it the entire things spins, and it plays music. It has 4 little animals and when you press each one it says, “I’m the Lion” or “What Sound Does the Monkey make” ect. It is a pretty cool toy, as once Holly has some more language skills, it asks her questions and gets her to keep playing, like “Can you find the Elephant”

Holly got a bit cranky about ½ way through the session because Sally restrained her when she was trying to crawl off to her room and she didn’t like that one bit, and then afterwards she has been fussy. We got a nap today for about 90 minutes but she seems tired again. We just had some Green beans and Blueberry pear for lunch and now she is lying in the next watching Lullaby time, I don’t think she will fall asleep, though she might, but she seemed to need the down time.

Yesterday she slept in till 10:00 so she only took 1 nap from 3-5 and was up until about 10:45. I was worried about her this morning though because she woke up crying at 7:30 and was really hungry, so she only got 8.5 hours, and she needs 12-14 a day according to the literature, and she often sleeps a minimum of 10 a night. After her bottle she went back to bed but only for another hour. I think she is either going through a growth spurt, or maybe coming down with something.

I suppose a better mother would keep her warmer, but she slips and slides and pulls off her socks or has trouble crawling when she is wearing PJ’s with feet, so I let her play in what’s comfortable even though her feet and legs sometimes feel cold. But her core is still like a little heater, her feet will be cold but her belly is toasty, and her head, so I guess she is fine. The last two days she has been having a bit of a dry cough, but I think maybe it is like an allergy, I have been coughing since Sunday because our friends have a cat and I am allergic, and I think she is copying me. She is up and playing some more, I guess she was tired of sitting still.

Yesterday we ran a few errands; we had to go back to the Plastic Store and re-cut the doors as they needed a bit more room to allow space for the hinges. I need to correct that the doors are not actually Plexiglass, but clear Acrylic. Joel has informed me that I could hit it with a hammer and it would not break, and it does not shatter, so they are super safe.

It was much more complicated getting the doors right and everything lined up, but Joel was such a trouper and stayed up till 2:00 last night and finished them. The magnet latch isn’t strong enough for her to not open them, so we added the Baby Proofing Cabinet latches which we were expecting to do, and today she was able to cruise all along the entertainment center and try and open the doors and kiss the “glass” she was quite pleased.

Have I mentioned that she is starting to show more emotions, such as Frustration and Anger? This is a great developmental milestone, though a hard one to deal with. I don’t want her to be frustrated or angry, but then I also can’t just rush in as soon as something doesn’t go her way and I have to let her fuss and cry it out sometimes, which is very hard for me, as she is a baby who never cries unless she needs something and then her need it met almost immediately.

But an example of this would be the blinds. Now that she can stand against the wall under the window she tries to reach up for the blinds. Today she reached them; it is just the bottom part of the wooden blind so totally safe. Well I guess in her mind they were “sitting” on the window sill and like other things (the drum sticks on Rockband, the remotes on the side table) Once she reaches them it is a simple effort to slide or push them down to the floor, at which time she will sit and play with her new “toy” well she doesn’t get that the blinds are attached, so they kept pushing them off the sill and pulling them away from the window and they weren’t coming down and it was no easier to reach them and she couldn’t put them in her mouth this made her very frustrated and she proceeded to shout and fuss at them.

Well, what is a mom to do? Let her fuss until she gives up and goes onto something else? How long is enough fussing, she is a very determined little girl and doesn’t give up easily, how much fussing does it take before she gets really upset and is throwing a tantrum. Well while she was standing pulling the blinds she did it maybe 15 times, fussing, but not “upset” so I just kept letting her do it. Then she got mad, sat down starting to hit the floor and cry, so I went over to her and she immediately was happy again. I opened the blinds and let her look out and touch them, from my arms and it seemed to appease her and she hasn’t tried again yet today, but did I swoop in to the rescue too soon? I guess these are things I will learn in time, but I hate seeing her “unhappy” but I am reminded that this is the time when she developmentally NEEDS to learn that she can’t always get what she wants, and things will be frustrating. I am told this will happen with Walking, where her gross motor skills won’t be on par with her cognitive skills that want to walk, so this can cause frustration.

