Giving Something New A Shot

The liquid bactrum, as expected, was as much a success as it was the last 2 times she had to take it.  So, not at all.  I even hid it in some tasty grape juice, and she thought it was more fun to hit the cup and spill grape juice all over the place rather than just drink it.  I called the clinic the next day and asked if we could get a re-issue of the prescription, and get pills instead.

I picked the new prescription up on Thursday, and so far we're getting a little more into her system than we previously were.  I'm grinding the pills up and hiding them in some applesauce, but she's still fighting.  Right now, I think we're moving more into the camp of "Hey, I'm a toddler and I'm going to act like you're pouring a cocktail of hot wax, lava, and 50 ghost chilis down my throat even though I know that's not the case."  But, at least she's getting something, and it's more than what we would've gotten into her with the liquid.  I'm still holding out hope that she'll cooperate in another day or 2 and start taking everything.

In other news, I'm excited to say that Judith can identify all 26 letters of the alphabet, as long as they're capital letters!  I credit the constant reading of Star Wars ABCs and Dr. Seuss' ABCs 50,000,000 times a day.  She's also pretty slick at identifying most of the characters in the Star Wars book, something that makes my inner nerd very happy.  She's able to identify a few lower case letters that look similar to their upper case counterparts (like o, x, and z), and is starting to identify some numbers (usually 8, 3, and 2).  It's always funny when I ask her what a number is, and she'll respond with "2."  If I say, "no, look again," she'll respond with, "not 2!"  Crazy kid.

She cracks me up regularly with the things she says, or the words she comes up with to identify objects.  Last weekend, she laid claim to one of our clips that we use to hang our tea towels in the kitchen (they're similar to this, but are different colors).  She brought it into the living room to show it off to my dad and me, and was calling it a "mystery."  I could not figure out what she meant until my dad said that it looks like a question mark, and she's associating that with the question mark they use for the Mystery Mousketool on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  It was pretty funny once I understood!  Now she runs around the living room showing off her "mystery," and started to identify the "mysteries" in her books.

All Clear

Judith had her follow-up appointment with Dr. W. on Friday to make sure her ear infection and cold were gone.  Good news: her ears were clear!  Bad news: she was a hot freakin' mess.  She performed her usual antics that she pulls at a doctor's office, but this time started as soon as we hit the exam room and one of her favorite nurses took her temperature.  Silly child.  She still has a stuffy nose, and we're not sure if it's left over from the cold or if it could indicate allergies, so we're watching it.  I already know Dr. G. is going to want to do allergy testing when we do her annual blood work at clinic, so that should help give us some answers, but it'll be a long wait.  Oh, and Judith also got her flu shot.  I couldn't believe that the office already had them in and available!  Dr. W. asked if we wanted to do it, and I jumped on the opportunity - I do feel better knowing she has it and will have the protection as we head into the fall, but this also means I won't have to make a separate appointment and make a separate trip for her to get it.  It's nice when things work out so conveniently!  John and I will have to get ours at some point, but we have a bit of time before we have to worry about that.

In other news, Judith's been adding some new words.  She has a long list, but most recently she started saying "Daddy" instead of "Dada."  I've been trying to get her to say "Mama," but no dice.  Today, though, she finally, FINALLY started saying "Mommy!"  I was thinking, "It's about time, kid."  But deep down, I'm thrilled that she's saying this stuff, and it only took 20-almost-21 months to hear!

She Speaks!

Judith's finally saying a word consistently!  It's pretty darn exciting!  In the past, she's said mama, dada, baby, boon (for balloon), boo (Buster's nickname), and piggy.  In the last week and a half, however, she's been saying baby more regularly, and even uses it in context!  It felt like it's been taking forever for her to get to this point, since she's been stringing sounds together for months, but I think we're starting with our first small word explosion!

It's still not a consistent thing, but she did say Boo in context a few times in the past week, and today she felt it was necessary to (loudly) say Dada a couple times during a quieter part of the service in church.  With any luck, those words will become just as consistent as the rest!  She's also recognizing more commands, and signing "more" and "all done."  She's consistently waving goodbye with a little encouragement - she practiced for almost a half hour after church today, waving at everyone who talked to her because she was ready to go home!