I was sending up some prayers today and I was praying for little babies everywhere and I wanted to say "help them through their fight, whatever it may be." Why this is true that God does help babies through their fight (maybe not that way everyone on Earth wants), I said "Your will be done." That's what I prayed for Faith. I asked Him to make her stronge and get through this, but in the end I always said "Lord, your will be done, not mine."
I actually was praying that when I went into the hospital on bed rest. I wanted to stay pregnant with both girls until March, then it became one more week, one more day (I went into the hospital on Jan 13 and had the girls on Jan 22, not long at all). So I would pray that the girls stayed strong and healthy and alive in the womb, but I would also pray the Our Father, stressing the "Thy will be done" part, as only He knows the big picture.

I feel as though I have strayed from Him. It's been an on again, off again situation. Why can't I keep my focus? Too much 'stuff' is the answer. I started reading "Heaven is Real" by Todd Burpo. Todd's son, Colton, just before he turned 4, had a burst appendix and almost died, or I should say he did die and went to Heaven and met Jesus and John the Baptist. I'm about halfway through it and it is a great book, I just get chills from it.


Let me fill everyone in on the one and only Chloe Bear, risk taker galor! If only we had her assessment this week, I'm not sure if her speech would have improved, it's sometimes hard to understand the Ah's from the Oh's and so forth. But, she is walking now like a proud little peacock and she can get up to standing without holding onto something (that was asked in the assessment). She does "high five" and loves to just plop herself down on an awaiting lap. She is also getting another bottom tooth, the left canine I believe. She loves taking baths. Last night after we had gotten home from being up north, I was putting some things away in the bathroom and she was walking around and came in the bathroom. Our bathtub is exposed on 2 sides and the backside is narrower than the side. Well, Chloe pushed the shower curtain aside, and climbed on in. I didn't see her do it, I just heard something and when I turned around there she was sitting and smiling up at me like "ok Mom ready for my bath." It was so cute! She could have hurt herself getting into the tub but she didn't.

Her next daredevil act was stairclimbing! I was clearing dinner, Joel had gone outside, Kylie was eating strawberries. I put Chloe down to walk around and she was in the kitchen and then I thought she was going to go to one of the bedrooms. Next thing I hear is Kylie yelling "Mom, Chloe's going upstairs!" I said "What!" and ran to the dinning room (that's where the stairs to the third floor are, the 3rd floor is the converted attic). She was halfway up those stairs, little stinker! Either she is fast (and she is fast) or Kylie was slow on the go to tell me.

Then she found her baby swing, one that plays music and lights up. She thought that was pretty cool so she climbed on in that, with my help, and swung very happily for a couple of minutes. She is such a ham! I am so grateful to God for her, such a carefree little being.

I'm kind of worried about Chloe's upper teeth, one looks like it might not be coming in right. I realized that it's time we start limiting the pacifier. I think I may take her with me to my next dentist appoinment so the dentist can have a look, but then again, I should either make a separate appoinment for her or have someone with me to corral her and keep her busy, otherwise who knows what she'll get in to. Joel looked at them and he doesn't see anything wrong, but I'm not so sure.


This past weekend we were up north as I said. It was very nice weather except on Sunday it was stormy. That gave me an opportunity to do an art project with Kylie. I'll have to post a picture. We took tin cans and picked out two colors of ribbon and did a weaver around the can. I did most of it since we had to use a hot glue gun to get the ribbon to stay. They are very cute. I did a purple and green ribbon and Kylie did pink and blue. I told her she was Sleeping Beauty because he dress changed from pink to blue and back again. Kylie also got to play in the sand and go in the water as it wasn't too cold for her. This was Lake Charlevoix. Chloe really couldn't be on the beach, she would try and stick everything in her mouth and she'd try to be quick about it too. If I don't have gray hair now, I will soon! Actually I think I did find one the other week.

We Have A Walker!

Just wanted to write a quick note and let everyone know that Chloe can now walk. Little stinker, I was hoping she would do it last week at her assessment but the girl is on her own time. She is so darn cute and very animated and loves to laugh. I've got to try and post video (haha good luck to me). June 1 is her hearing test at the hospital so I hope that goes well.

Assessment

Chloe had her 12 month assessment this morning. It was a long morning, my goodness. We were there from 8:30 to 11:45. Poor girl couldn't take a nap even though she really needed to. That's why I wonder if she didn't perform as well on the later assessments as she did with the first few. I feel exhausted with this day, maybe I shouldn't have gone to work as it was hard to concentrate. I have mixed emotions about this morning. Overall, Chloe did great! She rocked most things. Physical therapy put her at 12 months, Psychology put her at 13 months, Occupational therapy was her best - 17 months!! She's only 15 months old. From the notes: "Chloe was able to pick up and release cheerios using a finger and thumb grasp. She stacked two blocks and placed coins in a piggy bank. Chloe was observed to hold a crayon with her finger tips at the top of a crayon and scribble spontaneously. She also imitated marks on a page. She was able to pull lego blocks apart and was observed to put them back together one time."

The bothersome items are she had to be referred on her hearing test. She now the hospital will call to set up an appointment for that. This could be because of her cold and maybe some fluid in the ear, but maybe not. On her speech therapy, she scored between an 8-9 month old. I don't really feel that's correct but we get Early On services for free so they will also be calling us to meet once a month with Chloe. Then Chloe will show them how awesome she is and we won't need them anymore. From the speech notes: "Rec. Lang: 9 mos. Turns toward bell, rattle, papper. Responds to her name as well as unfamiliar name. Does not respond to two familiar words (diaper, drink). Maintains attn during ball play for 60 secs. Responds to two spoken requests (wave bye bye, blow a kiss). Exp Comm: 8 mos. Vocalizes to speaker's attn. Heard one vowel (ah) and 4 consonants (m,b,d,y) in repetitive syllables. Doesn't imitate repetitive syllables." I was a bit discouraged at this but this assessment was the second to last one and Chloe was getting pretty tired and angry. She did asks some questions about what Chloe does and I answered as truthfully as I could because if something is wrong, we can catch it early.

