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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Little Miss June - September (Present)

June - 7/8 months

So since our last post about Little Miss she has gone from crawling to pulling herself up on furniture in just a few short weeks!  I think she will be an early walker but we shall see ;-)  By mid month she was able to finally sit down from standing position (this was not a fun 3 weeks!).  She would cry/yell for help or just simply fall then cry/yell for help.  It was amazing to watch her figure it all out.  She is one smart cookie.  I still can't believe she was crawling before 7 months.  I really thought I had a good 2 more months of immobility.  I guess NOT haha!

She also accomplished lying on her belly to sitting.

Her food eating ability has progressed.  She is a little piglet.  We gave her little bits of food (bananas) mid month.  She looked at it weird, tried it and then wanted me to feed her.  So we shall try again in a few more months.

Her second set of teeth are coming in (top front teeth).  This is a total of 4 teeth.

Little Man celebrated his 3rd birthday this month and we had a little birthday party for him.  Chiara didn't know what was going on and didn't really care haha!




July - 8/9 months

The weather was just terrible this spring and most of the summer.  We still had to use a light jacket in mid July!  We were busy preparing for our big August Vacation to the US. 

Little Miss received her first real cold :-(.  It all started with a mild runny nose we took care of that, then she got conjunctivitis (aka pink eye) from the stuffy nose backing up and infecting the eye and then after antibiotic eye treatment we (yes we!) got a bad cold.  This cold settled in Little Miss's chest and gave her bronchitis!  We had to call the SOS Medcine (which is a house call doctor service) to treat her it was a Sunday morning.  To tell you the truth it was so convenient and the price was under 50 euros (100% covered by Security Sociale + our Mutuelle aka secondary) and it was less than our regular pediatrician (70 euros FYI).  In a day or so the wheezing stopped (we were given steroids to help her with that) and her cold symptoms subsided. I believe the antibiotic eye treatment opened both of us up to the 2nd consecutive cold.  Maybe it killed off all our good bacteria?  I read online afterward that pink eye if (non bacterial) goes away on it's own in due time.  So next time I will consult with the doctor in detail to see if this was the cause of our 2nd cold. 

July 10th even though she was still sick she decided why not...and started to walk around the furniture! 

July 16th she started to really enjoy bath time!

On July 23rd she started to wavy hi and bye...so cute!

After mid July we started to enjoy being outside and picnicking daily for lunches (the kids and I).

We completely switched to table food...because after her colds she started to refuse baby food.  How does a baby do this you ask?  By spitting it in your face!  She liked to feed herself.  She didn't really swallow most of it.  Just chewed and spit it up.  The doctor agreed that since she had 4 teeth including her front teeth she could start to eat table foods.


By the end of the month she was clapping and swaying to music.  Let the fun begin!  She is really growing fast... 






August - 9/10 months

She was in full force separation anxiety and attached to me by the hip!  She really had been experiencing this for 2 months.  She would scream when someone new (or if she hadn't seen someone in a few weeks).  I was worried she would have a hard time with our trip to the US.  And...I was right!

The jet lag did not help any...Little Man did fine (waking up a bit early 2-3 mornings) and mostly because of Little Miss.  

She had her 1 year (even though technically she was 9 months) Korean Birthday Party (Doljabi). 

And a more Traditional Hanbok
She cried most of the party except for her choosing ceremony ;-)
More about this in a future post...

It turned out after her party...she got a fever and broke out in a rash.  And it was Hand Foot and Mouth Disease.  Which sounds bad but it's just a Virus with a specific rash.  It is highly contagious and we must have picked it up in Paris before leaving (since the incubation period is 6-10 days).  Once the fever broke she started to feel normal and I was relieved as I was just about to go on a trip with my sister for 3 nights/4 days!  We saw a doctor to make sure of the diagnosis (just in case Little Man got it too).  BTW he never did get it, either he must have already had it (doc said it is a one time disease like Chicken Pox) or we kept them a part just in time. 





Little Miss did well without me.  She just substituted me for my husband and he had a little companion to join him everywhere he went (like it or not).  He did really well alone (well with his parents help) with the kids and I was so relieved.  He had a new found awareness of what I go through daily ;-)

More on our vacation on a later post...but we felt that the 3 weeks flew by fast.  We were busy most days and wish we had relaxed a bit more.  But it was great seeing all of our family we will be reunited soon for my sister's wedding (which we can't wait for!). 

Back to Little Miss...this month was pretty calm.  She perfected her crawling, standing up on furniture, walking around furniture and most of all getting used to strangers/new people!  By the end of the trip she was way more open to people.  It took my sister 3 weeks but by the last few days she was holding her with no eyes searching for me or tears! 




 September - 10/11 months

This month she received another tooth so the total is now 7!

She started Halte de Garderie (aka part time daycare) 2 mornings a week.  In France we do a week long adaption.  Meaning we go everyday for that week and slowly introduce the separation (1hr with parent, 1 hour with parent, 30 mins separation, 40 mins, etc...).  She has been having a difficult time of the separation and even cries when we enter the room.  She senses or can understand French when I am told it is time to leave (she starts to cry).  But Monday went very well she was separated from me for 1 hour.  I am hoping that they are able to put her down for a nap on Friday and then we will be home free (well 4 hours free!). 

She had a runny nose this month too...and it's been 2+ weeks.  It is considerably better but really how can a nose be runny that much!?!?  There are no other symptoms (i.e. cough, fever etc...).  So we are just keeping it clean with saline and sucking out the boogies.  I also had a cold a few weeks ago Little Man must have brought something home from Maternelle (he did not get it and it was before we started at Halte de Garderie). 

We hired our first babysitter and things went very well with our 2 times away (once for a meeting at Little Man's new school and once for dinner).  I foresee a lot of dinners in our future now!


Update on teaching aids for (small) toddlers

I wanted to update this blog on our successes and/or failures with the teaching aids/activity books we bought back in 2011.

Here is my original post

The Brain Quest series was a success he adored the My First Brain Quest (when he was 2 years old) and quickly surpassed it and we bought Brain Quest for Threes.  I also bought the Write & Erase Alphabet Set and Write & Erase Numbers but they were a bit too advanced for him at age 2.   We will go back and use these now since he is 3 years old.

We also bought some Kumon Series Books.  We tried Kumon Tracing Book for 2, 3 and 4 year olds when he was 2.5 years old.  He did well with the simple straight lines and a few curves.  Recently I brought out the book and he was able to complete almost the entire book in 2 hours time!  He can now make lines, curves and even x's +'s and the letter H! 

This is why I stated we will go ahead and try Brain Quest's Write & Erase Alphabet and Number Sets.  He is really starting to write and draw things that make sense ;-)

So in summary...buying these workbooks at age 2 is a bit too young.  But 2.5/3 years old is really a good time.  My son recently started Maternelle (aka preschool here in France starts at 3 years old).  By the end of the school year he will learn how to write his name!  So we are practicing with him at home.  I am also worried about his English Language skills so since he is getting so many hours of French.  I will need to find some supplemental workbooks etc...in English when we are in the US again in 6 months time.  If anybody has any recommendations please feel free to comment. 

I read to him daily so if you have any good book rec's pass them along also.  I am always looking to stock up while we are home.  But Amazon.fr is always a good source for English books as well (more $$ but hey...the cost of an extra bag or the weight limit probably is more!). 

 TN