Flash Card Find

Stumbling around on YouTube yesterday,  I found a video of a baby about Avi's age doing flashcards. This kid was amazing! The mother would put out three cards, ask for a specific one, and the child knew exactly which one it was, every time!

Maybe some of you out there are thinking "that's not so amazing, my child can do that", but for a mother of an 18 month-old who can't walk yet and has yet to say her first word, it was pretty impressive!

Because Avi doesn't seem to "get" language yet, I'm thinking it'll be a long time before she'll be picking out flashcards when given the name of the object shown. However, it never hurts to start building those brain pathways and planting memories, so off I went to the internet to see if I could find some good flashcards to print for free.

Did I find an excellent resource! All kinds of printable flashcards, activities, games, stationary, you name it! It is called Mr. Printables... to find it, click here.

Here are some flashcards I made today with printouts from Mr. Printables. This is the animals flashcard set:

Laminated to protect from baby drool...

You can find this specific set here, although I encourage you to look around the site for other things you may want to save.

Elmo's Adventures

Hi Everyone,

So, at the end of October, we went down to Florida to visit my parents. They have a place near Tampa and are spending about 7 weeks  there this fall, so we brought baby down for a visit.

Knowing I would have limited space in my suitcase for the return trip (Mum and I like to shop for baby at the outlet mall near their house), I didn't bring a lot of toys down with me. They have a playpen, highchair, etc., so they're pretty well equipped with baby stuff, but within a day or so it became apparent that we needed more toys for her. So,off to Walmart!

One of the things we got, partially for nostalgia's sake, as they were so hugely popular when I was a kid, was a Tickle-Me-Elmo. Baby quite enjoyed him, as did the rest of us. Unfortunately, as the suitcases were very full heading home, he had to be left behind.  The plan is for Mum and Dad to bring him home with them when they come in a couple of days, but in the meantime, Elmo has been up to some tricks...

Elmo having  beer and catching some rays

It started off well and good, just one ticklish monster hanging out by the pool. But then...

Elmo got a little drunk last night

And then he passed out on the bathroom floor

Apparently, Elmo either has very little self control, or simply can't hold his liquor. The next day he was trying to make ammends though:

Elmo was grounded, and had to do chores all day

Fortunately, poor Elmo seems to have turned himself around, and gotten back on the bandwagon, so to speak.We haven't hear much from him over the last couple of weeks, but we did get a couple pictures...

Elmo loves to read... trashy romance novels, apparently

It's okay; he's comfortable in his masculinity

Mum and Dad get home from Florida tomorrow night; hopefully they remember to bring Elmo home with them. Even though baby enjoys him very much, I think the rest of us enjoy him even more. Can't wait to see what he gets up to next!

Later Days!

Christmas presents

Greetings all,

A couple of weeks ago I found a Christmas present for baby. It is a Corolle Calin 12" "Sparkling Cloud" baby doll.

Doesn't she have the sweetest little face? And vanilla scented! Admittedly, I picked the doll mostly because it was advertised for 18 months and up, which is almost exactly how old she'll be at Christmas, but I'm more and more pleased with my choice.

The doll has a soft body, and is quite cuddly. I've removed it from the packaging a few times, to take measurements and test out some clothing. I've made a set of little cloth diapers as part of the present, and hope to add other clothes and accessories as time goes on (maybe for her second birthday). I'm hoping to get the pattern digitized, then I may post it here. There's very few patterns available online for this particular doll, so I'll have to come up with some stuff on my own.

Dolly Diapers

I'm hoping also to add some more animals to her Fisher Price "Little People" collection. These are probably one of her favorite things to play with. She has a barn set and a zoo train that my parents got for her and they keep her entertained for, well, minutes at a time, but that's pretty good for her. I don't intent to get her much more than that for Christmas; she's still little and enjoys the toys she has,so she doesn't need much.

Later Days!

Progress, and worries

New Blog post!

I know nobody is reading these now, but maybe some day. Either way, its good for me to keep writing, even just for myself.

Little munchkin enjoying the snow a couple weeks ago

Avi is napping right now. Her MRI came back normal, so good news there. She goes to see the neurologist on December 21, so maybe we'll get some answers there too. She is still progressing in her gross motor skills, although maybe not as quickly as she should be. She is starting to "cruise" along the furniture, moving herself from one end of the couch to the other, although it is still pretty slow and careful. Nothing new on the speech front. Our physiotherapist referred us to theEarly Intervention Program, so we're on track with getting her any help she might need. I should hear from them on Wednesday, and our "coach" is scheduled to come to the house on the 11th, but we've all had the flu or something like it; baby and I got flu shots, so it could be something else. Because we've been sick we may need to reschedule the EIP coach, to make sure our house is sickness free. On top of whatever was making us throw up, baby has an ear infection! At least she likes the taste of her medicine; she gets mad that she only gets a little bit at a time.

