Elmer at 18 months

Well, Elmer is now 19 months old, but this should be mostly accurate as of 18 months since I actually made notes without writing the whole post!  I'm going to write it from the point of when he was 18 months. 

- He weighed 23 pounds (33rd %ile)  and was 32 inches (34th %ile) at his 18-month checkup.  Two hours later at WIC, he was 31 inches (9th %ile)!  I trust the WIC measurement more, though, because they used the slider measurement device, rather than just marking on the paper on the exam table.

- He is so smart! 
At 18 months, he said more than 80 words on his own, and keeps adding more every day!
He connects concepts and has a really good memory. 
One day while climbing the stairs, he picked up a piece of debris, and I said, "Oh, yeah, I need to vacuum."  Then when he got to the top of the stairs, he began grunting and motioning toward the vacuum cleaner.  The time between those two things was enough that I had already forgotten what I said on the stairs and had to take a minute to figure out why he was pointing to the vacuum cleaner!  There was also a couple of weeks that we had been to the pediatrician several times.  On one of these visits, I had pointed out the fish's big eyes on the mural in one of the treatment rooms.  Ten days later, when we were there again, I drew an eyeball on the magn-doodle and said, "eye."  He quickly turned to the mural on the wall, looking for the fish's eye!  We were in a different room with a different mural, so it wasn't there. 

- We are doing "Mommy and Me" gymnastics class every week, and he loves it!  The first class we went to, the teacher thought we were making up the class from a different day rather than it being his first time because he was so cooperative. 

- He loves to help me!  He will put the laundry into the dryer when I pass it to him, scoops out and dumps the cat's food, and throws things in the trash when I ask him.  One day he also helped me clean out and organize the pantry - he put things in the right piles as I told him, or took things to the trash can. 

- He feeds himself with spoon and fork pretty consistently, and usually does a good job with it.  Sometimes I have tried to feed him so we can do it quickly or not end up with oatmeal in his hair, but he CRIES and points to his high chair, or goes to the silverware drawer to get his own spoon.  I guess I can't hold down independence! 

- Speaking of independence, he has hit the Terrible Twos early!  When I tell him to do something he doesn't want to, he will say, "NO!" and hit at me.  He also has started throwing some tantrums.  {Thankfully by 19 months, this has improved a good bit!}

- He imitates EVERYTHING!  For example, I was vacuuming the blinds and he picked up one of the vacuum attachments and started doing it, too.  He pays attention to even the very little things and imitates - like when I licked my finger to turn some magazine pages, he did the exact same thing!  And every little movement my six-year old nephew Bop does, he does too.  Bop fell down on the floor on top of a book and rolled around kicking his legs; Elmer found a book to put on the floor and did the exact same thing.  When we were at a baseball game, Bop walked over to the fence; so did Elmer.  Bop squatted down on one knee while holding the fence; Elmer did the exact same thing. 

- He LOVES balls of all types and sizes.  Anything that is remotely round is a "ball" - eggs, a pregnant lady, my chest!  LOL  One day I got a watermelon and a cantaloupe at the grocery store.  From the minute I put them in the cart, he kept saying, "Ball!  Ball!"  He was DEVASTATED when I put them on the counter at home and wouldn't let him play with the new balls we had!  He also has quite the arm and leg for throwing and kicking. 

- I have learned when brushing his teeth that I need to give him his own toothbrush because otherwise, we are fighting over the one toothbrush.  He has gotten pretty good at brushing his teeth.

- He has started trying to jump, and occasionally gets both feet off the ground at the same time to really jump. 

- He discovered his shadow!  When he first saw it outside, I was trying to get him to make the connection that it was his body and was showing him how to wave and make his shadow move, while saying, "Hi."  He spend the next couple of weeks almost obsessively saying, "Hi" to his shadow on the floor, wall, or wherever else (and sometimes when there really was no shadow but he was expecting one). 

- One of his favorite activities these days is to sit on the curb outside and re-arrange the leaves that have gathered in the corner. 

Elmer is growing and developing so quickly.  I continue to be truly amazed at all of the things that he is able to do, and the fact that he is age-appropriate with everything (and ahead of his age for most things).  My sweet baby is such a joy!

Elmer is Growing and Doing New Things!

I realized that I haven't really posted much about all the amazing things Elmer has been learning. 




Between three and four months:

 He started rolling over from back to stomach!

 Lying on his stomach with cousin Bop watching TV.

Um, Elmer, let's go back to that sleeping through the night thing!!

Just a cute shot of Elmer snuggling his monkey blanket.

Between four and five months:

 He started grabbing his feet.

 He got his first Valentine's Day card,

and celebrated his first Valentine's Day.

 He started eating cereal (and was a champ from the beginning - he opened his mouth as soon as the spoon came near it!)

 and then ate more foods - making a mess of some of them!

