So, it's been quite a while since I last posted. I didn't take a look at when the last one was, but I know it's a while.
Mariko is crawling up a storm and working on walking. I think that it still might be another couple of weeks, but she's really working on it and she finally will walk while holding on to only one hand. She's had a couple of moments of standing on her own and has taken one step - as she was falling towards me - so I think we are getting close! I'm ready for it!! After 11.5 months of not crawling I was ready for that, and now at 14.5 months I'm ready for her to start walking.
Things that are new with us: Mariko talks all the time. She has probably 25 words that she uses on a regular basis and she imitates everything she hears, especially last words of sentences. This afternoon before putting her down for her nap I was singing Old MacDonald Had A Farm and she was staring at my lips and then trying to mimic all the sounds I was making! She is an incredible little girl.
Montessori wise I have kind of expanded to two places in the house. I think that I might need to go back to downstairs being more fun toys, although it's mostly that way now. Things that serve more of a purpose are upstairs in her Montessori area, plus the addition of the bean bag put n' take which can also be used to throw bean bags for when she needs that. Upstairs right now she has bean bags, open and close work, put n 'take with popsicle sticks, animals that we are working to identify, something that I'm forgetting!, coin box with drawer, pounding tower, stacking rings and of course teethers. She also has a giant book that pushing the animals makes sounds and she loves the box with musical instruments that plays music.
Downstairs right now she has fun things but they are hopefully helping her learn. First her kitchen basket and balls which are probably her favorite. She loves those two baskets and spends lots of time with them which is good. Downstairs is a place we spend a fair amount of time since it is used before and after meals when I'm cleaning up. She has plastic eggs to place in an egg tray, her broom and dustpan and duplos on one side. On the other she has three rings on a peg - she has mastered putting them on the peg but hasn't figured out order yet (same with the rainbow rings upstairs), 3/8 stacking cups, put n' take with buttons which she's had forever and LOVES and of course some books.
Mariko has moved to one nap which has allowed us to do more things in the morning. Although I resisted the one nap at first, it really makes outings easier since we don't need to be home until close to noon for lunch and then nap around 1. The nap might need to be moved earlier since she's been waking so early! When she first flipped to one nap she was waking to eat around 5:30 or 6 am and then sleeping until 8! Now she's been waking between 5:00 and 6:00 and is ready for the day. I'm not happy about that though, it's too early! I'm hoping for 6:30 or 7 as her wake time as she gets settled in to this new routine. She is currently napping and has been asleep for 2 hours which is awesome. A good solid nap.
It is so fun watching Mariko work and learn. I love it when she works on something for a long time to figure it out and when she's ready, her concentration is amazing. This morning she figured out how to open the plastic eggs. She opened every single one of them and then tried to put them back together - that's the hard part! Watching her concentrate is incredible and so amazing.
Toshi and I have been talking about kid #2. We want them to be about 2+ years apart, although if we are going with only 2 kids as I want, they can be a little farther apart than that. I don't really want to be pregnant while we are moving and getting settled so that may be the deciding factor. I don't really want to be pregnant again, but I do want at least one more kid and I think that Mariko will make an awesome older sister.
We still have not heard if Mariko will be getting in to one of the schools that she is on the waitlist for for when we are in Denver. There are three schools and we have her on the list for all three for the toddler rooms starting at the beginning of August. As hard as it will be, I think it will be really good for her once she gets settled there and meeting new people/kids will be good for her. When we go to Denver the first week in June we will get a chance to visit the schools and I'm looking forward to that! That is going to be a scary time though because it's all going to be so real - I don't think it's really hit me yet that we are moving and SO SOON!
Ok - that's all for now!
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Our current work and rice sensory
Currently on the shelves we have....
instruments - Mariko loves these! We've got a xylophone, shakers, a drum, tambourine, and jingle bells.
blocks - Mariko is getting better at stacking blocks. She can almost always do 2 and can sometimes do 3. It would be nice to have more than just square
jars with lids - one of her favorites! She can sit for 10 minutes or more and do these! I've got three different ones our for her and although she does like to put the smaller lids in the bigger jars, she usually puts the lids on
discovery bottles - these have been out the longest. I think maybe 6 weeks? She goes back to them over and over again although I think that the excitement is waning. She will pick up the tray and knock them all over, but not play as long as she used to.
ball with ribbons inside - this is new. She loves ribbons and this makes her use her pincer grasp to get them out
orange color basket - not as exciting as some of the others perhaps but she does like the little pouch and taking out and putting in the buttons
peg with two rings - she is not as interested in this but I leave it out in hopes she will be. I'm thinking I might take it away for a week or two and then put it back. She can pretty easily do the big ring but not so much with the smaller one
box with mini silk scarves - she really likes pulling them out and we put them on her head.
bus - a favorite as well.
