MY SON
Back to October.....We had a birthday!! My son turned 2. 2!!! He really really looks like a toddler/little boy. No more baby. He's growing, growing and he is just thick. He's got a round belly, fat little feet, still some chub on his legs. I--love--it. He's seriously Fred flin.stone when he walks. He's got a long torso, so wears 3T tops and 24mo-2T pants, size 4 diapers--don't think we are close to potty training yet.
For his birthday, I had planned no party party. Our old nanny came to visit along with my sister.....so of course we made a cake and had presents. A couple of old work friends asked if they could stop by and I said sure. And current nanny was here too. So, what started out as a no party party...turned into a nice little group. The funny thing is, my son was SO NOT into it. He could care less about unwrapping gifts, he wasn't feeling that great, he was whiny, clingy...didn't think I would even get a picture with him smiling. His two's are far short of even being terrible....BUT......he is very much pushes to see how far he can go, he selective hears you and does the opposite, and boy is he stubborn. He's made an art out of the sit down protest cry.
The party was very short, but just fine.
Our old nanny made this cake...I thought it turned out so cute
On the speech front.....no bueno. The speech therapy clinic actually made a mistake when they said he had been approved for more visits. Actually the insurance denied it and I just got the letter. I was really surprised and disappointed to see this because he has a legitimate delay. But in the explanation it says it's not due to sickness, injury, or autism, therefore it is denied. I will certainly appeal, but this is a first for me....knock on wood until now I haven't had anything denied that was needed. He's still not using his words, still grunting, pointing, etc to communicate, but he is still using his signs for more and all done.
Guess what? We are nuni (pacifier) and bottle free in this house. Oh EM GEE! All along I had been telling my nanny that when I go out of town for my work trip to Colorado (week of November 7th--yes election week) that she would have to manage taking away the nunies. The reason I did this was because she's the main reason we ended up having them. Sometime during a teething phase she gave it to him, he liked it, and they stuck. And I didn't take them away because nothing else was helping. Anyway, it's not been totally smooth sailing.....going to bed at night is taking longer because he's still learning how to calm himself down...I see him putting his fingers in his mouth only a little, but I think that's fine. It's been a few weeks now and every night still when we go into his bedroom he lays on the floor and looks under his bed. I tell him, "no more nunies, you're a big boy now"....then when we are done reading, I hold him to go turn off the lamp...we used to put nunies in the basket...and he leans over to look. I say every night, "See, no more nunies, you're a big boy now". And that seems to satisfy him, even though he does cry when he lays down now.
My son knows his alphabet! During one of our nighttime readings before bed we were looking at an alphabet book. Just for fun I said, 'show me letter....A. He pointed to it. I thought sure, good guess. Okay.....'show me letter....F. Pointed right at it. Got it right again. Now I thought it was a fluke....tried again. He got like 7 out of 8 right. I could hardly believe it!! And since then whenever I ask him letters he gets them right. Just awesome. Tells me that this stinker is processing everything, just not using words. I think he learned a lot of it from Supe.r Wh.y on t.v. It's one of his new favorites. He used to be obsessed w/ George.....but not anymore.
We had the most heart bursting, amazing moment yesterday. I ended up going over to my girl's school (will explain that in a minute), but I had finished my meeting w/ the director and was walking towards the door when our nanny and my son were walking back in to pick up my girl. Well, it's a long hallway and I spotted them way at the end. As we got closer and closer to each other I started waving. I bent down on my knees and as soon as my son saw me, recognized me, and he processed it was me.......he got this MASSIVELY HUGE grin on his face, spread open his arms as wide as he could, and started running as fast as he could (toddling still a little bit), and ran into my outstretched arms and he just melted into my hug. I wrapped my arms around him and give him the biggest hug and kiss on the head. I actually started crying my heart was bursting so much. I don't know why that moment struck me so much, but just to see his little face absolutely light up when he saw me, and to just come running into my arms......sigh......it was just.....joy.
My GIRL
I am really....really liking four. My girl has just blossomed into a witty, at times hilarious kid to be around. She comes up with the most random, interesting things. Just the other day she says, 'Look mom...those are strata cumulus clouds', WHAT! We were driving the other day and I was mentioning we should turn left, she said, 'that's West. And we were just driving North'. HUH? She was totally right! How on earth would she know that. I didn't teach her that....and to get it right? We were reading a book and there was a garden showing brown as the dirt. She points at it and says, 'that's not right. It's supposed to be soil'. Okaaaay then.
The other day my son was being particularly whiny. We were at the dinner table and we looked at each other both shaking our heads. I said man, he's so fussy I don't know what's wrong with him. She says, 'I don't know either, I don't speak whine-ese'. !! HA. This kid just amazes me with what she absorbs, is able to articulate, and use things in the right context. I have to keep reminding myself she is only 4...and just 4 at that.
She read her first word!! RACK. We had a book that breaks down words into....ACK, etc. and adds letters to make words RACK, BACK, SACK, etc... She learned to say ACK......then when we came to the R.....she says......Rrrrrrake. VERY close and I'm counting it because she totally got the concept. Also, she has a very good memory with books. Just tonight when I tried skip words to make it shorter she KNEW! and busted me. 'Mommy, you forgot some words'. Doh.
We've had a bit of a go with preschool this year. I am just overall VERY disappointed with how things have gone. It's a long story but what it boils down to is I am underwhelmed with her teacher. She lacks follow through, has consistently had trouble with email so I don't get school information timely, offered up to do daily reports so we could stay better connected and just only did a few. I talked to her on the phone the other day because I had sent an email asking why I was again, for like the 4th time now not getting information, and she was soooo awkward to talk to, wasn't focused, was taking my time on the phone to look at whether my email was included on the distribution (instead of doing that ahead of time). In my mind after that call I knew it was time to go back to the Director. I honestly worried that if her communication/follow up skills are that poor with me, how is that reflected in the classroom? As an aside my nanny is not a fan either. And my girl talks more about her teachers from last year STILL compared to her current ones.
