Mommy Guessed Wrong...

I put her down for her nap today, and when I went upstairs about 45 minutes later I heard her gabbing away, laughing and kicking her crib bars. I wondered- has she even slept? I let her carry on for another 20 minutes and then plucked her out and let her play with her basket of toys until her appointment with one of her therapists. By the time the therapist came, I had forgotten all about the nap incident, but she did get fussy. I got her her favorite cereal to snack (Pops), and she munched on them happily through the appointment. About the last 10 minutes she would have bursts of sadness and I attributed it to just snacking when she wants something substantial like a sandwich. So when Aly left, I put her in her chair and while I made her sandwich she was still fussy, which I attributed to being impatient being in her chair with no food. I gave her her sandwich and left for a few minutes and didn't hear a peep out of her. When I popped my head in, I found out why:


Mommy guessed wrong.
I should have known, I know. But I really wasn't certain she hadn't slept, just guessed that it was a possibility she didn't.



I like how she still made an effort to eat some sandwich (and to gather as much of it as she could to hug while she slept.) When I picked her up, she didn't even open her eyes, but did manage to finish chewing up what was in there and swallow it.

Radiohead.....Pixies........need I say more?

My brother Matt my resident filmer, recently put together a little youtube video highlighting some footage of Radiohead showing the Pixies some love. They are pretty well known for being big Pixies fans, and here is a nice little presentation about why they feel the way they do. This video is getting a fair amount of youtube love since there isn't anything else like it around. I think it is great and wanted to give it a little highlight. Enjoy.



I may be biased, but I think he did a first rate job putting this together. Furthermore, I love the footage of Thom describing how he pictured the Pixies before he ever saw them. It's just very...........Thom.

Let Emily Buy it- Purex Crystals

So I bought this product this week seeing as I had a 2.00 coupon for it and I am a chump for fabric softeners. For the record, I only add liquid softener to my towel and blanket loads. I am nuts over good smelling sheets and towels. Clothes? Eh. A dryer sheet will do (or I am kind of digging the bounce dryer bar that stays in the drum- that is a worth while product). Anyway- I wasn't about to pass up a good deal to try out a new product I have interest in.

Holy bip this stuff is cool.

I am in LOVE with it. You add it at the beginning of your wash load and forget about it, except it is impossible to forget about it, cause it fills the whole upstairs with yummy laundry smells the whole time it is in the washer and dryer (especially the dryer though). I bought the blue one for some inexplicable reason seeing as when it comes to laundry I am usually a lavender scented kind of girl. I am digging the blue hard core, but am excited to try the purple.

It claims that it infuses with your laundry better because it spends so much time with it. Perhaps this is so, I don't know- what I do know is that it really does linger. I could still smell it on the THIRD day of my kitchen dish rag. Every time I ran it under hot water, that is the smell I smelled. I am a Nazi about kitchen rags and hardly ever keep one over a day. Using one for 3 days was almost unprecedented in my house, but it still smelled so nice I didn't bother to change it. I kind of like how it is crystals too cause Scout always likes to be my helper and put all stuff into stuff that needs done and dry crystals is a lot less messy then liquid. Plus it is not oil based like other softeners, so it is better for your clothes and towels.

So that is that. I wasn't even paid to say all those nice things, but I thought you guys ought to know that this is a product worth buying- it only runs about 4 dollars too, which is a bargain. (It will only run you 2 if you can dig the coupon out of your Sunday paper a few weeks ago.)

Haircut Follies

I made the dubious choice on Saturday night to trim Elle's hair. I was so done with her hair being in her eyes I made the rash choice to do it myself.


Disclaimer:
I have never claimed to have any idea what I am doing when it comes to cutting hair.

Infant hair is no exception.


Poor little thing has no idea what she is in for.


Still happy-
(Doesn't know enough that mommy is about to butcher her poor little hair.)





Before







After.


Yeah, I made every cliche mistake in the book (Hmmm.
Let me just even it up a little over here. Oops.)


Mommy is sorry Elles, but you're still the cutest little thing on the block.


And it isn't that bad if I brush it a certain way.



I'm actually pretty proud of the back.



But I was wondering if Scout is too old to blame on a secret game of barber shop?



Rob said that it isn't nice to blame that on Scout.

All Taped Up

So by "next week" apparently I meant "tomorrow" cause we got visits from the OT and the PT yesterday (should have checked my calender before writing stuff I guess). This time Elle had Betsy (her PT) really scratching her head. Apparently when babies like Elinor sit like this:

(curved lower spine and she leans back most of the time balancing with her legs spread out with the help of some very well developed abs)

This represents to Betsy that the child has tight hamstrings. Nope. Elle's are not, but the muscles in front of her hips are tight. I don't understand all of this but it really perplexed Betsy. In fact she said, "you think you've seen it all in 8 years, then you meet Elinor". So she decided to tape Elles. Apparently this tape when used over a period of time can help train their muscles to work a different way. So she taped her up and then we tried sitting her on a bench with a toy to focus on and we got this:

Look how straight her back is! The thing that really impressed Betsy and took her aback again, is that when we set Elle back onto the carpet, she remained just as straight.

