19 Months

At the beginning of the month Josie stood for 45 seconds on own! She has been able to stand while holding onto something since her birthday but has never let go to stand on her own. We were so excited when she started doing this but it was never for more than a few seconds. When she finally stood for 45 seconds on her own we were ecstatic. She is getting stronger and braver and I know that walking will be in her near future. Josie has been standing so much more on her own. She still isn't going from sitting to standing but she is getting there. She will often do the downward facing dog pose, which always makes us laugh. She's so close to standing up that way though. She is fine was standing if we can help her first. She will also pull up on furniture and then let go. She's even getting brave now and drinking milk while standing.

Besides being brave and standing on her own, Josie is finally starting to walk! She would take one and a half steps before falling into the couch or ottoman or our legs. On August 3rd, while watching a video of herself on Joe's phone, she decided to get brave and take three steps! A week later she was taking about five steps. Last week I was able to catch her on video taking about eight steps. She still crawls the majority of the time, but she's getting braver and braver in terms of walking. She's even starting to take steps without us trying to prompt or convince her to. When she's holding on to something like the ottoman she can even take a step and turn. I can't even describe how proud I am of Josie. She has been working hard!

Josie's lower left canine has been working its way through her gums and her upper left canine is getting close to the surface. She has been so cranky because of them. Hopefully next month they will all be completely in and we won't have to worry about teeth for a little while.

Speaking of teeth Josie is letting us brush them a little bit. I've tried multiple times in the past and she did not like it one bit. She wouldn't even let me put the toothbrush in her mouth. Now she will let me brush them and will then take it from me and suck on it to get the extra water out. It is a start at least. 

Josie has been adding more words to her vocabulary. She has about 19 words now that she has said multiple times. The issue is that while she does have these words, she doesn't always use them in the correct context. Some of them are just words that she likes to jabber. For example, she will say guppy. I'm sure it's because Sophie sometimes watches Bubble Guppies and it sounds like a fun word. It isn't in reference to anything though. Josie will say some words as she supposed to, such as more and ball. Nothing is very consistent though. I think she is realizing that we are not understanding her and it is making her angry. She often will start yelling and screeching when she doesn't get her way. It can be extremely frustrating for all of us. 

I never really realized it before but Josie doesn't really nod or shake her head.  I've seen her do that before but just a few times. She is been doing them a little more this month and I have to say it's a little awkward looking. When she nods her head it is a really big movement; she has to include her whole body with it. It's really quick and jerky as well. Shaking her head she more throws her head to either shoulder instead of just a quick nod.  This is something we will have to ask her PT about. 

I had to go back to work this month. I think this transition has been hard on Josie. She's been a little more fussy than normal, though that could be due to her new teeth. She has gone from taking multiple naps a day which total about four hours to taking only one or two naps. I like that she is limiting the number of naps she is getting, but I do want her to be well rested. Hopefully she'll just back into a schedule and this will get better for her. Until then we are trying to get used to our laid back girl being a cranky one.

Josie has made such great strides this month. I can't help but wonder if she will be walking and talking more if only we had started First Steps earlier, like when the doctor suggested it. (If only she would have explained her concerns to me instead of just offhandedly suggesting we call First Steps.) Regardless, I'm so proud of the hard work that she is doing. I just love that girl so much!

Here are some pictures from this month:

Josie loves being outdoors! I can't wait until she can run around and chase after her sister!

Josie is still Sophie's shadow (and Sophie loves it!)

Water play is still Josie's favorite. She really enjoys splashing around and running her hands through water. When she sees that we are filling up the tub or baby pool she speeds over to our sides. 

Classy family photo

I had no idea how much Josie likes apples!

Cranky

When Josie is tired she will pop a paci in her mouth and grab her blanket from her crib. 

She still doesn't know how to come down the stairs. We've worked with her on it, but she gets distracted and wants to jump into our arms or crawl back up the stairs. Oh well. 

A Frozen Birthday Party

For months Sophie has been saying that she wanted a Frozen birthday party. I kept giving her other ideas but she wouldn't change her mind. The nice thing is that everybody seems to be doing a Frozen party so it was easy to find ideas of what to do. However a quick search on the Internet left me overwhelmed. There were so many possibilities! I could have easily gone overboard but decided to keep it simple.

