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I liked this little picture that Nicole was given in primary on Sunday, so I used it as a centerpiece for Nicole’s monkey birthday:Nicole started off her birthday with a batch of apple-spice pancakes:

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This year Nicole had a small party on the Saturday before her birthday (May 4th).  We only invited one girl (a friend from Nicole’s preschool class).  Nicole wanted a monkey theme. 

We started with Monkey coloring pages and then made sock monkey bracelets.We made a monkey snack:Nicole opened a gift from her friend:They played in the playroom and outside then sang the birthday song and had cupcakes:And we sent home monkey gift bags:

Zach posted this video of Ila and Nicole on Facebook and I loved it so much that I transcribed all their words and am posting it here.  It’s best to play the video when you read the transcript so that you can hear their super cute voices.  Enjoy:

I put things in (parentheses) when both girls were talking.
Z:  What will you do when Mommy gets home?
I:  Mommy get home, then Ila, then Dad, then Mommy will give me a mommy hug, then Nicole will give me a hug.
Z:  Then what will you do.?
I:  Ila go, then Isaac will go, then mommy will go to soccer practice, then Isaac will go to soccer practice, then Tommy will go to Soccer Practice.
Z:  Then what will happen?
I:  Then Ila will go to soccer practice.
Z:  To soccer practice, yeah.
I:  And Nicole stays home, and Daddy go to soccer practice.
Z:  To soccer practice?  But it’s bedtime.
I:  Daddy, Daddy stay home with Nicole,
Z:  Ok, I will stay home with Nicole.  
Ila:  Yeah, Then, Then Ila will watch and, then Isa, then Ila will watch Isaac, then Nicole will watch Isaac then Mommy will watch Isaac, then Nicole will not watch Isaac.  Then Daddy will watch Isaac, And then
Z:  And I will hold Thomas
I:  and Thomas stay home.
N:  I will stay downstairs and Ila will come
Z:  Yeah,
I:  Then Nicole will stay.
N:  And Nicole will stay and Ila will come and Nicole will stay with Daddy and Ila will go to the oh.  When the bus comes, I will get on the bus when my bus comes.  
(I:  Nicole will ride the bus, and Daddy will stay with Nicole on the bus, Nicole will wait for the bus, yeah. Then the bus. .)
I:  Yeah, I, I be in the, I be in my own bed, and I be in Nicole bed, then Ila dance.
(N:  When my , I , I have to wait for the bus us us to go.  I have to wait for the bus to go to school.)
Z:  No, stay in Ila’s bed.
I:  and I be in Charlotte’s bed, then I , I , I will , I pet the kitty too.
Z:  Yeah, Alright
I:  And Tommy, and I play with the boat with Thomas.  
Z:  Ok, play with Thomas.
I:  Then Mommy will go then Ila will stay here with Tommy.
Z:  Oh, and will you cry “oh no, Mommy?”
I:  Yeah, and Daddy will give me Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets.
Z:  Yeah, I will.  I will give you Dinosaur Chicken Nuggets.
I;  yeah
Z;  yeah
Z:  and I will give some to Thomas
I;  No, Nicole want to eat.  And Nicole is hungry and she wants to eat some breakfast. then Daddy will give her breakfast.  Then Nicole will say “I hungry”  
Z:  Yeah, what will Nicole eat?
I:  Nicole want to eat a hotdog.
Z: She will definitely want a hotdog.
I;  then
Z:  with ketchup to dip it in
I:  Yeah, then Nicole want Dinosaur Chicken nuggets then she want dip, and dinosaur Chicken nuggets and Ila will not get dip.
Z:  Ila will not get chips?
I:  and Ila will
Z:  but you will have dinosaur chicken nuggets
I:  but I eat,
Nicole (What will, what will cry?)
I:  but I eat candy cookie.  Then Ila, Then Mommy says:  
Nicole:  ( What will cry?)
Ila: Um, Ila cry and Ila
Nicole What will start to go eh heh [fake cry]?
Ila = [fake cry]
Z:  what is starting to cry?  Is Nicole crying?
N;  yes,
Z:  why?
N:  Cause, what Nicole wants.
Z:  What do you want?
I: (I cry,I want Mom)
N:  Um, a hot dog.
Z: You want a hot dog?  At bedtime?
N:  Yeah.
Z:  That’s the silliest thing I ever heard.
I:  Then I crying mama.  Then I go with Mom.  Then away.  Then Nicole will go with mom and Daddy will stay here.  
N:  I cried
Z:  Then I will go to work
N:  (I cried out mom)
I:  Then Tommy will stay here with Daddy
Z:  Ok, alright.  That’s a good idea.

