The miracle of speech

Sierra is so cute. Unless she's being shy around non-family members, she never stops chattering.

Yesterday, she had cut up hot dog for lunch. She ate at the coffee table in the living room while watching Spongebob, I was on my laptop in the kitchen with Echo curled up at my feet and Midnight in the dog crate asleep. About fifteen minutes into her meal, Sierra came racing out to me screaming "MEEDNIGHT EAT MY HOTDOG!!!" I laughed and pointed out to her that Midnight was in her crate and could not possibly have eaten her hot dog. She looked at the plate again, and told me "Echo ate my hot dog." Looked down at the slumbering yellow Lab, and Sierra blurts out "SI-SI ATE HOTDOG!"

Honesty prevails.

Other current speech habits include:

"I need help" when she needs help with something
"I don't need help!" when she needs help with something
"I play!"
"I want Spongebob"
"I want cookies, I want cake, I want ice cream, I want chocolate milk" every morning as soon as she wakes up.

"Jaymes took it"
"Echo took it"
"Meeednight ate it"
"Doggie ew" when a dog has has left a deposit on the grass out back
"Horsie ew" when the horse has left a much larger deposit on the grass out back.

"Daddy need diaper" when daddy passes gas
"Daddy ew" See above
"Si-Si ew" Means, batten down the hatches and remove your nose quick, time for a diaper change.

Ah, the joys of a talking child.

Holy moley Batman, she's finally posting here!

Sierra's blog does not get the posting it deserves, but think of it as rationing out the cuteness in safe doses. You wouldn't want to overdose, it could be fatal.

She gets cuter, and more evil by the day. In her sweet, loving little voice and wearing a ginormous ear to ear smile she will look at Jaymes and say "Bye-bye poopy Jaymes!" She also likes to call him "Baby Jaymes" despite the fact that he is obviously older than she is. Cute, but evil.

She feels the need to copy what mommy and daddy do- including checking our "diapers" for poop like we do to her. She'll run up behind me and grab the back of my jeans and try to peer down there while shrieking with horror "Mommy poop! Mommy poop!"

Obviously, the poop is all in her mind.

She's talking sooo much, full sentences and everything. It's a little depressing because of the comparision between her and Jaymes but still really amazing to watch. Every morning she wakes up, comes out to the kitchen, drags a parent to the fridge, and says the following very loudly, with excellent enunciation. "I want cookies. I want ice cream. I want cake. I want candy."

If you're in the bathroom, she is automatically both intensely curious and intensly offended. Again, shouts of "mommy/daddy poopy!" ring through the house. Sometimes evn just being in the bathroom is enough to start her going.

She'll be great about changing her parent's diapers when we're old and feeble. Good baby, looking out for our future diaper rash.

Sierra update

The doctor saw her yesterday (can you believe it, on a SUNDAY!!!) and said she has a nasty case of croup. He gave her a nebulizer treatment and prednisone, and we're doing the neb treatments at home too. Fever is gone, whch is great after the whole 24 hours of 104 fever before! She's still feeling icky, but she'll be ok soon.

Sierra is sick...

Poor little thing has had fever since Friday morning. Started out 100.4, then by that night 101. Yesterday 101-102 all day and last night 102-104. Today she is miserable, just lying on the couch with her eyes half open and glazed over. She's got a horrible cough, and also vomited a few times during the night. She's so hot, and shaking and unhappy... I hate seeing her like this.

Doctor is giving her a special sunday appointment, at 11:15. Hopefully she'll be ok and it's nothing. Last time she was this sick, she was admitted to Baptist hosp for 3 days. I thought that was a reaction to her MMR vaccine, but now I'm not so sure.

Sierra talking caught on tape

Cuteness caught on tape. Ignore my music in the background and listen to Si-Si tell me "you go away!" and "no done!"

Tax Time Presents!

Sierra and Jaymes both got a little bit of an allowance from our taxes for things they needed or wanted... Sierra enjoyed getting hers at Target yesterday. Her haul?

1 giant heart shaped pillow (Her "lo-lo"
1 musical light up Glow-Worm (You know you had one, way back when)
1 pink and brown plastic plate shaped like an own
1 plastic cup, clear with rainbow alphabet all over it
1 Spongebob DVD

Jaymes got (he's not finished yet)

1 set of plastic snap together beads (the tiny kind, not the infant type that are huge and easy)
1 harmonica
1 new carseat (Turbo Booster)

Pics to come when I get my new camera, the old one died finally, after 3 years of heavy use.

The sheer cuteness

Of Sierra playing Sock Tug-of-War with Midnight. Fun courtesy of daddy's nasty smelly sock. Midnight won.

Ahhh! It hurts my eyes!

Here is a blindingly cute video of Sierra taking her old, out of shape broodmare for a ride. Notice that she wears neither helmet, boots, or saddle and bridle of any kind. She must be into Parelli.

Forgive my white back, Sierra tends to crack my shirt way forward. Promise it's my back and not my butt though! What do they say about folks who post really unappealing videos featuring their own pale, flabby selves? Oh well, I guess you'll be too busy looking at the cute growth on my back (Sierra, you freaks, geeze!) to notice.