Some of the other exciting new developments is her improved dexterity with her stacker. She used to simply dump it out and chew on the base or wooden donuts, but now she can lift each disk off the base one at a time. She even makes a game of it, I will point to it and she will lift another and then another. She is so proud to be able to take them all off one at a time, but isn’t interested in putting them back on yet. She also I think is learning that if you push the Orange Button Mr. Panda will pop up. At first she did it by accident when crawling over the toy, which I guess in many ways, is how babies learn everything, but then the other day she stopped closed the Panda and then pushed the button again, close, open, close a few times. So I think she is starting to get it. A few times since she had opened the panda, but hasn’t learned about the other switches yet.

The other game we are playing, which I realize she is way too young for is the matching game. We have this cool book with Red Apple, Orange Fish, Yellow Sun, Green Turtle, and Blue Bird. The colors are also listed in Spanish. On the left is a space where you can place a cardboard cut out of the creature that matches the larger picture of the creature on the other side. She loves flipping through the pages of this book back and forth. Sometimes I say the color of the page, sometimes the creature, sometimes I say it in Spanish. Well yesterday I decided to take all 5 “blocks” out of the book place them in front of her and turn the pages one by one pointing to the creature and asking her if she can pick up the one that matches.

She did it right 2 out of 5 times, but I think it was luck, and she just put them in her mouth and tasted them, but I would say, nope, this orange Fish doesn’t look like the Red Apple, and then I would pick up the Red Apple and Show her how the little Red apple she was holding looked like the big one on the page. She had fun. I completely don’t expect her to get this at all for now, but I figured it doesn’t hurt to play the game with her. I also like it because I am trying to teach her pointing, which is something she would normally begin to learn about this time. So I point to the pop up animals and to other various things when we play.

Also, I forgot to mention… She is actually bouncing in her bouncer now. This is very exciting, as it is important that she bounces if she wants to learn good balance for walking. She really jumps up and down and gets all excited, it is very cute to see her do it. It is funny, when she is ready to get out she fusses and whines so then I go and get her, maybe after ten minutes this will happen, but she is so excited that I listened and come that she jumps up and down while I am trying to take her out. Very cute.

We haven’t done much with the two walkers she has. The few times I have tried recently she just sat down to a crawl and climbed on them, I don’t think she sees them as stable enough to walk around or quite understands push yet, but then again, I am in no rush to get her walking. I am convinced that if I was making any effort on my part like, walking her around the room holding her hands ect. That she would be walking already, just based on her cruising, but Sally informed us that its not good to teach a baby to walk too early, especially when they have High Tone Issues, so we are letting her completely come to it at her own pace and lead the way.

So sweet, I love that she falls asleep in my lap after a bottle it is the most precious thing and I know I will miss this when she grows out of it. It is hard not to simply let myself enjoy her and watch her sleep for the whole hour or more, but alas this is my time to get stuff done like bills and blogging, so 15 minutes of Indulgence and then she was transferred to her little nest. Sometimes I just have to squeeze her I love her so much. She doesn’t quite get cuddles yet, she lets you do It sometimes for just a minute but I am looking forward to when she is older and like to be cuddled and understands the concept of sitting still, like if we were going to watch a movie or something. But then again, if she is anything like me, which she is, she probably won’t sit still.

Ohh two more things..

