22 Months

You are doing so many things lately that just crack us up. I don't even know where to begin and I am sure I have forgotten some already.

Last week we were driving in the car, when you decided to make funny farting noises with your mouth. You thought it was hilarious and laughed every time you'd do one! Daddy has been the one encouraging this skill of yours and he's very proud. Sometimes, he'll just say the word and you'll fart on demand... may be funny for now, but I am not so sure for later.

Another funny thing you've been doing lately is you get really silly sometimes and say "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy" over and over again while running in circles or jumping. I have no idea where you learned that. You've been jumping up and down on our bed saying this every morning for the last week. Speaking of jumping, you finally learned how to jump... or almost jump, sometimes only one foot at a time comes off the ground, but you're definitely on your way. Also for the first time you started to jump off the edge of the pool into daddy's arms. You haven't been brave enough, until your last swim playgroup when all the sudden you jumped on 1, 2, 3.

The other silly thing you do is pick your nose, this habit is once again encouraged by daddy, just kidding!

We've stopped using the pacifier. Hurray! At least I was able to win that battle, since you're still using a bottle to drink your milk. First few times, you've cried for it, but now it's really not so bad. The first few days you were asking for it calling it "neimi", and I would tell you "neimi is all gone" and you'd start to cry. Then I would tell you that your bear doesn't have a neimi and you don't need one either because you're a big girl. So far, so good! I just hope you don't start sucking your thumb!

You also love seeing your grandparents, Ded and Baba. One day my dad came to watch a Charger game with Jeromey and I, and you sat on his lap for a while and watched it on his lap. When it was time for him to leave, you didn't want him to go and asked to be picked up. We were leaving the house as well, and when we got back that night once you came in, you started looking for him and saying "Ded" ? When we come to their house, you love being there, and you rarely agree to go home... it's so sweet and they love you so much!

You say your name really well now and you even say "Saschenka" which is your name with a Russian twist added to it. You can add "enka" to any name and it's like a term of endearment, mostly used for kids. A few nights ago I heard you use both an English and a Russian word together. It took me a few minutes to understand, but once I finally did it was so clear. You were asking for your blankie which I took and put outside your crib on top of the hamper. You kept pointing to the hamper saying "diey blankie", the first word means to give me, so you were saying "give blankie". It was so cute! Also you say "high five".

We started going to Music class again, and you love it! You're a lot more engaged in the things that the group is doing, you mimic things a lot more than before, it's a lot of fun and I am so happy to spend that time with you just having fun, without any interruptions.

Hanging out in our back yard

Looking up at the tree

Post doctor's appointment update

Sascha had a rough week, but I am glad it's over with. Monday we took her to get an Ultrasound and VCUG. The ultrasound went ok, you started crying as soon as we laid you down on the table. You are just terrified of doctors, pretty much as soon as you walk in, I can see it in your face. We loaded some mickey mouse playhouse videos on daddy's phone and were able to distract you at least briefly. Then we went back to the waiting room to wait until we get called to do the next test. You of course cried through that one as well. The most awful part of it was that once the dye was inserted into your bladder and the catherer pulled out, you kept holding it, you wouldn't pee. So we just had to stand there and watch you cry and wait for you to pee, because that's when they start taking video and pictures of the bladder and kidney area. It seemed like forever, although I am sure it was no longer than a minute or two. Daddy didn't leave your side, he held up your mickey toy and the video playing... although it didn't stop you from crying. I stood over to the side, holding my breath and counting the seconds till they were finished. At least everyone there was very nice and helpful. We even found out that next time we have to do this, we can request for 'sedation', where they'd give you some laughing gas and you won't remember much after they do this, and hopefully have an easier time with it. Next time it has to be requested along with the referral and apparently those appointments book up 3 months in advance. The radiologist told us that the reflux is definitely still present and it still looks pretty severe, but we'd know more once we saw the doctor because he will review and compare with last years test results.
The doctor visit was pretty short. He said there were no changes in the reflux :( and it's still on both sides, class III and class IV, because it's a high grade reflux, you only have about 25% chance of outgrowing it... which is small, but he suggested it's worth to wait at least another year and keep you on the antibiotics, unless of course you get another UTI. The good news is that the ultrasound showed that your kidneys look good, so the past UTIs haven't done any serious damage, which is why we're able to wait it out a little longer. But most likely he'll start talking about the surgery next year. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, luckily from what I've been reading, the surgery is about 95-98% successful.
I am just glad you don't refuse to take the medicine every night, sometimes you push it away and don't want to take it, but we've figured out ways to distract and not force it.

