Moving Right Along

James stood up by himself today and walked to the couch! Go, James!

James's hearing therapist was very pleased with all the words he's been saying. (And I think we can add "mama" to the list, which makes me happy! He's been doing "dada" for a while now, and sometimes recently "daddy.")

He also had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon today, and everything looks fine. He weighed in at 18 lbs., 9.9 oz. He is still following his own growth curve, so they're happy with that, although they said we could also add some fiber to his diet (both through food and supplements). We aren't scheduled to go back for another six months, so he'll have his feeding tube in until then. We've been feeding him some through it at night to keep his weight gain up, but we'll try to wean off before the next appointment so we can get rid of it. :)

Mattie's latest word is "toes." :)

Also, we may have to start spelling some words instead of saying them. Mattie was playing in the sink yesterday morning, but I had to get ready to go to work, so I took him away from it. He was not too happy about that. I gave him to babysitter N, and he dragged her back to the bathroom to play more. They were back out in the hallway when I was about to leave, and I made the mistake of asking her, "did he get to wash his hands?" He immediately stopped what he was doing and ran over to me to be picked up, wanting to go back to the sink! (Oops!)

And about that vacuum cleaner picture....Mathew loves (and is perhaps obsessed with) the vacuum cleaner. He visits it in the office every chance he gets. He points and babbles a lot when he is looking at it, but we have no idea what he is saying. He has been given the opportunity to push it when it is running but he is not actually all that eager to get close to the vacuum when it is doing its job.

Weekend's End

We were sad to see our company go today, but it was a wonderful long weekend! We went to the playground with Cousin Daniel, Auntie Nora, and Uncle Adrian before they had to hit the road. It was chilly, but that didn't stop the kids. They all had a great time on the big tunnel slide -- Matthew and Daniel especially wanted to go again and again. (Matthew liked to come flying down headfirst and we caught him at the bottom.  We don't know the little girl behind him in the picture -- just someone else enjoying the sunny day at the playground!) James spent some time walking up and down the big hill with Daddy.

James's new word for today was "milk." His "milk" and "more" sound pretty similar (they're both something like "mah"), but he made it clear by signing milk and, a different time, pointing to his bottle of milk. Go, James! He also did the "tttt" sound for his clock. Very exciting!

Mattie's new word today was "fish", and I think he also said "bubble" (referring to the soap bubbles in the tub). He's still talking a lot in his own language ("Matthewese", which from the sound of it appears to be a variant of German), so it's not always easy to tell what he's saying, but he might also have said flashlight, light switch, and window today. I'm not going to believe those until I hear them again, though. :)

Play

Even though it was cold, the boys had a good time playing out in the yard today (at least for a little while!) Of course, Mattie wanted to head straight for the parts of the yard that are least appropriate for him (the tall rocks; the scrubby ivy in the back), but Auntie Nora kept him safe.

Appropriately, one of Mattie's new words for today was "rock" (the other was "light", which I think is new). I think he also said "dark outside", but he may have just been imitating Auntie Nora for that one.

Mattie continues to be obsessed with the vacuum cleaner. This morning he went into the office and looked in the spot where the vacuum has been recently, but it wasn't there. I told him that his vacuum was downstairs and we could go visit it later. He grabbed my hand and led me to the stairs and wanted to go right down -- he definitely understand a lot of what we say! (And of course, James was right at my heels, too, because he loves the stairs.)

James's new word for today was "block", and it's possible that he also was saying "rock", but I'm not sure about that one. He also said "more" and "water" again today, and when he was saying water he was also signing it, and the sign was a much closer approximation this time. :)

The boys had fun playing inside, too, and were very good at taking turns on the slide. (If you look closely at the third picture, you'll see that Cousin Daniel's hair is sticking straight up from static!)

Matthew and Daniel both liked playing with Brutus Buckeye (and Daniel even did a little dance when Brutus played the OSU fight song), which shows that they are being brought up right. :)

Black Friday

Our Friday activities included family pictures, shopping (for some of us, but not at the crack of dawn), eating delicious leftovers, and a visit from friends. Mattie was so exhausted from all the excitement that he fell asleep in his chair at lunch. James, on other hand, used lunchtime to bond with the dogs by feeding them from his high chair.

Mattie's new words recently are "light" and "block" (and "water", but I can't remember if that's a new one or an old one. I was impressed that he used it while pointing at a picture of a faucet in his sparkly farm book.) And Auntie Erin heard James saying "more" this morning, so he's definitely doing that one!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!

