#1 - Happy 2012 to all! I hope your new years eve celebration was better than mine. Mine consisted of sending the girls to bed at 8:30 and crashing early myself. I'm getting old. I hate to admit it, but its the truth.
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#2 - I feel that my first post of 2012 should be full of wit and intelligence--deep thoughts, you know. So allow me to pontificate on Kung Fu Panda 2 which I finally saw for the first time and absolutely loved. Good story, draws you in with some great comedy--both verbal and physical. Finally a sequel that actually worked, with more to come apparently. I read somewhere they have a story arc of 6 total movies? That would be great if they'd pull it off.
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#3 - In cottage news, I'm exhausted. Well, recovering from exhaustion. We're in the middle of our three off days, and they didn't come a day too soon. We got two new children in the cottage--a 2.5 year old and a 4 year old (soon to be 5). For the sake of this blog, the little one I shall call Monkey (because she is a monkey and climbs on everything). The older girl I think I have settled on calling--Parrot. She is very intelligent, picks up on new ideas and concepts quickly, flits around the house quickly, and talks nonstop if you let her!All in all, they are both beautiful little girls, bright, sweet, and desperately in need of some stable home life. Monkey is, well, two and a half in all respects. "Mine" is her favorite word, and she doesn't take "no" for an answer with much grace. Pretty well behaved though for the most part--fortunately. Picking her up has been a bit of a shock to the system as I'm used to teeny, tiny Blueberry. And fortunately she and Blueberry are getting along pretty well. A few "mine" squabbles here and there, but for the most part, they do well together.
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#4 - Christmas was nice. Busy, but nice. I finally really am beginning to feel at home here, and a large part of that is definitely due to the onslaught of guests who came over Christmas. Having friends and family around really helped me feel like this is still us--just a new location. I don't know if that makes sense, but there you have it.
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#5 - And while Christmas was nice--I'm definitely ready to get the decorations down. Hopefully can get that accomplished this upcoming shift. In between myriads of doctor appointments that Monkey and Parrot have (all the newbies on campus have a lot of appointments initially). I was just really settling down into our house, and I'm ready to finish that acclimation for ourselves. I'm surprised it's taken me this long, to be honest--but we're getting there in the end.
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#6 - Tonight was another big step to the acclimation process--at least it was for me. We found and explored the Asian market in town. Didn't even know there was one (had actually looked it up and hadn't found information on one) until I happened to meet a Thai lady and her daughter who were part of a church Christmas party for our kids here on campus. She told me about the market. I found green papaya and pretty much every other necessary ingredient to Thai food. Score! Such a relief.
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#7 - Talking about doctor's appointments, finally got Blueberry in for her 15 month appointment (ok, ok, a little late). A bit frustrated. She is perfectly healthy in all aspects except her weight, and that is still painfully slow to go up--to the point where they are calling it "failure to thrive". Which I find a little odd as in all other respects she is definitely thriving. She's developing normally in terms of motor skills and verbal skills, she sleeps well (did I mention that she's FINALLY sleeping 12 hours through the night on a consistent basis with no waking up? Yes, there has been much rejoicing at this development. Not to get myself to bed earlier to take full advantage of these full nights of sleep...), her eyes are clear, she's constantly active, and rarely sick.
In looking up what the phrase actually means, the only thing that matches their definition is just the fact that she is not putting on weight quickly. Of course their recommendations all included things like giving her Carnation and Pediasure--all of which have dairy in them. So we're having to try some other methods to get her to put some weight on a little faster than she is. So far (thank you Hillery), we're attempting the no liquids with her meals (or too close to a meal) trick, which does seem to be helping a little bit to get her to eat more. Tried making a shake the other day with coconut milk and fruit...we'll see if she gets into those--didn't drink much of it. I thought it tasted good, but sadly, I'm not the one needing to gain weight.
Part of my problem is how do you get an active 17 month old to eat more if she doesn't want to? We try to feed her healthy meals and snacks, and frankly, she eats quite a bit, just not a lot at one time. And she just doesn't put on weight. It makes me wonder if there's something else underlying all of this--inability to absorb food is one of the common things I've found mentioned, and which her doctor did mention. Problem is, she's not showing any of those symptoms either (other than the slow weight gain symptom).
Sigh. Very frustrating. And in truth, scary. I want the best for my kid, and the very phrase that she's not thriving is frightening. But at the same time, as I stated earlier, I'm having a hard time accepting that phrase when I look at the rest of her development.
We do our best and that's all we can do, I guess.
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