Pathologists and Dentists, Oh My

Last Friday, Noelle had her speech assessment at Mount Washington in Baltimore.  This was something that her pediatrician had recommended when we talked about her delay during her two year check-up back in July.

The appointment was at 8:00 a.m. and in Baltimore, so the wimp in me who hates driving into a city asked my mom to come along.  It was really helpful in many ways since Jonah was his typical mess and my mom was able to take him out of the assessment room while we finished up.

not related to the pathologist, but she does love her backpack

The pathologist and I sat down together so I could give her a history of Noelle's speech development, while Noelle sat down with another girl so they could "play" and the girl could make notes of what Noelle was doing and saying.  The pathologist was immediately happy that Noelle was super willing to sit down with a stranger and focus on the toys that they had out for her.  I was a little surprised that she was so willing, but maybe since we've been seeing a therapist in our home for the past six months, she wasn't afraid.

After giving the pathologist the history, she said that it sounded like things were going pretty well and that we could start with some parenting sessions and go from there.  Honestly, in the last 3 weeks Noelle's speech has improved so much, that I was really hoping the pathologist would tell me to just keep doing what we're doing.  I told her as much, and she said we could absolutely do that.  She said that since we'd done the assessment and were in the Mount Washington system, if we changed our minds later on down the road, it would be easier to get her in.

I've been praying that Noelle's speech would improve and I am so thankful that we don't have to drive down to Baltimore multiple times a month!  We also had her six month assessment with the therapist we've been seeing through the Infants and Toddlers Program and she has met all the goals we set for her!  We made new goals for the next six months, and will continue with the in-home therapy for now.

And just an example of how her speech has improved: last Sunday she went with Luke to hang out at his parents while his sister Hannah was visiting.  When she came home I asked her if she had fun with Aunt Hannah, and she answered with "Yes, I did!"  I about fell over in shock that she had said a complete sentence.  So happy for my girl!

We also had Noelle's first appointment with the dentist.  To keep things simple, we took her to the dentist Luke and I have been using instead of finding one who specifically works with children.  The hygienist and dentist were both great with her, but she was not having it and would not let anyone look in her mouth.

Noelle is not too sure about what's going on.

She sat in the chair by herself for all of one minute before I got in there with her in hopes of making her feel more comfortable.  But in the end, she was screaming "no!" while the dentist held Noelle's head in her lap so she could at least get a quick look at her teeth.   Apparently she is teething which might explain why she has woken up in the middle of the night recently and wandered into our room. The dentist was nice and also felt Jonah's mouth and told me his teeth are coming, just not about to pop through at any moment.

We finished with her picking prizes from the treasure chest for "doing so well."  The dentist told me she did about as well as most 2 year olds, and that we don't have to come back for another year. Thank goodness!

 Jonah's happy moment at the dentist until he lost it 

while I sat with Noelle

Noellisms

Despite her lack of speech, Noelle certainly has her own personality!  And I want to remember these things since they change so quickly!

Whenever Jonah spits up, Noelle exclaims "oh no" and holds her hands up in despair.  Sometimes she even runs to get me a burp cloth.

 Noelle from last October

Seeing cat puke leads to her slapping her legs and says "puke!".

When I tell her it's time to go shopping, she runs to get her shoes and says "SHOPPING!"

While driving, if I slam on the brakes a little harder than usual, "WHOA!"

from one of the crazy snows we got last winter

I was explaining to her that Jonah is her brother, and asked if she knew what a brother was.  She promptly answered with "Food!"

Sometimes she calls me "Goose", which is Luke's nickname for me.

When she wants to sing"Iitsy Bitsy Spider" or "I'm a Little Teapot", she starts doing the motions.

 loves her sunglasses

When we sing "This Little Light of Mine" and get to the verse about putting it under a bushel, her "NO" is very emphatic and loud.

She will request to color, and once everything is out for her, she will open a marker and hand it to one of us and say "help".

If I do something klutzy or stupid, I'll often exclaim "crap!", which is quickly followed by her saying "cwap!"  (note to self: need to stop saying that!)

love her piggies!

Speaking of mimicking me, she will copy almost my complete bedtime routine down to "plucking" her eyebrows and "flossing" her teeth.

