Haven't felt like blogging.....

It's probably time for a new post, but I just haven't felt like being on the computer. Things are going well. Both girls are healthy, the house is clean, and I am finally beating the rest of my family out of bed (a great feeling).

Anara is growing and developing so quickly. She is jabbering more and has added more words to her repertoire (cookie, no!, balloon, bubble, all done, please, whoa, wow, yeah, yes, rock rock, and that's all the new words I can think of right now). She can successfully climb and descend the stairs alone and hasn't fallen. She can climb into the little rocking chair and "rock rock". She can almost climb onto the couches. She can take about 10 steps at a time, but lacks the confidence to let go of furniture or walk when no one is catching her. She frequently shouts "no" when Violet is too close. Unfortunately Violet has a few bruises from not heeding Anara's "no" and being bitten. Violet has probably been deserving of the bites, but we are really trying to discourage Anara's defensive biting. The occupational therapist provided us with a chewy tube for Anara to bite. Good luck trying to quickly locate the chewy tube when Anara is biting.

We had our 1st post-placement follow-up this week - hopefully we passed. Anara performed well during the social worker's visit and things flowed naturally. The social worker is very informative and supportive - she even offered to help with Violet or Anara during Anara's surgery and hospital stay. Speaking of surgery, we have an appointment with the urologist today hopefully to finalize the surgery date and get a better idea of the plan and recovery.

Violet is doing great. We are still having to do daily breathing treatments, but she isn't coughing at night. Earlier this week I thought maybe we could drop the daily albuterol. That night she coughed and I finally ended up giving her the inhaler to stop the coughing. Maybe summer and Knozone days aren't a good time to stop treating her asthma.

Here are some funny Violet quotes:

Violet was sitting on the toilet for longer than usual and I kept asking, "Vi, are you done yet?" She kept telling me "no" and finally the 5th time I asked she said, "No, I need some privacy Mama."

We were driving to the grocery store and out of nowhere Violet said, "The policeman's like God Mama." "How is the policeman like God", I asked. "The policeman is like Jesus - he has a string on his face." "Vi, what do you mean?" "He has a string on his face like Jesus, like Ho ho ho." I think she was talking about a beard and thought string was the best description. "Ho ho ho is what Nate says when he peeks at Violet with shaving cream on his face.

Nate called home and asked to talk to Violet. Usually she is too busy to talk on the phone, but she gave in and answered Nate's questions. She kept trying to hand the phone back to me and he kept talking to her. Nate said, "What are you doing Vi?" and she said, "Good, I want to play, but instead I'm talking on the phone." I thought this was pretty funny.

Right now Violet is using a calculator to call Nina. This is what I am hearing, "Hi, Nina could you bring us some food for to eat 'cause I am hungry? Could you bring us some potatoes, 4 potatoes, and some vegetables. We can eat at the table. Can you bring some lipstick - yeah the pink kind, okay." It goes on and on and repeats often, but you get the idea.

Anara has been saying, "up" constantly. I have been busy around the house and can't pick her up everytime she makes this request. She would say, "up" and I would say, "No, Mommy has to...." Finally one day this week she started saying, "Up no, up no". I felt pretty bad and started picking her up a little more frequently. She also shakes her head and says no. One day she was sitting on the floor shaking her head and saying no and when I looked over at her she was signing no too. She is a quick learner.