This morning we had to take Luke to the doctor and made arrangements for Micah to go to daycare. I had a lot of anxiety because it was the first time we would separate them for that amount of time without one of us with each of them. Before we left the house I told them that Micah was going to daycare to play and Luke would be going to the doctor. Micah gave Luke a big hug like he was comforting him. Micah's not real affectionate with Luke, they're more the tackle each other to show affection kind of kids, so I'm not sure if it was related to the news I'd just given them or was just random. Regardless, it was very sweet.
By the way, Micah did great at daycare. He was happy to see Luke, Daddy, and I walk in to get him, though.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Days
Since it's been so long since I really updated on the boys, I thought I should do a description of our typical days so I can look back in the future and remember what it used to be like. Things are going to be changing in November and then again probably in February. I've gotten the boys set up for Mother's Day Out two days a week starting in November. They will be at "school" from 9:30-1:30. They'll play, learn, have music class, and eat lunch. I have mixed feelings. Part of me feels like I'm capable of teaching them at home and that they would be better off with me. Another part of me is excited for the short breaks I'll have to get errands done or to clean the house without the boys tagging along. I know they'll have fun and I'm sure they'll learn lots. Luke's therapists have really been talking about getting them into something like this for a while now. Am I being gullible just taking their word for it, or should I accept their recommendations because they are the experts. Anyway, so back to our current days...
Around 7:00 the boys wake up. Sometimes it's as early as 6:30 and sometimes as late as 7:30, but 7 is probably the average. Micah has been sleeping in the pack n play in the guest room. It started probably about 6 weeks ago when we were having trouble with his sleep. He acted like he was scared to be in his room without either Glen or I. It was taking forever for him to go to sleep and then he'd wake up multiple times in the middle of the night. The only sure way to get him to sleep was to have him in the pack n play in our room. We got tired of that pretty quickly, though, so we tried him out in the guest room and it was like magic. Suddenly both boys were sleeping through the night and falling asleep in their rooms without us needing to sit in there with them at naptime and bedtime.
I give the boys milk in their sippy cups pretty soon after they get up and they watch a show on tv while I either shower or just attempt to drink my coffee in peace.
8 or 8:30 we have breakfast. A week or two ago I started scooting their highchairs up to the table without the trays, so they're sitting like big boys (but are strapped in!). Typically they have a fruit (banana, strawberries, applesauce, yogurt) and a grain (cold cereal, pancakes, waffles, toast, bagel) and milk.
9 ish to 10 ish - Morning play time while I clean up from breakfast. They like to help me empty the dishwasher which is kind of fun. I have to be quick before they can grab anything sharp or breakable. I get them dressed which always seems to take forever as they like to run away and wrestle with each other.
Most days we get out of the house between 10 and 11:30. We'll do our shopping, go to the library, play at the mall, and now that it's cooling off, we can play at the park. It seems there's always an errand to run, though, and I have a hard time mustering the energy to do more than two stops.
12:00 - Lunch. This is a difficult time for me because I usually don't know until just before lunch what I want to eat. We have a few standbys, though. They like nachos, quesadillas, grilled cheese, pb&j sandwiches, pizza, fish sticks, and more. I also try to give them a fruit and sometimes I give them a veggie. They also drink milk again.
12:30-12:45ish I get them down for their naps. We go straight from lunch to naps. I change their diapers and take Micah to the potty. Put them into sleep sacks and we read a couple books together in the rocking chair. Then I put Luke in his crib and carry Micah over to "his" room.
Sometimes I'm good and clean up from lunch right away and sometimes I'm just too tired and figure I'll do it later. Most days I lay down during naptime, sometimes I sleep and sometimes I just read, but I really enjoy that time to recharge.
The boys typically sleep two hours, sometimes they'll sleep up to three hours if I'll let them. I think we've decided not to let Micah sleep more than 2 1/2. Luke seems to do fine no matter how long he naps, so I let him sleep, but usually he's the first to wake at naptime.
We're pretty lazy in the afternoons. I don't really like doing errands in the afternoons because it's hard to get out of the house before 3:30. The boys will usually watch another tv show or a Signing Time dvd or one of their educational dvds and have a snack and drink. Then we mostly just play. I've been taking them to the back yard and they love it. It's nice to have such a large (maybe not large, but much bigger than the backyards at our previous few houses) back yard. They like kicking and throwing balls, climbing and sliding on their slide, scooting around on their cars, and throwing dead grass on me (I'm not a fan of that last one). It's been the perfect temperature lately, but the mosquitoes are horrible, so we need to figure out something we can do about that.
Glen gets home around 5:15 so we catch up and the boys pretty much go crazy. I also start getting dinner going around this time.