She is an incredibly easy baby to get along with; she rarely cries, goes to bed easy, eats well, and is very self entertaining. I've worried all along that it meant there was something different about her, and it seems now that that may be the case. Its scary, not knowing when, or even if, she'll learn some of those things that we so often take for granted, like walking and talking. On a whim, I decided to do the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers, (revised), or M-CHAT-R, and she scored high risk. You can find it here if you're interested, or have concerns about your own child.

The M-CHAT-R isn't a definitive diagnosis though, and many children who score high on it do not end up being diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. It is worth getting them checked out if they do score high though, as it could mean they have any of a number of developmental disorders (or nothing at all).  And there is a lot of signs that she doesn't have; she smiles, makes eye contact, responds to her name... A lot of things could just be how she's been raised too. I think we've got her on the right track, even if she does have something more serious than a gross motor delay. And if she does fall on the autism spectrum... well, there are way worse things that could happen. Many people with ASD lead very successful and fulfilling lives. So it really isn't the end of the world.

I will continue to worry, at least until we get some more definitive answers, but probably after that as well. I'm told that you never stop worrying about your children, and I can totally see that as being true.

Well, I'm off to Instagram, since apparently I do that now. Find me there.

Later Days!

So, little miss Avi is behind in her gross motor skills. She didn't really begin sitting up unsupported until about thirteen months! Quite concerning. However, her pediatrician has her on track to have an MRI and be seen by a neurologist, and she also is being seen by a physical therapist. She doesn't speak yet either, or even try to mimic sounds we make very much, so she's on the speech pathologist's radar as well. It's all rather frightening. However, her gross motor skills have progressed quite a bit in the last two months; she went from still needing support when sitting, to sitting herself up, and now pulling herself to standing! So, there is some sunshine peeking through the clouds, hopefully.

In the meantime, to help her with her skills, both physical and cognitive, we have started "baby school". Over the next little while, I'll try to post some of our activities. While the Internet abounds with many activities for children of all ages, there are very few formal type programs for children of Avi's age (I.e. 12-18 months). Part of this, I'm sure, is because at this stage children are mostly learning through play, which tends to be quite unstructured. So, what I'm trying to do is create a kind of checklist of activities for each day. Once I get it finalized I will post it here.

So, a bit of a hiatus in posts! Life has been pretty busy for the last 11 months, apparently. Big changes are heading our way; we've decided to sell the farm. There's a few reasons, which I won't get into, but the husband and I feel it is the best thing for us as a family. So, house hunting begins! The hope is to find a place where we can still keep a couple of horses, but just our own, not have to board others. So far, it's been rather discouraging, as the perfect house just doesn't seem to be out there right now. However, our house hasn't sold yet, so we have some time yet for the right place to pop up. Wish us luck!

So, I'm undertaking a new housework project; the laundry. And I say "project" because its going to take me at least a week, if not several, to get it all finished.

Part of the problem it that dear husband and I have WAY too many clothes. Last time we counted, he had over 60 T-shirts. I'm not quite as bad, as I purge my closet regularly, but still have way too many items. Now, the baby's clothes get washed every few days (at least once a week), but the husband and I could go a month without needing to wash any clothes. This is catastrophic, because I frequently DO go a month without washing an of our clothes (I hate doing laundry). But then, at the end of the month, I have a huge pile of laundry that gets so overwhelming I just pick a few random items and throw them in the wash. So, a good 3/4 of my clothes are typically sitting in apile on the laundry room floor, instead of hung neatly in my closet.

Here is a picture of my laundry room that I took today:

Pretty terrible, hey?

(The blanket hanging on the wall is actually covering an exterior door; its poorly insulated, and I've been having some issues with the water lines to my washing machine freezing up. Unfortunately, its not a standard sized door, so trying to replace it has been tricky).


So, the plan is two fold. The first part consists of organizing the clothes and slowly getting them all washed. I only do one, maybe two loads a day; our septic system is old and that much soapy water in one shot would be bad for it, and our well is a little slow (it fills a huge cistern, so we rarely run out of water, but I try not to push my luck, especially with a dozen thirsty horses sharing it.) I also have been following the FlyLady for a couple of years (as best I can), and one of her sayings is "It didn't get messy in a day, so its not going to get clean in a day either". So, slow and steady it is!