Music Boys

The boys love playing music with Daddy!  (Not pictured: James sitting down at the electronic drum set and asking for Mike to turn it on!)

Also last night, we took the boys for a walk in their wagon -- but James wanted to pull the wagon (with Matthew in it) the whole way. Strong boy! (He did get some help from Mike on the hills. Of course, out of all of us, James is not the one who needs to burn any more calories!)

Not Actually a Lifeguard

Despite Jamesie's shirt, he is not actually a lifeguard. :)

We enjoyed yesterday morning at the beach, and met up with Mike's grad school friend Zed, who was down there from Ohio with his family.  

In the third picture, James is telling the waves to "stop!"  (And then the boys both chime in that "the ocean never stops!")  James would warn us with a big smile, "Here comes a big one!"

We had an nice lunch at an oceanside restaurant -- it was relaxing to be able to watch the waves without constantly watching the boys as well.  Mattie and I wanted to play in the water more after lunch, but Mike didn't want to get everyone all wet and sandy again after we'd checked out of the hotel, so we just headed hom.  We were all a bit tired, so it was probably the right decision, but a little more time would have been fun.  

Here Comes Mr. Salty!

(That's what Matthew says when the waves roll in.)

Since our babysitter N is out of town, we decided to do a spur of the moment trip to the beach (Topsail -- our first time here).  The boys love the ocean -- and this time, the water is plenty warm enough to go in!  They especially like having us hold them while we stand in the waves.  (I'm kind of glad they want to be held, because the waves here are a bit rough.)

James also likes being allowed to throw sand. :)  The beach wasn't too crowded today, so he wasn't bothering anyone, as long as he didn't throw it into the wind.

Replacements

It was a long day at the hospital for James (and us).  In the morning, we had his three year visit for the Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss study.  The assessments are focused on speech, so a lot of it was them showing him pictures and asking various questions about them (although he did also get to do a couple puzzles and play with play-doh).  For the most part, he was great and really cooperative, although it seemed like he did get tired of it after a while.  My sense was that he did pretty well on most of the test, and in particular, they did the articulation test (Goldman-Fristoe) that he had scored so poorly on with his hearing therapist -- and this time, he rocked it.  :)  I'm no expert, so I don't know how he actually scored, but he said all but two of the words (pretty clearly, to my ears at least) and whipped through it at a rapid pace.  (Last time he was just not in the mood and basically refused to say a lot of the words or said them very quietly.)  Amusingly, one of the words he didn't say without prompting was "flower" (or "flowers"), which was one of his early words.  Instead, he said, "plants" and then when they prompted him for something else, he said (correctly), "rose."  The examiner said informally that the sound substitutions James was making were all age-appropriate (I can't remember the example, but maybe substituting the "w" sound for the "l" sound.)

The one test that he did not do well on was for social uses of language, where they gave a scenario and wanted him to fill in what people would say in a given situation (for example, "the baby wants to get down from the high chair -- if she could talk, what would she say to her brother?").  These were mostly situations where he would say the right thing in the actual situation, but he just didn't have an answer or would say "I don't know" for almost all of them.  The examiner said that it's not uncommon for that to happen with three-year olds, where they don't translate everyday knowledge to these line drawings.  (Nonetheless, I'm guessing that Matthew would have had no trouble at all with it, so we might start practicing this kind of thing with James.)

The last part of the session was getting a language sample, where they left the room and I was supposed to look at some pictures on the wall with James and talk about them (while they were recording).  Well, he looked at the pictures briefly, and then turned to me and said (and I quote), "Let's get out of here."  (Followed soon after by, "I don't want to play here anymore.")  Okay then!!  :)

We met up with Mike for lunch and then went over to ENT for James's hearing test.  It's a behavioral test (he has to make a response when he hears a sound), and he was also a perfect delight for that test, very cheerful and enthusiastic. He did a great job identifying different words that sound alike (all one syllable-words starting with B).

His hearing profile was about the same as it's been, except for a decrease at the lower frequencies which is a common effect of getting ear tubes (as I understand it, the tubes slightly lessen the vibrations that get through).

But the problem came when they were programming his hearing aids -- even though the overall hearing profile is not much changed from what it was, apparently the change was enough to put it outside the limits for his current hearing aids in his left ear (right is okay).  This was very depressing news because *&%$, his hearing is so bad that his hearing aid can't even handle it?? Yikes.  (This was my reaction, not Mike's.  Mike does not see this part as any big deal.  He's probably right, especially since James seems to be doing well with his language.)

And it's also a bummer because they recommended that he get new hearing aids -- AND, since his FM system (remote microphone) is integrated into his hearing aids, that means we'd have to get new ones of those as well.  Insurance will cover some portion of the aids, which are expensive themselves, but not the FM system.  FM systems cost several thousand dollars.  We could use the transmitter part of ours so it would be less than the full system, but it will still be a hefty amount.  Ouch.  He's got a loaner aid for his left ear for now (which is black and dark blue, but oh well).  We're going to check with our audiologist to see if it makes sense to do one more hearing test before taking the leap to complete new aids -- we didn't think about this until we got home.

Chase

The boys love to play chase and "standing up horse" (where they ride on his back) with Daddy.  :)

The Power of Advertising

Most of the TV that the boys watch is either recorded, on demand, or on DVD, so they don't see a ton of commercials. But there is one on Sprout for the Dream Light ("by the makers of Pillow Pets!") that Mattie likes (it has a sort of catchy/soothing theme song), and it's for these stuffed animals that light up and project lights onto the ceiling. Somehow the boys found their turtle nightlight, which they've had forever (it was a baby gift from Aunt Jess and Uncle Chris, if I recall correctly) but hadn't used recently (it's really cool, but the batteries wore out a while back and we just never got around to changing them).

