Week 65:
On our way to breakfast, Miss Spud carried her plate the whole way. She doesn't quite trust elevators yet, but will get in and out of them. On our way out, she got to meet a Dachshund. She wasn't sure about petting the dog, but had fun watching.
She has started storing extra snacks next to her butt in her car seat. I saw her place a few pieces of French fries next to her and she put them back when I pulled them out for her.
When we got home she did not want to be put in her highchair for dinner. We let her eat her grapes in a free range style. After that she was more willing to be strapped into a seat again.
While we let her play before bedtime she started spinning in place. She then would stumble and tumble onto her butt. I'm not sure where she got that from, but we all had a great time with it. She also grabbed my phone and was holding it up to her face while baby babbling at it. She would then poke at the phone before repeating the process.
During Thanksgiving at Barb's place we had some help keeping an eye on Miss Spud by Charlotte. Miss Spud kept trying to go up and down stairs or get into everything. Charlotte is 7 currently and had a great time helping keep track of Miss Spud. Miss Spud didn't eat a lot because she just wanted to play with everything and go up and down the stairs. Later in the evening Charlotte made her a bracelet and Miss Spud left it on for quite some time. I put it in my pocket when she took it off and handed it to me. It fell out of my pocket on the trip home, so there was a bit of panicked messaging and searching in the morning.
She is still very curious about everything around her. She has started pointing at things and we have started naming them. She will sometimes point at a car and go "ah" or "ar". I'm sure Shane would love it if her first word was Car.
Week 66:
We had a big day on Saturday. We went to the Augusta Expo for the gun show. Miss Spud got a Velcro patch and a red Christmas bow for free as we walked around. She was having fun just looking at most of it, but then got squiggly. We let her walk around some, but she kept trying to dart in front of people, just like Tank does. She was not happy when we picked her up again.
I had to be mean to her because she was drifting off for her nap about 9 minutes away from the cabin. We knew she wouldn't go back to sleep with that little sleep so I did everything I could to keep her awake. Squishing her thighs worked for a while, but then I had to start tickling her armpits because that wasn't enough to keep her awake. She was amused for most of the time, but when we were about 2 minutes away she started complaining. We got her into her sleep stuff but she put up some of a fight before taking her nap.
Later in the day we went over to Tom and Janie's place. He was making his Beast Feast and we didn't want to miss out. The dogs got locked in the bedroom because the friendliest was eating cow poop earlier, some had rolled in cow poop, one doesn't like children, and the others are somewhere between. Miss Spud loved watching them on the back porch when Janie let them all out.
She did not want to sit still for the dinner, but she did eat some deer paté during the appetizer portion of the night. The rest of the time she had fun playing in the dog's water bowl, opening and closing every cabinet she could, trying to rearrange Tom's spices, and stacking and unstacking plastic taco holders.
I had bought her a pair of toddler sock-shoes. This way we can let her do more walking outside when it's wet or cold. She wasn't totally sure what to make of them, but got the hang of walking in them pretty quickly. She kept taking one off and handing it to me so I could put it back on her.
At dinner on Sunday she got ahold of Bill's fork and tried to skewer her meatball with it. She was able to get it on somewhat, but had more luck with her broccoli. After getting her broccoli on the fork she would pull it off with the other hand and eat it.
On Monday I went back to being "mean Mommy" and enforcing her nap time and not letting her play too long at bedtime. All she wanted to do was to play with the Olight Sphere Bill got for her at the gun show.
She is very good at waving Hi and Bye at home, but not always when we are out. She is getting better at it.
On Thursday I gave her some meatballs and broccoli for dinner. When she was mostly done she grabbed a piece of broccoli out of her mouth, threw it on her plate, and started yelling while grabbing at her tongue. I don't know if there was possibly too much pepper on that one piece or what happened. I had to shove some banana in her mouth before she would calm down. I thought that would help if it was too intense. She later put that piece back in her mouth and ate it just fine.
We woke up to a bit of snow on Friday. I bundled her up in a long sleeve onesie, the sweater Andrea made her, pants, socks, shoes, and her Spud jacket that Steven got her. We went outside and she wasn't sure about stepping on the snow. I had to take her onto it. She had troubles getting back up after she plopped down because every time she put her hands down to get back up the snow was cold on them.