6:00 is dinner time. We've just started being able to give the boys what we eat. It's so nice when I find a meal that I don't have to give them any extras. And because they're eating our food, it forces me to make sure it's healthier. Micah loves broccoli these days and he likes it with nothing more than salt on it. He's eaten some raw carrots recently and will eat peas or corn if they're in something else. Luke is harder to please, so I have to sneak veggies into the things he does like to eat. My favorite sneaky food lately is fruit smoothies with raw spinach in them.
After dinner the boys play with Daddy while I clean up. If it's early enough he'll take them for a wagon ride around the block before it gets dark. They enjoy getting out and he often lets them get out and walk for the last hundred yards or so.
Around 7:15 we start cleaning up the toys and "kid mess". The boys are sometimes good about helping. The nights they do help are great and keep us asking them to help every night. If it's a bath night (every two or three nights) we get them into the bath around 7:15. We try to get them into their room by 7:40 or so and do diapers/potty, pajamas, sleep sacks, devotions and other stories, brush teeth, and pray. We alternate which kid we pray for and lay down (I have Micah on the odd number days). Micah usually asks for water as soon as we lay him down, so we'll give him a half full cup of water to keep with him. He likes to have his door open until he falls asleep, Luke doesn't seem to mind his door being closed. We aim to have them in bed at 8:00. And then we RELAX!
Around 7:00 the boys wake up. Sometimes it's as early as 6:30 and sometimes as late as 7:30, but 7 is probably the average. Micah has been sleeping in the pack n play in the guest room. It started probably about 6 weeks ago when we were having trouble with his sleep. He acted like he was scared to be in his room without either Glen or I. It was taking forever for him to go to sleep and then he'd wake up multiple times in the middle of the night. The only sure way to get him to sleep was to have him in the pack n play in our room. We got tired of that pretty quickly, though, so we tried him out in the guest room and it was like magic. Suddenly both boys were sleeping through the night and falling asleep in their rooms without us needing to sit in there with them at naptime and bedtime.
I give the boys milk in their sippy cups pretty soon after they get up and they watch a show on tv while I either shower or just attempt to drink my coffee in peace.
8 or 8:30 we have breakfast. A week or two ago I started scooting their highchairs up to the table without the trays, so they're sitting like big boys (but are strapped in!). Typically they have a fruit (banana, strawberries, applesauce, yogurt) and a grain (cold cereal, pancakes, waffles, toast, bagel) and milk.
9 ish to 10 ish - Morning play time while I clean up from breakfast. They like to help me empty the dishwasher which is kind of fun. I have to be quick before they can grab anything sharp or breakable. I get them dressed which always seems to take forever as they like to run away and wrestle with each other.
Most days we get out of the house between 10 and 11:30. We'll do our shopping, go to the library, play at the mall, and now that it's cooling off, we can play at the park. It seems there's always an errand to run, though, and I have a hard time mustering the energy to do more than two stops.
12:00 - Lunch. This is a difficult time for me because I usually don't know until just before lunch what I want to eat. We have a few standbys, though. They like nachos, quesadillas, grilled cheese, pb&j sandwiches, pizza, fish sticks, and more. I also try to give them a fruit and sometimes I give them a veggie. They also drink milk again.
12:30-12:45ish I get them down for their naps. We go straight from lunch to naps. I change their diapers and take Micah to the potty. Put them into sleep sacks and we read a couple books together in the rocking chair. Then I put Luke in his crib and carry Micah over to "his" room.
Sometimes I'm good and clean up from lunch right away and sometimes I'm just too tired and figure I'll do it later. Most days I lay down during naptime, sometimes I sleep and sometimes I just read, but I really enjoy that time to recharge.
The boys typically sleep two hours, sometimes they'll sleep up to three hours if I'll let them. I think we've decided not to let Micah sleep more than 2 1/2. Luke seems to do fine no matter how long he naps, so I let him sleep, but usually he's the first to wake at naptime.
We're pretty lazy in the afternoons. I don't really like doing errands in the afternoons because it's hard to get out of the house before 3:30. The boys will usually watch another tv show or a Signing Time dvd or one of their educational dvds and have a snack and drink. Then we mostly just play. I've been taking them to the back yard and they love it. It's nice to have such a large (maybe not large, but much bigger than the backyards at our previous few houses) back yard. They like kicking and throwing balls, climbing and sliding on their slide, scooting around on their cars, and throwing dead grass on me (I'm not a fan of that last one). It's been the perfect temperature lately, but the mosquitoes are horrible, so we need to figure out something we can do about that.
Glen gets home around 5:15 so we catch up and the boys pretty much go crazy. I also start getting dinner going around this time.
6:00 is dinner time. We've just started being able to give the boys what we eat. It's so nice when I find a meal that I don't have to give them any extras. And because they're eating our food, it forces me to make sure it's healthier. Micah loves broccoli these days and he likes it with nothing more than salt on it. He's eaten some raw carrots recently and will eat peas or corn if they're in something else. Luke is harder to please, so I have to sneak veggies into the things he does like to eat. My favorite sneaky food lately is fruit smoothies with raw spinach in them.
