First I want to thank everyone for your comments in regards to my last post. Your thoughts and prayers are very much appreciated, and are working! Sophie remains healthy, which is a major blessing. She is scheduled for eye surgery on Sept 29th, but it is outpatient and will hopefully not be a big deal.
A lot of you expressed that if we need anything, to let you know. Well, since you're at it, if you could add Owen to your prayers, that would be great. :-) He is actually the one that is causing me the most gray hairs (Keith is equally frustrated, but he is somehow immune to graying so far). We heard a lot of people say that they thought the 3's were worse than the terrible 2's, and I would have to agree. I would definitely not want to be a 3 year old. Poor Owen gets frustrated and throws a mini tantrum at least a dozen times a day. He's still trying to figure out how this world works, and any time he doesn't get what he wants or doesn't understand something, he gets frustrated. Today we were setting up his train set, which has a semi-circle garage and a triangular piece that is supposed to hook up to it. He wanted to use that piece somewhere else, so we were trying to fit other pieces into the garage. He got frustrated when we couldn't fit in the pieces he wanted. We tried to show him what options worked, but he wouldn't accept any alternatives. He seemed to think we were not *allowing* him to put the pieces in he wanted, instead of the fact that they just couldn't physically fit in (you would think in this case he would be able to *see* that). Keith tried to explain that some things just don't go some places, like grapes don't go in your ears. That made him laugh, but still didn't seem to get him to understand. So we try and explain things as best we can, but his young mind has a lot to try and comprehend. And now I'm worried about the next time he has grapes. :-)
The most frustrating part is trying to get him to do something. Every morning is a struggle to get him to go potty and get dressed (even though we try and do the same routine every morning). He is out of diapers, but I wouldn't call him successfully potty trained. We used to have him on a steady schedule of potty breaks, but then he didn't really learn how to recognize when he had the urge and tell us he needed to go, so we stopped that. Now he seems to not like going potty and will only let us know he needs to go when it's pretty urgent or his underwear is already wet. Every night is a struggle to get him to wash his hands before dinner. We do it every night, and we warn him when it's coming, but he still fights it. We try and keep his bedtime routine constant, but every night takes longer than it should. Tonight I started the routine a little after 8pm with dessert (grapes), then bath time, potty, teeth brushing, getting pajamas on, reading books, then a story in bed. I think he finally fell asleep at 10pm. The hardest part tonight was trying to get him to pick his pajamas and books. If he picks then he always changes his mind, and if he says he wants us to pick, he's never ok with what we pick. We want him to learn how to make decisions, but when it takes him 10 minutes to pick out pajamas, it just doesn't work. We are trying to teach him that if he takes too long to do things then it means less time for fun things like playing with cars or reading books. But that upsets him, which means he's less likely to actually make a decision or to do something.
So our self-confidence as parents takes a hit often. It's hard for us to know how much of Owen's behavior is normal for a 3 year old, or if our parenting style is to blame. And of course we don't do much research on the subject, because, well, we're too busy trying to be parents! I do try to remind myself that *some* things have gotten better, like brushing his teeth, and being able to leave his room before he's asleep.
And of course he's not always crying. He can still be a lot of fun, and he balances out his frustrated times with plenty of hyper-excited times. This video is him singing part of "Life is a Highway" when he apparently had too much energy. I wish we could bottle that energy. I know Keith and I could use it sometimes!
In other news, Owen started in a new classroom for the new school year a couple weeks ago. The adjustment may be partly to blame for his behavior of late. Owen had a week off from school before the new year started, so Owen, Sophie and I joined my parents at a time share in Pinetop for the week (Keith stayed home to get some work done around the house). I'd be lying if I said it was a totally relaxing trip (for the above reasons and because I checked into work every day so as not to get too far behind), but I got out of town during the hottest week of the year, which was nice. Every afternoon we had scattered storms, which was really cool (literally and figuratively). Owen enjoyed going on a few hikes, and Sophie seemed to just enjoy being outside (a rarity this time of year in Phoenix). I enjoyed the change of scenery, spending time with my parents and taking pictures on our hikes. I have attempted to insert a slideshow below, but if that's not working, you can see the pics here.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
A Diagnosis
We received the call from our geneticist a few weeks ago (I am delayed in writing this due to a vacation in Pinetop, which I will write about later), and it's official: Sophie has Kabuki Syndrome.
