The Gift of Predictability

It's no secret that we've been on a long journey since Isaac's birth. In less than a month we will celebrate his fourth birthday. I carefully chose the word 'celebrate' because this is truly a year to celebrate. Finally, I am able to find joy and peace in mothering him. Since September it has felt less like toughing it out and barely making it through each day and night, and more of a chance to watch my son blossom into a toddler and little boy who does little boy things and less baby things. This time in my life, is a gift, and each day I am thankful for the road I traveled to get to this place, and the daily opportunity to share happy moments with Isaac. 

My years with Isaac have been filled with one doctor appointment after another, and one therapy appointment after another, and one more season of trying to get him to eat orally, and one crabby day and night after another. Now, there are less appointments, we know what is ahead of us, our therapy appointments are regular, and as far as feeding, it is mostly off my radar. I should probably address why feeding isn't important right now, since some readers may be freaking out. Isaac is hitting major developmental milestones and I am happy to enjoy this wonderful ride as it is right now. Feeding is so stressful for me and for Isaac. There really isn't another party involved in this equation of feeding Isaac, and I am not ready to jump back on that ship that was previously sinking at a very alarming rate. So for now, we will continue a gentle food experience during speech therapy and occupational therapy, and obviously, at home. 

I am enjoying the long lost gift of predictability in our days so much so that I rarely want to leave my house! I was discussing this with my mom and told her that I just don't feel like talking to people and I don't feel like being in a group and I certainly don't want to miss nap time, so unless I have to go somewhere, for the most part we stay at home. This business of "staying home" is relatively new to me. After Isabella was born I had to be out of the house pretty much all day, every day, or I thought I would go insane. And then with Isaac I didn't have a choice because we had all of those appointments. At this stage, I'm done being away from home. I enjoy watching my children play quietly and love that we finally have a predictable routine to our days. The more important thing now is to keep up with Isaac's feeding schedule and his nap, and allow chunks of time to make transitions less stressful. It has also been a long, cold winter here in Ohio, so I've enjoyed our quiet mornings and afternoons. 

We did make a quick trip to meet our newest niece. This was a sort of test run for our planned summer vacation. Isaac did really well, but it confirmed how challenging it is to feed him when we are away from home. He is a creature of habit and gets very angry about feeds when he is away from his precious high chair.

Isaac, drinking water from a spoon.

I think this will a wonderful spring and summer with Isaac. We are a family that loves to be outside and until this point it has been very challenging to get Isaac to love the outdoors. On the handful of nice days we've had this year, he has actually wanted to play outside and even threw a tantrum a few nights ago when we told him we had to go inside. This is quite an exciting improvement.

We go to the library a lot, and Isabella participates in weekly swim lessons, church activities and ballet class.

About a month ago I changed math programs with Isabella. Math U See is proving a wonderful change and is really helping solidify some key concepts. And who wouldn't want to play with cool math blocks?

Did you notice the Mario stickers on the wall? Isaac is obsessed with all things Mario and Luigi. He talks about them constantly. I often have to say, "Isaac, we're going to take a break now from talking about Mario." He'll say, "Okay, mommy. Me wait, me daddy come home. Daddy eat, daddy play mo wii (Mario on the Wii)."

I finished the scarf I mentioned in a previous post. It came out really well and I enjoyed the process of making it. For other knitters out there, I did choose to block it and am happy with result.

The kids just came in from playing outside together for almost two hours. Isabella could happily spend all day outside doing whatever it is she does, so I am thankful that she is a wonderful example for Isaac.

Happy Spring,

Sierra