Totally Normal

Kate had her language evaluation and drum-roll please...she is totally NORMAL. WHAT?! Yes, we have a typical and normal developing toddler. I still feel I did not overreact as I felt she appeared delayed in her language skills. But I must say that she has and is coming a long way in her language skills. Kate still needs to go to Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) due to the mild hearing loss which may be affecting her speech intelligibility. However, the speech pathologist was not too worried about Miss Kate. In fact, Miss Kate was so sweet, well mannered and fun during the assessment. She followed directions and wanted to play and interact with these two strangers who came to the house. Kate was so comfortable with them that when one of the ladies asked her to put a diaper on the baby she ran to her room and put a real diaper on the toy baby and came out with her bottoms off so that I could change her diaper. I also think she is getting ready for potty-training; unfortunately she is showing us all the signs and we have to buckle down and get serious with it soon! We bought her "Once Upon a Potty", which now comes with interactive buttons that make flushing noises. Kate likes to open the book to the page with "poo-poo" in the pot and of course say, "pooooooo-poooooo" and pushes the flushing button. When she needs a diaper change she will take off her pants and diaper (yes, sometimes even with poop in it) and brings us a diaper (at times) or just runs around the house naked. A funny sight to see, except when she has poop and I am checking everything to make sure there are no stinky surprises for me.

So back to the language part, at 26 months of age Kate is putting 2-3 words sentences together, sometimes even more. She still loves Yo Gabba Gabba and names all of the characters and even has a "Brobee" doll. Our love for Yo Gabba Gabba is such that we are taking Kate to see them LIVE in San Diego in November (Nana Delia, Mimi Linda and I). Kate is getting into Olivia and her Mimi bought her a miniature Olivia doll and she loves "leeveeyaa". I feel as though the tantrums are not as bad either since she can now communicate with us with words and express her needs and wants more. Don't get me wrong, she is still a pain (sorry Kate but you will understand when you have a kid of your own) but far more manageable now that the screaming, grunting, pointing and pouting are being replaced with words. She is just getting to be more enjoyable and there are more laughable moments. Such as when we pass McDonald's and every single time she sees it she screams "nonolds!!!!!" or we pass the pool and she says "POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL". Milk is "nilk" and we have progressed from "mamma" and "dadda" to "mommy" and "daddy". She is even counting to 10, with assistance of course ~ thanks to Mimi! Our little girl is growing up so fast before are eyes and it makes me sad, but I look forward what the next day will bring us.

I don't have pictures to match this blog, but here is a recent outing to the park ~ notice pigtails? It is a hassle at times (still) to comb Kate's hair but she is slowly letting me do it!


Don't I look cute in pigtails?


Big slide all to myself ~ funny story...Kate had the park to herself and when 3 other kids arrived later she started yelling, "miiiiinnnnnnneeeeee!"


What do you do with this?


Oh! You ride it like this!


Kate and Daddy


Racing down the slide ~ ok, so it looks like I (Annette) am stuck in the slide, but I am not!

Happy Me Day!

The most beautiful and wonderful reason I celebrate Mother's Day! I love you Kate!

On another note, Kate is slowly starting to let me comb her hair; she runs at the sight of the comb and water bottle. Here she is in pigtails.

Happy Mother's Day to you all, it's a tough job but somebody has to do it!

Princess Kate

So many things to discuss this time. Where do I begin?

Well based on the title I do want Kate to know about the Royal Wedding that has consumed everybody! On Friday April 29th 2011 Prince William wed Kate Middleton. She looked absolutely gorgeous and the couple looked genuinely happy!



I was joking saying that I need to save up to send Kate to an Ivy League school or university in England so that she can meet her prince one day. Or she can be like me and meet her prince at Arizona Western College! Kate's dad my not be royalty but he sure does treat us like princesses!

The ongoing saga continues with Kate's ears. We went to the pediatrician and according to the audiologist report, Kate has a mild hearing loss. She now needs to see a Ear, Throat and Nose specialist to do a more thorough exam. Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP) is coming to the house next week to do an intake with us to determine if she needs a speech/language assessment. At first the news saddened me, but as an educator I know that early intervention is key when a child has any challenge in their life. Therefore, I am glad that I listened to my mother's instinct and am pushing for what is best for Kate.

Sometimes I do wonder if she really has a hearing loss and speech/language delays or if she is just a plain 'ol DIVA. We took her swimming the other day and she insisted on wearing her hat and sunglasses. Diva in training or what?

Happy Easter!

Kate and the family celebrated Easter at Mimi and Grandpa's house.

They hosted a delicious Easter breakfast and Kate enjoyed hunting for the Easter eggs. She was so cute; each time she "found" an egg she had to open it and eat what was inside before going on to the next.

When I say "find", they were pretty easy to spot even for a 2-year old. Daddy was teaching her to find the eggs and put them in her Easter basket.

Kate didn't get an Easter basket from us; but she did get a present. I found her an miniature Pottery Barn Kids anywhere doll chair that matches the one she has. When I told her it was for her doll, she said, "NO, monkey's chair!" But then, she decided it was her chair and monkey could sit in her chair. Kids. So. Funny.

Can you hear what I hear?

