So much spinning around in my head. School starts this week. So my monkey boy starts Kindergarten. Tomorrow is a gradual entrance day, so we go part of the day. (yes me too). Then Friday is his first full day, so the whole family will be there to watch him get on the bus because it’s Ken’s Friday off. Not sure how I feel about this full day Kindergarten. Actually this whole every child left behind program still gets on my nerves, even 8 years later. They put so much pressure on kids so young. When do they get to be kids? They need to know the stuff we learned in first grade before they even get into Kindergarten. The school year gets longer and longer, I mean if you’re going to go to full year schooling then do it already. Just break up the year so that there are three, 1 month breaks between sessions. I think that’s reasonable. They keep making the year longer so you know what I have no trouble taking my kids out of school to do things I think are important for family or culture. I know my mom worked around the various in-service days and breaks to do thinks like take us to DC to visit the museums, and on family trips to places we’d never been. I feel it made me a more rounded student. I graduated in the top 10% of my class. Heh, by my last semester I had 3 study halls because I’d taken all my required classes and then some, so I usually had no homework to take home because it was done in school. I spent a lot of time wandering the halls camera in hand. (It’s good to be on the yearbook committee/staff)

Of course that’s all beside the point. I know my husband will be laughing at my Friday as I start crying because my big (little) boy gets on the bus. Though I think October will be even worse because then the munchkin will be doing the same thing 3 afternoons a week. Hopefully I’ll be able to be productive in those few hours alone in the house. Maybe I’ll even get to the gym twice a week. Or maybe I’ll paint the spare room so we can move the boys in there before November. Man, getting back into a school year schedule is hard. We’ll actually have to go up to visit my mom at Thanksgiving instead of a week or two earlier, like we have been the last five years. I guess that’s fair, Thanksgiving with my mom, Christmas with Ken’s family.

The weirdest thing happened yesterday while we were at our final playgroup picnic of the summer. I had two different people asking me how much I charged for my photography services. The little girl I took newborn pictures of back in Feb is going to be Christened and her mom wants pictures of her in her gown. Another friend was asking for someone else, her friend had just spent a boatload at Picture People for portrait of her twins and older daughter. I made sure Dawn knew to tell her that my photos weren’t going to be standard portrait style photos, they’d be closer to a lifestyle portrait. She made be asking for a digital page as well. Going to have to figure out pricing for that now since I’ll have to cover the cost of a professional use license on any of my scrapbooking kits I use.

Hmmm what else, oh yeah I saw a commercial while at my mom’s that really pissed me off. The whole immunization thing just pushes my buttons now. The commercial was for an organization that wants to make all kids get all their immunizations by age two. From all the reading and research I’ve done my feeling is age two is when we should just be starting to give our kids immunization and most certainly they shouldn’t be getting 6 different vaccines at one time. I don’t know how the medical community can say that bombarding our babies with that many things at once is going to be good for them. Ok I’m going to stop because I just make myself mad all over again. I’ll just say that I’m not against vaccines at all, they are important, it’s the stupid schedule they have set up that really grinds my gears.

On to better things Quin has become so much more responsive this summer. The only thing I wish I could change would be the speed with which his brain rewires itself. I can see how frustrated he gets when trying to vocalize. He really has to work hard to consciously get even simple sounds like ahahah, eeee, oooo , mamama, bababa, brbrbrbr out when he wants to. He makes all of those sounds unconsciously when he is playing but when he’s trying during speech classes, I can see the frustration in his face. He watches everything so closely now. When ever we play Here Come the ABC’s by They Might be Giants, he watches my mouth as I sing and I can see him trying to form the same mouth shapes. So it’s a start. His imitation skills overall are becoming much better. He does the motions now for several song games, and I’ve even seen him trying to copy Alex and his silly duck walk. Alex has developed a fascination with shaking his butt at people (mostly me and Ken) when he’s dancing around. I do have to gate Quin into his room now at night. Opening the door is now fully mastered, he’ll spend a good 15 minutes opening and closing his door once I’ve tucked him in for the night.

It’s funny while we were at my mom’s Quin tried a couple time so throw a temper tantrum. My mom just shook her head as I tried to keep from laughing. He is no where near the master of the tantrum that his brother is. I swear sometimes I was given Alex first so that I would think dealing with Quin’s Autism was easy. Okay that’s all I can think of at the moment. Other than hoping next year’s Adobe crop doesn’t fall the same weekend as Blogher. I’m hoping after the big consignment sale next month, I’m selling all the baby gear, I’ll have enough to pay for Blogher, and Christmas presents. A weekend up in NYC would be a nice treat for me.

here's the long one

Summer just seems to be speeding by. I know the first two weeks of June were crazy with activities and getting ready for Monkey Boy’s preschool graduation. The munchkin has class through the first week in August, so except for vacations and short trips we’re still keeping a schedule instead of freeforming our summer. He starts back up end of Aug when school starts for the district. He’ll stay with infants and toddlers until his birthday then moves to the early intervention program. So this fall instead of watching just my oldest get on the bus to go to school, I have to deal with watching my baby do the same thing three afternoons a week. Bleh, I tear up just thinking about it. I know it’s best for him but it’s so hard. And I know it’s good for me too. I mean I can safely say my baby fever is completely gone, mostly because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Actual clumps of time to use as I wish. I’ve started to clean all the baby stuff and get it ready for consignment. The stuff like the changing table, that is damaged or was a hand-me-down to us will go to freecycle. Monkey Boy has decided he wishes to share a room with his little brother. So we’re going to repaint the guest room (which is the largest bedroom beside the mater bedroom) and move both boys in. I’ll take Monkey Boy’s room for my office and we’ll make the Munchkin’s room the new guest room. This also frees up space in the family room. Maybe we’ll set up a work/activity space there for the boys.

Let’s see we spent a week in Tenn at my dad’s lake house. I think this wet spring they (we all had) caused mold to grow in their house because all three males in my family were stuffed up while we were there and fine once we got on the road home. Ken was the worst, he developed a sinus infection. We also spent a few days at Rehobeth Beach while my mom was down last week. The boys loved the giant sand box, not so in love with the ocean itself yet. I’ll come I hope. I remember growing up the week we spent in Ocean City every summer was the highlight. I think my mom and aunts had to make us, my sister, cousins and I, come out of the water every day at 4 pm. We’d be in there from the time we hit the beach after breakfast until it was time to go up and shower and change for dinner, with a brief break for lunch.

We were supposed to have one more trip this summer. This one was suppose to be for Disney. But Ken has a business trip that overlaps the end of our Orlando trip. So we’ve post poned until April next year. Well the other problem was the vacation club resort thing we were taking this trip on changed their income requirements for the Orlando resort. So our choice at this point is to flush two hundred down the drain or take a trip to Myrtle Beach. We’ll probably end up losing the money because I think our Deep Creek Lake family reunion is next summer. The kids won’t be out of school until mid June and we go to my dad’s for a week end of June/ early July. Unless its’ a short trip I just feel three week long trips a summer is a bit much. Anyway with the Disney trip postponed I’ll take the boys up to see my mom while Ken is on his business trip. That’s always good for fall clothes shopping anyway.

The munchkin is just amazing me with his gains in comprehension and motor skill development. He now actually participates in several song games like Happy and You Know it with out prompting for any of the actions. I can hear him humming/singing along too even if he has no words he’s carrying a tune. He’s starting to do more imaginative play with the little people farm animals. When Monkey Boy gets the art supplies out he joins us and at least tries for 5-10 minutes. I knew this was coming just didn’t expect it so soon after the move to the toddler bed but he figured out how to turn the door handle. The other morning I could tell he wasn’t feeling well but I couldn’t really figure out what hurt. While we were up in his room I had asked him what hurt and touched his forehead and nose. No real reaction except to turn his head away. We go down stairs and he was doing his ahahahah whine/cry he uses when he isn’t feeling well. Then he took my hand put it on his ear, then put it on his head and finally put it on the side of his neck. He was telling me where is hurt. With his new awareness he has become very clingy with me. I sometimes can’t even leave the room with out him either crying or following me. I mean it’s good, it’s just something I expected to deal with 18 months ago or so. His teacher said once we come back end of August until October when he starts early intervention we’ll start doing some separation exercises in class. I’ll drop him off and go get coffee or visit the library instead of staying and participating like I do right now.

Monkey Boy has been putting much more effort in trying to be center of attention. I guess he’s really noticing the concentration of other people working with the Munchkin. I try and spend time doing things alone with both boys but I find A. really interferes when I’m trying to work with Q, so Q is getting short changed by both me and Ken. It’s actually been an issue the one day a week he joins us at the Munchkin’s class. He doesn’t do this when he’s at school. His teachers have said he is polite and helpful, if a little sensitive. But he never acts out when he doesn’t get his way. When he’s with us at Q’s class that is exactly what he does and it is very disruptive. It’s hard enough for some of the moms, as their kids already have behavior issues with out my normally helpful older son having a temper tantrum because he didn’t get to pick a song at circle time. We have talked to him about this several time. Even the teachers at the program have talked to him. Well just two more weeks. He’ll start full day Kindergarten before Q’s class starts back up.

We’re now in the process of determining if Q has an allergy to corn or if it’s something more along the lines of celiac disease, with the problem being corn instead of gluten. Celiac does run in my family. My mom and at least one of my aunts has it. So to me it’s not outside the realm of possibility that something similar is possible with corn. I already make an effort to mostly shop only the edges of the grocery store. It amazes me beyond belief how many things have high fructose corn syrup in them. I don’t always have time to make my own snack foods. Thank goodness for goldfish. But boy does reading labels slow shopping down.
Ken’s computer has finally died after six years. And after years of always getting custom built systems he’s decided to just customize either and HP or a Dell. Just trying options to see which will get us the better deal. So I’ve had that to deal with along with the full page list I was given by Monkey Boy’s school of supplies he needs for the first day of school.

back post then a long one

I know it’s been forever since I posted in here. First up I’m going to post something I wrote a couple months ago. I incorporated a most of it in a page I did last month.