Nicole cut her own hair last week:

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Nicole was very excited for her first bus ride on Monday.  I had heard a rumor that the preschool bus provided door to door service which I was very excited about.  It turns out, they pick up and drop off at the same spot as my other kids.  She was assigned to Isaac and Charlotte’s morning bus, which meant she got to sit next to her big sister for her first bus ride ever.

Here she is getting on the bus:

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I took Nicole in for a well-check on Wednesday.  I haven’t been really vigilant about well-checks for my older children since they’re yearly and they usually don’t gets shots with them anymore.  In a way I’m kind of glad I didn’t take her earlier, because our concern for her has been building and we wanted to talk to the doctor about getting a recommendation for a child psychologist who might be able to do some testing. 

Name:  Nicole Kate Cochran

Age:  4 years, 2 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days

Weight: 31.8 lbs          15th percentile

Length:   37 1/4 inches       5th percentile

Since Last year’s well check :  +3.9 lbs, + 3 inches

After detailing my concerns, the doctor took some blood to test for hormone levels (like Thyroid) and chromosomal disorders.  The main thing she said she was looking for on the chromosomal level is Turner’s syndrome.  We decided to wait for the results before determining if we want to try to get in with a child psychologist.Nicole was very mad during the blood draw.  She screamed and fought and had to be held down.  After filling 3 vials, she had a few minutes to calm down before getting three shots in her thighs (immunizations).  After I buckled her in the car to go home, she said “I had a fun time at the Doctor’s office.”  She was sad a few days later when those purple band aids fell off.

Nicole has been attempting to be more independent in the kitchen.  She has been trying to get her own food, but she does it her own way:Her finished product:Remember how I mentioned that she makes her own toast exactly wrong just about everyday? Lately she tries to eat oranges the way most people eat apples:And I caught her eating a banana, corn-on-the-cob style:

After bedtime on the night before Nicole’s birthday, Isaac and Charlotte helped me decorate the living room and kitchen with purple streamers, balloons, banners, drawings, and other such things. 

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It’s hard to believe that Nicole is turning 4.  Four just seems so much more mature to me than three. Charlotte keeps saying that when Nicole turns 4 she’ll stop being a little girl and start being a big girl. 

Click here to see what I wrote about her when she turned 3. 

It’s always interesting to see how much my children change in a year.  Last year I wrote about her yelling everything she says.  This year she has started to learn about using a quieter voice, but it’s still hard sometimes to get her to lower her volume (especially at church).  She went through a phase of yelling Ila’s name that I’m glad to say ended a while ago (here’s something that I wrote about it).

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In December, I wrote about Nicole being evaluated through the school district for special services.  One of the main areas of concern is her difficulty answering questions.

Here is a video of a Q and A session with Nicole in October:

And for comparison, here is a Q and A session with Nicole from yesterday:

As you can see, she is improving.  In the first video she repeated the questions that I asked without answering them.  In the second video she answered my questions.  Some of her answers were wrong and it’s unclear if all of her wrong answers were just because she’s being silly or if she doesn’t completely understand the questions.  Like when I asked her where her eyes were and she said “my eyes is orange.”  I wonder if she just hears one word that she understands and responds to that, like she knew I was asking about eyes, but did she understand that I wanted a location, not a color?  Also, I’m fairly certain that she does know that she is a girl (or “grill” as she says it). 