We were disappointed that Grandma and Grandpa couldn't join us (Grandpa wasn't feeling well enough to travel, but is doing better now), it has been great to have the rest of the family here. We enjoyed a delicious traditional Turkey Day dinner, and the boys had fun playing with the maracas and tamborines that Auntie Erin got for them as an early Christmas present.

Daniel likes to play "ring around the rosie", and so we were doing it this evening. Mattie enjoyed it but didn't quite get the rules of the game -- the first couple times he didn't fall down at the "all fall down" part, and after that he fell down as soon as the song started! Jamesie didn't want to go in a circle with everyone, but he was quite happy to hold my hands and watch.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

James and Matthew were excited to see their aunts and uncles and Cousin Daniel (bottom picture) today. They were also thrilled to have some of their canine cousins visit, as you can see in the top picture.

Matthew's new word for today was "apple." He said it both for the apple in his picture book and the apple in Very Hungry Caterpillar. He also said "boat," but that one was a bit harder to understand! James was saying "water" today, and Auntie Nora and Uncle Adrian also heard him saying "cat" and pointing at the cat in his picture book. (When James was saying water, he was also waving his pointer fingers around, so I think maybe he thought he was signing something, but the water sign is to make a W with your fingers and bounce it on your chin, so he wasn't even close!)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We are very thankful to have such wonderful friends and family, and especially for all of your support over the last year and a half. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Don't Like This

We had another bad hearing test appointment today. James has had a runny nose the past few days, so we were worried that he would have fluid in his ears again. Lo and behold, that's exactly what the eardrum test (tympanography) seemed to show.

But the audiologist was running a little behind today (we were in the waiting room for a half hour or so), so I don't think she realized that we had mentioned the fluid possibility to her assistant, and she also had forgotten that this had been a problem last time. So she did the hearing test for each ear, and the results were bad -- he was hearing less well than the previous tests (to the degree that he would be classified as having severe rather than moderate loss). It was really depressing being in the room and watching him not respond to loud noises. It was also a bit surprising because last time even though the eardrum test showed flat readings (most likely indicating fluid in the ears), his hearing was still about the same as before. So it may be that he had more or thicker fluid this time. (I suppose it's also possible that his hearing has actually changed, but I think that's not typical for auditory neuropathy, so we don't think that's what's going on.)

So, we have an appointment with the ear doctor in a couple weeks, and if he does have fluid, they may recommend that he have the ear tubes put in. With kids without hearing loss, they'd probably wait and see longer, but to have fluid on top of an existing loss really puts kids at a disadvantage with language learning, so they don't like to let it go for long. I'm really sad about this; I hate that he's probably not hearing well right now (since his hearing aids are set based on his previous results), and I hate that he may have to go through another procedure, even though I know it's quick and fairly minor in the grand scheme of things.

My gut feeling is that the fluid or whatever is affected his results today is a fairly recent development. I noticed last night when James didn't have his hearing aids on (after his bath) that he wasn't turning to respond to Mike's voice like he usually does -- I don't think James heard him. But if that had been happening for a while, I think we probably would have noticed it earlier. So, best case scenario would be that the fluid buildup is from this current cold/sinus issue, and it might resolve on its own. I guess we'll see.

My reaction to this news is probably a bit more intense because it comes on top of a lot of other things that have been going on. Among our close friends and family, in the past couple of weeks we've had a cancer diagnosis, a chronic illness diagnosis, a car accident, major plumbing problems, and a mystery illness. (There are silver linings -- the cancer is treatable; the chronic illness is treatable; and no one was hurt in the accident. But the mystery illness is still a mystery.) So, be careful out there, everyone.

On the bright side, James is getting more and more confident with his walking. In the waiting room today, he actually let go of my hand to take a couple steps on his own! And tonight he walked over to me from the couch (instead of vice versa), another first. Definitely getting there!

He's also definitely saying "uh oh" (in fact, he dropped his bottle on purpose today just to have an excuse to say it). He's signing "bath", and I think he's trying to say it, but that one is a bit ambiguous because he says "da" (and "ba") a lot in general. And yesterday he was signing "more" (which he and Mattie have both been doing for a long time), but I think he was also saying "more", which is pretty cool (especially if he does it again!)

[Photo is from the weekend.]