5/30/09

Just doing a huge brain dump as Dianne calls them. So not sure how much sense any of his will make. Maybe if I get it out I can figure out how much I want to post on my much negelected blog.

It dawned on me the other day I am /have been, in mourning. In mourning for my beautiful baby boy. Knowing something was not quite right but trying so hard not to compare him to his rambunctious, talkative, imaginative older brother. Getting help for his developmental delays and then finding a program that worked so well for him. First the testing last fall and hearing PDD NOS, I know it was a starting point and had to convince my husband that yes this is the right track. He’s not just laid back and letting his brother do the talking. Then in February the follow up testing and the confirmation it was autism. From there I went into research mode, everything from what caused it to seeing what therapies were out there. Seeing if what we’re doing is enough, if we need to do more or add alternatives. Find what schools are out there and get recommendations. Mostly I see the huge progress he’s made since September. He laughs now, spontaneously, in the last week alone I’ve seen him do things he’s never done before, like Clap with out prompting, and make that fake cheesy smile when he sees me with the camera. You know the one, every kid does it until age 7 or 8. He’ll tackle me when I sit on the floor and get upset if I don’t kiss his hands before lights out at bed time. I can brush his teeth without protest, he holds my hand when we walk now, and can zip and unzip his jacket on his own. I can see him making connections. When we show him flash cards he can pick the one we describe with out saying the actual word. Like, “What do you wear on your head?” Instead of just saying hat. It's funny how much of this you take for granted that your child will do all these things and seeing him not being able to do them is heart wrenching.

Its things like this that make you realize how much you love your kids but how differently too. From day one my love for Q. has been fierce. I wanted to hold him tight and never let go. Monkey Boy I want to see fly, to see him set his imagination free and just be amazing. I want to push him and help him expand his horizons, to question and learn (no matter how much it drives me crazy some days) I want to see the mnchkin grow too but he always felt more grounded to me, gentler in some ways. A. is always dramatic and sometimes explosive, very changeable, but very fixated at the same time. He sees things one way based on how it was presented to him the first time, and doesn’t easily let that go. I feel like a mother bear sometimes with Q, I always have I want to protect him, keep him safe. I guess the mourning is a way of coming to terms with what I feel is my failure to do just that.

There was a meeting this week for the munchkin’s IEP. On his third birthday this fall he moves from the infants and toddlers program to the early intervention program in the school district. I wish they did something like this for all kids. I think somewhere down the road A will need one too. I worry that when he hits that awkward middle school age he’ll lose interest and get bored if he’s not given strong goals. See Q is taken care of, but I want to see Monkey Boy meet his potential as well.

Of course all the reading is starting to make me very mad. Especially with the medical establishment and their one size fits all attitude towards so many things. I’ve had some random conversations that have clarified some of the things rolling around in my head. In essence we’re all just ticking time bombs, genetically. We all have predispositions and the wrong environmental trigger can set it off. I saw a FAQ posted on the wall, in the exam room at our pediatrician’s office the other day. I had taken my older son in because of the fever he was running. It was about immunizations, one of the questions was Will immunizations overwhelm my child’s system. The explanation took most of the page but essentially it said no. I was so annoyed reading that because it is so wrong, so much apart of the one size fits all. Yes, immunizations can overwhelm a child’s system. I’m not saying I wouldn’t immunize my children if I could do it all again but I would certainly space everything out more and I would not use the combo shots. Hell, my kids had more shots in their first 9 months that I had in my first twelve years. And I’m of course mad that I ignored the whole immunization debate when I was pregnant the first time. I would have known that Hep B is unnecessary for an infant, in this country, unless there are other factors mostly dealing with the mother. I think what I’m pissed most about is that the states require all these shots by the time they are five. Why can’t they be spaced out even more, because you think people won’t get it done, that’s bull. I keep thinking if I had even considered family histories and thought about what was in the genetic soup that made my boys I would have known better than to just follow along. That’s my bad habit of taking the path of least resistance. I’ve started to hear things like the chicken pox vaccine may not work so well and that a booster is needed. I keep thinking why bother, as miserable as it was I’d almost rather my kids actually got chicken pox. Now I wouldn’t want them to get measles or mumps, I know I was glad I never had them but I question the safety of the MMR vaccine and would have preferred individual shots for those. I don’t know if it’s the metals they use in the vaccines or the combinations and quantity that overwhelmed his system and triggered Q. But I think the medical establishment really needs to start listening to parents and stop going off on wild goose chases in terms of research. To actually test vaccines thoroughly before having us inject them into our children. As my husband says in some ways they’re trying to play god and cure everything with out looking at the long term effects, with out knowing how our bodies work and react. I’ve been reading about the whole controversy with Dr Wakefield and the studies he did in the 90’s that first brought the MMR vaccine into question. They accuse him of saying children shouldn’t be vaccinated, when what he said was more studies needed to be made and in the meantime the MMR should not be used, but the individual vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella , that had been around for much longer should be. That there was a possible correlation between it and autism spectrum disorders but a much more extensive study was needed.

I’m mad at how narrow minded some doctors are about some of the alternative therapies. If a change in diet helps eliminate some of the behavioral problems, that then allows the more conventional OT and Speech Therapies work better, why not tell parents about them. I mean if a child is miserable because gas and intestinal problems, how are they to concentrate. If they aren’t getting all the nutrients they need because they’re bodies can’t process certain foods, how can they pay attention. One of the other moms, who has a son the in same program as the Munchkin, was doing her own research. She had started looking into getting a DAN doctor for her son. She’d asked for input from the doctor that had tested her son at Kennedy Krieger. The reply she got was so scathing about any alternative therapies, she started crying and questioning her decisions. All she wants is to help her son, just like I do, but the medical establishment sure doesn’t make it easy. Where as the therapists who have been working with our children were so much more supportive. They have seen the difference in behavior just changing to a GFCF diet can make. How much more receptive to therapies a child can be. And no it doesn’t work for every child, why should it we’re all different. Most of the websites I’ve looked at say try it for 3 months if you see a difference then you’ve eliminated one road block, if it doesn’t work at least you’re looking.

I get mad at myself too thinking about all the toxic things in just my home most especially cleaners, that I didn’t eliminate until Q was almost 8 months old. How I thought that recycling and not using processed food was enough for helping the environment, not really thinking about doing more. In the back of my mind I knew less toxins on this earth was better, healthier for my kids but again following the path of least resistance.

As you can see I’m all over the place. Guess its part of the process, I only wish it hadn’t affected my creativity. It’s not that I don’t have any ideas; it’s that I no longer seem to have the motivation to actually create them. I think that must be part of the process too. I’m sure one day the fountain will open up once more.

A few things happened in the week following the munchkin's diagnosis that made it easier to come to terms. The first happened at work. A former coworker stopped in and was chatting with all the people he remembered who still worked there. He asked about the boys. I mentioned how I go from being elated that Monkey Boy starts school full time in September to near tears at the same thought. And then I mentioned how we were told the munchkin had autism. Brad started asking some very insightful questions. Then he explained his brother has autism. Growing up together he didn't really pay attention to all that was going on, they're very close in age (year and a half, not sure who is older) So his brother is in his mid to late 20's and has graduated college. And some of the things like the hand posturing when excited are still there but to a much smaller extent. Family and friends don't really think about because to them that is just how he is.

The second came from the service co-ordinator with the school district. She mentioned how she feels Q is on the verge of talking and his cognition is very high. To the point he can match written words to pictures of the same items. She wanted permission to start early reading exercises with him. She also said that the three year old program for children with developmental delay will be good for him. Though she didn't feel the autism program the school distric runs would be a good fit, the children in that program tend to have a lot of behavioral issues in addition to the learning, communication issues. She agreed with me that Q's behavioral problems are entirely age appropriate. She laughed when I mentioned that Q's tantrums aren't nearly as bad as the ones A can throw. (She's met A).

I can usually head off most of his tantrums, the only ones that are hard are the ones caused by Monkey Boy. It doesn't seem to sink in, no matter how many times I explain it, or how many different ways I explain it. The Munchkin plays with things for five maybe ten minutes max. Just let him play he'll put it down and move on to something else. Monkey Boy still rips toys out of his hands. Most the time Munchkin shrugs it off and moves on to something else. Sometimes he protests by pushing MonkeyBoy, then moving on. But certain things will set him into full tantrum. He has a set of Nick Jr books he absolutely loves. He looks through them or brings them to me to read. At the end he closes them and puts them back, you can't inturrupt the routine or you get munchkin on the ground crying, kicking and flailing. It doesn't matter if Monkey Boy was on the otherside of the room playing with something else he will come over and take whatever his brother has in his hands, incuding these books. :sigh:

Oh and the other joy of having boys. Monkey Boy told me the other day as we were coming home from preschool, that he was going to have lots of surprises for me for my birthday. "Girl ones" He sits behind me in the car so with all the car noises I don't always hear everything. I hear this "that was one of your surprises" "What was?" "I burped, it's one of your surprises" "Gee thanks, honey." "Oh that was a boy one."

I guess I should give up and just say I'm and occasional poster. It's not that I don't have stories to tell or things to say. It's just at the end ofthe day I'm so burnt out I'd rather just goof off. 4 days a week I'm running until mid afternoon. Sundays I can take it slow but I have to work in the evening. Saturday has been birthday party day whether or not Ken has a wedding to shoot. So Friday is my one day to chill, which I can only kind of do with two kids in the house. Not getting dressed until noon on Friday is one of my small pleasures. I can hop online for 10-15 minute stints during the day but that's not enough time to do anything but read mail and catch up on other people's lives. And when monkey boy is in the house I can't concentrate on much of anything, he knows two volumes loud and screaming. Boy I miss nap times. Then again I cry everytime I think about him starting Kindergarten in the fall.