It is so much fun watching her grow and develop into her own little person.  I know it will only get funnier (and more challenging) as her speech continues to come along.  But I am loving it!

My Whole 30

Whole 30 is a dietary lifestyle change meant to last over a 30 day period (and beyond) where things like dairy, gluten, sugar, and soy are eliminated from your diet.  This is meant to help your body reset, possibly eliminate physical problems that your body may be having due to foods, to curb unhealthy cravings and habits, and more.

When I first went dairy free for Jonah a few months ago, I spent a lot of time googling dairy free recipes and a lot of them happened to be Whole 30 recipes.  I used a lot of those recipes for my meals, and even after no longer going dairy free, I continued to use the recipes because I knew that they were a lot healthier than how we had been eating.

the sugar crash happened while Luke was out of town and these two were especially crazy.

it was a struggle.

I didn't think I could ever go completely Whole 30 because I wasn't ready to give up my chocolate, ice cream, and coffee creamer.  I followed Whole 30 on Instagram, and some time in August, another friend I follow began doing Whole 30.  When she decided to do the challenge again in September, I decided I would do it as well, but take it week by week.

Whole 30 has affected some people who are nursing their babies, so I wanted to be careful and make sure my milk supply was still efficient.  My friend who was doing it for the second month in a row, is also nursing and hadn't had any problems.  There are certain "rules" you're supposed to follow, such as no snacking, but my friend said she did (on compliant foods) to make sure that she was getting enough calories.

Protein and veggies are supposed to be a part of every meal, which meant I ended up eating a lot of eggs and chicken, and my favorite go to vegetables were probably onions and peppers.  For lunches, I always made a crockpot full of salsa verde chicken to eat with my lunches throughout the week filled with spinach and other things like peppers, spaghetti squash, nuts, pitted dates, and more.  Dinners were a variety of recipes I found on Pinterest or by following Whole 30 participants on Instagram. My favorite dinners were a pesto chicken dish and some kabobs we put on the grill.

jonah's baby food would technically be compliant

It's definitely challenging as it takes a lot of prep to chop and prep things, and I often rushed to do that when Jonah was napping or on the weekends when Luke could help.  It also involved going to three different grocery stores and ordering ingredients on amazon to make sure I had compliant foods.  I'm definitely more aware of what is on the ingredient list of products!

My goal in doing Whole 30 was to eliminate some bloating, and at least some of my post baby gut. In the end, the bloating has been helped, and maybe the gut a tiny bit.  Overall, it's definitely taught me to be more aware of what I'm putting into my body, and that I can have better self control when it comes to food.

I'm sure I didn't follow things perfectly, but I'm glad I did it and would definitely be willing to try again.  For now, I plan on sticking with mostly eating Whole 30 approved meals, but enjoying ice cream and yummy fall drinks from Starbucks on occasion.

September in Pictures

Attending the grand opening of the new community playground.

Jonah started eating oatmeal, carrots, and avocado.

We got to visit with our west coast relatives and Jonah got to meet his great-grandma for the first time.

My kids were cute.

Mama got to love on Jonah.

We went to the zoo with friends!

Jonah turned 5 months old, and learned how to grab his toes.

Also, we learned the lesson on why babies cannot have blankets until they are older. (I only left the room for 30 seconds to grab something!)

Noelle became Zoe's personal trainer.

We kicked off fall with our first visit to Larriland Farm.

Jonah loves sweet potatoes!

We make many trips to various grocery stores for Whole 30 compliant foods.

Jonah's 3-6 and 6 month sized clothing still involve plenty of whales. :)

September was a little bit crazy with Luke's traveling schedule (he's currently away again), but God was good as always and helped me through!  We got to go to our first MOPS meeting, have some play dates, and saw some good improvement in Noelle's speech. 

Now onto my favorite month of the year!

God's Grace

This past week has certainly been a very grace filled week.

Last Saturday Luke's parents were in a bad car accident (van totaled), and his mom has been in shock trauma the whole week with six broken ribs, broken collar bone, and fractured vertebrae.  At this point it's undecided when she'll be released, as they are also concerned about an artery.  Once they do another CT scan, they'll decide if she needs surgery, or can be released to inpatient physical therapy.