Today brought back memories of just knowing Chloe is a twin. How would Faith have done? Would she be on a breathing machine or have a sever handicap? Questions only God knows the answers to. What was really strange is on the way home from picking up Kylie and Chloe, Kylie was all sad at one point and said "You know why I'm crying? I miss my baby Faith." She wasn't really crying - she got me to cry - and it lasted only a moment and she was back to happy but how strange. I said "You know Faith was Chloe's twin?" "yes" I guess God works in mysterious ways. Of course then Kylie says "My stomach and back hurt, I need to lay on my bed and play and then I will feel better." OK. She is really good about finding something to do when we get home so I can make dinner. Chloe on the other hand seems to be starving and cranky, hopefully she'll grow out of that. I gave her crackers while I made dinner so that helped a lot.

Missed One

The last post missed posting the Friday picture of Chloe. Here it is.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be out there. I tried calling my mom tonight but I guess she wasn't home and the machine didn't pick up. I'll try tomorrow (if I remember, I'm bad about remembering). I had a good day. We went to church, out to breakfast, over to family, and then home to play with the girls while Joel worked in the back yard. Our back yard is a mess. I think we need something easier to maintain. Although, it should get easier just because Chloe is getting older. She takes more than 3 steps now. I'd say about 5 or 6 at the most. The goal was to have her walking by her appointment tomorrow. She's on the right track, so I'm not going to rush it. Joel and I think she weighs a ton though, carrying her around. We're like "this can't be 25 pounds." I think gets gets weighed tomorrow so we can see. I'm going to try and post some pictures. Hopefully it works. I may have to post this first and then the pictures. Here goes something... Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the pictures in order. Hope this goes through, right now all I see is coding.

Cardiologist

Chloe had her cardiologist appointment on Friday. It went really well. Found out she's 25 pounds which I thought she was 27, it's all that moving around she does. The doctor said her heart is sounding fine and that he doesn't need to see her until next summer. Good news! After Chloe's appointment we headed to the Farmers Market and bought some ruhbarb, well I did, Chloe slept through the whole market experience. I kept her home all day on Friday because I didn't know how long the appointment would be. We had a great time just Chloe and I. After Joel and Kylie came home and we had dinner we went plant shopping to get some vegetables and flowers. Now we just need to get them planted, but I'm not sure if we should or will there be more frost. Today I took Kylie and Chloe to the library in the morning thinking they had story time at 11 but they didn't. We stayed and read some books and played with some puzzles, we had a good time. In the afternoon Joel took the girls shopping for a Mother's Day gift. When they got home, Kylie comes up the steps and says "Momma, we got you a locket with mirrors so you can open it and see yourself put on your makeup!" HAHAHAHA! Well, so much for a surprise : ) It's so cute.

Teeth

I officially see two top teeth in Chloe's mouth. Now there's four, how exciting! Tonight during dinner Chloe somehow turned herself around in her highchair. She was facing backward. When it was time to get her out, I couldn't. She was stuck. I didn't think I would be able to get her out! I eventually bent her leg and pushed it through, I'm not sure that it was comfortable for Chloe but it worked. Whew! Yesterday on the way to daycare Chloe pooped. This wasn't as bad as last week when she did it 5 minutes into driving and then Kylie telling me it stinked in the van. This time we were almost there and Chloe was crying. I asked Chloe what was her problem and Kylie said "she pooped." It didn't really stink though. So at daycare I was going to drop off Kylie first like normal and then I notice Chloe's pants were getting wet, it was seeping through. Kylie said "Uh, I don't want to give her a kiss." Last week we had to drop Chloe off first because stuff was everywhere. This time it was a bit better but she still needed a wardrobe change. Hopefully this doesn't become a weekly event for Little Miss Chloe Bear.

Busy Busy May

So begins our busy month. I can't believe it's already May 7. Tomorrow is Joel's birthday, he'll be 36. He keeps denying that he has any gray hair, but I can see them. This past weekend Joel and I sent the girls to Grandpa and Nanny's and we went up north to Traverse City. We went wine tasting with a group of friends and came back with way too many bottles. We'll drink them, eventually. This is a yearly trip for us except for last year. That was too much for us to do. Chloe had just come home and Faith's death was still fresh. We still have wine from two years and beyond. I think now we're set for 10 years. Kylie and Chloe had a good time with the grandparents. I'm glad they did and that Joel and I could get away. Next time it should be the two of us, not the two of us and 15 friends. : ) I did miss the girls on Sunday night. So when we picked them up a day care today. My heart was so full of love. Chloe looked older to me too. I thought "Is that my baby?" Chloe has her cardiologist appointment on Friday, which is the same day as Muffins with Mom at daycare. I get to have a muffin with Kylie when I drop her off on Friday and then I'll go to the appointment. I'm glad that Joel is coming along. He can stay with Chloe until I get back and then we'll go and he usually has some good questions to ask. Chloe also has her top front tooth coming in. I think it's just one but maybe it's both. She's not one to let you look in her mouth. Another great thing - our house is fairly clean. I love that. I'll need to post pictures soon.