She Couldn't Keep Her Eyes Open!

We had such a busy week with so many fun things that Kinsey was simply worn out by the end of each day. One evening she even fell asleep in the middle of eating dinner. She tried to do it again the next night and we quickly took her out of her high chair and put her on the floor to play. That woke her up, so she played for a while then ate dinner later.



Anyway, we've been having all sorts of fun! Monday night we went to the grocery store and Kinsey got to ride the mechanical horse again. She did this once a long time ago and loved it, but since we always go to the store just the two of us, I've never been able to get video of her riding (I can't step back to take the video because she's not strapped in or anything). This horse only costs a PENNY, so we let her ride twice! Anyway, Jamie was with us so I was able to get some pictures and video: http://youtu.be/zPtoj3mLmzE



Tuesday we had the most fun at a painting class. I've gone a few times to this place where they walk you through making a painting, even if you have no skills. They do kids classes and some of my friends have taken their kids, but I didn't think Kinsey was ready for that yet. But this kid's class was a Jackson Pollack class where you throw paint at the canvas, so I thought we'd try it because I could help her throw the paint. Well, she LOVED it! We went with Aliy and her kids and Aliy was kind enough to take some great pictures to capture the event (I was obviously too busy helping Kinsey to be taking pictures of her).


We had to paint the background before we could throw the paint. Kinsey helped me paint the background some, but I really did that part.


Helping Kinsey throw the paint




She thought that was a lot of fun!


Admiring her work!






Playing in the sidewalk chalk while waiting her turn to throw the paint

Our garden is finally producing some veggies and Kinsey has been enjoying the cucumbers. We take her out in the wagon about every other night and go pick them. We put them in the wagon with her and she enjoys "sorting" them. http://youtu.be/pdmDrbmjNrc



This week we saw Kinsey feeding her baby doll with the toy bottle for the first time! She was just playing by herself and we noticed it all of a sudden. This is something we were working on in therapy a while back, but haven't been recently. She's always been good at playing appropriately with her toys, but this was a new milestone. Before she would only try to drink the toy bottle herself, but would never give it to the baby. Seems like a simple thing, but to see her comprehend that the toy is a bottle and you put it in the baby's mouth is impressive! http://youtu.be/6_0QD327aW8

Kinsey continues to be obsessed with putting shoes on. If you take her shoes (or socks or splints) off, she immediately tries to put them back on. If you let her play without putting anything on her feet, she will go around the house and try to put various toys on her feet. It's so funny! Here's a video of her trying to put her shoes on (it's a long one): http://youtu.be/xXp_RbzOtic

Finally, here are the pictures that Aliy took when we went to the splash park with her and her kids a week or so ago. Kinsey loves it there! We'll have to be sure to hit it a few more times before summer is over.

Summer Bucket List & New Skills

We checked a few more things off our summer bucket list this week - we arranged a play date at the park with Aliy and her neighbor and their kids. We went to the splash park again and Kinsey had a great time! Aliy took some pictures, but I haven't seen them yet. I'll share them when I get them. Later that same day we went to a concert on the lawn at CSU to see the Wendy Woo Band (one of Jamie's favorites from when he used to live here). It was a great concert and the weather was absolutely perfect. Kinsey had fun dancing to the music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Adh5gsH1Vk

We got Kinsey's replacement swing set and Jamie put it together this week. It's identical to the one she had, except we got a different swing. This one sits more upright instead of reclined backwards and it has a tray across the front. I like it and I think she enjoys sitting up straight in it too.



Kinsey can do something now with the swing set that she couldn't do before too - with you holding her hands, she can step up the ladder to get to the slide platform! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5nO18TbTic She also enjoys holding onto the steering wheel thing on the platform and turning it.



We went to our favorite toy store in Old Town last weekend and Kinsey tried out a little tricycle. She actually did a pretty good job of keeping her feet on the pedals and hands on the handle bar while Jamie slowly pushed her through the store. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSeYwDBEsG8 My dad bought her a convertible trike for Christmas last year (I've posted pictures of her on it before). It has a canopy, foot rests plus the pedals, and push bar, etc. Kinsey's always kept her feet on the foot rest instead of the pedals, but we thought maybe now she could do it. When we tried it we realized the trike in the store was different than ours  . . . the pedals rotated as the trike moved forward whereas the one we have the pedals don't move until you move them with your feet. Does that make sense? Anyway, it seems it would be easier for her to learn if the pedals were moving her feet instead of the other way around. So we want to get her a trike like that - I haven't found the one yet, but I'm looking. (The one at the store we were at is too expensive. Great store - not so great prices!)

In other news, the doctor's office called this week and Kinsey's ear procedures are scheduled now for Tuesday, August 20th at 9 am. They will do the CT scan to look at the structure of her ears and the ABR (brain wave hearing test). She will be under anesthesia for about an hour. Should be outpatient and we should be home by the early afternoon. I'm a little nervous now that it's actually scheduled.