Kabuki is a rare (1 in 32,000 births) genetic disorder which is named after its most common physical feature, long eyes (in Japanese Kabuki theater actors use makeup to make their eyes look long). It is associated with a myriad of medical issues and mild to severe intellectual disability. The physical features that Sophie has are the long eyes, long eye lashes, small head, pronounced finger pads, and arched eyebrows that fade on the outer half. She so far does not have the protruding ears and depressed nasal tip that is also common in KS. Because of that, our geneticist says people may not realize that she is "special" just by looking at her. The health issues she shares with KS are eating problems, weak muscle tone, strabismus (eye issues), reflux, kidney abnormalities, heart abnormalities, and rectal abnormalities. Interestingly, her biggest medical issue, biliary atresia, is not listed as an issue (the documentation doesn't list any liver issues).
It is actually uncommon for KS children to be diagnosed at such an early age. Most kids don't get diagnosed until they are 3-4 years old when the physical features are most visible, and sometimes even older. Given that Sophie doesn't have all of the physical features, it's almost a blessing to receive a diagnosis. Most people have to wait years and endure many tests before they figure out what "explains" the issues the child is having. Our geneticist (Dr. Aleck Kyrieckos if you're interested) recently contributed to a nation wide study on KS. He said that of the 65 or so kids in the study, his practice has 11 cases. So it seems like we saw the right doctor!
The field of genetics seems to be a big case of "the more you know, the less you know". It's really quite interesting. In Sophie's case, she was diagnosed because a test confirmed a mutation in the MLL2 gene. But only about 70% of KS cases have that mutation. Dr. Aleck explained to us that our genes create proteins, and in the case of a mutation, the wrong protein can be created. But how that one mutation can cause such differing and widespread issues in each case is not fully understood. Our doctor made a point to tell us this wasn't caused by anything we did, it just spontaneously happened (you can inherit it, but since neither Keith nor I have it, this was a new case). Which to me really just means that the medical community doesn't know what causes mutations. Dr. Aleck did say that the mutation likely happened in the egg or the sperm before conception, which surprised me. I assumed it was something that happened during pregnancy.
So what does this mean for Sophie? It's hard to tell. Dr. Aleck said that most of her medical issues should be known by now. I was expecting him to give me a list of more specialists to go to (to check for other common issues), but he said that wasn't necessary. For now he said we need to focus on her physical therapy and her feeding issues (which we are). As far as intellectual disabilities, we just have to wait and see. He did say that since she was delayed in babbling, that is a sign of some disability, but it's too early to say what we can expect.
Kabuki is a rare (1 in 32,000 births) genetic disorder which is named after its most common physical feature, long eyes (in Japanese Kabuki theater actors use makeup to make their eyes look long). It is associated with a myriad of medical issues and mild to severe intellectual disability. The physical features that Sophie has are the long eyes, long eye lashes, small head, pronounced finger pads, and arched eyebrows that fade on the outer half. She so far does not have the protruding ears and depressed nasal tip that is also common in KS. Because of that, our geneticist says people may not realize that she is "special" just by looking at her. The health issues she shares with KS are eating problems, weak muscle tone, strabismus (eye issues), reflux, kidney abnormalities, heart abnormalities, and rectal abnormalities. Interestingly, her biggest medical issue, biliary atresia, is not listed as an issue (the documentation doesn't list any liver issues).
It is actually uncommon for KS children to be diagnosed at such an early age. Most kids don't get diagnosed until they are 3-4 years old when the physical features are most visible, and sometimes even older. Given that Sophie doesn't have all of the physical features, it's almost a blessing to receive a diagnosis. Most people have to wait years and endure many tests before they figure out what "explains" the issues the child is having. Our geneticist (Dr. Aleck Kyrieckos if you're interested) recently contributed to a nation wide study on KS. He said that of the 65 or so kids in the study, his practice has 11 cases. So it seems like we saw the right doctor!
