Speech
Levi is doing well! He is imitating more and therefore working on his expressive language. He try’s to make the sounds of words after you say them. He can initiate and say: all done, tree, mama, dada, dog, down, kiss. As I list them I am more impressed in his progress! He says other things too after you say them like bubbles or Elmo. We still use a lot of sign but usually with some sounds too. We are trying to get him to make the various vowels with a consonant. Example: he says ‘Puh’ for up but won’t say pee, po, pa sounds. I’m definitely pleased with the progress. Some of his success I attribute to some recent brain development that we notice as well as how awesome his preschool is!
Physical
He still gets PT once per week for 45 mins. They work on motor planning skills like how to execute a series of body actions to do something. She sets up mostly obstacle courses for him and I find them adorable and funny. I see this skill developing more when we are at the playground. The sequence in which he moves his body are much more connected now.
Last week, the PT said his base of support was still too wide and that it should be much more narrow. She thought the cloth diaper was hindering because of the bulk between his legs. We put a disposable on and we did see a difference. His stance was more narrow and his steps were bigger and more forward than swinging out to the side. If that makes sense. She asked us to use disposables for a week and see if it made a difference. Our apt is tomorrow so I will ask what the consequences are if we don’t want to stop cloth diapering. Side note: the cloth did not cause this problem. As with many things, a normal developing child (average child) is unhindered by the bulk of the cloth. However, it can hinder a child already struggling.
Developmental/cognitive
He still does this once a week for an hour. I’m not sure what they are working on and if he still needs it. I should ask her next week.
Food Allergy
We tested everything and couldn’t recreate the hives. With eggs he still got the mouth rash. Apples and cantaloupe produced no symptoms that we could see. We couldn’t do a full test of peanut butter because he would eat it. The few times he did he had runny/puffy eyes and nose. Same with the peaches. The allergist told me to give him a ring with the results and he wants to see Levi in about 3 months. We haven’t tested the other half of the panel and I’m sure we will discuss the results of our trials and whether or not these allergies can/will strengthen over time.
New Preschool
Ah.Maz.Zing! I’m so happy with them! Levi is learning so much and really doing well with more hands on attention and learning! They work with them on being independant! They serve themselves snacks and drinks as well as throw their trash away. He is so good about clean up and has been ‘helping’ more at home. We have also been taking the cue from them and encouraging him/challenging him more at home. Helps with the tantrums when he has a job to do! The school had an open house night last week and I enjoyed taking pictures of the pictures!
The slide show has images from the open house, Physical Therapy, speech therapy, and allergy testing apt.
Yay!! But I don’t know what I’m doing! Yay! You can find this blog on bloglovin and you can follow me (do they have that feature??) on there too! My user name is PieceOLease.
Last week may have been worse than the week before! This week is the first of my 2 weeks off from work. Sunday I’m flying to visit my Dad and stepmom Kathy. We found out recently that she has Thyroid cancer and I’m gonna visit her before the surgery, since I wont be able to come out for it. That will be the week I return to work. Anyway, I decided to divide my list into “MUST THIS WEEK”… and “WOULD BE NICE”. Wish me luck!
MUST:
Fold Pickle laundry
Put Pickle laundry away
Vacuum
FINISH NEW PHOTOGRAPHY SITE on THURSDAY!
Cancel attending Brayden’s bday
Reschedule with potential bride client (I was supposed to meet with her on Sunday but Ill be flying)
Pack Pickle’s bag
Pack my bag
Get or borrow one of those car seat caddy’s or gate check bag
Go to the post office!
Sew backing of quilt together
Layer and basting pin the quilt together
Quilt. (I may need to go down to Sew Modern to get some help)
File for unemployment
Call Daycare and put Pickle on vacation week for next week
Pack crafts to work on in Vegas
Strip the next 2 loads of cloth diapers
WOULD BE NICE:
Get my hair cut
Get Pickle’s hair cut
Write birth story (could also do this next week)
Get new diaper bag
Set up “A Piece O Lease” on Instagram… Im gonna try it and see how it goes… I think
Preparing the nursery is the epitome of nesting. I remember folding and refolding clothes, rearranging drawers, agonizing over whether or not I should have the cloth diapers on top of the dresser, or in the drawers… le sigh…
Then Pickle came along and I hardly used it except for nursing in my glider. He didn’t start sleeping in his crib until 7 months old. He was in our room all the time until I felt we were both ready. I have to say I really liked the way we had the room set up for our infant. I feel like we made the best layout with all the large furniture. I’m so glad we took the time to paint his dresser, side table, and toy chest. Its a fond nesting memory . I knew it couldn’t stay this way forever, though.
Looks a little cramped because I took these photos as we started to move his room around. But you get the idea.
It wasn’t until we started going full steam ahead with Pickle’s therapies that I realized his room needed to have a big change fast. And thinking back on it now, if he had been mobile at the average age of 7 months (rolling around at least), I would’ve had to change it back then. Around 11 months, I realized his room did not encourage exploration at all. Nothing challenging. Nothing to pull up on or sit near. No toys visible to catch his interest. How could I foster his developmental growth in a room like this? I couldn’t, so it had to go.
First thing was that I HAD to get rid of this awesome, yet bulky, dresser/changing table. The drawers were starting to be quite empty too as I started to run out of hand-me-downs and his wardrobe became more limited. He also wasn’t pooping, peeing, and spitting up on his clothes anymore so I didn’t need to have so many. I didn’t want to get rid of the dresser entirely, especially with the time and sweat I put into it while 23 weeks pregnant. I wanted it for other babies, too, so it went into the guest room next door. I replaced it with a cubby style shelving unit from Ikea called Expedit for $70. The width of it was perfect to keep the changing pad on top and I used the buckles to buckle it around the shelving (since I NEVER leave my little one on the changing pad alone). I kept my basket of “baby things” full of my cloth diapers, washcloths that I use for wipes, and hand sanitizer. I found an awesome mod circle organizer by Boon for $20 in that awesome color. It properly holds all my table top diaper & changing needs and lessens the risk of Pickle flailing and knocking everything down! I loved the orange so much I decided to use it as my pop color in the nursery, taking it from subdued color palette into a more stimulating environment without doing much.
