Monday, November 17, 2008 - Update

This is my new walker.
I'm fascinated by the toy tray.
I could play with this all day.

Well, her walker came last week. We cleared it with our PT before we purchased it and like anything. . .moderation is the key. Olivia is still a bit too short on the lowest setting to make it move. It's also hard to move on carpet. She likes to stand in it, however. She does enjoy making all of the sounds and playing the music. I'm sure it's good to continue practicing to bear weight on her legs. And, it's nice that she can stand while I run into the other room without fear that she'll fall down. There are two things that I said I would never buy my child. . .a jumperoo and a walker. Olivia has both. Oh well. I still don't regret the jumperoo as she loves it and it has really helped her grab on to things.

The weather was beautiful yesterday, so the three of us made a short trip to the zoo. It was totally worth it to see the male lion stand up on his rock and roar. You know, I don't know that I have ever watched a lion roar in real life. Plus, the mother lion and cubs were on the ground below him. It was a pretty magnificent sight and well worth the trip. I just wish I had remembered my camera.

Monday, November 3, 2008 - Update

I love my keys. Someday I'm sure mom and dad will show me what they go to.

I couldn't believe that Olivia sat and watched her entire Baby Signing Times DVD this afternoon. She sat in her rocking chair and was glued to it the whole time. Well, I guess I do the signs along with it, so she was glued to the TV, to me, to the TV. . .We hadn't watched it for many weeks.

Olivia met with her PT this morning and we received pretty good news. Of course, Olivia cries the entire time that we work with her. She wants nothing to do with crawling and only wants to stand and walk. Because her muscle tone is good, her PT thought she would do fine with a walker for limited amounts of time. Be sure to scroll down to October 28th and read the comments on what I call "The Great Walker Debate of 2008." Who would have thought that the topic would get that many comments? Of course, we want to encourage her to crawl, but we also don't want to hold her back. We need to provide opportunities where she can feel successful and walking is one of those things. And. . .you wouldn't believe how much she was grabbing things today. . .just incredible! She would pick up her keys, drop them, pick up her keys, drop them, etc. She also found the touch pad on my laptop. I was using my mouse and all of the sudden, my cursor would end up on the other side of the page.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that we started her on whole milk. At this time, we are only adding about an ounce of milk to each bottle and we'll gradually increase it. So far she's on day 3 and doing well.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008 - Update

Halloween preview to get you in the mood

Well, things just keep going from bad to worse. Olivia cried for two hours last night because I wouldn't let her walk around the house the way she wanted to. I've never met such a determined little girl. Would a walker, such as this one be okay for her? She'd be able to walk around the house without her arms being pulled up. Maybe I could get it for her as an early Christmas present.

And on to the worse news. . .Olivia's cousin, Katie, has RSV so it is now way too close for comfort. Poor Katie. Because of that, Grandma Mary can't watch Olivia because she's been exposed to it. She was supposed to watch her tomorrow when I had my doctor's appt. I can't reschedule my appt because I have to do something about this fatigue. I'm on the verge of not being able to function and my stress level is through the roof. My mom is sick so she is unable to help me out either. My dad would help in a heartbeat, but I don't want him to take off work now that he has a job that he enjoys. Things get even worse than that, but I won't share all my woes on here. Kerry to the rescue!! How am I ever going to be able to thank her? She's coming over tomorrow to watch Olivia so that I can go to my appointment. Kerry has saved the day more times than I can count. I'm going to buy her lunch and dinner tomorrow and lavish her with praise, but is that really enough? I guess she gets to hang out with Olivia. . .her favorite baby of all time. . .that's probably it's own reward. And Olivia LOVES her Kerry!!