2 weeks and boy am I tired.....

Kiya has been a full time walker for 2 weeks now and I am exhausted. The whining and walking has seemed to stop. Sometimes she still wants to hold a finger but more and more she just takes off.

We were in a bookstore with my mom and she was EVERYWHERE and doing it all by herself. She would walk up this aisle and down this one and wouldn't touch a thing really to adjust her balance. Sometimes she would stop a little and adjust or take a couple steps backwards and then off she went again. I was so glad to have my mom there to help me keep an eye on her. And so proud of Kiya for not tossing all the books on the floor. She actually behaved very very well.

Our Birth to 3 therapist wants her to practice walking on all sorts of surfaces. Kiya does sidewalks fine, and the playground okay but grass not so much so we are going to work on it. Our therapist let Kiya borrow a shopping cart and she LOVES it. She pushes it all over the house turning and steering and running into stuff and backing up and then off again.

We had this great (?) idea to bring Kiya to a local grocery store and let her push this little cart through the store by herself. Again so glad Dave was with me. He followed her and I tried to shop. She went so fast and was again all over and loving it. She even wanted to put stuff in her cart. The first thing she grabbed was sun dried tomatoes, ICK. So those went back and we gave her some lettuce instead and then she wanted bananas and in the lunch meat area she just reached out and grabbed a package of honey smoked turkey breast. We didn't really need it but when we tried to put it back she grabbed it again so we let her keep it. She ate it for lunch when we got home.

She kept wanting to do her own thing and went to the check out line a few times before we were ready. I missed a bunch of stuff that we needed so had to go to the store again today but it was so worth it. She had such a smile on her face. Sure we had a meltdown or two when she wasn't allowed to go a certain way but I would do it again in a heartbeat. I wouldn't necessarily take her by myself unless it was a small trip for just a couple of things and I could focus on her.

I am so excited to see her new found independence but it is tiring this mama out and I am having a second cup of coffee mid afternoon to keep up with her.

WALKING :)

KIYA WALKS!!! That's right. Kiya is finally officially a full fledged walking toddler. She just let go and did it while we were are my parents house this weekend.

She was walking here and there between one piece of furniture to another before this weekend but my parents house has lots of open space. I honestly thought she was going to crawl a lot this weekend. Boy was I wrong! Now she will walk across the room. ALL BY HERSELF. You can set her down in the middle of a room and she will stand there and then just take off walking. She will pull herself up to a stand and then off she goes.

We are finally there :) She is a tad dramatic about all of it and can sometimes be caught fussing and walking at the same time. Such is the life of an overly dramatic, teething, almost two year old.

Some serious obstacles have been presented to Miss Kiya and she has stared each one down and conquered it. She is truly an amazing kid. I so did not give her enough credit. I thought after the cast she would be so mad and just give up. She was the opposite. She bounced back bigger and better (and straighter) than ever.

So thank you Mehta/EDF cast and Sure Step ankle braces, you helped make my 22 1/2 month old a full fledged toddler. I am so proud of Kiya and just love to watch the joy in her eyes as she walks across the room all by herself. You can see she is just so proud of herself and so are we.

Walking?

So tomorrow we hit two weeks in cast and 1 week in her ankle supports and guess what....we have a sort of walker :) She would take independent steps before but usually only after much coaxing and really only to me or to Dave.

Now that is not the case. On more than a few occasions today did I spot Miss Kiya taking off walking all on her own. She even stopped a few times even and just stood there not holding on to anything. She would walk from her toy box to the coffee table to get her sippy cup. She walked from the window to the couch to try and get the remote control. She walked from the couch to her table to play with her puzzles. I could go on but that would be boring. In the past Kiya would crawl to get to these things but it appears she might be leaving the crawling behind.

I am not going to say she is a full time walker yet but we have a solid part time walker. The best part is she will walk with her shoes and supports and without :)
My baby girl is going to be running soon...pray for us.

What's new with Kiya?

I know it has been awhile again so here are some highlights as to what is new with Kiya.

1) Dora or should I say "Gora" is a HUGE hit around here. I thought she would get over it but no. This kid is seriously in love with Dora. She can spot her on balloons, at Target and can turn the TV on and ask for it. So 2nd birthday theme is likely you guessed it Dora.

