Oh, for Pete's Sake

Jackson was very insistent that I find "Pete's Sake" in his toy box and then became very upset when I couldn't find it. Daddy uses this phrase a bunch, that's the only place I can think of that he heard it. I ended up telling him that Pete's Sake got lost. He accepted that. I didn't know how else to explain it to him.

Every time J bumps himself or falls down, he tells me he pinched his fingers and needs a Bamdaid. That must be from school, because we don't use a lot of Band-aids at home (thankfully!)

We had our first PINT clinic visit on Monday. The Dr. was very nice and asked us a bunch of questions about J's history and communication, social and gross motor skills. Some of the things she asked about reminded me of the things Jackson isn't doing. I try to focus on the positive stuff a majority of the time, but sometimes there's a trigger that makes me realize how much he isn't doing. Next Monday, J and Daddy will meet with the Dr.

The Dr. asked if J knows his name or how old he is or if he knows if he is a boy or girl. He doesn't readily answer direct questions, so I've been practicing these with him. I'll say, "What's your name?" and the response I've been getting is, "Rectangle Ellen." I guess we need more practice.

Object du Jour: A piece of train track (it has to be the blue one) and my Pampered Chef "rectangle" measuring spoons.

Happy Bark-day!

We went to a birthday party for a dog yesterday. It was a Hawaiian themed party and all the dogs wore leis. Because what dog doesn't love a rockin' luau? Unfortunately, I don't have a photogerafic pimiento (remember Bozo used to say that during the Grand Prize Game?) because our camera is MIA.

Jameson had blast! He loved the dogs, the food, the kids, the cake, the giant palm tree cooler filled with drinks and ice...Jackson, not so much. He was afraid of the dogs, hated the noise, and had a complete breakdown when the other kids had a water balloon fight. He spent most of the party in the house watching everyone out the window. J was OK with that and seemed much happier being an observer, rather than a participant. I always worry that he'll feel left out, but he seems to prefer it that way.

He had his last day of school on Friday and will have a week off and then it's on to summer school next Monday.

We start our visits at the PINT clinic this Monday. I'm hopeful that they will have some ideas for us.

Object du Jour: The pepper box. J had to have it at the party yesterday. Everyone kept asking me what it was for and some people thought he took it off the counter at the party. I just shrugged and said, "He likes it." Sometimes that's the easiest answer.

Two appointments today. Dental clinic to look at his tooth and a feeding team follow-up in GI.

The visit at the Dental clinic went well. Daddy took him to that one and said that Jackson was a little scared and shook a little, but was pretty cooperative overall. The x-ray didn't show any permenent damage to the tooth, even though it's still a little grey. The dentist said that he may loose that tooth sooner than he would otherwise, but at this point, we don't need to do anything. He goes back for a cleaning in August.

Feeding team was a mixed bag. Jackson gained two inches in height (3 ft. even), but lost weight, so he's at 26 lbs. We have a new formula recipe and we'll be adding Duocal to his food as well as his formula. The OT was happy brushing is going well and we'll be taking him down to 5 times a day, rather than every two hours. We'll go back in Sept.

Object du Jour: An x-ray film the dentist let him keep. He calls it the "little rectangle".

Brusha, Brusha, Brusha

Please tell me that I don't have the only kid taken to the park by his father in too tight PJ's? "What? I thought he was dressed."

Jackson isn't a big fan of playgrounds. He'll go down the slide on his own, but cry the whole way down. He likes the swings and the other toys though.

The brushing is going well! J comes willingly and is also starting to ask to be brushed. The only caveat is that he needs to be holding the "rectangle brush" that he got when he was in the birth to three program. The one the OT from the hospital gave us is *gasp* an oval. He's really enjoying the joint compression after the brushing and he's calling them "bumpers."

This week we have the dental appointment to look at his tooth and a feeding team follow-up. Hopefully neither one will be too traumatic.

Friday is Jackson's last day of school. The year went really fast! He'll start summer school on June 22nd and then it's off to JK.

Object du Jour: The Wiggles flashlight car.

The Sensory Eval

I took J to Children's for the sensory eval yesterday. He was very cautious in the waiting room and was upset that the door was open. The therapist was really nice and was concerned about J's auditory, visual and tactile issues. We're going to starting with a two week intensive brushing and joint compression program. I will brush his arms, legs and back with a surgical brush every two hours while he's awake for two weeks. We'll see her weekly over the summer and also as a part of the feeding team. Here's to hoping we can get some of his issues resolved before JK in the fall.

Object du Jour: The pink door.

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!