31 January 2011

Round 2

I'm wondering what's up with what appears to be our family's collection of giant forks.


















For the record, I was doing house work and not sitting and reading a magazine when Daphne came out with this one. I had put away the one she found the other day, and yet here she is with another fork.

I'm not even going to search around for any more of these things, since apparently Daph has a skill at being able to sniff them out. I'll just leave that job up to her.

28 January 2011

Out of the Mouth of 2 Year Olds

Daphne likes to pray a lot, like maybe 10 times a day. This morning we were already on prayer # 4 or 5 so I asked her if maybe she would like to pray this time?

Are you ready to hear Daphne first ever solo prayer? It's a deep one.

"Thank you amen."

That's just one of those things I needed to write down for posterity.


















25 January 2011

Just Being Real

You're at home when you suddenly realize your toddler is being suspiciously quiet. You have two choices:

a) go check on what the little trouble maker is up to

OR

b) sit down, pull out a magazine and enjoy the 5 minutes of silence.

Please tell me I am not the only one who sometimes (OK, more than sometimes) chooses option b. If I am then I have just earned Worst Mother of the Year Award, and I will probably win it every year from here on out so you might as well not even try to run against me.

Of course I do feel a teeny, tiny bit bad when Daphne emerges into my quiet zone holding a giant, razor sharp fork that she dug out of the back of a kitchen cabinet...

23 January 2011

A Little Sunday Fun

Sometimes when Daphne is wearing an especially cute outfit I like take her picture.

Like this morning before church...

Where's Ellie?


















Found her!












And now I have to chase her!


















It was so miraculous that she kept her hat on for all of that. It's also miraculous that Ellie hasn't run away for good.

Daphne loves going to church because she gets to help with the music. Look at her! She's one of those soulful piano players who really gets into what she's playing. She could probably use some shades.


















(OK, so that was only during the warm-up before church started because actually Daph's favorite thing about church is playing with her friends in the nursery. She learns about Jesus in there, though, so it's all good.)

(I love how Rob looks angry in that photo. Like maybe Daphne's playing isn't as great as I thought.)


















Happy Sunday! Don't watch too much football, now.

21 January 2011

Decorating

One of Daphne latest fascinations is with stickers. She used to be scared of them (because you know how unnerving it is to have them stick to you and not want to come off) but now she loves them. One of her favorite places to go is Trader Joe's because they always give her a good handful of stickers.

Then she can use those stickers to decorate our house when I'm not looking. Isn't that nice of her?

13 January 2011

2011: The Year of the Bathroom

You know what's going on at our house...


















We're taking it slow, letting her get used to the idea before we jump in with full time potty training. We've had the seat out for a week or two just letting her play with it, and yesterday I sat her on it in the bathroom for the first time. She was a little concerned, but when I cheered for her like she had just won the Nobel Peace prize, I think she decided that using the 'big bathroom,' as she calls it, is very exciting business indeed.

She has yet to actually use the bathroom (and we are ladies around here, so we say 'bathroom' not 'potty.' I have to correct David quite a bit) but I take her in there every time she asks and she proudly sits for a few seconds. And I have to say, she is so cute sitting there. And she is so cute as she cheers for herself, because while she really has no idea what she's doing, she sure does love the "yay Daphne! You're such a big girl!" shouts of glee that accompany every bathroom trip.

Seriously, who wouldn't?

12 January 2011

Medical Update

For a girl who went to to doctor 52 times in her first 6 months at home with us (sometimes I like counting things), we're obviously out of the habit since we've been twice in the past month and I feel like that was a lot.

Yesterday she had her 2 year well child check, where...get this...she has actually gotten onto the percentile chart for height. I mean, it's only the 0.6 percentile, but that's better than 0.0! She grew 4 inches since her 18 month appointment. No wonder I had to buy her some new clothes this fall. And, even though she only gained 2lbs in that time, she's on the percentile chart for weight, too (6th percentile). Of course her head is in the 97th percentile, since I've known since the second she was born than she had a giant head (yeah, it hurt). She's 30.5 inches, and almost 23lbs. If you do that fancy "double your height at age two to get your adult height" thing, Daphne will be about 5 ft tall. Strangely, that is the exact height the geneticist said she would be when he came to visit her in the NICU.

Not to start a vaccination debate here, but we do have Daphne on a delayed vaccine schedule for various reasons, and there are a couple of vaccines we won't be giving her at all. As her doctor was reviewing with us the shots he would recommend for her, he said that since we've waited to vaccinate until after she's two, she only needs a fraction of the shots a baby would need. Don't you think they should tell parents that? That if you wait, you don't have to have nearly as many shots? I know it's not just as black and white as that, because obviously babies can get sick before they are 2, but still, it seems like people should know.

I asked about having blood work done to see if she has any natural immunity to any of the diseases he recommends vaccines for. Know what he said? He said it's very rarely done, but quite possibly in 3 out of the 4 vaccines he recommends, it's not uncommon for folks to be naturally immune. Wouldn't that be great if instead of giving every baby a whole slew of shots (don't even get me STARTED on vaccine ingredients), they would first check to see what was even needed? Again, I know it's not as black and white as that, but he never would have told me about natural immunity except I knew that checking for it is even a possibility. It's sad, really.

(Yes, I totally am that annoying parent/patient who questions everything my doctor tells me. I'm sure he silently curses me after we leave, but what can I say? The library is full of books and I like to read them, and then I learn things, and then I ask questions. I'm OK with that.)

Anyways, moving on...

In December we went to the Cleft Palate Clinic, a little thing our ENT's office puts on once a month. Basically, you sit in an examination room while specialist after specialist cycles through to examine the cleft patient. (That would be Daphne, in case you're new here. Or just forgetful.)

We saw an orthodontist, audiologist, speech therapist, cranio-facial surgeons, geneticist, social worker, and I'm sure I'm missing someone but it's hard to remember. After everyone comes through, they all meet, put together a health care plan and mail it out to you. The only ones we really needed were the surgeons and speech therapist, since Daphne has no hearing problems and her cleft didn't affect her teeth.

We got her follow-up letter right before Christmas, and let me tell you, it was full of great news. She needs no speech therapy, because according to the speech therapist she talks at the level of the 3 year old. I love that her one great skill is being a chatterbox. And her cleft is completely, 100% healed. It's like it was never there. Her ENT doesn't need to see her for 5 years. It's the weirdest thing to have this part of our lives just be...done. It's hard to fathom.

As her pediatrician was going over this information with us yesterday, he described Daphne as 'stellar.' Let me give you the definition of stellar, just in case you need it: (from www.definition.reference.com) 'like a star, as in brilliance, shape, etc.' Brilliant? Yes, I know.

Her parent, on the other hand, not so brilliant. It's 30 degrees out with a wind chill of like -10? Sure, let's go for a walk!
l of like -10? Sure, let's go for a walk!"
brilliance, shape, etc.' Billiant, it says? Yes, I think so.



Her parents are brilliant, too. That's why yesterday we were like "hey, it's 30 degrees out with a wind chill of like -10? Sure, let's go for a walk!"

09 January 2011

Play Time

Daphne loves to go to the community center's indoor park. Children, toys, a huge space to run...it's any child's dream come true. Plus, she sleeps really, REALLY good when we get home.

Her favorites are the cars.

Officer Daphne:












Firefighter Daphne:


















Regular Citizen Daphne:


















And apparently we need to be utilizing her skills at lawn mowing:













Now if they would just have one of these play times in the evenings for those of us who's husbands are not at work during the day...