Life with Lemonade and Peach Tea..........

Well those are my new nick names for them. =) As they were playing the other day outside -Austin truly has the best spring time weather- I got the craving for old fashioned lemonade or ice cold peach tea. Looking at my two giggle boxes I thought, well there you have it- Refreshing Lemonade and Peach Tea! - totally different yet equally fantastic!

A quick update on my lovely ladies. Both are completely chatter boxes. In the last 4 weeks they have totally expanded their vocabulary, but mainly we can actually hold a conversation with them and know they understand. I love it! As I get ready in the morning they sit on the bathroom mat, eating Dora cereal chatting with me about the days events. Granted there are still moments of fighting over where to sit, who can touch Heidi, quick checks to make sure their cereal cups are equally full and the list can continue, but all of that quickly vanishes back to giggles and chats about what to do.

Mallory and Kelby are both still being seen by ECI. We continue to be blessed with wonderful therapist that are truly knowledgeable in their field of expertise. They girls will remain in that program until they turn 3. (sniff, sniff, don't want to think about how fast the next 7 mths will go!) At that time, if developmental services are still needed they will be seen by the school district. With all of that said though, they are developing so well. The girls annual evaluation was at the beginning of this month and in every area they are with in 4mths of their age group or above in some cases.

As far as potty training goes, I had huge hopes of Mallory catching on quickly and diapers going away. Granted thinking that our trips down the baby isle at HEB would be coming to an end was sad for this Momma, yet I still encouraged Mallory to wear her Dora panties proudly. ;) In the midst of praising Kelby for being Momma's big girl that could go all by herself, and still working with Mallory, Kelby began to really act out, bite aggressively and chew her nails at the cuticle. So as we pieced this puzzle together the thought crossed our minds that Kelby was not seeing being a big girl as a good thing, but more of as a punishment. Reluctantly we went back to diapers for her. This was seriously an adjustment in parenting for us, but as soon as we did her over aggressive behavior stopped, she began minding more, and her nails began to heal. In the whole process of figuring out the problem, we have redone sensory evaluations on both of the girls. Kelby has shown to have a very mild version of Sensory Integration Disorder. Both her occupational therapist and physical therapist feel that with catching it so early we can give her (and us) tools to use to help Kelby transition easier to new life stages. As we have slowly added new activities and techniques for bed time etc, we can already see a difference in her.

We continue to thank God for the miracle that the girls are. This is a teeny tiny drop in the big bucket of possible outcomes that they doctors gave us for Kelby. (you may remember that she was born with a grade 3 and 4 brain bleeds) If this is all we have to deal with, then bring it! Praise God for blessing our girls with the outstanding physicians, and therapist that work with them. Do not ever think a day goes by that we are not grateful and humbled for the care they have received!

Well I am off to clean house during what is supposed to be nap time, however maybe that should be renamed giggle time as I am not hearing snoring!