2) Baby dolls. She is so fascinated with all things baby. She yells baby every time we see a baby and she has started putting her doll in her high chair and trying to feed it. So cute. Let's hope this love for babies sticks around for awhile as in a year or two so she will be instantly in awe and love of her brother.

3) Talking. Yup she is still talking or singing pretty much every waking moment unless she has food in her mouth and even then that isn't a guarantee. She is trying to repeat and say everything so we are very careful to spell certain words, not say things we don't want her to know and watching what music is on in the car. I have completely lost track of how many words she actually knows as everyday it changes. She is getting closer and closer to being able to say the dogs names. She almost has Badger down and well I don't blame her for not being able to say Sebastian but the other day it sounded like she said "bastian" which is pretty darn close. As for singing, she is really quite good. She is the singer in her daycare class as she is the only one that will sing along and sometimes rather loudly to the music. Her teacher is convinced she will be a rock star :)

4) Walking:  I don't even want to talk or think about it anymore. We have hit a MAJOR road block. She totally can walk we have seen her. I have watched her in the living room and if she sees me she stops. We make her walk everywhere and are using the tips given by her therapist like not holding her hand above her head, etc. She is just a very stubborn and crooked kid. Scoliosis is definitely part of the issue but she is also just hard headed. I am anxiously awaiting our Birth to 3 therapy session...oh wait guess they have to call and schedule that first....sigh....we need help big time. She is very content getting the attention from others at home and daycare by not walking. People have to come to her and she loves that. She loves the attention. So while she insists on feeding herself or brushing her own teeth (don't worry I still do it too) she won't give it up and just walk. sigh....

5) Puzzles. Kiya LOVES puzzles and is really very good at them. Her favorite is her Animal Sounds puzzle. It makes the animal sounds when you put the pieces in. Kind of annoying but she likes it. She knows where all of the pieces go and can put at least half of them in correctly without any help. She also loves her shape  sorting toy. She can do all of the shapes by herself and usually on the first try. She turns the cookie jar around to find the right shape and then puts it in. She used to get frustrated with the heart shape as it is harder to do but not anymore. She then claps for herself and says yay when she has all 5 shapes in. She also has a buckle bunny that has 5 different types of buckles on it. She can't open them yet and isn't supposed to be able to but she can now match the right sides together and even buckle 2 or 3 of them all by herself. She used to get frustrated with this toy so it would go in timeout sometimes but now that she is figuring it out it isn't as bad.

6) Napping. Yeah, she has been on this kick of nap fail for awhile. She didn't nap 3 out of 4 days last week. If it is one day here or there she is usually okay but 2 days in a row was tough. She was crabby. I have a bad feeling that she may give up napping well before this Mama is ready for her to.

7) Daycare. We got word that Kiya will be transitioning to this make shift 2 year old room at the end of September. There are a lot of kids turning 1 prior to Oct. so they need the room in the 1 year old rooms but there are a lot of kids who don't turn 2 until the end of the year like Kiya so they are making an 18 month old + room. I think Kiya is ready. She is one of the oldest kids in her class and she is hands down the most talkative. She sees and calls some of the other kids babies even though they walk and she doesn't. It also means new teachers which frankly I am kind of excited about. She needs a change and maybe the new teachers can challenge her in a way her current ones aren't. My one fear is that there is going to be a lot of change in a short period of time. New classroom, new teachers, new kids and let's throw in the high possibility of her being in a body cast. It may get a little interesting this fall....

So I think I have rambled enough :)

Video of Kiya walking

As promised a while ago, here is some video of Kiya walking. I know it is dark video but you get the idea. See how my lovely little one, wants everyone to clap for her? Oh boy are we in for it with her :)

Kiya hard at work

Therapy update

Therapy was GREAT!! AMAZING!!! WONDERFUL!!!

Okay so maybe I exaggerated a little, but Kiya actually interacted with her therapist and didn't cry the whole appointment or even most of it like she has in the past. This time was so different. She has come along way.