Anyway what got me to finally post is the munchkin. I took him to Kennedy Kreiger's CARD(Center for Autism and Related Disorders) for follow up testing. Last October we were given a diagnosis of PDD NOS. But the doctor felt he was still a bit young to pin down an exact diagnosis. Friday we were told Autism. I know this seems like a worse diagnosis and even though I was kind of expecting it I was still crying. The doctor was able to put things in perspective for me. She said there is a lot of argument in the field about diagnosis and criteria for the various spectrum disorders. So until things are changed she goes by the criteria listed in the DSM IV. There is specific criteria for both Autism Disorder and Asperger's Syndrome, if a child doesn't fit either one they are given a diagnosis of PDD NOS, kind of a catch all. Within each disorder there is a scale of how severe it is. Any where from severely mental retarded, and needing full time care, to very bright and fully functional. She did say based on the progess he's made, the program we have is a good one. If we find we need more help or different help to let her know and she can help us contact the right people.

This whole thing makes me worry so much for my sweet boy. I know he's bright but I also know he doesn't learn things the way school districts like to box kids into. I'm not worried so much about elementary school, it's when he gets older, middle and high school. Heh I worry about both of them getting to that age. I fear monkey boy won't be challenged enough, in the middle years. I know our high schools have very good advanced and AP classes, it's making sure he gets there.

Well while I was pondering all this I realized what my complaint of lack of creativity the last year really was. My output in 2008 was only slightly down from 2007. What I missed was the easy flow I had from shortly after the munchkin was born until early 2008. It was about this time last year that I started thinking something was wrong. He had his 15 month appointment and was barely walking on his own, only had three words, and had lots of trouble with fine motor skills, didn't turn when his name was called. Our pediatrician suggested hearing testing and if things didn't significantly change he'd suggest additional testing. So basically my head has been in a whole nuther space the last year. I guess knowing for sure is a starting point, and we can figure out where we need to go along the way. But it may be a while before my flow comes back.

Maybe I'll update everything but for right now the last day or two.

I can't believe it. Alex actually slept in until 7:15 this morning. And yes this is sleeping in he's usually up at 5:30. I think it's because we finally convinced him he doesn't need to sleep with a lamp on. Shortly after his 3rd birthday he was having nightmares (nightmirrors as he calls them) regularly. We couldn't figure out what was causing them, could have just been a cumulation of changes going on at the time. Anyway he wanted to sleep with the overhead light on. I vetoed that immediately. I found an old reading lamp and put it on the otherside of the room. It wasn't really an issue when he was still napping but last spring his naps got very irregular (they're now a thing of the past except when he's sick). I noticed dark circles under his eyes on a regular basis. By late spring as he went to bed he insisted we cover his head with the blanket. At the time I suggested we turn the lamp off. He wasn't having it. This fall I noticed when we visited my mom he had no trouble at all sleeping without a lamp on. Since we were all sharing a room I wasn't giving him an option other than a regular night light. After our last trip up just before Thanksgiving, I decided we'd start turning it off when we went to bed. I have him a warning that we'd start once Ken was on leave for the holidays. Yesterday we went out and Amanda (our sitter) told me when we got home that he didn't want it on at all when he went to bed. He was fine with just his nightlight. Then this morning my little alarm clock over slept.

Alex is a trip lately. He hugged our Christmas tree the day we brought it home. Then last weekend he noticed I had put some things in their stockings. He came into our room and asked if he could see what was in them. I said no, he couldn't look until Christmas eve. Well that set off a wail of ear shattering proportion. I told him it was fine to be upset and he could cry about it but he did not need to scream at the top of his lung about it. So he's standing there in our room quivering a he cried. He actually looked like he was in pain keeping the volume to a normal level. So I told him if he wanted to scream he could go in his room and close his door. I just don't want to hear right next to me. I got up walked him to his room, he sat on the floor then let loose. I got Quin out of bed, dressed him then took him downstairs. A good fifteen minutes later he came down still a little tearful but calm. I'm surprised his throat didn't hurt screaming for that long.

The final Alex thing I'll leave you with will be song lyrics translated by a four year old (or almost 5 year old as he says) Not sure what the song is it was on Disney channel and part of it goes

dig a little deeper, dig a little deeper

well Alex sang as he walked upstairs to bed

"I'm a little tea butt, I'm a little tea butt"


kids are just crazy

Good lord you'd think was avoiding my own blog. I could have sworn I posted in here before now.

This has kind of been sitting in the back of my mind for a couple years. Going into some sort of photography business. Mostly because my husband suggested it after he saw the portraits I took of the boys for our Christmas card right after Quin was born. That combined with what the moms in our playgroup have said tie and again about the stuff I shoot for them, well it got me thinking. Just right now with running here and there for Quin it's not an option. Maybe once he's in the preschool program for the county next fall.

This is from my journal after our trip to Kennedy Krieger:

Yesterday was a long day. Ken came with us to Quin's Tuesday class. He got to
see how things are run and how Quin does in class. Came home for a quick lunch
dropped Alex at his friend Riley's house. He was in heaven he got to play with
his best friend two days in a row. Then we drove to B-more for Quin's
assessment. It went well but you could tell by the end he was one tired camper.
The doctor basically said his cognitive skills were 18-21 months but his
language skills are still about a year behind. Based on some of the other skills
she tested he falls somewhere between a plain old language delay and PDD
NOS(pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified) though closer to
PDD than language delay. He is interactive and does model other behaviors, and
doesn't require some of the regimented routines autistic children can need. She
said not to be surprised if he still isn't talking six months down the road but
we should start using a few signs like more, all done, eat, drink, sleep just to
help him get his basic needs covered. She did think he probably would be using
signs spontaniously in the next six month though. Besides the music therapy
class we're taking she suggested we play music in the background at home most of
the time because that seems to wake up the part of the brain we need to get him
using language. He will probably have a hard time with reading at first. Doesn't
help that there is dyslexia on my side of the family and reading comprhension
problems on Ken's.All and all she felt with his current therapies he'll be able
to be streamlined out of special education programs at some point. We got home
had dinner then the kids went to be early (exhuasted) Ken and I vegged and got
to be early too. Tonight is a date night. But since Amanda is off ealy I may
have her come over and hit the gym before Ken gets off work.

The good news is that the program co-ordinator who works with Quin feels he's making a lot of progess. She feels he's much more expressive emotionally, laughing, smiling, making eye contact as well as the usualt temper tantrums. But it's good either way. He was so funny at Halloween. Trick or Treating was fun. My train (Alex) petered out a lot earlier than my little bat (Quin). We went around our court then down the block as we rounded the corner Alex said he was tired. So we walked back down the otherside of the street to our court and back to our house. Alex ran up to hang with DH. Quin on the other hand wanted to keep going. So we headed out again and up the street. He was so cute. He had this little flashlight (the boys got them at a party on Tuesday) didn't let go of it the entire time. He'd go up to each house up the steps, as soon as the door opened he'd look in then turn around and head off, to the next set of lights. :lol: An hour later we got back to the house. He still wanted to keep going but the eye rubbing had started and he was having me pick him up more often. So it was bed time. I guess picking a creature of the night for his costume was a good choice. :lol:

So in the midst of some good stuff there is bad. My mom has been having a rough couple years financially. The company she works for merged with another over the summer and things had started to look up. Well the bane of her existance at the old company got her demoted which also means a cut in salary. She was barely making ends meet before. So now her only option is to declare bankruptcy. She's worked so hard to get to partner and that got put on hold when she became BC survivor 5 years ago. 4-5 months of not working in order to recover from surgery basically put her behind and made it easy for this one partner to make her life even more miserable than he already had been for the last few years. I can't wait for the day this snake gets what is coming to him. I just wish there was more I could do for my mom to help her get through all this. The next day when I talked to my mom, she sounded much more grounded. I was in tears the first afternoon listening to her on the phone, and trying very hard not to let her know that. Friday she was asking me what I knew about Feng Shui so that we could set up her new office (cubicle) as well as her office at home, to bring in the good luck/prosperity. Looks like I have to go find my books.

That was my side of the family Ken's side is all drama. I can't even begin to explain it all. What it boils down to is that Su is basically throwing in the towel. No matter what she tries to do to help her dad it's wrong. Ken feels they should both be in a nursing home but that just isn't done in Chinese families. And the older brothers being good sons would never agree to it. So basically it would be the older two siding with my FIL while the younger two, one who is primary caregiver get stepped all over.
And we voluteered to host Thanksgiving this year (decided last year) OY!

So next week we go visit my mom for our early Thanksgiving. Tomorrow I have to be up and at work at the butt crack of dawn for a store meeting. Yes it's holiday time again. This after spending half the day there today because I set up the book fair for Alex's school. At least I can come home and take a nap before I have to be back in for work tomorrow night.

my usual catch up posting

9/22/2008
Funky surprises today music wise. On Yo GabbaGabba they had the Birthday song from 16 Candles, the one by Altered Images, just not something I was expecting to hear on a kids show.And in the car this morning all of us were bopping along to Say Hey (I love You) by Michael Franti and Spearhead. Very infectious song. http://www.downloads.nl/results/mp3/1/Say+Hey+I+Love+You

Yesterday was bit unusual, Ken is actually leaning democrat this election. Actually he doesn't know which way to go, he's really waiting for the debates but he made a chart on what he feels are key points and is filling in how each canidate stands. In Field and Stream this month they had interviews with both canidates. Ken thought for sure McCain would come out ahead because F&S is for sportsmen and definately has an NRA leaning. But after reading it (he made me read it too) He felt like McCain was talking around the issues, primarily on land use and preservation, and environment. The only thing according to Ken, that he had going for him was the gun issue. Any true sportsman wants preservation of public lands and National parks because if those lands are gone so are the animals. After reading the article my feelings were just reinforced. I think the only good point McCain made was to restore the wetlands along the gulf coast because they would help control flooding after hurricanes. Anyway I can't believe it but this maybe the second presidention election where we'll be voting the same. (He couldn't in good consience re-elect Bush) Normally he votes party line straight down. I haven't done that in a long time. I vote based on canidates and don't base it on party. Must be the moderate in me.

