Happy Leap Day

Matthew and James wanted to "read" their own books at bedtime tonight. James was hilarious with the Five Monkeys Jumping on the Bed book. He just kept turning the pages and pointing at the monkeys and sternly admonishing, "No jumping on the bed!" (Several times he would punctuate this with his own jumping on the bed, and then return to telling the monkeys no.)

Preschool

The boys had a good time at preschool today!

In the third picture, James put that whole chain of toys together all by himself. He's quite industrious!  Matthew was also very industrious, pouring his pasta back and forth between the containers for quite a while, and talking about all the different shapes and colors.

Not pictured: James crying and protesting because he didn't get to hold the rope loop he wanted when they were walking out to the playground. The teacher actually thought that was kind of a good thing because she hadn't seen him have that strong of an opinion about something before. (Actually, I suspect that part of it was that he was probably getting hungry -- almost any time James acts like that, his mood is dramatically improved after some milk. Takes after his mama!)

Two Going on Thirteen

This weekend, Mattie threw something that he wasn't supposed to throw, and I told him no and to say sorry to Stanley for almost hitting him. I said, "Do you understand me, Matthew?" After the second or third time of asking, he said, "I can't talk to you right now. I'm busy watching Scooby Doo."

Fortunately (for him), he wasn't serious -- I think he was just saying it to see what would happen. (What happened was I turned him around and snuggled him and said, "No no no, you ALWAYS have time to talk to Mommy!"  He laughed and then said sorry to Stanley.)

Double Twins

Matthew says, "I had fun playing drums and hide and seek with my friend Noah!"

Happy Birthday, Quinnie!

We ate some cake (or in James's case, bread) in your honor. :)

Raise the Hoop

Mike raised the basketball hoop this evening.  I thought it was too high for James, but he proved me wrong -- once he (quickly) got the hang of it, he had impressive accuracy.  I wasn't paying complete attention because we had friends over, but I'd guess he was making around 1/3 of his shots.  Go, James!

He also continues to be a natural gymnast; he has now taken to doing his somersaults ("humerhalts") off of the bed.  (I can't say I'm too thrilled about that one, even though it's just the mattress on the floor.)  And he was climbing the rocks in the backyard with ease.

Hope Springs Eternal

A package arrived in the mail today.  Mattie asked what was inside.

Me:  "I think it's Jamesie's formula."
Mattie:  "I think it's doughnuts!"

(Unfortunately for him, I was right.)

A Plan

Although the surgery went well yesterday, I left feeling frustrated with the conversation with the doctor afterwards. Mike and I have made some plans that hopefully will move us in the right direction:

1. We talked to James's audiologist about options for providing some kind of amplification during this post-surgery period of time when he can't wear his hearing aids, and perhaps for future times if he needs to take a break from them (if he continues to have skin problems). She suggested getting something like the Pocketalker, which seems kind of like the FM system except it goes into headphones rather than a hearing aid. The important thing with that (assuming James will wear the headphones!) is to make sure it's not too loud -- we don't want it to damage his hearing that way. 

2.  We got a recommendation from our pediatrician's office for a different ENT, so at least we have the potential for a second opinion or possibly switching the majority of James's ear care entirely. His current doc may be "the best" on some dimensions, but I think maybe he's just too busy right now to be giving the best care to James.

(You can skip this part, it's just me complaining.) For instance, yesterday he noted irritation on James's outer ear, which he said would not have been caused by an infection, so perhaps we need a consult with a dermatologist.  Well, that's fine, but I'm pretty sure that irritation is not a new development; it would have been better if he'd noticed it during one of the previous three visits.  And when I asked him about what we could do post-surgery to prevent granulation tissue on the eardrum, he said something about how that was just normal for the body to develop it and push out the tubes.  Okay, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT normal for the scar tissue to occlude the tubes and create continuing discharge and require another surgery to fix (which is what happened last time), right?  It's possible that I'm misunderstanding something here, but I'm guessing he didn't review James's chart before the procedure.  So I left a message today reminding him about all of that in case it changes the treatment plan for this time. 

3.  We are going to try to learn some basic signing as a family to have another way of communicating with James for times like this when for whatever reason his hearing is not optimal.  (I suspect James is going to pick up lipreading on his own.) A couple weeks ago I got the boys a regular Signing Time video (same people as Baby Signing Time, but made for slightly older kids), and they love it just as much as Baby Signing Time.  (Mattie in particular is obsessed with the theme song and asks me to rewind it over and over.)  James loves signing and he likes signing with me, so that seems to be a good start.  More signing time videos are on their way!  :)

Cheese

Mattie wanted me to take his picture. :)

Jamesie was feeling better after his nap.

Surgery Done

James did fine with the surgery; they cleaned out his ears and put in ear tubes.  (After the procedure,  he was very angry about having an IV in his hand and tried to tear it out.  He was still a little tired when we got home, but definitely happier.  He's napping now.)

He has a little sponge in each ear to help the ear drops get to the right place.  That will stay in for a week or so, and I think he won't be able to wear his hearing aids for another week after that.  We're not happy about that, but the bright side is that maybe the break will let his skin heal up so that it isn't reacting to the hearing aids, and he can have a fresh start to hopefully avoid the skin irritation that appears to be causing the inflammation and gunkiness.  They think it's a reaction to the hearing aids, so his next set of ear molds will come from a different company to see if a slightly different type of silicone might help.  (Hopefully we can figure something out, because the other option would be cochlear implants, and we really don't want to go there if we don't have to.  Fortunately, our audiologist said it's premature to be thinking along those lines yet.)

