Fun at the park!

We spent some great time at the park this weekend. Kaitlyn has gotten very adventurous and really enjoyed exploring around in the dirt and grass. She got muddy too. And has really gotten good at climbing.

This afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa Bork joined us. All was going well. We started on the swing and Kaitlyn loved that Eric just seemed to push her higher and higher. Look at her hair blow in the wind!

She got down from the swing and proceeded to walk right into the swing. That was the first of many falls. The worst happened a few minutes later. Kaitlyn face planted right into the dirt! With her mouth open! I picked her up and she had a mouthful and it was all up her nose! Fortunately, I was able to scoop most of it out of her mouth and wipe it off some (which is a miracle, since she is not a fan of having her face cleaned). The best part was she recovered pretty quickly and went back to playing. I was afraid she'd never want to go to the park again! Apparently the kid won't eat puffs and cheerios, but dirt - not so bad.

She really enjoyed seeing all of the other kids. She tries to keep up with the older kids. And today she tried to butt in on a family playing. She approached the dad - I was afraid she was going to just sit in his lap! There were 2 different little girls that she enjoyed watching. One was 19 months old and Kaitlyn was bigger than her! She is starting to like the slide more. Here she is trying to climb back up the slide.

Here she is on the ride home. You can still see the dirt all over her face. She looks tired!

And here she is after her bath (and dinner) - look there is still dirt up her nose! Who knows when that will finally come out. There is no way she will let me get it out. Come on sneezes! (to get the full effect, you might need to click on the photo so it will enlarge)

A side note on another funny thing that happened this weekend. At Costco, one of the ladies that works there commented that Kaitlyn "has a nice suntan!" Uh, excuse me? Kaitlyn is pretty pale. The only thing I can think of is that she is a little darker than me. So maybe compared to me, she is tan? She owes that to her daddy!

Tough 15 Month Visit

Kaitlyn went in for her 15 month well check yesterday. It was a TOUGH visit. Kaitlyn really did not want to be there and cried so hard. It was really sad. I couldn't console her. And to make matters worse, I left with a prescription for speech therapy with a diagnosis as "developmentally delayed." Definitely hard to hear.

On the bright side, we will be getting help! I've already talked to the Easter Seals coordinator and she let me know that the request for speech testing was already put in and the case has been assigned.

My hope is that 6 months from now, we have the same sweet kiddo that is eating everything in sight and won't stop talking. These days will seem so long ago!

Photo Shoot for Valentine's Day

A week and a half ago I took Kaitlyn in attempt to do another amateur photo shoot. We had limited success. We were at the park and the lighting wasn't perfect. And I definitely had my hands full trying to take photos and follow her around.

The little helper

On Sunday, Eric and Kaitlyn went with me to work to help me move cubes. Well, Eric helped me move my computer. Kaitlyn explored - she really enjoyed the blinds:

And then she did a great job of "straightening" the papers:

A Little Weekday Fun

Tonight Eric went out with friends after work, so it was my night to get Kaitlyn. I was a little late but we managed to have some fun before she went to sleep. First we played with food. That was the focus of OT this week. If Kaitlyn enjoys playing and touching with food, maybe she'll soon want to eat it! This was actually a big step - she was playing with her Cheerios!

And afterwards, she demonstrated that she is rapidly learning how doors work. Man, this looks like trouble!

Sleepy kiddo!

This kiddo cracks me up! We would love for her to sleep in on the weekends (of course) so we can sleep in too. But she usually does not cooperate. And here she is on Monday morning, sleeping in! I am in her room taking pictures (with flash, I might add) and she doesn't seem to want to wake up. Oh, the irony!

A beautiful day at the park

A beautiful day and a beautiful child - makes for some beautiful photos. These are from a couple of weeks ago.

Stairs

A couple of times we have gone on the back porch and hung out with Kaitlyn. She crawls or walks around and explores. She has shown interest in the stairs, probably because Snoopy goes up and down them constantly. It's funny, because she doesn't like the grass so I can't figure out why she would want to go down the stairs.

Today she crept to the edge and would reach over with her pointer finger. Each time she reached, she would get a little more brave. It looked like she was trying to dip her finger in a swimming pool. Somehow she figured out how to scoot on her butt down the stairs (with mommy closely supervising and assisting as needed). Once down, she worked on getting back up.

We were quite impressed with her. She has been around 1 step up/down, but hasn't been given an opportunity to play on the stairs. It took her a few attempts to get her foot up but she got it! With only one plop backwards on the first stair (dad was there to catch), she went all the way up!

OT begins

Today we got a visit from the friendly ladies with Easter Seals to assess Kaitlyn's need for occupational and/or speech therapy. Bittersweet. I have been wanting and asking for help with these issues so it is a relief to know we are moving forward. She will be seeing an occupational therapist once a week for the foreseeable future.

Our #1 focus will be feeding. Getting her to self feed and eat solid food - neither of which she really does right now. I also learned that eating leads to talking, which would indicate why she hasn't progressed with her consonants. She closes her mouth to swallow, which is why she can do "ma ma." But she isn't using her tongue enough to form her B's and D's.

Hopefully we can schedule our first visit next week!