How things have changed

I went w/ J to speech therapy this past week and had a long talk w/ his ST.  One thing she and I were talking about was how far he has come since she has been working with him.   He has come a long way but in the back of my head I kept thinking about how far he still needs to go.  Then this morning I was rereading one of my posts from just before we brought C home from the hospital,  I was floored at how far J has come with his speech in just 8 months.  He was not even putting 3 word spontaneous sentences together.  WOW, how quickly you forget.  He is now talking in sentences.  Short ones but sentences nonetheless (it is one word … I looked it up   ).

Speaking of speech.  We have had J in a speech camp for the month of June.  There is a private school here in Houston that focuses on pragmatic speech  (social speech).  Everything in the classroom is focused on speech.  The teachers/speech therapist us microphones to help with auditory processing, etc.   We hope for him to be able to go there for school this fall but we will just have to see if we get financial aid.  It is quite pricey… like double my mortgage every month.  That being said, they do offer generous scholarships that we can entertain affording.  So, we are praying that we qualify for one of those or maybe some where in the middle.

Is C too young for a tantrum???

C is 8 1/2 months old (7 months adjusted age and where she is developmentally) and I swear threw her first tantrum yesterday.  She LOVES our laptop.  She wants to sit and just bang away on it.  Well yesterday she wanted to look at the lights and bang on it but the battery was dead… translation a black screen.  She was trying her best to get it to light up and work.  Next thing I know she has thown herself down on my lap and crying.  Classic tantrum.  Isn’t she too young to be doing this????  I am in so much trouble. 

Pictures from the courthouse

Heading upstairs to the court room

Swearing we are who we say we are.

The Judge giving C a teddy bear

Our family with the Judge

We’re official

Gotcha Day as some call it.  I personally am not a big fan of that saying, but I guess it will do until I think up something better.

Today at 9:05am the Judge made it official.  C is now legally our child.  It was short and sweet, but hubby and I were grining like idiots. 

Want to share some good news

J graduated PreK last night.  I was so proud of him and the distance he has come in the last 5 years.  A long way from the grim outlook we got from the  doctor when I went into preterm labor; a long way from the medically fragile child we had for the first almost two years.  He still may not have conversation skills but he can read a mean book.    J-man I am so proud of you.  Keep up all the good work.  *As a little bit of an aside, J wanting to engage with other children has increased tremendously.  Again, J keep up the good work

We got some great news today.  Our court date is set for June 12, 2009.  So in 3 short weeks C will officially be ours.    I never thought it was a weight on my shoulders but I felt it lift when I read the email.

So, things are moving right along in our little world.

Mother’s Day, 7 months old and pictures

Today was a big day.

C turned 7 months old today.  I can’t believe how big she is getting.  Just to give a reference to her size – I bought 9 months sleepers for her yesterday that looked HUGE.  Hubby went to dress her for bed tonight and looked at me like I was crazy wanting to put her in this get up.  Well, they fit.  I must admit I was surprised too.

Let’s see what she is doing these days:

*sitting up well -  the head still gets in the way a lot. 

*talking a lot – making a lot of different sounds

*VERY observant

*VERY social

*still not rolling over – no desire to do so either

*loves to stand

*really into textures and touches/observes everything

*really wishes she had teeth to eat whatever we are.  she has started solids but it is hit or miss.

*already is a princess

I am sure she is doing a plethora of other things that I can’t remember right now.

We went to take pictures at a portrait studio in a retail store today.  This is only the second time doing this (once with J and this time with C).  The price is amazing but I don’t like it.  I like going to a real photographer but don’t like spending the money they charge (especially here in Houston).  I have had sticker shock at the prices here.  A friend actually referred me to a local photographer who seems reasonable.  Most places here charge $300 for a sitting fee.  Just a sitting fee.  I don’t think so.  Anyway, I plan on getting family pictures when C is closer to a year.

Back to the picture session today.  J wanted nothing of having C sit next to him.  I only got 1 picture with him smiling.  This session was really for her.  I was able to pick a few pics of C that looked cute.  So, 6 month pics – check!