Like This

The boys' former babysitter N was here today, and in honor of the occasion, Matthew said some more new words. He said, "drawer" when he was opening the dresser drawer. Even more impressive, he was playing with his pumpkin toy (pictured below in "eighteen for eighteen"), and when she asked him how it worked, he said, "Like this" and pressed the button! Later, he was pushing one of the strollers, and she asked, "Is that your stroller or James's stroller?" and Matthew said, "James's stroller." (He may have been just imitating on that one, but he was right!)

In other adventures, Mattie locked us out of the bathroom the other day -- fortunately not while he was in it. He's tall enough now to push the lock in, and we pulled the door shut without realizing he had done that. Mike had to pick the lock. Yikes!

The boys' current babysitter (also with the initial N) is an accomplished pianist (in addition to being fabulous with the boys), and she sometimes plays for them. I noticed this morning that when Matthew "plays" the piano, he moves his fingers like someone who knows what they're doing -- he seems to be imitating her technique! (Although not, alas, with the same results.)

Jamesie is taking more and more steps in a row, and just this evening he started letting go of furniture to stand on his own for a few seconds at a time. Go James!

James's new word is "whoa whoa", the helicopter sound effect. And I think he said "uh oh" when he dropped his bottle. He's doing the sign for "ball", although it's a harder one (you put your hands facing each other and curve the fingers in, and bounce your fingers like you're holding a ball between your hands), so his ends up looking a bit more like clapping (but I know it's ball because he turns to the page in his book with the basketball on it and then does the sign).

Just So You Know

Dear Matthew and James,

We love you every single minute of the day, but between the hours of 2 AM and 5 AM, we prefer to love you in our sleep.

Yours truly,

Mommy and Daddy

Eighteen for Eighteen

James went to the doctor today for his Synagis shot, and weighed in at 18 lbs, 6 oz! He's only 18 lbs, 1 oz according to our home scale, but either way, he's over 18 pounds. Yay, James! (That's still a couple pounds below the growth charts, but it's progress.)

James did the sign for "eat" today, and we may have mentioned before that he's also doing "horse" and "bird." He also did some good walking today -- Mike had him walk from the middle of the room to the armchair, and Stanley got in the way.  James stopped, still standing up, turned slightly, and then continued to the chair without falling, so his balance seems to be getting better and better. 

He had fun playing keep-away with Mattie this morning. He had the cowboy, and Mattie decided he wanted it, but every time Mattie got close, James would turn and crawl the other direction, and laugh! Eventually Mattie did get the cowboy, but by then James didn't seem to mind.

James also had a great time turning on and off the television tonight. It's his great frustration that Mattie is tall enough to do this, and James isn't. But this evening one of his toys happened to be just in the right position for him to stand on and reach the button, and he turned it on and off over and over again. (I don't think Mattie completely appreciated this constant interruption of his Baby Signing Time, but turnabout is fair play, as Mattie was doing the same thing during Signing Time last night.)  Normally this is not behavior we encourage, but James was just so pleased that I let him go ahead.

Mattie said "cheese" today when babysitter N asked if he wanted some cheese for lunch, and he said "please" when Mike told him to. And when he was crawling backwards on the kitchen floor, it sure sounded like he was saying "back!"

Mattie is also continuing to be very helpful. He was in the kitchen while James was still in his high chair, and James dropped his bottle (well, threw it away on purpose). Mattie stopped what he was doing, walked over and picked up the bottle, and handed it up to James. He also shared his Cheerios with James. And then later, he was interested in my shoes, and I told him to pick up Mommy's shoes and put them in the closet, and he did!  What a good boy!

Baby Spaghetti Monster

James enjoyed his dinner tonight!



[The tape is covering his g-tube, so that he's not tempted to pull on it. Don't worry - it's special tape for sensitive skin, so it comes off without bothering him.]

Approved and Denied

It is RSV season again. This is a virus that causes cold symptoms in adults and older children, but can cause serious breathing problems in babies, especially ones who were premature. As you may recall, there is a drug called Synagis that provides antibodies against RSV with monthly injections. Our insurance company approved the boys for Synagis last year (although you may also recall our shock at the $100 copay per injection!)

