Torticollis and MRI

Evangeline has Torticollis, which is basically a head tilt. We can't really tell how long she has had it because it is rather slight and because of this we didn't notice it right away. My mom was the one who noticed it first. After she suggested that we bring it up to the doctor we scheduled an appointment with him and he told us to take her to a physical therapist. The physical therapist got us set up with a group that will send physical therapists, developmental therapists, and occupational therapists to our house to do therapy with her. They came by yesterday and did an evaluation of Evangeline. They are going to work with her on her torticollis, as well as on crawling, standing, cruising, and walking. They are also going to work with her on helping her sleep through the night. Yay!!

Last Thursday I took Evangeline in for her 9 month check up, the doctor decided that there was a small chance like 1% chance that the torticollis might be caused from some neurological issue, so he ordered a MRI for her. We took her in for that today. She was put under for the MRI so we were a good bit concerned for her. But as we don't like to chance things (seeing that it was a 10% chance that Kevin would get cancer again when he got it the second time) we decided it was better to check than to leave things to chance. We got the results back already and everything came back completely normal. I feel much better about that. Now we know that we just have to do her neck exercises with her and everything will be ok. Stressful week, but everything has turned out good so far.

Love

Davy loves baby Evangeline, and baby Evangeline loves Davy. How do I know? The little giggles when they see each other, the way she reaches out to him and smiles at him. The way he smiles at her and tries to feed her. The fact that he shares his toys with her. The fact that a toddler and a 7 month old baby seem to have inside jokes! What is up with that!? Seriously I am going to have to be careful with them, they are both very bright little kids and they have already started ganging up against me on things. One of them will do something sort of naughty and when I get after them they will look at each other and laugh. They are fun. And it is fun to see our children love each other as siblings. It is awesome to watch a child who is just barely talking and a baby who doesn't talk at all "get" each other so well. Children are awesome!

Potty!

On July 27th, last Saturday, Davy used the potty for the first time. He pooped in it! I know putting bodily functions on an online blog seems strange but we were thrilled! We cheered for him and clapped and made a big deal about it. And this morning after waking up with a dry diaper Davy peed in the potty as well! We are so proud of him and though I don't look forward to the stress of potty training, I do look forward to this next step in toddler-hood. Hurray for Davy!!

Sight words

Davy has started to learn his sight words we have been going over them with him for a while now. When I say that he's been learning his sight words I mean he's been learning to read them. He already has quite a few words down that he can read now such as cat, yellow, dog, milk. Sight words are words that you can't use phonics to sound out. Davy uses phonics for quite a few of the words that he reads but he has been learning to read his sight words as well. It has been a lot of fun lately to watch him learn, he has also started to try to write some of the words that he knows how to read. He really is an amazing little boy!

Tree

Yesterday at church we pulled out one of the books we bring to keep Davy busy, it is an 100 words book, and some of the things it covers is fruits and veggies. So Davy was looking through the book and trying to read some of the words. He got to the fruits and vegetables page and saw the broccoli and said, "Tree" Kevin, who was watching him, pointed at the broccoli and said, "broccoli" then he sounded out the word for Davy while running his finger beneath the word. Davy looked at the word, looked at the picture then ran his finger under the word and said, "Tree." Yep I am pretty sure I know what broccoli will be referred to for some time now. Davy is doing better and better at reading. He sounds out words and has been learning a lot. He really seems to like the fact that he can learn a word by sounding it out. He is such a fun little boy!

Reading

Lately we have been having Davy watch shows that teach reading as well as play with games on the tablet that also teach reading. He already knows all his letters and their sounds and can write pretty much all of them now. So today he was carrying around some of his letter flashcards and was saying the sound and the letters and I decided to see if he knew any small words. So I went and got his magnadoodle and wrote "BAT" and said, "What does that say?" And Davy looked at it, ran his finger under it and said, "Bat". Then I wrote CAT and he knew that, I tried him on DOG, HAT, SUN, and he knew all of them. I called Kevin in and told him about it and showed him Davy reading. Kevin got excited about it and pulled out Davy's Matchbox cars and began writing colors on the magnadoodle. Black Car, White Car, Orange Car, Red Car, Blue Car. Turns out Davy knows them all. So not only does he know how to read by sounding out words but he also knows words by sight. We made flashcards quite awhile ago with different colors and their names on them. This is where he learned those words from. Smart little boy! I can't wait to see what he learns next. I do find it awesome that at 2 years and 3 months old Davy has shown us that he has learned to read.

Tickle Tickle

The other day I was tickling Davy with my ponytail and was saying, "Tickle, tickle, tickle." Davy was giggling and giggling and then he looked up at me and said, "Tickle tickle little star?" It was so cute! Lately he has been saying more and more of songs that he likes. And very often he will talk along with shows that he likes and has watched multiple times. It is a lot of fun to watch him pick up more and more words.

I also discovered recently that Evangeline is super ticklish and that I can get her squealing and giggling pretty easily because of it. It has been a lot of fun tickling her and getting to know her sweet little personality. She and Davy get along pretty well. She loves to watch him and he likes to pet her and try to give her things.They are cute to watch together.