She walked all the way down our street and a quarter of the way back, which was over a quarter of a mile. She snuggled into me as we walked back. However, she had a full meltdown when I took off her shoes and put her jacket away after getting back home. It started again when I took her sweater off. She ended up napping in her clothes because she wouldn't let me take anything else off without yelling, crying, and kicking.
When she wants a snack or is ready for a meal, I've been trying to get her to sign Eat instead of just signing More. She will sign it half the time and the other half she smiles at me and chomps her teeth. We are working on Drink/Water, but usually she just signs More for that.
After dinner she saw me go on my computer and wanted to help. We watched an Evan and Katelyn video where they fixed their Furby robot dog, Coco. Once that was done I tried to get her to come back into the play space with me, but she didn't want to. Since I had abandoned my computer chair she climbed right into it. I spun her around some and she kept asking for more. At one point Tank needed something, so while I was gone she hopped off, got her snack cup, and climbed back on. I didn't want to spin her too much, but she was having a great time.
Week 67:
We went out to Bourbon Boulevard for dinner. Miss Spud always loves their broccolini. She had some of my lobster ravioli and a lot of bread with butter. At one point she started throwing everything onto the floor, so she started losing the use of things. She was mesmerized by the various drink and tomahawk steak shows she saw while we were there.
At one point at home I was resting my knee on a chair while standing next to it. Miss Spud then started poking my foot and trying to hold the bottom up to her face, like it was a phone. She had to do it a few times before I caught on to what she was doing.
Her electronic crab only seems to only actually charge when hooked up to my computer. She grabbed him, while he was charging, at one point and managed to crawl onto my computer chair behind me while I was sitting in it. I was impressed because she went under my arm rest to get up while holding the crab.
I was letting her play behind me on my computer chair because I wasn't worried about her sliding out of the back of the chair when she would plop down. At one point she kept insisting on standing on the arm of my chair. She wanted me to flip her over my shoulder. I had to carry her into the next room to be able to flip her onto something soft.
She has learned that she can hold onto the arm of my computer chair while putting her feet on the edge of the seat to pull herself up. She has also figured out how to slide out under the arm and rotate so she can get down if I'm sitting on it.
I had a hair splinter in my foot and couldn't spot it, so I was trying to use some painters tape to get it out. I stuck one of the pieces to her forehead. She took another piece from me and put it on her tummy. She ended up with one more on her shin and on her arm. When I put her shirt on it pulled on the one on her forehead and she looked really concerned until she felt that it was still there.
We went to the mall and walked around a bit. She mostly wanted to follow people or go into Dick's Sporting Goods store. She had a fun time looking at the capsule toy vending machines. She wasn't impressed by where Santa is during the day. It was horrible when I wouldn't let her try and go up the downward escalator. She had the best time when we found an arcade. We "played" a sit-down version of Space Invaders, but I think the light floor game was her favorite. We stayed there so long that they closed the doors to the mall. We ended up walking along the outside for about a quarter of the mall before we could get back in. After that we just had to walk the length of the mall and back out to our car.
She is so smart. She wanted to play with a toy on the rocking chair in her room. She knows she can climb on the crate next to it to get in, but that climbing is harder when holding something. She then placed her toy on the chair from the front before going around and climbing up.
She loves it when Bill will hold a piece of cloth over his face and goes Aahhh when she moves it. She has even held it in front of her own face and moved it before.
She was being sneaky with her nose honks. She was honking my nose with one hand and then tried to poke my eyeball with the other. When it didn't work, she tried switching hands.
We've noticed that she has been quicker to getting frustrated and yelling recently. On Friday I noticed that she has a set of teeth coming in on the top and the bottom. Four teeth coming in all at once can't be fun.
Week 68:
She had a lot of fun at the Saturday craft group. She ate all of her banana and snack wrap in record time. Then it was time to open and close all cabinets, play with the toys, try and steal a bunch of cookies, and try and take someone's purse. At one point she had grabbed a pencil and was drawing on some paper. She grabbed someone's purse and put it around her neck like a necklace. It was proving to be a tripping hazard at first, but then she worked it out.
She has been more inclined to randomly scream lately. On our way up to Ohio she got her socks off, threw one like it bit her, and then screamed.
She got to meet a dog who sniffed her face when we stopped at the Breezewood Travel Plaza. She kept pointing at the dog but didn't want to pet it. During the trip she ate a whole sour candy strip and we played a lot of Peek-a-boo.
