Busy Days

Potty training continues, but I don’t know how successful it is right now. Rebekah will tell Mommy that she wants to go potty and then when we get into the bathroom, she doesn’t want to any more. Other times, she will have a dry pullup and tell me she needs to go and then does. I guess I can’t expect her to be potty trained over night, but I can’t help but hope for it.

Rebekah has been complaining of owies (the location seems to vary) and she will just scream and throw temper tantrums unless she gets more owie medicine (even if she just had some). I’m not sure exactly what is going on – is there a general pain that isn’t being helped by the Tylenol or Motrin? Or does she just want to avoid bed or whatever I’ve just told her she needs to do? Or something else?

I can’t believe that we are rapidly approaching the end of April and Rebekah’s 3 month scans will be some time in May. The time has seemed to fly by.

Did I ever tell you how much Sarah is a climber? She can wiggle herself out of the straps on her high chair and stand up in the seat. Now she has been raising one foot up as if to stand on the tray. Mommy doesn’t let her get that far before putting an end to it. Now, she has discovered that she can climb up on the rocking horse by herself and she seems to enjoy doing that. She likes to climb up on the couch and then on the back of the couch and then stand in the window behind the couch in the playroom, too.

Friday, while Aunt Tiffany, Cousin Jacob and Cousin Michael were here, we went outside to play. Sarah discovered that she can climb up the ladder on the play structure all by herself. Now, keep in mind that when she stands on one step, the next step is closer to her hips than her knees. But she can get her knee up on the next step and then pull herself up and then stand up and on and on and on… Talk about freaking Mommy out! She also figured out how to scoot over to the slide and get herself down. Her preference, however, seems to be feet first on her belly.

Speaking of Friday, the kids all seemed to have fun. Rebekah is pretty good at telling the difference between Jacob and Michael (for those of you who don’t know, they are identical twins). It was great to get together and enjoy some family time. We’re going to try to do it regularly.

Thursday, Rebekah did really well at occupational therapy. She was staying on task (much better than the last time) and was doing the things that she needed to do, working on hand strength and other things.

Friday mid-day, Daddy headed out with the camping trailer to help with the Oregon Trail Rally, which he has done for a number of years. It is a 3 day off road/gravel road car race. Last year, Daddy didn’t get to help because it was just after Rebekah was diagnosed and he just couldn’t take the time away from the family. He made it home late last night and was off again this morning. While he was getting up and ready this morning, both girls started making noise. He was able to see both of them and help get them back to sleep.

Rebekah was not at all happy that Daddy took the trailer away and she didn’t get to go. I think one night we will need to go camping in our driveway, to make Rebekah happy.

All day Saturday, both girls kept asking for Daddy. We went to Grandma M’s and then out to lunch with her and a group of people and the girls kept asking about Daddy – they thought he would meet us at lunch. Then, when we were heading home, they were asking for Daddy again and went looking for him when we got home.

Rebekah has not been going to bed well, sometimes taking two hours or more before she is actually asleep. At the same time, she is acting pretty tired. She has not wanted to take a nap, either. It is pretty aggravating and Mommy is getting frustrated. She uses all the excuses – I need a drink, I need to go potty (or need a change), I need owie medicine, etc…

Today, Grandma M came out to the house to help with the girls. It is great to have her here. Rebekah ran to the door when Grandma got here. Sarah was taking a nap and still is.

It has been a laundry weekend – it has just been piling up, so there is a lot to do. Rebekah likes to help Mommy with it. She helped Mommy move clothes from the washer to the dryer. Our dryer has a door that opens down, so I’ll toss the clothes on the door and she pushes them into the dryer for me. She wants to be such a helper. Then we put some blue jeans into the washing machine. I would hand them to her and she would put them in. After that we went back to the play room. She got the vest that she had been wearing earlier and wanted to put it into the washing machine. After all, it was a denim vest. So we did. She is a pretty smart little girl.

As we were driving around yesterday, Rebekah was pointing out all the yellow signs. Her favorite color is most definitely yellow. She was excited to see the yellow signs. She is also pointing out buses (and telling us if they are yellow) and schools. She seems to be getting much more observant.

Rebekah has been working on two word sentences with her speech therapist and doing very well with it. We’ve been working on it at home, too, and noticing improvement.

Rebekah’s hair is continuing to grow in. There is enough hair that I didn’t want to coat her head with sunscreen, but not enough that she doesn’t need a hat. There is a wide path on the left side of her face where there are only a few strands thanks to the radiation she received. We don’t know if it will come in later or not at all. We’ll just have to wait and see. In addition, she doesn’t have much of an eye brow on the left side and only has a few eye lashes on that side. Glancing at her, you might not notice, but if you really look then it is obvious.

In the last few days, I have been giving her undiluted pediasure and she seems to be tolerating it ok. She did have one episode today where she was getting “sick to her tummy” and threw up some (a mouth full), but it wasn’t much and not really the pediasure. It was just after one of her bolus feeds, so it could have been much worse. She did a great job of holding the yellow bucket and using it. What a big girl she is becoming!