Precious Imogene

Sorry, Lil

Lily told me today she wants a baby brother. In the car to the park she made such an earnest and heartfelt effort to convince me it was a good idea. "I would be such a good big sister to the little brother. It's okay if he sleeps in Imogene's room. If they both cry you and daddy can go help them. And then I'll do everything I can to play with them and do what the little brother needs. It's okay if little brothers cost money. If we need money for the stuff you and I do together we'll just get more money. I'll be so good to the baby and people will see him at the park and say he's so adorable." She had a response for every one I gave back to her. Then she got all quiet and said, "Baby Brother." FYI: She is NOT getting a baby brother.
I'm not sure why she wants a baby brother when the current sibling is biting her (perhaps she thinks a new baby wouldn't bite?) Imogene gets very upset when Lily interferes or gets in her way and she just takes a chunk out of her. It's part frustration with not being able to talk, part frustration with not being able to move like Lily. And Imogene just bawls her eyes out when Lily gets upset about being bit, and when we tell her she can't bite!
We went to a wonderful elementary school park yesterday with preschool Garden Club. They have a butterfly habitat, bird habitat, a little greenhouse, gorgeous vegetables, and a Colonial times garden, complete with log cabin. Lily told me that she wished the log cabin was full of tons of toys so she could stay there forever. The best part was when she kept holding her hands to her chin/mouth and exclaining, "This is incredible! I just love this garden!"

How is it already Thursday? Yesterday was Lily's teacher conference. She is of course doing great. She has a hard time focusing on things when they are doing projects at the table. This is so not surprising! Lily is so interested in what other people are doing, and as her teacher said, so concerned for the well-being of her friends. Combine a big heart with huge curiosity, and you've got someone who just has to know what's going on around her at all times. It is so nice to hear her teacher say that she's concerned about her friends and always very inclusive. We can totally see that in her, but it's nice that others see it too! Imogene had two great days of therapy this week! For the second week in a row she really didn't get upset during constraint therapy, and did some great weight-shifting/weight-bearing with Susan today at PT. She also was very tolerant and patient while Amy and Susan put on her new kinesiotape today. We had discussed using the tape a while ago, and they've just been able to find a type that will stay on Imogene. The basic stuff stays on most people for 4-5 days. On Imogene it would come off withing 24-48 hours. Who knows why, guess her skin is just that soft and sweet! The two layers of tape (one 'soft/one more rigid) go across her abdominal muscles in an X, and then there is a piece that goes straight across her stomach at her diaper line. The idea behind the tape is that it engages her abdominal muscles. Right now, she's really not using her abs at all, and it's causing her to sway in the back. Over time this would be detrimental to her walking, so it's best if we work on it now. It's kind of like she has a little 'buddha' belly with a curved lower back - not good for your balance, or for engaging the stomach muscles you need to walk, etc. The tape is one way we're working on straightening this out.
On Wednesdays, Lily's teacher sends home a note with information about what they did in school that week. We asked Lily what she did in school yesterday and she said, "I don't know. Look at the note." She was begging for a poodle this morning (Animal Planet has dog shows on - Imogene LOVES it.) I told her we couldn't get a poodle, or any other dog for that matter, right now. Thinks about it and says, "Okay, how about we go after Imogene's nap."
Imogene was up last night from 1:30 until 3:30. There was no apparent reason, and she would only really scream and cry if she was in her crib too long awake. She sat with each of us and would sleep, wake, sleep, wake. I kept wondering how many times in the last 15+ months we've gotten up with her. And how many times we've asked ourselves "why is she awake? what's going on with her?" I would guess there's only been about 10-15 nights when she hasn't gotten up at least once. Figure she's at about 450ish days old, so I'd guess we've gotten up with her at least 850 times in 15 months. Oh my.