Oh I disagree with the reps on a whole slew of issues but I think the dems try to do too much sometimes. I have yet to vote rep in a presidental race. usually it's the smaller local ones. I usually call myself north of center in terms of political leaning. I'm sure if you talked to a real rep they'd tell you I leaned dem. I grew up in NW PA which is very rep, hence the reason I escaped as soon as I was able. I think the reason I tend to be centerist is spending 15 years in the DC area four while in college, when I was forming a lot of world views. I see wrong being done by both sides and wish for a bit more compromise. Heh, my husband and I disagree on the whole gun thing but I know I won't change his mind and he won't change mine so we just let it go.

I just hope I can introduce my kids to all views/cultures and let them judge based on the values I raise them with. I love letting them listeno all sorts of music, which is partly why I like Backyardigans. It's funny because I have two friends who can't stand the show. One because she says it's too hip hop. My reaction was HUH? yes there are a couple of eps that are hip hop but there are just as many that are polka. The other says it's too ghetto, I just shake my head at that one, I must be a bit ghetto myself if that's the case.

9/29/2008
It just amazes me the difference even three weeks can make in a child. We started Quin in a program called Infants and Toddlers. It's run by our school district for children with developmental delays. Quin gets speech and occupational therapy classes three mornings a week he's also part of a music therapy class on an additional morning. They're really working on his fine motor skills and getting him to at least find non-vocal ways of communicating. I'm sure later on sign language will be taught but as the hand co-ordination isn't there yet we're finding other ways. Anyway he can now put together those simple wooden puzzles. He can stack rings and use one of those shape sorters. We're starting to work on wrist rotation, so those things will get easier. He makes eye contact now when he wants to continue a game. He'll bring things over to me, like his shoes, when he wants to go out. Or he'll go to the pantry and get out what snack he wants and give the bag to me. He's starting to imitate actions used in various song. He at least listens to instructions, sometimes actually following them, heh like most toddlers actually follow instructions when they don't want to. He such a brighter happier child as well lately, though the willfulness of being two has started as well.

Then there is Alex. He's finally been motivated to poop in the potty daily. He earns a star every time he does once he gets twenty he gets a prize. He's so motivated he's been trying to poop twice a day. Sometimes he actually does.What cracks me up are his descriptions of his poop. "I pooped a corn cob today mama." or "I pooped two carrots and a radish." This isn't actually what he ate but what they look like to him.

I had more to say but must go get Monkey boy from school run a few more errands before I leave for work. Which will be very dead tonight as the Ravens are playing the Steelers on Monday Night Football.

10/2/2008

Speaking of older siblings taking the younger one's new toys, that's exactly what happened here the last couple days. At Quinton's birthday party he didn't even get to open his own presents, Alex did. Quin is looking at his own presents like "Hey can I play with that?" We bought an 8x8 bouncer for his present. All the kids got to enjoy that Tuesday. I'm so happy the rain stayed away until after everyone left. 15 kids and 8 adults inside my house would have been nuts. Then yesterday evening when we opened his present from Aunt Su, the first person to play with it was Alex, of course.

Yesterday was Quin's 2 year doctor appointment. He's 28 lbs (I could swear he's heavier) and 35 inches tall. No shots this time but he did get the flu mist. Wwasn't real happy with that, but then he really hates going to the doctor. Our doctor said that even though he's making a lot of progress that we should set up and interview/evaluation with Kennedy Krieger, just to make sure he's getting all the services he needs. So I spent the afternoon on the phone with them. It loks like one of the doctors there is starting a program and Quin may be good for what they're doing, if not we'll have to wait possibly 6 months to get an evaluation from the CARD Center there. If that's the case one of the other pediatricians at our office will do the evaluation because he has a specialty in developmental delays. I swear sometimes he says actually words the problem is it's never when I'm focused on him so, I'm not sure if I heard right or if it's just wishful thinking on my part. Like he'll be in another room and in the midst of his babbling I'll hear a word, or in the morning when I'm still groggy I'll hear something. Ahh well.

I am so totaly geeked, last week was the announcement for CS4. I'm guessing the actual release will be in November. $199 for the upgrade, with my NAPP membership 160ish. I wish I could afford the entire standard design suite but to upgrade to that would be about $800. Not in the budget right now. Doesn't matter I will be absolutely happy to just get my hands on the new photoshop. Maybe I can talk my dad in to giving me the money for christmas, for the upgrade,not the suite. He's generous but not that generous.

So Alex was playing with my old fuji camera, he got some interesting shots. Debating on keeping that camera because we can get about $60 for plus another $75 for old cell phones, which would make a nice amount for christmas presents for the kids. Heh not even going to say what's on my wish list, besides the photoshop upgrade, the new D90 from nikon, would be lovely that and some new lenses. Those will have to be wishes because my SB800 is no longer syncing with my camera, that's the priority. Why does all the good stuff come out at once?

No interent arrggghhh

So last Tuesday evening our internet went out. We had this same problem about a month ago after a very heavy rainstorm so I thought maybe that was causing a problem. Last time the day before Comcast was to come out we had our connection back so I cancelled. Well this time we were able to get an appointment much sooner. Turns out it was our splitter. We had our internet on an analog splitter with everything going digital by Feb 2009 they've been switching some stuff over early. And when they did that the analog didn't understand the signal so we go none. Since it was nothing we would have know about we won't be charged for this visit, and are up and running once more.

It's been a weekend for lots of house stuff we had to get the damper for the fireplace replaced. Which was relatively quick and painless. I think the guy was in and out in 20 minutes, he finished up before the rain let loose once more. Then Saturday was comcast followed by a guy giving us a price estimate on new windows. We're really trying to cut down on energy leakage from this house. In a couple weeks we'll be putting a couple more layers of insulation up in the attic. I know in a couple years we'll need to replace the roof, I really wish going solar didn't cost 10-15 thousand dollars because I do that in a heart beat if it was only a few thousand dollars more than a new roof.

Anyway I got back from a crazy evening at work, though the last hour and a half was easy (usually is Sunday nights) before that it was help one customer come back to the Customer service desk to three more. So knowing that you'll understand why I loved this artical I found tonight.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1692453

Bad Blogger

Heh so I've been everywhere but my own blog for the last month. I think my problem is I have stuff I want to say, or get down but the process of typing it out is such a PITA. Luckily I semi keep up with my journal, that way I can pack post stuff. So August pretty much blew by. We went to a wedding in NJ on the 23rd. The week before that I came down with something not sure what. I had super painful gas, hot flashes then chills, and lightheadedness. Silly me took the kids out on a picnic that day, they had fun I was miserable. I got home put Quin down for a nap, Alex settled in the family room, then promptly passed out on the couch in the front room. Woke when Ken got home with every single muscle in my body aching. By dinner time my insides liquified. Went to bed after a bowl of soup, then only thing I ate all day. Woke the next morning feeling fine.

The wedding was fun. Seeing Ken and his buddies from college joking and teasing each other was great. Ken went into wedding photographer mode and took my camera ( he brought a little point and shoot). The couple did have a hired pro but there seemed to be several pros who were guests as well. There was a two hour break between the ceremony and reception a couple of the guys needed to get cards for the bride and groom so we hung out at the B&N in Clinton and chatted in the cafe before going on to Il Tulipano. I didn't realize that when the resturant holds a reception they use the entire restuarnt not just one ballroom. The cocktail hour was in the bar/ garden area. Dancing in dinner was up stairs in the main ball room and the dessert bar was in the other. We got some decent photos even though the charge on my SB-800 started dying early in the reception. Ken said he should have brought his battery pack. Anyway before we knew it , it was almost 11pm. So we got on the road and were home by 2:30. I called our babysitter as we were leaving to let her know what happened. Luckily after 8pm she doesn't have much to do.

So last week I was at my mom's with the boys. Kids this age really are ready to go home after 3-4 days. Quin at least is starting to remember places so he wasn't up until all hours crying like he was the last couple times we visited.

I'm liking school starting back up Alex comes home plays for an hour then passes out on the couch. He was so excitd yesterday to see his friends again. Though he did have a small break down when he found out he wasn't in the monkey room any more. Luckily his teach from the monkey room moved to the tiger room so he has that consistancy. I picked him up and his buddy Cole asked if Alex could come over to his house and stay the night. Guess his friends missed him too.

Next week Quin starts with the infant and toddlers program. Speech and Occupational therapy,three days a week for 90 minutes. He is making progress on his own in terms of parallel play and communicating by either taking my hand to guide me or getting things (like snacks) and handing them to me to open. I know he understands what we say because a couple times I've asked him something and I get a very emphatic shake of the head no.

Aug 6 2008

Proud moment yesterday My monkey boy got his first pair of Coverse All Stars. We'd gone out for a birthday party at a resturant in the mall on the way out there was a shoe store and Alex wanted to go in. He desperately needed new sneakers but he won't wear the slip ons we bought at the beginning of the summer. He wore holes in he toes of his current pair. So I said okay and we went in he's at an in between size, top end of the toddler sizes bottom end of the boys, so we have to really try on shoe. Not a lot of selection in the smaller size in this particular store so I go looking in boys and find I'm not quiet ready to pay 30+ on shoes for Alex. But they had the All Stars on sale and I loved mine all through high school and college. So I showed them to him and he tried them on. Wanted to wear them home. He was bouncing all over the place showing them off to everyone walking by. Makes a mom proud.