So refreshing
All the cubbies provided plenty of space for all of Pickle’s new toddler toys. I also got the fabric baskets from Ikea named Kusiner for $5 ea. Green/blue and red/orange matched perfectly! On the bottom, Left to right, I organized them like so: (1) Wooden building blocks. Including the adorable wooden block cars that are “Melissa & Doug” brand. (2) Anything ball related, which happens to be Pickle’s favorite basket right now. (3) The “B. Toys” drum play set that has all his musical instruments in there. I was a little disappointed with this toy… the instruments it came with are just wacky rattles. I like the tambourine one… but I thought it was going to be more like real instruments. (4) Puzzles! Most of the puzzles he plays with right now are simple and wooden. Mostly Melissa & Doug brand. A favorite basket too. The upper cubbies are holding random toys and have plenty of space to add more toys.
Pickle seems to like that he can see what’s in them!
Next, we needed a dresser to replace the big one. We purchased this awesome reddish-orange one from Ikea called Brimnes for $109. Its perfect size for in the closet! I made the top drawer daycare clothes, 2nd drawer is weekend clothes (cute outfits I dont want ruined by being dragged through grass and mud), 3rd drawer is sheets/towels/diaper wet bags. It all fits great! Clothes that hang are sweaters. Next to the dresser is a hanging mesh organizer, also from Ikea, called Fangst for $5. Its not full yet but its currently housing my collection of Baby Legs (which is A LOT! maybe 20 pair??), anything swim related like cloth swim diapers & bathing suits, burp cloths in another spot.. and that’s all I think. Room to grow . Up above on the closet shelf is a bin of the next size clothing and some toys that he is too young for, and a bin of books to rotate.
Pay no attention to the other half of the closet… that’s where Mama hides her fabric addiction
The crib got moved to the corner and I moved any shelving away from it that might aid him in climbing out. He hasn’t yet… but its a matter of time. We may be switching to a floor bed soon, actually, to encourage his independence and eliminate the hazards of falling while trying to climb out of the crib. Its a Montessori philosophy and he already naps on a floor bed that was the pack and play mattress. Wanna know more about floor beds? read THIS. If or when we do it, I’ll make a separate post. Back to the crib. I did put a little $4 organizer on the side of the crib and put a variety of toys, little books, lovies in it so if Pickle wakes up and wants to play he has an option. So far he hasn’t noticed the mesh pockets. Under the crib, I put 2 flat pop-up baskets that were $8 ea. They wouldn’t slide under the crib, though, because there is a cross bar. I’m not sure if the bar is there so that babies cant crawl under or if it is a construction thing. Rather than remove it, I unscrewed 1 of the 2 bolts on each end and twisted the bar so the longest side was out of the way! The extra 2″ allowed the baskets to slide under with no problems! All his blankets are in one box, the other houses disposables that we use at night.
Hoping this might busy him some on the those early risings
My glider moved from the corner that the crib is now in, to the corner where the closet is. It opens the room up so much. There is a new 4 cubbie Expedit beside it for $40 housing all stuffed animals and lovies, books, and a basket of imaginative play toys like Fisher Price “Little People” and fake felt food.
Just above, hanging on the wall is the wooden clock my MIL got in Italy from Giapetto’s Workshop! I love it! The pendulum is a little birdie!
Lastly, I moved the spare chair out, put the long mirror that was upright laying down instead, and put his toy chest under it. Currently, the toy chest is empty! But once he is old enough to play with the amazing Melissa & Doug train set he got for his birthday, all the pieces will go in there!
The letters on his toy chest are also from Giapetto’s
And there you have it! Our toddler room for our not-so-baby baby boy
I’m pretty proud of myself for the amount of stuff I got done last week! Having the list, and it being public, made me strive to make better use of my time! I didn’t get everything done, so there are some hold-overs.
New:
Mail Pickle’s birthday thank-yous
Get a haircut
Finish Pickle’s new toddler room (arrange bins)
Pickle laundry
Get Charlotte a bday gift
Order envelopes
Order disposies (we use them occasionally at night)
Call in for jury duty on Sunday …boo
Research & decide about 12 month shots for Monday’s well-baby No more shots until he is clear of any issues with the nervous system
Make apt to pick up orthotics. (I have plantar faciitis, ouch)
Have lunch with the preggos and new mamas from work
List for sale baby items
Look into a sewing class @ Sew Modern Starts Sept 8th! I think I’ll do it!
Download music for Pickle. (He isnt into and doesn’t respond to music. like at all. its an important milestone so I need to work on it)
Buy my sis a bday gift
Hold-overs:
Order client “save the dates”
Shoot Pickles 1 year photos
Finish breastfeeding post
Write birth story
Fill out UCLA family leave study follow-up survey (I get a $25 GC to target!)
Get more sleep!
Not too bad… but right now I started on an episode that has a hovering Coordinator… like so much that last time I worked with him he asked me where I was going everyday at 11am and 3pm when he would come by my desk. I had to tell him I was going down to the lactation room to pump. He got all flushed and embarrassed.. but you get the point. And he definitely will keep close track of my work and varied hours because of Pickles therapy 3x per week. Gonna make getting some of this done during work quite difficult.
. I knew it couldn’t stay this way forever, though.