Weekend

Imogene ran a fever Wednesday to Friday of last week. When I called the pediatrician's office Wednesday, the nurse determined it was from her shots at her 15 month appointment. By Friday afternoon it was at 103.7, which just seemed too high. The nurse I talked to that day agreed, and asked us to bring her in on Saturday morning. This really would just have been par for the course in our life, but Bill and I were supposed to be getting in the car for a weekend away. Several months ago, Bill and I decided that we would spend this weekend in New York after his ABA conference. Well then we decided New York was just too much work, so we changed to Charlottesville. This past weekend was Foxfields (the horse races) in C'ville, making traveling there not so much fun. So we thought about St. Michael's in Maryland. All hotels booked because of their food and wine weekend. (Wish we'd planned for there first - doesn't that sound awesome!?!) So we finally decided to go stay in Leesburg at a nice resort. Leesburg is 40 minutes from here, so it wasn't exactly getting away, but it was all the getting away we needed! A friend of mine said that staying in a hotel in the neighborhood next to our's would have been getting away enough for her! So anyway, we postponed our trip until we could see the doctor Saturday morning. In the end it all worked out fine. Imogene's fever was likely due to shots she'd received the week prior. We made it out to Leesburg by late morning, and Lily and Imogene had an absolute blast with Naney and Aunt Susan. Aunt Susan took Lily to a nail salon to have her hands and feet painted hot pink! She is so proud of them. Begged not to have a bath in case the paint washed off. Susan also took Lily to Target, and when given the choice between Dentist Barbie and Strawberry Shortcake Poolside Toy, Lily gave Susan those big blues eyes and said "I think it would be best if I had both." Putty in her hands, Susan agreed. Imogene took a good nap Saturday, but didn't sleep that much Saturday night-so sorry Susan and Mom, but thanks so much for caring for the girls! Bill and I drove around the Leesburg area, made a stop to a nice winery, and hit the outlets for a little while. We hung out around the hotel, and had a nice dinner at their restaurant. We even watched a whole movie, "Up in the Air, which I really enjoyed." Amazing. It was nice to just be us for a little while. We definitely missed the girls, but it had been over 2 years where we were just the two of us for even 24 hours with nothing to do. Yes, 2 years. On the way home we were talking about how the 24 hours was just enough time and how we missed the girls and were excited to be home with them. I have to admit that I was wishing for more time away during dinner last night! They were both so cranky and Imogene wouldn't eat anything and Lily was just a disaster. Calgon, take us back to Leesburg!
I have to say that Lily was just too cute yesterday when we got home. She was asking us questions about our trip. "Tell me about your trip Mom, what did you do in the car? Did you just talk to Daddy?" "come and see my beautiful Strawberry Shortcake. And guess what? She can make our whole house smeel like strawberries with her beautEEFUL hair." Tonight at dinner she said "Tell me more about what you and Daddy said in the car. We want to hear the news too. Was it good news or bad news?" WHERE does she come up with this stuff? She was painting on this little watercolor book we brought her (think coloring book, but it comes with watercolors). Bill asked if he could help or something and she said "No Daddy, I think that's too much responsibility for you." Unbelievable. Imogene was crying Saturday morning and Lily came downstairs and said, "What's going on down here? What's going on with Imogene? Do you need me to help?" We brought her some gum and the coloring book and some candy and she said so politely, "Thank you so much Mommy and Daddy for this present. I just love candy and gum." Naney reports that when Imogene got upset while we were gone, Lily would go over and try to help her. I can just hear it, "It's okay sweetie. I'm here, Lily's here."
Dr. Baldrate saw that we were in the office over the weekend, so she called today to check on us. Love her! The last time I talked to her, we were still thinking we might have to do the surgery Wednesday. So she was checking on that too. When I told her that we weren't schedule to see her until July 8 (for her 18 month check-up and her pre-op) she said that she'd rather not wait that long to check Imogene's weight. So we'll go back May 24 for a "re-check." Silly me thought I'd get away with no appointments until July! So we'll go to the ENT for Lily on Monday, May 3, then Imogene back to Dr. Baldrate May 24. Right now we don't have any appointments scheduled in June (except therapy) - but with Lily's ears I imagine that won't be the case for long!

Yummmmyyyy!

This was Lily's ice cream cone at Chick-Fil-A. Imogene sees that Lily doesn't want it and starts going insane. She had an absolute blast eating it. And by "eating it" of course I mean getting it all over her face and clothes and hardly actually eating any of it. 

