Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

I am so behind on posts, but trying to catch up.
Pumpkin Patch was fun this year, except for the day we picked to go, it was 90+ degrees which definitely did not feel like fall. Instead of hanging out there for a while like we planned, we only stayed for a few hours. We did the hay ride, picked out a pumpkin, took pictures, and were on our way back.

Family op

I loved this one, because it looks like you and Matty are having a deep conversation

Going for a ride

I bought your Halloween costume which was supposed to be a monkey a few weeks ago, however you refused to put it on. We tried a few times and you would start crying really loud as soon as we attempted to put on any part of it on. I did get you to pet it... and you recognized that it's a monkey, and would point to it and call it monkey while it was hanging. So we had to trade it in, your buddy Matthew ended us wearing it on his 1st birthday party. Instead you acquired a Panda bear costume. This time I didn't try to put it on you or introduce you to it ahead of time. The day before Halloween, your day care was going to have a celebration so I dropped you off and your costume so that you can get changed into it. Later I found out, you once again refused, all the kids were dressed up in costumes but not you. The following day was Halloween and daddy took you next door with you where the neighbor said she would attempt to help you get into a costume, they actually had 3 other ones to try, a lady bug, a princess and another one, you ran away each time they tried to put it on you and once again refused. I have pretty must accepted the fact that you weren't going to wear your costume, but before we left to go to Matty's bday party, I decided to try one last time, somehow we were able to distract you and even thought you fussed a little bit, it was no big deal, you wore your costume, and even the head piece part. Yay!
So that allowed us to take you trick or treating this year for the first time, you had such a fun time. We met us with Kingston and Herbie who both dressed up as pirates and you went into the houses to get candy, you wouldn't let go of your basket either. We all had a great time, and you enjoyed the candy as well. Here are a few pictures from that day.

Cutest Panda bear ever

Hanging out with Matty the Monkey @ his 1 Year Birthday Party

Enjoying a juice box

Getting ready for your first trick or treating experience

Off you go!

I forgot to mention that when we got home that night, you were sad when I took the panda hat off you, and wanted it back on. Also in a few more days after I have washed the costume and was putting some laundry away before your nap time, you found the hat and decided to put it on, I went to take it off, and you started crying... so I let you have it, you napped in your panda hat that day, so funny!

From Crib to Little Bed

As I mentioned in the previous post, you've been attempting to climb out of the crib. Last night you succeeded. It happened right in front of me, I just couldn't believe it. You swung you leg over, pushed up with your arms and out you went, I just couldn't get there in time to catch you. Luckily, you didn't hurt yourself. We've just moved your little area rug and you landed right on it, with your back and butt first and then your head hit the side of the crib but it was already after you were on the ground so no damage caused. You definitely got scared and started to cry a little bit, but it wasn't "I got hurt" kind of a cry, you were just spooked.

So it's time to say goodbye to your crib, and hello to your bed. I must say I am a little bit sad to let the crib go... but I guess the baby stage is officially over and now it's time to embrace yet another stage of you growing up. I had a hard time deciding if we should get a twin bed for you or not, especially since we have a queen bed in the guest room that's not being used, but would be way too huge for you for now, so we decided to have a temporary solution with this very inexpensive toddler bed we got on craiglist, until I figure out the bed, room, furniture situation.

We took apart the crib and put the bed in its place and it's so so cute! You saw us putting everything in place and once we were done you seemed happy and you even went down and laid on it for a few seconds, but I had no idea what to anticipate for our first night with you in your new "big little girl bed".

Here is the scoop on the first night. We did the usual bedtime routine, read a few stories, brushed your teeth, changed into PJs and I laid you down, you immediately started to get up. I put you back down, attempted to sing "twinkle twinkle little star" and back on the bed you went. Once again you got up. After 5 or so times I left the room, and as soon as you came out, I would put you back into bed without saying anything. Then after feeling bad that you seemed to be having a hard time getting used to your bed, I thought may be I'll just stay in the room with you and wait till you fall asleep, that didn't work, you still got up, wanted to climb with me on the chair, then you wouldn't stay put there either. Every time you saw me coming in, you'd turn around and start running for the bed, you started laughing and were thinking this is a game that we play, I got tired after 10 times of going back and forth, and called daddy. He did the same thing 40 times! Then he needed a break, it was my turn once again, and I probably lasted another 20 times of you coming out and putting you back in bed. I even tried holding the door shut, which sounds terrible and I really didn't think I would have to do that, but I was running out of ideas and got frustrated. It didn't work, you started getting into the baskets with toys. Daddy came back to the rescue once again and we went back and forth 30 more times. Towards the end you were getting pretty mad and screamed and cried, but finally you got exhausted, and stayed in bed. I thought there would be no end to it. Over 100 times!!! 100 times it took to make you stay in bed. We exhausted ourselves! Our lower backs ached but we were happy that you were finally asleep. You didn't get up on your own this morning, but woke up pretty cranky and crying a little. I'll am hoping that the 2nd night will go better than the first, but we'll see.

Last night in the crib

Trying out your new bed on the first night... such a big girl already!

I Love YOU!

You said, "I Love you!" for the first time.

Here is how it happened. I was putting you to bed, and lately it's been taking you a while to settle down, you jump and kick, throw your blanket and bears out of the crib. You seem to have endless energy and sometimes stay up for another hour until finally falling asleep. So I left the room, and you started fussing a little bit and daddy went in to help you get settled once again and he picked you up and he said "I... Love... you", the way we always say it, and then go in for a kiss, usually by the word Love, you start giggling and your head falls onto our shoulder and we give you lots of kisses all over. Well for a while now you've been repeating, "I Love", but we haven't heard you say all three words at once, until this weekend! You repeated it right after daddy said it. It was so cute, I was right outside the door and heard you. Adorable!

The other thing worth mentioning is you have started to attempt to climb out of the crib. I knew it was only a matter of time. The last 2 nights, you have given us a few scares, you were so close to tumbling out of it, we saw you on the video of the baby monitor and we ran into your room as soon as we could, to tell you to stop, although of course you don't really listen, but eventually you did stop. I guess it's time for a big girl bed or some other alternate solution.

Another thing you do while in your crib before you fall asleep is sing. You start remembering all the different songs, a lot of them sound the same. You sing "Tinkle tinkle... little star", especially because there are stars that project on the ceiling from a cool night light. Seeing the stars probably reminds you of the song. At first you just sang "tinkle tinkle", but now you've added 2 words to it and the rest is baby talk which I don't understand. Also you sing "Bayu, bayushki, bayu" which is the start of a russian lullaby... I only know the first verse so I never finish it myself either. Also there is a "bye, bye" song that you sing in your swim group and you sing that one all the time, for some reason you put in, "eaka" at the end and sing "bye, bye eaka" I have no idea what "eaka"stands for but you've been saying that for a while now.

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!