Last night right after we sat down for dinner and prayed, and I filled Maddie's tray with another home cooked meal, she said this:

"Thank you for making this dinner Mama."

Awww, it was so sweet in her little voice 2 year old voice. Sometimes, a little appreciation goes a long way towards reminding you why you work so hard as a mom. Brittany and Cameron are do such a good job of this, expressing their appreciation and telling me thank you. This is the first time Maddie has said anything like this, and unprompted at that.

(brag alert: no, I did not translate that. She said it exactly like that, in a complete and clear sentence.)

Check and Check

I checked two things off of my to-do list, and I feel relieved. I have said before that we don't live in the best neighborhood right now, so naturally I have been concerned about the quality of the elementary school that Taylor would be attending this August. I am ecstatic to report that we will not have to move!
(Actually, I want to move. To a better place. But it is not in our immediate financial future to afford a better place, though I was fully planning to make it work somehow if the school sucked.)
Actually what I am happy to report is that the school is awesome! It is new and also was named an "Exemplary" School for 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. She and I have been talking about Kindergarten a lot lately, and we are both excited.
Also, I found out that Taylor can receive some help with her speech issues through the school district starting at age 3 (thanks, Mom!). She does not have to wait until she starts kindergarten. I have an appointment in April (good thing I called now, because that's how far off the first available date was) to have her tested by the special ed department, and they will determine what kind of help she needs and how to help her. I am happy to finally be making progress on getting Taylor what she needs.

Aaarrrggghhh!

No, I'm not a pirate. I just realized I sounded like one when I said that out loud.

I have to say, this Maddie-being-able-to-get-out-of-her-bed thing is really, incredibly frustrating. Turns out the crib does not convert to a toddler bed (huh..I thought they all did, except for the cheap ones and this one wasn't). Of course we didn't learn this until Corey had removed the side and searched the garage for the little rail. So, the rail went back on, and now I just have it in the lowered position. She sleeps like a monkey every which direction, so we can't just leave the rail off. I'm sure she would fall out (Corey says it's not that far, she won't be hurt. I say of course she won't but she will wake up and then wake me up) without anything there. Since I know she is going to scale the side it is better if she has a shorter height to climb and a shorter distance to fall, I decided to just leave the rail down for now, until we can get her a bed. It's kind of funny, actually, because she doesn't even try to hide the fact that she got out of her bed. She immediately turns the light on and by the time I get in there she is on the floor looking at a book or a puzzle. At least she knows not to pick a noisy toy! All kidding aside, bedtime (and naptime, too, though she doesn't get up as many times) is just not like it used to be in the good ol' days, when she was trapped in baby jail.

Maddieisms

"You are 'nnoying me." (annoying)

"That rirritating." (irritating)

"I cover your mouth so you stop talking."

I Had to Run the A/C Yesterday

It's February.



'Nuff said.

We Had A Good Run

The time I have been dreading has come. Maddie has started climbing over the crib rail and cracking her door open, looking for escape. Today when Corey gets home from work he will turn the crib into a toddler bed. I worried all night that she would break her arm when she hit the floor after launching herself over the rail. I have said many times that I will not let my child cry it out, no matter the age. So, for awhile there we were going back into Maddie's room every 10 minutes to sing another song, give another kiss, etc, for an hour until she finally went to sleep. I was tired of that, so a little over a month ago I put my foot down and brought that habit to an abrupt stop (without letting her cry herself into an exhausted slumber...yes, it's possible). We have had a good run with easy bedtime. After reading some books and singing some songs, I only had to go back into her room one time each night, and that was to get her up for her last potty (she goes before she gets into bed, but she always needs to go one more time). That's it. It still would take her awhile to fall asleep, but she never called us back in there after her "last potty". Bedtime was so easy. I watch "Supernanny", and I am shocked by the bedtime scenes, with the kids screaming and getting out of bed hundreds of times, the mothers sometimes having to sit on the floor in their room near the door, to keep them from screaming. And I thought, thank heavens I don't have to go through that. We have it easy. Well, toddler bed and Maddie running amok at bedtime, here we come.

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Happy 5th birthday to my sweet Taylor! You are caring, affectionate, creative, imaginative, smart, happy, loving, helpful and completely wonderful! I couldn't love you more if my life depended on it!