The field of genetics seems to be a big case of "the more you know, the less you know". It's really quite interesting. In Sophie's case, she was diagnosed because a test confirmed a mutation in the MLL2 gene. But only about 70% of KS cases have that mutation. Dr. Aleck explained to us that our genes create proteins, and in the case of a mutation, the wrong protein can be created. But how that one mutation can cause such differing and widespread issues in each case is not fully understood. Our doctor made a point to tell us this wasn't caused by anything we did, it just spontaneously happened (you can inherit it, but since neither Keith nor I have it, this was a new case). Which to me really just means that the medical community doesn't know what causes mutations. Dr. Aleck did say that the mutation likely happened in the egg or the sperm before conception, which surprised me. I assumed it was something that happened during pregnancy.
So what does this mean for Sophie? It's hard to tell. Dr. Aleck said that most of her medical issues should be known by now. I was expecting him to give me a list of more specialists to go to (to check for other common issues), but he said that wasn't necessary. For now he said we need to focus on her physical therapy and her feeding issues (which we are). As far as intellectual disabilities, we just have to wait and see. He did say that since she was delayed in babbling, that is a sign of some disability, but it's too early to say what we can expect.
The intellectual/behavioral issues is probably what scares me the most. Learning always came easy for both Keith and me, and Owen seems to be ahead of the curve, so this is new territory for us. And I was recently reading about some "epic meltdowns" that some KS kids have. Not looking forward to that.
And of course there was the part of me that was hoping that Sophie would end up being "normal" and just outgrow her medical issues (even though the doctors said shortly after birth that Sophie most likely had some kind of syndrome since she had so many abnormalities). To think that Sophie will likely not have the normal adult life of go to college, get a job, get married and have children is hard to swallow. But now there's also a part of me that is looking forward to (and currently enjoying) caring for someone so "special". A few years ago I overheard someone say that they kind of hoped they would get the swine flu, because they liked having a lot of varied "experiences" (even bad ones) to enhance their life. At the time I thought she was crazy, but now I can somewhat understand that. The past year has changed my perspective on many things, and as Sophie grows bigger, I grow along with her.
If you'd like more information about KS, there is a good website at http://kabukisyndrome.com/.
And of course there was the part of me that was hoping that Sophie would end up being "normal" and just outgrow her medical issues (even though the doctors said shortly after birth that Sophie most likely had some kind of syndrome since she had so many abnormalities). To think that Sophie will likely not have the normal adult life of go to college, get a job, get married and have children is hard to swallow. But now there's also a part of me that is looking forward to (and currently enjoying) caring for someone so "special". A few years ago I overheard someone say that they kind of hoped they would get the swine flu, because they liked having a lot of varied "experiences" (even bad ones) to enhance their life. At the time I thought she was crazy, but now I can somewhat understand that. The past year has changed my perspective on many things, and as Sophie grows bigger, I grow along with her.
If you'd like more information about KS, there is a good website at http://kabukisyndrome.com/.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
Teething Bites!
...both literally and figuratively. Sophie bit me twice today. The second time my reaction may have scared her enough to not try it again, at least not anytime soon. It's another clue that she is teething. It's really quite frustrating, cause she has taken a step backwards in a lot of things: drinking from the bottle, eating solids, and sleeping.
At one point earlier in the summer Sophie was doing so well with the bottle - even finishing some bottles completely. Now she occasionally completely refuses the bottle. Her GI recently said that we should try to get Sophie to eat more baby food (she said normal kids would be eating 3 jars a day and we were at 1.5-2 jars), but lately she's wanted less. I gave her Greek yogurt the other day for the first time, and she absolutely loved it. But I've tried it twice since then and she gave me this look like "What in the world are you feeding me? This is terrible!" Earlier this week she woke up around midnight and would not calm down unless I held her (standing up) and walked her to sleep. Now she's easier to get back to sleep, but wakes up 4-6 times a night.