Happy Mother’s day to all the mommas out there.  We went to eat at my grandparents independent living place today.  They had a nice set up with good food.  Well, J went crazy towards the end of the meal.  He asked me to take him to get fruit from the buffet.  We are walking along just fine, when he drops to the floor and refuses to get up.  They proceeds to roll across the floor and tries to pull the tablecloth off of the food line.  Thank goodness it was one of those table skirts that velcroed to the table b/c if not he would have pulled down the carving station on him.  I WAS MORTIFIED!  Timeout ensued and shortly after we left.  J woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.  It is so hard to regulate J.  We went to a friends house Friday night and J played with her two boys.  They had a blast rough housing and wrestling.  J who has a lot of trouble with social ques and interaction is now wanting to be physical with others/kids in not appropriate situations.  This morning at the picture place J walks up to another kid and gives him the shoulder.  I know he as wanting to interact and play, but it did not come across that way.  Behavioral psychologist here we come.

Totally changing gears, I have been thinking about C’s birthmother a lot today.  I want to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day, and we have her in our thoughts. 

We bit the bullet and did it! We went to Disney World.

****warning photo heavy****

We got back yesterday from the GREATEST PLACE ON EARTH!  Yes, we went to Disney World.  I think overall everyone had a good time.  C and J had a good time, and they are the important ones.  Right??  I am not going to lie; the first day and a half were not great.   We arrive in Orlando and soon realize that there is a Cheerleading competition going on.  Cheerleaders EVERYWHERE.  ARGH.  The line is very long for our hotel.  J does not do lines well.  We are standing in the que, for what seemed like forever, waiting for the Magical Express that will take us to our hotel.  J begins melt down mode.  I head over to where the Disney employees are congregated and explain the situation.  The tell me to get J and the rest of the party and sit us in another area to wait.  I LOVE DISNEY.  Next bus, we are off to our resort.  We check in w/ no drama and head to Epcot for our dinner reservation.  We ate at the Coral Reef by Nemo ride.  It was really great.  Some of the better food we had at the World, and the entire wall is a big aquarium.

First full day, we head to the Magic Kingdom.  MISTAKE.  It was really crowded and hot.  I was thinking we made a mistake coming, b/c I don’t think anyone had a good day.  The following days we go to the other parks and have a really good time.  I think the highlights were -  Josh meeting his favorite characters mainly the Little Einstiens.  He was shy around all of the characters but was really star struck when he met them.  J really loved the Playhouse Disney show at MGM and the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom.  We all had a blast at the Beergartin in Germany at Epcot.  They have a band play and J went down to dance for everyone.  He is really a funny dancer.  I have a bit of video that I will try to post.

Here are some pics from our trip —-

On the Magical Express bus heading to the hotel

Daddy and J on Dumbo

Minnie being sweet with J. He was still scared of the characters.

at Hollywood Studios. J was a little better.

June showing some attention to C

J getting more used to the characters. Little Einsteins are his favorite.

Quincy is his favorite.

waiting in line at AK

J got to meet Remy in France. Another hit.

J's favorite ride.

Our last day of the trip

Mother of the year award to be given me!

C, Grandma and I got home last night from the after hours clinic at our pediatrician’s office at about 9pm.  Fun times.  Grandma rode along b/c she did not want me to be out with C alone after dark.  Not that the Dr’s office is in a bad part of town but it is IN town next to the freeway (which has a lot of questionable people hanging around all of the time).  Thanks, Nana.  Anyway back to C.  She has had a very runny nose for about 10 days.  Then on Wednesday started throwing up and yesterday diarrhea.  That is all bad enough for a six month old but what had me going in last night instead of the appointment I made for today, she orange “crystals” in her diaper.  I did not know they were crystals until the doc told me.  J had never had this and it freaked me out pretty good.  The doc said that the kidneys will make these crystals when they are dehydrated.  I am still having trouble getting C to eat anything.  She eats about 2 ozs of her bottle and then REFUSES the rest.  Anyone have any suggestions?  I am open for them.   So hopefully, we won’t have to go back to the doctor b/c she is not eating.