She was so proud to show off her superb crawling skills, her amazing climbing skills, her ability to stand up with little effort and she even (after a lot of bubbles) pushed a little shopping cart for her. The therapist was thrilled beyond words at how well Kiya has progressed in her gross motor development. She said that Kiya has amazing leg strength, balance and in essence has all the physical skills necessary to walk on her own. Now it is a mind game. We need to convince Kiya that yes in fact she can. The therapist gave us some things to try so we will go with that. She really felt that Kiya could walk any day now. Don't worry charging the batteries in the video camera.

On her curved spine issue....well....the word scoliosis was mentioned. The therapist would like Kiya to see a Pediatric Ortho doctor for maybe an x-ray or just a baseline screening. She really feels Kiya is at risk for being diagnosed with this. I did some research and most kids aren't diagnosed until school age. The degree of the curvature will determine treatment options. If minimal then just observation, if moderate a possible back brace and if severe surgery. Given Kiya's young age at this point observation would be all this would entail. She is much too young for a back brace and surgery isn't even considered until age 10 or 12. We are going to discuss with our regular pediatrician next week.

In the meantime, the therapist was thrilled to hear that Kiya starts swim lessons in two weeks and thinks this will be good for her back. We are to continue working with her on her exercise ball. She lies down on her back on it and we roll her forward and back to help stretch the muscles. She loves it. We are also going to try this special tape that athletes use for more acute conditions but some have used for more chronic conditions. We are testing the tape now to see if there is an allergy. Basically the therapist would put strips of tape on Kiya's back to pull the muscles. It will force her to use her back muscles in a different way. Kiya will straighten up if you apply pressure or run you finger along her back so there is some hope that this might help. Walking and being upright may also help.

The other thing we discussed was Kiya's foot. She tends to turn her right foot outwards at times when standing or walking. The running theories are she is doing it for balance or to compensate for her back. The therapist isn't too concerned as in all other positions Kiya's foot looks normal, reflexes properly and Kiya herself without knowing it was exercising her foot muscles which were all good signs.

I think Kiya's favorite part of therapy was the bubbles. She got really quiet while in the exercise room so much so the therapist asked how the rest of Kiya's development was and I said she is right on track. Then came the bubbles....then Kiya pointed, said no no no (her way of saying I want this) and then she kept saying Bubbles bubbles and more. Too cute.

We go back in two weeks for the taping of the back, until then watch out world you may have another toddler hurricane on the lose.

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Kiya being silly. She loves to have a mouthful of water....
Water table fun

Yes her bathing suit is way too small, new ones have been purchased.

Photographic proof that Kiya can walk with a walker toy.

10 months ago

I was sitting at work today and thinking about 10 months ago. I was in Ethiopia 10 months ago. Wow. I still miss Ethiopia but that is for another day. We were at the care center spending time with our dear sweet little Peanut. We had met her just the day before and we were all just trying to figure each other out.

Now we have been home for almost 10 months and we are still sort of figuring each other out. I say that because as Kiya grows and learns things change. Our way of doing things changes.

She is a vivacious and spunky 15 month old with a definite opinion about what she wants and how she wants it. Take bedtime for example. We have to start setting limits with her. She will stall otherwise. We tell her very clearly that bedtime is in x amount of minutes and that we will read x amount of books. If we don't, wow can that kid stall. She will "drink" more milk. Hand you another book and/or scoot over to a toy and start playing. She loves bed and she sleeps well so not sure where this new found stalling technique is coming from but we are on to her.

Kiya's 15 month check up is next week. I can't believe it. 10 months ago she was barely 12lbs and couldn't move really. Now she is sitting up, scooting, rolling, standing and....just kidding she isn't walking yet but she will. I try not to worry. What gets me the most is the comments from other people that there must be something wrong with her, you should take her to a doctor, my son/daughter was 11 months when they walked or 13 months and that was late, or my favorite has been you must carry/hold her too much that's why she can't walk. Really, I wanted to say you don't hold you kid? I love to hold mine :)

I posted on our amazing new forum seeking reassurance that it isn't that unusual that Kiya isn't walking at 15 months and got a TON of support and reassurance and stories of kids that walked at 17 month or 19 months etc. But the best piece of advice I got came from Abby on how to deal with the comments. And I quote:

"Have you ever seen Kiya do anything by the book? She's a smart, spunky little girl and she figures life out as she needs it"

Seriously that couldn't be a more perfect way to describe my daughter.

