Wii Rock!

So we finally joined the rest of the free world and got a Wii. I'm hoping that Jackson can learn some eye-hand coordination with the games and work on some balance things with the board that came with the WiiFit. We played with it for awhile last night and Jackson was fascinated. He went and got his little handheld Cars game and pointed at the screen while I was playing. This morning, I wake up to a cute little bugger right in my face saying, "Go downstairs, play Wii?" He hasn't given it a go yet, he seems afraid to hold the controller. I bought him his own Cars game today at Toys R Us, so hopefully he'll decide it's OK to play.

My ingenious almost 17 month old decided he needed a cookie and tried to use the Swiffer handle to knock the box off the top of the toaster oven. I caught him before he knocked every coffee cup off the shelf. Boy, I can't wait until he's a teenager, that should be even more fun!

Object du Jour: The pepper box. They are both so into this thing they fight over it. Why do I buy toys?

A tricycle built for two...

Here is the cool tandem bike! Family support paid for the bike, toe clips and seat belt and we paid for the tandem attachment for Jameson. I do need to buy a second seat belt. I didn't think about that when I placed the order. Jameson loves it! Jackson isn't so sure yet. What's really nice, is since neither one can pedal yet, I can lock the steering wheel and push it from behind.

I spoke with the sensory OT at Children's yesterday. I described all of J's issues with sounds and movement and she'd like to see him for an evaluation on Monday. She sounded really nice. I hope she has some ideas for us!

Object du Jour: Shining a Dora flashlight into my shoes. Sounds fun, huh?

Please sir...I want some toast!?

He's all for anything edible within reach. I wish he would teach J a thing or two about food.

We're stuck inside today because it's raining. It's going to be a loooong day!

Object du Jour: A little blue Little People chair. He calls it "the potty".

Our first video upload! Whew, that was hard! The little one is covered in yogurt and the big one is showing off his mad skillz in fake crying and 80's (maybe early 90's) hip-hop songs.

PS I guess I had the video marked "private", ooops! So, try again and if it still doesn't work, let me know!

The reason why I can't leave my purse within reach...

We took the new bike for a test drive yesterday. Jameson loved going up and down the block. Jackson wasn't so sure, but Daddy took him around the block and he did pretty well. I'll post pics after we get them off the camera.

Jackson woke up this morning talking about the "orange computer in Jackson's rectangle bed". He was very insistant we find it and even made Daddy move the bed to look behind it. The only thing we could think of is that he had a dream about orange computers.

Object du Jour: Back to the pepper box (and the invisible orange computer).

The PINT Clinic

At J's IEP meeting last week, we talked a lot about how he handles sensory input whether it be auditory, visual, physical, etc. He's still having a really hard time with sounds and movement and it seems to have gotten worse with the class size increasing. He seems to be anxious and worried about what is coming. His "fight or flight" response seems to be engaged the second I drop him off at school. But, I see it in other environments too, for example we can't go to restaurants at all any more. The main concern I have about these behaviors is that he will be integrated into JK in the fall, which will have twice as many kids as his current classroom. I don't know how he will handle that. His teacher suggested the PINT clinic at the Medical College. (That stands for Preschool and Infant Neuropsychological Testing.)

I called J's Behavioral Psych from the feeding team and he thinks a visit to PINT couldn't hurt. He did say that they only do diagnostics, no treatment. And, if the behaviors are anxiety related, they don't prescribe meds there. He was also trying to figure out if J's issues/behaviors are learned, sensory, or something deeper. The Dr. also said that the feeding team now has an OT to address sensory issues and he has asked her to call me on Tuesday.

After being bounced back and forth between Children's and the Med College, I finally got the appointments made. I didn't realize how intensive it is. Four 2 hour appointments over 4 weeks. The first and last are just me and Daddy and the second one is J and Daddy and the third is J and me. So, we'll be there every Monday from the second week of June to the first week of July. I'm nervous, but I want to do anything we can to help J function to the best of his ability without stress.

Jackson will also be starting summer school June 22nd. He'll get Ed, OT, and PT. No ST because we decided that his intelligibility is good, he just need to increase his sentence length and they can address that within the classroom. I'm happy that he's going again this summer. I think that the consistency is really important for him.

Object du Jour: Daddy's Marriott Rewards catalog. It contains most excellent pictures of computers, cameras, TVs and all things electronic and rectangular!

The jelly was here a minute ago.

I opened up the air vent last night after the boys went to bed. I found one Mr. Potato Head tongue, 3 Mr. Potato Head ears, 1 Little People bench and 4 jelly packets (so that's where those went after our carryout breakfast from John's 3 weeks ago).

