Happy Easter!

What a busy week, but wonderful to see so many family members and celebrate Easter.

Rose and I got to spend some extra time together this week. I started out Monday morning by going to work, but kept debating my decision and felt worried that if the snow became worse I might not be able to get Rose. So, I used some vacation time and took an early day. Extra time with Rose is always worth it and although the snow did not get any worse, I felt happy knowing we were home safe and together J

We also enjoyed having Papa and Nana bring dinner on Wednesday and celebrate Easter due to our busy plans this weekend. Rose did not mind getting her Easter basket, I mean wheelbarrow, early!

We also ended the week with a full day on Friday together since it is a paid holiday for me, YAY! Justin got home at decent time so we went to the farmer's market so I could make a HUGE breakfast for my sister and her gang on Saturday morning who were coming up for the weekend. Rose also got an early birthday gift.

Aunt Laura and the cousins came up to celebrate Grandma Bechtel’s 87 birthday this weekend. It was a family reunion for the Bechtel family as we all got together Saturday night to celebrate my grandma. I have so many special memories from my childhood with her including making homemade peanut butter eggs! I have made them several times since getting married and decided that this would be a perfect gift for grandma. I made them Thursday and coated them Friday. I hope in years to come Rose will enjoy making them with me. You know I am usually really good about linking recipes to share, but this one’s a family secret ;)

Eggs in process...                                                                                

Ready to enjoy!

We kept Rose's Easter basket pretty simple this year, more finger paint and some new books :) We LOVE the Sandra Boynton books and Rose had me read Barnyard Dance 5 times, before we could switch to a new one. 

We had Easter dinner with Justin’s family and his grandparents who came down from New York. 

AND Rose went on the potty for the first time this week on Tuesday, first with grandma and then here at home. But Wednesday was a bust with not a single success on the potty… We had better luck the rest of the week and Saturday was another great potty day, with only 2 wet diapers. I think Rose understands the concept, but sometimes would just rather play! Anyway, we’ve started this journey so we’ll see how it goes J

On another ‘big girl’ adventure, we tried weaning Rose from her paci's. Since Christmas we have strictly limited it to nap and bedtime (ok, when she was sick, we let her have it a bit more) and now that 2 is fast approaching I really wanted it to be done. Rose had 4 paci’s left in her crib and each night we have been asking Rose to throw 1 away which she has without a fuss.  I have to admit when it came to the last one I was dreading throwing it away. SO, I had Justin poke holes in it! We asked Rose if she wanted to keep it or throw it away, she threw it away. Rose slept Thursday night without one, YAY! Friday for her nap, she fell asleep, but woke up after 35 minutes screaming :( Friday night she also slept without a paci. Saturday Rose refused to nap, she kept asking for 'out' of her crib and screaming. We tried rocking her to sleep, laying down with her, but nothing. Finally when we left for Grandma's birthday party she fell asleep in the car. Justin and I decided that maybe the 'done by 2' with a paci was more my thing than looking at Rose as an individual child and what she was ready for, so we gave back a paci on Saturday night and WOW was she happy :). BUT, Sunday she wouldn't nap either and again fell asleep in the car on the way to Easter dinner. I wouldn't mind if Rose gave up a nap because she didn't need it anymore, but Rose was exhausted and just wouldn't sleep.  I hope this week, Grandma gets her back on schedule or I don't know what we'll do. We will also still work on ending the paci...it might be in 2 months it might be another 6. 

Weekly Wrap-Up and 23 Months!

We got lots of projects done this week and weekend.

Monday night we finished off the wall above Rose’s crib. In typical Heather Style, this wall has undergone several different designs, but I *think* we are finally done! Luckily there are plenty of other walls I get to still design J

The wording on the wall says 'Let her SLEEP, for when she wakes, she will move mountains'. I am also really happy to have a place to display some of Rose's newborn pictures since our living room now has all one year photos

Rose has also been in a really happy mood all week. I think she is finally feeling better both from being sick and getting more teeth. We had lots of fun playing with a variety of her toys and also because I am in the midst of another project, we got out some of Rose’s baby clothing that I am saving and Rose LOVED putting them on her dolls and even herself J

This little outfit is a size 3 months and was one of my FAVORITE outfits for Rose to wear. She was able to wear it through most of the summer of her first year. It *almost* still fits ;)

Rose also got to enjoy some time with special people. On Friday night Aunt Kate came to play and have dinner. We had lots of fun with Kate and it was nice to have another adult in the home to talk with and to take a turn running after Rose.

