Happy Second Birthday!

Lia's birthday was on Friday. We got her a little swimming pool, which she spent hours in, and then went out for ice cream. On Saturday, we went to my parent's cottage for the night. I was a bit nervous about going, as I feel that Lia is doing really well and was afraid that an overnight so soon wasn't really the best thing for her- but she did great. I am coming to realize that she is a pretty easy going girl. She enjoyed the hot tub and her cousins. She even got a pretty big kick out of "Uncle Patrick." My brother, Kevin, and his girlfriend Teresa came too along with my sister, Maura and my parents.

We went in for a second round of bloodwork. The doc is trying to determine whether the cause of her anemia is a genetic condition or just lack of iron. Thankfully, this time the blood draw wasn't nearly as stressful. We went back to the hospital and I specifically made sure that "Esther" was the only one who would draw her blood and she got it on the first attempt. I am hoping that we will hear something about the lab tests tomorrow. She also has been found to have a stomach bacterial infection which she is being treated for.

Next week, Lia is being evaluated by the county's early intervention department. She is understandably delayed in her language development, but she has been picking up words pretty quickly. She definately can repeat sounds, and says mom, dada, up, bye-bye, thank you (in a voice only a mommy can understand), cheese (do you think she has had her picture taken a few times?), woof (yes we have a noisy dog) and a few others. Her fine motor skills seem pretty good, but she does struggle with gross motor skills. She walks in that wobbly baby way and can't run. We did go to the playground today and she was able to climb the steps independently pretty well by the time we were ready to leave. But, I do think that it is important that someone else tells me what types of things we should be working on.

Caelan is riding a bike after two summers of trying. She was doing well last summer, but she fell in August and refused to ride again. She got the hang of it again last week and we just ordered her a new bike. Originally I told her that she had to use her own money to pay for it, she has a savings account and hasn't spent a single penny of it. But I have decided that bike will be her payment for being my "personal assistant" this summer. I have found that if Lia is playing and I get up to get anything, she stops playing and will not return. So I have been asking Caelan to help me with things. She even got my coffee this morning and put the perfect amount of cream in- though the coffee pot had been off for an hour, so I knew there was no worry of her burning herself.

As it is the season, Garrett is very busy mowing... Not much else going on with him. For those who know him, he takes mowing pretty seriously and goes out with his bubble popping mower any time a neighbor is also mowing. It was very funny last week, as he kept "mowing" with a toy baby stroller. I asked him what he was doing and he said that he was getting too big to push his mowers and he had a hard time reaching the handle. Too funny. I can't wait until he is actually old enough to mow our lawn!