Bonelessed

Tonight at bedtime we read "Knuffle Bunny." In the book Trixie goes "boneless" when she can't get her daddy to understand what she's saying. Like when a kid turns into a spaghetti noodle when they have a meltdown. Lily is so fascinated by that concept. After the story was over she told me two stories, one of which involved all the characters from the show "Little Bear" going "bonelessed, bonelessed, bonelessed." The mommies and daddies and grandmothers and grandpas and sisters all had to come get their little children (pronounced chiwldren, which I love) because they had gone so bonelessed. Then she told a story using props from Imogene's room (two stuffed animal rabbits and one ceramic rabbit). The mommy and daddy rabbit say night night to their sleeping baby rabbit and then they go watch TV downstairs, and then the daddy goes to sleep (drops daddy on the floor) and the mommy stays up to watch TV, and then the mommy goes to sleep (drops mommy on the floor) and then GUESS WHAT? WAAAAAA, the baby rabbit is screaming and going all bonelessed. So they didn't get to sleep and they had to get up and go help her. The End. And that, dear readers, was tonight's story time with Lily.
Two nights ago she "sang" books to herself while I put Imogene to bed. She was singing so loudly, I am amazed Imogene went to sleep. By the time I got to her, she was asleep all curled up in her bed. Too sweet. Bill and I have plans to go away for a quick weekend tomorrow night until Sunday morning. Nane and Aunt Susan will be here. Lily told me that if I tell Naney how to call me when we're gone on vacation, when Imogene wakes up she can just call me and I can just run home and help Imogene go back to sleep. Granted, we're only going to be an hour away, but that doesn't exactly sound like a vacation to me!
Poor Imogene has a high fever, which is probably from the chicken pox vaccine she got last week. I swear that baby gets whatever comes her way! It's always something with her. Imogene is really becoming more of a toddler than a baby in a lot of ways. It's hard sometimes to think of her as a toddler because of the physical delays. She absolutely loves dogs. Goes insane when she sees a picture of one (even on a T-shirt!) or hears one or Gift From Heaven, gets to pet one in person! She is so precious when she hugs her stuffed animal dogs and cuddles them up to her face. Such a lover she is! The last few days she's even said "mamamama" in my direction!

Earth Day

In case y'all didn't know, tomorrow is "Save the Earth Day." You might know April 22 as just "Earth Day" but Lily knows it as "Save the Earth Day." She has told me that tomorrow we've got to save the earth. Boy, we've got a lot to do before then. Seriously, I love that they learned about this today at school. She made a little Earth out of tissue paper and we talked about recycling (we are forever recycling here, and we aren't even that "Green" - we just recycle a lot.) She also told me tomorrow that she needs to watch TV ALL DAY because they'll be teaching about saving the earth. Not sure that she caught that at school or on a commercial.

Lily almost always scribbles when she colors. We "joke" that it's hard to tell who did the coloring, Lily or Imogene. That's kind of mean to say, but she hasn't done much but scribble. But today she actually drew a sort-of-circle in yellow and little lines around it to be the sun. Not that I'm asking her to be Georgia O'Keefe or anything, but it's nice to see her draw little objects and be all creative. I enjoy how proud she is of her "creashions."

Imogene blew a bubble at OT today. She did it all on her own - cute little lips all pursed in a circle making this precious 'blowing' sound.  Go Imogene go!

Good News

We are able to do Imogene's surgery in July, on the 19th. Such a relief not to have to do that this week. Bill is going to New York on Thursday for work, so that would have made for such a crazy time for us.
The leak is fixed in the bathroom tub. Now we have to fix the ceiling, and the floor in the kitchen. Yes, the floor completely buckled from the water. Good, good times over here. And the plumber suggested we replace our sink faucet, because it's probably causing a small leak too. Awesome.

Where Did We Go Wrong?

Imogene woke up in the night last night for the first time in several days, and it took us a while to get her to go to sleep at bedtime. She must have known something was up. Bill headed downstairs at 6:30 this morning to find a massive leak in our kitchen ceiling. GOODNESS GRACIOUS.

Lily's Turn!

Apparently, Lily wanted in on all the medical attention that Imogene gets. To explain this, I need to go back a few weeks. A little after her birthday, Lily said to her friend Lucy, "Lucy, please say that again, I can't hear you." I could hear Lucy fine, and I was farther away from her than she was. This was the final flag of many I'd noticed with Lily and her hearing. She asks to have you repeat things, and it's not because she doesn't want to hear you, she just can't. And I'd read that kids should have a hearing screening around 4, and that kids with CP should have hearing screenings. So we went to see Dr. Baldrate at the end of March. Imogene's testing "referred" in her left ear, meaning that she "failed" the test. Lily referred in both ears, so Dr. Baldrate sent us to an audiologist for further testing. They both had their tests today and Imogene is in good hearing health. YEAH! Lily's left ear is fine, but her right ear has mild hearing loss (conductive), likely due to fluid. So now I think we will go to an ENT, and hopefully they can fix the fluid issue, and then we'll go back to the audiologist for another testing to see if that solution clears up the hearing loss. I mean REALLY? REALLY? I know this is not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot believe that we are adding another medical professional to our already growing list.