It doesn't SLEEP

Sierra has become a grumpy monster! She will not sleep at night, and even when she does, Jaymes doesn't sleep either and wakes her up. She seems to think she belongs in bed with ME and it is getting old. With the total lack of sleep in the past week, I've relented and she sleeps a few hours. Let's just say everyone is dead friggin tired. TIRED.

Sierra is a grouch all day, because she's TIRED. Jason is also a grouch. As am I. Jaymes is Jaymes. Sleep, oh how I miss you.

Christmas goodies!

In case you didn't think Sierra had enough baby dolls, she now has a bunch more. We got her a life sized one, and I put one of her own newborn outfits on it. Kinda cool, since I saved her teeny stuff, her baby has a big wardrobe! She also got two other babies from others, one being a small newborn baby type with a bed and blanket and the other being a toddler-baby that looks just like her, minus the hemmangeoma! It has 2 pairs of shoes and 2 outfits. I think MIL got that for her.

She got lots of cute clothes from MIL too, for once I think she listened to Jason and I because she got all the right sizes, and not too much was hideous. Her taste was pretty on par with my own.

Her favorite gift was the baby doll stroller I chose for her. She wheels her babies all around the house, all day long. Loves it. Soooo cute. She got a big, clear, water/glitter filled bounce ball too, and loves to play "catch" with me rolling it up and down the hall.

She doesn't sleep anymore. She is apparently tall enough to open her door now, so she comes out every hour or so. We put her back, she screams her head off and comes back out, and in the end no one gets any sleep. It really sucks, and she's not a happy camper during the day since she's not getting her sleep. I may give the pediatrician a call and see if he has any thoughts.

All in all, I'd say the little shoe diva had a good Xmas. Thankfully the disgusting drama unfolding in the "family" has not touched her like it has Jaymes, and she can remain blissfully unaware of anything bad on a special day like this one.

Posting FAIL

I know, I know. I suck. once the holiday garbage is done with, I will have more time for blogging. I'm very sorry for my inactivity!

Sierra remains adorable, but evil. She no longer sleeps at night. She screams out "dadddddyyyyy!" or else just whines. She stops the minute you let her out, she just wants to sleep with me. I'm not doing it- terrible habit. No children sleeping in my bed. No no no.

She's getting a little better. I've implemented the whole "ferberizing" thing. It works well. I'm cruel and heartless.

But it's either she sleeps, or... I mail her away to Abu Dhabi.

Baby alive?

Apparently my mother in law has gotten Sierra a Baby Alive doll. Supposedly it is a numbered one, out of 5000 ever made. I don't know the truth of that, I thought Baby Alive was pretty much a mass produced Walmart commercial baby doll.

My fear is that she got this toy at a garage sale. I'm ok with garage sale goodies, generally... However Baby Alive pees and poops (ew), meaning the inside of those things get kinda foul if not cleaed out regularly. I'm imagining gunky, mold filled orfices on this doll, and cringing at the thought.

I could be wrong, though, she just made it sound a lot like it came from a garage sale. We shall see.

Boycott Pee-Pee!

Sierra is making our nights suck. Seriously. at age 2, you'd think she could hold her pee-pee until at least early morning, or ignore it like she used to... She'll wake up at midnight, and at 4am. We've concluded that all it takes to satisfy her is a diaper change and a drink. Has to be both, not just one. She cannot tolerate being wet. We need to limit her liquid intake at night I guess, but she is always so thirsty!

I cannot get over how smart she is... It's so weird, having a Jaymes at 2 and having a Sierra at 2... Very very different. Polar opposite. Sierra understands "me", "you", "mine", "my", "yours". It's incredible. She asks questions "where baby go?" "Where Jaymes go?" and tell us what she wants...


On the bad news side of things, Echo the Chewer Dog had declared war on the Tiny Shoe Diva's shoe collection.

One pair brown and pink sparkley dress shoes- eaten.
One pair little green slip flops with flowers- eaten.
One pair blue fireworks sandals-eaten.
One pair pink winter boots- eaten.

I've moved them to a higher shelf, and given the Shoe Chewer a stern lecture.

Wow!

Apparently Sierra knows all her body part names. How do I miss these things?

Worried...

Sierra saw the Endocrinologist over at Baptist Hospital today... She had been referred because the pediatrician looked at her growth charts from a year ago and graphed the progression up to this year at her 2nd birthday, and she had not grown at all in weight or height.

Apparently bloodwork he did prior to this appointment came back strange, they didn't explain it well and kept asking me about glucose and diabetes and stuff and I was too frazzled to get an explanation.

Anyway they want to check her growth hormones and her water retaining hormones. They suggested that she could be a late bloomer, or that when she hit her head and her brain bled as a 3 month old, that it could have damaged the part of the brain that controls growth.

They took blood, urine, and an xray of her arm for whatever reason... She'll go back in 6 months, unless the tests show something bad and then she'll be back sooner.

I can't deal with two sick kids. She has to be ok, because I can't handle anything else on my plate anymore. I'm past my limit. I need a break.

Sierra loves babies!

