Forward-Thinking

We went to Target this weekend, and on the way the boys were talking about getting to ride in the shopping carts. (They like the racecar ones, which Target unfortunately does not have!) Matthew said, "We might see a baby turning a wheel" (which is how they describe turning the steering wheels). I said that we might, since a lot of people bring their babies to this store. Matthew then added, "And if we don't see one, we will say, 'I wonder why there aren't any babies here!'"

Mike and I were both impressed by the complexity of this response -- it doesn't seem like the kind of thing you'd expect from a two-year-old!

Preschool Anniversary

The boys' preschool celebrated its 25th anniversary this weekend, so we went over for the festivities. (It was a bit confusing for the boys to be at preschool for something other than school -- Matthew kept asking if we [Mommy and Daddy] were going to stay, and James cheerfully announced that we would go home and see N!)

But they had a good time; Mattie was happy to eat cake and play in the sandbox.  James went through a clingy period for a while, but then was delighted to find some balloons to play with on our way out.  (He also watched with rapt attention as an older boy climbed on top of the playground playhouse -- I'm certain this is not normally allowed, but I'm guessing James might try it next time he's there!)

Qualified

We had our meeting today with the Exceptional Children's team about James's evaluations, and we think it went very well. James did qualify for special education services for next year, but let me be very clear that they did not have any question about his cognitive abilities (in fact, the reports frequently used the word "bright").  He qualified under Hearing Impairment (which makes sense), and the focus will be on helping him increase his use of language in classroom settings.

The evaluations were very interesting because they included both standardized testing and classroom observations. On the standardized tests and one-on-one situations, he looks fine; his skills and language are at his age level. But he's not speaking up in the classroom -- he points to things rather than asks for them, does not stand up for himself if another child takes his toy, and so on.  So, the therapy will be focused on helping him develop and use those skills in the educational/social setting.  (Of course, they'll also be keeping an eye on  his speech and language development more generally, but that's not part of the specific goals in his education plan.) They'll have a speech/language therapist, an educational specialist, and a hearing specialist come to his preschool next fall for half-hour sessions a couple of times a week, probably mostly working with him in the classroom in the course of their regular activities.  That seemed like a good plan to us.

[This photo was taken by Grandpa; he calls it "Jamesie at the speed of light."  :) ]

Sand Boys

 Despite the 90 (!!!) degree weather, the boys were enjoying their sandbox this evening.  They were very entertained by burying their own hand, asking where it was, and then "finding" it again!  (I had to tell James that he couldn't dig for brother's hand too vigorously with the sand scooper!)

They've also learned the phrase, "He's copying me!" but fortunately are saying it with delight rather than annoyance for the moment.

Jamesie's conversation skills are coming along: he's giving more specific answers about what he did at preschool ("I painted a picture!"), and he even asked, "What did Matthew do at preschool today?"  He's also asking some "why" questions.  All good to hear!

We enjoyed our visit with Grandpa (including wonderful Indian food for the grownups), but today he left to go see Baby Cousin Seth.  

Also Big

James is not the only one who has been putting on weight -- we're pretty sure Mattie had a recent growth spurt. He seems taller and heavier to pick up, and he's now somewhere in between 31 and 32 lbs.

He also continues to amuse us with the things he says.  The other day we were at the playground, and he was turning the steering wheel.  He wanted me to sit in the (pretend) back seat.  I asked where we were going, and he said that we were going to Cousin Daniel's house.  I said, "Are we there yet?" and he said, "No. It's a long way.  You should take a nap."  Then he wanted me to repeat the question over and over, until finally he got to "Almost" and "We're turning onto Daniel's street!"  (You can't say the kid doesn't pay attention!)

The other morning I had their Caillou show on pause while I changed James's diaper, and since it had been paused for so long, it flipped back to the regular television channel.  Matthew came in and told me that he went in to the living room and the Caillou was gone.  He said,  "I couldn't believe my eyes!"