Imogene's eye surgery is not happening on May 19. Right now we're on the schedule for Wednesday. Yes, this Wednesday. (apparently they never moved us to May 19, and they aren't doing May 19 surgeries anyway.) They might take us on July 19, but it's questionable if they have a spot, and we're waiting to hear if Dr. Madigan thinks that would be okay to wait that much longer for her eye. This is turning out to be one of those weeks I think.

A Day in Richmond

We spent today in Richmond visiting with dear friends from law school. Jenny (my roommate in Richmond) and John and their twins Jack & Will, were up from Raleigh, staying with Beth & Robert and their twins Mac & Henry. Crazy that they both have twin boys who were born in the same year! We had never met Mac & Henry, and I hadn't seen Jack & Will since they were newborns, so even though our visit was really short, it was really worth it to just be with all of them. The six of us spent a lot of time together during law school, and it was the first time we'd been all together in almost 5 years. How much has happened since then! The only bad part of the day was that I didn't get a good picture of all of the kids together! Back at home, Bill and I were reminiscing at supper about how much free time we had during law school, and although we had no money, we made the most of that freedom. Boy did we think law school was hard, but parenting is way harder we were saying. At that exact moment, at the supper table, Lily yells, "I have to go poop!" 

What a perfect example of how much it's changed. 

Grunny gave us the idea of passing the "happy stick" at supper, each telling what made us happy that day. Tonight Lily said she was happy that she got to see Jack & Will and Mac & Henry. 

What a perfect example that was of how wonderful the changes have been since we were all together.

Henry and Mac. Bill, Imogene, Jenny, Jack & Will

Playing in Mac & Henry's cool room.

One day last week, Lily dressed her magnet dolls and then told me they were all "cheesed" and ready for me to take their picture. As you can see she's all "Cheesed" too! Lily finally saw the musical number from last week's Glee premiere. One of the songs was "Gives you Hell." (they were supposed to sing a song that had "hello" in the title. This song didn't exactly work, but it was good.) The chorus is "I hope it gives you hell, I hope it gives you hell." Fortunately, Lily heard as "I need your help" which is how she sang it over and over in the grocery store today. She had the melody just right, or I wouldn't have realized what she was doing! I think if you didn't interrupt her she would sing her entire day. Instead of talking about what's going on all day, she sings and sings. 

It's Over!

The yard sale was a huge success. We were able to sell a lot of the big items. Only one trip to Salvation Army was needed with the leftovers. And except for some anxiety about people actually coming, it was actually kind of fun. I complain a lot about the amount of traffic, both car and pedestrian, that we see in front of our house, but today that was totally worth it! Better yet, we can walk (well crouch) around in our attic again! Huge thanks to Grunny and Charlie for coming into town to help out, to Maggie for coming over to help out with Lily and to sweet Bill for putting up with my neurotic self. It was a ton of work, but worth it.
At one point there was a lull in the shoppers and Lily said, "I guess we'll just have to sell the stuff to ourselves." Lily is very excited for her trip to the Disney Store to shop with the money "she" made - from toys we sold that she wasn't too excited about giving up, even though it's possible she didn't play with any of them for more than 20 minutes in the last 4 years.
Lily and Bill just went to Salvation Army, but Lily is sure he's taking her to soccer practice. We told her that we'd do soccer after they got back in the yard, but she keeps talking about it like it's somewhere else. She isn't even being "silly." She is deadset that she has soccer practice today at some remote location.
The baby boom is starting again around our friends. Congrats to Mike & Audra Bayes on the (early) arrival of Samuel! Mike & Audra have always been so sweet to Lily and Imogene, so we can't wait to repay the favors to Samuel. I never dreamed we'd live in DC this long, but it's so worth it for the friendships we developed (like the Bayes's) that make living in this huge area seem not so huge at all.

Yard Sale

We're surrounded by yard sale items. Literally our entire main floor is covered in stuff. Grunny & Charlie arrived this afternoon - thank goodness! We were able to get a lot done while they were here. I had told Lily that I had a job for her to do with Grunny, clean the high chair. I knew she'd be all over this because the child loves to use spray bottles. She said "Mom, we'll get it done in no time. I'll clean it very perfectly. I have been a good sprayer before so I'll spray Grunny's towel for her. You'll be so excited when you see it you'll say it's so sparkly." True to her word, she made it very sparkly and boy did she help Grunny spray. And spray. And spray.

