Monday, November 18, 2013

Clara 18 months

18 months old . . . November 2, 2013!





Loves:
Anything musical and/or with lights
Swinging at the park
Knocking on the doors/windows
Playing in the mirror
Books - I am loving that she is loving books so much these days!
Bath time - the girl could spend hours in the bath and be perfectly content!

Does Not Love:
Dogs barking
Toilets flushing
Babies crying and/or children screaming/shrieking (even if they are happy screams/shrieks)
When the entire congregation claps at church, or like setting
Diaper changes (think she is still recovering from when we had to lay her down and give meds over and over again, during the week of molar craziness)
When we take her from her toys to go eat, get in the car, etc. She totally throws a pity party, ha!


Love this side shot of her hair. . . 


Sleeping:
Now that we are passed the molar madness (for now anyway) her sleeping habits are back to normal! She goes down around 7:30 or 8pm and wakes anytime between 6-8:30am. She takes one nap a day, beginning between 12-1pm and she will sleep for a solid 2-3 hours.

Schedule at 18 months:
6-8:30am - Wake for the day (her wake time varies daily)
Breakfast & milk shortly after waking
Play, play, play
11:30am or so - Lunch
Play a little bit more
12 or 1pm - Nap begins, she will sleep a solid 2-3 hours (she also gets milk before nap)
Snack after waking from nap and then we play, run errands etc for the rest of the afternoon
5:30 or so - Dinner
Playtime with daddy! Bath time etc.
7:30pm - 8pm - Bedtime
**Therapy obviously thrown into the mix several days a week!**



Eating:
Y'all - her eating has exploded this month. Thankyoulordforthisgoodgift. Here is a list of what she will eat & SWALLOW as of today. Our plan is to keep trying new foods each week!! Now. . .  she is not yet at the point of totally feeding herself all of these items (meaning, I still have to cut up most everything really small and hand them to her one at a time - if too much is on her tray she will become overwhelmed, have a meltdown and not eat), but right now I DON'T CARE BECAUSE SHE IS SWALLOWING THE FOOD! Can I get an amen?

Strawberries
Peaches (small ones from the fruit cups)
Bananas
Cheerios
String cheese
Goldfish
Graham crackers
Veggie sticks (the chips that are made from veggies, not actual raw veggies, ha)
Toddler spaghetti-os
Cooked carrots and peas (although peas are hit or miss)
Cooked noodles (again must be small and in some type of sauce)
Cereal bars (her fav is anything apple cinnamon flavor)
Pancakes (tried for the first time Sunday!)
Stuffing (totally random, but we had a Thanksgiving feast with our church small group and we decided to give it a try. She was LOVING it and taking bite after bite off of Brandon's fork!)

We are also working on a straw sippy cup (patience and practice are the name of the game. . . easier said than done some most days).

She still won't really swallow meat. Other than cheese (and yogurt) any recommendations for protein? I tried putting some peanut butter on her pancake this morning and she did ok. Might try scrambled eggs this week. Other ideas from you experienced mommas?

Development:
Clara is pulling to stand on just about anything. She even just learned how to pull up in her crib! She is able to side step up and down the couch or ottoman and is growing more confident each day! She is not quite cruising or anything like that, but you can tell she really wants to make it happen! In therapy we are focusing on getting her cruising, using two hands to manipulate items, and passing one object from hand to hand. We are also working on social interaction and communication cues, even though she is non verbal.

And as mentioned, her eating has exploded this month!


Love that she squints her eyes when she sports a big smile . . . 


Therapy news & misc:
Clara goes to OT twice a week, on Monday and Tuesday mornings. ECI also comes to our home once a week (day/time changes weekly based on our caseworkers schedule).

We just recently learned that our insurance has APPROVED our appeal for speech therapy. Thank you, Lord!! This was a long, hard fight but worth it! Clara goes for her initial speech evaluation on December 10th. At the eval, the therapist will decide how frequently she will need sessions.

We are still awaiting blood work results from the whole genome sequencing that was done earlier this year (blood work was done on all three of us in July).

She was fitted for glasses this past Friday. They will come in, in about two weeks. Please pray for us. She was fighting every step of the appt. - from holding the lenses up, to shining the light in her eyes, to the actual dilation, to the fitting and measuring. Major. Meltdowns. Dr said most kids fight the glasses for the first 2-3 days and then they accept them. She mentioned that for our sweet Clara, we can expect a fight for about a week or tad longer. Again, prayers please!! I will be sure and post pics once the glasses arrive!

Stats from her well check earlier this month:
Height - 31.5 inches (41%)
Weight - 21.5 pounds (33%)
HC - 17.01 inches (0%) - While some professionals are more concerned with her Microcephaly, her pediatrician is not, so we are thankful. 
BMI - 15.1 kg/m2

Think she's had enough pic taking for one day. . . Look says it all. 


Adventures:
We are excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas this year! It will be fun having a toddler that is a little more aware and into the festivities! We will be with Brandon's family for Thanksgiving and mine for Christmas day. Can't wait!

7 comments

  1. Grandma FrecklesNovember 18, 2013

    I was absolutely so excited and thrilled to read this post and the improvements Clara has made! Overjoyed with you that you all weathered the first really rough patch with cutting molars which obviously led to her explosion of trying and eating new foods. So thankful that insurance has approved the extra support and will look forward to watching Clara change even more when she is really able to "see" and experience more things around her. She melts my heart and I love how she is making such great strides in her development. I can't wait to spend time with all of you at Thanksgiving. We are totally blessed!

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  2. Happy 18 months, Clara, and WTG on the food progress!! (As for protein, could you try black beans or some other kind of beans?)

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  3. Yay, Clara!!!! So excited to hear she is doing SO MUCH BETTER with her food.

    As far as protein goes, I would recommend any kind of beans (you will of course probably want to cut them into smaller pieces for her), almond butter, and/or sunflower seed butter (we buy ours at Trader Joe's). To thin out the consistency of the nut/seed butters, I usually put a small layer of coconut butter/oil on toast/crackers/pancakes (melts immediately), followed by a little bit of almond butter or sunflower butter. Ellie loves it! But, as you know, this is what works for us…maybe Clara won't be crazy about these new food combos (and that's ok!).

    Will be praying for you guys and the transition to classes. I can't wait to see pics of her in them. So cute!

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  4. So exciting to see Clara make such great strides! Protein is a big issue in our house, too. Cam refuses to eat meat. We do a lot of Greek yogurt, cottage cheese and peanut butter for protein around here. Happy 18 months!!

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  5. Precious girl!!! Can't believe she is getting so big & so thankful she is making so many awesome improvements! My suggestion was going to be beans as well. Emma is rarely a meat eater. Bean are hit or miss with her, but worth a try!

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  6. Happy 1.5 years, sweet Clara! And hooray for all the progress! Will be praying for the glasses transition… still can't wait to see pics :)

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  7. She is such a sweetie! Scrambled eggs were a staple protein for my 2 year old for a long time (no milk or anything added, just spray a coffee cup with pam, whip with a fork, microwave for 20-30 seconds, whip with fork, 20-30 more seconds and cool - fast and easy!) Other ideas: greek yogurt has a ton of protein - the dannon light & fit is really tasty. Cheese (my daughter loves baby bell for some reason) and lots of beans (black beans, kidney beans are Maddie's faves.)

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