***please forgive the old picture, but this old computer still will not let me access My Computer to upload pictures from the memory card.

Speech Delay is Contagious

Taylor has possibly the cutest child-saying ever. EVER. Her Taylorism is "I can hear my heart beeping." She says beeping instead of beating. She says this often, and despite the fact that I tell her the correct way to say it every time, she continues saying it her way. Which is seriously adorble, so I don't mind. What I do mind however is that Maddie is starting to copy the way Taylor says things (duh, since they are together all day long). The problem is that Taylor has some speech problems, and though Maddie does not (I have gotten her to say things correctly when prodded), she imitates what she hears. For example, Taylor can't make the "T" sound, it comes out as a hard "C". Toilet is Coilet, toy is coy, and so on. She also makes the "D" sound as a hard "G". Unfortunately we can't do anything about the her need for speech therapy right now because the girls are now uninsured, and Corey makes too much money to qualify for help from the state. I really hate the fact that we have to wait to get her help until she starts school and can get speech therapy through the school district. I am working with Taylor as much as I can, I correct her every time she makes a sound incorrectly, but she just can't get her tongue to do what it is supposed to. I even went to a mommy speech therapy blog and tried to have Taylor do the exercises, but I'm not trained so she still struggles. I did read on this site that she is making the typical substitutions that other kids with a speech delay make. I feel like an awful mother making her start school already needing extra help. I fear that the teachers and other students will have trouble understanding her, and that will lead to frustration on all sides. We can understand pretty much every thing she says, but that's because we are with her all the time of course! It is becoming a bigger problem now that Maddie is making the same substitutions as Taylor despite the fact that she can make the correct sounds.

This is funny, though. Taylor says "gotfor" instead of "forgot". Maddie does the same, only because she hears her big sister. I constantly tell them the correct way to say it, but they persist with "gotfor".

A Whole Lot of Nothing

We are still here. I haven't posted in awhile because there is something wrong with this computer and I can't post any pictures. (For any of you computer whiz people out there, when I try to pull up "My Computer" a flashlight appears, moving back and forth, and then disappears with an error box popping up.) Without pictures, I have not much to say. Taylor turns 5 in a few days, and we are doing lots of talking about kindergarten coming up. She is super excited, as am I! Because of this health insurance deal, we have been talking about my going back to work when Taylor starts school so that we can afford insurance. What stinks about this country is that if my husband sat on his a** at home, we would qualify for government aid and insurance. But because he works hard, we can't have insurance. Really makes sense.
Anyway, we are all feeling better finally and are looking forward to a playdate both tomorrow and on Thursday.

Wish List Wednesday

For lack of anything more interesting to post, I am going to play along with Jennifer in her special Valentine's version of Wish List Wednesday. Go check her out!

~I am still using Corey's old work laptop, and it is slow, heavy, and I can't scroll using the touch pad (which is a bigger deal than you would think). Plus, it's not mine and I really shouldn't still have it.

~I would truly love to replace the 25 year old dresser we are using as a television stand in the living room with one of these!

~ My vacuum cleaner is way past it's prime, and I'm thinking that when I vacuum, it only picks up the dust and blows it out the other side. Since this is a "wish" list, I really want the Dyson Ball All Floors Upright. Ahh, what a dreamy vacuum cleaner. Ha!

It's Cold!

There is nothing much happening around here. We are cold, like the rest of the nation. There is such a strain on the power companies that they are rotating 30 minute outages throughout the city. It was great fun to lose electricity this morning at 7:30! Luckily, I had already brewed my coffee or there would have been a crisis. Here in Texas we are certainly not used to weather in the 'teens. However, I feel very lucky to be able to stay home where it's warm and not have to take the girls out in this. I'm feeling for all you working mothers out there! There are a few upsides to being a stay-at-home mom. Just kidding, being home with them is great. Most of the time. Ahem.

Nothing special going on with these pics, just wanted to liven up this boring post. Maddie demanded that I take a picture of her with her cat in her shirt yet again. Don't look too close at that second picture, because then you will see the greasy fried potatoes in the corner. Just look at the veggies. Thanks.