Aug 3, 2008

I’m still feeling a bit turned around and I’ve been home almost a week now. My flight to San Jose was at 6am Friday morning. Which means I left my house around 4 am. Everything was pretty uneventful going out. I got in around 11am CA time. So I was really early to the hotel check in wasn’t supposed to be until 3pm. I figured I would see if anything was ready anyway. Lucky me they did have something ready. As I was checking in a woman walked up to me and said “DSP?” So even before I went up to my room I was meeting new friends and was invited to lunch. I have to say I met some really great people on this trip. There was supposed to be a photowalk for a group of 40 of us or so at 4pm. But the ladies I went to lunch with suggested doing one of our own as we looked for a place to eat. We ended up at E&O Trading Company. The food was very good, a mix of asian styles. We even wandered over to the farmers market, wonderful fresh fruit. Got back to the hotel around 2:30 crashed for an hour before heading downstairs to meet up for the photo walk. That was a trip, it was cool though to meet many of the designers at DSP. There are a few I buy from on a regular basis I love their styles so much.

The photowalk was really fun. About 6pm everyone started breaking off into groups to go have dinner. We walked around a bit more after dinner then went back to the hotel. Sad to say I was still on EDT so fell asleep around 10pm, my normal time at home 1am.
I woke 4 hours later with a raging headache. I can’t say it was a migraine because my usual migraine solutions didn’t work. I think it was brought on by several things dehydration, and bright sunlight being contributing factors. The biggie was my neck being out of alignment probably from the flight and using carry-ons only. The only way that seemed to work once I drank about a gallon of water, was to lay on my back and hang my head over the edge of the bed. I got a little more rest then took a shower and headed down to meet my new friends for coffee and a bit of a walk before breakfast. We were told not to get to Adobe before 9am because they wouldn’t let us in until then.

You know it’s really hard to get a cup of coffee before 8am on a Saturday in San Jose. None of the Starbucks were open, and even the hotel didn’t have their complimentary coffee set up. We asked the night before what time they set up in the morning and were told 7am, not true. We gave up went for our walk then got breakfast in a little diner called Peggy Sues. We found it on the walk back to the hotel the evening before. Breakfast was fun we talked about how digital scrappers are either looked at funny by traditional scrappers or looked down on by techie types. You say you use photoshop and the techies perk up until you say you scrapbook. Which is why I say I’m a graphic artist when I’m talking to people I don’t really know.

Adobe was great I was one of two smaller groups that got to talk with the production managers for photoshop. There was a third group that spoke to the manager for elements.
At this point CS4 is in preliminary beta testing. This means they are starting to gather input for CS5, we got to be part of that. A lot of what we’re asking for is already part of other programs in the suite like Illustrator, In design and Lightroom. The thing is most scrapbookers, heh most people, don’t have the money for the entire suite. We were talking about how In Design would really make the better program for scrapbookers because it is a layout program, and you can do many vector things in it. The only problem is you can’t really do photo manipulation in it and would need to switch back and forth between programs. It was a good meeting and gave the adobe people some ideas to work with including going back and reworking some of the filters that haven’t been touched or updated in a long time. The other cool thing that happened, we got to meet one of the designers of that wonderful tool…… the healing brush. He was talking about how it was a cheaper version of plastic surgery. Most of the rest of the day was spent scrapping, chatting, watching tutorials including one on a video from Scott Kelby and the photoshop tv Guys, made specifically for us. Adobe really is a cool company. The building itself had won awards for being a green building and they have recycling bins everywhere. On top of that all the employees we met really seemed interested in what we do as well as our input into their product. That impressed me. We had to leave at about 9pm and walked back to the hotel. I set my wake up call for 4:15 and arranged for a cab to pick me up at 5am for my 6:40 flight.

My flight home was not as good as my flight out. The leg from San Jose to Atlanta wasn’t bad though we did have to circle the airport a couple times. Once because of head winds the second because another plane was too slow moving off the runway, that eliminated our early arrival of almost an hour. The trip from Atlanta to Baltimore, that was a hassle. My flight landed at gate B3, I had an hour and a half to get to A29 so from one end of the B concourse to the opposite end of the A concourse. Not a big deal, I’d have time to grab some lunch on the way. Well I get to A29 and sit down to start on my lunch and we’re notified that the plane we’re suppose to leave on will now be arriving at gate B1. I’m a bit annoyed at this point since I just came from there. I get back to the center of the air port and am just about ready to go down to the tram to get to the B Concourse when I hear part of an announcement for a gate change. All I heard was A29, so I decided to check the flight listing. We were moved back to gate A29. I’m swearing under my breath at this point, my backpack and laptop are getting heavy at this point. I got back to A29 now there is a ten minute delay for the flight. With in minutes it turns into a half hour delay because of thunderstorms in the B-more area, then the flight is put on hold completely for those same storms. The hold is lifted a few minutes later and boarding starts. We then sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes because we now have to be put back in the que to leave, our original flight window lost because of the delays. So I didn’t arrive in Baltimore until 7:40pm. Good thing I didn’t have to wait for luggage. Ken let the boys stay up until I got home so they could see me before bed.

Monday I had to work, Tuesday I spent getting caught up on laundry, Wednesday was grocery shopping. Ken got back in town Wednesday night. Yes, that’s right back in town. He left first thing Monday morning for a meeting in Arkansas. Thursday I took the kids to the County Farm Fair. They had lots of fun and crashed when we got home. YAY for me. Friday we went to see Ken’s mom. She had another stroke the weekend before we got so busy. Ken had gone up to see her that Saturday by himself because the kids wouldn’t be allowed in and I would have had to stay and watch them anyway. She’s now at the rehab and it’s much easier to have visitors. Quin does not like institutional type buildings, we think it’s the lighting. He just starts screaming and crying and trying to get away. Ken took the kids with him to work the Friday I was gone, because he’d forgotten a few things he’d need on his trip. Quin did the same thing then. Luckily the rehab has a very nice garden area, so we brought my MIL out there to spend time with the kids. Afterwards we took my FIL to lunch. It’s so funny, he gets such a big kick out of Quin, especially watching him eat.

Yesterday we had a graduation party to go to. I hadn’t read the actual invitation so I thought it was an afternoon BBQ and hadn’t arranged for a babysitter. This meant Thursday I made a panicked call to Amanda to see if she could “Please,Please,Please watch the boys” She said she had to work but she could be there a little after 7pm to watch them. Since the party started at seven, we figured that would be good, we’d only be a bit late. We got very lucky she called around 2pm, they’d over scheduled people and let her leave early since she’d been doing 12 hour days all week. That meant she could get to our house by 6pm and we could leave earlier. She’s so sweet, I’m so glad we found her, the boys love her.
The party was fun, the place it was held was not quite what we expected, very college bar like. Just knowing Ken’s coworker, who this was for, she got her Masters, she likes thinks to be very nice on the dressy side when she goes our or has a party. I guess someone else made all the arrangements. So we played some pool, laughed and talked. It was a nice way to chill.

Check out my Slide Show!

Will I ever Keep up?

june 19,2008

You know your child is head to geekdom when
1) He insists on wearing socks with sandals
2)Puts his underwear on his head (imitating his uncle David)
3) His favorite new videos are the Multiplication Rock from the school house rock series, you know the ones when we were kids. Though he does like Lolly Lolly Lolly get your Adverbs, and Electricity Electricity too. Goes around singing those all the time now.

june 20,2008

yesterday was pure luck on naps at the same time.

I can get Alex to nap once every three days at this point. Quin never got rid of his morning nap. I can push it back somedays from 11 to 12:30-1:00 but usually he's ready by 10:30-11:00. If Alex takes a nap it's after 1:00. So sometimes there is a half hour overlap most times it ends up being one on one time for me and the kids. Quin naps 2 hours max most of the time but then he sleeps 11-12 hours at night so I really can't expect more. Alex when he does nap is out 3 hours but he sleep 8 1/2-10 hours at night. Yeterday Quin woke late, after 8am so he wasn't ready for a nap until we started lunch at noon. After I got him settled I gave Alex some craft time then told him he had to turn off the TV and rest, he was out ten minutes later. His nap was short just over two hours while Quin's went long at almost three. So it was a little out of tthe ordinary for both.

Then of course both had nightmares last night. At least with Quin all I have to do is bring him downstairs for 5-10 minutes in the vibrating rocker then he's ready to go back to bed. Alex on the other hand I have to calm down. Last night he was screaming about wanting to watch Phineas and Ferb. Luckily in his half wake state I was able to calm down with a promise to check when/if it was on today. Somenights are not so easy. And it's even worse when he gets nose bleed.

I forgot to mention date night wednesday got postponed until next week. Ken has a pesentation today, in Utah. His boss was suppose to go over the slide show over the weekend. He didn't then he told Ken Tuesday as he was leaveing they needed some major revisions. So he had to stay late wednesday to fix that because the flight was a buttcrack Thursday morning. Since Amanda was coming anyway to take the boys for a little toy shopping and ice cream (treat for Alex consistantly using the potty) I love Amanda, we were so lucky to find her. It's so nice to have a sitter you can count on. So I took the opportunity to go over to the gym. I have been taking a dance aerobics class the last few weeks. Though I get there and find out it was cancelled, the instructor's daughters had a dress rehersal for their recital. I spent 45 minutes on the bike instead. And I figured out that treadmills are really hard for short people unless yu have the co-ordination to us it without hanging on (I don't) because the arms rests/ are at an akward height when standing upright if you're under 5'6".

june 29,2008

SO a short update before we leave for TN, where I'll most likely have no internet access. Heh I can't even use my cell phone until we get out to the main highway. I think the only way my dad can get high speed access would be satelite and there is no way he's shelling out for that. Dial up won't cut it.