Since we are on a 2 week break from music class, Grandpa and Grandma picked Rose up on Saturday morning for a breakfast date!

I also got a e-mail from Annie Eats on Saturday with a recipe for Banana Scones with Browned Buttered Icing. I am a total sucker for anything with browned butter, so while Rose was off, I made them. I think they are really yummy and a nice change for a breakfast items.

Saturday evening I had a special Easter craft for Rose. I didn’t think she would really be into dipping eggs in dye yet, so when I found this on Pinterest, I knew it would be a hit! At first Rose wasn’t so sure of the shaving cream feeling, but by the end she was smashing it and totally covered!

Just to prove Rose is sooo like her mother, first I blinked....

then Rose did :)

Today Rose has reached another milestone: 23 Months!!!

This is it, the countdown until Rose reaches 2! I am happy to report that party plans are underway and I *think* manageable! After we get out the invitations I will probably feel a bit more panicked, but so far so good J

So here’s the update on Rose’s development:

-Rose is matching colors and will pick requested colors from 2-3 choices. She is also matching a puzzle with 8 different shapes.

-Rose is pointing to items and seems to be using deduction to point to less familiar items when requested. She is also using the signs and words she knows to label things she sees.

- Rose continues to LOVE birds and will use the sign for ‘bird’ when she sees one outside

-Rose is enjoying all things sweet and can say ‘candy’, not this mama’s favorite thing for her, but in moderation she does get her candy!

-Rose is still not interested in TV and will watch about 5 minutes of a show before preferring to play with her dolls or look at book, this mama LOVES that!

-Rose is able to unscrew the top of the toothpaste and insists on brushing her teeth several times a day

-Rose continues to be a pretty good eater and great sleeper

-Rose is social when around other children and participates in story time and music group

- Rose is growing! She has started to wear some 24month/2 T clothes this past week

-Rose is using more words, I think we are up to about 10 pretty consistent words and some others that will pop out

Weekly Wrap-Up

I am happy to report that Rose and I are feeling much better (I will get to Justin later...).

This weekend Rose and I spent lots of time driving places, mostly just the two of us girls.
On Saturday we all got back to our weekly farmer's market trip

And Rose and I attended the last Music Together class for the winter session (spring session starts in April and we are enrolled for more music fun!).

We also enjoyed an early St Patty's Day treat...cupcakes! I know there are cupcake places all over, but so far, my favorite cupcakes come from Delish in West Reading :)

 Rose also thought it was fun that there was more snow on Saturday, though when asked if she wanted to go out with daddy, she shook her head 'no'.

So we stayed inside and played vet with Tahnee. Although Tahneee got to be the one with the stethoscope :)

Saturday night we celebrated my brother's 29th birthday and Papa and Nana stayed with sleeping Rose. Justin and I didn't get home until midnight! I can't remember the last time we were up that late.

To get started Sunday morning Rose helped make some yummy green smoothies. (I freeze the bananas and then don't add any ice. I also skip the vanilla extract).

After Rose's speech session, we went up to the Lehigh Valley Mall, because I had a coupon for Stride Rite and there were some other stores I wanted to check out.

So here's where our productive weekend met an end. During Rose's session Justin said he got something in his eye and went to remove it. He and I both looked and couldn't find anything after rinsing his eye out, but he complained that it hurt a lot. I said we could skip the shopping trip, but he wanted to 'walk it off'. By the time we got close to the mall it still really hurt so we stopped at CVS for some drops and Rose and I went shopping while he waited in the Jeep. The only reason I wanted to go to Stride Rite was because Rose has been going through shoes every 2-3 months and I wanted to see if we could skip the half sizes to get a little more wear out of the shoes. Long story short I did get her measured again and decided to skips the halves, but they had nothing in stock I wanted, so we left the mall with nothing :(

 I made Justin go to an Urgent Care Center while I took care of Rose's lunch and nap. After about an hour he was home, as a pirate!

Justin scratched his cornea and was told to rest for the day and hopefully by Monday he would be back to normal.