The Decorations, Favors, and Games

Like I mentioned, I didn't want to go overboard with the party decorations. Since Josie had a Winter 'ONE'derland theme for her birthday, I was able to reuse some of those decorations. I also picked up a couple of snowflakes that I spray-painted silver, which we will reuse for Christmas. I also found some paper banners in blue-and-white that I hung up around the house. I cut out letters to spell 'Happy Birthday Sophie' and hung them on our wall. I also printed out a few quotes from the movie Frozen that I put in picture frames and put on tables. I bought some centerpieces that had Frozen characters on them, though I wish I wouldn't have wasted money on that.

Sophie helped me create the party favors. We made blue glitter Gak.. The only issue with the Gak is that the glitter would settle to the bottom of the container and it would come off easily on your hands. We did make a second batch for boys that didn't have glitter in it and that was much better in general. I looked all over for containers to put these in but they were either too big or too small. I ended up just using old (but clean) baby food containers. They still had the names of what food was originally in there but who cares.

We had the trampoline and the bounce house for the kids to play on. They really enjoyed that and spent a big chunk of time outside. We also played Pin the Nose on Olaf. (My students from last year traced a picture of Olaf on a poster board for me. They even traced out carrots for the game. I am so thankful to them for their help!) We tied a scarf around the kids' eyes and let them try to put the nose in the correct spot. We ended up with two winners who each received an extra large sized chocolate bar.

Food

Of course we had to have sandwiches for lunch. I printed out the quote from the movie that was obviously the inspiration for the meal choice. We also had picnic type sides such as coleslaw, broccoli salad, and deviled eggs. 

Instead of a big cake this year we had cupcakes. My mom's friend makes amazing cupcakes so she helped us out. They were delicious! Everyone enjoyed them, especially Josie.

Gifts

It was so much fun watching Sophie open her presents. I loved hearing her exclaim over everything before she tore through all the presents. We are so thankful for all of our generous family and friends.

I am glad that so many people came out to celebrate our girl turning 4. We are blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives.

Four

Josie took 4 steps today!

18 Months

My girl is 1 1/2 years old! 

Josie is 30 1/4 inches tall and weighs 20lbs 2oz. She is still the smaller sister (by 2 pounds and about 4 inches), but it won't be long before she weighs more than Sophie. Josie is still wearing 12 month clothes, but is starting to outgrow them. It won't be long until she and Sophie are wearing the same clothes.

Josie popped out two teeth this month. Her last molar came in and her bottom right canine came in. Her top right canine looks like it is going to coming soon as well and I know the other two won't be far behind. This poor girl has been teething for so long. I can't wait until she has her full set. 

Josie's hair has been getting so long. Her bangs have been in her face for weeks. I'm not ready to take her for her first haircut yet so I decided to try out a little ponytail. It is so adorable! Whenever we take the rubber band out her hair continues to stay straight up on her head. Hilarious!

Josie is listening so much better. She will stop doing something when we tell her no. She might test her luck and stared us and then try again, but she won't do what we asked her not to. She will also go and get balls if we ask her to. If we ask her to clap her hands or dance she will do that as well.

Josie still isn't walking or even standing on her own. She will stand for a long time while holding onto something, but she isn't brave enough to let go. I've tried tricking her into doing it, but she will lower herself to the floor instead. I can't decide if she is extremely cautious, stubborn or both.

Josie's services with First Steps still haven't started yet. We will see speech for the first time in two days. They still haven't found a physical therapist to work with Josie though, which worries me. I really would like someone to give us ideas to help her with standing and walking. I tried asking our pediatrician about her muscle tone and for tips to help her walk, but he said I should talk to the people about First Steps about that. (I was so frustrated by his lack of help!) Hopefully our service coordinator will find a PT for Josie soon. 

Josie loves sensory play. I've made up a couple different sensory boxes and she really enjoys playing with them. She likes taking beans and throwing them all over the place and running her hands through them. She also likes to take cloud dough and stuff her hands and it. She laughs as she rubs her hands and feet and shaving cream. Her all time favorite sensory activity is playing with water. Nothing makes her happier!

 

The girls love when we get the hose out and make puddles in the driveway. Josie cracks up while she splashes through the puddles and through the stream of the hose. 

Here are some other pictures from this past month:

Josie absolutely loves popcorn!

Josie enjoys flipping through the pages of picture books. She studies the pictures and flips back and forth between the pages and cover. Her favorite books to look through are When Sophie Gets Angry--Really, Really Angry and God Loves You. 

Mornings snuggles with these two are pretty darn wonderful. 

Even though she won't say the names of the people in the photo album, I know that Josie recognizes their faces. She loves looking at it and chews on her favorite pages. 

The girls both love swimming and they get really excited when we fill up the baby pool for them. Josie loves crawling in and out of it and splashing water all over the place. 