I called a Pediatric Dentist and asked about the teeth thing. He said it is a phase and if she gnaws on wood or metal for a few months it is ok, but if she is still scraping her teeth on metal in 6 months it could start doing some Damage. He said the key is to make sure there is no decay, as that weakens the tooth and makes it easier to damage it. As with the pulling, he said babies don’t know their own strength, it is possible she could damage her tooth, like the old shoelace and door slam to pull a tooth out, but in reality it is very unlikely she will hurt them just pulling a cord or lip of a toy over them at this point. He said in 6 months if she is still doing it, take her in to get checked. Right now she is not on Joel’s Dental insurance, but during open enrollment I think in like April, I will add her so she can get an official check up. Though I suppose I should see how much one visit costs versus 1 year of premiums, paying out of pocket might be cheaper for now.

Foot tapping.. Apparently she gets this from mommy who unconsciously taps her leg/foot all the time, I hear even her Oma does this. So the other day she was playing over by the mirror and the activity gate and I was flipping through a magazine tapping my foot, I look up at her and smile so she knows I am paying attention, as she often turns and checks that I am still here, and then she decided to crawl all the way over to me.. No pauses or breaks, all the way across the living room, when she gets to the edge of the carpet she sits and begins to tap her foot/leg against the hard wood floors in unison with me. I just had to pick her up and squeeze her I was so amazed, and she was pretty amused with herself too!

Hollyland

Today was a low key day. We had some bananas for breakfast and Holly explored her new play area. I am not sure that she really acknowledged that the tree was gone but she was happy to have the extra space and dug right into her toys.

She quickly went to and found the nearest thing that could get her into trouble. We forgot to put up the special thing that keeps the blind strings short, so after finding the string, which I put up she then discovered the blinds themselves. I guess the good thing about her getting herself into trouble is the good physical therapy it provides I mean seriously look at that neck extension, no its not 90 degrees, but it is certainly at least 45.

Holly did not want to take her nap and didn’t fall asleep until almost 11:45 so I had to wake her at 12:30 when Katie arrived. It took her a bit to warm up to her being here and she was done earlier then usual. We played with the big bouncy ball and crawled through the tub. Katie decided to let us keep the tube here for a couple of weeks since Holly is the only patient she is using it on. Joel and I have come up with some fun ideas that I am sure you will read about in the days to follow.

After therapy we had lunch #1 which consisted of Banana and Squash, later we had some snacks. I always forget to give her snacks to chew on because I am afraid of the gagging so ideally I need to do it between food and bottles. During therapy I was eating lunch, some left over Pizza and she was very interested in my food so I gave her some of the crust to chew on. Over protective Daddy protested, but Katie backed me up and thought it was a great idea. This reminded me I should try with actual baby snacks today.

So we had some Puffs, a Wagon Wheel, a Teething Biscuit, Some mini Crackers, a Zwieback toast, and these new Strawberry Yogurt Puffs that melt in your mouth. She did pretty good munching on them, as you can see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4HErh3LehY

Once she was done I gave her some Apple Vanilla and then we played some more. She was getting very fussy and grumpy and fell asleep around 5:45 for her second nap. I decided to let her sleep since her morning nap was cut short and since she had Night Terrors a few days ago. She ended up sleeping until 8:15 and woke up so precious like a little gopher.

Daddy was excited to get a little bit of Holly time. She woke just as we sat down to eat dinner, so Joel played with her and let me eat first. She was being clingy though and wanted Mommy. She was happy if I was sitting on the floor with her and would crawl over and stand up next to me if I was on the couch.

She did get to bed a little late, but it wasn’t terrible. We tried putting her down twice, and I even made her an 8th bottle, but she didn’t want it. In the end I gave her a teething rind which soothed her and she fell asleep. I wonder if it is a sensory thing, as the teething ring is freezing cold, I mean it is basically ice and she likes to put it on her face and especially on her ear, it doesn’t seem to bother her at all. So those of you with kids who have SPD any input please comment.

