Reading is Fundamental

They are getting better and better about having stories read to them, it's cute. V is in some of Maria's 18 month clothes, finally, but they are still pretty big. She is sleeping crappily, I just ratted her out on Maria's blog so if you want to read about that misery, you can find it there. She starts speech therapy on Friday, and I'm excited about it. Also, she stayed with the babysitter at Prayer Club last Friday with almost no problems, so that was exciting! She is the sweetest thing, but man can she get mad. She'll pat the chair, all adorable, when she wants to get up, but if you don't put her in it immediately, she'll cut her eyes and start GROWLING at you. Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing the right thing, teaching her to talk. I mean, look at how it's worked out with Maria, ha!

Sunday

Mike's mom, hugging Veronica, and Maria blazing into the hugging action.

Well?

Trick? Or treat?

Ha ha!

Happy Veronica, with popcorn. She is driving me mad. Let's see - last night, she woke up at like 11:00 and cried, I went in and hugged her for a minute and then put her back down. I swear I wouldn't notice except she woke up like two minutes after I checked on Anthony. It's like we are never free of them and their crying, even for a minute. Well. We usually get a six hour period out of 24 that's child crying free, but that doesn't seem great.

Ugh, I can just hear people - "well, what do you expect? They're little kids!". I know they are. I KNOW. I also know that it sucks for them to sleep so badly. Today Veronica slept until like 7:00 or something, but then she fell asleep after we went to the mall and before we went to pick up Maria. Then they BOTH fell asleep on the way back from Maria's preschool and that was it for naps. Veronica slept the whole time we went to get Anthony, which is kind of late in the day for a nap, so God only knows what will happen tonight.

She is still not saying any words, and she just signs her own sign language, but she is communicating more.
She certainly gets what she wants, anyway.  This picture is from Sunday, but now it's Tuesday.  This morning Veronica woke up before 5:00 and her sweet father got up with her.  I took the girls to a bounce house place nearby and we had a good time.  It is super hard for me to go with both of them - Maria is getting pretty good at going around on her own but she still needs me sometimes and Veronica wants to do everything, but can actually do nothing on her own, so that results in a lot of work for their old-ass mother.  But it was fun - we met my friend Stephanie and her girls, her youngest is just Veronica's age and it's funny, they seem to have absolutely no interest in one another.  Her older girl is more than a year older than Maria but they seem to get along well so it was fun, overall, just hard.

It was funny - at one point we followed Maria into a complicated slide, it was like a .. what do you call those things, they have them in the Army and in Battle of the Network Stars?  Obstacle course, maybe?  Anyway, up and down up and down we went over these slides and then we got to the last one, which was HIGH and there was just no way that I could climb it with Veronica and I couldn't climb it and then get her because it was up too high.  Plus there were about 50 people in the place, and 48 of them were in this damned slide.  So Veronica got a little freaked out and was crying and crying and we were going BACKWARDS out of it and all these damned kids were rolling over us, sheesh.  It was a HOT mess but she recovered.  We got home at like 11:30 and they are both still sleeping, so basically what I am saying is that bounce house place could charge like $20 each and I'd pay it.

The Kids are All Right

I do still have these kids, I just can't find the charger to my camera battery so I haven't taken pictures.  It's been busy/boring around here lately.  I took the girls to my friend Emily's house today and Veronica could NOT stay downstairs with the babysitter.  She is a pain, though, I let her come upstairs with us and then she wants ME to come UPSTAIRS with her.  She is funny - she will plop right down on the floor and cry.  I don't feel sorry for her.  This morning I got up with her at 4:00 and she ate some and then she wanted to go on the computer and look at a video (we've been watching some signing videos of pop songs, and some funny babies and they love it).  I told her NO and she sat at the *bottom of the stairs* yelling. Mike came down and we both sat there watching her cry and then she got up and climbed up the stairs.  I carried her up and plopped her in her crib and she went back to sleep.  She is a whack job.

She starts speech therapy the first week of February.  She is doing more nodding and waving, but still no words.  I wish it were easier, but now I am just hopeful that the therapy helps.

Profile

I think this is before her professional haircut, but after my dad cut her bangs with kitchen scissors.

Flying Colors

She did very well with her testing today.  It was bittersweet to see her doing what they said, going to get the ball, finding the chip under the cup even though they SWITCHED it at the last minute, etc., because our sweet Anthony didn't do so well on his testing and it still hurts, a little.  Still, as the speech therapist said, she is headed toward her second birthday and she is not saying any words and that's a delay.  So hopefully we will get recommended for weekly speech therapy and then we'll see a change.  A 'boost' they called it, just a little boost to get her over this hump.

Mike and I have been super tense about this, I don't think we realized how much, until today.  NOBODY slept last night, so we are really tired, but I am so glad this damned evaluation is over, I can't believe it.  We love her so much and we just want her to be okay.  Just like everyone.  :)