Friday, August 10, 2007

18 months old

Hi,

Did you know that today Tahlia is 18 months old? And what a big day it was.

To start off, she allowed Mommy and Daddy to sleep in until almost 7:15 this morning. Daddy gave her a quick change and then, she did a little snuggling in bed with Mommy and Daddy before starting the day.

After breakfast, Tahlia started telling us that she needed to go pee pee, so we took off her diaper and let her know if she needed to go, she should sit on the potty. After a little while, she sat on the potty, and, while reading a One Step Ahead catalog for a little while, she peed in the potty! We were soooooo excited! Then, after dinner, she was sitting on the potty again, after telling us that she needed to go "poo poo," and we heard a little grunt and wouldn't you know it, she poo pooed in the potty! She was so happy. Mommy danced around with her singing the "Tahlia pooped in the potty song," and Tahlia laughed and bounced.

Although it isn't about her being 18 months old, yesterday she did something that was pretty cute. Daddy found a ladybug in the house and showed it to Tahlia prior to letting it go outside. While Daddy was doing the dishes, Mommy was playing with Tahlia. Tahlia went to a little stuffed toy ladybug and pointed to it, then pointed to the door and said Daddy. Mommy told her that Daddy had let the ladybug go outside. Tahlia then picked up the ladybug, walked over to the door, and threw the ladybug at the door. She is a cute little girl.

Another thing Tahlia did happened on Thursday and was super cute, but doesn't really involve anything that Tahlia actually did. As mentioned before, we are working really hard on potty training Tahlia. On Thursday, when Tahlia was wearing a cute little floral dress, Mommy and Daddy needed to run an errand. We prepared everything in her diaper bag, Daddy picked Tahlia up and put her in the car, and off we went. When we were taking Tahlia out of her seat, Daddy noticed that Tahlia's little bum was too soft to have a diaper on. When he checked, not only did he notice that she was not wearing a diaper, but that she had a whole bunch of pea sized red marks on it. We discovered, when checking to see if she had wet her car seat, that she had spilled a whole bunch of freeze dried peas and was sitting on them! Guess Mommy and Daddy need to double check the diaper next time :)

Thanks for everything! Keep the prayers coming.

Love
Muggsie, Lauren and Tahlia

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Summer draws to an end

Hi everyone,

Some more info about the little one. In two days, Tahlia will be 18 months old.

First, just today, Tahlia was released from the services of the neurologist. Dr. Taft has followed Tahlia ever since he first met her in the hospital. Today was, hopefully, the last time we will see him in his office. Because Tahlia has been episode free since May 17th when we discontinued the phenobarbital, he decided that his services were no longer needed. Dr. Taft wanted to make sure that she is seeing various therapists, which we told him she is. He also told us that she has a higher risk of developing seizures, but as we get further away from the accident, the risk decreases. However, in the same breath, he did state that later in life she could all of a sudden develop seizures. Because of the increased risk, he gave us a laundry list of things that we shouldn't let her do and things that we should always watch her doing. Some of them are just good practice parenting -- no swimming alone, no bathing alone. But other things, like not letting her climb trees, surprised us. He did stress letting her be a little girl -- which Lauren and I always do! Needless to say, we are ecstatic. As well as thankful to everyone who has prayed and continues to pray for her.

Second, Tahlia took another trip to the Outer Banks. Unlike last time, when she was scared of the waves, this time she LOVED the ocean. She dug in the sand, chased birds, played in the surf, and even ran towards the waves with or without us. Needless to say, she was so much fun. Also, Lauren's Dad's and Stepmom's house has a really big open floorplan that Tahlia just love running around in. Mommy and Daddy enjoyed themselves, even though Mommy was still feeling under the weather, and Daddy managed to pull his neck on the first day there. Devra and Jessie were able to come down for a few days -- which only added to the fun and enjoyment!

Third, Tahlia has a new friend. There is a little boy named Sam -- Tahlia calls him "Am" -- who recently moved into the area with his Mommy, Lucy, and Daddy, Sergey. Because Daddy has been taking care of Tahlia more recently while her Mommy works outside of the home, Daddy has been going out each morning to swing with Tahlia. Usually, Lucy and Sam come out after a while. Tahlia loves to play with Sam. Sam is about 26 months old. Tahlia likes to say the things that Sam says and play with tractors. They both have picked up things from one another, although, Sam has learned the cleaner habits ;) For instance, Sam has started saying "snack," since that is what we call snacks. Tahlia has started playing in the dirt -- since that is what Sam loves to do. Something pretty amazing happened the other day - Tahlia actually played with Sam. At Tahlia's age, she is supposed to be doing the "parallel" play thing -- you know, not actually playing with the child beside her, but doing the same thing. But the other day, Tahlia was throwing the ball to Sam, then Sam, since he can't catch, would go and get the ball and throw it back to Tahlia, who would go and get the ball, since she can't catch, then throw it back to Sam. It was pretty cute. It is pretty neat that Tahlia can even throw overhand at her age, and she does it pretty well.

Fourth, her verbal skills are continuing to develop. She repeats pretty much anything back to you that you say to her. We have two friends, Jason and Moe, who are helping Daddy right now. Tahlia loves to say their names, and she says them together, which is also pretty cool. For about a week she has been making noun verb sentences -- like "Mommy eats, "Daddy home," "'Am runs." But she has also strung more words together. Also, for about two weeks, she has been doing the "Tahlia runs." Or "Tahlia draws."

Fifth, her physical stuff continues to develop. Her left hand is doing better, but still needs work -- the same goes for her leg, although she is running more and more. It is so cute. There are times when she just runs everywhere for everything. Daddy and she play on the hills a lot to strengthen her quads, and Daddy is constantly reminding her to bend her knees.

Also, she continues to tell us when she is pooping and peeing and we continue to try to introduce the potty. She has been successful a couple of times, so we're happy.

Again, thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts -- please keep them up. She is a little miracle and we're so lucky!

Love all

Muggsie, Lauren and Tahlia