Happy Birthday to me

Today was a wonderful birthday (well, as wonderful as it can be when your nearing 40).

We had family all come over and celebrate it with us and we had some moments today that made it extra special.

One being that Payton is pulling herself up to a standing position (1st time in the bathtub today).  Personally I don't think she's ready to do this.  I think she's far less stable than Livy was but maybe that's because my water mark for stability is a 2.75 year old (unlike Livy where I didn't have anything to compare with).

On another note, Payton's 3rd tooth just broke through (one on top) and by all indications there's 3 more right behind.  In the next 2 weeks this baby is going to go from big gummy grin to a big toothy one.

To wrap it all up the Canucks won their 1st playoff game keeping themselves from being eliminated in the 1st round.  While I can't say that I'm overly enjoying the hockey season, at least one game won beats a clean sweep elimination.

All in the last year was good but with a few rocky moments.  We made it though and it has set us up for this next year being pretty stellar.

Here's a few photos since its been so long.  Here's a shot of the Toddler's version of Man Land being too much for Livy.  This was her 1st evening watching Aladin on her new set up.

Best Friends (for now).  Notice Livy's hair is FINALLY growing.  I fear we have the same x many years ahead with Payton as well.  Now the dilemna is whether to cut Livy's into something that's short but neat or let it continue grow albiet unevenly).

April Update

We're doing well.

April's been another busy month with the days getting longer and all of us starting to dip our toe into Spring and testing the waters as to whether we can jump in yet with both feet.  Weather on the coast teaches us to be patient but take advantage of it when we can. 

So Wilma's been out with the girls on the grass having picnics and Dwayne and I have started tackeling biking to Vancouver (or from Vancouver to Squamish) during days where the sun is shining and our shedules allow for it.

On another note, on April 11th Payton had her follow up appointment at BCCH which included a visit to the Occupational Therapist, the NeoNatal followup and Audiology. 

It was a good appointment and it was determined that Payton is right on track (in some cases ahead)with the expected development of a baby who didn't have the challenges she faced. 

We also learned that Payton's fluid in her ears has cleared and while we weren't able to test her ears individually, she passed the hearing test just fine so for all indication, it seems her hearing was due to the fluid.

Recently Payton's been progressing through her crawling stage like wild-fire. I think its one of my most favourite ages since things move so incredibly quickly.  She's just learning to mimic (and will sort of wave or clap back) and her crawling yesterday took a turn for 'the better'.  She'll now scoot on her bum for short distances to keep from committing to dropping on her tummy.

That will be short lived as yesterday, I also picked her up from her crib after a nap and she was sitting up.  Dwayne noticed she was doing the same last night and again I saw her doing it.  She's now going from lying belly down into a sitting position.  For those who aren't aware, this is the start of her pulling herself up.  Where before she didn't have many options to pull herself up now she can crawl (scoot) to an object and get into a sitting position to pull herself up.

Livy has been as entertaining as always and we're learning quickly that a 2.75 year old can be very stubbron and clever.  She's already getting a 'no' from one parent and going to the next one asking the same question (or to Wilma if she's in the vicinity).

We're also one step closer to finishing "Man's Land" for toddlers and we have the small TV mounted in the play room so the girls can watch movies there and we can have less Muppets and Princesses' on our main TV.

We also bought Livy a peddle bike last week.  We took her out riding and thus far she needs a lot of work but we're trying.  I think physically she is able to do it but mentally its a challenge (a lot for a 2-year old brain to process) especially since Dwayne took off the training wheels before she even got on it, so she doesn't even have the practice of turning the pedals before we cut her loose.

All in all our little family is doing well and we're so incredibly excited for summer (well I am anyway)!!!

Crawling

By all definition of the word Payton is crawling.  That is, forward movement with her belly down. 

Now, its not pretty.  In fact the first few days it looking like a slow version of the worm, bum up, bum down, etc.  Now she's got some decent determination and understanding of what she's doing which equals a bit more speed and more mobility.  So she's exploring a bit more which so far is just to the top of the stairs: Looking at freedom I'm assuming.

Last Saturday was the 1st indication that she was going to 'crawl' soon.  I put her on the bed with Livy and she managed to cover about a foot of our bed and grab Livy's hair.  I attributed her success to the uneven level of the mattress giving her an advantage to squirm forward.

But on Monday, March 26th she was on her belly making forward movement for objects covering several feet in one go.  The race is on.

For what its worth Livy's 1st official crawl was April 8th.  So as far as their gestation is concerned Payton is ahead 2 weeks in the crawling department.  Birth wise, they're about neck in neck. 

