Alina: our CDH story: 21 months

Sunday, 19 September 2010

21 months

Today Alina turned 21 months old.

It's been a really good month for Alina. Healthwise, she's doing great. She had 2 colds and amazingly she got over them herself. No more last minute appointments with the GP, no more 7 day antibiotics, no more fever, nothing. Just a snorty nose, a bit of a cought and a week later we are healthy again. Admitely, whenever she catches anything, I give her a double dose of vitamins and some homepathic pills which prevent colds from developing. I am not sure if that's the cause of maybe her immune system just got stronger. Whatever it is, we are over the moon. Our next appointment at Kings is on the 28th. They were initially talking about giving her preventive antibiotics to help her through this winter but I doubt it that they are still needed.

Alina's growing up very fast. She's always been very advanced verbally but she still amazes everyone with her vocabulary. She now talks in full senteces and is very good at interacting with older kids. She says "please" and "thank you" and can explain to us an entire story or cartoon. It's great sitting and watching TV with her because she provides hilarious commentary. It looks like we might have a future broadcaster in our family.

Physically she's also doing very well. She loves to run around, loves boucy castles, trampolines and merry-go-rounds.
Alina loves playing with trains and loves Thomas the Tank. She also does a lot of role playing- now she's into feeding her little characters. She still loves to watch Peppa Pig and seems to learn a lot from it. Alex took her to the playground where she found a stick and started rubbing it on the ground saying "making fire"- just like Daddy Pig. She also tells Alex "silly daddy" when he does something funny. More recently she also started to watch Mickey Mouse and today we had Mickey, Minnie and Pluto (whom she calls Goofy) at the dinner table sharing our pasta. They got a bit messy so she had to wipe their faces. It's so lovely to see how she copies everything we do. Now I understand the importance of a well balanced and nurturing home. I can see that Alina is and will be happy child because she is loved and encouraged.
Alina is very sociable. She loves playing with other kids and especially other little girls. Some of her friends are boys but as they are growing up, their games are becoming a bit more "energetic". I decided to organise a little girls playgroup. It was sooo civilised. No throwing stuff around, no kicking and screaming, just nice cups of tea, some hide and seek and lots and lots of drawing. It was really cute seeing the 3 of them together and Alina loved it. I then realised that she's ready for nursery. Although she was due to start next July I am sure she'd love being with other kids. We are trying to arrange 2 mornings a week.
One thing with growing up is that now she know what she does and doesn't want. She tells us what she wants for breakfast and dinner and grabs our hands for us to go and play with her. Alex and I are basically her little puppets. You can hear her" daddy sit down, daddy up, daddy ball ( Alex and Alina have a favourite ball game), mamma playing, etc". It's really funny. The truth is that she's the little boss and there's nothing we can do...she's got us both wrapped around her little finger.
And how could we not love this little girl whose been through so much and has come so far! Every day with her is a new experience and we love every minute of it.

Hugs to all.
The Houchins