 Noelle and grandparents during her first Christmas

We are so thankful that they are alive, and that each day his mom seems to be feeling a little bit better and stronger.  His dad is dealing with a lot of soreness, but thankfully no broken bones or heart problems.

Luke and his sister, Lydia, have been going to the hospital every evening to visit and take things to his parents.  I'm definitely thankful that they are able to go, but it has made for a long week of evenings and doing bedtime by myself.

Jonah and Grandpa

The biggest challenge with bedtime is Noelle not understanding what being quiet means.  It seems that any small noise will keep Jonah awake, and even Noelle walking around is loud.  (Mom confession: a few times I've resorted to turning on a movie to keep her out of the room, but I figure, I gotta do what I gotta do.)

I also decided to attempt potty training this week, with the plan being to not go anywhere for 2-3 days, and letting Noelle walk around the house in either underwear or nothing.  The first day it was a pretty even amount of times that she made it to the potty versus not, whereas the second day she seemed to have more accidents.  And on the morning of day three, she insisted upon wearing a diaper.  I'll take that as a sign that she's not quite ready.

proudly sitting on her potty

I know she's capable because she put herself on the potty a few times when I was putting Jonah down for naps.  But if there's no desire, it just doesn't seem worth pushing it.  I thought those two days at home would be very frustrating for me because of cleaning up messes and being stuck in the house, but God was so good, and for the most part, I was able to extend a lot of His grace towards my littles.

So even though it's been a scary week with the car accident, and not an easy week with the kids (does that exist?), God was definitely present, and I am so thankful I can rely on Him and His grace to get me through.  It's not always easy to acknowledge His grace in the day to day chaos, but He is there and I'm continually learning that I can turn to Him even over potty messes and finding peace in Him about not being a perfect mom.

Jonah and mama while Noelle does her thing

Jonah: 5 Month Update

Time with this little man is just flying by!  It definitely goes by faster with a second child, just like the pregnancy did.  He certainly isn't the most easy going baby, but his cuteness sure makes up for it!

Height and Weight:  Using my super precise method of weighing myself and then holding Jonah and weighing myself, I got his weight to be about 13 lbs 6 oz, which is only 2 ounces more than last month. I'm hoping that my process of weighing him is just not accurate at all, and that by his 6 month appointment next month he'll weigh more.  He certainly feels heavier!

Sleep: His sleep is still all over the place.  Most nights he is up every 2 to 3 hours and then uses me to pacify himself back to sleep.  Then on occasion he has nights where he'll give a 5 or 6 hour stretch (which feels so amazing!).  Naps are usually pretty good.  On most days he'll give a twoish hour nap in the morning and an hourish nap in the afternoon.  There is the occasional day where he'll do more shorter naps.  He still doesn't sleep when we're out and about, and I don't see that changing as he gets older and more alert.

Eating: Nursing every 2-3 hours throughout the day, and of course mostly pacifying himself every 2-3 hours at night.  But it was fun this month because we started feeding him food!  We started with baby oatmeal, and it was fun to watch him catch on to eating off of a spoon.  The first few feedings especially took him a few spoonfuls to figure out the swallowing thing, and not just spitting it out.  So far for foods, he's tried carrots and avocado.  It's hard sometimes because he's so easily distracted, and or he's so over eager for the food that he leans forward in the bumbo and starts to eat that!

Diapers/Clothing:  Wearing size 2 diapers.  He still fits into his 3 month onsies, but most are short sleeved and it's time to switch things out for colder weather.  The long sleeved 3 month onsies fit length wise, but the arms are a little short.  I've pulled out all the 3-6 month and 6 month clothing that we have for him.  Most of it is a little bit big, but hopefully we'll get lots of use out of them for the fall and winter.

Social/Milestones: Smiling a lot more and tracking things that move, especially his sister. Something is ALWAYS in his mouth- fingers, burp cloth, toys.  He's also started grabbing his toes, but I haven't seen him get them all the way to his mouth yet.  Rolling everywhere and definitely can not be left on any raised surface (lesson learned the hard way).  Still prefers being outside and does well with bathtime.  He mostly only wants mom or dad to hold him.  I had nursery duty this past week at church and was technically in with the one year olds, so I left him in the infant room (which is just on the other side of a half wall from the one year olds), but that did not last long.  Thankfully it was quiet enough on both sides that I could just hang out with him for most of the time.