Jackson is bouncing on the bed behind me yelling, "Ice Ice Baby" at the top of his lungs. Then he gets really wacky and changes it to "Ice Ice Computer, Window, Door, Pictures, Horsie..." I've haven't heard him this loud in a loooong time. At least he's in a good mood before school!

I made J's genetics follow-up for August 4th. Jackson hasn't been there since he was 3, so I'm excited for his dr. to see much progress we've made over the last two years.

Object du Jour: An empty metal Pepper box.

Sweet Potatoes!

You'd think I was trying to poison this kid with Sweet Potatoes that aren't of the Gerber variety. I bought a can of SWs (that's what we call them when we don't want J to know what we are talking about, because if he hears them mentioned and we don't have any in the cabinet, look out!) and brought some to feeding therapy yesterday. He dove right in and actually ate a few mashed up spoonfuls. So, for dinner yesterday I mashed a banana and for lunch today, more mashed up SWs. What a battle both meals! I did get him to eat a few bites of the banana with the promise of a Lightning McQueen graham cracker, but no luck with the SWs today. I'm going to keep plugging away. It seems that he'll try something at feeding a few times before he'll do it at home. (I'm not even going to mention the grape I asked him to pick up and put into my hand. Wow.)

J's Kettrike bike came today! We bought it with his family support money. I managed to get it put together (it has a cool tandem seat for Jameson, but I didn't put that on yet), Jameson is thrilled and Jackson wants nothing to do with it. Just as I figured. Jameson sat next to me at the ready with his plastic hammer in case he was called into action. (I still have a few screws left over, should I be concerned about that?) It's a great bike with a locking steering wheel and a push bar in the back. I'll post pics as soon as I can get J on it.

First outing for the water table and "big sink" as J calls it! It was super warm here today, so I got out the round water table and Step 2 sink. The sink is awesome, it has a faucet that really runs water. Jackson found a little yellow bucket that looks a little like a pitcher. He filled it with water from the faucet and said, "coffee!" He knows his mama! The boys had a lot of fun outside. Now everyone is tired and crabby, but it was worth it!

Object du Jour: Little Playskool race cars that Jackson got from Aunt Donna. He's been calling them "lawn mowers" and pretends to mow the carpet.

Happy Syttende Mai!

This weekend, we headed up north to Daddy's parent's house for the Syttende Mai parade. Syttende Mai is "Norwegian Constitution Day or "grunnlovsdag," commonly known as "Syttende Mai" or the 17th of May is a celebration of the day in 1814 when Norway's constitution was signed in the town of Eidsvoll, Norway." Everyone in Randy's town is Norwegian (Shhh, I still don't think they know I'm not Norwegian!) :) They have a parade and other fun things to celebrate.

As you can see from the pic above, Jackson loved the parade! He would go through phases where he was fine, then something would startle him and he would hide under his blanket and cry. He was very happy with the little truck and slinky he got from the parade. Jameson, on the other hand, loved it. He sat on the curb and caught candy. He danced to the bands and waved at everyone that passed by. Jackson had more fun sitting on the porch swing with Aunt Donna and Uncle Dave.

The third picture is the Culver's shake Mommy and Daddy were going to split on the ride to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I gave Jameson a taste and that was the last I saw of the shake. You can still see the tears glistening on his cheeks from Daddy having the nerve to ask for a sip.

The last picture is of the Mother's Day cake the boys made me. It tasted much better than it looks!

Object du Jour: Jackson found a digital thermometer at Grandma and Grandpa's house. He fell in love and Grandpa said Jackson could keep it. Now we know the humidity level around J at any given moment. Very handy!

Mother's Day

Here's J and the placemat he made me at school for Mother's Day. He looks really happy about having to stand there and hold it, doesn't he? The boys also got me a book and a new Sigg water bottle and decorated a cake for me at the grocery store.

We went to Lowe's and got some new flowers and spent the day outside planting and doing yardwork. The boys love to be outside and try to help the best they can. J needed several reminders not to eat the sticks he was supposed to be putting in the lawn bag.

I talked to J's ST at school today. She's seeing J have a little "lull" in his speech growth lately. I'm seeing him really fighting following directions. He will either completely ignore me or just walk away. His IEP is Monday, so we'll see what we can come up with then.

Object du Jour: Back to the orange toothbrush!