She has a long way to go to get to completely normal interactions, but she’s making progress.  She still says things that make no sense, like last night she kept saying that she was scared that someone would turn into a bird.  I cannot figure out where she would get the idea of someone turning into a bird.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for awhile.  As many of you know, we’ve taken Nicole in for some testing through the school district.

Nicole is an energetic, friendly, creative little girl.  She speaks clearly with good articulation and good sentence structure.  She likes things that most little girls her age seem to like and she plays well independently.  Of all our children, she is the most outgoing and friendly.  It can be a little unnerving how easily she allows unfamiliar adults to pick her up and hug her.  Many of our friends were surprised to hear that we suspected that something was not completely normal about her.

The tricky part is clearly defining our concern.  Zach and I discussed for months whether we thought that maybe she has an issue/disability or is within the range of normal.  Luckily for us, the school district is required by law to provide free testing for any 3 year old whose parents request it (there is testing for younger children through early intervention as well).

Her problems seem to lie primarily in the area of language comprehension.  I say seems to, because it is hard to know what someone else comprehends.  This problem is most clearly demonstrated in a question/answer situation.  She does not respond to most questions in a typical way.  It’s almost as if she doesn’t understand questions or that she doesn’t understand that a question requires an answer.  She does not answer even the most basic questions like “what is your name” or “how old are you.”  When you ask her a question she often repeats part or all of the question or gives you a confused look and doesn’t respond at all.  This problem was very clear in the testing situation because asking questions was their primary means of trying to evaluate what she knows.  By the end of the first screening test, my concern had increased because I could see that if something didn’t change, she would have a lot of difficulty in a school setting.  The official testing placed her at a 28 month level for comprehension which is more than a year behind her age.

She also has difficulty following verbal instructions.  In a group setting if a request is made of the group, she will wait until the other kids respond and watch how they respond before responding in a like manner.  She does not seem to understand unfamiliar requests without some sort of visual que.  I say unfamiliar because there are some routine requests that she can do on her own such as put on her shoes or sit in her seat.  An unfamiliar request can be as simple as “point to the purple block” or “stack the blocks.”  I observed her in a group where she was asked to circle a snowman.  She knows what a snowman is and she can draw a circle, but she didn’t respond to the directive until she looked over and saw a peer circling a snowman.

For a long time, we had a hard time getting her to understand discipline.  She would cry when we raised our voices at any of the children as if we were yelling at her, yet she would smile and laugh or just look confused if we scolded her.  It was as if we were speaking a different language, she often seemed to be trying to interpret our tone or facial expression more than our words.  We finally had a break-through in discipline when we spanked her.  She soon learned that if we said the word spank, then she needed to stop what she was doing.

I’ve also noticed that when she gets emotional, she seems to lose the ability to comprehend.  She would understand and respond appropriately if I asked her to go get dressed, but if I yelled at her to get dressed she would seem flustered and confused and just cry.

Sometimes she’s just odd.  The other night we had some people over for family night.  In the group were some adults that she was a little familiar with and some adults that I don’t think she had ever met or interacted with before.  She climbed on each guest’s lap, but only stayed for 2 seconds before moving on to the next adult.  Then she hugged each guest’s knees.  After hugging knees, she went around the room and felt their hands and announced whether they had warm hands or cold hands.  Then she started stroking their shoes.  She made no distinction between the adult she had spent some time with and the adults that she had never met.

Her social interactions with other children primarily consist of parallel play or copying what they do.  She will play a cooperative game with Charlotte, but generally Charlotte directs the game and tells Nicole what role to play and what to do.  

The results of her testing are that she qualifies for services under the classification of communication disorder and she will start 45 minute therapy sessions once a week at the school in January.  I will be interested to see how she responds to these sessions.