Yesterday was a crazy day. We went down to the inner harbor to meet up with family for lunch. My cousin's Kerrie and Becky were up visiting (both their mom and dad have family in MD) with their kids. So my aunt Pat arranged for everyone meet and go to the Aquarium. We decided not to do that part because we had a birthday party/playgroup BBQ to go to at 4pm and needed to bring certain food items. We needed the morning to prep that. Combined with the aquarium would ahve cost us $60 and we'll be spending $300 minimum for gas to and from TN. Not in the budget.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock out on their deck because it would have been a 20 minute wait to be seated inside. Luckily with the storms rolling in there was a nice breeze. I think there were 15 of us; Kerrie and her son, Becky and her two, Justin, his wife and their two girls, Katie and Doug and their two girls, Patty, my mom and us. Quin slept through lunch, and all Alex would eat was chips. Once we got home I had to feed them. We loaded up the car and headed over to Jen's for the BBQ. The kids had a great time I don't think they ate a single thing that was good for them. Ken was grill master once more. One of the other dad's, Brian told me if I ever divorced Ken he'd marry him. I think by the end of the night there might have been two of Ken's almost famous wings left, and several burgers and dogs. Quin found the water slide before any of the kids, so he was playing with the water that pooled at the bottom. Once the other kids started going down it he stood at the bottom and laughed everytime he got splashed and/or knocked down.


I just had to go up recover Quin's tooth brush for him. Since he started getting in his second year molars he needs a tooth brush to chew on to go to sleep. Could be worse things, I suppose. Occasionally as he drifts off it drops out of the crib, this wakes him and he starts crying. So mom must run upstairs recover toothbrush, rinse it off and hand it back to him. As soon as he has it in his hands he curls back up to go to sleep.

July 8,2008

Learn something about your kids all the time. It's amazing how different they can be. This trip to TN taught me that it doesn't matter what time Quin goes to bed he'll wake up about twelve hours later. So if I put him to bed at 8 he'll wake at 8. I now realize this is why he was up at 6:30 every morning, he was going to be at 6:30 every night. Why? because that's what we did with Alex when he was that age. No matter what time he went to bed he was up at 6:00 am. So if I wanted more free time it was better to get him in bed earlier.
The result of this is Alex is going to bed before Quin now, of course he's not taking a nap very often either.

I think it's going to be easier to get Alex night trained than it will be to get him to actually poop in a potty. 3 days out of 4 he wakes up dry and is still dry an hour later when I help him get dressed. I don't even bother with a pull up on the days he does take a nap. But man, I would just love if once just once he'd actually poop in a potty. Not sure how to motivate him on this.

Quin had a bunch of achievements this week. He learned to crawl up the stairs. Getting down is still a problem but up certainly isn't. He also started the "he's touching me/I'm not touching you" teasing. I was hoping they'd be a couple years older before this started. It was cracking Ken and me up. What he does is swing his leg over the arm of his seat and wave his foot at Alex. This of course sets him off and he's yelling an whining for Quin to stop. The he starts pushing the foot away. Quin brings it right back giggling the whole time because to him it's a game to relieve his boredom. I told Alex to ignore him and it would stop, because it's not fun if there isn't a reaction. Ken just shook his head no way that was gonna happen. Alex can't ignore anything unless it's something he doesn't want to do.

We have skin sensitivites in this family. I have to be very careful what I use or I get a rash/hives. Heh, I just found a shower gel I can use everyday a couple months ago. In most cases if I can use it my kids are okay with it. So I found a new sunblock and it works really well on me and Alex. Quin was not so lucky. The problem was I first tried it on him Saturday when we were at the party. He spent most of the afternoon playing in the water at the bottom of the slide and there were mosquitoes everywhere. So when I noticed Sunday there were only three-four bumps on his calves and thought they were bug bites. We weren't outside for any length of time until Tuesday. Well Tuesday night they were all up and down his legs and arms. Making for one miserable boy. Benedryl cream to the rescue. So now I have to find something new for him. I'll see if I can find california baby around here.

catching up once more

May 22, 2008

I keep going back and forth about how much I'm going to worry about Quin's developmental delays. Some days I really worry, did I do something? Or not do something? Should I get him tested for autism? Then I see him playing next to his brother, fighting and laughing with him. Stopping to sit down and look at a book. Giggle as I read to him. Give me a look after I think he's done with lunch that says "hey where's the rest?" Come from another room just to give my knees a hug. When I see these things I think oh he just has his own schedule on what he wants to learn The teacher from infants and toddlers, who started working with us, teaches a music class for children with developmental delays, including those with spectrum disorders. She invited us to join her last two classes for the spring. (there won't be any during the summer). We went to one yesterday. Quin really enjoyed it, let me help him do some of the motions for the songs. He seems to respond very well when there is music. So I have a feeling we'll be using that more to encourage communication skills.

She gave me a few things to work on last week during her home visit. One suggestion since he enjoys eating, was to take a picture of him in his highchair, laminate it. When it is meal time hand him the photo repeating several times "Quinton time to eat" Then take his hand and walk him to his highchair. It didn't take long before as soon as I hand him the photo and say "Quinton time to eat" he'd take the photo walk to his chair and set the picture on the tray then raise his arms to be lifted up. Mostly we were working on this as a way of getting him to respond to his name. We're also supposed to offer him choices, food, toys, what ever, getting him to participate and engage with others.

So all this is going on and we're trying to get the house in order for the weekend. Ken got the main part of the backsplash up. The area behind the microwave can wait. He also patched, primed and painted the walls in the front hall. Mother's day weekend he trimmed all the tree branches. Tomorrow he'll be powerwashing the outside of the house. I've been cleaning, vacuuming and trying to just generally purge stuff from the house. Heh I have a bag of baby clothes and books to send home with my mom this weekend. The clothes she'll give to my aunt, to give to my cousin for his baby boy. The books will go to the library she's a board member of.

Now I just have get together a bag of ripped torn clothes to go for fabric recycling. Our county has an place that accepts electronics and fabrics for recycling in addition to traditional recycling of thing like paper, yard waste, plastic, metal and glass. That's where all Alex's pants with torn out knees will go as soon as I can convince him to wear shorts. Heh I can't even convince him to wear short sleeved shirts yet. He will be the kid wearing socks with sandals this summer.

June 14,2008

Not too much going on here. We went cold turkey with Alex and potty training last weekend of May. Now this is the second time we've tried this. The first time was about a year ago and he would just pee where ever he stood, didn't matter if he was dressed or naked. He just couldn't be bothered to stop what ever he was doing to go potty even though I had him on a timer. It seems to be working this time. We started with every half hour the first week. I also told him if he wet his pants he'd get a new pair of underwear but not new pants/shorts. A second time he'd be stuck in his wet underwear. If he made it to the potty three times after that he could have dry clothes again. With in a couple days he was at least trying every time the timer went off. We stretched the time out and now we're at every hour/hour and a half and a couple times he's actually taken the initiative and gone on his own before the timer went off. Most mornings he's waking with a dry pull up but I'm not going to worry about night time yet. Next step is poop.

I think the reason it's working this time is because he's interested in certain activities like t-ball (next spring) and swimming lessons and I told him they don't let kids who can't use the potty do those things. I think that and the peer pressure at school and in playgroup are finally working in our favor. Al the kids in our play group are potty trained and have been for a year, half of them aren't even 4 yet. And several of the younger set 2-21/2 year olds are starting. He's a smart kid I think he's figuring out this isn't the way to still get babied.

I need to make an appointment for Quin with an opthamologist, just one more thing to eliminate in terms of reasons for the developmental delay. My mom had mentioned while she was visiting, that our family has a tendency to be farsighted. We have noticed that he has a bigger emotional reaction to stuff the farther away he is. Not sure it's a real big difference but it may be just enough that he isn't making the connection between words and objects.

Ken had an interesting conversation with his sister the other night. She'd recently been to a conference on learning styles (she's a trainer for Xerox). There are two main styles experimental and contextual (I think, have to talk to Ken to confirm) We all have both styles to one degre or another. It's just more apparent with people at either end. Basically we figured Alex tends to be a contextual learner. He just absorbs information, by seeing and hearing and practicing he makes connections between things very quickly. Tell him something once or twice and he knows it. Show him how something works like basic addition/subtraction and he understands and starts playing with it on his own.
Experimental learners don't always do well with tests and books, but once they find their niche they are the best at what they do because they know it backwards and forwards. It's starting to look like Quin is more of an experimental learner. He examines everything, picks it up and looks at is from all angles. When he first started playing with cars he'd see how they work by rolling them on the floor, then at waist level then at eye level then on something taller than him. After that he's try different surfaces, smooth, soft, bumpy. I'm starting to think this combined with the second child tendency to do things later because the older one does things for them is some of the reason for his delays.

He's still not really reacting to his own name but he is starting to bring me toys to look at. He's also starting to copy what Alex does as he plays. He wants to play next to Alex or watch him while he plays a lot mre now too. His new favorite song is Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes I have to help him with the motions but after I help him he grabs my hands and does the same motions.

Last night/today has not been a good day. I spend an hour with Quin because he had a tummy ache. I just rubbed his back and belly, he acted a couple times like he was going to throw up. I was even trying to encourage him, just so he wouldn't be in pain but he swallowed it right back down. Finally he burped a couple times and ten minuted later farted. After that he wanted to go back to bed. Then at 5 am Alex wakes up screaming at the top of his lungs that he needs to brush his teeth. Now we brushed his teeth before bed, he didn't want to do it himself so I did it for him (he goes back and forth between brushing his own teeth and having an adult help) I was so pissed but I got everyhting ready for him and let him brush his teeth on his own. Now because he was carrying on so loudly Quin woke again. Quin has a temper, takes a while to set it off but once he's lost it he gets a bit violent. I went in to settle him down and he was fine while I was there until he realized that I wasn't going to pick him up and take him downstairs, then he threw himself down kicking and screaming. I just walked out and closed the door. He screamed for another 5 minutes. I packed Alex back into his room and told him he couldn't get up and go downstairs until 7am.
Since summer started he's been getting up and quietly going downstairs to play and watch tv between 6-6:30. For the last year he had been getting up but playing quietly in his room until 7am then getting me up to go downstairs. Either way it is kind of nice because I don't have to actually get up when he gets up in the morning. So today I've had to cranky whiny children, I'm pretty cranky myself from interupted sleep, not a good combo. Hoping they both take long naps.

