Look, Ma, No Cavities!

The boys got a clean bill of health at the dentist today!

 Matthew was perfect -- he let them look at his teeth, brush his teeth with the "motorcycle toothbrush", use Mr. Thirsty to clean off the toothpaste, and paint his teeth with flouride.  (He did get to play with Mr. Thirsty, too, but he wasn't quite as obsessed with it as last time!)

James was great up until the point when they actually wanted him to open his mouth.  :)  Mike had to hold him a bit for the dentist to do her exam and put on the flouride, but as soon as it was done, he was back to being happy again.  At his previous visit, they had seen a bit of gingivitis, which has now cleared up -- that's a relief.

They got balloons, but only filled with air -- the hygenist told us that there was a nationwide helium shortage.  (Who knew?)  The boys also got Dora stickers, so they didn't seem bothered about not having helium balloons.

Last Day of Preschool

Hard to believe -- the boys had their last day in the 2 year old class on Tuesday! (They look a little bigger than on their first day!)

When we pulled into the parking lot, James immediately wanted to know where the water was on the playground -- we had to explain that it was only for Beach Day.  :)

As far as we can tell, they didn't do anything special for the last day of school.  We'll all miss it, though.

Round and Round

We ventured out to Pullen Park in Raleigh yesterday. It's a public park (the first public park in North Carolina, even) with playgrounds and an amusement area, which was recently restored/renovated. It was too hot (around 90 degrees), but lots of fun! 

Our first stop was the merry-go-round. The carousel was an old restored one (made in Philly!) with lots of different animals -- many horses, but also giraffes, tigers, and pigs, among others. We let the boys pick which one they wanted.  James was happy to ride on a horse, but Matthew insisted that he wanted to ride on the seats (the little carriage/chariot). (Now, I am the biggest wimp in the world when it comes to amusement park rides, but this seemed ridiculous even to me!) So, it was Matthew, Mike, and the very elderly lady with her walker on the "seats." :) But he enjoyed it, so I can't complain.

We came back again for another ride before we left, and this time Matthew was willing to ride an ostrich along with me.  (Mike and James got a pig that time.)  When it started to go up and down, Mattie was so delighted: "It's bouncing!!" He didn't know what he was missing!!

Matthew also spotted the Locopops sign when we were having lunch, and so he had a cookies and cream popsicle for dessert -- another high point of his day!

After lunch we were headed for the train (a little one similar to the science museum), but Matthew saw the kiddie boats and wanted to go on them instead.  So they did, and both of the boys loved them:  steering wheels to turn and a rope to pull to ring the bell -- what's not to love?  (I blew them kisses as they went by and James started blowing kisses back to me -- too cute!)

They also enjoyed the playground area.  James especially liked the sand area with the riding toys, and the climbing structures (surprise, surprise).  Mattie's favorite was the sand and water area (again, no surprise) -- he found a discarded cup and spent quite a while picking up water from one section and taking it over to dump it in another section.

We did eventually make it on the train.  We didn't get to the paddleboats, so we'll have something new to do next time we go.

Between the heat and the activity, both boys were asleep within minutes of getting in the car for the ride home!

Feeding Therapy

James had an appointment with the feeding therapist on Tuesday, and it went well.

He sat in a high chair, and cheerfully ate some bologna, cheese, and strawberries, and then announced that he was "all done."  She left him in the chair, and while another person was blowing bubbles, she got him to eat a whole container of applesauce.

That basic idea is her game plan for us going forward: we're supposed to create positive reinforcements to use at mealtimes (bubbles, TV, special toys he only gets at meals), and he only gets them if he's eating.  And she said to use purees that we spoon-feed him as part of every meal as a way to get a lot of calories in quickly.  (So far that has worked very well with applesauce; not so well with the mashed potato, cheese, and bologna puree that Mike made yesterday.)

She was glad to see that he was perfectly happy after he had the applesauce, which means he has the capacity to eat higher volumes of food; apparently some kids with feeding issues can be convinced to eat more after they say they're done, but then they throw up because their systems just can't handle it.

