Sunday Rumblings

I think my daughter is a budding bully. Today at church, I observed her snatching toys/books out of other kids hands and I also observed her trying to push a child down the slide because he wasn't getting out of her way fast enough. Is this normal toddler behavior? I hope so. If not, we've got some work to do.

Today after church, Alison walked up the stairs. Not by herself, mind you, but the whole way up comepletely on her feet. We've tried working on stairs here at home, but the only stairs we have are very tall. When standing on one step, the next one is at knee height on her. The steps at church are not so tall. She shocked the heck out of me, that's for sure.

After we got home from church, while Kevin was putting away the groceries and I was putting my shoes and Alison's diaper bag away, I noticed things were awfully quiet in the living room. I walked in to find Alison sitting on the couch, holding one of the remotes up to her ear as if it was a telephone. She was talking to Grandma. I suppose this means we don't need to worry about whether or not she's exhibiting imaginitive play -- not that we were worried about it in the first place, but if anyone asks we can tell them yes, she does.

My next door neighbor told Kevin that one of these Saturdays she's going to come over and basically kick us out of the house and take care of Alison for us so that we can do whatever we want. And she won't let us pay her. She says that getting to come over and play with Alison is payment enough. Alison will be thrilled....she loves Miss Melissa. The sad thing is I have no idea what I want to do with a whole day to ourselves.

Tomorrow we have to go to the ped's. It's a follow-up to her 18 month check-up. The doctor had some concerns then that we were to check out with Alison's SB doctor so he wants an update. He also wants to see how she's doing off her asthma medicine. Well, she's doing just fine, no wheezing, no coughing, and best of all, no freaking out at loud noises. He'll tell me she was just going through a phase, but I find it pretty coincidental that the phase started when she started the meds and ended when she got off them. She actually layed on the floor while I vacuumed around her the other day. She used to freak out if I even mentioned that I was going to vacuum. Her SB doctor told us she was fine. She doesn't walk "pretty," but a lot of kids don't walk pretty at this age. Her spine is fine. She wasn't standing without holding on to something yet because she has she has very mild Chiari malformation causing some immaturity in her brainstem. Tomorrow the ped will see that she's not so crooked when she walks anymore and she's getting pretty good at standing. I know he's just trying to do his best by her and that he's not an expert in spina bifida, but geesh, overreacting to everything that's outside the norm is not going to help things (and it's going to make the specialist think you're nuts).

Oh, I almost forgot. Alison can say her name now. I'm not sure she's really made the connection that it's her name, because if I ask her her name she says no. She doesn't say it perfectly....it sounds more like Ah-son...but it's a start.