The iPad has entered the building

The week of Christmas, Isaac was crabby on and off (nothing out of the ordinary) and would often hold his g-tube site and say "ow" repeatedly. This was something new, but he also says "ow" when we walk toward him with his jacket in hand, or his shoes, or a diaper, so we thought, maybe he's just being two and a half. Well, after a couple sleepless nights, I finally called his GI doctor and managed to take him in for a last minute appointment. The kid was right, something was up with his g-tube (which became more obvious to us when the site started getting red) and he's been on antibiotics for a week. We were lucky we didn't end up in the hospital on IV antibiotics, and also that since having his tube for over a year, this is his first infection. Thankfully, he is doing really well, and I haven't heard a tummy related "ow" in several days. It is a big step for him developmentally, to be aware of pain and the location of pain, so we're thankful he has reached this milestone, and also that he was able to alert us that there was a problem.

Walter has been off from work for two weeks and we have been enjoying every minute of it (except for that brief span of an afternoon where he was mad at me for letting the kids play with too many toys at one time (what?) and not organizing the toys properly. He later apologized and I said, "I accept your apology, and forgive you for being crazy." Isn't marriage grand?). We have greatly enjoyed our two-week at-home vacation, or, if I want to be trendy, our stay-cation.

We were given Isaac's iPad on Friday. I already broke my rule and put games on it. In my defense, that Talking Tom Cat somehow gets Isaac to make more sounds than he ever would otherwise. Aside from that, the whole iPad thing is stressing me out. The goal is for him to use it to expand his potential for communication. This means that I have to take a million pictures and establish folders, and record my voice for all of the objects, and then have it handy at the appropriate moment. Easy, right? I'm struggling to see how this device will fit into our every day life, for its intended use, and frankly, sign language and our deciphering of his sounds within context, seems so much easier. I really want to hear from a mom who has implemented an AAC into their life...how long did it take for you to set the whole thing up, how do you keep it handy for your toddler, etc. Share a message or e-mail me if you are a parent and have used an iPad with your child for communication.

Let it snow

The snow finally came down (and since writing this a few days ago, there is even more snow). Isabella acted as if she'd never seen a snowflake in her whole life, and excitedly pointed out every object covered in snow (or barely covered at first, and even then she would exclaim, "Look at all the snow!"). Walter took her sledding Saturday morning before I had to leave for a wedding, and then she played outside at least three more times. She is such a snow bunny. During the summer she acts as if the sun is melting her body, but when winter comes, she is one happy girl.

Why is it that I used to spend hours playing in the snow and now the mere thought of going out there makes me chilly? I've become a wimp.

Our Christmas was very merry, how about you? Isabella was full of excitement, and thanked us profusely for everything we gave to her. Anytime Isaac was asked if he wanted to open a present, he said a quick, "no". Once he had a chance to see the unwrapped gift he signed 'stuck', because of course, every toy was stuck in each box, many requiring brute force to open. I'm thinking the makers of those boxes and things to secure a toy in it's box took Toy Story a little too seriously. I mean really, the toy is not going to come alive and jump from it's cardboard jailhouse.

Isaac's refusal to touch gift wrap, meant that Isabella happily opened every single present.

Oh my, I can't even describe how excited the kids are to have daddy home so many days in a row. Isaac is even asking for 'da' instead of 'ma' during the day. This is a pleasant break for me.

Walter brought home a "coloring book", some stapled pieces of paper with extremely pixilated images of some of the aircraft his company makes stuff for (I can't say much more than that...they make stuff and I'm not really sure what they make). I told Walter that chances are, some angry co-op was told he had to get this done. Either way, when all was said and done, these were the most colorful Apache Helicopters ever seen.

Have I told you that Isaac loves Legos? He spends a fair amount of time simply looking at the instruction booklets. Then, when he gets to the pieces and parts page, he points out each piece that is part of his project. There's a genius locked away in there.

Tracking Santa. Just ignore the fact that Isaac is playing with a box of batteries.

Playing with one of his new pirate ships with Opa...

The pirate ship has replaced the DVD player for feedings. We'll see how long we can keep that up.

My grandpa's Leland -Detroit Monorail, made in the 1930s...

I uploaded my pictures and saw this one that my brother must have taken while we were visiting Walter's family. Yes, those are clumps of snow.

Walter let me sleep in this morning and has been tirelessly playing Legos with the kids. Isabella built the Lego Friends Heartland Stable almost entirely on her own, and enjoyed making cookies and having a tea party with Aunt Rosie. I hope you are also enjoying a relaxing day.

Sierra

Exercising with a five year old.

First of all, exercising with a five year old is definitely not a good idea. I've been trying to figure out how to exercise during the day, so that I have don't have to do it at nine o'clock each night when I'm already exhausted. Since Isaac cries when I pee, it seemed a far fetched plan that he would contentedly play while I spent an hour exercising. Well, as it turns out, he wasn't the problem. My little sports commentator was, and I heard each of these phrases, at least two times: 

She's better than you.

Why aren't you doing it. 

Look, I'm doing it better than you. 

She has her leg up higher. 

Why are just laying there. 

I'm hungry. 

Why can't I have the weights? 

I really wanted the weights!

I'm starving. 

She's doing it way faster. 

I'm sooo hungry. I'm starving. I need something to eat right now!

You need to do it faster, like her. 

Are you done yet? 

When can I eat? 

I'm seriously considering re-joining the gym. 