Also the other day, I was putting him in his high chair and I guess I was saying or singing something about "put you in the seat, strap you in" and Matthew added, "Two cute boys, you love them.  You forgot that part."  :)  So I repeated it and he was happy!

Monday in the Park

The boys enjoyed an evening playground trip with Grandpa!

25

Woo-hoo -- James weighed in at 25 lbs, 1.5 oz on our home scale this evening. (I think this would put him on the bottom of the 3 year-old growth charts if he were a girl; since he's not, he'd have to gain another pound in the next two weeks to make it onto the charts. I'm not holding my breath on that one, but we are still very pleased with his progress!)

In another step forward, Matthew actually drank some milk out of a cup at the restaurant today.  (He wanted to pour the rest of it into his bottle to drink in the car, but hey, it's a step in the right direction.)

The boys were happy to see Grandpa this evening.  Since the boys didn't nap, Matthew had an early bedtime, but James stayed up to demonstrate his ball-throwing skills for Grandpa.  :)

Picnic

The boys got to eat some of their dinner outside the other day. (They were off to a good start, and then decided they'd rather explore the yard than eat, so we had to go back inside. We told them to sit down and eat, and they did that nonverbal thing where they both looked at each other as if to say, "Are you going to listen to them? No? Okay, me neither. Let's go!")

Thanks, Grandma!

Grandma doesn't waste any time -- the Clifford book that Matthew had asked for arrived in the mail today.  (Thank you, Grandma!)

I told Matthew that Grandma had sent the book he asked for, and his eyes lit up.  "Is it a gift?  Can I hold it?"  He then immediately sat down and started "reading" it:  "I'm Emily Elizabeth.  My favorite dog is Clifford."  (Then James took out the tape measure and Mattie decided he had to measure the book instead...)

Average Again

James's hearing therapist sent over the results from the standardized assessments she had done.  The norms for the test are for children without hearing loss.  For the expressive and receptive language, James is scoring right around the 50th percentile. For articulation, he's at only the 36th percentile, although that test wasn't particularly reliable because James was saying the words very quietly, so it was hard to tell what sounds he was or was not pronouncing. 

On the one hand, the fact that his language skills are on par with children who don't have hearing loss is great.  On the other hand, that does not reflect his potential.  (I am still really angry at his ear doctor for costing us so many months of lost hearing time.  James will catch up, but he didn't need to be falling behind in the first place.)

He has been talking a lot at home recently.  He is definitely in a somewhat contrary phase, but mostly just in what he says:  his favorite sentence these days is, "No, I don't want to [whatever you just asked him to do]."  Of course, he generally does this in his typical cheerful way. He also answers "no" to most questions, but he frequently doesn't mean it, and contradicts himself in the same sentence.  For instance, in response to something like, "Do you want a cracker?", he'll say, "No, I want a cracker."

He loves watching Dora the Explorer these days, and happily participates by saying "map" or "backpack" or "Swiper" and pointing out all the locations.  He and Matthew were singing the "we did it!" song in their bedroom the other day.  :)

Our favorite recent sentence was when we took him out of his high chair, and he climbed right back in and said, "I want some more food!  On a plate!"  (Of course we obliged!  He then ate two or three goldfish crackers and then was ready for his bath.)  He's been doing pretty well with eating (including half a taco the other night).  I suspect it's because we scheduled an appointment with his feeding therapist; even though he doesn't know about it, he always seems to do better when there's an appointment with K on the horizon!  (The last couple of times, though, we've cancelled the appointment in light of his progress, which we won't do this time.)

Not Quite

Ever since our museum trip, Matthew has been asking about his birthday.

"Am I three yet?"
"Is it May yet?"
"Is it still April?"
"Why I'm not three yet?"
"Can Grandma come to my birthday?"

He also tells us that he will eat cake and blow out the candles. He wants a toy car for his birthday ("an orange one with its own engine").