Josie wasn't too impressed with the aquarium.

Kaci spent the night with us. It was so great seeing the three of them playing together.

We went to Joe's work to have lunch with him one day. The girls loved getting to see him, and he loved showing them off to his co-workers. 

Josie rode the carousel for the first time. She liked sitting on it before the ride started. She was moving about on it and exclaiming, "Wheeeeee! Yippee!" When the ride started she liked it at first. Then she started to shriek a bit, cry and tried to leap off of the zebra. 

Rachel joined us for one of our zoo trips. We had a lot of fun with her. It is so helpful when we have people go with us, especially when we do things like ride the train. 

Josie's frustrated face. 

My friend Angela was in town and brought her two youngest over for a visit. We tried to get a picture of the 4 together, but Josie and Audrey weren't having it! 

I love that Josie and Sophie are making the exact same face in this picture. 

Josie has become even more interested in Cosmo this month. She gets really excited when she sees her and pats her (when Cosmo allows it, that is). 

A Step in the Right Direction

Josie took a step today! Granted it was just one step, but she did it multiple times. She is getting there!

We keep working hard on trying to help Josie to stand on her own and walk. The longest she has been able to stand on her own is about eight seconds. We generally have to trick her into doing it. As soon as she realizes what she's doing she lowers herself to the floor. She is gaining strength and confidence. She is getting steadier walking while holding onto things. Walking toys and holding her hands have helped. The thing that has been working the best is letting her hold on to the front of our legs and letting her walk forward while we walk backward. She is getting so much better and is even starting to walk while only holding on with one hand. 

Tonight she was leaning up against the ottoman and I held my phone out for her to look out, making sure it was out of her reach so she would have to walk to grab it. She took a step to get to me and then leaned forward so that she could grab my leg. Joe started doing the same thing. We could only get her to take one step before she would either fall or lean forward to grab onto us. It is still progress. I am so proud of my little girl!

First Steps

When one of Josie's pediatrician first suggested that we have Josie evaluated with First Steps, Joe and I were very resistant. Since the doctor didn't really tell us why she thought she should be evaluated, we just assumed that it was because she wasn't walking. Sophie was a late walker, so we figure that Josie will be as well. Still, there were other things that Josie wasn't doing that were starting to concern us. We realized she was pretty behind in some areas. If I am completely honest with myself she seems more like a 12 month old than a 17 month old. She is missing out on quite a few skills. I ended up calling First Steps and setting up a screening. The screening was basically questionnaires, which I hate. I always over think things and end up scoring too hard. After the questionnaires were completed we discovered she is below average in all of the areas they test (communication, cognition, physical, social, emotional/self-help). Oof! Punch to the stomach to hear.

The next step was to have an evaluation. The lady (Sister Sue) that we saw for Josie's screening can to our house for the evaluation. Josie dislikes strangers, so she spent half of the time trying to crawl up onto my shoulder instead of performing the tasks that Sister Sue wanted to see. She did best when I left the room to fill out another questionnaire. After an hour I put Josie to bed and continued talking with Sister Sue. I completed a survey to see if Josie has autism (something that I worried about since it seems like she seems to regress from time to time). After the initial survey she scored an 8, which is a moderate risk for autism. I was then asked follow-up questions (it was in the form of a flow chart). From there her score when down to a 3, which is a mild risk. She still isn't walking or pointing her finger, so those counted against her. Sister Sue said she wasn't worried about autism for her and I agree. That is a weight off of my shoulders. Sister Sue called later that night to give the results of the evaluation. Josie was below average in motor skills and communication (the evaluation brought her up in the other areas, though she is still in the lower average range of those). It wasn't a big surprise to hear as those are the two areas that we had been concerned in.

Since Josie was going to need services in communication and motor skills, we had to meet with Kelly, our service coordinator. She came to our house and asked lots of questions. She had me walk through what a typical day is like for Josie. For each part of the day she asked me what goes well, what Josie struggles with and what we would like to see done differently (if anything). This would help with finding which goals we should focus on and how frequently she should have services. It took about 2 hours to go through all of this. Sophie and Josie were so patient throughout this process; I was so proud of them.

Sister Sue and Kelly both came back to our house a few days later to go through our family service plan. (It was basically like an ARC meeting at school. It was so strange to be on the other side of the table and I have a new found understanding towards the families in these meetings.) Together we created Josie's goals and it was decided that Josie will receive speech services twice a month and PT once a month. I am anxious for these services to begin. I just want Josie to get the help she needs to be a happy, healthy little girl.