walking and talking and climbing, oh my!!!!!

I'll start with climbing.  This girl can climb!  Turn your head for one second and she's half way up the stairs.  Thank god for baby gates.  And thank god two times when we actually remember to shut the gate!  But it's not just the stairs - it's the couches, people, whatever.  She's so brave!

Walking:  she started taking her own little baby steps on January 24th with the urging of her parents, "walk to mama Claire, come on baby girl".  Now, no urging is necessary.  She will stand herself up using a table, chair, toy, etc, and walk away from it.  Sometimes it's clear that she's walking towards the dog or a specific toy, other times she walks aimlessly into the center of the room.  A few steps into it and she either loses balance and plops onto her butt, or she plops onto her butt "just because".  It's so adorable, though a little strange, to see my tiny little baby walking around.  She's so brave!  There's something wrong with the video camera I'm using - it's all blurry and crappy, so I apologize.  I also apologize for the wobbly shooting.  Lastly, please don't pay any attention to the filthy house!

And she speaks!  She said her first real word on Friday, March 4th.  We were in the Boscovs dressing room and Claire mimicked my mom and said "Uh Oh".  She continued to say it every time she (purposely) dropped the wallet she was playing with.  She has since said it at home a few times, as well as in the presence of her other grandparents.  Her first word couldn't have been something sweet and precious like Mommy or Doggy.  Instead she says UH OH.  hmmmph.  and LOL. 

Trent turns two!

It's time for me to change the name of my blog.  I no longer have "2 under 2".  My big boy is officially over two.  We kept his birthday low-key this year, in terms of a birthday bash, but we certainly did make it special in other ways.  The Sunday before his actual birthday, we had our immediate family over for food and cake.  I had several dozen balloons blown up for the event because I knew Trent likes balloons.  (I have this desire to cover the entire ceiling with balloons, but that's not practical on the wallet, or for transportation purposes).  7 dozen had to do for this party.

I'm only posting this picture because it reminds me of how YUMMY the food was! 

but this is where he spent alot of his time...

Trent really enjoyed taking the initiative to open his presents....then play with each of them

Here's the homemade yogurt strawberry cake I made for my big guy.  When it came time to sing Happy Birthday, Trent knew just what to do with the candle....although he did struggle a little.

the strawberries are supposed to form a 2 on top

He didn't get as messy this year as he did last year!  Maybe the cake wasn't as good...eeeek. Just kidding.

Later, I tied balloons to Maggie, but she didn't float away



A few days later, on Trent's actual birthday, Kevin took off work so we could spend the day as a family.  We started by taking Trent to IHOP for breakfast!  The waitress asked if she could sing and bring ice cream out for him, but sadly we had to get going.  Kevin had a doctors appointment just down the street that we were running late for.  Luckily, the appointment was very quick, so we were able to continue our day-o-fun by going to Hullaballoo (an indoor play place for kids).  We spent a few hours there climbing, sliding, running, and throwing balls.  Being that it was a weekday, there weren't many other people there, which was nice.  Once Trent was all tuckered out, we headed home for a nap.  It was a good thing he got a couple hours of rest, because as soon as he was up, we jumped back into it.  We decided to take the ball and head to the basketball court down the street.  During our walk (the court is only 3 houses down) we ran into Uncle Paul.  He was on his way to bring Trent some cupcakes, so he joined us on the court instead.  I made the silly mistake of insisting Trent have a cupcake right then....which totally distracted him from playing ball. Fast forward a bit....after dinner we had, yet another homemade (albeit boxed) cake, along with the rest of Uncle Paul's cupcakes. 

Trent's 2-year well-visit with the pediatrician was a week or two after his birthday.  We went over all the usual stuff, and overall Trent is doing great.  He's in the 50th percentile for weight, height, and head circumference (28 lb, 34"L, 19").  She was happy to hear that Trent's speech is improving.  He now says approximately 20 words on his own, but he will try to repeat other random words we say from time to time.  The words he says regularly include (but are not limited to): no, truck, poop, baby, dada, ma, bubbles, cup, juice, milk, sit, ball, shoes, up, bye, hi, please, and go.  He will also make the noises different things in lieu of saying the actual object:  woof woof (dog), gitcha gitcah (which is supposed to be the chugga chugga of a train), baaa (sheep), and vrrrooom (car, boat, plane, helicopter). 

