Pass With Care

We were driving down one of the roads in Pennsylvania recently (it's literally a half hour north of us) when I saw one of these common road signs: Pass With Care.

It really struck me, because K is rapidly passing her brother in a lot of key areas, even though she's only 15 months old. But she still tries to help him with his language, getting dressed, or sitting on the potty. She has a little potty to sit on too (completely diapered, though, we're not doing anything with her yet) right next to her brother. She gets a concerned look on her face while she watches him and yells, "NO!" very loudly when he tries to get up before he's finished his duties. Bossy little thing.

She uses phrases regularly now, like "want to get down", "want juice", "milk please thank you", etc. And we are amazed by it because it's a first for all of us. A had some language, but I can't remember if it was ever this much.

Her motor skills surpass her brother's, too. While he was a climber, he lost a lot of his physical abilities apparently when he lost some of his communication skills. His OT is working on a variety of strengthening exercises for his gross motor skills. Running and jumping constantly has only strengthened certain muscles a certain way, and he lacks in big ways in other areas, especially hand strength and core abdominal strength. He has just started climbing into his car seat by himself in the last 6 months or so, and still needs help sometimes. K, on the other hand, has mastered stairs, climbs up on the couch and on chairs regularly, and can make it all the way up into her high chair and try to buckle herself in while you go to the bathroom. And then she'll cheerily holler "HEY!" when you come out and start looking for her (because it's far too quiet).

At least I haven't found her on top of the refrigerator. Yet.

She's working on climbing out of her crib; I am going to have to move the dresser that's beside her crib, because she can grab the top of her rail and put her feet on the top of the dresser. She hasn't hoisted herself out yet, but I suspect this is because as soon as I hear her wake up I'm in there to get her. I've caught her in the act, but haven't seen her go over. Again, I'm assuming this is a (very short) matter of time, so we're about to get creative. She already scales baby gates with ease. We had to put her playpen in front of the stairs with 70 pounds of dogfood in the bottom (in the bags of course) so she can't move it out of the way like she did the chairs and boxes. She can't quite make it over the mesh from the outside, it's JUST BARELY too tall for her. From the inside, the floor of the thing is higher up the side so she can scramble out with a little effort.

As she makes her new discoveries, she somehow senses that her brother needs help with some things, so she tries to do so. It really is funny when she tries to dress him (something he's still needing assistance with, but she is almost better at it than he is right now) because he gets this long-suffering look on his face that's about the same intensity as the determination on hers.

A is doing well with paying attention now, much better than ever before. He will wait for his ABA therapist or his OT to give him directions if they're sitting at the table. If it's free play, he knows that too and will do whatever he wants. He actually engaged in some nice pretend play yesterday ~ a rarity for him ~ so that was really neat to see. Miss Jenny, his ABA therapist, has a huge Clifford the Big Red Dog puppet that she uses to eat, sleep, drink, kiss, etc. as a visual aid. A took it and started repeating some of the targets they were working on, but came up with his own scenarios. Most excellent.

We're working on adjectives still. He's got colors down (red car, purple flower, etc) but now we're working on big and small, short, tall, and so on. It's a process, but he is a very smart kid and generally only has to be shown something once or twice before he's got it. At least, now that he's got some forward momentum. There was a long time where the communication gap between him and everyone else was great enough, he tuned everything out and didn't seem to get much of anything.

We're excited to see where the next few months take us! And even as his sister passes him, she still does it with care.

Carpe Carp

Our goldfish, Wakko and Dot, have decided that nearly a full year of rooming together was too much tension for them to bear, so they had to lay eggs. Lots of 'em.

Goldfish are a type of domesticated river carp, so the babies would like algae or river plants to hide in. Unfortunately, real plants don't last long in our small tank, so we did what any technologically savvy modern American would do: we set up a small net box called an aquarium breeder in one corner. This way Mommy and Daddy don't cannibalize the entire lot (although with the number of eggs they've laid -- twice -- this perhaps isn't such a bad thing. Our fish have laid eggs twice in three weeks.).

The next step is catching the fry (baby fish). (Hence the title, Carpe Carp. Seize the Fish.) They are so small, they fit through the holes in the fishnet. I had to put a knee-high stocking over the net portion so they wouldn't fall through. They are also lightweight enough to swirl crazily around the tank if you move the net too fast ~ even though the water displacement is extremely minimal, it's still enough to toss them around like ships on stormy waters.

So after about a half hour of giving the babies concussions, we managed to scoop five or six into the breeder box. The rest will just have to fend for themselves in true Survivor:Fish Aquarium style. The lucky few have recovered from their recent shock and are darting about normally.

We'll see what they look like. Should be interesting, because although both are fantail goldfish, Wakko is white with very long fins, and Dot is a calico with shorter fins. They're still pretty much clear right now and extremely tiny. They won't get their normal color for weeks yet.