Matthew crawled...

...up my parents' family room steps, all by himself!  While we weren't even watching!  (And then tried to go head first down the stairs lol).

Update on Matthew's Head

Yesterday was Matthew's appointment at BC Children's Hospital.

We first met with a Resident Assistant who did a basic check-up/assessment and asked some basic questions about Matthew's delivery and his development.  Matthew was amazing - he just stared at the doctor.  I'm sure he was thinking, "Who are you?".  He was very cooperative.  The doctor thought the blank stare that he was receiving from Matthew was hilarious.

After meeting with the Resident Assistant we met with Dr. Paul Steinbok, the head of pediatric neurosurgery.  He did a quick visual assessment of Matthew's head shape (so quick, in fact, that just by looking at Matthew he could tell that his left ear is slightly more forward than his right) and then measured that width of Matthew's head and the length of his head.  A "normal" human has a width-to-length ratio between 0.75 to 0.90.  Matthews was 1.0 (his width is the exact same as his length).  The doctor figured that there was no need for any helmet or other sort of intervention on our part; over the next couple of years his head will round out and will probably end up at around 0.95.  As his hair grows in a little more his misshapen head will be hidden even more.

The exact terms for Matthew's head shape is:  Plagiocephaly and Brachycephaly.  This is actually an interesting article that I just came across now (while googling the spelling of above terms!):  http://www.pediatricsdigest.mobi/content/114/4/970.full

Dr. Steinbok also reassured us that Matthew's brain was not being affected at all by his head shape.

So all in all, great news!  We're glad (for Matthew's sake and for our bank accounts' sake!) that we don't have to get him a helmet.  I'm glad we pushed for the appointment at BC Children's Hospital so that we got an expert's opinion.

All Caught Up! Wait...Almost all caught up :(

YAY!  I've accomplished quite a bit since the beginning of January.

I've caught up the sales reports for BLG, so now I only have to do about 1 hour of work a week for them.

My BackCheck work for February is all up to date (for now!).

My blogging is all caught up.

My kitchen floor is freshly vacuumed and mopped.  Yes, I know, on a Sunday...but I HAD to.  It was DISGUSTING...and with Kayla all over I didn't want her to try to eat nasty crumbs off the floor.

The only thing I have to do is work on my online photo journal book thing.  I haven't worked on it for a few weeks :(  BUT, I read on picaboo's website that they will honour Groupons even past their expiry date so at least I don't have to worry about getting my book done before the end of February.  I've done 160 pages so far, and that's gotten me to the end of May 2011.  Only about another 160 pages to go.  Or more...especially at the rate I've been taking pictures.

Other than that, I don't have a lot of other big projects to do.

Wait...Matthew and Kayla's birthday is less than a month away.  Gotta figure out what to do for their cake...or maybe I should start with learning how to bake a cake?  :)

Matthew's Fourth Tooth

Upper Left

I really need to get a tooth chart started...

11 Months Old!

Celebrating Jon's 26th (!!) birthday at Montana's.  This was Matthew and Kayla's first time at a restaurant since September, and so their first time in the restaurant high chairs.  They did really well.  I had fed them dinner before we left, so they just munched on Jon's fries and my quesadilla.

Gotta love the dollar store!

Jon had a pro-d day on the 10th so we went to the Seattle Premium Outlets with my Mom and Jason.  Kayla was fighting a really bad cold so her nose was a disaster...but they had fun!

Smiling at Matthew.

This was the first day of Kayla's fight with constipation.  She didn't go for a few days, went this past Wednesday like six times (and she was SCREAMING in pain), and hasn't gone since Thursday morning again.  I tried using Glycerin again for her yesterday, but she just pushed it out.  She's been eating tons of prunes and I tried to give her a lot of prune juice yesterday so maybe today will be the day?

"Around the little garden went the little mouse..."

"One step..."

"Two step..."

"In the little house!"  Matthew loves it :)

Would have been a cute picture if I had been looking at the camera!