This week the splint guy came to the house at the same time as Kinsey's PT and they looked at her splints together. The decision was that she is able to turn her foot and stand on the side of it because she is overpowering the splint. When she had the taller ones, she wasn't able to do that. So they are going to make her new splints like the ones she has now (that are open in the back and allow her to bend her ankle) but that are taller so she can't turn her foot. Hopefully that will work. And the plan is that once she learns to stand correctly, they can just shave the splint down to regular height again instead of needing new ones. It will take a few weeks for these to come in and the guy is going to come to the house with Kinsey's PT again to make sure they're working.

I keep forgetting to mention some big news - Gramma and Papa Wayne bought some property about 5 minutes away from our house and are going to build a new home and move here - hopefully soon! They put their house in OR on the market last month and closed on the land here this month. They are coming to visit in about a month (mid-Aug) to meet with a builder and get things started with their future home. We are really excited that they will be moving here and Kinsey will have all her grandparents nearby!

To wrap things up for this week, here's a cute picture of Kinsey sleeping. I love the positions I find her in sometimes. My sleeping beauty:

 

A Road Trip and Some Doctors Appointments

My apologies for not doing a blog last week, we went to Kansas to visit some friends for the 4th of July and were gone until Sunday. I didn't get a chance to post anything before we left and didn't have my computer with me. We had about a 9 hour drive to their house, but Kinsey did great in the car, as usual. She's such a trooper! We had a really good visit with Mike and Laura (friends of Jamie's from when he used to live here. They moved back to KS a few years ago before we moved back here).


Kinsey's July 4th Outfit


She really liked playing with the fireworks. Too bad she went to sleep before she got to see them go off. I think she'd really like them. Maybe next year.


Kinsey had a great time playing with these car lego toys that Laura had.


And she got to feed the Horse.


And ride in Mike's old car, the Jalopy as he calls it.

While we were there we also went to a Discovery Center which was really for older children or even adults, but they had a fun play area that Kinsey liked. Here's a video of her playing with an oversized kaleidoscope http://youtu.be/Jnd4UQuR5Hs and playing with the oversized light bright peg board, which she did a great job with: http://youtu.be/Epx9Vu8_nBo

Kinsey's really into trying to put her shoes and socks on her feet lately. Most of the time the socks end up on her hands instead, but she really tries. She also puts my shoes on her feet now instead of on her hands like she used to do. She also tries to put her clothes on - either she puts them on her arms or over her head. Sometimes that means she puts her shorts on over her head so she's not doing it exactly right, but at least she's got the idea!

She's also really been playing with her toy cars and bus lately. She puts her baby doll in the bus and pushes it while she scoots across the whole house and back. She does it with her little baby doll stroller too and the other day I even found her pushing the ball popper push toy while she was scooting. I love that she understands the concept of pushing all these things around correctly and it's so cute the way she does it while she scoots.

Kinsey also continues to get better at chewing, although she can still only manage soft things that need to be chewed. For example, I've definitely noticed she is chewing her mac n cheese instead of just sucking on it now. One of her favorite "soft" foods to chew is French fries. I like to go through the McDonald's drive thru and pass the softer fries one at a time to her in her car seat. The first time I did this she wasn't quite sure what to make of it and it took her a few minutes to realize the fry was to eat. But now she snatches the fry from my hand and puts it straight in her mouth. She eats them pretty quickly too. It's really cute and makes me laugh!

We went to see the new ENT this week and she is ordering the CT scan so we can finally know the structure of her ears, whether she's got all the right stuff in there, and whether her canals are blocked by just skin or also bone. She is also ordering the sedated ABR, which is the test that measures her hearing ability by measuring her brain wave responses. These two tests will be done at the same time so she only has to be sedated once, for about an hour. I don't know yet when these will be, but they will be at Children's and should be just outpatient, as long as all goes well. I'll keep you posted on this.

We also went to see the people who make Kinsey's foot braces this week because her feet aren't sitting correctly in her braces when she stands up (they're rotating so she's standing on the inside side of her foot). He was unsure that we could do anything to the braces to correct it and felt like maybe it was more of a leg muscle strength thing. He is going to come to the house next Thursday when Kinsey's PT is also here and they are going to look at her together and see what we can do. He's also going to talk to the orthopedic surgeon who did her foot surgery before that. If she needs a difference brace, he is bringing the stuff with him to cast her for them here so I don't have to take her in for an appointment to do that. We'll see what happens on Thursday.

While we were at the doctor Kinsey weighed in at 22 lbs 4 oz, which they informed me was a 20% weight gain since the last time she was seen at Children's (when she weighed around 18.5 lbs) a few months ago. I knew she'd gained the weight, but I never realized it was a 20% increase! You can really see it on her now too - her thighs are getting a little chunky and her arms are meatier now too instead of being little sticks. She's grown another 1/2" up to 34" now, which is 5% on the growth chart and her head has also grown 1/4" - up to 18" now, which puts her on the growth chart at 5% for head circumference! I think that's the first time her head has ever been on the growth chart!  Her weight is still not there, but she has made a huge leap and is now only about a pound away from the 5% mark there too.

Anyway, here are some other fun pictures:


Kinsey's getting into the kitchen cabinets more now. I bought some cabinet locks!


We went to Chick-fil-A for Cow Appreciation Day and dressed up in our cow outfits to get free chicken. Kinsey really loved the big cows - she couldn't take her eyes off of them and thought it was really funny when 2 of them started dancing together. So cute!