We did rice sensory play yesterday and she LOVED it. We used the new inflatable table that my mom got and put that on the floor. She played for a half hour and had fun crawling in and out of it. Definitely something we will bring out again!
instruments - Mariko loves these! We've got a xylophone, shakers, a drum, tambourine, and jingle bells.
blocks - Mariko is getting better at stacking blocks. She can almost always do 2 and can sometimes do 3. It would be nice to have more than just square
jars with lids - one of her favorites! She can sit for 10 minutes or more and do these! I've got three different ones our for her and although she does like to put the smaller lids in the bigger jars, she usually puts the lids on
discovery bottles - these have been out the longest. I think maybe 6 weeks? She goes back to them over and over again although I think that the excitement is waning. She will pick up the tray and knock them all over, but not play as long as she used to.
ball with ribbons inside - this is new. She loves ribbons and this makes her use her pincer grasp to get them out
orange color basket - not as exciting as some of the others perhaps but she does like the little pouch and taking out and putting in the buttons
peg with two rings - she is not as interested in this but I leave it out in hopes she will be. I'm thinking I might take it away for a week or two and then put it back. She can pretty easily do the big ring but not so much with the smaller one
box with mini silk scarves - she really likes pulling them out and we put them on her head.
bus - a favorite as well.
We did rice sensory play yesterday and she LOVED it. We used the new inflatable table that my mom got and put that on the floor. She played for a half hour and had fun crawling in and out of it. Definitely something we will bring out again!
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Nearly 11.5 months old
Mariko will be 11 months and 2 weeks on Friday. Monday we started swimming lessons (at 10 am and thankfully moving to the 11am class) and tomorrow we try out the Little Gym for the first time. I was really hoping when I signed up for the Little Gym two weeks ago that she would at least be crawling by now. I am trying to not be worried about it but the longer it goes on, the more I worry. She does scoot backwards and she gets up on all fours all the time (and yesterday started pushing to her hands and feet from hands and knees) and she also moves her knees, then drops back to her tummy, comes back up again and does it all over again. I'm not sure what the hold up is. She's been SO close for so long. I never thought I would have a nearly 1 year old that wasn't crawling.
Because of her swimming lessons I moved her 1 year appointment. I was supposed to be Monday the 3rd at 10:30am but since that's swimming time and there was an availability on Wednesday the 12th, I moved it. So it will be a month before we go see the doctor and that will be a solid 2 weeks past her birthday. I really hope she starts crawling because the closer we get to her birthday, the more I worry.
Swimming was really fun and I think she enjoyed it - other than being dunked! Even that she handled pretty well. I will be fun to go next week and have there be more kids. Her class only had 2 so our instructor suggested that if we were able, to come at 11 with the 1-3 class. Timing works out so much better for her naps. She was up early on Monday so she got a half hour but this way I won't have to wake her until 10:30 (instead of 9:30)
Montessori stuff - we are on our second round of work and Sunday I will switch things out again. I belong to a couple of Facebook Montessori groups and I'm finding that some are better than others. Although I started out really liking Witty Bitty minds, I started reading the Lisa Nolan curriculum info that I purchased (only $11) and I'm not sure it's for me, as it talks a lot about showing toddlers how to do work and I honestly agree with Bringing Up Montessori Infants and Toddlers that it's all about exploration. So, maybe I won't take part in the Witty Bitty book study, but join the book study for BUMIT. They are reading Montessori from the Start which I skimmed but haven't really read. I am excited to be doing Montessori work with her and just to let her explore color baskets, discovery bottles and learn new things - like the imbucare box. It's so fun to watch her! She's been trying to stack blocks. I love it!
In other news I checked the breast milk supply. It's so weird to walk to the garage freezer and see how little milk is left! Then I remember that she's almost a year so we are doing pretty well! We have the go ahead to start mixing BM and cow/soy etc starting at 11.5 months - so Friday or Saturday. That's going to be hard since if there is milk in it, it can't sit out on the counter for the next feeding. However, if the BM is thawed but not heated, it can go back in the fridge. Going to have to figure out how to work that one out.
AND tomorrow Toshi goes to Boise for an interview. Gone Thursday to Saturday. We are hoping to hear good things from Denver this week. And next week he goes to Portland. Wanting the VA to hurry up and get moving so he can interview and I can feel like there is a possibility of staying in Seattle but pretty sure that's not going to happen...