He also gets his bottles back ("you can't go cold turkey with a kid who needs his calories"), and we're going to go for some regular feeding therapy sessions.  She was very optimistic that the behavioral techniques could improve the amount of food that he eats.  I have mentioned before that she is super-awesome, so that makes me optimistic, too.  :)

Matthew, by the way, noticed that James's bottles had returned, but it was much less of an issue than we expected.  He said, "Hey, look!  James has a bottle!  Can I have one too?"  and I said, "No, the doctor says James needs the bottle for his medicine."  And Mattie was okay with that.  He's still not drinking regular milk again, though, although he happily drank chocolate milk from a cup yesterday.

Beach Day

Today was "beach day" at preschool -- they got to run around in a sprinkler, play some other water games, and have pizza and popsicles.  I think Matthew thought this was the best thing ever.  :)  He's been looking forward to the popsicles since Tuesday!

One of the other moms said that James was the bravest one with the sprinklers -- he ran right in when the other kids held back, and was laughing and having a great time.

Superheroes

 Thanks to Auntie Erin, Uncle Isaac, and Cousin Seth for the dress-up clothes!!

Monkey Bars

 (Woo-hoo, Mike got to go to the playground for his birthday!  No, not really -- we went out to a movie like actual grown-ups this weekend to celebrate.)

Just a few things the boys have said recently:

This evening, James wanted us to come see the helicopter he'd made out of blocks.  Matthew came in and said, enthusiastically, "That's great, Jamesie!  I love it!"

Also this evening, Mattie climbed into my lap and put his head on my shoulder.  He said, "Oh, mama, we're so comfortable!"  (Aww....)

Both of the boys managed to fall and skin their knees yesterday.  Matthew had two Dora bandaids and James just had one, a fact which he repeatedly remarked on ("I have just one owie!  Matthew has two owies!").  (I offered James a second Dora bandaid, but he declined.)  Tonight, James got a new bandaid because his first one had fallen off.  He looked down at it and said, "Hi, Dora!  I'm Jamesie!"

Though Mattie continues to refuse to drink milk out of a cup, he is quite delighted to drink milkshake out of a cup.  :)  If only his brother would do the same!

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday, dear Miiiiiikkkkeeee,
Happy birthday to you!

Festival Weekend

On Saturday, we went to the Hog Day festival. The high point for Matthew may have been that we parked in a parking garage and took the elevator. :) And James liked "driving" the fire truck. It was a nice enough event, but most of the kid activities were really for slightly older kids. We enjoyed our take-home BBQ, though!

(On the way out we met the lady with the pet pig -- there's something kind of wrong about bringing a pig to a BBQ festival!  She was the first one to be cracking jokes about lunch, though.)

 Today we went to the Greek Festival (which for us is all about the food!) James also liked the dancing.  He also charmed the lady selling ice cream, which worked out well for Matthew. :)

Interference

At the playground yesterday, Mike was wearing James's FM system (the microphone that transmits directly to James's hearing aids). It turned out there was a girl with hearing aids at the park at the same time, and she was hearing Mike's voice right in her ears as well!  (Good thing her mom figured it out, because that would have to be disconcerting!)

It was nice to talk to another parent who has gone through similar experiences.  (Of course, after we left, I wished we'd had a chance to talk to her about her daughter's experience in the schools.  Oh well, maybe our paths will cross again.)

Eye Eye

The boys got a clean bill of health from the eye doctor today -- hooray!  They were very well-behaved at the appointment.  (When we arrived, James dashed into the elevator to push the button -- and actually looked for the number 2 button!  I was glad it wasn't the alarm button this time.)

The eye doctor is fabulous; he's such a nice guy and really great with kids.  I thought the boys were going to get their eyes dilated like when they were babies, but instead it was just a regular vision test where they had to identify pictures of horses, Christmas trees, etc. at a distance.  They also tested their stereoscopic vision and looked for astigmatism.  Everything was fine.   Since the pediatrician and schools start testing for vision at this age, we don't have to come back for a followup for five years.

