Focus

 Now that Madeline can roll and grab, she has become fascinated with everything within her reach. 

 Studying a rattle, one of her favorite toys.

 She is most captivated by her feet.  She can't get them to her mouth (short legs plus lack of core strength) but she grabs the heck out of them.

 When she's not chewing on this flexible mirror she's staring at her own tongue in it.

She chomps on this teething giraffe with such enthusiasm that I have to think she's starting to teethe (I thought she was teething already but the doc said she doubted it).  Sometimes she grunts at the giraffe while she's trying to devour it.

Six Months Old

Yesterday Madeline turned six months old.  It's been a fun and amazing month of grabbing, rolling, vocalizing, and eating.  I tried to get a "good" half-birthday photo yesterday, but first she was looking around the room...

...then blowing raspberries and sticking her feet in the air...

...and then she rolled over.  Then it hit me: this is what she does now!  She's curious and getting more and more active.  Here are some all-purpose cuteness pics:

She had her wellbaby checkup today and did great.  All her measurements are looking good.  Her gross motor skills are that of an average four-month-old, but right on target for her.  Dr. O was hoping Maddy would be rolling by this appointment, and she sure is, in both directions.  It's still a lot easier for her to roll from her back to her belly like in the earlier photo.  She gets her arm pinned under her and has a bit of trouble getting it out so she can keep rolling.  Plus I think she has trouble controlling her head when she tries to roll from her tummy, she's konked it on the ground a few times (and gotten really ticked off). She's making all kinds of babbling sounds, "talks" to the toys she holds, and has discovered that she has feet.  And she has a healthy amount of stranger anxiety, something we didn't ever experience with Ben.  The physical therapist has been to the house several times and is always helpful.  During her visit last week I told her about Maddy's problems with rolling...within a day, Maddy could get her arm out from under her.  We have been so fortunate to have such great support.  Dr. O would like us to keep bringing Maddy in for checkups every month, just to make sure she's on track.

Happy Feet

Every time I moved my feet, she chuckled.

New Foods

 First, some of Ben's new foods.  He was an adventurous eater as a baby, and then he became a picky toddler.  He's finally starting to eat a variety of foods again, and he's willing to try new foods.  Okay, so he knows he's not done with dinner until he tries the new foods.  Close enough.  This picture is from last month when he tried - and loved - my crabcakes.  Score.

 This week Mike treated my to a belated Mother's Day dinner of sushi from a German grocery store.  I had planned on getting Ben to try chicken potstickers (from the freezer section) because I had read that's a good food to get picky kids to try.  So we had an Asian-themed dinner, complete with fancy chopsticks.  Ben wouldn't put the chopsticks down. 

 A little piece of a potsticker.  He really liked it.  Not the healthiest food, but I was thrilled he tried something with taste and texture different from his usual foods.

 He was really interested in how Mike and I ate with chopsticks.  He wanted to do it, too...only by himself.  We tried to get him to eat some sushi but that's where he drew the line.

 Miss Maddy has been smacking her lips and staring at us when we eat, so I reluctantly got some baby food for her to try (she's growing up too fast!)  She's supposed to use a reclining high chair, and Ben's old high chair reclines.

 Stage 1 sweet potatoes.  And the verdict is...

 ...she doesn't hate it!  She didn't use her tongue to push the food back out, and she seemed to try to lick it off her lips.  We're off to a good start.

Terminology

We've had some questions recently about what words are appropriate to use in reference to Madeline's condition.  Here's what we've found from books and online sources:

In the U.S., "dwarf" and "little person" are considered appropriate terms for a person with a form of dwarfism.  Also acceptable are the phrases "person of short stature," "short-statured individual" and "person of restricted growth" (but my oh my that's a lot of syllables for normal conversation).  And the plural of "dwarf" is "dwarfs," not "dwarves."  I'll be sticking with "dwarf" or "little person" for the time being.

Many people would find these statements to be okay:

"My daughter has dwarfism." - refers to her condition, not labeling her as a person; this is a statement I use.

"My daughter is a dwarf." - acceptable, but again, a label.

"My daughter is a little person." - another label, and I'm not sure the public at large would know what it means.

I've tried saying, "My daughter has achondroplasia" and not only is that a mouthful, the vast majority of people have no idea what I'm talking about.

Technically, the terms "midget" and "dwarf" are sort of synonyms in modern times (I won't go into the differences) but it's recommended to stay away from the term "midget" which can be seen as derogatory.  Unfortunately, activities such as "midget wrestling" and "midget tossing" exist, which really doesn't help make the m-word any better.  I'm to the point where I cringe when I hear it because I understand it as an offensive term now, although it had no effect on me pre-Maddy.  I just didn't know anything about the differences between all the terms.

When talking about people who do NOT have dwarfism, it's more acceptable to say "average height" than "normal."  Also, within the little people community there is some shorthand for certain terms, and "achondroplasia" can be abbreviated to simply "achon."  So, I can say that I have one average-height child and one achon child.

I should say that, like other words used to label an entire group of people, all of them are offensive or unacceptable to some people somewhere.  But it's politically correct now to use "dwarf," "little person" or "LP."  And there are some little people who would rather not be labeled with ANY terms.  We are just starting to learn about these things, and I'm sure at some point I'll look back at things I said on this blog and smack my head over my own ignorance.  But for now, we're just doing the best we can.  

Bottom line:  "dwarf" and "little people" = good.  Although in reference to Madeline you can feel free to use the terms we use most, like "sweet baby girl," "precious angel," "snuggle bunny" and "sugar toes."

Evolution of Rolling

 Madeline went through a phase recently where she only wanted to eat from a bottle while lying down on her side.  She could roll onto her side by herself...

...like she did here.  She seemed to like being on her side.  But then she realized she could move.

 So she'd start out on her playmat, and before I knew it...

 ...she'd end up here.  Just by wiggling.

Then one day she rolled.  Back to front.  Like it was no big deal.  Except that she got stuck on her tummy and was less than thrilled.  I'm pretty sure most kids roll front to back first, but she has more control when she's rolling the other way.  Anyway, now we have a rolling baby on our hands.  I'm still waiting for that extra set of mommy eyes to grow in the back of my head.

 Being on the move while she's awake just isn't enough, so now she goes into weird positions while sleeping.  A lot of times she goes onto her side, but whether she's on her side or her back her head looks something like this (above).  It freaks me out a little.

Whoa, she has fingers.  Dude.

Cheese

 After years of resisting looking at cameras when we tried to take his picture, Ben recently started saying "cheese!" and giving an appropriately cheesy smile whenever a camera is directed his way.

 Taking a picture of me taking a picture of him taking a picture...

 Yes, he is eating only the inside of a slice of pumpkin bread.  With a spoon.

He managed to eat all of one of the blueberry muffins we baked together.  No "crust."