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!

Random Pictures from the last few weeks...

#1 A boy and his partial collection of "rectangle remotes."
#2 Hangin' out at Famous Dave's on the trip home from MN.
#3 What do you mean this is for the dog?
#4 Beer Goggles!
#5 Chillin' in the Ikea Igloo tent. Can't beat 9.00!
#6 Lickin' the Rice Krispie Treats spoon.
#7 Mmmm, spaghetti! Note the marinara hair gel.

Object du Jour: A silicon baking pan in a pumpkin shape. How fun is that?

After how many months, I realize there's post titles? What else am I missing? And why are they red?

WHOOP, WHOOP! We have pee on the potty, this is not a drill! Granted I don't think he had any clue why I was jumping up and down like a crazy person, but he seemed happy with my reaction. I'm still not sure that he fully understands what's going on, but we'll keep at it!

Jameson's appointment went well yesterday; he only had to endure one shot. No tears, just a horrible scowl for the nurse. He's 23 lbs and in the 25%ile for weight, 90% for height and 75th for head. My little lollipop baby! The doctor was pleased with all the stuff he's doing. I'm happy he's right on target for everything.

Object du Jour: The Swiffer. He's cleaning the "brown door" and rectangle Ellen as I type this.

ETA: So I'm messing around with templates and colors and fonts. I can't seem to find one I like.

On this episode of COPS!

My 15 month-old is a shoplifter. Daddy took him over to the store yesterday in the stroller to get some things for dinner. When they got back and unloaded everything, Daddy found that Jameson had filched a tub of Owl's Nest Horseradish cheese spread. Seriously, couldn't he have at least picked something that actually tasted good? Daddy took it back and apologized. Let's hope this life of crime begins and ends with Owl's Nest Horseradish cheese spread!

Jameson has his check-up today. I'm excited to see what his vitals are!

Object du Jour: A tiny wind-up space shuttle.

Does anyone have an in with Barack Obama (or Ellen for that matter)? This child has been driving me nuts tonight to "go Barack Obama's house, microwave." He is absolutely dying to get a glimpse of the President's microwave. If anyone can set that up for us, I'd sure appreciate it!

Catastrophe, Manitoba, Trampoline, Saskatchewan, Ballerina...all words from the mouth of a child who was never supposed to talk. Suck on that nay-sayers!

Banner day in feeding therapy! J ate a Gerber Graduates Turkey pasta thing. I've been working with him on trying a food he doesn't like before he gets a food he does like. His therapist decided to try our method in therapy. The GG is the chunkiest food he's ever been offered. It's got turkey, veggies and pasta in sauce. He actually scooped it up and took bites when prompted to "take a bite of turkey and then you can have some bananas." He would clutch the spoon, shake his fist and growl, "turrrrkkeeeeey." J wasn't happy about it, but he ate several bites. Yay! He's going to be thrilled after my trip to the store later. Not.

On the downside...I'm pretty sure J has lost weight. Sometimes when I pick him up, he feels almost breakable. I think part of it is that he's gained height and not weight (Daddy was wondering where the flood was after he dressed J for school on Monday). He's been so interested in solids and crunchy things that I really have to push him to drink his formula. We've decided to start tubing him again at night and try to up his calorie intake. I'd like to have the pump done by 12 or 1 am, so hopefully, he'll wake up hungry. I don't want to lose the chewing/swallowing skills he's gained thus far, but I can't allow his weight to suffer either. Jameson has his 15 month check-up this week; I think I'll take J along for a weigh-in.

Got a note home from school today that J was refusing to walk up and down stairs, he wanted to crawl instead. It said he cried when pressed to walk. Little stinker. He can totally walk up stairs independently and needs a little standby help for down.

Object du Jour: A Toys R Us catalog that came in the mail today. J just pours over catalogs.

Whew! We're finally home. Went up to Grandma and Grandpa's and then up to Minneapolis and then back to G and G's and then over to visit some friends for a cookout. The boys did really well on the looooong car trip. Jackson took his first, "I'm sleeping in the middle of the day and I'm not sick" nap yesterday in two years. He was so worn out.

I took the boys to the Mall of America while Daddy was working. J didn't love it. Jameson had a blast in Lego World. Jackson sat in the stroller and refused to get out. These two are like night and day.

I'm sad that the theme park there is no longer Peanuts. I love Snoopy. The boys loved the Nickelodeon theme. Uniqua from Backyardigans came over to give the boys "5". Jackson kept reaching over to push her away and she thought he want more "5s". It was pretty funny.

