Yesterday was David's developmental screening at Sutter. They offer it to all preemies just to follow up on how they are doing. We saw a social worker who was very nice, a physical therapist and a pediatric nurse practitioner. The physical therapist was the most helpful, as David is behind in his gross motor skills. We've known that for a while and it isn't that uncommon... Anyway, the good news is that he seems right on target for most things. He picks up things and had pretty good fine motor skills, displays object permanence and also has really good social skills.

The physical therapist gave us some exercises to do with him to try to strengthen the front part of his body. Apparently in preemies, it's common for there to be an inbalance between the anterior and posterior because they develop strength in the womb in the posterior body first. Then during the last several weeks they develop strength in the anterior. Because of all this, even though he can sit up, but has poor balance because of the way he's compensated. His lateral muscles are undeveloped, so his movements are jerky as he tries to keep his balance. The good news is that it's early and we can help him fix the imbalance before it gets to be a big problem.

I also found it really interesting to talk to the physical therapist about her opinion of the "Back to Sleep" program. (I thought that maybe David's imbablance was partially a result of us putting him to sleep on his belly.) In her opinion back sleeping it's not a natural way for babies to sleep and she told me that they see all kinds of term babies that develop problems because of this, and that there's no proof that it prevents SIDS. The more likely reason for SIDS is soft mattresses, (in her opinion).

He's 8 months old now with an adjusted age of 6 1/2 months. The nurse weighed and measured him and didn't use the adjusted age for this. He weighs 22lbs and is still in the 50-75th percentile for an 8 month old. I don't really know what all of that means except that he's continuing to gain weight and grow like he's supposed to. That makes us happy because he's still pretty spitty. The nurse said that as long as he continue to gain weight and doesn't appear to have any irritation from the reflux, they qualify him as a "happy spitter." Bummer for us and all of the laundry we do, but again, happy that it's not worse than it is.

Isabelle didn't get to go to this appointment. Initially, I was irritated that we had to get a sitter for her, but once we were there I totally understood and was glad we didn't have the option to bring her. She stayed home with my friend Diane and they had a lovely time. The went to the horsey park and we're banging on things "making music" when we got back. It's so nice to have someone to jump in when we need to do things like this. And I think as much as Isabelle loves us, she gets tired of our ugly mugs and likes having new people to play with.


Oh jeez... speaking of imbalances though!!! Poor Isabelle did a face plant right into the concrete the other day! We were going out to get burritos and she tripped and fell and bounced her mouth off the pavement. You parents know that sickening feeling... You see it happening in slow motion and there's no way you can get there to catch them in time, then you're hands fly up to your mouth and you hope they don't see your reaction. She split her lip inside pretty good and had a nice big fat lip. She still has a fat lip in fact, but seems ok other wise. I got great advice from another mom for lip injuries, which was to put them in the bath with a popsicle. Pain relief, distraction and no mess!

The other great thing to report is that John's work has agreed to continue with an arrangement that makes it possible for me to be home with the kids during the day and work in the evenings. It's still not the ideal situation for them, but they've been generous in their compromise. With the exercies we need to do with David and the fact that I adore being home with the kids every day, we are so grateful. John gets one on one time with them the three evenings a week that I work and then on Saturday mornings. He's just the best Dad ever! And the kids light up for him like no one else. We're pretty happy with our little family.

David has learned how to clap his hands. It's the sweetest thing... he can sit up now, although he loses his balance pretty easily, and sometimes just sits and claps. He also likes to practice his new skill when he wakes up in the morning. Somehow, it isn't as cute then. He rolls onto his back and , clap, clap, clap squeal, squeal. Flip flop, grab Mommie's hair, smile as she untangles little fingers without waking up Daddy... So CUTE!!!

This morning at 5:30, I finally gave up and decided to get up with him. I get up and get dressed which is apparently enough time for him to roll onto his tummy and go back to sleep. So then, I go lay on the couch. I get all the pillows off, lay down get all snuggled up, nice and warm in the blanket... Ahhhhh... and, Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! He's up again. Being a parent is the BEST!