My son, the Oompa Loompa

The boys were in the tub this morning and I was jealously admiring Jameson's soft, round, pink baby skin. And then I looked at Jackson and noticed he has a bit of an orange tinge. Small freak-out moment and then I remembered a conversation I had with J's dietitian about kids who eat large amounts of Sweet Potatoes. Yeah, so with the amount of SW's (as we call them) J eats, he's going to look like an Oompa Loompa for awhile.

File under the category: Things I never thought I would be doing. I changed J's MIC-key today. It was leaking and I can't remember the last time I changed it. I'll spare you the gory details, but it's amazing how much more it takes to squick me out compared to before I had kids.

Object du Jour: J loves to play with all the pieces and parts that come in the MIC-key kit. Nothing too exciting, just some extension tubes and plastic syringes, but it makes the unpleasantness of tube changes a little better for him.

Here's something I forgot to post...

I interviewed and was chosen this past January to serve a 3 year term on the Children's Hospital Family Advisory Panel. I'm so excited about this! There are 11 parents on the panel with staggered terms who work with varying hospital staff to give input on whatever they need us to. Specific huh? So far we've talked about health literacy and wording letters sent to parents on a level that everyone can understand and the new allergy-free menus for the patient towers. We meet every 5 weeks for subcommittee meetings and every 6 weeks for full panel meetings. It's been fascinating so far and I feel so honored to give back to the people who have helped J so much!

That along with being a Parent to Parent parent (ha!), speaking to and hosting students from local colleges, and being the WI rep for Unique has kept me pretty busy. J was given to me for a reason and I can only hope that I'm following the path I was meant to. I was a special education teacher for so long and while I liked it, I think I'm being pulled in other directions. Who knows what the future holds, but it's exciting!

Object du Jour: Still the orange toothbrush. Heaven forbid if we set it down somewhere and can't find it immediately (if not sooner!)

The lone grey tooth.

Remember the shopping cart incident? The one where the cart fell back and J fell forward and cart and right front tooth met in the middle? Now J's poor little tooth is starting to turn grey. I called the dentist and he said that it could just be blood inside the tooth that will fade over time or the tooth is so damaged that the blood supply is totally cut off and the tooth will mostly likely die. The soonest we could get in is June 11. (Part of the reason for that is J needs a "quiet room" and all the other chairs are out in the open with other patients.) He said he will take x-rays to be sure which it is. J doesn't seem to be in pain, which is good thing.

Object du Jour: Ironically, a toothbrush. He came home from school one day with an orange toothbrush in a baggie with his name on it. I keep forgetting to ask what it was for. But, he slept with it last night and has been carrying it around all day today.

Things I think about when I can't sleep at 5 am...

My boys are amazing in completely different ways. I watch the new things they learn and how they seemingly require almost no thought for Jameson, but are such struggles for Jackson. Chewing, trying new foods, giving up the bottle, kicking a ball, walking backward, following simple directions, and turning around and sliding off the couch belly side down rather than just falling forward and hoping for the best...Jameson didn't need to be taught these things step by step like J did, but his accomplishments are no less incredible. The end result for both is the same, both walking, drinking from a straw, not falling off the couch on a daily basis, chewing for the big one is still coming along...but how they got to those end results is worlds apart and simply amazing.

Whew, J was whiny before school. I pretty sure the whining was in a frequency only dogs can hear. Usually when this happens they tell me he did fine, so lets hope that's the case today!

Jameson is 16 months today. Where did the time go?

Object du Jour: Too early tell (I sound like a Magic 8 ball). I will post if anything Earth shattering comes to light later today!

No trip to Children's. Whew. J's chest rattled a little while he was sleeping last night. Today he's had a clear runny nose and I haven't heard "the cough." We played in our sandbox for a bit and then J helped Mommy do some yard work. He's an awfully good stick picker upper. About 11:00 he said, "go lay down in Jackson's bed." I didn't think he'd sleep, but he was out for 2 hours. Hopefully, he'll still sleep tonight.

Object du Jour: Mommy's rakes and trowls. He was a great helper today, even though he'd yell, "DIRT!" every time a little spilled on his shirt.

Dear President Obama...

Thanks to the UWW class yesterday who made me feel so welcome and asked such great questions! Good luck with your future teaching careers; I'm sure you'll be great!

So, it's 9:36 in the morning and I'm starting to hear "the cough." Please, oh please, oh please...everyone keep your fingers, toes, and eyes crossed that this doesn't end up in a check-in at Chateau de Children's.

I've decided to send President Obama a letter to see if his staff could possibly send me a picture of the White House microwave. I'm sure it will be one of the oddest requests they receive. Stay tuned to see what happens!

Object du Jour: An empty dental floss container. We practice good oral hygiene!