A little over a week ago I found a new tooth that had broken through (her upper right molar). She still only has 3 bottom incisors, so I keep expecting the fourth incisor or another molar to pop through, but nothing yet. I am, of course, *assuming* (or maybe it's "hoping") that this is all teething. I guess only time can tell. It does make me believe that we won't be able to take her g-tube out until she has all her teeth.
Good news is that Sophie's developmental pediatrician was very pleased with the progress she saw from her last appointment. She says Sophie is doing things in the 6-8 month range, which isn't too far behind her 10 month adjusted age.
Sophie had a great time at her birthday party. We had the grandparents and a few friends and their kids over for swimming, dinner & cake. I wasn't planning on giving Sophie any cake (I didn't want her to choke on it), but she absolutely loved it!! Sophie's feeding therapist said that sometimes sweets make kids forget about any feeding issues they have. It made for some great pictures, too!
For the last two weeks Owen has been going to swim lessons 4x a week. He was a little hesitant at first, but at least a dozen times over the two weeks he would turn around (he sits on the steps waiting his turn) and tell me "Mommy, I'm having fun!" with a big smile on his face. He learned how to blow bubbles, climb out of the pool, hang on to the side of the pool and make his way to the steps, and "airplane" (floating). At the end of the two weeks he got a ribbon for floating by himself, even though he only floated by himself for 5 seconds, not the 10 seconds that they said he needed to do. At the center where we did the lessons, SwimKids USA, they also do gymnastics. Every day Owen wanted to watch them do gymnastics through the window, and wanted to do it himself. So in a few weeks he's going to move to once a week for swim lessons, and we'll add gymnastics in there too. I can't believe I'm already filling up his activity calendar outside of school, but swim lessons are important, and gymnastics will be good for him (and it's great that he showed such interest!).
At one point earlier in the summer Sophie was doing so well with the bottle - even finishing some bottles completely. Now she occasionally completely refuses the bottle. Her GI recently said that we should try to get Sophie to eat more baby food (she said normal kids would be eating 3 jars a day and we were at 1.5-2 jars), but lately she's wanted less. I gave her Greek yogurt the other day for the first time, and she absolutely loved it. But I've tried it twice since then and she gave me this look like "What in the world are you feeding me? This is terrible!" Earlier this week she woke up around midnight and would not calm down unless I held her (standing up) and walked her to sleep. Now she's easier to get back to sleep, but wakes up 4-6 times a night.
A little over a week ago I found a new tooth that had broken through (her upper right molar). She still only has 3 bottom incisors, so I keep expecting the fourth incisor or another molar to pop through, but nothing yet. I am, of course, *assuming* (or maybe it's "hoping") that this is all teething. I guess only time can tell. It does make me believe that we won't be able to take her g-tube out until she has all her teeth.
Good news is that Sophie's developmental pediatrician was very pleased with the progress she saw from her last appointment. She says Sophie is doing things in the 6-8 month range, which isn't too far behind her 10 month adjusted age.
Sophie had a great time at her birthday party. We had the grandparents and a few friends and their kids over for swimming, dinner & cake. I wasn't planning on giving Sophie any cake (I didn't want her to choke on it), but she absolutely loved it!! Sophie's feeding therapist said that sometimes sweets make kids forget about any feeding issues they have. It made for some great pictures, too!
For the last two weeks Owen has been going to swim lessons 4x a week. He was a little hesitant at first, but at least a dozen times over the two weeks he would turn around (he sits on the steps waiting his turn) and tell me "Mommy, I'm having fun!" with a big smile on his face. He learned how to blow bubbles, climb out of the pool, hang on to the side of the pool and make his way to the steps, and "airplane" (floating). At the end of the two weeks he got a ribbon for floating by himself, even though he only floated by himself for 5 seconds, not the 10 seconds that they said he needed to do. At the center where we did the lessons, SwimKids USA, they also do gymnastics. Every day Owen wanted to watch them do gymnastics through the window, and wanted to do it himself. So in a few weeks he's going to move to once a week for swim lessons, and we'll add gymnastics in there too. I can't believe I'm already filling up his activity calendar outside of school, but swim lessons are important, and gymnastics will be good for him (and it's great that he showed such interest!).
 |
| From O So August 2011 |
 |
| From Sophie's 1st Birthday Party |
 |
| From Sophie's 1st Birthday Party |
 |
| From Sophie's 1st Birthday Party |
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Happy Birthday Sophie!!