The other thing I am curious about is the biting. So I realize that FX Kids tend to like to chew on things, thus the chewlery and damaged collars. But Holly does a few additional things. 1st she grinds her teeth, which drives me crazy, but isn’t the most worrisome. 2nd she likes to chew on wood, but also metal. She loves to chew on Metal, like the bottom of my Sigg Bottle, is it the coolness? The sound it makes when she crapes her teeth on it? And 3rd she likes to pull on her teeth, like she will put a string in her mouth that goes behind her four bottom teeth then pull it out on either side. Or if she is chewing on like a baby food lib, she will put the lip behind her teeth then pull it out. She also has some toys she does this with.

Is this Dangerous? Will she Damage her teeth? Have your kids done things like this? Is she trying to get more sensory input? I was talking to Katie about this today and she said that swinging happens to provide the same input at biting, so we put her down on a quilt and each held two sides and swung her side to side. The first time she look terrified and I was ready to give up, but we tried slower one more time and the second time she liked it, so we did it two more times. Weather it helped or not, who knows. Thoughts?

Friday

This morning Joel had a Dentist appointment, just a check-up and cleaning, so we took Holly with us. I had read an article that one should bring their babies to the dentist office with them, so they would learn not to be afraid of dentists. Dr. Ballard was so excited to meet Holly; she checked out her two little teeth and said she looked great. She gave Holly a tooth brush and said to bring her back with us on our next cleaning. Holly watched as daddy got his work done, so she could get exposure to the sounds and sights of the office. We read 5 books in the waiting room and watched a Thomas the Engine video. Holly really liked her toothbrush and chewed on it. She liked the way the bristles felt on her gums and tongue. She was quite adorable.

After the dentist we stopped at subway to pick up some lunch which we ate in the courtyard at Joel’s office. This was a high traffic area so the munchkin got to see many of Joel’s co-workers on their way to their own lunches. Our sandwiches were good, but it was time to let Daddy go to work. We went home to take a nap and play for a bit and then it was time for Swim Class. It was a hot day and the warm pool was warm, but after a moment the water felt really good. Swim class was the smallest I had ever seen it, with only a handful of people. Holly played with Xavier and Ila, and Sarah. Ila was splashing in the water, and holly was very intrigued by this, but her nap from earlier was only about 30 minutes so she was still very tired, and not super active. She was low key most of class. We did go underwater quickly for a moment. She patted my face a few times which is the first step to patting the water, and we had a good class, and nice warm shower. She was hungry and tired at the end, ate a bottle and fell asleep as soon as she was tucked into the car seat.

I drove up into the Oakland hills to Montclair during her nap to pick up some books and toys that I had purchased through craigslist. It included 5 Babar books, and a t-shirt, two baby Einstein books, a CD and 4 VHS tapes and a Noah’s Ark Toy, and two books. The Ark toy has ten sets of Animals that you can load into the ark, they are all made of wood, and it is a very cool toy. While I can’t use the VHS Tapes, I thought I would bring them to Florida on my next visit, my mom has a VCR, and I can always give them away also, the whole lot only cost me 19$ and I am sure the wooden ark cost more than that new. There was an amazing view of the bay from up in the hills. Holly still napped so we drove by Joel’s work but he wasn’t ready to come home, so when holly woke up about 6:30 we headed inside and I made her some more sweet peas. She doesn’t like them, but this was the last of it, I mixed them up with some oatmeal so the flavor would not be as strong, she protested often, but each time it gave me an opportunity to sneak in another bite, only making her madder, and thus eat the food down faster. She was having a bit of a cranky tantrum afterwards, but eventually settled down.

We are counting the days until she learns to crawl, she is basically there, she just needs to engage her arms a bit more, but she is ready to take off flying, she is already lunging forward to reach toys getting from a sit position to all 4’s, she just isn’t sure what to do once she is there, and usually ends up rocking back and forth, or doing a face plant when she gets tired, then she will wine and fuss for a while, sometimes she turns over to her back, other times she has a fit and Mommy rescues her by sitting her back up.

Joel ended up giving her a final bottle for the night and putting her down in the crib, she was out like a light, as she only had two very short naps today.