The easiest way to rest around our house is without Rose around, so Rose and I went off again.
First we went to Barnes and Noble because this mommy needed a cappuccino and Rose can always use a new book. (On a side note, Rose ate this entire apple)

Rose and I then went down to Nana and Papa's for dinner and to celebrate Nana's birthday tomorrow! I think Rose was getting tired of all the car seat pictures, but I actually really love her squinty look when she is annoyed with me :)

Have a great week! Maybe soon everyone in our home will be healthy :)

Weekly Wrap-Up

This post will be brief, I am FINALLY starting to feel better and there is lots of stuff I need to get done.

Wednesday- I woke up with a fever (can't remember the last time I had one of those) so I stayed home and made a doctor appointment. By lunch time Rose also had a runny nose and fever, so Papa took us both to the doctor. Luckily Rose still has not had a single ear infection :), but we were both placed on medicine and told it would take 48-72 hours before we started to feel any better.

Thursday- I stayed home to rest and Rose went to grandma's. It's really hard to rest with a cough and runny nose, but I did take it pretty easy and dad brought me some chicken noodle soup :) Rose, however, would not let a cold slow her down and when she came home, I rocked her for 2 hours while she took a late afternoon nap.

Friday- We decided to take a family sick day. Justin went to work in the morning, but was home by lunch to care of his sick girls. I held Rose for a 3 hour nap in the morning and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Let me tell you, she is no longer a baby! She is heavy and hangs off my lap with her big girl legs.

Saturday- I think we all started to show some signs of improvement. It was hard to be too energetic though, since someone wakes up coughing about every hour at night, we hadn't slept well in days... Rose did enjoy the warmer weather and sunshine a little bit.

Sunday- Rose again took a 2 hour nap in my arms in the morning, but did lay down for an afternoon nap in her crib. She and daddy spent a bunch of time outside in the fresh air and we totally cleaned and sanitized the house!! Hopefully this is it for sickness this season.

Weekly Wrap-Up

The highlight of this week was Rose’s annual Early Intervention Evaluation. We had Rose’s first evaluation at 10 months because I was concerned with her lack of consistent babbling and no consonant-vowel sounds. I knew she would qualify for services and lucky her, her mom knows ALL about the program. Rose started with every other week speech therapy and around 6 months in we increased it to weekly as we were able to start to get more out of her. We have tried LOTS of strategies to increase her language. Around November something clicked and she popped out with her first consistent, spontaneous, repetitive consonant-vowel word ‘go’! I think that is so fitting for out active little girl J Since then she has added new sounds, words, and we have supplemented with signs.

Wednesday my co-workers came out to our home to complete the evaluation. Honestly, I knew exactly what was going to happen (I go to evaluations for kiddos every week!) but, I was a little nervous. We use a standardized test to compare kiddos with a group of peers their same age in months. If a child shows a 25% or greater delay or has a qualifying diagnosis (Club Foot, Torticollis, Down Syndrome) they are eligible to receive services. Rose has no diagnoses, so we are just looking for that 25% delay. Rose did FANTASTIC! The test is used to show if there is a delay so once a child reaches their age in months, there really isn't a reason to go any farther. Rose was 22 months last Sunday, so that is the age they tested her at. She rated at 31 months in fine motor and probably could have gone a bit father! She came out at or above age level in each area EXCEPT for language. There are two parts of the language area: receptive (what is understood) and expressive (what is said). In the receptive area she rated at 29 months (woohoo) and in the expressive she improved from last year and was at 14 months (so at least is wasn't 50% delay this time). 

We were very happy with the evaluation and plan for continued services… yes, that may seem like a bit backward, being happy that Rose does have a delay, BUT we are happy that we are being active in working on a plan to increase Rose’s expressive language and SO happy with all the progress she has made during this past year. 

But numbers are just numbers and don't describe how awesome Rose really is to us. So to close this entry out here are 4 things we think are way wonderful about our little girl:

1. Rose has amazing fine motor skills as seen with this mature grasp of her marker. 

2. Rose is super social and loving (this one is my favorite!)

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3. Rose is always amazing us with the new things she is learning (here she was finding letters with Elmo)

4. Rose is very creative and enjoys playing with toys that allow her to pretend