Mother's Day

This past week was no big deal until the end of the week. Wednesday we spent most of the day at Longwood Gardens. I had to leave by 2:00 because it’s an hour home and I had my yearly visit to the gyn at 4:30. Fun fun. The nurse who took my vitals was surprised I spent the day running around then came to the appointment. Then she thought about it a moment and said. “I guess this is kind of a vacation.” A bit. Next came the normal questions.

“Do you smoke ?”
“no”
“Do you drink ?”
“occasionally”
“Tonight ?”
“yes”

Everything looks normal, it was time for another pap smear, every three years now. It’s also time for another mammogram, o joy. Need to call for that appointment.

Thursday I got a fun e-mail. A producer from food network wanted to know if we wanted to have our cake shown on Ace of Cakes. Kind of left me a bit giddy. They wanted the backstory on the design.

The idea for the cake just started with monkey's and cameras. My husband is Chinese and 1968 was the year of the monkey. SO we're both monkeys, our oldest son was born in the year of the monkey as well. Until our younger son was born we were a house full of monkeys. My husband and I met through photography. He's a wedding photographer, I'm a pretty good amatuer especially with kids, my own plus their friends. Between us we've got more than 40 years experience with photography. My husband hobby jumps he's gotten back into trains because both our boys love them. He spent the winter building a HO scale track in our basement, so I threw in the idea of having him and the boys riding in an engine with me chasing them with a camera.


Friday Ken and I moved all the furniture out of the dining room, so we could get that mopped. Then I took the kids over to visit one of Alex’s best buddies. While we were out Ken put down a layer of linseed oil on the floor. Came home around 2:00 and put Quin down for a nap. Let Alex have a snack then he went down for one too. While they were both sleeping we moved all the furniture back slightly rearranged.

Saturday Ken had a wedding so I did laundry as my cold came on full fledged. Actually I felt it starting Friday night, the nodes on the right side of my neck were sore. I even went to bed early, that means I wasn’t feeling well. By this morning most of the scratchiness in my throat was gone but I’m completely congested. I didn’t really get a break from the kids. We got a break in the rain so Ken was out getting the yard ready. We really only have one more weekend to get everything in order before the party. No rest for the weary, especially since Quin decided he didn’t really want to take a nap. I barely got a shower in. I called into word, I’m hoping today was the worst of it and I can go in tomorrow.

Oh and my favorite new book, I saw this last week and have already gifted it to someone. If you have little boys it’s perfect. Little Boy It made me laugh as tears welled up in my eyes. It’s just as sweet in its own way as her other book SomeDay

End of April catch up

Not much going on here. Seems like Ken and I have hit the same "I don't want to do anything" rut. Don't want to work on the house, most especially the kitchen, don't want to do the usual hobbies, don't want to do anything that involves thought. Now I don't mind hanging around outside watching the kids play in this wonderful weather. But once they're in bed I'm kind of veging with real arcade games. Ken's been watching lots of You Tube.

I finally got my hair cut last Tuesday. I compromised, I really prefer my hair short, Ken likes it long. So I got a layered bob, cut right below my ears, stacked up in the back so it's off my neck. I hate hair stuck to my neck when it's warm, even if it's long enough to pull up because it's wavy/curly some always escapes. It looks cute when my hair decides to be curly and ok when it doesn't. Pretty much wash and wear which it the best thing for me. The less effort on my part the better.

Last Thursday we went up to Erie to visit my mom. Friday did a little shopping. Saturday my Aunt came in from Cleveland for a visit. Sunday I hung out with Sherri my friend from HS. Monday I drove back. Alex is the perfect age for trips like this. He gets so excited he was talking all week about going to visit his grandma. Quin on the other hand was a bear. But then all kids 1-2 1/2 years old suck at travel. It messes with their routine and they're in an unfamiliar bed. He didn't settle in until sunday and the next day we went home. Alex was the same way at that age so it's to be expected.

I got our Birthday bash invites in right before I left town. Finished sending those out today. I have a few extras if anyone wants one. I don't expect you to come to Baltimore, memorial day weekend, I'm sure most people have plans at this point but I'm happy to invite people. My Aunt Bonnie is all excited to come so she can see the Ace of Cakes cake we're getting. Duff made our wedding cake so I figured a cake for a combined 40th birthday was a big enough deal to get another one from Charm City Cakes.

Sunday was our 5th anniversary, guess this is a big year all around for the Eng household. We went to Tir Na Nog for dinner. We spotted it as we were going to PF Changs for my birthday dinner. Ken saw the big Guiness Draft sign in the window. He's all about Irish beers lately and most especially Guiness I'm wondering if he was Irish in a past life. I can't believe I am sometimes because I can't stand beer. No gifts this year because 5th anniversary is wood and we got all sorts of new wood in our new kitchen, that we both wanted.

Dinner was wonderful. Very tasty and protions were normal sized. Just enough room for us to share a piece of the Ginger and Guiness Spice Cake. That was so yummy. After we walked over to Cheesecake Factory and got a couple pieces to take home for later.

Monday was the boring usual. Tuesday after I dropped Alex off Quin and I went to the Family Center for his evaluation with Harford County's Infants and Toddlers. His skill sets are all over the place.
Cognitive 9mos
Communication 6-9mos
Social Emotional scattered to 12mos
Adaptive 12-15mos
Gross Motor 15mos
Fine Motor 9mos

So he's in need of intervention. The good news is that we've found this early and with a little work by the time he's three there shouldn't be any noticeable differences in his skill levels. I'm almost glad he'll miss the cut off for Kindergarten when it comes time. I think it'll be better for him to have the extra year. They want to start home visits with a special educ teacher. Work with him to get his play more varied, have him start imitating others, make consistant eye contact, so interest in a wider selection of toys, follow direction, and to play with toys in the manner they're meant to be used. Right now he plays with anything that rolls; cars, trains, balls but when he plays with other toys like markers he doesn't use them to write he rolls them around. He doesn't really stack things but he will put things in containers. Anyway I guess the key to him connecting words with actual objects is through imitation, so getting him to start doing that should help with his language skills.

We're lucky this is a free program through the school system. Our tax dollars at work.

Today was a trip to the Herr's snack factory in Nottingham PA. The kids (well the older ones) loved the tour. And once you have warm fresh potato chips, anything else isn't quite as tasty. I picked up a couple of bags of snacks for Ken. He was so hapy to see the jalapeno kettle chips, he opened them right up.

Tomorrow I get to call around and set up food for our birthday bash. We're looking at going with a place called Beefalo Bob's Ken is getting a bit nervous on the number of people it's looking like a solid 60 but possibly as many as 80. We should have better idea of numbers by next weekend.

That's about it for now.

Birthday week update

Tuesday was Quin’s 18 mos appointment. He’s doing well growth wise. 40th percentile for weight 55th for height, 90th for head size. The last of course means he’s gonna hit s growth spurt soon. Our pediatrician has started screening for autism at 18 months. I’ve read articles about starting treatment earlier being more successful. Well Quin failed the initial screening. Now this isn’t all bad, the doctor told me it was because of his delayed speech he failed. He has some pretty significant social skills. Basically they’re setting the net really wide because they’d rather over test and rule out kids who aren’t autistic than miss one who was. He did give me numbers for speech pathologists so I could set up a consult with one. He also gave me the info for the Kennedy Krieger Inst in case I felt I needed to have them look at him to be sure. I’m in the process right now to set up a consult with the speech pathologist they’re supposed to call me back to set up the final appointment today or tomorrow.

I was talking to my friend Jean yesterday and she said her pediatrician has started to do screening for autism as early as 6mos. They were asking her questions about Will at his last appointment. She thinks Quin probably had his one and only ear infection at a bad time. Not only was he learning to walk but it was a time when they pick up new words. Once he was able to balance himself all his concentration went into walking. That combined with the fact that he didn’t pop one tooth until 9 months old and has been getting a new one every couple weeks since then, most recently his second year molars, it probably made things hard on learning new words.

He’s got a big knot in the middle of his forehead. We spent Saturday up in Brooklyn. The only place to run around in front of my FIL’s brownstone is a concrete pad. The entire time we were there not one fall. We get home and I let him out to go play in the yard while we move all my IL’s stuff from the van to my BIL’s car. Suddenly we all hear a loud THUNK!!, followed by crying. He fell right on his face in our driveway.

Like I mentioned I received part of my birthday present Sunday on my birthday, the first season of Torchwood on DVD. I got the rest of it along with a Cold Stone cake on Tuesday. I guessed right. I have a new kitchenaid artisan mixer. I’m excited. You can buy all sorts of attachments for it. Yesterday was good and bad, I woke with a migraine. Even taking pain killers when I wake with one means, I can take the edge off but it won’t completely go away. Unlike the ones I get monthly due to hormones, which go away once I take something and lie down in the dark for a half hour.

We were supposed to go to Towson after Alex’s gymnastics class. Even though it was sunny the temps were in the 40s and it was really windy. It was not great weather for playing in the park, the original plan. Towson mall has a play area for preschoolers in the middle we were going to meet there then go to lunch at the Rainforest café. The thought of driving 25-30 minutes and all the noise once we got there, only to drive back was enough to make me queasy. So we didn’t go. I met Jean and her boys for lunch at the McD’s down the street, it has a play area. An hour of noise, I could handle. Then we came home and everyone took naps. By the time I got up an hour and a half later my migraine was a twinge.

Ken took me to PF Chang’s for dinner last night. It’s definatley a fusion of food styles not sure I’d call it American Chinese because there were a lot of South American/ Mexican flavors in the mix. I enjoyed it, not bad for a chain restaurant. We feel like boring old fogeys though because we were home by 9 PM. We thought about going to a movie but nothing appealed to us, and we’d have to wait almost an hour before the last shows started. With my head still aching a bit I knew I’d be out like a light if we sat in a theater.