We have come along way in 10 months. I look forward to what is coming next. Admittedly I am slightly terrified as my spunky little one has a big ol'personality wrapped up in that little body and it is starting to poke through more and more each day. She is generally a very sweet and loving little girl but she has her moments when that big dramatic personality shines to the fullest as if to say watch out world Kiya is coming and you better get out of the way.

Where to begin....

I know bad blogger again but trying to keep up with an almost 14 month old who only naps once a day now and that is usually at daycare is very tough.

Kiya is still fabulous even with the double ear infection she is fighting off. For a sick baby, she does pretty well. A couple of rough nights but not too terrible. Here are some things Miss Kiya has been up to lately:

--She pretty much insists that she feeds herself the majority of her meal. If she is really hungry she will tolerate letting you feed her cereal or yogurt but the rest she wants to do by herself. She does pretty well too, most of the food makes it in her mouth, a few occasional pieces make it to the begging dogs on the floor and every once in awhile she will put food in her hair. Okay that is the nice version, she does well but absolutely LOVES to put things on her head including food. We were at a restaurant and she was eating green beans and she put one on her head and just left in there. It is pretty funny.

--Walking....well that is still a work in progress. We can see just how badly she wants to it is just those darn long legs and tiny feet making it tough to balance. She is getting better and more confident. I have a feeling she will just do it one day when no one is watching but not until she is sure she can do it perfectly.

--Pulling up. This is also a work in progress but we have seen LOTS of growth in this area. She is trying to pull up on her toy box and she got one foot going the right way and then mommy saw what she was doing so Kiya stopped. She is also trying to pull up in the bath tub, yeah not the best place but she is trying. She still prefers our fingers and will climb into our laps to get to them and use them to pull up. We got some great tips from her teacher and some other parents on things to do to help her gain confidence and we are starting to see the pay off of implementing those tips.

--She LOVES to talk. She can now say mama, dada, doggy, wow, hi, bye bye, uh oh, night night, puppy, ta da, vroom, and then she is trying to say mouth. We ask her where her mouth is and she points to it and says "mou" so cute. She is also trying to say belly button or bee bo. She can point to her belly button and say "bo". She is attempting to say 'no' and usually it comes out 'na' along with a head shake. She also does baby signs for more, eat and all done. She is big on imitating what we are saying so we are really starting to watch what we say in front of her.

So as you can see she is busy busy learning new things and we are just trying to keep up. Her social calendar is getting fuller as we had playgroup yesterday with a fairly large group of adopted children from Ethiopia and she has a play date this coming Friday with 2 other great kids from Ethiopia.

30 posts in 30 days :)

I did it. I didn't think I could but I did. I know that some of my posts were let's say not so good but I hope a few of them were pretty decent.

It is tough to blog with a 1 year old but I will continue to try but will likely take some days off.

Today we had Kiya's parent-teacher conference at daycare. I know seems weird to have one of these for a 1 year old but whatever. I talk to her teachers every time I pick her up so I knew what to expect.

Kiya's teachers think she is doing just great. She shares toys with the other kids; she loves to put things in a bucket and take things out; she LOVES to throw things; she is very verbal; she eats like a champ (most of the time).

Overall they think she is right on track to slightly ahead in her fine motor skills and her verbal skills which is great. Remember way back in July when Birth to 3 told us she was about 36% behind in her verbal--not anymore :) My gabby little girl loves to blab away. She even talks to high chairs.

Things we and they will continue to work on are her gross motor skills, namely walking and pulling up. She thought about and kind of tried to pull up on one of her activity toys today which was a surprise. She still prefers to pull up using our fingers which at times can get a little frustrating for all parties involved.

Today she also showed a tremendous amount of desire to walk. I mean really walk with very little support. Sure we were still holding on but she wanted to really go. She also tried to take a couple steps holding on to the coffee table and then again with her toy. She doesn't cruise on furniture so we saw this as progress.

We are just encouraging her and supporting her. She will walk when she is ready. This is Kiya we are talking about. She will do it when she wants and no sooner. So we will watch, wait and continue to enjoy her.

Wordless Wednesday