Later she came in from playing outside and asked so sweetly if she could help. About 5 minutes into putting tags on things she said, "Okay thanks for the help. Gotta go." She woke up this morning and told me there would be no fussing and no crying. She was going to be happy-Lily all day. I have to say she was pretty true to her word.

Imogene ate and ate and ate at dinner tonight. She just kept pointing at the table, not really at any one thing, just in the general direction of food. When we gave her the mac & cheese bowl Lily didn't eat she was literally chewing the spoon. She abandoned the spoon after a while, and when all in with the hand. Then she decided to actually hold/hug the bowl in her lap. Too funny that little one.

Wish us luck on the yard sale. We don't really care about making money - we just want rid of the stuff!

(And let's all pray or think about Virginia Tech tonight. It's been three years since 32 students and faculty members were killed. Hard to believe that amount of time (seems longer to me) has passed. I can remember immediately thinking that it just wasn't possible that it happened at Tech. Blacksburg was my own heaven -still is even though I haven't been there since before the shootings. I am not sure I'll ever love a location/town/school like I loved being in the 'burg. It was the friends I had there for sure, but there was something about that place that was perfect for me. My thoughts went to Lily that day too. How do you keep your children safe for their entire lives? That's what I thought - how will I keep her safe every day of her life even when I'm not around? If you weren't safe at VT, where were you safe? I think I feel less 'dire' now, but it's still so hard to imagine what the families and the school as a whole went through. I'm not sure I'll ever wrap my head around that - or if I even want to. I love you Hokies!)

Lily and Lucy "share" things back and forth. Usually this means that Lily is borrowing something of Lucy's, not the other way around. Today I told her we needed to give Lucy her sparkly pink shoes back (mostly because they are too big and she keeps asking to wear them outside). Lily's idea was this: "I know! We can sell them to her at our yard sale. She can come and we can let her have them there. We can sell them back to Lucy." I think she even threw in a "She'll love that idea."

Today she told me that she dreamed about having the moon sleep with her, so could I please get her a moon lovie to have in her bed.

Imogene and I dropped Lily and Lucy off at school today and when they got out of the car Imogene just sobbed her eyes out. She was so sad to see them go. We had a great OT session today. She stayed in her bathing suit for constraint therapy almost the entire time. One of the things Kristen (the SLP) had suggested was bubbles for getting her to make the "o" with her mouth, so now she loves bubbles. So Amy did bubbles during constraint and she was making the cutest little face. I've also noticed her 'blowing' her food when I put it in front of her like I do when it's hot. Cutest face that I will have to get on camera.

Dr. Baldrate said that Imogene was at an age where going down to one nap a day was pretty common, so we're trying that out. I was not driving as safely as I could on the way home from therapy to keep her up (tickling works, as does saying "lily lily lily" 100 times) but she stayed awake. And it wasn't that hard to get her to sleep for her nap, which was only an hour, but it's better than nothing. Apparently she didn't go to bed quite so easily (I was at a preschool board meeting), but we can't get it all right in one day. I should remember that more often. I can't get it all right in one day. All I can do is try harder tomorrow than I did today. :)

Two More Done

Great visits with Dr. Morozova and Dr. McClintock today. Dr. McClintock, her neurologist, was first at 11 am. The minute we got to the "weigh-station" she started bawling crying. I guess she just knew that she was in for a long day. Fortunately, the actual appointment went better than that! Dr. McClintock said that she is doing really well, so well, that she doesn't have to go back for twelve months. He said that her leg looks good, and that (as he said before) her hand will be fisted, but that we're doing what we have to do through therapy to make it better. We asked about seizure risk (she's just a little bit more likely than the average population to have a seizure). He said there is no 'age' where we won't have to worry about her having seizures. He has a patient with hemiparetic cerebral palsy who had his first seizure at age 18. So we just have to watch and wait on that, but it's not something we need to worry about too much! We also hoped he'd have some magic solution for the sleep. But no dice on that one.

We had lunch at Chick-Fil-A (Yeah!) and then headed across the street to the second Children's Hospital center for our 1 p.m. appointment with Dr. Morozova, the physiatrist. Again, she's doing great, and won't go back until October unless we notice that her muscle tone is getting tighter. Imogene was getting pretty tired at this point, but was a trooper. She sat on the floor and took crayons in and out of this little bag I keep them in. She would take one out, show it to Dr. Morozova and then put it aside, get another one, show it, get another one, over and over. She was just babbling away the whole time. Dr. M said she is very bright - who doesn't love hearing a doctor say that about their child! We'll keep stretching her hand and arm (and her leg too) as much as we can to keep the tone from getting too high. Imogene even took a nap this afternoon when we got home (plus the few minutes she slept on the way home!) What a relief to have those appointments out of the way.