Time for me to read a little and have some downtime. Stressful morning this morning as she spent over a half hour crying before going to sleep. Decided on no elliptical today and am curled up in bed. Trying to decide if I'm going to wake her at her normal 11am time if she's still sleeping (to help with the afternoon nap) or to let her go a little longer. Was hoping to get outside today but it's pouring and we are without a car today.
Because of her swimming lessons I moved her 1 year appointment. I was supposed to be Monday the 3rd at 10:30am but since that's swimming time and there was an availability on Wednesday the 12th, I moved it. So it will be a month before we go see the doctor and that will be a solid 2 weeks past her birthday. I really hope she starts crawling because the closer we get to her birthday, the more I worry.
Swimming was really fun and I think she enjoyed it - other than being dunked! Even that she handled pretty well. I will be fun to go next week and have there be more kids. Her class only had 2 so our instructor suggested that if we were able, to come at 11 with the 1-3 class. Timing works out so much better for her naps. She was up early on Monday so she got a half hour but this way I won't have to wake her until 10:30 (instead of 9:30)
Montessori stuff - we are on our second round of work and Sunday I will switch things out again. I belong to a couple of Facebook Montessori groups and I'm finding that some are better than others. Although I started out really liking Witty Bitty minds, I started reading the Lisa Nolan curriculum info that I purchased (only $11) and I'm not sure it's for me, as it talks a lot about showing toddlers how to do work and I honestly agree with Bringing Up Montessori Infants and Toddlers that it's all about exploration. So, maybe I won't take part in the Witty Bitty book study, but join the book study for BUMIT. They are reading Montessori from the Start which I skimmed but haven't really read. I am excited to be doing Montessori work with her and just to let her explore color baskets, discovery bottles and learn new things - like the imbucare box. It's so fun to watch her! She's been trying to stack blocks. I love it!
In other news I checked the breast milk supply. It's so weird to walk to the garage freezer and see how little milk is left! Then I remember that she's almost a year so we are doing pretty well! We have the go ahead to start mixing BM and cow/soy etc starting at 11.5 months - so Friday or Saturday. That's going to be hard since if there is milk in it, it can't sit out on the counter for the next feeding. However, if the BM is thawed but not heated, it can go back in the fridge. Going to have to figure out how to work that one out.
AND tomorrow Toshi goes to Boise for an interview. Gone Thursday to Saturday. We are hoping to hear good things from Denver this week. And next week he goes to Portland. Wanting the VA to hurry up and get moving so he can interview and I can feel like there is a possibility of staying in Seattle but pretty sure that's not going to happen...
Time for me to read a little and have some downtime. Stressful morning this morning as she spent over a half hour crying before going to sleep. Decided on no elliptical today and am curled up in bed. Trying to decide if I'm going to wake her at her normal 11am time if she's still sleeping (to help with the afternoon nap) or to let her go a little longer. Was hoping to get outside today but it's pouring and we are without a car today.
Monday, January 6, 2014
What a week it has been!
One week ago today we were at the hospital having just found out (around 11am) that my water had broken just over 4 weeks early. After 22 hours or so of hard labor and giving in and getting an epidural, our little girl was born at 6:54am on Sunday January 27th, 2013 - exactly four weeks early.
She had a rough start and was taken directly to the NICU where she has been ever since. Each time we see her she's a little bit better.
Sunday she was having some difficulty breathing normally - she was breathing really fast.
Updated January 6, 2014 (is this right?)
Monday - CPAP to help her breathe
Tuesday - off the CPAP and just with a tube to give a bit of pressure to help her breathe
Wednesday - lights for the jaundice
Thursday - off the lights because she pulled them off her face
Friday - told that Monday she'll go home as long as everything is fine, may be over the weekend?
Saturday - Out of the incubator!
Sunday - weight going up
Monday - HOME
She had a rough start and was taken directly to the NICU where she has been ever since. Each time we see her she's a little bit better.
Sunday she was having some difficulty breathing normally - she was breathing really fast.
Updated January 6, 2014 (is this right?)
Monday - CPAP to help her breathe
Tuesday - off the CPAP and just with a tube to give a bit of pressure to help her breathe
Wednesday - lights for the jaundice
Thursday - off the lights because she pulled them off her face
Friday - told that Monday she'll go home as long as everything is fine, may be over the weekend?
Saturday - Out of the incubator!
Sunday - weight going up
Monday - HOME
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