Blockhead

Isn't she fun? Look at her little arms, dancing. She is so funny and so full of personality now that she is talking more! She was sick last week - was it last week? It must be two weeks ago, now. I forget if I said, but she'd be all fevery, hot and red cheeked, and I'd say, take your medicine, Veronica and she'd say, all bleary, "I fine, Mama. IIIIIII fiiiiiine". Poor stupid baby.

I can't believe she'll be three in four short months! This winter has gone by fast, mostly because the weather has been so good. I'm sure I just cursed us all but what can you do? I am worried it's going to snow and ice the whole Superbowl week or weekend or whatever it is. It's so exciting that it's here in town, I'd love to all go downtown but I am just going to have to hope for another Superbowl in a few years, so the kids can be old enough to enjoy it.

Anyway, Veronica. I have no complaints. I took Maria to Disney on Ice today and I only had one ticket for her and I don't think Veronica would have enjoyed it as much, if her behavior at church is any indication, but she was very cool and good natured about it. We promised her a trip to Costco - Costco! - as a runner-up prize and she was fine with that. We are just crazy about her.

Boo!

She is a funny girl, she was so determined to get in that hamper the other day when I was exercising. I put the baby down for a nap and then ran into my room to do the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, which is good and hard but only 22 minutes long so it's ideal for my short-napping baby. Anyways, the girls were in here with me, playing a game on the computer, while I was working out but they like to exercise too and I guess Veronica was doing a Feat of Strength or something, to show me how she could crawl in the hamper. She really does like to have fun, I'll say that for her.

The girls go back to preschool tomorrow, they've been off for two weeks! It feels like a VERY long time to me, and to them too, I'm sure. Today Veronica was so crazed that she flat out left me at the store. I took her and Maria and Maria was the good one! V kept lying down on that dirty, dirty floor and then she'd stand up and I'd say, "Come ON, Veronica!" and she'd fold her arms and turn away from me. CHARMED, I'M SURE, I always think. But mostly she is funny and sweet.

I have been terrible about keeping up with these lately, I'm sure it will get easier soon but for now I have to get to bed! Veronica's here, she's fine, she's looking forward to her birthday in May. We've been having so much birthday talk - first the baby Jesus, then Maria and now the long wait until May. I hope the time flies, for all our sakes!

Repair

We got her hair fixed today, kind of. At first we were going to cut it all as short as it is in the back, from where Maria cut it, but then the lady and I sort of pushed all her hair back and with those bangs, it looked especially demented, so she said, really quickly, "I can just blend it in!". Ha! She was pretty good but this lady used the blow dryer on both of them and on poor Veevsy Voo, she turned it up to HIGH! She has like 10 hairs on her whole head! I didn't want to fight and it only took like two minutes, PLUS it wasn't going to kill her but Veronica hated it. Finally she said "I ALL DONE, MAMA! I ALLLL DONE!", and I told the lady, she's all done, in case you didn't hear, and she turned off the blow dryer. But then they got their (damned) balloons and all was forgiven. I had to feed the baby right before we left so I didn't get a picture of V in the salon, or the haircut shop, as Maria calls it, but here it is as home, while she was enjoying some Chicken McNuggets. She's so cute, right? It's a good thing, man, because she has turned on us and she is b-a-d. we have her penultimate speech therapy appointment tomorrow, it's so bittersweet. We are really going to miss Kristin, she has made a huge difference in Veronica's life and I couldn't pay her back if I wanted to. Of course, she's probably also made Veronica this BAD, but what can you do? I'll take it.

Library

Here's Veronica, taking a break during a music parade last week at the Library. We really enjoy this story hour that we go to, and Veronica is leaning on Mike in this picture, and BOY are these girls going to miss him when he goes back to work next week. It's so much easier with two of us, we can 'get down', which is Maria's thing, but Veronica asked about it today, too. I'm trying to tell them that there's not going to be so much getting down once Daddy goes back to work, but it's not really taking, I bet.

Veronica had speech today, what can I say? She did just great, her sentences are long and involved and except for some pronunciation issues, which are typical for her age, she's just fine. That sentence is so much more exciting to me than it seems just sitting there on the page.