She loves toy babies, real babies, pictures of babies, and videos of babies. Here, watch for yourself!

I know, I know

I'm bad about this blog. Jaymes' blog, like Jaymes himself, often overshadows all else. As I don't have a lot of time right now, I'll make a list of things Sierra does that knock the socks off me every time!

• Brings me the phone and says "Spongebob want mommy"
• Goes to Jaymes' door every morning when he is at school and asks "Where Jaymes go?"
• Has a huge vocabulary
• Knows how to use that vocabulary properly
• Looks desperately for Jaymes when he is gone, even though they fight like cats and dogs
• Chases down the cat while sweetly murmuring "Kit-ty, ki-ty" and yanking on her ears
• Runs to her bed at nap time, smiles up at me, and says "I yuv oo mommy"
• Says "Ni-ni"at bedtime

And a zillion other things. she's SO smart! It's amazing, You can actually have a conversation with her.

Lookie my octopus!

Halloween costume recycling at it's finest... How cute is she?!

Autism-Free Zone

Yep. This blog is an Autism-Free Zone. A place where I and everyone else can get away from the curse and the obsession. So I'm going to voice aloud (er, write.. um.. not aloud?) the thoughts I have so often, looking at Sierra.

My pregnancy with Sierra was hell. At 31 weeks I went into labor. Went to the hospital and got put on Magnesium, which the nurse warned me would make me feel awful. I had no clue. As soon as it started, I felt like I was burning to death, was thirsty beyond belief but not allowed to drink, and so weak I couldn't move my head. The shots of Terbutaline made it hard to breathe and I found myself gasping and crying hysterically while the doctor tried to calm me down.

They transferred me an hour away to Sarasota hospital, where they had a NICU. I got put in a back room, where they forgot about me for quite some time, until I was practically begging them to take out the goddamned catheter they hadmade me have for the ambulance ride there. They finally did that, set me up on a megnesium drip, and left for another 5 hours. Apparently they overdosed me on the magnesium, because for that 5 hours I could not lift my head, get up to go to the bathroom, and I threw up all over my pillow but had to lie in it.

It was not a fun week. Everyone was angry at me because after 3 days of magnesium, I could not take it any more, and told them to stop with it. They did the steroids and Terbutaline, and lectured me on how irresponsible I was being. But I couldn't take the pain and sickness anymore.

I cried all week, and laid there just suffering... Then finally got to come home, on strict bed rest. Obviously, this didn't work out, as Jason didn't understand bed rest, and I had to take care of Jaymes. Sierra was born a week later, at 33 weeks.

My mother in law took over half an hour to drive 5 minutes to watch Jaymes. We got to the hospital, they tried to give me more Terbutaline to stop the contractions, but it wasn't happening. They gave up, got me my Epidural, and left me be for awhile. Jaosn read his comic books and looked annoyed everytime I moaned through a contraction.

The epidural started to wear off. Something it had not done during Jaymes' birth. I begged the doctor and nurse to give me more quickly, but they said it was too late, it was time to push. So it was a natural birth, really. I felt every agonizing second of it. I cried like a baby, and cursed at the doctor. She finally had to yell at me to shut up and push, then later apologized for being too intense. I was glad she was though, I was panicked and needed that.

Jason screamed and cried the entire birth. It was weird and I wanted to slap him. I didn't even get to hold Sierra, they took her away and it was 6 hours till I could have her again.

Once I had her, I didn't give her up again. She slept with me, she snuggled with me, I buried my face in her sweet baby smelling hair. For some bizarre reason my mother in law took a photo of her pooping. It's a gross photo.

I was so scared when we got home, I thought she would stop breathing or something. Jason dropped me and her and Jaymes off and left to go set up a TV for his mother.. I was really nervous. But she was so good and sweet and quiet.

She's always been good. Trouble, but good. She amazes me every day with how fast she learns. All the things she says, the phrases she picks up, the way she plays with her baby doll. She's the smartest child I know... Having Sierra is like being a new parent all over again. So different from her brother. SO different.

She's picking up language so fast. She's surpassed Jaymes already, and she actually teaches him things. She plays make believe, she pretends to be mommy. When the wolf on my radio station howls, she knows to howl too. She knows every animal's name, and what they are. She bosses Jaymes around, tells me NO!, and brushes her hair. She sits on the potty. She helps clean up after Jaymes.

She is a little prodigy, in this house at least. Every miserable moment of that pregnancy was worth it and everything she does fills me with awe.

Stop squeezing the cat, Sierra! Seriously...

Sierra is becoming more and more antagonistic toward the cat. She means well, I think, but what cat likes to be tackled? Phoenix is not a football player, and would certainly prefer not to be treated as such. Sierra however, does not get this and will come barreling into the room, leap onto the couch with superbaby speed, and tackle the hapless cat napping on the pillow.

And then of course much chaos ensues. Screeching, giggles, a hiss. The hiss is always followed by a scream of utter shock, horror, and agony from Sierra. She has no clue why the mean ole cat scratched her. I mean, all she was doing was chewing on the cat's leg and trying to pull her tail off her rear end. What, 22 pounds of toddler on the 5 pound cat is too much?

Sierra disagrees.