Alyson's room

We finally have Alyson's new room in the new house properly organized and decorated. Here's some pictures:

The view from the doorway:

The big rocking chair is blue so that's why it's covered with blankets :-)

This dresser will go down in history as the piece of furniture that made us vow to never buy "assembly required" furniture ever again.The cutest rocking chair ever from http://www.toddlerock.com/

We bought the fan while in China and it matches her decor perfectly. The "a" on the door is a decorated magnetic board that was made by a friend of my sister.
We weren't going to get a changing table but I was sick of changing her on the floor so I got this one at a second hand store. It doesn't really match the other furniture but it's a temporary thing anyway.

Some pictures

Alyson and Andrew are doing great. Andrew starts 3rd grade tomorrow. Yikes! Where has the time gone?! We've had a busy month, as usual. We've spent a lot of time at the pool and the park so I have a bunch of pictures. Alyson's hair is finally growing so I've been able to do some pigtails. She's so cute :-) Michael says the pigtails look like bug antennae. Well she is our cute little bug so I don't care. He's just a guy, he doesn't get a vote ;-)

On a health note, Alyson had some bloodwork done and a TB test last week and all looks good except that she's slightly anemic. That could be due to prior poor nutrition or she's still not completely recovered from the blood loss during her open heart surgery. Either way, it should improve with time and vitamins.

We'll see her new pediatric cardiologist later in September and he'll try to do another echo then. If she does as poorly with this one as she did the last then we'll schedule a sedated one. She's doing a little better with doctors now though so hopefully we'll be able to avoid sedation. She let the regular pediatrician actually put his stethescope on her without screaming a couple weeks ago. He said he hears a murmur still so that's a tiny bit concerning but we'll know what's up for sure with the next echo.

She's doing awesome though. Talking up a storm. We can tell that her babbling has taken on more English intonnations now. I think she's losing what little Mandarin she did have. It makes me sad but there's not a lot we can do about it at the moment.

She's quite the bossy little thing, like most 18 month olds I suppose. Andrew and the dog bear the brunt of most of her bossyness but they both take it well. She loves to tell Bailey to "moooooove." For awhile we thought she was mooing at the dog but then we figured out she was telling her to move out of her way. Very cute. When Bailey does what Alyson wants, which is rarely, she tells her "good girl." It's so funny, it's like she wants to parent soemthing too.

On to what everyone's here for really, the pictures :-)

Catching up, finally

It's been a busy month, that's for sure! We moved into our new home in Texas and we're getting settled. As all parents know, everything takes at least 10 times longer to accomplish with a toddler in tow so the unpacking and general catching up is kind of slow going. We're getting there though :-)

Alyson and Andrew did great on the long drive from Ohio to Texas. Between the days in Ohio when our house was getting packed and time on the road and time on the Texas end waiting for our stuff we ended up spending 8 nights in 5 different hotels. Alyson did great sleeping in the Pack n Play and putting up with all the changes. We'd only been our new house for 4 days before Michael had to go out of town for 2 weeks so that stressed her out a bit and she started waking several times a night again. She's back on track now-thank goodness! Sleep deprivation, a brand new town, no friends, a house in chaos, and a husband out of town is NOT a good recipie for a cheerful mom. Luckily my oldest sister and her kids came for a visit to break it up. It was so nice for Andrew to spend some time with his cousins and for them to meet Alyson.

Last week Michael took command of his new squadron so we had tons of extended family in town for the ceremony. It was a busy but great week. Everyone fell in love with Alyson. She did really well with all the attention and warmed up to everyone quickly.

She's really adjusting perfectly and is very attached to us even though she was willing to be held by other family members.

She's talking quite a bit, most of it we don't understand. A lot of it still sounds like Mandarin baby talk. She loves to talk. She'll turn anything into a "phone" that she can hold up to her ear and babble away-calculator, remote, my Dymo labeler, tupperware lids, she's not picky. She copies me everytime I'm on the phone or when I'm ordering food at a drive thru. That one's particularly annoying-cute but annoying. Usually the poor fast food people can't hear a word I'm saying with little miss yelling from the back seat. Andrew thinks it's hilarious and laughs and laughs which just encourages her more. I'm trying to catch some of this non-stop chatter on video so I can post a clip. Just the other day she was holding up a toy cell phone to one ear and putting her finger in her other ear while she was babbling. Hmm, wonder where she learned that move.

She does have quite a few English words/phrases too. The ones I can think of at the moment are:

No

NO

no, no, no

stop

stop it

stop that

you stop

(noticing a trend yet? No question that she's almost 18 months old)

up (although how she makes that word 3 syllables long is beyond me)

dog

dog-dog

down

Bailey (the dog)

Andrew (much clearer now-it used to sound like she was saying Avery)

Daddy

Mama (sounds kind of like mom-mom)

chip (as in potato or tortilla chip)

all done

night night (this one's very cute, she says it with a big grin when she sees one of us making her a bottle)

Those are the ones I can think of at the moment.

She's completely off the formula now but we're still giving her her milk in a bottle 3 times a day for now. She's doing great with sippy cups or cups with straws for water throughout the day. She's feeding herself with a spoon really well. She must have been doing that before we got her because she's really adept at it. She is getting a lot more picky about food. Her favorite right now is mashed potatoes with rice being a close second.

