Tuesdays with Finley

Well, the baby had her 18 month old appointment today and then got to spend the day with mom. She is such a little rascal, though! Taking care of her is like taking care of about 6 kids sometimes. She is very mischevious. She gets into nothing but trouble! But she is very cute so it is hard to get mad. She had a pretty good visit. She is 20 pounds, 10 ounces (still 3rd percentile). She has gained 3 pounds since her 15 month visit. The doctor was happy with that. She is 32 inches tall. She only has to be 35 inches to ride a roller coaster at Disney - how crazy is that? That is the 75% tile. So she is doing well. The doctor heard a heart murmur today. He hasn't heard that in the past, so he is thinking it is probably innocent, like Cainan's. 9 times out of 10 they are. But he wants her to see a cardiologist to be certain at some point over the next couple of months. I am not that worried because a lot of kids have murmurs. Unless she is having surgery or dental work (neither which are in her future) they don't do a thing. So that will be something we will take care of in the near future.

Arlington is happy to be back at school and playing with her friends. She needs an outlet for her energy. I am glad she is back in her routine. This is her last week of full school and then just half days. But at least she will have school daily to keep her busy.

Cainan had occupational therapy yesterday. He did really well. He didn't cry at all, which was good. He played nice and did everything he was supposed to do. We got a few more exercises to try. After that he had an orthopedic appointment to have his thumbs look at. The doctor thinks he can go to just having the splints on at night, which is great. We are just to watch to make sure he doesn't trend back to pulling his thumbs in, and he can leave them off. The doctor thinks that will help strengthen his hands. He doesn't need to see him for a year - yeah!

Then today Cainan had speech therapy before he went to school. That went well. He doesn't every say anything while he is there, but did some signs and she got to see him drink from a cup. He has been actually "sucking" lately! Before he would just chew the sippy cup to get the liquid out, and now he actually is doing what he should and sucking on the cup. Yeah! That was a huge step. Next we will have him drinking from a straw. We are proud of that step. He learned the sign for "open" today and I saw him use it. And he is starting to say the word "milk".

Tonight at Dinner Cainan was eating his chicken. About half way through the meal I heard a "vroom" coming from him. He had made a little car out of his chicken and the chicken was going around the edge of his plate and he was motoring it along. He is a goof. He has been in a really good mood today and being a really good boy.

Finley is her bad self. Yesterday she climbed up on a chair at our kitchen table, grabbed Mat's fork and started to eat his dinner! We were just getting set up, and there she was - helping herself. I then put her in her highchair, and she really didn't feel like eating the chicken we made her, so she kept putting it down her shirt to "hide" it. She thought she was SOOOOO funny. What a goof. It is hard to get mad at her!

Tonight at Dinner Finley was trying to get her baby doll to finish her dinner. She didn't want any more, so she wanted to feed the baby. She would take a bite, though, if the baby doll "feed" her. Then she would laugh.

Today she kept bringing me sodas. I didn't know where she was getting them from. I went into the laundry room and she had opened up the packages of soda we had sitting in there and she was bringing me one at a time. Sigh. She is a handful.

Here are some pictures for your entertainment: There are some pictures where I tried to get the babies hugging each other. My flash on my camera takes a long time when it is dark, so I couldn't get a good one. Finely was hugging and kissing Cainan - a first! I will try again to get a picture.