I know this is very cliche, but I'm going to say it anyway: I can't believe Sophie is a year old! Looking back at Sophie's birth story and pictures, the memories are very clear, yet otherworldly. I can still remember what it was like to hold a baby that small. She looked so different back then, yet I can see features in the pictures that are distinctly Sophie. The joy, and pain, from that period in our lives is still very fresh, albeit more comfortably behind us. About a month ago we ended up driving by the hospital at night and I broke down crying.
Part of the reason why it's hard to believe she's a year old is, well, she really isn't. Her adjusted age is 10 months, and developmentally she's even behind that. She's sitting really well now, but isn't crawling yet. To think that a lot of kids are walking by now just blows my mind. I have to be careful to not compare Sophie to other babies her age (or even her adjusted age). The important thing is that she is progressing. They say that premies "catch up" to non-premies by 2 or 3 years of age (Owen was probably caught up by 1.5 years). That may not be the case with Sophie. If she is diagnosed with a syndrome, she could have delays her whole life. That is just something we will have to deal with.
But the good news is that Sophie is blessed with good health (as far as not getting sicknesses) and our lives are much easier than when she first came home. Sophie is a very happy (unless you make her work too hard!) and extremely smiley baby. She captivates everyone she meets with her smile, which she gives out freely. She is a joy to take care of.
We didn't do much different today to celebrate. Keith stayed home, which was nice. Owen did give her lots of birthday hugs, which is always cute, yet a bit scary since Owen isn't always gentle enough with her. On Saturday we are having friends and family over for a party. I know a lot of people just do a small family party for the first birthday, but I felt like celebrating in a bigger way (and we like hosting parties).
We did get up early to commemorate the actual time of Sophie's birth (5:15am) with a picture. I set my alarm for 5:12 thinking that would give me a few minutes to get the camera ready. What I didn't take into account was that I hit my snooze button while I was half asleep and didn't get out of bed until 5:20am. Oops! But if I didn't tell you, you wouldn't have known the difference, right?
Then:
 |
| From LGA Arrives! |
 |
| From LGA Arrives! |
And Now:
 |
| From O So July 2011 |
 |
From O So July 2011 |
 |
| From O So July 2011 |
Happy Birthday Sophie!! We are so blessed to have you in our lives!! We love you!
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Back to Reality
Coming home from vacation really sucks. I've always hated it, but coming back from our week-long vacation to San Diego last week was especially hard for me (I'll leave my comments about the trip to the end of the post). I think there are several reasons why it was so difficult to come home (other than the normal "we had a great time" and "it was nice and cool"):
- On the trip we were (for the most part) just a normal family; no therapies, no doctor visits for Sophie.
- We got to spend some good time with my brother and his family. I really miss them!
- Since I work from home most of the time, I spend 95% of my time here; getting away from the messy house for a whole week was luxurious.
- The vacation was long overdue.
And going to a genetics appointment on Monday morning was a tough reminder of what our "normal" life is these days. Sophie's geneticist is going to test Sophie for Kabuki Syndrome. He said it is in no way a diagnosis at this time, but it does fit a lot of Sophie's medical issues and a few physical characteristics. It is named for the Japanese Kabuki dancers who do their makeup to make their eyes look long. Long eyes has always been a striking characteristic for Sophie. It will be a few months before we get any results, so I'm trying not to worry about it too much, but at the same time preparing myself if we do get a diagnosis.