Isaac thought it was hilarious that he could put his pacifier on this toy and then put it in his mouth.

We are also working very hard at getting him to agreeably sit with us for dinner, and have a tube feeding at the same time (that's the tricky part). The last two nights it has worked perfectly. In his mind, tube feeding + high chair = DVD player, or else I'll scream forever. So we are very grateful for a couple peaceful meals.

If I'd kept track of the hours Isabella spent cleaning the chalk board over the past few days, you would assume I was running a child labor camp. It's clean. And I never asked her to do it. Obviously. If I'd ask she would have thought I was torturing her.

Isaac's Occupational Therapist is amazing. First of all, she's the polar opposite of me. This means that she is always super peppy and when she sees Isaac she says, "HIIIGH FRIEND!" in a really loud high pitched voice, and has so much energy, that I wish I could bring her home with me. She dressed up as a ladybug on Halloween, which totally freaked Isaac out, but he got over it and agreed to work with her that day. I reserve my high pitched happy voice for Stella and our nighttime cuddle, which always make Walter roll his eyes. It goes something like this: Well there's my puppy daaawwg. Oh what a cute Stella Bella. You're my poopsie poopsie puppy do...okay, that's probably enough. Please don't stop reading my blog now. It's our moment, okay?

She tried to get Isaac to pretend he was eating the rice. He gave her an intense look of disgust and refused to touch the spoon.

Another mom at OT was commenting on how angelic Isaac always looks..."does he ever scream?" Does he ever! The kid has lungs of steel. Don't let his blonde curly hair and big blue eyes fool you! Just hang out at my house for a day and a night.

Isaac has started using a few new signs lately: outside, like, stuck, train (correctly, instead of his own variation), sit (which has only increased his bossiness), diaper, out, open, shoes, socks. He is always saying some new sounds, and makes verbal approximations to the words: Woody (essential), help, house, home, Mario (another important one), Wii (can you tell what he likes yet?), Luigi (yep), Isabella (ba), Oma, Opa, Papa, and I'm sure a few others.

In OT he is working on some fine motor skills such as, zipping a jacket (we practiced about thirty times during ballet today, so he's pretty good at that one now), and also everyday tasks like helping to put his pants on (now if I can get him to stand, and ask him to show me a leg, he will help put his leg in his pants), taking on and off socks and shoes (which we're actually going to stop working on since he is getting his braces next week, and he will have to work up to wearing those all day), recognizing that he needs a diaper change, telling us what he wants without throwing a tantrum, touching food, transitioning from playing with one toy to playing with another (agreeably), and about a million other things. We're a very long way from these everyday tasks, but he is making progress in baby steps, and we'll take it!

My lesson learned for the day: don't put hummus in Isaac's blend. He's been smelling like garlic for several hours. I like garlic, but when it's burped up...totally gross. I hope you enjoyed that little tidbit of information.

Goodbye!

Stuff

Thursday night Isaac was crabby and when he's crabby and I'm crabby, it usually means it's a good time to go for a drive. Walter finished up Isabella's bedtime routine and Isaac and I headed out. I thought, "who can I go visit at 9:00 p.m." Why, my parents, of course! Obviously they love to see me at any time of day. Right? Right. My mom, brother, and sister were sitting outside and I plopped down and said, "I feel like I am walking through thick, gooey, sticky mud this week, and I can't get out of it." The mud this week isn't nearly as thick, but I think it will be good for Walter and I to get away next week for our first trip without the kids. Yes, I'm excited. Yes, I'm nervous. And yes, I'm already sad about leaving Isaac. Okay, I'm sad about leaving Isabella too, but she pretty self sufficient these days. 

Wedding season started a couple weeks ago, and after the first one wiped me out for a couple days, I decided it was time to reunite with Tony Horton and get back into my workout routine. He creamed me, and it was painful. If you want to check out some of our wedding photography, go to Grooms are People Too. When I got home from last week's wedding, Isaac was still awake and held out his arms and said, "DA DA!" Um, no. But I missed you, so I'll forgive you.  

Sunday evening Isabella helped Papa with some gardening....

Isaac watched with a very grumpy look on his face. This picture doesn't appropriately capture his grumpy face. He was happier when he pooped about an hour later.

Then he got a hair cut so that we could lose a little of the Einstein look.

He was very worried about his loss of hair and kept checking that he still had hair on his head.

That night, Isaac let me hold his hands and walk behind him. He walked around my parent's house two times!

I keep forgetting to mention that Isaac and I have been taking a sign language class. Since his speech therapy is on hold until we're able to co-treat with physical therapy, this has been a wonderful opportunity to learn more sign language and it's almost like speech therapy and sign language wrapped into one. AND, the teacher comes to our house. So it doesn't get much better than that. Isaac's speech is definitely improving and he has a more diverse variety of sounds, but signing has been going really well, and at this point he probably effectively communicates more with signs than with one vowel sound for what he's trying to tell us. When we ask him he wants a wagon ride, he will usually say, "wa" or "whee", and when we ask him if he wants to swing, he says, "whee!" and uses his own sign for swing. Most animals simply growl. When he wants to watch a movie he says, "moo"--I wrote that and it made me laugh out loud. I continue to drill him on body parts, shapes, colors, animals, etc., all the things I took for granted that Isabella knew by the time she was two. We'll get there.

For today, remember how blessed you are, special needs or not, by what your child has knowledge of and the skills they possess.

Happy Tuesday,

Sierra