End of January-early March

Winter wonder land… All that time spent with Bob burning tires and spraying aerosol cans is finally paying off with the mild winter which we have tried to take advantage of. On the last day of January the balmy weather allowed us to head out for a family walk and then grilled steak for dinner. Nearing the last day of February we took advantage of a 60 degree and sunny Saturday and made our first trip to the playground near the house.  Someone loves slides and gets pouty if she can’t go down them, so Carolyn insisted we take Acadia for her first trip down the slide. Acadia made several solo runs then took Carolyn for a few tandem rides.  We then moved to the swing set, where I was surprised by Acadia’s reaction. She loved it when I pushed her higher and faster, Carolyn also surprised me by letting me push Acadia higher and faster, basically staring blankly with that “I’m not worried face”.

We’ve had several doctor appointments over the past few months.  One appointment was her 1 year check up; the other was with a geneticist.  The geneticist did not see anything that might explain Acadia’s petite size, but of course she still wants to see her in a year..  Our next doctor’s visit is with the gastroenterologist in mid March for what we hope will be the last time.  She is taking more “real food” and is now 17 lbs. 28 inches, which is below the “curve,” but as we and the doctors are realizing she has her own curve. Not sure where she gets this passive- resistant- nonconformist streak from.

Look ma no hands…she is still walking about with assistance from furniture and walls, but has made several uncoordinated (Carolyn’s genes) steps at home and day care. She is working on standing on her own, but only gets to her knees and then decides to walk on her knees. She has also taken to climbing on chairs, stools, the coffee table and anything else that allows her to hook a foot and lift up. This has also led to more spills and crying. She really enjoys sitting on anything that she can turn into a small chair or bench for herself. She has also become very good at entertaining herself when she is supposed to be sleeping, at least that is what we assume the thumping and talking we hear is all about.

Demon screams… She has started to get frustrated and does quite a bit of screaming when she wants something or has something taken away from her. And we, her dumb parents don’t know what she wants; she just screams until we find something to placate her.

March brings warmer and wetter weather, so I’m doing everything I can to take care of landscaping around the house and hopefully get some seeds started. March also brings several weeks of standardized testing for middle school kids, so I will be in “testing” mode while Carolyn continues to plan three preps and coordinate her trip to Europe over spring break.