After dinner the boys play with Daddy while I clean up. If it's early enough he'll take them for a wagon ride around the block before it gets dark. They enjoy getting out and he often lets them get out and walk for the last hundred yards or so.
Around 7:15 we start cleaning up the toys and "kid mess". The boys are sometimes good about helping. The nights they do help are great and keep us asking them to help every night. If it's a bath night (every two or three nights) we get them into the bath around 7:15. We try to get them into their room by 7:40 or so and do diapers/potty, pajamas, sleep sacks, devotions and other stories, brush teeth, and pray. We alternate which kid we pray for and lay down (I have Micah on the odd number days). Micah usually asks for water as soon as we lay him down, so we'll give him a half full cup of water to keep with him. He likes to have his door open until he falls asleep, Luke doesn't seem to mind his door being closed. We aim to have them in bed at 8:00. And then we RELAX!
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Time flies
Oh my, it's been over four months since I last posted anything. I have so much to catch up with, but every time I think about it, I feel overwhelmed with the task and end up not doing anything. Ugh.
Well, the biggest news around here is that Luke and Micah will become big brothers in February. We found out this week that we're having another boy. I'm so excited for my (big) boys to have a little brother.
Micah has been talking up a storm. I think he may be a tad behind where he should be, but I can definitely see growth and improvement in his language and speech recently. He's just started forming two word phrases which is fun to hear. He's starting to identify colors. He's pretty accuarate too. Yesterday I came out of my bedroom wearing a gray t-shirt and he pointed to my shirt and said, "Gray!" He's also started identifying letters. He is amazingly good at it too. I'd guess he knows at least half of the alphabet (this is from me writing down a letter and asking what it is, out of order). He'll identify letters he sees on signs outside the van window or in books we're reading or on pictures/decorations hanging on the wall. Micah has developed an interest in dinosaurs recently. For a while it was trains and any other transportation type vehicle. Then we started watching Dinosaur Train on PBS and he's hooked. I found a pair of pajamas at Costco this week that is covered in pictures of dinosaurs. He pretty much hasn't let those out of his sight in several days. I recently got out their duplo legos that have been hiding away for a while and he really enjoys indentifying the colors of the blocks and stacking them. It's a double-edged sword because as much as he loves them, he gets pretty easily frustrated if he can't get them to stick together or if they fall under the pressure he exerts. He's been doing pretty well with going potty on his little potty chair before naps and before bed. He asks to go at those times and at least half the time he'll actually go. Sometimes I can suggest it and he'll willingly go, sometimes just sit there, but sometimes actually go potty. I decided to try some potty training yesterday and it was a fail. He had four accidents before lunch and I gave up. Three of those accidents were because he was mad at me for things like turning off the tv or putting him in time out. This morning when I got him up I asked if he wanted to go potty and he almost threw a fit about not going so I just put a diaper on him. It's not worth the fight at this point.
Luke is doing awesome with his speaking and signing. I would guess he's saying a new word each day. He doesn't always use that word again, but he'll hear us say something and he'll repeat it back. For the longest time his affirmative answer was "uh-huh". I would always say "yes" or "yes please" back to him. And just this week he's started saying "yes" instead of "uh huh". He's great about signing thank you when we say it. His favorite phrase (for the last many months) is "what's that?" That's tough to answer when we're looking through a Dr. Seuss book with all his crazy creatures. Luke is still receiving speech therapy two times per month, occupational therapy once a month, and just started physical therapy once a month. The OT has been helping mostly with the food issues we've had. He's such a picky eater and very particular about textures. We're making progress and he's willing to try just about anything we offer him. I'm starting to accept that he just doesn't care for vegetables. He also doesn't like pasta. A couple weeks ago he discovered he loves steak and poor Daddy had to share a lot of his meal with Luke and Micah. We're working on helping him feed himself with a spoon and a fork. He seems to think it's much easier and more effecient to pick up the food with his fingers - even cold cereal as cold as his hand gets from multiple dunks in the cold milk - and he's probably right. The physical therapist has only seen him twice. Once for an eval in our house and then we met last week at a park. She seemed happy with his abilities, but did note that he favors one side of his body and tires easily. She said she sees good motor planning, which I guess means he thinks through how he's going to accomplish certain tasks like stepping over a curb or down from a step. She worked with him on stepping up stairs using handrails and after a little practice he seemed to remember what he was supposed to do. I'm supposed to get him out in big open fields to run and run (thankfully he and Micah like to run around and chase each other so I don't have to do it). We're still not sure if we're looking at long term delays in these areas or if he'll be able to catch up with his peers. The PT wanted to make sure I understand that any progress he makes is worth celebrating even if it means he continues to be behind his brother. I agree and I think we do celebrate and marvel at his accomplishments, but it's still hard to see the gap widening between Luke and Micah.