In kitchen news we got our pulls and knobs in. Ken put some of the pulls on the drawers. They look really nice. The last of the trim goes up this weekend. SO all we have to do now is put in the order for the 2x6 burgundy tiles to use in the backsplash. So close to being done, not sure it’ll be ready by the party but we’ll try.

Burning Down the House

It’s been an interesting week. Last Saturday night Ken almost burned the house down. All just so he could move the switches for the family room over a foot, because of the wall extention. Granted when the electrician came Tuesday and got a look at everything he thinks whatever Ken did was just the last straw. He did say Ken’s work was good. The damage was done when he packed everything back into the box after he tested it the first time. A couple of wires must have touched when they weren’t supposed to. It caused the breaker to blow and the wire insulation to melt. So the breaker was replaced as well as the whole circuit rewired. The electrician was shaking his head the entire time mostly about the slipshod job the original builder did with the wiring. Stuff that definitely wouldn’t pass inspection now. He’s guessing back in ’86 the inspection checked a few things make sure they were done right then okayed the whole house. That was all compounded by the original owner who added a bunch of light fixtures to the house and did his own wiring. This guy did a lot of changes to the original floor plan of the house and he knew what he was doing structurally but electrically he didn’t. Ken now doesn’t feel safe in this house. And wants to go through and bring everything to code. This one little mistake cost us $2000, basically there went our tax refund.

Quin must be getting in his second year molars. The kid has been trying to stuff his entire hand into his mouth the past couple days. In other news I have an appointment with a hearing specialist for him. At almost 18 months he basically still only has two words. I know he has some hearing because he loves music and laughs at Alex when he’s goofing off, but he doesn’t react to his own name. I hope I’m wrong and he’s just a late starter. He’s my little cuddle bug. Comes up to me all the time to give and get hugs. If were sitting on the floor together he’ll lean against me. Alex on the other hand only wants hugs when he sees Quin getting them or when I drop him off an school and at bed time. And when I give him a kiss he turns his cheek towards me like “alright get this over with mom” Though he does ask for 5 kisses when I do this.

Alex lost all his trains and cars Friday. All day I had to referee between the two boys. Every time Quin was playing quietly Alex would horn in and take things away from him. And the constant. “mommmmeeeee Quinnnsss at the traaaaaiin table” was driving me nuts. The thing is he likes playing with Quin other times, loves to make him laugh. But when it comes to cars and trains, even the ones that are actually Quin’s he won’t share or he’ll take them from his brother. So in order to earn everything back he has to do some real work on sharing.

I mentioned I was competing in a creative team contest. The designers at DSP, every six months hold a competition for a team of eight to create pages using their products. Well this time around I made it as far as round three. It’s farther than I’ve gotten before. It would have been a nice birthday present, for myself, if I had made it. Ah well the competition was really tough, some amazing creativity out there. And yes it’s coming up, this time next week I’ll be 40. I’ll get to spend the day before on a day trip to Brooklyn. We’re going to pick up Ken’s parents and bring them back to MD. His brother will then take them back to VA. While we’re up there we’ll take part in the Hong San so we can introduce Quin to the ancestors.

Ken is taking me out to dinner the following Wednesday. Then I really have to get onto making the invitations for our combined birthday bash over Memorial day weekend. I would love to invite all my online friends. I might even send them out anyway, it would be great to have you here even if it’s only in spirit.

We just spent Saturday evening watching 300, twice. It reminded me all over again of my love of ancient Greece and Rome. As a kid I had a fascination with Greek and Roman mythology, this in turn an interest in the history itself, mostly the Hellenic period of the Odyssey and the Illiad. It even started my interest in Architecture. At U of MD I took a few classes on ancient architecture because of it. Actually I see all along my fictional interests have guided my non-fiction ones. When I was reading a lot of fantasy I learned a lot about medieval Europe, science fiction lead to actual science, and even now the romance novels I read are all in the Regency/Victorian era, so I’ve picked up a lot of info on the Napoleanic Wars. Not sure how much of this will be useful in the long run, anyway back to 300, which took place in Doric Greece. Later than my earlier interest. I think now if I was to be back in ancient Greece I’d like to be a Spartan woman from that time period. They had many more rights than most other women, including the right to own and inherit property. They were educated right along with the men, I guess with it being a military based society the women needed to run the farms and businesses when the men were off fighting.

I was talking to Ken the other night about how some people become better judges of character over time and how some don’t. He mentioned that his sister, who is ten years older, doesn’t have good judgement about people. She puts her trust in people who disappoint her again and again. Ken said his life got a whole lot better when his stopped listening to his family’s advice and went his own way. He said it still bothers him that they never give him credit for knowing anything. He can’t even shove it in their faces when he’s right because his brother always restates what he says and get the credit. Ahh, the trials of being the youngest.

This got me thinking about how I would have reacted to some of the people I work with if I had met them 15-20 years ago. There are a couple of guys in particular who are in their early mid-twenties. Both have graduated under grad, one is in grad school the other is kind of trying to figure things out. Travis, I met about a year ago when I came back from mat leave. When you first meet him he seems very serious but he has a very dry sense of humor. He teases me all the time, calling me a cool mom. He’s done this since he found out I was actually around for the tail end of the punk era. Travis is into classics; literature, poetry, music, even classic rock. I know if I had met him when I was younger the only time I would have talked to him was if we happened to have friends in common. He would have seemed too serious and even a bit snobbish to me then. Now we rib and joke and tease each other, and even talk a little literature. He really started teasing me after Ken wrecked my car and I had to drive the minivan full time. Heh, he comes to me when he has a head ache because moms have the good drugs.
His buddy Dave, I met this past holiday season when he was hired through Travis’s recommendation. He’s one of those good looking guys, who is really casual and doesn’t even know he’s good looking, and is just a little bit goofy and earnest. I know I would have had a super big crush on him when I was younger. I wouldn’t have done a thing about. I would have just hung out, thinking there was no way he’d go out with someone like me. I get Dave, I’ll talk to him about anything from graphic novels to philosophy. It’s fun to flirt a little but he’s at the searching stage. I remember that stage, seaching for what you want, who you are, what you believe in, your spirituality. Makes me realize how young he is to me. I guess as I get closer to my 40th birthday, I’m starting to really realize how lucky I am to have found where I need to be and who will travel that road with me.

Wednesday we had the granite installed. Ken was so happy that afternoon he was singing “you’re beautiful” to it, (the James Blunt song). It does look really good. And yes I have pictures. As of tonight we have a working gas stovetop. We were actually able to cook a full dinner tonight with out the help of a microwave. YAY!!!!! The plumber is suppose to be by tomorrow so the sink and dishwasher will be working and anything after that is cosmetic. I spent Quin’s naptime yesterday laying out the tiles patterns for our backsplash. I wanted to be able to figure out how many of each tile type we’d need and add 10% for errors. Then Ken and I started talking about pulls and knobs. I’ve found a set we like but I’m gonna check a bit more see if there is a better price out there. I do have to say that it’s a good thing our taste is very similar, there is usually not too much arguing over the little choices.

Updates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwlK3GC3lXs
Ken's video of our kitchen remodel to this point


2/21/08

I swear I think Quin has a crush on Dora. As soon as she appears on the screen he gets this huge smile on his face and stops what he's doing to go up to the TV. His ears have cleared up there is still a little fluid but our ped. feels the tiny bit remaining shouldn't interfere with hearing. He recommended that if Quin isn't saying a couple more words (in addition to the two he has) in the next couple weeks, we should set up an appointment with an audiologist and rule out a hearing problem. He does hear things but I notice they tend to be on the higher end of the scale, so it's possible he's missing sound on the lower end. Ken thinks it's just because he's pretty easy going and what makes him happy is pretty basic. Since we're meeting those needs without much effort from him, he doesn't feel the need to talk. 5-10 words at 18 months is considered normal so I'll give it a bit longer. It's so hard not to compare but I know Alex was unusual, he was babbling at 7 months and by a year speaking sort sentences. He talks a mile a minute now and his vocabulary amazes even me. I wonder where he gets some of the words he knows. Quin tends to be a much more physical child anyway and there are things he does better than Alex like catching and throwing a ball. (Alex still has trouble with that) I still can't help but worry a bit.

I hate cold bathrooms, so winter is the worst cold porcelin in the middle of the night is no fun. It finally dawned on me why my bathroom is so cold. It has an outside wall. I was gathering up clothes to put in a basket to take down to the basement and the ones closest to the wall were ice cold. Duh, I've been in this house three years and I just figured that out.

2/29/08

WooHOOO!!! We have a date for the granite to be installed. Next Wednesday, Ken has lined up the gas hook up to the stove top and the plumber for the sink. By the weekend we should have a working kitchen once more. That gives us three months to get things finished up, like the tile blacksplash and the cabinet trim. Just in time for our joint birthday party. That'll probably be the first time more of our family will see the new kitchen.

Ken almost gave me a heart attack today about the party. We we'r discussing what we need to bring to VA for his father's 80th birthday party tomorrow. Then he confirmed our party was over Memorial Day weekend. I said yes on Sunday. "I better check and make sure I didn't book that day. Oh wait all my spring weddings are Saturdays" I swear I would have smacked him if we had booked it. We picked the date before Christmas so we could get the word out to family, that way they'd be prepared for the invite. (My family mostly, I know my immediate family will come but some fo the extended family says they'll come then they back out whenever I try and host something. If they're gonna back out I want to know early on.)

I was talking with Alex's teacher Monday. She told me I could probably start working on simple addition and subtraction with Alex at home. His number recognition is the best in the class. He's also one of the youngest, I think there is only one kid younger than him, and a couple others that are a week or two older. She said none of the other kids are even close to ready. And the only time she can work with him is right after lunch when he waits for me to pick him up, and the other kids are settling down for naps. That's not a lot of time. Yay!! the John family math gene has bred true in at least one of my kids.