Dawn of a New Era

And so begins sibling sneakiness...

Part 1:
The children were playing "sleepover" upstairs. I heard thudding feet coming down the stairs and I overheard Michael say, "We need to go to the basement without Mama seeing us." He says this five feet away from me at full volume of course. He's just old enough to start being sneaky, but still unsophisticated enough to think that if he can't see me, I can't hear him. Ava echoed, "without Mama seeing us". I actually thought it was all pretty funny and kept my back to them as they "snuck" around the corner to the basement stairs. I managed to not laugh out loud as Michael pulled Ava away rather loudly when she almost came the wrong way (towards me).

Part 2:
I put the children down for nap. Michael first, and Ava second. I close their doors during nap. Michael's door has one of those child protection devices on the inside doorknob to keep him from wandering when he should be sleeping, but Ava's does not because until recently she didn't wander.

I came downstairs and began to settle. I love naptime. I love the quiet and the moments that are completely mine. Then I heard feet coming down the stairs. And giggling. And shushing. Michael said, this time whispering (loudly), "Shhhh! She'll hear us!" Apparently Ava had left her room and let Michael out of his and the two decided to go exploring. I deliberately shifted in my chair making it creak. Michael said, "Quick, she's coming!" and then I heard thudding feet heading back upstairs.

I waited a few moments to give them time to get back upstairs. Children who were experienced at this game would have each gone to their separate rooms and pretended to be asleep. My little ones both headed to Michael's room and were playing when I got up the stairs. I escorted them both back to their beds and reminded them that naptime isn't playtime. I actually sat in a chair in Ava's room for the five minutes it took her to fall asleep when she stayed still for that long. Then I slipped back downstairs for a second time.

Speech Sample - Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech - 25 months

This is a bit of a therapy session I was doing with Ava on 4-4-11. We were using a few of the Kaufman Cards. She had just turned 25 months old.

In the previous sample, Ava used the following consonants: /b, d, t, m, n, w, j/. All but one of those (mama) were used in one-syllable CV words.

In this sample Ava produces five different two-syllable words. Four of them were imitated correctly and one was imitated incorrectly, but still with a two-syllable non-reduplicated word. She uses /b, d t, p, m, n, h/ in this sample. She has added the /p/ and /h/ syllables in the six weeks since the last sample. She has also moved from productions that were primarily the CV syllable shape to productions that are C1V1C2V2 in syllable shape which is much more complex.

Rear-Facing Car Seats Revisited

Almost four months ago I wrote a post about reading a NYT article on the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation to keep children rear-facing until at least two years of age or until they reach the rear-facing weight limits of their seats.

Then, and now, both of my children are still rear-facing in their seats. Ava is in a seat with a rear-facing weight limit of 35 pounds and weighs about 32 pounds. Michael is in a seat with a rear-facing weight limit of 40 pounds and weighs about 36 pounds. Michael is almost four years old. He never complains about being rear-facing. He's starting to get a bit cramped. I have to shuffle legs around to get him buckled in, but once he's settled he is perfectly comfortable.

The Washington Post just did an article on the topic. Again, the information that stands out in my mind is that "children younger than 2 were 75 percent more likely to die or be seriously injured when facing forward." The article explains that rear-facing is safer because small children have relatively heavy heads and weak necks and spines. When forward facing during a crash the heads can snap forward with so much force that necks break, spinal cords are injured, and brain injury can result. When rear-facing, the seat supports the head and neck and distributes the force of the crash more evenly.

Given the safety reasons for keeping them rear-facing, we have decided to continue as long as possible. With our current seats we can keep them both rear-facing for several more months. But as soon as either child outgrows theirs we will have two choices. We can turn one of them around and keep one rear-facing with the current seats. Or, we can buy a new Radian. That will buy us an extra five pounds. At this age, that is a lot. It could well keep both of them rear-facing another year.

Is the extra time rear-facing worth buying another very expensive carseat that we don't really need? That is the question I'm wrestling with. I'll probably just postpone deciding until the last minute.