Now to J.  We have been struggling with him about potty training.  He is 5 and not even close to being potty trained.  We have pushed – we have back off – we have done everything we can think of and no luck.  We have treated it as a behavior issue and no I am not so sure (at least partly).  I do think he is holding #1 all day b/c that is a control issue but #2 I am not so sure about anymore.  The older preemie list serv I belong to has talked about potty training periodically.  But until now, this aspect of the topic has never (to my knowledge) been brought up before.  Y’all all know that J was born very early and as a result had/has low muscle tone in his trunk (torso).  *Warning about to give TMI*  He always lays down on his stomach to have a BM and these BMs are usually very large.  Also, if we “catch” him mid process and try to take him to the potty literally it get sucked back into him.  (I already warned about TMI    )  Well last night as I am reading the email thread on this topic, several people are talking about all of these things being attributed to LOW TONE IN THE TRUNK.  As I sit reading this, I am preparing my acceptance speech for MOTY award.  All kidding aside, I do feel really bad that I have been treating this as a behavior issue and it my be beyond his control.  So, next dr appointment I guess I will ask for a GI referral to go and talk about this.

J had a big day the other day.  He and I spent all day at TCH which exhausted me much more than it did J.  He spent the day getting Neuro-psych testing.  He had two interns and a dr testing him for about 6 hours.  He did great.  He thinks work like that or “school work” fun.  As part of the testing, the doctor met with me for about an hour and a half.  I really liked her.  She and I had very similar views on “labels” and when to and when not to diagnosis.  She said that J was a very unique and did not neatly in any one box.  His skills are very scattered (which I knew) -advanced in areas and bombed areas he should have excelled in.  I don’t think she told me anything that I did not already know but we go back for the results in a few weeks.  She also said that J needs to go to that private school that made me so angry last summer.  J’s speech therapist has also been pushing for this lately too.  So, I agreed to go talk to them again for the summer camp and look into sending him to kindergarten there.  Remember, this place is ridiculously expensive.  They do give scholarships.  We shall see.

J just woke up.  Need to go be mom. 

Everyone have a great weekend.  If you live here in Houston, try to stay dry.

Some oh so cute pics of my kiddos

I posted about taking pictures in the bluebonnets a few weeks ago.  Well here are some of the better ones.

Some of C – who is now begining to sit. 

Who had squash for the first time today.    She is going to be very involved in her feedings.

It has been a while

For anyone wondering, I am still healing from the whole jaw incident.  I was and still am pretty sore in my neck and jaw.  I was so incredibly depressed on friday when I went to get a massage, and they told me I could not get one until 6 weeks post injury.    I don’t think I have been that disappointed in a long time.  I was hoping for at least an hour of relief.  I need to make an appointment with our ENT to follow up.   When I see him, my entire family will then be treated by this man.  I know he will see dollar signs whenever we make an appointment.

C is doing great.  She found her feet this past weekend.  She has been playing with her hands for a while but her feet were of no interest.  Well, she is now fascinated with them.  It has really helped with her balance.  She will sit on her own for a few minutes at a time.  She can’t look up b/c that head of hers throw off her balance.    She is also really reaching for things.  She loves the toy we attached to her car seat.

We had our second to last appointment with our social worker today.  It went fine, and C was very charming.

I am also beginning to make C’s baby food.  For those who know me and know that I don’t cook, I AM THE ONE COOKING C’s food not hubby.  Well, at least for tonight.  I am starting with squash and I must say it tastes pretty darn good, if I do say so myself.  We shall see how she like it.

We went a few weekends ago and took our pictures in the bluebonnets.  I don’t have the pics saved to this computer and will have to post them tomorrow.

J is doing great.  He is getting excited (as well as I am) that we leave for Disney in 22 days.