I put this old toy of Scout's away long ago cause Elle couldn't appreciate it and play with it like she should (standing next to it etc.) now, sitting so high- what a fun toy!
Here is a back view of all the tape. She said she'd like it to stay on for 3-7 days. The good news is that Elle doesn't seem to even notice it. If and when she does notice it, I am positive it doesn't bother her.

As far as crawling, standing and all of that jazz, she can be in and hold all the positions but she will not get into any of them on her own. They suspect that neurologically, she just doesn't process how to get into those positions and she also likes to keep her body where it is and where she feels steady. It's funny, cause she doesn't raise a fuss about it, she simply won't do it. BUT the good thing is, her OT (Mark) said that many kids will just arch their backs and protest and cry when you guide them into positions. Elle, cooperates and does it with you (sometimes even with a smile). So that is good, cause I think that means that she is willing, just doesn't know how, and/or she will learn fast since she seems willing to learn. Mark tried to guide her in getting into a standing position and boy did he have to do all the work (I know this cause he had me try next). We will keep working on that, but boy- she does not seem ready for it yet. Crawling on the other hand, I think she will continue to make progress.
I told both of them that she has an appointment at Genetics and they both were glad, but they both still see a lot of neurological symptoms. So, on some solicited advice, I called Primary Children's and got my own appointment with neurology. This one is on June 6th, so a little before the other one. Both were quite certain that we would need to be seeing them anyway, so instead of waiting lots more months after she sees the geneticist, we have the ball rolling.

So-I guess that's the latest. Elle has seemed particularly giggly this last week, which is nice to see, since I haven't heard her belly laugh in a while. It's music to my worried soul.

These lips were too dang cute to not share.

Elle Referred

Here's your Elle update:

She was seen by her two therapists again (occupational and physical) and they were both very happy with her progress. She seems to be taking to our exercises and they are doing some good. We see them again next week. We took her to the doctor's two days ago and after asking a lot of questions and doing a few simple tests and checking her out a little and reviewing her complete history including her growth charts, he has decided that his best guess is to refer her to Primary Children's Hospital's Genetics Department. So that is the course of action we are taking. I am a bit surprised that he went with a genetic problem rather then neurological, but it isn't a total shock. I got a call from them yesterday and they can't fit us in until JUNE 28th!! I expressed a little surprise by the date and she said that they actually often have to schedule new patients 6 mos to a year out, so we kind of got lucky. We are lucky that we are close to one of the best children's hospitals in the country, people travel a long way to see these doctors, so that is pretty cool we have them so close, even though we have to wait. It is a little frustrating that we have to wait so long and it is only a guess on my doc's part that this is even the possible problem. But she will still have the KOTM people working with her and we have our reg doc, so it's not like we are totally wasting time sitting around-- we would be working with her the same way no matter what her diagnosis is, so what can you do? I'm just grateful she is my sweet little baby and is getting the things she needs to be the best Little Little she can be.

For a month or so I've been weighing how I feel about what might be wrong with her. By that I mean genetic vs. neurological. If it's genetic, there is a comfort knowing that Elinor's little genetic makeup was predisposed to be who she is and that is that. The downside and I am not an expert, but a genetic problem seems a little more scary. If it's a neurological injury, her symptoms don't seem to be extremely alarming or insurmountable. It feels like with some hard work, we can fix what ever happened to make her function at least almost normally. The downside would be the question-- what happened? She was a perfectly healthy little baby at one time, until some event hurt her and caused all these problems. I have been questioning if I did anything during my pregnancy that could have done something, or if I could have done more to prevent this, or if the doctor's could have done more. So there is a certain amount of haunting that goes along with this diagnosis.

So, it's been a lot to think about and a lot that has been rattling around in my head the last month or so. I'm trying to just plow ahead and work with her and proceed normally. And we do and we are for the most part. I struggled with the long term ramifications with all of this yesterday quite a bit. I think the best thing for me to do is just take this one day at a time, cause when I look to the future with all it's cloudy and unanswered questions, I can get more imaginative then Scout.

Right now, Elle is an absolute pure delight and almost always has a beautiful smile for me and a little chuckle and a kiss. Most mother's would kill for a baby like her, she is so awesome and happy and cute and lets face it-- how many mom's of (almost) 18 month olds have it so easy? We love you Elle, oh how we love you. We are SO SO SO grateful that we were chosen to be your parents. You have brought a joy to our household we cherish every day (not to be too cheesy, but we really do). It's so fun to see the complete joy on your face when a favorite Elmo skit comes on the tv, or your little giggles when Lola tickles your face with her nuzzles. You hardly ever complain. You are constantly adjusting to your surroundings and take everything with a grain of salt. Your sister is like that too. Although, since finding her voice, she can certainly find reasons to complain sometimes, she still bares disappointment stoically and maturely. She is and is going to be an awesome big sister to you Elles, you're a lucky girl.

Quite drooly at the moment-- getting the top canines :)