And speaking of Sophie's eyes, since I last wrote Sophie has gone to the eye doctor. I had found an eye lash that was growing right next to her eyeball and was constantly in her eye. After consulting with a friend of ours who is an opthmalogist I ended up pulling it out with tweezers (and to think, with Owen I was afraid to cut his nails!). A few days later we saw Sophie's eye doctor, who said the eye lash was nothing to worry about, but he noticed she was crossing her eyes, which is a problem at her age. He diagnosed her with congenital esotropia, which means that one of her eyes tends to look inward. She has to wear an eye patch on the good eye for 1.5 hours a day for 4 weeks in the hopes that it will strengthen the muscles connected to the bad eye. Good news is that her eye sight is fine right now; bad news is that this could mean surgery on her eye (which my friend assures me is not a difficult surgery so I shouldn't worry).
As for Owen, we are trying (with some success) to convert him to "Independent Owen" (a term we actually use with him). His teacher said we need to teach him to go to the bathroom by himself. We had been reading to him on the potty and helping him with each step of the process. We took the opportunity of the vacation to change things; we stopped reading to him and tried to teach him how to dress himself. When we got home Keith sat down with him and explained that he was getting older and needs to start doing things on his own. He still sometimes throws a tantrum when we try and get him to do some stuff on his own, but giving him a lot of praise for when he does seems to be working. Vacation did mess up his record of sleeping through the night, but we expected that. This is all at the same time we are discontinuing use of the star chart, mainly because we ran out of the Cars that we gave as prizes.
Now on to the good part. Our vacation was great! We stayed in Carlsbad at a condo right across the street from the beach (it was a time share week from my parents; they stayed on their boat). My brother lives in San Diego, so it was great to see him and his family, and to celebrate cousin Ben's birthday. We took the kids sailing for the first time, went to Sea World, picked strawberries, played on the beach, played a lot of card games with Owen (Go Fish, War and Crazy Eights), and my Dad and I took standup paddleboarding lessons. I hesitate to call it relaxing, since we did go with a 3 year old and 10 month old after all, but we certainly did enjoy ourselves. The kids did pretty well, especially given the fact that Sophie was teething (her tooth popped through yesterday), although you could tell Owen was ready to go home towards the end of the week. Here's some highlights, with more pictures posted on our Picasa site.
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
 |
| From San Diego June 2011 |
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
1 healthy baby + 1 smart cookie = 2 happy parents
We received wonderful news about Sophie today. The latest VCUG shows no kidney reflux, which means Sophie doesn't need kidney surgery!! Her urologist said back in December that she would probably need the surgery this summer. She still has a small dilation in her right kidney, and still has a duplicated kidney, but without the reflux those aren't problems and just need to be monitored. This is fantastic news!! I was not ready to deal with another surgery; even if all went perfectly well during the surgery and recovery, it would set her back on some of her development, which I would hate to see. Sophie still has her developmental issues to deal with, but this means that she currently has no major medical problems that need treatment (her liver will always need to be monitored, but for now is working fine). This is a huge relief!
I said "major" medical problems because Sophie has not outgrown her GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). We were trying to wean her off her medication, but last week she started vomiting after almost every feeding. After 4 days of taking the medication every day (we were doing every other day), she is doing much better. I was hoping to get rid of the medication soon, but alas.
Not to be completely outdone by his sister, Owen required a trip to the eye doctor a few weeks ago. His teacher noticed one of his eyes had trouble focusing. The doctor confirmed that one of his eyes did wander when looking at far objects (called exotropia). Fortunately it is not bad enough to require glasses or any other treatment, and he may outgrow it. We go back to the doctor in 6 months to make sure it doesn't get worse.
If (really just "when" considering Keith and I both got glasses in grade school) Owen gets glasses, it will fit his personality to a T. Owen has shown a big interest in spelling lately. Short words he can figure out the spelling himself, and larger words he asks us to help him with. We generally just have to sound out the word and he can figure it out. (Although, boy, the English language is tricky!) It's interesting to note how he always relates letters in new words to words he already knows, such as "P, like after the O in Sophie".