I think that's the best I can update for the moment. Here's a bunch of pictures that are totally out of order but at least they're posted:

This was the cake our friend made for our block party in Ohio before we moved.

A pretty common sight. Alyson pushing Andrew out of her way. He takes it really well though.

This is the "I'm about to cry" look. She was mad because I wouldn't give her my camera. Boy does she hate to be told "no."

This is a pink foam cowgirl hat I put on her head while we were shopping in Hobby Lobby.

A beautician in the making. She's fascinated by her nail clippers. These are my sister's hands and feet she's "working" on.

Natasha, this one's for you. Remember when I was talking to you on the phone while in the WalMart parking lot and you couldn't hear what I was saying over Alyson's chatter? Well this is what she was doing.

It's Alyson's mission in life to get Andrew's DS away from him.

What? Doesn't everyone eat their broccoli stem first?

Well, that was easy so here's some more

She giggles on this one.


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another Frankenstein walk (with a big smile)


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video

This is my first attempt to upload a video. If it works, I have a few more to post.


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Echo and brotherisms

Alyson had her echo on Tuesday. She was hysterical during it but the cardiologist persevered and got as much info as he could. She will need another echo under sedation but since we are moving to our new base in a couple weeks he said it could wait a few months. He said that from what he could see the repair looks good and there are no signs of pulmonary hypertension. That's the best news! There are also no signs of any other defects. In 2 of 3 views the VSD repair looked complete with no leaking but he said that in one view it appeared there might be a little flow across the patch. It was hard to tell though with her screaming and fighting. Even if there was a tiny leak it might close on it's own as the scar tissue and heart muscle fills in. Her left ventricle is still slightly enlarged but that's very normal. So all in all great news!

On to the brotherisms. Andrew is an awesome big brother. This new role is bringing out parts of his personality that I hadn't seen before. He is very patient with her and tells her he loves her several times a day. It is so sweet to see this relationship develop. As sweet as it is, Andrew is still an 8 year old boy and 8 year old boys say and do such funny things. The other day when Alyson had a poopy diaper, Andrew announced that if I didn't change it soon he was going to DIE. Right, the dramatic death by baby-sister-stinky-pants that we hear so much about. Then when I still didn't move quick enough for him he said "can we PLEASE go to the grocery store and buy a gas mask?" Our Kroger is pretty well stocked but I don't think I've ever seen gas masks there.

As responsible as Andrew is, it's still a little risky having him "watch" (i.e. distract) Alyson while I try to do things like take the world's fastest shower. When I came out of the shower the other day I found him playing "bowling for babies" with Alyson. She was sitting on the floor in our bedroom and he was rolling a large beach ball at her to see if he could knock her over. Great game huh?
Some things I learned from this:
-showering daily is so overrated at this stage of the game.
-"Daddy taught me the game." Hmm.
-8 year olds frequently appear brighter than they really are.
-Alyson worships her brother and will do anything he does and says. Uh oh.

Good news is no one got hurt and Alyson thought is was very fun so no one call the social worker, I've learned my lesson :-)

In other news, Alyson is eating well again. She kind of went on strike for a couple days but on Monday I got a recipe on the internet and made a big pot of congee. She loved it! We're trying to stick to our routine as much as possible and I can tell that helps. She's been napping well and sleeping through the night with the exception of the night before last when she woke at 2:30 and 4:30. I don't know what that was all about but I got her back to sleep pretty quickly.

She's walking independently a lot more. It's still a bit of the Frankenstein walk with outstretched arms and a little wobbly but she getting more secure. She also crawled away from me the other day and was so excited to see me still there when she crawled back. This is big in attachment land. She's feeling more secure and is not as afraid to be a few feet away from me. Making dinner is so much easier now. Up until a couple days ago she would scream and cry if I tried to go into the kitchen without her. It's only 10 feet away from the living room and there are no walls, she could see me. Now she'll sit and play with Andrew happily while I'm in the kitchen. I've also resorted to using The Wiggles to help babysit. We've been home less than 2 weeks and I'm already relying on TV. Sad, but with my husband out of town I gotta do what I gotta do to get the little buggers fed :-)

I think that's it for now. I have some more pictures to post later and I'm trying to get a video clip of her walking.

some pictures from our first week home

Seeing her room and toys for the first time last Saturday night.

Jet lag is tough. This was on Monday. She crashed on the couch with Daddy.

Happy girl at dinnertime. She's not really feeding herself but she tries.

A different night. First time with Spaghetti but she's all about those noodles!

Role model?

My brother is funny :-)

We can be friends, but don't get too close to my blankie!

Who can resist these little feet?

Trying for a decent picture of the 2 of them again.

Funny face.

First trip to the playground today. She liked the swing.

Ok. This is our sweet Baliey. She's resting her head on my leg intently watching Alyson with her snack and hoping she'll drop some.

Now Alyson's getting bold and is actually taunting her. Bailey is being soooo good and patient.

Even bolder taunting but Bailey's completely fixated on the cup of gerber puffs.

Hey look Bailey, I can retrieve stuff too!