We decided to go out to eat at Hard Rock Cafe for my big birthday that shall remain nameless. Jackson hated it. Daddy and I had to take turns taking him outside and we finally ended up just getting our food to go. J kept crying and telling us it was too loud and he wanted to go. I don't know how we're going to get past this. Sometimes I don't think it's the sounds alone that bother him, it's all the simuli that go with them. I also want to be able to provide Jameson with a variety of experiences that don't drive J nuts. Jameson had so much fun drinking from a straw for the first time, looking at all the stuff on the walls and watching the servers go in and out of the kitchen. We ended up back at the hotel, put the boys to bed and finished our dinners (and my birthday dessert of brownie floating in a puddle of ice cream) watching 30 Rock. Ah, the adventures with Jackson.

Our friends have two dogs. J was definately not a fan. We had talked about getting a dog, but after this visit, I think we'll have to wait a long time. He did love the dog's bed though and kept curling up in it to play with his toys.

Jackson decided that this was the week he wanted to start to get more adventurous with eating. He's revisited low sugar Froot Loops, Smacks and ginormous Rice Krispies (who knew there was such a thing?) But, he's actually chewing them up and swallowing them and not just doing the suck on it, spit it out thing. Yay! I'm also getting him to eat a little turkey in sweet potatoes. Now if we could move away from the dry and crunchy stuff and try some real fruit or veggies...

Jameson had his first big owie today. :( He pinched his ring finger in our bifold closet doors. He cried so hard. It looks like he's going to lose the nail. Poor fella. It's nice to have a child who comes to me for comfort when he's hurt or not feeling well. Jackson always pushes us away when he's hurt.

I have a bunch of pictures to put up (if Daddy ever gets them out of the camera!)

Object du Jour: The little Igloo tent we bought at Ikea near MOA. The fellas love to play in it. Best 9.00 I've spent in a loooong time!

Jackson loves to play with this little metal shopping cart we have. He walks on his knees and pretends to shop. He fell forward, the cart fell backward (see where this is going?) and ended up with a fat lip and chipped tooth. The cart is now put away for a long, long time. Poor kid. Anything that can happen to him, does.

J and Jameson are both not feeling super well. Both have coughs and icky noses. Daddy is out of town all week, so I'm hoping that J will not end up with a breathing issue. I guess I should get some sort of plan in place, just in case it happens during one of Daddy's road trips.

I talked with J's speech therapist yesterday and we decided he doesn't need speech therapy over the summer. His talking is moving along and his intelligibility is awesome! So, he'll still get OT and Ed and possibly PT.

Last night at about 3 am, I hear a little voice yelling, "alllll done!" Nope. Not time to get up at 3 am. I gave Jameson a sippy cup of water, he sucked it down and went back to sleep until 6:30. Whew.

First Brewer's game yesterday. Unfortunately, they lost, but J loves labelling the players and watching the game. He loves to walk around saying "Dale Sveum." lol I asked him if he wanted to go see a Brewer's game and he told me, "All done Brewer's House." Well, I guess that ends that discussion. I think he remembers how loud it is there.

Speaking of loud...J has been telling me everything is too loud lately. The TV, radio, Jameson, even his pants. I wonder if he has an ear infection or if he's just getting better about verbalizing his discomfort?

Object du Jour: A new remote. J loves the remote to the satillite radio. He's been carrying it everywhere the last few days. It will not be allowed near any open body of water.

Spread the Word to End the Word....

Spread the Word to End the Word is a National Awareness Day to raise awareness of the hurtful effects of the word “retard(ed)” and encourage people to pledge to stop using it. Today, 31 March 2009, young people across the country are leading local efforts to raise awareness and collect pledges from peers and the community to vow not to use the R-word. Actor and activist John C. McGinley, of the hit show “Scrubs,” is helping with this effort by making national media appearances on behalf of the Spread the Word to End the Word campaign.

http://www.r-word.org/

We had J's school conference on Monday. Met with the teacher, PT, OT, and ST. Sounds like things are going well at school. Since the class has gotten bigger (it started out with only two kids and is now up to 9), J is hesitant to interact with the other kids. He plays alone quite a bit and "skirts" the outside of the room. I see that at home too sometimes, he'd rather play alone than with Jameson.

We talked about having J participate in summer school again this year. I'm all for it, I think anything that we can do to keep him chugging along is a good thing. We also discussed next year. J is supposed to head into the junior kindergarten with the "typical" 4 yo. I'm concerned about the class size and that J would find it overwhelming and get lost in the shuffle. Sooo, I think what we're going to do is keep J half in EC and half in JK in the mornings. This way, if things get to overwhelming, he can go back to a calmer, familiar environment. We'll gradually increase the time he spends in JK as the year goes on.

Object Du Jour: My scrapbooking punches. Each one has a big and little version of each shape. We punch them out and then talk about which one is big and which one is little. I'm also practicing counting with one to one correspondence with him by counting the shapes we've punched out. He's sorta getting it, but often doesn't go past 3.