Little Snow

Mattie was up early enough to catch the snow before it melted entirely, but he was a bit disappointed that there wasn't enough there to make a snowman.

James is scheduled for surgery at 10:30 AM tomorrow; we're supposed to arrive at the hospital at 9 AM. We are both dreading not being able to give him any food/milk in the morning -- poor hungry boy! I'm also disappointed that this surgery is at the main hospital rather than the ambulatory care center -- not only is the parking a lot easier at the ACC, but the chances of us having a significant time delay are much greater at the hospital, or at least, that's been our experience in the past. So, wish us luck. :)

Snow Night

Just when we thought it was getting to be spring, we had a snowfall! Too bad it wasn't earlier in the day -- Mattie was already in bed, and James was supposed to be in bed, but was up late and got to see a little of it out the front door.

As you may guess from his shirt, Matthew's affection for the color orange has continued unabated. (For instance, he only wants to wear orange shirts to bed. Since he didn't actually have any orange PJ shirts, we picked this one up last week.) In fact, the boys were watching Sesame Street today, and there's a segment about the letter R where an orange R is standing on a road.  James pointed to it and said, "That's Matthew's R." And Mattie said, "That's my R."  Too funny.

Also today, Mike put up some new smoke detectors and put new batteries in the existing ones.  We were explaining about smoke detectors to the boys, but perhaps we weren't totally clear, because a few minutes later, James turned to me and said, "Where's the fire truck?"  (This is possibly because there is a Caillou episode where the kids learn about smoke detectors, and then the fireman brings his truck to visit the playschool.  Ah well, the boys will learn early that real life sometimes isn't as exciting as TV!)

Mattie is so funny when he picks up a new phrase, because he uses it a lot even when he doesn't mean it.  A recent one was "wait a minute!" and now it's "I have a surprise for you!"  (Sometimes followed by "it's in my pocket" and sometimes followed after that by "it's a teddy graham!") 

Jamesie loves to watch the Mickey Mouse club on TV.  (I am kind of surprised by this because it seems like the worst possible program for a hearing-impaired child -- the characters all speak in these high-pitched voices that are in the worst part of James's hearing range, AND the characters have a variety of speech impediments and oddities that make them hard to understand just on general principle -- but hey, it makes him happy.)  It inspired what may be his longest sentence so far: "Mickey Mouse went in the water and got wet in there!"  (In general, James has been talking a lot lately -- the FM system really seems to be helping compensate for the ear problems.) 

Hooray for Antibiotics

Mattie slept well last night and is much improved today!  Yay!

Spoke Too Soon

I thought Mattie was getting over his cold, but then yesterday night he developed a nasty cough and an even more runny nose.  He was up most of the night off and on with low-level crying, and told me that his ear hurt.  He perked up when the sun came up (and I think when the second dose of Tylenol kicked in), but then was feverish again by lunchtime, so Mike took him to the doctor.  He appears to have an ear infection, so they prescribed some antibiotics.  He got a dose after his nap, and seems to be feeling a lot better already tonight.

The doctor thinks it's RSV, which is slightly terrifying because that can be so dangerous for former preemies (due to lung issues). Mattie and James are beyond the age where they really worry about that (the biggest risk is in the first year, and Mattie and James had the Synagis injections to protect them at that time), but the doctor listened very carefully to Mattie's lungs, including when Mattie was having a bad coughing fit, and said that they sounded good.  He didn't think Mattie needed breathing treatments or anything like that, so that was a relief.

Puppy High Five

We had a great visit today with former babysitter N, who came by with her very talented dog, Tucker.  Not only could he shake hands, but he could also give high fives!  (Stanley didn't care about that, but he had fun playing with his new friend!)

Mattie gave N a Valentine that he and James had made, and told her that she could hang it on her refrigerator.  Then he wanted to know what her magnets looked like.  He was pleased to find out that she had an orange one!

In other news, James is scheduled for ear tube surgery next Tuesday (we don't know the time yet).  I'm glad that they were able to get him in quickly (well, depending on how you look at it) -- hopefully he'll be fully recovered from his cold by then!

P.S.   Yes, Auntie Nora, that is Cousin Daniel's dog book.  :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Alas, the boys are still sick, so they missed preschool and the Valentine exchange today.  (They didn't care, but I was a little disappointed!)  Last night was rough; they were up multiple times in the middle of the night, and Jamesie decided that it was playtime from 4 to 5 AM.  He was very cheerful and wide awake, but he was the only one that could be described that way!

The boys made Valentines for their babysitter N and the grandparents this weekend, but we are slackers and didn't get them in the mail yet.  Sorry!

Some things Mattie said today:

When I was putting him to bed:  "Here's a piece of my blanket for you.  You can tuck yourself in."

And later, he leaned over and kissed my arm:  "I gave you a bonus kiss!"

This afternoon, he was talking on his play telephone, and I asked him who he was calling.  He said, "The delivery man."  I asked what he was delivering, and Mattie replied, "He's delivering some cookies for you!"  I like the way you think, kid!  :)  Alas, I think he got that one from Sesame Street -- there has been a distinct lack of cookie deliveries around these parts.  


James's audiologist heard back from the ENT doc, and we're supposed to call and get him scheduled for surgery to put in new ear tubes and clean out his ears.  I'm sad that he has to have yet another surgery, but I'm glad that there's at least some forward progress in getting his ears taken care of.