They love to play peek-a-boo with each other using my curtain.

Matthew was having fun dropping the ball into the exersaucer seat and then checking to see if it fell through.

Keeping them occupied with oven mitts.

Matthew had just seen me open and close the fridge so he was trying to figure it out himself.

A couple weeks ago Kayla had thrown the big teddy bear off of this chair (where it normally sits) in their bedroom, and climbed on herself.  Since then I've moved the chair into the living room so that she can sit on it whenever.  However, sitting has now become standing on it...

Kayla's starting to try to climb everything...

...and climb into everything!

Matthew clapping.

Sitting back to back.

I had been putting the links on Matthew's head so that they would fall off, and so he tried to do it himself.

This picture should have been rotated...but I was pinning her down and tickling her to get a smile :)

Often walks/crawls around with a toy hanging from her mouth.

Matthew patting Kayla's head...he likes to do that for some reason...

Kayla had stolen the big keys from Matthew :(

Matthew:

• weighs 18 lb 3 oz.
• has become really confident and quick with cruising around furniture.  He's very aware of what he can and can't reach, and will be careful if the distance between the two pieces of furniture is quite large.
• is really good at kicking a ball, especially while walking around.  Future soccer star?
• is still a great eater.  He will usually eat anything and everything.  He definitely eats more than Kayla.
• really knows and understands our morning and bedtime routines.  

Kayla:

• weighs 19 lb 12 oz
• has really started to walk.  I won't say she's officially walking...but it will be soon!
• is really good at kicking a ball, especially while walking around.  Future soccer star too?
• is great at playing 'pass' with a ball.  
• can follow simple commands: "Find me this...", "Give me...", "Sit on your bum", etc
• LOVES my keys.  If she's throwing a fit in her car seat because she doesn't want to be in it I just give her my keys and she's quiet.
• loves sucking on her soother strap.
• loves looking at the picture preview that appears after I've taken a picture.  If it's a picture of Matthew that appears, she makes a cooing noise.
• has learned the hand signal to make Lacey "speak" (bark).  Unfortunately, Lacey doesn't listen to Kayla.
• is quite the stinker when it comes to eating.  She will typically refuse food before even trying it...so I have to touch the spoon to her lips, and then if she likes that taste she'll open her mouth.
• gave my Dad her first kiss (February 13th).  A nice open mouth wet and slobbery one :)
• loves playing with cars and trucks.  Or anything that she can push around on the ground.

Matthew & Kayla Both:

• still prefer to be comforted by me over anyone else (if I'm available).  Jon has actually come to terms with this and no longer is offended by it :)
• love throwing their soother out of their cribs.  I have started putting a spare one in there so that if they throw it out there is a backup there for them to find without me having to go into their room.

Our Routine:

7:20am  Get up.  Matthew and Kayla get breakfast, and then I make my breakfast while they are having their bottles.  Matthew knows that as soon as I come back into the living room with my sandwich that he gets some, so he whines to be picked up to sit on the couch with me.

8:00am  Bath time followed by play time.

9:30am  Nap time

10:45am  Bottle and play time.

11:30am  Lunch time.

1:00pm  Nap time.

2:15pm  Bottle and play time.  

3:00pm  Snack

5:00pm  Dinner

6:45pm  To my parents.

7:45pm  Home again.  They get a bottle, and then when I say "time to brush our teeth", Matthew walks me to the bathroom (no lie, they actually lead me!), and Kayla follows.  Once we get to the bathroom Matthew stops so that I can let go of one of his hands to turn on the light, and then we walk a little further until they are in front of the vanity and he sits down.  Kayla needs to be told to sit down.  They brush their teeth, and then I brush them.  As soon as their teeth are brushed we walk back to the living room and they get two or three stories read to them.  

8:00pm  Bed time for Kayla.

8:30pm  Bed time for Matthew.

*We dropped one of their naps on February 1st...so they are now down to two naps.

*Their last bottle of frozen breast milk was on February 13th.  Not bad considering my  last pump was on January 16th!