It's close enough to the advertised product that Mattie was just absolutely thrilled that he had a Dream Light!  He couldn't stop talking about it and just wanted to play and play with his Dream Light.  ("The commercial says now I won't be scared of the dark!"  "Dude, you already aren't scared of the dark.") As media influence goes, this isn't too bad, but I was surprised at the extent of his commercial-based enthusiasm.  :)

James was enthusiastic about it, too, but not because of the ad.   He loved playing the game where someone would project the stars and moon onto the wall, and the boys would try to jump and touch the moon.  :)

In other news, Mattie was also very proud of himself for doing (I think) his first 12 piece puzzle all by himself.  Normally, Mattie loses interest in puzzles somewhere between the first and second piece.  We were all sitting down with the puzzles, and Mattie held up a piece and said, "Can you help me?  I'm not smart like James."   He didn't sound unhappy or upset, but that was definitely not something I want to hear! So I told him that no, he and James were both smart. I think he then asked what smart meant, so, you know, don't read too much into the statement. :)  (And no, as far as I know no one has ever told him he's not as smart as his brother -- though it is in fact true that James is way better at puzzles and matching games than Mattie.  But that's probably mostly because he enjoys them more, and Mattie doesn't have the patience for them.)

Then Mike talked Mattie through some puzzle strategies (looking for colors that match, etc.).  And he did it!  Yay, Mattie!

The boys enjoyed their trip to the dinosaur museum today, and they didn't even insist on seeing the dinosaurs this time. :)

(And young James managed to put his mouth on both a garbage can AND the side of the sheep pen before we could stop him -- so, his smarts clearly do not extend to all areas yet!  Gah!  All that time in the hospital, and the child learned nothing about infection control!)

Castle

 We went to our first session at a new hearing therapy place on Thursday.  (James's previous hearing therapist who came to our house was part of the Early Intervention program, so her services stopped when he turned three.  She referred us to this program, CASTLE, which is a division of UNC and is supposed to be excellent.)

The first session was mostly for them to get a sense of where James is with his listening and speech skills, and also refreshing our memory on some of the tasks and strategies that they use.  It went well, although James is now at the age where some number of requests (mostly to say or repeat something) were met with "I don't want to."  He was quite pleasant about it, but just not always cooperative!  (And sadly, he's no longer in the stage where he'll say something like, "I don't want to say banana.")

I think it will be useful, although of course it's a pain to have yet another set of appointments.  But, we're lucky to have this resource, so I can't really complain.

Home Again

We arrived home late last night (and sadly, James chose this morning to get up at 6:30 rather than his usual 7:30 or 8 AM!) We are very glad to see the boys, but we also slightly miss being spoiled on vacation.  :)

Grandma also headed home this morning -- we'll miss her!

Camp Wedding

Grandma very kindly and generously agreed to watch Matthew and James while Mike and I are across the country at a wedding. We are having a fantastic time with old friends (and the happy couple!). According to Grandma, Matthew has been doing fine, but James was very grumpy about our absence for the first couple days. He was happy when Uncle Adrian (and Nora and Daniel) came for a visit, though!

Scooby-Doo!

James and Mattie love their new Scooby-Doo shirts -- thank you so much, Jason, Kate, and Dash!!

Grandma Arrives

Everyone was delighted to see Grandma! And James was extra-delighted that she brought some puzzles to do with him. :)

Lawn Tractors

The boys were not able to talk Mike into getting one. :) They did enjoy playing on them, though!  (James had spotted the outside tractor display as we were walking in, but those were way too hot to sit on after baking in the 100+ heat.)

Brick House

James and Matthew are enjoying their new blocks (a Christmas present that we just now put together). Not pictured is the game James later invented, which involves building a tower of bricks and then throwing a ball at it to knock it down!

These Go to Eleven

We celebrated our eleventh anniversary this weekend! Well, by "celebrated" I mean we "ran errands with the boys", but still, we marked a decade plus one year of happy-ever-after. :) I love you, Mike!

 Lucky for us, it was also our friend J's birthday this weekend, so they brought cake over for dinner!

Happy Fourth

The temperatures were still around 100 degrees today, so we didn't want to commit to any big Independence Day festivities. But the boys enjoyed playing with the water outside this morning and a playground trip in the afternoon, so we thought that was a good enough celebration! We considered going to see fireworks, but since they don't even start until after the boys' usual bedtime, we figured we'd put that off until next year. :)

Spice Boys

The boys love to pour the spices (salt, pepper, garlic powder, Cavender's) for their eggs, but then sometimes they want to just eat the spices straight! (There's no accounting for taste...)

Riding Around

 Dash and James were having a great time playing with the wagon this morning.  Even after James bumped the wagon into the wall (and bumped Dash's head along with it), Dash didn't want to stop.  I offered to pull him, and he said, "No, James!"  :)

(That was especially impressive because Dash is at the stage where he understands what everyone is saying to him, but he's mostly just using a handful of words regularly -- yeah, no, me, mama, out, please, and a couple others.  So it was fun to hear the "James" out of nowhere!)

Indoor Amusements

It was another triple-digit temperature day, so we decided that indoor activities were the way to go.  Jason wanted to see some of Raleigh (since he used to live there), so we headed out and stopped for lunch at the aptly-named Jason's Deli, and then went to Marbles.

The boys had a blast, and even stayed in the same general play area for at least the first part of the visit. :)  This time James spent a lot of time in the play grocery store, Dash liked lining up all the dinosaurs, and Mattie liked the X-ray and medical equipment at the play vet's office.  (Of course, the splash area was popular with everyone!)