Well, I met w/ the director the other day and came in with a list by date of all that's transpired this year starting back in September w/ the email misses, the lunchroom saga, the lack of communication/follow through on the daily notes, not even calling or sending a note after 3 days my girl was out sick (kind of just makes you feel like a number), and my most recent super-odd call with her while trying to follow up again on the misses.
Frankly, I just dont have time for that crap. I don't have time to manage my kid's preschool teacher.
I hand it to her that she seemed to listen, was concerned that I suggested we might need to go to another school, was disappointed to hear about the ongoing lack of follow through and communication. At the end of all of that she offered that we could see how things go after some redirection (not an option for me) OR put her in the other 4 day class OR perhaps the 5 day class (this is what I really wanted). I told her the 5 day was my preference. This is the teacher everyone raved about.....and considering my experience I now maybe know why people camp out to get that teacher. Hindsight 20/20....the lunchroom was a bust, so I probably should have just put her in the 5 day a week class (consistent schedule) from the beginning and have that be that.
Next Steps are she will get back to me by Nov 30 on whether the other 4 or 5 day is an option, and I will let her know what we decide by Dec 15. If we change classes we'll start that after the new year.
The thing is, I called around to other schools and there isn't much option out there......they are full. One school wasn't even taking waitlists anymore. Sigh. So, we'll see what she says and go from there.
My girl may be oblivious to all this 'background' noise I'm dealing with i.e. her experience is fine, she seems happy to go every day. BUT, if there's a chance to make it better for me, and maybe better for her....I'm going to fight for it.
ME
I feel like all I do is go to appointments lately.
Sleep--I've done my sleep study and they've determined I snore loudly (gee thanks) and I have mild sleep apnea. I have to go have a second study done where they use the machine to test it (I guess). Ive got that scheduled for Sunday night.
Eyes--I went back to neurologist because while my eyes are much much better, they are still affected by the blinking (due to bleph.arospasm only diagnosis so far) while driving. No good. So, the option was to do boto.x around the eyes to see if it would help, as that's really the basic course of treatment. I decided to try it. 12 shots around the eyes. Ouch. Had this done a few days ago. They start you at a low dose in case you are sensitive to it and it's usually done every 3 months. I haven't noticed any improvement so either it will take awhile to work, OR the dose too low and will have to wait until next time. Also, he wants me to do a follow up MRI just to be sure nothing else shows up--he's not concerned but since it's been a year, just good to do. So, will go to that tuesday.
Hormones--I saw the endocrinologist a few weeks ago, talked about the major sweating (that's my biggest issue) and it's not just because I'm overweight. This all started after I gave birth to my girl 4 years ago and 25 lbs ago. When I get stressed I profusely sweat and it soaks clothes. They did a massive work up w/ blood study (like 9 vials) and I went in today to get the results....GOOD NEWS....it ALL was normal. Vitamin levels, kidney, thyroid, all of that. So, the next step is to test corti.sol through a 24 hour urine and some other blood test checks for hormones. That will be in the next few weeks and I see them again after all that done.
Anxiety--my other Dr. adjusted my anxiety medication back down again (to what I was taking several months ago) and wanted to add something. However, in the backing down over the last few weeks I've actually felt much better!! So much so that I haven't added the other Rx. It's is so weird how all of this works.....just in the process of going up and back down, something has changed and I just feel much less anxious. I'm just going w/ it for now.....we can always add later.
I am just addressing as many things as I can.....who knows all of this may be tied together, maybe not. But after just feeling lost about it, I went to primary a few months ago and she said look, let's address each thing, do a sleep study, go to an endo, and follow up with neuro. I followed instructions and we will see how everything continues to go.
I said no to Alaska job.
Preparing to take myself and my 4 and 2 year old on an airplane to the midwest for Thanksgiving. I booked this back in July--for a lot of reasons. Last Thanksgiving was rough--my sister had her skin surgery, and overall it was really stressful and kind of a downer. I really want my children to know their cousins (well, second cousins).....but ever since I mentioned doing this my girl has gotten so darn excited. She wants to go through all their names, their ages, etc.....over and over.
The flight is direct, 2.5 hours, and now I just need to finalize the planning/logistics. Do I take my car to the airport or get taxi, do I rent carseats or ship ours, etc.?? I decided to rent a car when get there because my aunt and uncle (my mom's only brother) live about 45 minutes from airport. As long as I can remember we ALWAYS went to Uncle Phil's for Thanksgiving. Even when my mom started getting pretty sick we still flew up there. After she passed in 2008 I just couldn't bear to go, then went back in 2012 after my girl was born.....and now they get to meet my son. It's great because there are a ton of kids. My uncle had 4 children and each of them had 3, 2, 2, and 5 kids. A lot of them are aged 2-13. I think it will be so fun for my kids to get to know and play with their blood relatives for a change!
I'm looking forward to it, even though it may not be easy. It's important to me so gosh darn it, we are going to do it!! And have fun!! And it's so great because my brother decided he will go. He will finally meet his nephew too. I haven't been able to talk my sister into going--she's only a 4.5 hour drive--she says she doesn't want to be social. I am still working on her.
US
Family pictures.....here are a few that were taken in October. I really really like how they turned out. The session fee was $250ish and that was for a 20 minute session at the park about an hour away and you got 10 jpegs, well actually 20....10 color and the same 10 in black and white. I think it was the perfect this for us. This photographer was recommended by my coworker who found her by looking for newborn photographers.
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