Kate recently had an appointment with an Audiologist because she failed her hearing screening in both ears at her 2-year well check. The appointment went fairly well considering it was an hour at the appointment. The first part of the assessment consisted of Kate sitting in a sound booth (with me in there of course) and holding a block up to her ear; when she heard a sound she needed to throw the block in a bin. Kate had to watch me do it a few times. It was hard for me to distinguish if she was actually throwing in the blocks because she heard a sound or if she was randomly throwing them in. The audiologist seems to think she understood the task. The second part to that was for Kate to turn to sounds (there were speakers in the corner of the sound booth) such as a cow, dog, yawn, bees, etc. The sounds began very loud and then got softer. At this point she had enough and wanted out of the sound booth. I don't blame her really, she was a good sport through it all though. The next part of the test was for Kate to point to pictures as the audiologist named items. The items were dog, spoon and ball. I know she had enough of the testing when she did not point to ball; she definitely knows that word. Finally, the last part was to stick this little thing in her ear which is attached to a scanner. Before the appointment I played and poked at her ears and told her the doctor was going to do this; this may have helped a bit. What also helped was that the audiologist put the thing in my ears first and of course Kate wanted to do what I was doing!

So the results...Kate has fluid in her ears which can be from past colds, unknown ear infections (as I only know of one) or allergies which the audiologist think she has. She said to imagine holding your hands over your ears and that is what she hears. She can't hear low frequencies and is missing certain vowel sounds so that is why she says certain words the way she does; and why her expressive language is slightly delayed. I got a lot of information that day. Kate has to go back to the pediatrician and then we go from there. She has another appointment with the audiologist in 2 weeks to see if the fluid is dissipating.


Luckily for me, my friend Kendra who is a speech pathologist for our school district is staying with us for a month. She and her husband just moved to Kentucky (where she is from) and she is finishing her contract. I am not kidding, in one week Kate has made so much progress. Kendra is teaching her how to put two to three words together. We are doing flashcards. Having her name objects. Not that Chris and I did not do this before, but I think a new person who is trained to work with kids in this manner is having better luck with tough Miss Kate. She is AMAZING! One thing we are going to do is take pictures of items, laminate them and put them in this little binder with velcro. The objective is to put what she wants together in order and then to say what she wants. Anyhow, Kendra is giving me tons of ideas and I am loving her help! Below is a picture of Kendra watching Kate put on her bunny ears. Thanks for the help Kendra! We will miss you!

Kate is the Taco Queen!

Well, in Kate's world I am sure she is the queen of something! But for now, she rules the roost everywhere she goes. I took Kate to the 1st Annual Taco Festival in Yuma. It was really well done and so much fun. Nana, Papa and Nanalu met us there. So did Becca and Molly, and The Morris clan. There were plenty of taco vendors, drinks, sweets, and games for kids; really, it was a great and fun event that I hope is continued in Yuma. Kate had a GREAT time! We, the adults, wanted to sample all of the vendors tacos; Kate on the other hand wanted to venture on to the fun stuff ~ games! There was a ferris wheel, "brinca brinca's" or "jumpy jumpies", and a pony ride. She did everything! The weather was gorgeous, the food was delicious and the kids and adults had so much fun; really, we could not ask for a better day!


Kate, Nana and the pony


Kate and Molly on the ferris wheel, all by themselves ~ sniff, sniff, all grown up:-(


Here is a snap shot of Kate, Molly and Grayson all grown up on the ferris wheel


Sampling some Kettle Korn


Whoa, fun slide!


"jump! jump!


wiped! out!

Spring is in the (f)air

Kate enjoyed her 2nd year at the Yuma County Fair. I, on the other hand, melted! This is April and the weather is supposed to be fabulous; it was 100 degrees the day my friend Becca and I decided to take Kate and Molly (Becca's daughter). Granted we also went at noon, but we have our girls on schedules so this is the time that worked for both of us. That's what I love about kids that young, they have no concept of weather conditions, they just want to play and have a good time. Kate had a BLAST, to say the least. As soon as she was put on the ride she had this serious look on her face, but once it started she was laughing, screaming (squealing) in delight and it was so freaking cute!




It definitely made it worth my dehydration and dripping in sweat to see that excitement and joy in her face (speaking of face, if you notice the scab on her nose ~ Kate had her first accident; she went flying off her pbk chair and into the end table, blood everywhere, it was awesome, but not really ~ poor Kate).

We went a second time in the evening, to avoid the heat, with Nana, Nanalu, Uncle Ish and cousin Nati.



Kate went on pretty much the same rides and she still had a blast. She was too small for one ride but I asked a parent if Kate could ride with their little girl; they said yes and this little girl was so sweet. She made sure to keep her arm around Kate and make sure she was safe on the ride. I was afraid Kate was going to rip off her glasses or pull her pigtails; Kate can be kinda mean that way. Luckily, she was so into the ride that the little girl was safe from Kate!



Kate also went down the BIG slide with Nana. She loved it so much that when it was over she tried to climb up and when told "no" she threw a MASSIVE fit! Poor thing we ruined and stopped her fun.



By that time it was time to go because we were all pooped and all the fair tickets were gone! Hopefully next year the weather is better, if not we will be going in the evening again.