Story #1 - August's Stories and The Sippy Cup Challenge

Welcome to August! Can you believe it? 

At work, one of my responsibilities is auditing cases for my team every month to ensure that they are complete, accurate, and that the client is getting the best possible experience.  I have to type the date on each of my audits and I realized TODAY that for the entire last month, I had been typing the date as June rather than July. 

Yeah.  That really happened.

So it's August already.  We're drawing very near to that magical first birthday and Mommy is still far, far behind on the planning.  How far behind you might ask? Well, I have yet to actually decide on the theme.  That's pretty far behind.  I've been going back and forth on about five different themes for a while and right now not one of them seems right.  I'm feeling like going back to the drawing board and picking a completely new idea...or five completely new ideas to debate about for another couple of weeks.  Ugh. Procrastination is a horrible character flaw.

But I'm not procrastinating on the blog-front! Still going strong, even on those days when the last thing I want to do is get up from the couch and write rather than go to bed.  Or even worse, go from one non-stop chore to another to just realize that I still have yet to write the blog.  But looking back, I'm so happy I've done it! And it feels really good to write out what's going on, what I'm struggling with or what I'm thrilled about. It makes it feel real, and it gives me a place to sort out my own thoughts.  It's truly therapeutic at times. 

With this new month comes a new theme!  I've decided to take each day's photos and choose the one that I want to highlight and write all about.  There is absolutely no way that I can choose only one photo to post, but I can choose the one that I want to write about, and then tag on all of the other great photos behind it. 

So I'll start with today's story...The Sippy Cup Challenge!

See, Caleb has been struggling a bit with the sippy cup.  Don't get me wrong, I know a lot of kids his age actually won't even bother to try to drink from a sippy cup- it's more of a drum or another item to bang onto things.  But Mr. Caleb has been trying desperately to actually drink from his sippy cup since the first day we introduced it over three months ago.  He can usually get his little hands wrapped around the handles (although sometimes he grabs it upside down or sideways...he usually figures out the handles).  He can almost always pull the spout to his lips (again, sometimes in the wrong direction so it would be nearly impossible to get any water out...).  But he hasn't been able to figure out the tipping of the sippy cup.  He holds it down at his stomach and sucks on the spout like a straw.  He'll do this for minutes at a time, trying so hard to get the liquid out.  I bought a sippy cup that had a straw, but he only chewed on the straw, he actually wouldn't try to suck on it like he does with the regular sippy cup. 

Today was a different day.  He's been doing really well with all of his development lately! The nanny who stayed with them today said that he was pushing up on his arms all day long and doing all kinds of rolling to get to toys.  He was really social with her and coo'd all day, too.  Ben heard him actually babbling last night with G sounds and maybe some B sounds.  And today we think we heard a D sound, too! 

Well, I had both babies in their high chairs and I put cheerios on their trays while I got their baby food and apple chunks ready.  I also put their sippy cups out in front of them.  Grace immediately picked up her sippy cup, pulled it to her lips, tipped it up to take a few sips, then tossed it on the ground and watched as it made a loud sound and then rolled on the floor.  Pretty standard Grace moment, and really pretty cute.  Caleb also  grabbed his cup and pulled it to his lips...upside down. I helped him turn it around, with quite a bit of force as the little dude's got a massively strong grip.  Then I tilted it up for him as he held onto the handles so he could get some water.  I've been doing this for a few months now and as soon as I take my hands away, the sippy cup ends up right back down in his lap and the unsuccessful sucking commences.  But this time, Caleb's arms dropped down a bit, but then held pretty level with his face.  And THEN, then he actually tiled his arms up more and tipped the sippy cup higher so the liquid dropped into the spout! I watched him as he held his cup up and drank like a big kid for at least a few seconds!  His arms got a little tired and fell, but with just a little help from me, he was right back up in the drinking position and holding it again for a few seconds! The third time, he actually held it long enough for me to go grab the camera and get some shots! 

So, we're feeling really great about Caleb's progress.  He is, of course, still pretty behind.  I got a call today from AZEIP (Early Intervention) and was told that Caleb qualified for DDD (Division of Developmental Disabilities) because he is over 50% delayed in every category but one (cognitive development- playing).  He's behind in gross motor skills, fine motor skills, communication, and social interaction.  So he's qualified for that stepped up program and I think we'll get some really great therapists to come and work with him.  I'm really looking forward to starting, hopefully in the next couple of weeks! I'm also really excited at the prospect of having a nanny to give him more specialized attention and work with him more regularly than daycare ever could.  There's a pretty good chance that we're going to move forward with the nanny we had over today, we are just waiting to ensure this one other nanny isn't a better fit. The plan is to have her start on Monday.

Ok, I hope that you enjoy this month's theme! Remember, I'd love to hear from you if you're reading along with us.  Leave a comment if you have some time to let us know you're there. :)

She's getting pretty fast at crawling now! She can get to me in no time...especially if I'm holding the camera!

Trying to catch Daddy's tongue!

My handsome boys!

Grace watching Olympic highlights in the background and clapping!

She climbs up in my lap all the time and tonight I was rolling around on the floor back and forth with her on my chest and she was cracking up so loud. It was REALLY cute!

Maybe try swallowing a couple of those cheerios before you put anymore in your mouth, baby girl!  She LOVES those cheerios and she's really good at self-feeding now (at least with the cheerios...not with anything else, my little picky eater already).