The doc noticed James's hearing aid, and said that he couldn't be doing too badly with his hearing because he had such a good vocabulary.  :)

At the end of the appointment, Mike showed James a chart with all the letters on it (which was taller than James), and James gleefully went down the chart naming all the letters.  So cute!  ("I should have gotten a picture of that," the doctor commented.  Me too!)  

When we got back home, Mattie was swinging on the swings, and something about him being in just his shirt, diaper, and shoes made him look a bit like Christopher Robin from the Pooh books.  I said that to Mike, and Mattie said, "My shoes light up.  I don't think Christopher Robin's shoes light up."  And a minute or two later he added, "I think Christopher Robin has pants."  (Kid doesn't miss much!)

Preschool

 It was our last time as Parent of the Day in the preschool class (school ends this month).  The boys had a good day. James ate all of his cheese at snack time, and participated in the conversation with the other kids. And Matthew wore his big boy underwear to school with no accidents!

Matthew also reported to Ms. Melissa that we had given the bottles to other babies, so he didn't drink milk any more. She and his classmates talked up how good milk was and how he could drink it from a cup.  :)  Nonetheless, the strike continues.

Mike tried to get James to take just one sip of milk (formula) from a cup tonight, before giving him a water in the cup.  James held the cup up to his mouth, but didn't drink any, and then moved his cheeks around to pretend to be swallowing.  Such a little scam artist!

On Strike

Sometimes it's tough to be a big boy -- we got rid of the bottles when the boys were at preschool on Tuesday, and gave them new Dora cups as a replacement.  They like the Dora cups, but have been on a milk strike ever since the bottles went away.  Even first thing this morning, Matthew asked for juice instead of milk.  (Mike did convince him to take a couple of sips of chocolate milk out of a cup.)

The hardest part is that James (like his mother) gets a bit cranky when he's hungry.  So, he gets unhappy, but is too stubborn to drink some milk and feel better.  It took him forever to get to sleep tonight, we're pretty sure for this reason.  

And in the "too much information" category, Mattie has also been wearing his big boy underwear and doing pretty well with his potty training!  (A couple accidents and some demands for a diaper to poop, but it's not a bad start.)

Put Me In, Coach

Daniel repeatedly informed me that the t-ball set came with two baseballs. This was an excellent choice, since Matthew and James each like to have their own!

Three!

Happy third birthday to James and Matthew!!!

Grandma and Honorary Grandma Sue headed out this morning.  We were sad to see them go, but glad they were able to visit us!

The boys had a low-key day compared to the excitement of the weekend, but enjoyed opening a few more presents and seeing their grandparents on Facetime.

The boys went to the pediatrician today for their three-year checkup. (I figured that would be okay since they didn't need to get any shots at this one!)  They were very good boys!

James weighed in at 25 lbs, 2 oz with his diaper on (but then was at 25 lbs, 6 oz this evening at home), and I think just over 34 inches tall.  Neither of those gets him on the growth charts yet, but his height and weight are still proportional, which is good.

I didn't get Mattie's height (they printed out growth charts for us, but we didn't realize until we left that they seem to have given us older ones by mistake), but he was 31 lbs with diaper.  He's around 25th percentile for height and 50th for either weight or weight-for-height.  His blood pressure was around 100, which the doctor didn't seem concerned about.

They were hit and miss on the distance vision test, but it's unclear whether that was due to actual vision issues or just being three and not wanting to have one eye covered up.  (The nurse said it's very common to not get much cooperation on the test at this age!) We're seeing the eye doctor on Friday (they were due for a check-up anyhow), so presumably we'll know one way or the other then. We haven't noticed any problems, but I sure hope they don't need glasses at this age.

Everything else was fine.  She suggested that we could try melatonin to help Mattie fall asleep more easily at night.  :)

The boys were quite pleased that they got to pick out Dora stickers after their appointment.  (Mattie informed me, "At the haircut place we get a lollipop!"  I guess that made an impression on him!)

[In the bottom picture Mattie is actually giving James a hug, not trying to strangle him!]