Good Days

Been having a string of really good days around here.

First of all, its a March heat wave in the Northeast.  For a week, its been slowly increasing to peak in the low 80's yesterday.  We have gone for walks every day and played in the backyard.  Been to the park twice.  Enjoying having the windows open, new spring clothes, and using the grill.  (But sadly, over the next two days we are plummeting back to the 40's before swinging back up to some low 50's in the long range forecast).

Natalie has been doing better with her mobility.  After connecting with a woman with a daughter with juvinile arthritis that my cousin knows, we decided to give Natalie some ibuprofen to see if it helped.  We were reluctant before because it didn't seem to help and we had to fight her quite a bit to take it and didn't like giving her so much medicine when we couldn't tell if it was doing anything.  But we've seen improvement.  Mostly we give her a dose at night, but a few days I gave her some in the morning, too.  We are wondering if it was the warm weather helping her or the dry weather and we will have to see if there are changes as it gets colder.  It figures that she is doing better when her appointment is now just about a week away.  She is not a "normal" toddler though.  She has trouble getting up and down off the floor and has a rough time with stairs.  We have pictures and video of her climbing and squatting up until the fall weather hit, and then none.  But, even though she isn't like the other little kids we know, she is pretty happy.  Most of her negative behaviors have been centered around regular toddler things (testing boundaries, being bossy and defiant, playing with her food, jealousy over our attention, conflict with other kids over toys, etc). 

William has had a huge break through: CRAWLING!  Previously, he could get around pretty well by a combination of rolling and an inch worm type motion, but he was seriously frustrated that his attempts at crawling got him stuck or falling on his face.  But then he figured it out last weekend.  I think that the warm weather allowing us to take off his pants and socks might have been a factor.  Now he can crawl well and every day is exploring the living room more.  He came to the doorway last night, but we scared him off a bit by making a big deal out of it.  With crawling also came sitting back down on his bum well.  He was doing it before, but now he is very fluid in his ability to move from laying to sitting.  With this break through, we had a few rough nights.  But he also had (well, still has) a gross cough and some stuffy nose.  He had a slight fever too.  We had one really rough night in there.  But now we seem to have crossed a threshold and the last two nights he's slept very well.  He's woken up, but not fully and still been able to go back to sleep without us intervening. 

Yesterday was Mike's birthday.  Because of the unprecedented warm weather, he took the day off of work and we went to OBB!  Natalie had never been to the ocean, but has been to the beach several times.  William had never been to the beach.  They both had a great time.  William loved feeling the sand.  Natalie did not like the sand, but still at least tried walking on it and made sandcastles with me decorated with shells.  Mike took each of them down to the water for a little bit while I stayed at the blanket with the other.  I took tons of pictures.  We also walked around the streets some.  We showed Natalie where we got married and she got a little too excited thinking we were going in, but they were closed for the season.  Mike and Natalie had some pizza, which she loved.  When we got home, I made Mike's birthday cake.  We passed a pleasant afternoon and Natalie and Mike enjoyed the the cake.

This passed week or so we've had some good times with friends, too.  We went to the park with our neighbors.  We had went to a free music class with a different neighbor and friend.  We had our regular Friday play date today.

That's not to say we didn't have any bad moments this week.  There were several times this week when I was out and both kids were screaming at me.  There were times I yelled at the kids.  But overall, I feel good leaving this week.  I feel I had some nice alone time with both kids, though more so with Natalie.

A couple more small things.  Been working on my sister's baby shower.  I have the invites ready and they need to be addressed and mailed.  We have a place booked.  Haven't yet really thought about decorations or food.  I  have a friend's baby shower tomorrow.  Been spending a lot of time thinking about what to include in her gift.  Tonight, I need to finish decorating it.  I've been feeling really crafty recently since I got a Pinterest account.  I've gotten lots of great ideas for with Natalie.