And now Owen has shown an interest in addition! He'll use his fingers (and Mommy or Daddy's fingers if it's more than ten) to count up the total ("4 plus 5 equals...1,2,3,4...5,6,7,8,9!"). We haven't been able to get him to start counting from the first number being added instead of 1 ("4 plus 5 equals...4...5,6,7,8,9"), but he'll probably catch on soon. I started him on subtraction a couple of days ago. When he asked what 9 minus 10 was I wasn't sure how to answer! (Obviously I know what the correct answer is, but he's too young to understand negative numbers, right?) Sophie's speech therapist commented that a public school is probably not going to give Owen what he needs. I'm not sure what we'll do with his schooling, but for now it's fun to come up with new spelling and number games!
May has been a fun month so far with a Derby party, Mother's Day and Sophie's baptism. Below are a few pics, and more can be found on our Picasa site.
Friday Night at the Movies in the park (that's what Owen does when you tell him to smile):
Mommy and Sophie in their Derby hats:
Mother's Day:
Celebrating Grandma's birthday:
Sophie's Baptism (the gown she is wearing was Nana's baptismal gown!)
My parents and brother and his family:
Sophie with Daddy's hat:
Owen playing with the backhoe that Toolman restored (was Uncle Charles's as a kid):
I said "major" medical problems because Sophie has not outgrown her GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease). We were trying to wean her off her medication, but last week she started vomiting after almost every feeding. After 4 days of taking the medication every day (we were doing every other day), she is doing much better. I was hoping to get rid of the medication soon, but alas.
Not to be completely outdone by his sister, Owen required a trip to the eye doctor a few weeks ago. His teacher noticed one of his eyes had trouble focusing. The doctor confirmed that one of his eyes did wander when looking at far objects (called exotropia). Fortunately it is not bad enough to require glasses or any other treatment, and he may outgrow it. We go back to the doctor in 6 months to make sure it doesn't get worse.
If (really just "when" considering Keith and I both got glasses in grade school) Owen gets glasses, it will fit his personality to a T. Owen has shown a big interest in spelling lately. Short words he can figure out the spelling himself, and larger words he asks us to help him with. We generally just have to sound out the word and he can figure it out. (Although, boy, the English language is tricky!) It's interesting to note how he always relates letters in new words to words he already knows, such as "P, like after the O in Sophie".
And now Owen has shown an interest in addition! He'll use his fingers (and Mommy or Daddy's fingers if it's more than ten) to count up the total ("4 plus 5 equals...1,2,3,4...5,6,7,8,9!"). We haven't been able to get him to start counting from the first number being added instead of 1 ("4 plus 5 equals...4...5,6,7,8,9"), but he'll probably catch on soon. I started him on subtraction a couple of days ago. When he asked what 9 minus 10 was I wasn't sure how to answer! (Obviously I know what the correct answer is, but he's too young to understand negative numbers, right?) Sophie's speech therapist commented that a public school is probably not going to give Owen what he needs. I'm not sure what we'll do with his schooling, but for now it's fun to come up with new spelling and number games!
May has been a fun month so far with a Derby party, Mother's Day and Sophie's baptism. Below are a few pics, and more can be found on our Picasa site.
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Friday Night at the Movies in the park (that's what Owen does when you tell him to smile):
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Mommy and Sophie in their Derby hats:
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Mother's Day:
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Celebrating Grandma's birthday:
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Sophie's Baptism (the gown she is wearing was Nana's baptismal gown!)
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
My parents and brother and his family:
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Sophie with Daddy's hat:
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Owen playing with the backhoe that Toolman restored (was Uncle Charles's as a kid):
 |
| From O So May 2011 |
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Yes or No
Owen seems to be going through a phase where he wants very specific directions about things. He has no problems making decisions about some things; he'll pick out what he wants to eat, or what he wants to do if given a choice. But if we're putting stickers on something, he wants us to tell him exactly where to put the sticker. "No, YOU tell me!!" is something we hear a lot if we try to get him to decide. If we're doing a "scene" from Cars, he gets upset if we don't show or tell him exactly where to put the cars; if we say next to Sally he'll say "On this side or this side?", even if there is really only one open side. And lately, he'll add "Yes or No!" after a pointed question. "This side? Yes or No!" And if we answer with anything other than a direct yes or no, he gets upset. Answers such as "I think", "maybe", or even "yep" leads to an even more emphatic "YES OR NO??!!!". And if we don't answer that? He stomps off crying. I blame his Daddy, cause, well, everyone knows he's the picky one. As he would say, look who he married, and look who I married!