Here are a couple of the classic chair photos.

on his birthday, whenever we asked him how old he was, he'd try to hold up 2 fingers and say "two"...but his "two" sounded just like "six"

here he is pointing at the beautiful quilt Aunt I made for him before he was born

Trent's speech - or lack thereof

I know I've mentioned before that Trent isn't exactly a chatter box.  At his 18-month well-visit our pediatrician recommended a service called Child Watch for Trent's seemingly slow speech development.  They told us to give Child Watch a call if we/when we saw fit.  We decided to call them around when Trent was 19 months old.  To make a long story short, they mailed us paperwork and a questionnaire that covered all areas of development in a 19 month old (speech, gross motor, etc).   A week or so later, our Service Coordinator, Edie, came out to our house to grade the questionnaire.  Based on our answers, she determined that Trent would need further evaluation in the area of speech.  She informed me that even though it appears that only his speech is delayed, they would have to do testing in all areas of development, but that she'd bring a speech therapist with her since that's our main area of concern.  A couple weeks later, the service coordinator returned with a speech therapist in tow.  Trent took to the main chick just fine, but he did not warm up to the speech therapist at all....which lead to her simply warthing Trent from a short distance and having Edie do most of the interacting.

Trent sat with the coordinator on the floor for an hour or two and basically played short games and played with toys.  Trent had no idea that all this fun he was having was actually an evaluation.  At the end of the session the ladies sat down and went over their findings.  The service coordinator and speech therapist found Trent's receptive skills to be high-average - equal to that of a 25 month old.  His expressive skills were average - equal to other's his own age.  They specifically commented that his attention span is fantastic for his age.  The long and short of it is that Trent is totally normal and does not require further testing or therapies.  He's just taking his time....which is what we thought, we just wanted to make sure.  They do, however, recommend that we get a hearing test done on him since there's a family history or hearing problems.  I also learned that stutters and other speech impediments can be genetic, so that's something we will want to look out for in the distant future.

Claire-2 months; Trent-18 months

Back in May I took both kids to the pediatrician for their well-visit check-ups. 

Trent weighed in at 25 pounds, 5.5 ounces (45%). His height was 31.25" (20%) and his head circum. was 18.75 (40%).  Overall he is doing extremely well. The only possible concern is his speech - and honestly, that's not even a concern yet. You see, Trent isn't saying much yet.  Kevin and I aren't worried at all because Trent is perfectly normal in all other aspects of development.  The doctors also aren't worried - they said he's probably focusing on other developmental milestones, and also adjusting to his new baby sister.  None the less, they gave us the phone number of a program that deals with an assortment of issues in children (ages 0-3yrs.), one of which is delayed speech.  We decided to call them last week.  Someone is going to come out to our house in 2 weeks to evaluate Trent.  If they determine that he is just a  little delayed they will give us ideas of things to do at home to encourage speaking.  If they think he is 25-35% delayed we will have to see a specialist.  I will keep you updated.  Trent doesn't have another well-visit until he turns 2 (in November).

Claire weighed in at 11 pounds, 0.5 ounces (50%).  She was 22" long (35%) and her head circum. was 14.75" (20%).  She received a few vaccines, which are never pleasant, but overall she too is doing great.   She goes back for her 4 month well-visit in July.

chatterbox

Trent has been doing alotta jibber-jabbering for some time now. I remember the first time he ever "talked". I had Trent on my lap and I was reading an article out loud. All of a sudden he just started talking over me. It was the most precious thing ever!!! His ramblings are pretty random but usually happen when he is playing or just sitting around. Once in a blue moon we hear him talking to himself in his crib. I wish I could bottle up that sound!! If you listen to babies "talk" it's like they are discovering the different letters of the alphabet. For a while Trent was doing thhhhh. and aaaaaaa. and babbabab. A few weeks ago (around and during the time we were in OBX) Trent started saying "dada". Often times it came out as "ahdada" or "dadadadada" but of course we all got a big kick out it. Does this mean Trent's first word was dada? Some people we told this story to said Definitely! Kevin feels that it won't really count until Trent looks him in the eyes and knowingly calls him Dada.

First word or not it was precious. Just knowing that someday that little guy will be saying people words, and soon enough we won't be able to shut him up, is exciting.

Speaking of baby talk - here's a video that was recently emailed to me. I think it's hilarious.

Super Baby, Intersting, Little Girl Telling What - Funny video clips are a click away