One Down

Imogene had her 15 month check-up today. She was very friendly and sweet with the always-wonderful Dr. Baldrate. After the shots she cried, but not for very long. She weighed 19 lbs 8 oz, which leaves her in the 7th percentile, but it's good weight gain. It sounds like Dr. B will still monitor the weight pretty closely, but at least we didn't have to do blood-work again. If she can just get over 20 lbs, we can turn her car seat around to face forward, which I think she'd love, especially when Lily is watching a movie. Poor thing tries to swivel her head all the way around to see what all the fuss is about! Her height was 25th percentile, but we never go with what they measure. They draw a line at her head and a line at her feet, and measure between them. That line between them is never a straight one. So we go with what they measure at Children's. Luckily, we'll be there tomorrow! She sees Dr. McClintock, her neurologist and Dr. Morozova, the physiatrist.

Here are some more pictures from this month.

Hanging out at Naney's house while we were in Columbia before Easter.

Imogene ate guacamole for about 40 minutes the other night.

Gardening with Naney.

Getting dirty is so fun.

Pictures!

Staying up way past my bedtime, but here are a few pictures from Easter Sunday.

Staying up way past my bedtime, but here are a few pictures from this month.

Big Day

We got our new computer. It's an iMac, so it's going to take me a little while to learn how to go from the PC world to the Mac world, but so far I'm in absolute heaven with this thing.

Tonight at bedtime Lily asked for an "act-up" story. The other night I thought she said "active." Finally figured it out, she wanted a "made-up" story.

Lily and I turned on the Masters this morning just in time to see Phil Mickelson and Lee Westwood tee off. Lily immediately decides she is pulling for Phil. She knows a winner when she sees one. All day she'd say, "I just need to see how Phil's doing." My favorite of her comments of the entire golf watching -while Tiger is in the bunker. "Why does he have such a grumpy face? (Explain that it's because it can be difficult to hit from the sand bunker.) She responds, "or maybe it's because he is sad he's messing up his nice shoes?" During the green jacket interview in Butler Cabin she kept saying how great it was that she was getting to see Phil talk and how she thought he had a very nice voice. And then in the same breath "I think it's very nice that we have the window open because I like that fresh breeze that's here."

She also today in one breath came in from outside and told me how she was the house seller in her play house outside and she was giving people things to sell (we've been getting ready for our yard sale all weekend.) And how she could give me some things to sell and "can I please have that banana?" Literally all of that was in one breath. She also told me today how nice it is to have a baby sister, but "boy is that baby sister a lot of work."

Have I mentioned that Imogene is crawling up the stairs? Well she is. And she likes to clap when she does something she knows is worthy of pride and adoration. And she took two LONG naps today for Bill, so throw out everything I said about anything to do with napping this past week.

Stay tuned for pictures - that is once I figure out how to do that on this new computer!

That Little Stinker!

Imogene and Bill did the nap dance this morning and she went down easily and the slept for over an hour. I almost cried! But then she refused to take an afternoon nap for him. So maybe we're right that she really won't take more than one nap.
Bill was telling us all about the great day that he had at work yesterday. Lily said "Oh Daddy that's so great because you are usually being all bored at work!"
She loves for Naney to tell her bedtime stories and she's still stuck on that since she had them all week. Tonight I just told her the story of how much fun she had at a birthday party today and how much her mommy enjoyed being with her and seeing her play with her friends. She said "Now tell me a story where Lily's Daddy has so much fun with her too."

Imogene has battled me all week on her morning nap. Monday I won the battle. She won Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I don't need to tally up that score for you, do I? It's a little earlier than I'd like, but I'm okay with her dropping the morning nap, but that means no big battles over the afternoon one. She disagrees. I let her cry a lot longer than I normally would this afternoon. She stopped screaming about 45 minutes ago. Praying she's asleep, and not injured.
Lily was walking over to our neighbor's house this afternoon and she said "Boy Mom I hope they have some tissues over there because I have big, bad allergies." And then asked if I'd stuff some in her pocket just in case. Held her hand up to me, "You don't need to come with me. I can do it on my own. pauses, well maybe you can come in case Rusty wants to jump on me."
Nane headed back to SC this morning so that she could spend the weekend with my aunt, uncle and cousin who are in town to go to the Masters. We had such a nice week with Nane. I got some things done around the house and we all got lots of planting done in the yard. Thank you Nane!