Between five and six months:

 He started sitting up in the stroller and on the "sit up" side of the bathtub. 

 And was working on sitting up in general.

First time in the big swing.  He laughed immediately.

 He celebrated his first St. Patrick's Day,

and first Easter.

 Checking out what the Easter bunny brought him.

I feel like I'm going to blink and he will be walking!





The Not Knowing

At this point, I think the hardest thing about foster care for me is the not knowing when the next placement call will come. 

I expected the uncertainty and the roller coaster while the kids are here.  I didn't think about the fact that my life would be uncertain and in a kind of limbo when there wasn't even a child here. 

Since I don't have any kids of my own, my life looks very different when I have a placement compared to when I don't.  It is somewhat unsettling to think about the fact that my life could completely change today... tonight... tomorrow.  My life could be completely different this weekend compared to last weekend. 

I might go trick-or-treating next weekend with my nephew Bop or my goddaughter Boo, and be hanging out as the photographer and fun aunt.  Or I might have a new child trick-or-treating with us, after scrambling to find a Halloween costume along with everything else that child will need when he arrives. 

Even non-foster care involves the not knowing.

Photo Journal

More swimming lessons.  At the end, Evie was able to swim about 5 feet (with her head underwater) and float on her back by herself (but only if someone put her there)

 

Evie's brother had his birthday, and this is what EVIE came home with that day.  I said, "But it was J's birthday."  Evie responded, "But my mom gave me stuff, too.  She gave him stuff when it was MY birthday."  Then when I asked her what he got for his birthday, she said he got some water squirters (I knew these were a gift from the dollar store, and also knew he got other gifts that were much more significant, based on what Evie brought home on her birthday as well as that day).  So I asked her what else he got.  She said, "I don't know.  I didn't see because I was opening my presents."  Mom could be doing this because she is trying to buy the kids' love because they are in foster care.  But I would hazard a guess that this kind of thing happened even before they came into care.  The mentality in that household seemed to be "cater to the kids."  I think Evie's attitude that the entire world truly revolves around her, without any attention to what is going on with others around her, started LONG before I met her, owing to that mentality.  

 

 

 This is Evie's first independent sentence she wrote.  One of our neighbors came over while we were in the front yard, saying that she had left her pool key inside the pool gates so she couldn't get it.  I told her we would drive up there when we finished what we were doing, and asked what unit she lived in so I could bring it to her.  Before we left, completely on her own and without asking ANY questions (surprising!), Evie wrote this reminder for us so that we would know what to do.  I asked what the 100 was, and she responded, "That's the number of her house."  (I'm not sure what the "I" at the beginning is.)

Evie's brother stayed with us one weekend, and we went to the Children's Museum and to Twin's first birthday party.

 

 The last day of school.  This was prior to the actual program, and the song here was "counting to 100 by 1's" - with 10 reps of each exercise for each set of 10. 

 

I took Evie to Chuck E. Cheese that weekend to celebrate getting all good behavior marks all year.  I told her that it was a special day so she could eat and drink whatever she wanted that day - of course she chose soda (I very rarely let her have it).  And now she has asked me every time we have been out to eat since then - three weeks - if she could have soda.  Give an inch, they take a mile!  The answer has always been no, though!

 Re-potting a lima bean plant she brought home from school

 

 

Evie's loose tooth kept getting looser, until one day when I picked her up at daycare and she showed me that there was a space between the tooth and the gum.  When we got home and I was fixing dinner, she declared she was going to pull her tooth out.  In my head, I said there is no way she is going to pull it out because it's still hanging on by much more than just a thread, and she is so dramatic about the pain of any little scratch or bump that she won't go through with it.  Well, about five minutes later, she walked out with her tooth in hand!

We went bowling with some friends, and Evie often sat on the floor at the end of the lane watching to see if her ball knocked down the pins.  I never was quick enough to get a picture of that, though.  

 

 Evie went roller skating with her best bud from her elementary school and daycare (who no longer goes to the daycare).  This is them all huddled together. 

And then we went to the aquarium with TT, Twin, and my sister and nephew.  (Okay, it's time for them to get blog names, too.... My sister is Red - she has red hair like me.  My nephew is Bop - he is always on the go.)

We were supposed to go to the upstate to see some friends of mine and to visit the camp where I volunteered for 17 years, but Evie ended up with a stomach virus so we are just hanging here in town this week before court on Friday.

Christmas Photo Journal

We went to the aquarium to see Polar Express 4-D (15 minute version) and see Scuba Claus.  Tank loved watching the big fish swim by.

 

 

Evie decorated a gingerbread house with my nephew.

Decorating cookies for Santa

 

Santa showed up in a big way last night, partly due to 2 organizations that provided gifts for the kids

Christmas aftermath