She spent most of the evening/night of our first night at Grandma F's house either opening cabinets or dipping a piece of dry cat food into the cats' water bowl.
When she was playing with an egg and chick toy they fell on the floor. She started crying and needed a snuggle. We all assured her that none of them were hurt and that everything was okay. She also spiked one on the ground later and didn't worry about that at all.
During our stay she got to hang out with her Uncle Laurence. She would take the top off the shape sorter to show it's a lot easier to put everything in the bucket that way.
Miss Spud and Mimi weren't sure what to make of each other at first. Miss Spud wasn't sure about getting kisses from Mimi. It took a bit of playing with a ball to let them warm up to each other, though Miss Spud wanted to hand the ball over gently and Mimi wanted to chase it. At one point Miss Spud found a paper towel and wanted to play peekaboo with Mimi. Miss Spud was nice enough to share her breakfast with Mimi as well. Miss Spud thought it was funny when Mimi would run past her.
We could tell they were both getting tired when Mimi was paying less attention to where Miss Spud was. Miss Spud was getting really grumpy when Mimi was knocking her over with her butt.
She was disappointed when she didn't get to play with Mimi in the morning. She also didn't want to leave Grandma F's house.
We stopped on the turnpike and she was having fun. She hit a bunch of buttons on the arcade machines. During our wanderings she went into both bathrooms. The man she was following had to grab her for me because she was a bit too fast when running into the men's room. Though from the timing, she would have run into Bill as he was washing his hands.
She finally fell asleep, about two hours after her usual nap time when we were on the road. However, she was also trying to snack. Her eyes were closed and it took 3 tries to get the piece of Chex cereal into her mouth. She crunched it a few times before falling fully asleep.
Her first night at Aunt Fern's Miss Spud used a baby fork fully correctly for the first time. She cut a blackberry with her spoon. After she tried to stab her blackberry with her spoon a second time I handed her the fork. She then got her blackberry onto the fork and ate it from the end. She thought the cherry tomato half I gave her was a raspberry and spit it out after biting it. Luckily she handed it to me and didn't throw it on the floor.
She discovered that she could reach Bill's feet where we put her playard in the living room. She also talked to herself before falling asleep.
Bill was most excited about her playing with his old wooden train set. She wasn't old enough to understand what to do last year, but she's a lot bigger now. She did have a good time playing with it some. There is a magnet on a string that she claimed as a necklace.
She wasn't able to climb into the chairs at Aunt Fern's as much because they were taller. She convinced Aunt Fern to give her lots of flavored water. She was able to put the cap back on after some trial and error.
Before I got up she managed to convince Aunt Fern to let her have free-range macaroni and cheese. She ate a ball of it bigger than her fist and managed to make only a small mess.
We went to Target and got a toddler sled for Miss Spud, so of course it rained the rest of the day. We kept hoping it would stop so she could do the double hill out behind Aunt Fern's house. However it kept going and melted the snow too much.
She liked watching Family Feud because of all the clapping. She also liked how she could get Aunt Fern to turn her table lamp on and off repeatedly. She has started having an upward inflection in her Ah! for On and a downward one for Off.
She dumped some to all of the cat's water so she could help clean it up.
We went to Lansing Brewing Company for lunch, it's becoming a tradition. I got the Olive Burger and Miss Spud got some as well. She was talkative and ate everything we shared with her.
We all wished hard enough for snow, but not enough snow. It was enough to pull her along in her sled, but not enough for her to slide all the way down in one go.
On our last night she was shown that one of the ornaments she can see from the table is a bell. She decided that the cardinal bell Christmas ornament was going to be the dinner bell. It got rung about 10 times during dinner.
We considered two different light shows. The first was on foot, but it was too cold and windy for us. The other was by car but we couldn't figure out how to get tickets and didn't want to risk driving out there and not being able to get in.
Week 69: First Part
On our last morning Miss Spud went over to the cabinet where the cereal was being kept. She then pointed to it so her snack cup could be filled. She then pointed out where to put them back.
She managed to grab an apple when I had to move the bag to get something in the car. She ate a bunch of it before falling asleep 10 minutes before we got to our hotel.
She kept trying to eat her crayons at Tapville. When her Mac 'n' cheese came out she dove right in. She even dipped a fry in ketchup. For the first few dips she sucked the ketchup off the fry, then she had both together. After that she decided she liked the ketchup more and just grabbed it with her hands. She loved the ketchup enough that she dipped her Mac 'n' cheese in it. She did very well eating out of the bowls her food came in from the restaurant.