Matthew now likes to make suggestions for how his bedtimes stories will go.  His favorite at the moment is about a nice werewolf who lives in a house in the forest.  The werewolf is friends with Matthew (due to a previous story where Matthew helped the werewolf find his way home), and one day the werewolf invites Matthew to go swimming with him at the lake, and Jamesie and Stanley and Mommy and Grandma come along.  The werewolf picks them all up in his train (which he acquired in a previous story after building train tracks to visit his Mommy and Grandma).  They go to the lake and Mickey Mouse is there ("all by himself because his friends are at the grocery store buying food for Mickey Mouse"), and they all go swimming together and then build sand castles and have lunch and go home. 

Mike also tells him "the werewolf and the beanstalk" (as you might guess, the werewolf's name is Jack and he trades his cow for some magic beans...)

Horsemen

The boys had fun playing inside with Daddy on this rainy day! At one point, James fell off, and Matthew changed the words to "Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" (..one fell off and bumped his head) to be "two little boys riding on the horse." Of course, this song then inspired James to take a break to jump on the couch and sing along!

They both love to sing these days, although James doesn't quite have all the words to most songs yet (he skips a line here or there). Mattie tries to sing along to a lot of the songs on his TV shows, which is cute. :) They love to accompany themselves on the drum (each one takes a drum stick).

Air Mike

We hadn't planned to go the museum today, but Matthew wanted to go, so we agreed. And believe it or not, we saw new things today that we hadn't done before! One of them was this trampoline setup. Mike had a great time! (Matthew was disappointed that he couldn't go on it -- you have to be at least three. But there was no one else around, so the attendant let him and James bounce on it for a minute or two without the harness contraption, just us holding their hands, and he was delighted.) The attendant told Mike that usually it was pretty crowded, with typically a 20 minute wait, so we got lucky!

James, by the way, was disappointed when we first got there -- he ran into the room where the robots were last time, and asked where the robots were. But they had a new wolf exhibit down the hall, so that made up for it.  :)  (We saw that when we first arrived, and on the way back, he said he wanted to see the "doggies" again.)

The water features are open again, and if we had let him, Matthew probably would have spent the whole afternoon playing with the pump and bucket system pictured here.  Jamesie preferred going to see the farm animals.

We rode the train as usual, but this time we went in the "caboose"!  (No different from any other car, but at the end -- and James wanted a 6 this time, and the caboose was 26.)  Matthew seems to know all the attractions around the train route by heart ("fox!  mirror people!  eagle's nest!"), and James is pretty good at it, too.

We also found the lake with the remote control boats.  Mattie was really excited about the idea of sailboats, but the real thing wasn't quite as engaging for him.  Admittedly, it was getting late by then and he was pretty tired.

And of course, we couldn't leave without seeing at least one of the dinosaurs.  (In the picture here, Mattie is pointing at me saying, "You can give the dinosaur some milk!")

More from Mattie Bear

Matthew was saying good night to the family pictures last night.  "Good night, Isaac.  Good night, Baby Seth. Good night, Mommy. Good night, Daniel-when-he-was-a-baby.  Goodnight, Jamesie.  Good night, Other Boy."  (We had to stop him at that point and tell him that "other boy" was a picture of him!  I'm not sure he believed us at first.)

Tonight Matthew was looking at the back of his Clifford book, which shows pictures of all the other Clifford books.  He pointed to the Christmas one and said to me, "You should tell Grandma to bring us this one.  You can send her an email."

(Grandma has lots of Clifford books at home and has offered to give some to Mattie and James -- in fact, the book we were reading was from Grandma.)

Pump

We've been giving James tube-feedings (usually about 8 oz) at night for a few days now.  It's hard to tell how it's going.  Logistically it's a minor hassle (starting it early enough so we can turn it off before going to sleep). Fortunately the very annoying beeps from the pump don't seem to wake up the boys.  (Though I am quite nervous to type this because I don't want to jinx it.)

It seems like he's drinking somewhat less milk during the day (which is what the GI doctor predicted when he said don't bother with the pump a few months ago), but we're going to give it a little longer and see what happens.  (I kind of feel like since we gave in and went back to the pump that he should suddenly be magically gaining large amounts of weight, but of course that's not too realistic!)