Another UTI

We've done so well since last November and you haven't had any UTI infections being on the antibiotic, but unfortunately we didn't make it through a whole year without one. You got sick last week with a fever, no other symptoms... how familiar. I decided with your previous history of UTIs and the reflux I don't want to wait till day 3 so on the 2nd day we went to the doctor. Daddy took you in a few hours before our actual appointment to try and get a urine sample. You hate going to the doctors, you don't like anything that they do, even measure your temperature. After a few hours, we were finally able to collect a sample and it tested negative for a UTI, I was a bit relieved and thinking it's just something viral. But of course the sample had to get sent to the lab for a culture, so I knew we weren't completely in the clear. I no longer wait for the doctor to call, I called them the next day to see if there were any results and after checking we were told that the results hadn't come back and we wouldn't know till the following Monday since this was a Friday. Once again I convinced my self that this must be something Viral, the doctor told me to look for a rash after the fever goes away, that you may have Roseolla. Well Saturday came and in the morning I noticed that your upper lip looked a bit bluish, which was a bit of a concern. It was something that I remember my mom telling me that you had right before your febrile seizure last year. We were still giving you Motrin and Tylenol. When you woke up from your nap, you were burning up, when placed you on the changing table I noticed you started shivering and once again your lips looked bluish. Needless to say when I saw that I became very worried. This all was too similar to what had happened last October and I wasn't even there for it. I measured a 102 fever, I saw it quickly going up, and next time I measured it was 103, we gave you Motrin right away. Of course I got really scared and tried to reach the doctors office to talk to the on call doctor. She called us in the next hour and said she will check on the lab. Sure enough we got another call from her later that evening confirming that the test came back positive for UTI and we need to bump up the antiobiotic doses. Aaah! So frustrating!

So your yearly check up tests are in a couple of weeks... I am definitely dreading that day! The ultrasound is not too bad, I think we can distract you with that one, but the VCUG is so hard to watch, I am going to feel horrible for having you go through it especially since the last UTI pretty much lets me know that you have not grown out of your reflux yet (I still hope though!), unfortunately there is no other choice but to still do the tests and then your visit to the pediatric urologist will follow up so I will post an update on that soon.
I am happy to say that you are back to your old self, seems like the antibiotics worked in within 24 hrs once we upped the dose!

Here is a cute little picture of you when you started to feel better and wanted to play. You actually sat down the penguin in the chair then lined up your duckies on the table and sat down yourself. I guess you are already starting some pretend play. So adorable!

21 Months

Talking and understanding are definitely the biggest changes this month. You can say your name, and other kids names that are easy to say. You are saying a few more words in Russian. I am slowly figuring that out. You say "Upal" when something falls down on the ground or when you fall down yourself, which means "to fall". You repeat and understand so much more than I realize. You often nod your head when we are talking to you and you many times give us an answer when we ask a question.

You're a good helper lately, if we ask you to bring something to us, you will usually do it. Another time you helped me unload the dishwasher by handing the plates to me. You love to move things around in your play area. Take things out of their boxes and then put them back. One of your favorite toys is a Russian nesting doll called a "matreashka", you love taking it appart and putting it back together. We haven't gotten you to clean up your play area yet, but you do help put things away when we involve you in the process.

You have fallen in love with Mickey Mouse. We have a stuff animal that we bought for Aaron at Disneyland 5 years ago and somehow we ended up with it, and now you drag it around the house, saying "Mickey". Recently daddy showed you a few cartoons with Mickey in them and now when you see the TV on, you ask for "Mickey". So now we've started to record the Mickey playhouse shows. Funny how downstairs you will ask for Mickey but upstairs you will ask for "Baby" which means to show you the baby signing time dvds that we sometimes put on in the morning while you have your milk and while we get ready for work. A few days ago, I was in the kitchen cooking when you and daddy came home and you started asking for "Mickey" again, and I said "no, not right now" and daddy went upstairs to change. I got busy getting dinner ready, only to turn in a few minutes and notice that you are up on the chair watching Lion King... I didn't even know what to say. I have no idea how you figured out to switch the mode to DVD and play it (it was already loaded). I guess you got what you wanted afterall!