Since she was very thoroughly covered in cheese sauce and got me fairly coated in cheese sauce, I decided that we should take a shower when we got back to the room. I know she doesn't like the water hitting her head, but there is only so much you can clean with wipes and napkins. She peed the second I closed the door, but that was easy to deal with. She kept stepping away from the water when I was soaping up her or myself, so she would start shivering. To rinse off I held her and put both of us under the water. As long as it didn't rain down on her head or into her face, she liked it.
She got to try a tube popsicle on Sunday after we got home. She started by licking and biting the outside. She wasn't sure about it when Bill opened it for her and pushed some up. We thought she was done with it, but then she went back for more. Bill had to help her push it up because she wanted to try and open it more with her fingers. It took a bit, but she ate about a third of it before she fussed. We think she got brain freeze.
We heard a loud thump and then crying that was getting louder. She had somehow managed to get herself out of her crib and gravity was not kind to her about it. Bill met her down the hallway and once she was calm I started lowering her mattress. Bill had to get the last screw because it was too tight for me. My guess is that she used her chair climbing skills but didn't realize that there was nothing to actually support her at the top.
In the morning her right wrist was a bit swollen and she cried if she put weight on it or tried to pick up something with some weight to it. She would still use it, like to point or pick up Cheerios. We called her pediatrician and they got us in same day.
3:45 - The doctor said she looked good except for her wrist. We were then sent to the ER to get imaging done.
4:50 - While checking in a nurse came out to check how bad her wrist looked to gauge how quickly we needed to be seen. Since it's nothing crazy and there were no "deformities" we were just placed in line. It was a pretty busy place. She liked the sweater of the person next to us because it had jingle bells and lights.
5:40 - It took almost an hour to get triaged. The doctor said that this reminded her that she needs to lower her son's mattress. Miss Spud got some liquid ibuprofen before we got to wait to get an X-ray done.
Got talking to one of the check-in people. She said that over the weekend they see 5-10 patients per day, but for some reason everyone waits until Monday. She said that the doctors sometimes have to bring equipment out to the waiting room to triage people because of how busy it can get.
6:15 - Got a few X-rays taken. Miss Spud was mesmerized by the machine and it went quickly.
6:50 - I talked to the doctor and she said "There are mildly displaced and dorsally angulated distal and radial and small adjacent distal ulnar buckle fracture. There is associated soft tissue swelling. There is no focal bony lesion." Then Romy put a temporary splint/cast on her arm. She watched what he was going very intently. I had to hold her arm while it hardened. He also added some extra tape to dissuade her from taking the wrap and split off. We were told many times to not let it get wet, and that if it did, we would have to come back and get a new one.
7:15 - I was given the discharge papers and got to go home. Everyone was impressed by how well behaved and smiley she was. Everyone poked at the rest of her at the two appointments, but no one was concerned about anything other than her swollen wrist and her avoidance of using it too much.
I got her dinner as soon as I could, but when we got home she has reached her patience quota. She had a meltdown because she couldn't eat snacks the way she was used to.
We got her an appointment with the orthopedic specialist the next day. I had been warned to not be surprised if they didn't want to see her until Friday or Monday to let the swelling go down some.
At the appointment we got to see the first X-ray. The doctor said that at her age as long as the "bones are in the same zip code, they will find each other and straighten out as they grow." She said that if there had been more swelling they may have waited. With her cast, they had to put it farther up the arm to help stabilize everything, but she did get more use of her fingers. I picked light blue for her. She was again, fascinated by the process. When the first layer was setting up and the doctor was molding it to her arm she got concerned and wiggly. The person working the cast said that she was his best patient that day, no joke. The boy in the space next to us had a worse break because he was a lot more uncomfortable during his process and when in the waiting room it looked like he didn't have the use of his right hand. He ended up with the same color cast that Miss Spud did. His sister shared her Cheese-Its with Miss Spud.
Once her cast was done they took another round of X-rays. Nothing shifted horribly so it was good to go. It was suggested to us to tape a diaper at the top of the cast, under whatever plastic thing we are using, that way it will absorb any water that might drop down while giving her a bath. The guy at the ER had suggested umbrella covers.