Likes: Nursing, mom, being held at all times, the outdoors. and being smiled at.  As long as one of us is holding him, generally he'll smile at other people smiling at him.  He's also pretty good at smiling for a camera.  Noelle still hasn't really figured that out.

Dislikes: Sleeping for long periods of time.  Sleeping when out and about.  Not having one-on-one attention.

Fun things we did: We had our first MOPS meeting this past month.  He stayed with the childcare people for a little bit, but I ended up holding him for the last part of the meeting and he did pretty well with not getting too fussy.  We went on a few stroller walks without the carseat attachment and he did well for the most part.  I think he likes being able to see things, and he was able to fall asleep in the stroller (yay!).  And of course his first trip to the zoo!

Jonah meeting his great-grandma and other west coast relatives was also really special this month.  I am so glad that my grandma got to meet him and spend time holding him.  And hopefully we'll make it out to Seattle sometime in the near future!

this is 5 months

Overall, he's been less fussy than he has been (though he still has his days), and I'm wondering if it has to do with the foods I've eliminated during Whole 30.  If that's the reason, we'll see how it all changes once I start reintroducing foods.  Or it could just be that he's growing out of it.  I just pray it continues to move in that direction!

Some pictures from the past month:

 sitting in the stroller

 hanging with daddy

 smiles

 great-grandma

 mornings with Jonah

 more smiles

hanging out in the ergo at the zoo

Riding a Lion and Feeding a Giraffe

This past weekend we hung out with the animals at the Baltimore Zoo along with our friends who are able to get tickets through his work (thank you so much Arthur and Kristina!).  Their daughter, Lillian, is 4 months younger than Noelle, and it was so fun seeing how much the two of them enjoyed seeing the animals!

When Noelle came down the stairs on Saturday morning, I told her that we were going to the zoo- and she was ready to leave right then!  I told her we still had a little while until we needed to leave and that daddy and Jonah were still sleeping.  But she just kept saying "Get dressed" and "Go!"  Luke and I were really curious what was going through her head, and what exactly she knew about a zoo.  My mom took her back when she was probably not even a year old, and the only other thing we have at home about the zoo is her book about Curious George going to the zoo.

Noelle sitting on the lion

Eventually we headed out the door and got to the zoo right as it was opening.  We met up with our friends, and headed down the path to see the animals.  Noelle loved seeing the big tortoise and did her turtle dance (she dances to a little song that one of her books plays for the turtle sound-hilarious!).  (I also won't go in to detail about what the tortoises were doing when we walked past them later- but as one mom explained to her child, "they're making babies.)

tortoise and rhino

It was fun going into the aviary and having the birds flying and walking around us.  One white bird sat on the railing of the walkway and sort of snapped at people as they walked by.  The girls had fun watching the cheetah pace back and forth, and make his purring/growling sounds, while we parents joked that he wanted to eat them. We headed over to the giraffe, and the girls got to feed him some leaves!  It was pretty cool being that close to the giraffe, and he certainly knew what to do and sucked those leaves right down.

watching the cheetah // feeding Caesar the giraffe

The rest of the group went to say hi to the lions and stop by some other exhibits while I sat and fed Jonah, and when I met back up with them, we watched the elephants for a little while.  The girls ran around that area for a bit, and now that they are getting older, it's fun to actually see them interact with each other.  Noelle even forced Lillian to hold hands with her- no idea where she gets that from!

forced hand holding did not last long

We grabbed some lunch, and then the girls rode on the carousel- which Noelle threw a fit about having to wait to do, and then about having to get off after the ride was over.  The last stop was the farmyard for a little bit, but Jonah was starting to get really fussy (the little stinker had been awake for close to 5 hours by then!) so we made a speedy departure for the car. 

howdy cowgirl // brushing the goats

Luke and I hadn't been to the Baltimore Zoo since we were kids, so it was fun to go back, and even more fun seeing it through Noelle's eyes.