Julia was taking it easy and watching some TV. She didn’t stay like this for long, but long enough for her Mama to take her photo. She does some pretty cute things these days.

We took Julia to visit her pediatrician to discuss her speech issues today. He set up a consult with an ENT at our Children’s Hospital next Tuesday. Also, we will be doing some speech testing with a speech therapist to see what her needs are. We are excited to see what is in store. Emily has been cute, she told me that she was going to teach Julia how to talk. It was very sweet that she was thinking of her sister.

On a side note, Julia measured at 26 lbs. and 34 + inches (mama doesn’t remember the exact size). Given Julia’s refusal to drink milk out of a sippy cup, I was curious to see if she had held her own for weight. Oddly enough, she has risen a few percentile points since her last check-up 5 months ago. The doctor was pleased and told me to stick to my plan to move her to sippy cups.

It is spring break for Grammy so we went over for a little playtime and lunch. It was a bit cooler outside than I was expecting so the girls were underdressed for playing outside. So we found a shrug for Julia and Emily got a sweatshirt that looked like a dress on her. They played outside for a long time both on the swing set and picking up leaves and putting them in a pot with water in it. It always amazes me at what keeps kids entertained.

Julia is looking older now days in her photos. I guess she is getting older. I’m not sure she asked permission to grow up.

This is just a benchmark post. It is good to note current conditions so that later we can see how much we have grown or changed. Also, memories fade and it is good to remember details that are easy to forget.

If you spend time with Julia it is easy to see her strong and individual spirit. It is also obvious that she does not speak much or clearly. Being a pretty laid back parent, I have allowed her to grow and work out her own forms of communication. We have been waiting for a light bulb moment and for her speech to blossom out of her, but haven’t seen it yet. Through a course of conversations with several people and an observation from an aunt, we are taking a more active role in pursuing help for her. That role involved an interview today with a state agency to measure her speech deficiency. It is a good news/bad news situation. The bad news is not terrible; it is just that her deficiency is not bad enough for this agency to work with her. The good news is that in every other area Julia is doing very well. This is probably why she doesn’t qualify. She has been clever enough to work out other ways to communicate with us. The lady who visited with us described Julia as being pretty unique. Most kids with speech problems like hers, show issues in other areas. She definitely encouraged us to continue to look into options for Julia.

Our next step is to take Julia back to the pediatrician. We are going to have him check to see if she is “tongue tied” which maybe aggravating her speech issues. Also, we will get his recommendations for speech therapy. Of all the things that worry me, amazingly this has not become one of them. I’m very curious and interested in knowing more. I’m excited to think that we are going to help her across a hurdle.

Just an overview of where she is at now:

• She speaks partial words generally revolving around single consonant sound.
• She has little inflection in her words. She does have plenty of volume control and will speak from a whisper to a shout/squeal.
• She seems to not make many sounds that involve her tongue (although she uses the ‘d’ sound of DaDa well).
• She will make small two or three word sentences.
• Without context, most of her words are not understandable.
• When reading a book she asks her version of “what’s that” and will answer questions about the page.
• She loves to play animal sounds games.
• She loves to sing babble songs while she plays and goes to sleep.
• She uses a combination of signs, facial expressions, words, and pointing/head shaking to express her wishes and needs.
• Hearing is hard to measure on a two year old, but she seems to hear just fine. That is when she wants to. She hears the door open when it is time for Daddy to come home and runs to greet him.
• She is generally a very happy kid, these last several weeks she has struggled more with emotional issues and lots of tears. We don’t know if these are related to this issue or just normal two-year old developments.

Happy Birthday to Daddy! We should have taken a family photo at Robby’s 40th birthday party, but I always seem to think of these things after the moment has passed. Instead, we offer a photo of Robby and Julia sharing a joyful moment of play.

Robby enjoyed his birthday and birthday party a lot. We celebrated the night before with friends and then on his birthday with a family meal. I hope I will be as graceful when I move on to my next decade.

We love you, old man!

“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” — Jack Benny

The photo is from a super-sweet evening where Julia was all about her Daddy. She pulled him up from his chair to dance with her. They danced for a long time together!

Julia deserves a praise-filled update because of her reaction to changes that occurred a week ago. First, we retired the pacifiers. We bundled all of them together and talked about the need to say good-bye to them. We thanked them for being helpful to us and then they went away. She has asked for them and has been reminded that we said good-bye to them. She doesn’t ask again at that time for them. We went several days without any additional requests until we were in the car on Sunday and she was beyond exhaustion and asked for it. As sad as it is to tell her no, she has been so great about giving them up. She has taken every nap and gone on to sleep at night without them.

Second, we retired daily milk bottles. Mama completely mis-read Julia’s love for milk. I did not think Julia would take milk from a sippy cup, but I also thought she would quit asking for milk too. She gives us really sad faces when she asks for milk and gets it in a sippy cup. She keeps asking for the milk and then only drinks two sips before abandoning the cup. We have increased the amount of yogurt and cheese in her diet to keep dairy and some healthy fat in her life. I do not know how long she is going to hold out on this, but the Mama is determined to not go back to a bottle despite her desire for Julia to drink milk.

Lastly, on Thursday, Julia’s crib side came off her bed. We were dreading the things that come with this piece of freedom, but so far so good. Every night, Julia has gone to bed and stayed in bed, with the exception of trying to follow Emily out of the room when Emily disobediently got out of bed. Amazingly, the girls have left each other alone at night. They are still taking their mid-afternoon naps in different rooms, though. I know Julia is a bit naive about what she could do, but I could not have hoped for a better acceptance of the rules that are associated with her new found freedom!

Our baby is growing up quickly these days! We are so proud of you Julia!

Julia graduated to her big girl bed tonight. When Daddy got home, he removed the side and installed the safety bar. Both girls were excited. Emily understood what was happening, but Julia kept checking on her Daddy to see what was going on.

The girls enjoyed playing together in Julia’s bed. Emily was not pleased when she had to get out at bedtime. When Mommy suggested that we take Julia’s photo, she thought that she needed to have her jammies on first. She is so proud of her bed. She made sure her water was on the same shelf as Emily’s, now that she can get out to drink it.

What a big girl you are Julia. We are proud of you!