Round and round they go

Addy had another awesome PT session today. The front wheels on the walker can swivel (to make steering easier, if somewhat precarious) or they can be locked (to make it easier to control, but only go in a straight line). So far we've generally had the wheels locked, but the therapist suggested unlocking the swivel wheels to help build up balance and coordination (and hopefully keep the foot-stomping to a minimum). She said to start with just one side unlocked and work up to both sides. By the end of the 30 minute session, Addy was scary good with both wheels unlocked.

More of the terrible twos

And we have another developmental milestone: Addy's version of kicking on people in the shins (I'm telling you, she has more in common with "typical" kids than you'd think). She comes up next to you with her walker, picks the front wheels up off the ground, and then slams one of them down on your foot.

The (very tarnished) silver lining that you can really only see if it hasn't happened to you is that it requires a fair amount of leg strength and balance for her to pull that off. So I'm glad for that I think.

In other news, we now have a time-out mat. It's a flattened diaper box, wrapped in brown craft paper. Addy wanted to help me decorate it. That seemed somehow cruel and counterproductive.

Yummy things that don't taste anything like chicken

Addy has also recently eaten:
* Lettuce, which she liked much better when it was covered in an equally sized piece of cheese and some ranch dressing
* Fresh tomato (no skin and no seeds)

and (drumroll, please)

* Pasta with sauce and cheese

Mmmm, tastes like...

Addy has recently eaten (and declared quite yummy):
* A "ham-flavored chicken lunch meat" with cheese sandwich
* BBQ "pork-flavored chicken", the second helping of which was requested to have cheese on it
* A few bites of fried "catfish-flavored chicken"

Progress is progress. We'll work on taking "chicken" out of the name of all of her foods later.

Planning ahead

Addy says she wants to be a princess in a pink and white dress for Halloween this year, which kind of surprised me. I assumed she would want to be a dragon. Go figure. But maybe Nora can be the snorting dragon to Addy's princess...

Growing like weeks

Nora has been on what seems like a 2 month long growth spurt. She eats all the time--still no teeth have popped through--and she oscillates between getting a little chunkier, then a little taller. To achieve her lovely heft, she has given up sleeping through the night. Thanks, kiddo. Today she has also figured out how to push herself up to sitting from laying on the floor (twice now) and actually army crawled forward (dragging her belly as she went) to get a piece of play food.

Addy has been all about the sundresses this summer. The size 3Ts that I just bought her a few weeks ago are getting more shirt-like this week. Must be all the walking she's been doing lately. She's worked up to walking as much as 75 minutes at a time in her KAFOs and walker this week!

All things purple

My favorite preschooler wants to be a dragon when she grows up (last time I asked her, she thought that would be when she's about 15 and after she has been a spider monkey for a while) and she wants to have purple scales when she does become a dragon, so we've been trying out purple veggies lately. First up was purple cabbage slaw with ginger dressing, which Addy helped to stir for us. Mommy and Daddy thought was pretty yummy, and Addy ate a couple of bites. Next was purple potatoes with cheese sauce, which Addy did not care for at all for some reason. What she did enjoy about the purple potatoes was getting to play with a few pieces while I cooked the rest of them. When she got bored with that I added a small bowl of oobleck and let her "cook" them together, which gave me just enough time to get the rest of our dinner cooked. (Oobleck and its home chemistry brethren are the secret reasons why people have kids. It's socially acceptable to play with the non-Newtonian solid that is cornstarch+water if you're doing so with a child. All by yourself, though, and its kind of embarrassing.)