CHRONICLES OF ISLA - no VCUG, Track Star & Alphabet Soup

Hiiiiii!!!!!!!
I love going outside. I don't walk, I run everywhere. I run across the soccer field, I run down the laneway at home, and I run AWAY from Mommy and Daddy when we're out and it's time to go home!

Mommy asked the kidney specialist if I really had to have a VCUG - an ugly test that made me scream last year; it tests to see if I have any renal reflux (urine going backwards into the kidney; risk of infection, damage and shut down) left. The doctor said that he was okay with not making me have one in the fall. He would do an ultrasound instead. But he reserved the right to change his mind when that test comes back. My reflux was really mild, so Mommy and Daddy are hoping it has gone away and at long last, my antibiotics can be stopped. I've been on them for one year now. I don't mind my medicine... it tastes like mango!

Today, Mommy and I were playing with one of my spelling toys. I picked up the following letters, and one after another named it without being prompted: D, J, M, P. I didn't say the I or the O today, but I've been identifying them as, I for Isla and O for Oval for months now.

Lately, I've been breaking into song, singing songs Mommy has taught me: "Let's Go Fly a Kite" (from Mary Poppins), The Big Ship Sails on the Alley-Alley-O (from a book Frances gave me), "Rainbow so high" (part of the lyrics from a dance song on the radio I love), the alphabet song, and more that I don't remember right now. The other day, I really startled Mommy because I started singing a song that she made up when I was in NICU. Whenever she sang it, I settled down. After I came out of hospital, but had to go back for check ups, Mommy sang it to me a couple times after an upsetting needle, blood pressure test or something else unpleasant. In the 2 years since I came home from hospital, she has sung it less than 10 times and only about 3 times in the past year. Mommy couldn't believe her ears when she heard me singing her funny song.

Well I better go before Mommy finds me using her computer. She gets really crusty when I try to play with her computer. In fact, she usually has the keyboard locked so I can't delete any more documents or send off interesting emails, but I lucked out tonight. Toodle-oo!!!

CHRONICLES OF ISLA - Alphabet Soup

I'm 28 months and I can say my alpha-bet all by myself. Over and over. Sometimes I miss a letter, or I only say part of the sound. Daddy said, of course I could do it and Mommy - who has been working on me for MONTHS, even since before I was ONE, was surprised. Two days ago, I wasn't interested in repeating the letters for her. Even earlier today, I was not ready to let her know that I could even say two letters in a row when she was coaching me. All of a sudden - SPROING - out comes the alphabet, in order, many times over.

Mommy says, "Thank you, Frances", for showing her how to label words and sounds when I was so young. Mommy says, if she had not known how to show me how to say sounds and letters as early as she did, it would be a lot longer before I could say them.

And I'm getting there with my big muscle skills. In the last 2 weeks, I insist on climbing the rungs on every jungle jim I can. Mommy used to discourage me from doing it ("You are too small and it's too dangerous"), but I don't let her stop me. Finally, Mommy showed me how to do it and she climbs up the jungle jim with me so I don't fall. The other kids don't like Mommy on their jungle jim with us ("No adults allowed"), but Mommy doesn't seem to notice.

I'll have to tell Alice that I'm climbing everything: going up the middle of the stairs (no hands!), running across soccer fields and down the halls at Sick Kids ("chase me, Mommy"), climbing the furniture, out of my high chair and up over the back, out of my stroller, into the car, in and out of my car seat so I can get to the drivers' seat to "drive". When I'm standing still or walking, sometimes I still fall over at unpredictable times and I'm still falling down the stairs ... but I'm doing so much more than last year at this time (16 months) when I was just crawling.