standing!!!

So I am a terrible blogger.

Kate stood up on Tuesday...I guess that was the 8th?? She would have been 15 months and 2 days old. It was the day we had Grow With Me services coming to evaluate her (of course!!!) She stood holding on to our lazy boy chair and then again at our couch. But I do not think she has done it again.

So, Grow With Me came. Kate, of course, qualified for their services. Mainly because she doesn't walk yet. She is, obviously, developmentally behind, which we knew she would be. We have decided to decline their services for now. We believe she will continue to progress in our home environment. If, in the future, we feel like she is not progressing, then perhaps we will utilize their services. We had them come out because she was referred to them by the Adoption Clinic. I am not sure why we did it....it was pretty much a waste of time. The dr at the clinic was concerned about Kate and some of her flexibility, but the physical therepist said she is within normal range.

Kate is crawling *everywhere* and getting into *everything*  She has unplugged the tv and dvd player while watching it. I have found her in the bathroom unrolling toilet paper. I have found her emptying garbage cans. She goes into Regan's room every chance she gets and finds paper to rip up or eat. She is something else!!!

She says (and I'm sure this will not be a complete list:
dog
woof
duck
quack quack
milk
block
guys
ma ma
da da
na na (milk in Chinese)
cup
no
up
nai nai (nai nai nai nai nai nai nai nai.........)
yuk (with throwing involved)
cat (rarely.....mostly dog)
Jack

Her sleeping is still an issue. Every night is different. She wakes up and I give her a bottle. Now I am staying in her room with her. We took the nightlight out awhile ago, so it is really dark in there. I have been putting her in the crib when she is done with the bottle. She will talk for a little bit, but go to sleep. That has worked for 3 nights. But then last night she woke up after 2 hours and was up for an hour...or an hour and a half. Ron rocked her and then put her in the crib. But then she talked and talked. I don't like to leave her in there because I don't want her to do any of the "self soothing" things she was doing. Like banging her leg over and over, or rocking back and forth, or even banging the side of the crib. She seems to not be doing any of that, and I do not want to let her be doing any of it.

She is not interested in sleeping with us, or I'd try that. She just crawls around and pulls my hair. Or hits me. All 4 of our other kids slept with us. It would be WAY easier to have her in bed with us. This is killer.

I cannot forget her rash from last week!!! She was COVERED from head to foot in a rash :(  It was terrible!!!! When she was at the adoption clinic they had thought she might have excema anyway, so then all we can think is maybe she was allergic to the milk based formula I had her on. Then on Memorial Day my brother gave her homemade ice cream, which had heavy whipping cream and that kind of stuff in it. She had already had a little bit of a rash on her shoulders, and after that she just went out of control!!!! I took her in to see John and he had me switch formula to soy. Then I am also giving her a bath using unscented Dove soap. Putting baby oil in her bathwater. Then coating her with aquaphor (twice a day.) And washing her clothes in dreft....using an extra rinse cycle. On top of that we had been dog sitting and the dog had been right in the main part of the house. The dog went home the same time we started all of the switching formula....etc.

So....YOU figure out what the problem was!!!! :-)~   It was terrible!!!!!!

She was on benedryll, she was on claritin. We were putting hydrocortisone on her.

All I can say is it's a good thing she's a 5th baby, because I probably would have WAY freaked had I not had some experience!!!

And the child is a power pooper. Poor Mitchell has been baptized into the poopy diaper club.....more than once.  He hasn't had to change diapers, but he's had to help with "explosions." The best was in the Target parking lot. The kids are SO funny. They compare "Kate explosion" stories.

She has more than settled in :)