Things just keep moving.

I cried, like a big baby, last week. Monster Boy lost his very first tooth! Which would be reason enough for me to cry, since I'm emotional like that. But, he lost it at school so I didn't even get to see it! I managed to hold in the tears until after he went to bed that night, but then I cried. And Daddy Mac just looked at me like I was crazy and shook his head in consternation. I didn't care. My baby boy is growing up and I am SO not ready for it.

This morning Miss Sunshine had another speech therapy visit. It is time to rewrite our IFSP (Individual Family Services Plan). The speech therapist has been so impressed with her speech development that we didn't even include that as part of our desired progress this time! She wants to continue her therapies simply because she does qualify for them due to her cleft, although we are only going to do therapy every other month at this point. She doesn't see the need for more, and is thinking that when the time comes to release her from Early Intervention's care when she turns three, that the school system will phase her out. Here, after the age of three, the schools actually handle their therapies. Miss Sunshine may still qualify for services because of her cleft (she actually doesn't meet any of the developmental guidelines for therapies, so if it wasn't for her cleft she wouldn't qualify for services at all) but we don't feel they will be necessary at that point. I will have Daddy Mac discuss this with our cleft team at Shriner's when he takes her there in June for her team visit, but I feel they will say the same thing - her speech development is appropriate for her age at this point, and while we are seeing some nasal emissions, they are not significant, and not something that we feel therapy will help. It will either resolve on it's own as she gets bigger, or require additional surgery around the age of four... So, for now, we just play the waiting game.

Miss Sunshine is also showing signs of being ready to potty train. On the one hand I am excited by this, as it means no more changing diapers. On the other hand, I'm not ready for this. One, she's my baby. I'm not ready for her to be a big girl yet. Two, I cloth diaper (as I know I've mentioned before) and I love it. And I love all my diapers. And I don't want to put them up in to storage. Silly, I know. But for now, we are waiting. She will tell us she needs to go potty, and then as soon as we set foot in the bathroom, tell us "All done!" before we've even made it near the toilet. We have successfully gotten her to go a few times, both on her potty chair and on a big toilet, but I don't want to rush things. We made that mistake with Monster Boy and potty training him was a nightmare. I don't want to go through that again, so for now, we just play it by ear. I'm starting to make some training pants (I will not use disposable training pants, I think they are counter productive and a large part of the reason why it took so long to train Monster Boy) for her, and plan to start really working on the potty with her when I return from Florida in May.

Yes, I get to go on a kid-free vacation in May! I will be going to see my sister in Miami, and I can't wait. A week with no demands on my time. I plan to do a lot of laying around in the sun reading books and just relaxing. I know I will miss my kids horribly, but this is the first time in nearly seven years that I will get to go on a vacation with no kids and nothing to do. And anyone who has traveled with small children knows that you can call it a vacation, but with kids there, it is anything but. So now I get a REAL vacation. I am so ready!