A funny story from this week. Glen had a work thing to be at on Thursday night so I did baths and bedtime on my own (which by the way is a TON easier at this stage than it was a year ago or even 6 months ago). I had two naked boys in their room working on one of them to get his diaper on and pajamas. The other started saying "uh-oh" over and over again. When I finally looked down, he was backing away from a pile of poo saying "uh oh". I said something about it being messy or poo or something and he said, "meow". I think he was trying to blame it on the cat!
Well, the biggest news around here is that Luke and Micah will become big brothers in February. We found out this week that we're having another boy. I'm so excited for my (big) boys to have a little brother.
Micah has been talking up a storm. I think he may be a tad behind where he should be, but I can definitely see growth and improvement in his language and speech recently. He's just started forming two word phrases which is fun to hear. He's starting to identify colors. He's pretty accuarate too. Yesterday I came out of my bedroom wearing a gray t-shirt and he pointed to my shirt and said, "Gray!" He's also started identifying letters. He is amazingly good at it too. I'd guess he knows at least half of the alphabet (this is from me writing down a letter and asking what it is, out of order). He'll identify letters he sees on signs outside the van window or in books we're reading or on pictures/decorations hanging on the wall. Micah has developed an interest in dinosaurs recently. For a while it was trains and any other transportation type vehicle. Then we started watching Dinosaur Train on PBS and he's hooked. I found a pair of pajamas at Costco this week that is covered in pictures of dinosaurs. He pretty much hasn't let those out of his sight in several days. I recently got out their duplo legos that have been hiding away for a while and he really enjoys indentifying the colors of the blocks and stacking them. It's a double-edged sword because as much as he loves them, he gets pretty easily frustrated if he can't get them to stick together or if they fall under the pressure he exerts. He's been doing pretty well with going potty on his little potty chair before naps and before bed. He asks to go at those times and at least half the time he'll actually go. Sometimes I can suggest it and he'll willingly go, sometimes just sit there, but sometimes actually go potty. I decided to try some potty training yesterday and it was a fail. He had four accidents before lunch and I gave up. Three of those accidents were because he was mad at me for things like turning off the tv or putting him in time out. This morning when I got him up I asked if he wanted to go potty and he almost threw a fit about not going so I just put a diaper on him. It's not worth the fight at this point.
Luke is doing awesome with his speaking and signing. I would guess he's saying a new word each day. He doesn't always use that word again, but he'll hear us say something and he'll repeat it back. For the longest time his affirmative answer was "uh-huh". I would always say "yes" or "yes please" back to him. And just this week he's started saying "yes" instead of "uh huh". He's great about signing thank you when we say it. His favorite phrase (for the last many months) is "what's that?" That's tough to answer when we're looking through a Dr. Seuss book with all his crazy creatures. Luke is still receiving speech therapy two times per month, occupational therapy once a month, and just started physical therapy once a month. The OT has been helping mostly with the food issues we've had. He's such a picky eater and very particular about textures. We're making progress and he's willing to try just about anything we offer him. I'm starting to accept that he just doesn't care for vegetables. He also doesn't like pasta. A couple weeks ago he discovered he loves steak and poor Daddy had to share a lot of his meal with Luke and Micah. We're working on helping him feed himself with a spoon and a fork. He seems to think it's much easier and more effecient to pick up the food with his fingers - even cold cereal as cold as his hand gets from multiple dunks in the cold milk - and he's probably right. The physical therapist has only seen him twice. Once for an eval in our house and then we met last week at a park. She seemed happy with his abilities, but did note that he favors one side of his body and tires easily. She said she sees good motor planning, which I guess means he thinks through how he's going to accomplish certain tasks like stepping over a curb or down from a step. She worked with him on stepping up stairs using handrails and after a little practice he seemed to remember what he was supposed to do. I'm supposed to get him out in big open fields to run and run (thankfully he and Micah like to run around and chase each other so I don't have to do it). We're still not sure if we're looking at long term delays in these areas or if he'll be able to catch up with his peers. The PT wanted to make sure I understand that any progress he makes is worth celebrating even if it means he continues to be behind his brother. I agree and I think we do celebrate and marvel at his accomplishments, but it's still hard to see the gap widening between Luke and Micah.
A funny story from this week. Glen had a work thing to be at on Thursday night so I did baths and bedtime on my own (which by the way is a TON easier at this stage than it was a year ago or even 6 months ago). I had two naked boys in their room working on one of them to get his diaper on and pajamas. The other started saying "uh-oh" over and over again. When I finally looked down, he was backing away from a pile of poo saying "uh oh". I said something about it being messy or poo or something and he said, "meow". I think he was trying to blame it on the cat!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