Now that I have another little baby, I have been thinking so much about when Veronica was a little wee thing. She was so screamy and cranky, and I was so worried about her. I sort of have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when it comes to infants. Anthony was such a rough, rough baby and he turned out to have autism and I worry the whole time now, when I am pregnant and then when I have a little tiny baby who is screaming at me all day that it's the same thing all over again. It's a terrible feeling, to worry like that and even though I try not to, I can't. So I think about when Veronica was so little and screamy and then when she was bigger and not so screamy but still pretty crabby and then just poof! one day she got so sweet and turned into the Veevsy Voo that we all know and love.

But then she wasn't talking and I started to get worried again, I was glad to call First Steps and just find out whatever we had to and get to work on fixing whatever the problem was. I was so relieved when she did so well at the evaluation, but poorly enough that she felt like she needed services.

We have lucked out so much with her therapist, AND even with the therapist that took over when our Kristin went on Maternity Leave. She played a big part in Veronica's success, as did my mom. Stacie, the interim therapist, had a better, more objective look at what was happening with Maria running the show during her therapy, and she's the one who said "this is hard with this other one talking all the time, no WONDER Veronica isn't!". Then my mom took Maria every week so Veronica could have true one-on-one therapy and I think that made all the difference. Now Maria has been with Mike every week for the last six weeks and starting next week, we'll be all together again. But Veronica really knows who she is and she knows that this is HER speech therapy and she'll be just fine.

So. In short, Veronica's fine, and even though she had a rough start, she is doing great, thanks to her speech therapist, her interim speech therapist and my Mom. It takes a village, I guess!

Teenager

Whenever the lie on the floor like this, they look so much older than they are, right? Veronica was putting on her shoes today and I said 'do you want help?' and she said, 'I put on my own shoes. I a big girl!'. !! That's a lot of words, right? She is doing so great. We have her evaluation for speech therapy next month and I can only imagine that they're going to say that she doesn't qualify for more therapy, so that's wonderful, right? I'm so happy and proud of her.

Pensive Bumblebee

She was so cute for her first official trick or treating. Lord, my LORD, she was slow. We only went to like six houses because it was insane how slow she was moving. I had the baby in the sling and I STILL ended up carrying her for most of it. We wanted to trick or treat and hand out candy, as Mike was with Anthony at swimming, so we had to move it along. She was cute and she loves opening candy, even though she only really enjoys Kit Kats.

2.5

Next week - well, the week after that, she'll be two and a half years old! Go, Veronica, Go! At two and a half, she talks a lot. She sings a lot, she loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Broadway Baby. Of course, she really beats the heck out of them, I don't know if you'd know that's what she was singing if you weren't her mother. Her teacher told me that next month they're going to start doing little interviews with them for their "Tot Talk" feature, won't that be fun? We'll know her favorite things and people. Her teacher also told me how smart Veronica was, she said that she was quiet but she didn't miss a trick. It's so nice to hear, I am so hopeful that her speech therapy has done her well, but I'm sometimes afraid that I am in DENIAL because I'm so in love with her. Because I want her to be okay, I might be MAKING her okay in my MIND. But it's NOT just in my mind, I have PROFESSIONALS telling me she's okay too, so that's nice. She is funny, she and Maria get along - well, I was going to say they get along really well and it's not exactly true. They fight over every little thing but they also share a lot too and usually sleep together. This picture is from this morning, Mike was getting ready to take them to ballet. Veronica will be able to start soon, just a few months. Maria will be sad, she tells her every week 'YOU CAN'T GO, VEEVSY. YOU TOO LITTLE, JUST I CAN GO BALLET'. How we'll love it when Veronica can tell her to STICK IT and let her know that SHE IS GOING TOOOOOO. MEEEE TOOOO, she'll say, that's one of her favorite phrases. She's good with the baby, she loves her a lot. Today I raked leaves and she helped me put them in the bag. She's a good, sweet girl. It means more now to me than ever, because she was a rotten newborn and Felicity is shaping up to be rotten and fussy, so I'm glad to be reminded that it doesn't last forever.