Nicole loves to make lines of people, animals and vehicles and then move them along the floor or carpet.  It can be a slow process when the line is long and has lots of individual figures to move:Also, she often changes into her PJs in the middle of the day, sometimes she wears multiple pairs of PJs in the course of a day and often the PJs are Charlotte’s.  Here is another scene I saw her  setting up:The toys in these pictures are part of the Playmobil 123 series which are probably my favorite little kid’s toys ever.

Last week, Nicole got a haircut.  Here is the before:After:Here you can see the length difference better:

I’ll be honest, this is a bit of a dull thing to blog about, but it’s been such a source of stress and anxiety this week, that I’m writing about it anyway.  One thing I’ve learned about being a parent is that it’s easy to fret yourself into turning a normal virus into a potentially life threatening illness.  There were multiple times this week that I imagined the worst, from fearing she had something as severe as meningitis, to fretting that some unknown illness was going to permanently diminish her brain function.

 

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I am finally getting around to blogging about Nicole’s Birthday, but better late than never, right?

We started things off with a special breakfast of sausage, heart shaped eggs, and birthday juice.  (I almost never buy juice for the kids because of the sugar content, so the juice was extra special—it was Nicole’s favorite part of breakfast)

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Name:  Nicole Kate Cochran

Age:  3 years, 3 days

Weight: 27.9lbs          5th percentile

Length:   34 1/4 inches       5th percentile

Since Last year’s well check :  +3.9 lbs, + 1 1/2 inches

Nicole turned 3 yesterday.  I started writing this post before her birthday, but I was too tired to finish it the last two days so instead of posting it first thing on her birthday, I’m posting it the next day. 

It is always amazing to me to look back and see how much my children change and grow in a year.  It’s a reminder of how fleeting these tender years are.  Here is what I wrote about Nicole last year on her birthday.  And here is how she spent her birthday last year.

Nicole is a funny, unique little girl.  When she’s happy she smiles real big and gallops.  She also gallops when she dances.  When she’s sleepy or excited, she yells everything she says.  Most of the time, she is not angry when she yells.  She will yell things like “I HAVE A HAT” or “THIS IS A TOY.”  We have tried to teach her about using a quiet voice, but there are times that her volume is just stuck at loud and she doesn’t seem to understand our request to turn it down to conversation level.

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This is how Nicole eats an apple:

She starts on one side and eats straight through to the seeds.  Notice that she ate the bottom of the apple.  When she gets to the middle she spits out any parts that she doesn’t like.

Today, I got out some butter to use in our dinner, but I had to go help a child before I could get started.  On my way back to the kitchen, I encountered Nicole holding my stick of butter and preparing to take a second bite.  She was very mad when I took the butter away:

If it was Ila, I probably would have let her eat the butter—she needs the calories (She weighed in at 16 lbs with her diaper and all her clothes on at the Doctor’s last week).

Somewhat Related Comment:  One day I heard Charlotte tell Isaac:  “I know how to turn an apple into an apple core.”

Nicole loves her Hello Kitty backpack.  It was a gift from her grandma Bunny (who had intended it for Charlotte, until she saw that Charlotte already had a Hello Kitty backpack). 

Nicole received it the morning that we flew to Seattle and used it as her carry-on.  She looked hilarious with it at the airport.  She insisted on pushing it in front of her and would not allow anyone to help her with it or show her the proper way of pulling it behind her. 

Charlotte and Nicole have insisted on carrying a backpack to the bus stop each morning.  Usually the backpacks are empty.  One day, I noticed that Nicole had packed hers with a monkey and a water bottle. 

The other morning, I tried to hurry the girls out the door because we were running a little late, but as soon as we started walking Nicole stopped and yelled “oh, no!  My Backpack!”  I decided it was quicker to get the backpack than to try to drag her kicking and screaming to the bus stop.Now, every time we leave the house, Nicole insists on taking her backpack with her.  She was not happy with her Dad when he would not let her take it to church this week, or last week.Oh, and she did eventually let me show her the proper way to pull it behind her .