MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory

Since I'm a speech-langauge pathologist, I'm all about speech and language, especially when it comes to my Miya. But I don't think I really grasped how many words she actually knows until I filled out the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory. Miya has participated in some infant language studies at Purdue, and they sent me this parent report form as a follow-up to one of the studies. It turns out that she is able to say 64 different words!



Yes...64. And that doesn't include words like "please" that she will sign, but not yet say. My newest favorites are "ight" for light (she points out every lamp, ceiling light, headlight, flashlight, and street lamp we pass during the day, by the way. It's actually quite amusing to see how fascinated she is by seeing lights), "tut" for cut, "outs" for ouch, and "boop" for scoop. She also says "eyes" and "ears" remarkably clearly, and that's pretty cute. What a good talker she's becoming!

It's a GIRL!

Of course it's a girl. I used to say (growing up) that girls were too high maintenance, and consequently, I was having all boys. Well, it looks like all girls might be more like it!



We are very excited for Miya to have a baby sister. We had the ultrasound this morning - I am officially 20 weeks and 2 days along...more than half way through, and doing great so far.



In fact, I can feel her moving right now...she must sense that I'm writing about her. Or maybe she just likes the hot fudge sundae that I just ate.

Ukrainian Borsch

We've been getting beets for a couple of weeks now from our share of produce, so I decided to make some borsch for old times sake. I haven't made it in a really long time, actually, and I decided to use a slightly different recipe this time around - one that I found online. This recipe used sausage (though I usually use beef) and I actually was really pleased with the flavor. This makes me want to make some more Ukrainian food ...maybe I'll be ambitious this week...we'll see.

Here is the recipe in case anyone is interested (this makes a LOT of borsch...at least 10 servings):

1 (16 ounce) package pork sausage (I used half this amount)
3 medium beets, peeled and shredded
2 celery stalks, chopped
3 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
3/4 cup water
1/2 medium head cabbage, cored and shredded
1 (8 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained (I used fresh tomatoes...from my garden, of course!)
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon white sugar, or to taste
1/2 cup sour cream, for topping
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley for garnish

DIRECTIONS
Crumble the sausage into a skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir until no longer pink. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Fill a large pot halfway with water(about 2 quarts), and bring to a boil. Add the sausage, and cover the pot. Return to a boil. Add the beets, and cook until they have lost their color. Add the carrots and potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add the cabbage and tomatoes.

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, and celery, and cook until tender. Stir in the tomato paste and water until well blended. Transfer to the pot, cover and turn off the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Taste, and season with salt, pepper and sugar.

Ladle into serving bowls, and garnish with sour cream and fresh parsley.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Patch

We took a family trip to the pumpkin patch on Saturday, and are so glad that we went! It was the first day they were open, so they had a special running where you could go on a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch, pick a pumpkin, and ride back to the farm, all for $2!



Miya loved the ride, and didn't want to get off when we made it back to the farm.



So for a mere $6, we had some good times riding behind the tractor and traipsing through the pumpkin patch. Not to mention the fact that we got 3 pretty big pumpkins!







Miya sure liked playing in the corn as well...she probably would have stayed there all day if we'd let her. Plus she kept sampling the corn...I guess she kept forgetting that it wasn't edible. Good times in Indiana!

Yum

I pick the tomatoes about twice a week, and I get at least 50-60 each time. Needless to say, we are eating a lot of tomatoes, and I'm happy to report that Miya eats her share. She also picks the green ones...I can't seem to convince her to ignore that color yet.



She likes to sit and pick them right off the vine. The seeds get everywhere, but she just loves them. Oddly enough, she will rarely eat a tomato that is cold, out of the fridge. Only straight off the vine for Miya, so I have to make sure I leave some out on the counter for her after we bring them inside!



Every Thursday when we pick up our share of other veggies at the Farmer's Market, the ladies get a kick out of Miya asking them for a tomato, and then happily eating it like an apple (seeds getting everywhere, of course...I finally wisened up and started bringing a bib).



Hopefully she remains a veggie lover for many years to come!

Extreme Tomato Plants

We thought we should document our monster tomato plants. We planted 5, and they all survived and thrived (though I must say that lots of other things we planted didn't fare so well, like the okra, brussel sprouts, acorn squash, and sugar snap peas). So the tomato plants topped 6 feet, then started growing outward when the growth of the tomatoes weighed them down (they were all cherry tomatoes, by the way - two varieties).