Tantrums haven't really started just yet, but I am noticing more and more that when you don't want to do something or go someplace you will start wining and saying "Net" and lay down on the floor. Lately it's difficult to leave places like the park or someone's house... you don't want to leave and you start crying. I suspect this may get worse with the terrible two's coming. :)
You have definitely been testing us lately. What can you get away with? Well we introduced the corner/timeout, and although we don't keep you in the corner very long... you certainly are not happy to go there. Very often you will come over and deliberately do something that we just told you not to do. For example you like hitting the standing fan, sometimes you hit it lightly, other times you push it so hard I am afraid it might fall on top of you. The other reason we've put you in the corner was when you don't want certain food and it's placed on the tray, you start refusing it, by saying no, and you want to get it off the tray immediately. If I don't take it away, you've started to throw it, and now you throw it much harder than just dropping it on the floor like you used to, sometimes it ends up on the other side of the kitchen. So I guess the disciplining starts! I've contemplated if it might be too soon, but most people I talk to tell me that it's not... so the fun of parenting begins. :)

We've also noticed that your behavior completely changes once I am around, or when first get home from work. You start to get very winy and every little thing can set you off into crying. Not really sure why that is.

Things are the same at the daycare, you are doing well there. You only have an issue with one girl named "Nicky", not sure what your issue is, but as soon as you see her, you run up and push her. I've told you so many times to not push and be gentle, but for some reason you keep bulling this one little girl for no apparent reason.

Other times you are gentle and cute. Most of our friend's babies are boys, and so you're always surrounded by boys. Just recently we were at a friends house and you were the only little girl there. When one of the boys Maxon was leaving, his mom asked him to give you a hug and a kiss.

Usually when we ask you to give a hug, if you're up for it, you start moving forward sideways and give us the shoulder and also lean in sometimes with your cheek or lips for a kiss, it's very cute. Seems like you didn't mind getting hugged and kissed by Maxon and here is a picture Jill was able to grab with her Iphone.

Two little curly heads

21 Months @ the beach

The Lipstick Incident

Looks like you got in trouble for the first time in daycare. Well...this probably isn't the first time considering I've heard you pushing kids and etc, but this particular little incident is just too funny. When daddy picked you up yesterday, Galya told him all about what you've done. Apparently the older lady (Galya's mom or relative) who watches you guys left her jacket in a visible area and you got into it. What did you pull out? Lipstick of course... and you put it on your face, all over your face and your pjs. You also took the liberty of putting some lipstick on other kids faces. When I first heard this, I couldn't stop laughing. How did you know to put it on your face? I don't wear lipstick much so you don't see me putting it on very often so it's just really odd to me that you'd know that. May be you've seen the daycare ladies put it on. They found you jumping on the bed with it (must have been before or after naptime) and you looked very proud of yourself... or you probably looked like you knew you did something you weren't supposed to (I know the look very well!)
So when daddy went in to pick you up you were being held by one of them on her lap. They said you were just full of it that day, so much energy and so mischievous, they had a hard time keeping up with you.... little monkey girl!
As funny as this was, it made me think of the future and how you might be getting in trouble and having to deal with you being in trouble would be no fun at all.

At the pool

Every Saturday we have been going to the pool play group and you love it. This Saturday we planned to do the same thing. It was going to be especially nice because of the 100+ degree weather we've been having. Well little did we know that the pool was actually scheduled to be closed this Saturday. We drove all the way out there for nothing. We got into the empty parking lot and realized now why a few people told us "see you in two weeks" when we were leaving last time. I thought it was just because they were going on vacation or something and were skipping a week. So we had no other choice but to leave. On the way to the pool I got you all excited about seeing your "swim friends", and going swimming that once we started to drive out of the parking lot, you began to cry. I guess you realized that we're not swimming after all and got upset. It was so hard to explain to you that the pool was closed and we couldn't go in today. You cried for a good 5-10 minutes. I was trying to distract you with all sorts of silly things, but there was no use... you wanted to go swimming. I even promised that we'd go swimming another time, may be with Kingston, at their pool. Well the next day we did just that and you had so much fun there. Here are a few pictures of you splishing and splashing!

Excited to see your buddy Kingston

Kicking those legs, kick, kick, kick

In deep thought...

A trip to the pool is not complete without daddy throwing you high up in the air


Cute bum bum

Saved the best one for last!