It is more difficult to get approval for a second year, so I was surprised when the pharmacy company called to inform us that James had not only been approved for a second year, but that the insurance was going to cover the whole cost, with no copay. (In fact, I'm still not sure I believe that!! This is, after all, the same company that gave us the run-around about covering his much cheaper Prilosec.) They approved him because his medical records say that he has chronic lung disease, a diagnosis I still don't completely understand. We've been very lucky in that neither of the boys has had breathing problems since coming home from the hospital, so I can't figure out if the CLD designation is because they actually know something about the condition of his lungs, or because he was on the ventilator a certain amount of time in the hospital, or what. (And I'm probably wrong about this, but I also wonder if the approval was partially because his records indicate that he was hospitalized, even though that hospitalization was for his surgery.) But covering the whole thing like that, assuming the pharmacy rep was correct, suggests they think he's a very high-risk kid. And while I'm certainly not going to argue with providing him that extra protection, it wouldn't necessarily have been my perception of his risk.

Matthew was denied Synagis coverage for this year, so our pediatrician is writing a letter to see if they can get that decision changed. The irony, of course, is that although James has obviously had the much more difficult medical course overall, Matthew seems to be hit harder by cold-type illnesses. So far, when they get colds, Mattie's symptoms are more severe and last longer. (Sorry, kiddo, you seem to have inherited your mama's sinuses!) Mattie is the one that had the cough that lasted for three or four months (and just when I realized it had gone away, we all caught a cold coming home from Colorado, so now he has a brand new cough); he's the one that had to have a chest X-ray, and he's the one that our pediatrician almost referred to the pumonary specialists to check out the cough. I have no idea if this kind of thing relates to how he'd react to an RSV infection, but hopefully we won't have to find out!

Helpful

Matthew was very helpful last night. Daddy was sweeping the kitchen floor, and Mattie wanted to help, too! The broom was kind of big for him, but he swept with it for quite a while. (Next step: dustpan.)

Also, the other day when he was taking clothes off the shelf, I asked him to put some clothes back, and he did! (Of course, he then grabbed something else off, but it's a start.) And today he took a lid out of the drawer in the changing table, ran off with it, and then came and put it back in the drawer.

So, perhaps there's hope that one day the cleaning around here won't all be up to Mommy and Daddy. (Hmm...I think I can hear my parents laughing all the way from Florida!)

James, meanwhile, has decided that pushing the garbage can around the kitchen is almost as good as pushing his shopping cart in the basement. He walked most of the way across the living room (the short way) when Mike stood him up and had him walk to the couch, but he still doesn't try walking on his own (that is, without holding on to something) without us encouraging him. I wonder if it's just that he's been crawling for so long that he's not so motivated about walking.

In other news, Mattie said his first two-word combination the other day! He was climbing on his slide and said, "Up slide." I didn't think anything about it at the time (I'm sure I said something like, "That's right, Matthew, you're climbing up your slide"), but when I thought about it later I realized it was something new. Go, Mattie! He also says "all done" and "uh oh" (although I think he may think that means "something falling on the floor", because among other times, he said it as he was pulling the towels off their towel racks). And tonight I'm pretty sure he said, "Sun up" when he was looking at the Very Hungry Caterpillar (and in fact, that's exactly what happens on that page -- the warm sun comes up.)

Also today, James pulled up the letter O from his foam floor blocks, held it up, and said "ooo". Woo-hoo, his first letter! (Next step: H-I-O*.)

* The Buckeye fans in the crowd know what I'm talking about. :)

Bon Appetit

This photo reminds me that we had an appointment with James's (awesome!) feeding therapist before we left on our trip. We aren't seeing her regularly any more, but we wanted to check in to make sure that we were doing everything we should be doing, since James is still a little hit or miss on how much solid food he'll eat (except Cheerios, puffs, graham crackers, and Baby MumMums, which he loves). She said he was doing great, and was right on track for his adjusted age with "pre-chewing" skills. Her first thought on why he might not be so gung-ho on food from a spoon is that he just might not like the taste of baby food, so our "assignment" is to try to feed him more flavorful or even spicy foods that still have that pureed texture.

So far he was not a big fan of hummus, but he did okay with mashed potatoes (pictured here), and he and Matthew actually both liked the jambalya that Mike made the other night. He's also been eating cheese and deli meat, so that's good, too. And anything that we're eating often seems more appealing to him. :)

We're also supposed to try to get him to drink larger amounts of formula fewer times during the day, looking ahead to preschool or other contexts where he won't be able to just eat whenever he wants.

Mattie continues to be a good eater, and especially likes having his own bowl and spoon (although he makes a tremendous mess with it). We're still working on the transition to sippy cups, though, and we're planning to try again soon to move from formula to actual (cow's) milk.

And in preparation for Thanksgiving, Mattie said, "turkey" (repeated it) when he was eating his deli turkey.  (I'm guessing "green bean casserole" will be more of a vocabulary challenge for him!)