We took an impromptu trip out to some outlets this morning when Imogene won her fourth consecutive nap battle. We went into the Disney store to get a birthday present. This was Lily's first trip to a Disney store. She was allowed to pick out one thing, but I was really limiting her based on price. She looked and looked and looked. There must be a 100,000 things in that place. So much princess stuff. Lily picked out these little Tigger & Pooh race cars. She did not waver even when I showed her some princess items she could have. Played with those toys the whole way home (after, of course, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.) She talked and talked to them. I was pretty impressed by her. Even let Imogene hold one for about 3 minutes.

I Miss My Computer

To blog since our computer died, I've been borrowing Bill's work computer. I miss my computer mostly because I have all these wonderful pictures of the girls from the last few weeks that I can't download. And my sweet friend Tiffany has this fantastic blog that always has her perfectly precious children's pictures and I feel like y'all are missing out on a good blog since I don't have any pictures! My apologies! Hopefully we'll have a computer again in the next week or two! Until then you'll have to suffer with just words.
Lily upon hearing that her friend Will was coming over to dinner. "I had a dream about that last night. That's what I was dreaming about that Will would come and eat dinner at my house. My dream was that! A nighttime playdate!" We had a great day today with Naney here to help. Imogene and I went to therapy, then we all went to school to pick-up Lily and go to Garden Club. Late this afternoon we worked in the yard and then went to the playground with friends. It has been so hot these last few days, but it's going to get very cool this weekend! Lily said in this very funny deep voice, "Worms are good. Worms are good for the dirt." She's learning a lot at garden club and loves to work in the yard and get all dirty!
Imogene's new favorite thing is to climb. She can go up the stairs without any support. Guess we need to dig out the gates! She will also rub her hand all over her head when you say "wash your hair." This started because she was copying Lily in the bathtub. She'll do anything to be like Lily!

I talked to Kristen, the SLP, while we were at OT today. She said that Imogene is on track receptively, but is delayed as far as verbal communication, but only just barely. So we'll do once a month speech therapy. That's great news for all of us. It gives us an opportunity to have her monitored without adding anything too intensive to the already full schedule!

Starting Monday, we have 6 doctor or therapy visits from Monday-Monday!

We're trying to help her learn a few sign-language words. I take her hand and rub her chest for "please." We did this so many times last night that at one point she took my hand in her's and rubbed. Guess she thought it was supposed to be both of us! She did do it on her own once in the tub. It's hard though, because she really, really, REALLY doesn't like it if you 'take over' her left because she thinks you're going to make her use her right, which she's not a fan of unless she wants to do it. Imogene is saying "tis" or "tat" which is how she tells you to get something for her. Of course it can take about 10 tries until you figure out what she wants, and then 10 minutes to calm her down when it is inevitably something she shouldn't have. She is also saying "hhhhhiiiaaaaiiiiaaa" to a few people she really recognizes. It's really fun to see her get excited about others! Lily showed her Imogene how to sign "thank you." I asked Lily where she learned that and she said "From our little friend on the short show on Nick Jr." So yes, we might watch a little bit more TV than she should, but look what she's learning!

Play Ball!

Imogene had a speech/language evaluation today. It's not worth getting too into the details at this point, but it's possible she'll just need a monthly check-in to see how she's progressing. Receptively she's doing great, Kristen, the SLP said. (speech pathologist) Imogene clearly understands most commands/cues and is very engaging and smart - her words, not the bragging mommy's. But she may have a delay as far as communicative language goes. Once Kristen can really process what she saw in the evaluation she'll let us know what she thinks our plan of action should be. The real reason that I bring it up to our loyal readers is to tell you that Imogene played her first game of catch. It was precious. Imogene would 'toss' the ball about two inches in front of her and then Kristen would pass it back, after we "manipulated" her hand to say please in signing. Imogene would just reach her arm out and do her little grunt and when she got the ball back she would almost give it a kiss and then throw it and laugh. She could have played for an hour. It was her little version of perfect - I'm not sure I've seen her that engaged in anything before in terms of a real "game." Of course she refused to do the 'please' sign and got very frustrated when you did it for her. She also did a great job with a stacking toy. (Remember the old plastic round stacking rings on a stand that every kid had growing up? The updated version is stars with a big star on the top and it sings a little tune. See here.) Imogene even moved the star that goes on the top around to get it to stay on. She was so tickled with herself when we clapped and cheered for her! At the end we played with bubbles. The idea was to see if Imogene would try and blow too, but she was way more interested in putting the stick in the tub of liquid. After a few times she would blink her eyes in anticipation of the bubbles coming her way. She would dip the stick in and then just hold it in the air. I really think she thought the bubbles just came out the stick on their own. Sobbed her little eyes out when it was time for the bubbles to go away! We must have told her "last time" about 5 times! She was also just adorable playing with my sunglasses. Trying so hard to get them to stay on top of her head like I wear them most of the time. And she would just laugh and laugh at how cute we thought she was. Smart girl indeed!

