20 Months

The girls turned 20 months old last Thursday so I thought it was time for an update on our life now.  Lately it has occurred to us that we no longer have little babies, but little girls.  They each have such a distinct personality and I love how different they are.  We see them play together a lot more now, they love ring around the rosie and we have seen them hold hands and try to do it even when we aren't there to facilitate.  They also chase each other around or play bumper cars with their little ride-ons, it is great to have the house filled with their laughter as the play together.  Of course laughter is not always in the air, sometimes it is intense fighting.  They seem to know the boundaries of each child but they don't always respect those boundaries.  Usually the fighting is over a toy that someone wants or that someone took from them.  We are working with them on communicating with their words to say 'no' instead of biting or hitting when someone is taking a toy they are playing with.  I really think we have made some progress with teaching them not to steal toys from each other.  Another benefit to this age is that they understand what we ask and in some instances they can tell us what they need.  We can ask them to get their shoes, coat, socks, etc. and bring it to us and they will.  They also help clean-up their toys.

Emma is our petite baby, she has itty bitty chicken legs that I just love (probably because I've never had itty bitty chicken legs myself).  She is probably the most social and loves to have people come visit, she is very happy most of the time.  We have found that she loves to draw, she will sit and doodle with the magna doodle for a long time, she holds the pencil well with both her left and right hand so we are wondering which she will be, left or right handed.  Emma also has a favorite book, 10 little ladybugs, she loves to look at the pictures and point out the different animals like duck, turtle, bird, etc.  She is pretty good at pronouncing the words.  Speaking of words she talks in a high pitched voice when she is excited, we can't understand the high pitched noises, but her sisters seem to comprehend some of what she says.  She has lots of words and has learned how to say and sign 'help'.  This is so that she can ask for help instead of biting her sisters.

Olivia had a bad teething experience for a few weeks, she was pretty cranky which is unusual for her.  She is usually very happy.  Olivia is still our hoarder and it is so funny to watch.  I really need to video tape her hoarding stuff.  She loves to hoard shoes and socks especially, though at my parents her favorite thing to hoard is the remote controls (they have like 6 of them for 1 tv).  Sometimes she will gather the objects all in a pile and then sit on them, she then reaches under her butt and pulls one item out and plays with it, then after a while she will stick that one back under her butt and pull out another to play with.  The hoarding only becomes a problem if it is something her other sisters are interested in also.  I think maybe that is why she likes the socks and shoes, because the other two don't really care if she hoards those things.  She is also very particular about things, she likes to line every one's shoes up side by side in pairs. 

Our youngest Savannah is by far the most vocal, she can repeat almost anything you say and pretty clearly too.  She also asks questions and seems to know what's going on.  She likes to sit on my lap the most and I love just having a chance to hold her, she is very loving and seems to want extra attention right now.  I am a little scared though that she is starting the terrible twos a little early.  We have had several instances where if she didn't get things her way she threw a fit.  That's easy enough to ignore at home, but in public that is a problem.  Savannah is very loud when she cries and we have known from the day she came home from the hospital that she had a temper and it had a short fuse, well that is still true.  Something that surprises me about Savannah though is how generous she can be with her toys.  I have seen several times her playing with a toy and then another child comes and asks for it and she just gives it to them and runs off to find something else.

I will try to have some Easter pictures posted soon.

A Lizard Story

Today was another beautiful spring day out so we took the girls out in the backyard to play.  Emma was playing with the cushions on the chairs and beneath a pillow she found a lizard.  Before Scott or I could stop her she had picked it up.  I figured once it moved she would be scared and drop it, however, that is not how the scene played out.  I think she knew it was an animal (and boy does Emma love animals) so she started smiling and waving it around.  The poor lizard was flapping and trying to get loose but Emma had a very strong grasp on the little lizard.  We were yelling at her to let it go and Scott had to pry it out of her little hands.  She was so upset and cried, the poor lizard was shocked and just lay on the ground.  After a few minutes the lizard started moving again so we showed the other 2 girls the lizard and they pointed at him and looked but didn't get very close.  Emma came over to look at the lizard, and in one fell swoop bent down to pick him up again, this time we were faster and prevented the lizard from more trauma.  It was so funny she definitely wanted to hold him again.

The Zoo

On Tuesday Scott's mom came in to surprise him for his birthday.  Her flight got delayed so it took a bit of work to keep it a secret that day, but I was able to manage and he was surprised.  I know his birthday was actually last week, but he had pager and it was a very busy week, one day he worked 16 hours, no sleeping that night, poor guy.  We took the girls and grammy to the zoo on Friday and had lots of fun.  It was a beautiful day and the girls really noticed the animals and were interested in watching them.  The first thing we did was watch the penguins get feed, they really liked the penguins. 

Next we visited the gorillas and saw them get their lunch time snack, the girls had a good view and were sort of interested.

Our favorite part though was feeding the birds, we bought some nectar and the birds would eat it right out of your hand.  Olivia was even able to gently touch one, she was brave. 

It was a good day at the zoo!

Here is a cute picture of Lynn and the girls.

A hospital visit with Olivia

The girls have been sniffling a lot lately, Savannah had a bad cold this week and we had to do the nebulizer on her a few times.  The other 2 got the sniffles after her around Thursday or Friday.  On Saturday after Olivia's nap we noticed that she was breathing faster and heavier than normal.  We were headed to my parents to pick up Savannah who had stayed the night at Nana's so we went on down, but really thought she was getting worse.  By the time we got there we were contemplating taking her somewhere to get her oxygen checked, unfortunately the minute clinic had already closed so our only option was to hurry back for an urgent care or go to the ER.  My parents offered to keep Savannah and Emma so that we could take her if needed.  We called a few nurse friends for advice and a neighbor friend that works as a nurse in the ER was available to stop by and take a look/listen.  She told us that she had retractable breathing and probably needed to go. 

We took Olivia to the ER downtown and it was pretty busy in the waiting room.  We got there at 10:30 finally had an ER room by 1am but didn't get to a room upstairs until almost 5am.  It was a very long tiring night.  They did an x-ray to rule out pneumonia and then diagnosed her with a virus, probably RSV (she had this last year and was in the hospital for 4 days then).

They monitored her oxygen levels with a little red light thing around her toe and she hated it.  She kept pulling it off, not because it hurt but just because she did not want it there.  She was not a very good patient and cried every time someone came in the room, she did not want them touching her.  It was so sad, but honestly they did not even hurt her, she did not have an IV, they didn't draw blood, or even hook her up to oxygen.  But still she did not want them to touch her or listen to her lungs.  Her oxygen was just above the point where they would have needed to give her oxygen (91,92) when she slept, but when she was awake she worked much harder and could get up to 95,96.  After about 12 hours they let us go home since they decided she was not getting worse. 

We watched her closely that night, and she seemedto be getting a little better.  By Monday night we saw some real improvements and by Tuesday she was doing so much better.  The other girls are now over their colds so hopefully we will be healthy for a while.