Eighteen Months

Happy year-and-a-half birthday to James and Matthew! (Hard to believe, isn't it?)

We had another day of beautiful (but cooler) fall weather, so we went for a walk on one of the trails nearby. Stanley especially appreciated that he was allowed to come along on this outing -- the poor little guy has gotten used to being left at home. We enjoyed seeing the fall colors, which have finally arrived.

We may be approaching a new round of babyproofing -- if he stands on his tiptoes, Matthew can now reach doorknobs. Not enough to turn them yet, but it's coming! Fortunately, he's also getting better at following directions. For instance, our babysitter was out of diapers when she was changing James, so she adked Mattie to bring her a diaper, and he did. (Go Mattie!) And when I told him to stop doing something (climbing on James's high chair, I think), he actually stopped -- for a few seconds, at least, and then went back and tried it again. But hey, you can't have everything. :)

[Photo of James at the bottom is actually from our trip, but it was so cute I had to include it!]

Fall Crepes

It turns out that the lines are a lot shorter at the crepe truck now that the weather has turned cool! We joined our friends J, Y, C, & baby E there for a delicious crepe brunch and live music.

The place (Johnny's) looks a little different with the sun shades gone and straw on the ground! And we discovered a new "addition" inside -- a toasty warm fireplace. Unfortunately, James and Matthew were a little too curious about it, and wanted to explore it up close. Of course, we didn't let them; we figured the heat would dissuade them before they actually got burned, but we didn't want to take the chance that we were wrong about that!

James was happy to go explore the pumpkins instead.

I think James has joined Matthew in saying "brother" -- a couple of times now he's pointed at Matthew and said "buh buh." And this morning, Matthew saw James walking out with Mike (holding Mike's hands), and he said, "brother!" and ran over and gave James a hug. (James didn't quite know what to make of this sudden show of affection.)

One of Matthew's other recent words is guitar ("tar"). We got a new alphabet book that uses guitar for "g", and Mattie pointed right at it and said "tar". He's also very good at finding stars and saying star ("shar"), although that word would be hard to understand if he weren't pointing at a star at the time.

Mattie has also started talking in long sentences of his own private language -- it's really cute!  I wonder if he actually understands what he's saying?

New Generation of Friends

Lucky for us, one of my best friends from high school (and her sister!) decided to settle in the Denver/Boulder area, so we get to see them and their families when we're out there.  This time, we got together for dinner,which was wonderful -- but also chaotic with our guys and their two little ones running around!  (Actually, there would have been six little ones running around, but L's daughter had been sick, so she decided to come by herself to be on the safe side.)  So, we did our catching up in little bits and pieces in between making sure the twins weren't eating/climbing on/destroying something they shouldn't.  :)


We hadn't met adorable little Lucy (age two) until this trip.  She was fantastic with the boys.  James had a half-finished bottle that he kept leaving around, and every time, Lucy would pick it up and bring it to him.  So sweet!  And later in the evening, she and Mattie were chasing each other around (I forget who was the chaser and who was the chasee), having a grand time.

Last time we saw Julian, I think he was probably about Mattie and James's age, with big chubby cheeks like James.  Now he's a big boy, looking all grown up!  He and T had just gotten back from a trip to Florida, so he was exhausted when we were there (poor kid!), and ended up going to bed early. 

It was so good to see our friends, but also really neat (and a bit surreal!) to see our children together.  All those years ago, who would have imagined that!

P.S.  The baby in red in the second picture is Mattie; he threw up in the car on the way over, so for a while he was wearing the always-classy combo of a borrowed shirt and his diaper.  :)

Stairmaster

As I already mentioned, James was all about the stairs this trip. An advantage to having all these carpeted stairs to play on is that I was able to teach him to go down backwards, instead of just charging ahead facing front, as he wanted to do (and which probably would have ended in a faceplant or tumble!) I turned him around a few times, and after that he'd come crawling up to the edge of the stairs, look at me, and I'd say something like, "James, how do we go down the stairs?" He'd give a big grin, turn himself around, and go chugging down backwards.

(My other lesson, "don't climb stairs without an adult", was not quite so successful!)

Happy Veterans' Day, and a big thank you to all those who have defended and served our country in the military (including James and Matthew's Grandpas and friends!)

P.S.  I almost stole our friend Jim's joke for the post title:  "Would you call him a STEP child?"  Hee!