And just look at these beasts now! They are all tangled together and taking over the lawn, not to mention overshadowing the red bell peppers. But boy are they delicious!

da-da

Daddy has been MIA lately as he has been studying for midterms (they have two 8-week modules during each semester, thus the early midterms). Miya has finally stopped waking up from her naps and immediately going room to room searching the house, saying "Da-da? Da-da?" At first it was so cute, then it made me so sad to hear her always looking for her now absentee father...we sure miss daddy around here!

Signs

I thought I'd post a little something about Miya's speech and language progress. She's learned a lot these last few months, and I am so glad that Miya is a communicator! I was keeping a list of the words she says, and I was pleasantly reminded of how many baby signs she uses to communicate with me as well. She'll sign help, open, more, fish, cookie, milk, drink, eat, bubbles, orange, and will shake her head and nod for 'no' and 'yes' (not signs, but still communicative). If I model a new sign, she'll try and imitate it as well.

As for words, our all-time favorite word she uses is "uh-oh" which is her way of saying "Hey, I just threw (or will throw) something on the floor, so pay attention." In addition to trying to imitate a lot of what we say, my favorite new thing she says (while nodding her head) is "yeah" when I ask her a question. I need to get some of these on video.

She can also say and point to a lot of her body parts, and I've caught her several times these last couple of days looking in the mirror in our bedroom, and pulling up her shirt to point to her belly button (belly button is "duh-duh" right now...so cute!). She is also obsessed with pointing to my eyes, nose, teeth, and tongue, and I've had many-a-stray finger painfully pointing those parts out to me when I least suspect it!

Roseola

Having a sick baby is stressful...no one wants to be that mom who is paranoid all the time, but on the other hand, no one wnats to be so complacent that important symptoms are ignored with dire consequences. So with that said, I am so glad the mystery is finally solved so that I can stop worrying that Miya had contracted some weird illness from the shopping carts at the store or the slobbered-on toys in the nursery. It's just my luck that she always seems to start showing symptoms on a Friday, so that I have to wait out the weekend with only urgent care or the emergency room as options for diagnosis!

So Miya ran a high fever for several days, and on top of the fussiness (and inability to sleep more than two hours at a time...yes, it was a rough weekend for all of us) she got me extra worried by not eating anything. Well yesterday, her fever was finally gone, and a rash showed up all over her tummy and back. Roseola! I'm just so glad she finally feels better and can sleep again without breaking out in a sweat and needing her mommy to cuddle her. Welcome back healthy Miya (well, almost healthy...as soon as this rash goes away)!

Books, books, books

Since I am officially "taking a break" from school, I have felt the need to read, read, read (fun stuff, for a change). I decided that I finally needed to check out these Stephanie Meyer books and see if I agreed with all the hype. And I do!
First of all, let me just say that I am so glad that I missd out on the first few book releases so that I could read all 4 books at once; I would have gone stir crazy waiting for the new books to come out each time...
I read all 4 in about 10 days...which is quite an accomplishment considering I have a one year-old...I gave up a lot of afternoon naps with Miya because I just couldn't put these books down. I was sorely in need of a good romance, I discovered, and I couldn't get enough of Bella and Edward. Now I'm so sad the story is at an end...I've tried to move on to Harry Potter (I never got around to reading book 7 after buying it when it came out), but I just keep wanting my romance back!

Swimming and splashing

Miya loves, loves, LOVES the water (as do many babies), and though I am sometimes tempted to keep her away from it in favor of less clothing changes and wet diapers, it's much too much fun to watch how much she enjoys it to deny her some good splash time whenever we get the chance.
These first photos are from our trip to Florida and Disney World. She just couldn't get enough of her life preserver, or the pool for that matter, and we had to drag her away from the pool kicking and screaming when it was time to go.





A couple of weeks ago, we bought Miya a water/sand table complete with castle, boat, dragon, princess, and knight in shining armour. It's the perfect height to get her absolutely soaked, and she doesn't mind a bit.

School, life, and other excuses

So it is painfully obvious to me that the days keep slipping by, and we keep neglecting to add anything to this blog. So for those of you who have been checking...we apologize for the lengthy gap in postings. Our first excuse was that we were on vacation, then school started (which is quite time-consuming and stressful for all of us, though only one of us attends classes), and now R&R just seems to take priority in the evenings when I feel like I might have a spare minute or two. But I'm recommitting to this blog...or at least I'm going to post a few pictures and impart a thought or two tonight. Hopefully my stamina is such that the posts will continue on a regular basis. :) Hopefully. Stay tuned.