The good news is that Owen is doing really well with potty training. He's been wearing only underpants except at night. He even went to the zoo in underpants. His star chart really seems to be working. He gets 5 stars if he asks to go potty then goes, and when he gets 10 stars, he gets a toy car. Other things are worth 1 or 2 stars. The only thing that it hasn't helped with is staying in bed all night (worth 10 stars!). We've been very lax in trying to break him of the habit of coming to get us at night. We just don't have enough motivation to lock him in in some way (which is likely the only way to nip it in the bud). I guess we're hoping he'll out grow it (or maybe get over it once Sophie is out of our room). Or maybe we secretly don't mind waking up and finding him in our bed (as long as he's sleeping and not fidgety). See reason #1 of Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party. :-)
Sophie has her first cold, but seems to be handling it pretty well. I figured that would happen as soon as I quit pumping breast milk for her, which I recently have. Never would I have thought that I would make it 9 months, but I did! Now I can finally say goodbye to my pump, which is kind of bittersweet. It was definitely a hassle, but in a way it's kind of sad; it's a reminder that I'm done with breastfeeding forever, and once Sophie turns a year old, I'm done with babies! Yikes! I felt old when I became a parent, but I really feel old now that I'm done having kids. We've always said we'd like 2 or 3 kids, but given the fact that my body apparently produces premies, we definitely have to stop at 2. I don't really want more than two kids, and do look forward to getting out of the baby phase, but it still is sad to think about.
It's been a while since I've posted. In the last month Sophie has rolled over, is doing great at holding bigger toys, and is doing better at sitting up. Her therapists are very happy with how engaged she is becoming with her surroundings. Just a few short weeks ago she didn't like being on her tummy for very long, but now she rolls over like it's nothing, and is even trying to scoot to reach things. Before long, she'll be crawling!
Are we ready for that? Sorry, Owen, but my answer would have to be yes AND no! :-)
The good news is that Owen is doing really well with potty training. He's been wearing only underpants except at night. He even went to the zoo in underpants. His star chart really seems to be working. He gets 5 stars if he asks to go potty then goes, and when he gets 10 stars, he gets a toy car. Other things are worth 1 or 2 stars. The only thing that it hasn't helped with is staying in bed all night (worth 10 stars!). We've been very lax in trying to break him of the habit of coming to get us at night. We just don't have enough motivation to lock him in in some way (which is likely the only way to nip it in the bud). I guess we're hoping he'll out grow it (or maybe get over it once Sophie is out of our room). Or maybe we secretly don't mind waking up and finding him in our bed (as long as he's sleeping and not fidgety). See reason #1 of Why Having a Toddler is Like Being at a Frat Party. :-)
Sophie has her first cold, but seems to be handling it pretty well. I figured that would happen as soon as I quit pumping breast milk for her, which I recently have. Never would I have thought that I would make it 9 months, but I did! Now I can finally say goodbye to my pump, which is kind of bittersweet. It was definitely a hassle, but in a way it's kind of sad; it's a reminder that I'm done with breastfeeding forever, and once Sophie turns a year old, I'm done with babies! Yikes! I felt old when I became a parent, but I really feel old now that I'm done having kids. We've always said we'd like 2 or 3 kids, but given the fact that my body apparently produces premies, we definitely have to stop at 2. I don't really want more than two kids, and do look forward to getting out of the baby phase, but it still is sad to think about.
It's been a while since I've posted. In the last month Sophie has rolled over, is doing great at holding bigger toys, and is doing better at sitting up. Her therapists are very happy with how engaged she is becoming with her surroundings. Just a few short weeks ago she didn't like being on her tummy for very long, but now she rolls over like it's nothing, and is even trying to scoot to reach things. Before long, she'll be crawling!
Are we ready for that? Sorry, Owen, but my answer would have to be yes AND no! :-)
 |
| From O So April 2011 |
 |
| From O So April 2011 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)