Go Sox!

It's baseball season again. We love the Red Sox, who, last night in the season opener, came from 5-1 down to beat the Yankees 9-7. Great way to start the season. When I told Lily that they won even after they were losing by a lot she said "Did the win just before the buzzer sound went off?"
Clearly we've been watching a lot of basketball around this place.

Happy Happy Easter

What a truly blessed day we had today. When Lily got up we were downstairs and she called down, "Good Morning, Happy Easter." She was very excited about what the easter bunny brought her. Polly Pocket and Monster Mitts - velcro mitts with a fuzzy tennis ball- were the big hits. Also a big fan of her toy cell phone that had lip gloss inside. The same lip gloss that is way more glittery than the Easter Bunny noticed when she bought it, as evidenced by the crazy glitter face that Lily wore this afternoon. She looked hysterical, like an 80's punk rocker. Imogene liked the basket fun, and was excited about her new snack cup and actually really played for a while with her new Easter socks. Mostly she just wanted what Lily had. The Easter Bunny had a hard time coming up with stuff for Imogene. The EB will do better when Imogene is old enough to notice that her sister is getting WAY more than she gets. She did get a plush puppy dog pull-toy. She loves her "do-s." This afternoon she and Bill were on the floor and she was holding the toy. Bill said "Hug Daddy?" She dropped that toy so quickly and went straight for the hug. Absolutely adorable.
Church was wonderful - always such a great service on Easter. It was especially nice for me because I was the Elder for the baptism of baby Lillian, the daughter of our friends John & Jessica. She did so well - the cutest part was when her 2 year-old sister was saying"my Lillian, bring my Lillian back" when Lillian was walked down the aisle as part of the baptism. It was an honor to be a small part of such a big day for their family!
Imogene lasted for about 1/2 of church. She got really angry when we tried to take her pencils away. She was having a great time flirting with some tween boys (ALREADY!) and coloring with her pencils. But when she started to move the pencils around a lot we worried she'd stab herself! So Bill and I took turns with her in the fellowship hall for the remainder of the time.
We went to a lovely brunch with our friends the Mosses. Everyone had a great time - and we even ate for a whole hour! That's a record I'm sure! Lily enjoyed her strawberries so much that her dress has already been washed. I try not to be too big of a worry-wort about that stuff, but their dresses were so pretty and I just couldn't stand it if they were stained. Good thing it came right out!
This afternoon our little family just sat in the backyard while Lily played in the sandbox and Imogene tried to decide what to do about the grass and the dirt. She finally decided it was worth crawling to try and get to Lily who was riding this very old push-toy cart thing. She got dirty, and you could tell she just felt 'stuck.' Naney arrived late this afternoon for the week - she's on Spring Break. Lily goes back to school Tuesday, but is excited to take Nane to ballet tomorrow and garden club on Wednesday! I'm excited to have Naney here as I can get stuff done! We're having a yard sale in two weeks and there is A LOT to do!
I have a ton of great pictures I'd love to share from this weekend, but until we get our new computer, you'll just have to trust me that it was a beautiful day with our beautiful girls.

Warm Weather Fun

We went with friends to Clemyjontri park yesterday for playtime and picnic. It was absolutely beautiful weather - so sunny that I got a little sunburn! Imogene loved the picnic. Clemyjontri is a park that was built to make sure kids with special needs had a place to play that was safe and accessible. The equiment is all very easy to get on, and there are so many things that have just one very low step or no step at all. We love it there and have been going for a couple of years. It's weird to think that once Imogene is getting around, we'll be using it for its intended purpose!
It's 9:15 am and Lily is STILL asleep. That's 13 hours and counting. Imogene only woke up once from 8 pm to 7 pm. I was so tired I barely remember Bill getting up to help her!
When I went into her this morning and asked her if she wanted to see Daddy she went crazy saying da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da ... and doing her little bounce in my arms. She LOVES Bill. If he asks for a hug she crawls over and lays her head on him. So sweet.