happy birthday, Jason!

Jason turned 32 today. Lorelei actually picked out his present herself - an owl mug she saw at Anthropologie several weeks ago during an ill-fated excursion on a no-napping day - and did a beautiful job of decorating the gift box, too. Jason requested that we go birdwatching at Afton Forest Preserve, so we all trekked around the trails there together...

...followed by angel food cake, of course.

baby #2 is a...

GIRL!

I decided to throw a little brunch party for some mom friends + kiddos to announce the big news. Yesterday was our anatomy ultrasound, and we left Lorelei with a friend so Jason and I could both attend and be focused on the baby-to-be - not only did we find out we were expecting girl #2, but we were happy to learn that she looks healthy and happy tucked away in her watery home. Halfway done already - hard to believe!

A few pictures from the festivities:

Easter Sunday.

It was a bright and sunny Easter this year, and Lorelei looked lovely at church in her sweet dress (Jason brought her to hear me sing with the choir - I heard her saying "mama" from up in the balcony!). A little colder than the Easter bunny would normally prefer...but he managed to stop by our house anyway.

Those stickers were plastered all over Lorelei and Jason within about 3 minutes, in case you were wondering about such things.

Gramma B's here.

That means lots of baking and reading. And rest time for Mommy!

it's spring! almost!

We're desperate for it to be spring around here, so we're just going for it.

22 months + speech therapy.

I haven't really posted anything about Lorelei's ongoing speech therapy here, as it's not really photo-worthy, but it's a big part of her development so it seems like I should probably provide an update.

Back in November, when Lorelei was 18 months, we were concerned that she was falling far below her target of word production as indicated by the AAP, our pediatrician, and our own gut feelings. We went forward with an evaluation and it was determined that she needed to begin speech therapy, so we've been attending weekly sessions with a wonderful therapist in the same place where she goes to open gym and swimming lessons.

Recently, however, due to some insurance issues, we had to have her reevaluated by a team of therapists, and they reconfirmed what we've been feeling was the major concern: Lorelei's speech production is far below what is expected for her age, but her comprehension is far above what is expected. So far, this gap hasn't made her unduly frustrated - but we're concerned that it might be, so we're doing everything we can to try to help her feel that she can communicate with us successfully via signing or rudimentary word production.

The speech therapy has been slow going, but we're seeing a little bit of progress here and there with some consonant sounds starting to develop. We've got a long way to go, but we're hopeful that, with the help of the very patient "Miss Leslie," Lorelei will start to communicate in an age-appropriate way soon.

a choo-choo-Chase party.

When Lorelei was first in swimming lessons, we got to know a little boy named Chase and his mom, Karen - whom I had actually met once at a breastfeeding support group when Lorelei was just a week old. Then, this fall, we got to know their whole family because Lorelei and Chase took the same music class together at NIU on Saturdays. Today was Chase's 2nd birthday, and we were happy to be invited to attend the celebration, which was held in one of our favorite places: the Children's Museum!

After an hour or so of fun time on our own, we gathered in the party room to open presents and eat cake - actually cupcakes frosted to look like a big train engine. Lorelei has declared that she wants a train cake for her birthday, too. Karen is pregnant with their second child - a girl! - so I think we have lots of playdates in our future.

It's a day early, but consider these pictures to be Lorelei's 22nd month update. Side note: she just started wearing barrettes in her hair when we were in Washington. I still can't get over how adorable she is.