David is getting pretty good at sitting up now. I know that's a small step, but when you're a parent, you really enjoy these little milestones. He can't get himself up yet (I'll write about that when it happens too), but when we put him in a sitting position, he'll hold it for a while. He also loves to roll around, and look about while on his belly, as you can see from the photo in the last post. I'm sure he's gonna start crawling soon. He sure likes to kick when he's sitting in his high chair or stroller, but I can't remember how the transition goes from kicking legs to crawling legs.

Isabelle is enjoying her brother now a bit more as well. She asks to sit with him on the couch, and they laugh and giggle at each other. Of course, for David, Isabelle is just the most fun thing to watch in the world. He loves us, but he perform many more functions for him. We're more of a necessity. Isabelle is just the bonus, generally more interesting.


Isabelle has a very good eye for caricatures, I guess I would have to say. Every now and then when she's eating oatmeal or crackers, or whatever, she'll stop and say, "Doggie" or "bird." Then we look to see what she's talking about, and if she's looking at her spoon, we'll look there and see the shape of a dog, cat, face, etc.. Of course, when the media is oatmeal, I can't show you her transitory artistic interpretation. Yesterday, she was playing out on the side walk with her chalk. She was drawing faces, circles, and general scribbling, as two year olds like to do. Then she stopped and said, "Horsey." I looked, and yeah, she drew a horse. I think that's pretty cool, since she's never actually seen one, only on the TV.

Well here we are 10 days after the last posting. And that was a very minimal one at that. Let's see what I have to tell you. David continues to be cuter every day as a little more personality develops. He really likes to sing in the morning when he wakes up. It is a really sweet and cute little thing to hear, now that I can write about it, but when he wakes up at 4:30 and starts, it's not the preferred time. Sometimes he's also in bed, in between us, and he starts to roll from side to side. That's all fine until he gets the hands and feet into it. In fact, this morning he smacked me right in the ribs of my back, Whump! At 5 a.m., a whump on the chest is actually quite loud, and a little bit scary.


Isabelle is getting into the copy cat stage. Which is great, 'cause we can see her learning and thinking and practicing words. And now we really need to be careful about what we say to each other or other people when we're out or on the phone, for instance. Now, we are not a couple of foul mouthed sailors, so we don't have a lot to worry about, but the other day she said a couple of things which she must have heard us say, but neither of us remember saying it.

Here's my story, since I can't remember Julie's right now. I had just taken Isabelle out of the bath, and put her in her pajamas. She was drinking her warm milk, and reading a book, so I went back into the bathroom to wash the soap off her bath toys and rinse out the tub. The tub still had water in it, so of course, I started to let the water out as I picked up the toys. All of a sudden, in the corner of my eye, I see Isabelle, and she wants to help. Which is fine. There really wasn't much left to do anyway. But Isabelle still wanted to play, er....help. So she reached in the tub to splash a little bit. Next thing I know, her sleeve is all wet, and I said, "Oh, Isabelle, you got you sleeve all wet."
She looked down, and noticed the wet sleeve, as if it magically appeared. Then she said, "Oh, Darn it!"

Now, I really don't think I say that phrase a lot, or ever. But Isabelle sure learned it, and its context. Which is wonderful. But when did she learn it?

David likes green beans!!

Isabelle's favorite song to sing right now is Twinkle Twinkle Litttle Star. She sings it probably 52 times a day... at random times, in random intonations, at random speeds. The other songs in her line-up are Sweet Child O' Mine (Guns n' Roses), Blackbird (Beatles), Hush Little baby, and You Are My Sunshine. I used to just sing these to her at bedtime, but John downloaded these songs and now we have a little playlist that is requested a couple times a day.

Today at lunch Sweet Child of Mine was the request. Isabelle used to be a little confused by all the guitar work because obviously that's not the way I was singing it... she'd look at us like, is this part of the song?? But now she really gets into it... does air guitar and some drum beats.

Today she surprised me by getting stuck on the part "Where do we go now, ayayayayayayay" It was pretty funny. Then she said "rock on Daddy..." and I said "Daddy's at work, but yeah... keep on keepin' on.... rock on Daddy!" I've tried to teach her to put her goat-head up, but she's not quite coordinated enough to do that.

Then she ends the song with a big smile and says.... "Yayyyy...!" Fun having a little rocker in the house. David on the other hand might be a little raver.... he sure gets happy when John dances around to house music.