On another note, Livy was pretty good on her feet and was pretty much pulling herself up by now so while Payton is holding her own on the crawling stage, there's other areas she's a bit behind Livy in.  Partly because we don't have as many toys for pulling herself up like we did with Livy.  So that needs to change.  Yesterday she was trying to stand using the jolly jumper so we know its time to bring in some toys that are made for this next step before she gets too ambitious.

On another note today is the day we're taking Payton's soother away.  Livy was 5.5 months but it was in conjunction with traveling so it made sense and it made it easy for Liv.  At 8 months Payton no longer needs it for soothing rather its become a habit.  When sleeping she wants it for 30 seconds and then spits it out...this repeats about 8 times in the night so its time she learns to self sooth so we can all start getting full night sleeps.

Livy continues to grow and while she hasn't gained that much height since her last wall measument in November, it tells me that she's gearing up for a growth spurt in the near future. 

Summer is just around the corner and we're starting to see warmer/dryer days. I can't wait till the suns out and we can turn off the heat in the house (April is tomorrow and that is the month we try to turn it off completely though admittedly there's been a few April's where its had to stay on a day or two).

March's Update and some pics

I'm so glad I've kept this blog.  Its wonderful fun going back and remembering where Livy was in her development and seeing how Payton's holding up.  For a girl who had such a rough start, she's doing pretty good.

Payton's been working at standing and her legs are good and strong now.  She's not trying to get up on her own but unlike Livy, her play area doesn't have anything for her to try it with.  This last week she's been up on her knees a few times so the crawling stage is just around the corner.  Ironically she's within a week or two of Livy with this development and if Livy (and Wilma) didn't hand her toys so much I'm confident that she would be right on track with Livy.  Its good news because with such a slow start you just never know how its going to affect her.  Also, so many CDH babies take a few years to 'catch' up to their developmental milestones.  Considering Livy was walking before she was 10 months we're hopeful that keeping up to Livy within a few weeks means Payton isn't dealing with any developmental delays of if she is, they're minor.

Livy is pretty good now with her potty training and its only when we're out of the house that we have issues since she's afraid of the automatic flushers (whoever designed those didn't do it with a potty training toddler in their house).  I have to keep reminding myself that she's only 2 and its often so hard since she's so talkative, active and (in my mind) smart.

The month of February saw our family all dealing with big colds.  Payton ended up with pneumonia and desipte having to go on antibiotics she handled it amazingly well.  We're all good and healthy now and hopefully have gotten through Payton's 1st cold season with no huge issues.

Dwayne and I are doing well and while work keeps us super busy (our house is super disorganized) we're gearing up for the spring and we're loving the longer days.  Dwayne did his 1st mountain bike ride today (bonked) but it does mark the beginning of summer in our huse. Yipee!! 

Update

Its been a while since I've updated here. Its March now but on February I typed out the below in a word document and am finaly putting it on here:

Blog update

Life has been keeping us busy, so busy I find I hate getting on the computer after work…but as I’ll ashamedly admit, social media is where I’m currently getting my news flow (that isn’t directly linked to the resource industry).

Livy continues to make me smile with all my being.  She’s starting to develop quite the little personality both with a sense of humour that amazes me and a stubbornness that scares me.  So we decided a few weeks ago that we needed to actually plan our parenting/disciplining style.  Number one being that Dwayne and I are on the same page.  For a while now I’ve heard about a discipline technique called 1-2-3 Magic.  So far I’ve only read a small portion of the book but what we’ve taken away has been very good.  Number 1 for its simplicity, number 2 for its consistency and number 3 because it’s a non-confrontational discipline style, everyone (even Wilma) is comfortable utilizing it.  Livy has also been receptive of it and anytime I start to count her poor behaviour she’ll state “Stop counting” and most of the time she’ll curb her behaviour.  Occasionally she’ll count me back or happily (while still drawing on the counter) she’ll count for me J.

Right now we have a sick household.  I believe I brought it into the house and have mostly recovered from it and currently Dwayne and Payton are in the thick of it.  Payton took a subtle turn for the worst early yesterday and so we took her to the doctor.  He heard a rattle in her chest and sent her for x-rays.  While we haven’t heard any results (which often means a good thing) he did put her on antibiotics for potential pneumonia.  As sick as she sounds, she always has a cackle (she cackles when she laughs instead of giggling) and a smile readily available.

This morning Livy work up sick too and when I went to get her out of bed the first thing she said when I asked if she was sick was “Yes, Bob’s sick too”.  So there you have it, not only was this cold bad enough to get our family sick, it was enough to get Bob the Dinosaur sick too.

Some photos:

The Bug making pizza.

A visit from Auntie Deanna and her pooches:

Potty training Daddy Style

A long day in the life of Payton

Smile!!