O, So Much Love: What a Difference the Weather Makes

I am writing this at the end of a beautiful weekend here in Phoenix. Last weekend was still in the 100's, but this weekend was in the 80's, and earlier this week we even had a couple of days in the 70's. The upper 90's are forecasted this week, so we won't be able to keep the air conditioning off, but at least the end is in sight. One bad thing about working at home is that you're stuck at home for a very large percentage of your week. It does wonders to my general outlook just to have the windows open in the house.

So this weekend we got outside. While Keith played Ultimate in Flagstaff on Saturday, Owen, Sophie and I went to Saguaro Lake with my parents. I love the water, so any time I can get on a boat is relaxing for me, and Owen enjoyed playing on the beach. Sophie was a bit fussy at times, but enjoyed it when the boat went fast, and she always seems to like being outside. Today Owen and Keith went on a shopping "adventure" (IKEA and Costco in one trip!), while Sophie and I went to church. This afternoon I was able to go running - yes, in the middle of the afternoon (!) - with Sophie for the jogging portion, and some faster "sprints" after stopping back in at the house. And then we all played outside before dinner.

Last weekend was Sophie's 3rd 1st Birthday: October 1st was the day she finally came home from the NICU, 10.5 weeks after she was born. We were thinking of having some sort of get together to celebrate, but our weekend was jam packed already. Friday night we had my brother, his wife, his two year old son, and my parents over for dinner. My brother lives in San Diego, so it's always a treat to get the cousins together, especially now that they are old enough to kind of play together. We had two birthday parties to go to on Saturday, which we ended up splitting up for. Owen and Keith went to a party for Owen's school friend Abby, while Sophie and I went to Lexi's first birthday party. Lexi was actually born in the same hospital as Sophie, on the day Sophie was discharged. If we weren't so busy taking her home we could have been one of the first to meet Lexi! Lexi's party was about 40 minutes away, which worked out fine because we then went to my parents house (in the same direction) to spend more time with my brother. On Sunday Owen and Keith went to their first Giants game (at University of Phoenix stadium). Keith's dad got tickets, so of course he wanted to share them with his grandson. Keith said he knew Owen was bored when he actually asked to be tickled. He slept during the 3rd quarter, but they had to leave at the beginning of the 4th (the most exciting part) because Owen wanted to use the bathroom at 1743 (that's what Owen calls our house). Keith took him to the restroom at the stadium, but a mini-meltdown ensued. So Owen had to hold it for an hour to get his wish.

Going backwards from that weekend, on Saturday, we went over to Bryan, Megan, Finn, and Maya's house for dinner. We stayed later than we should have, but the boys (Owen, Finn, and Keith) were having too much fun playing. Then the other parents joined in for hide and seek and it picked up a notch with a parent - child pillow fight, which was very cathartic for the parents. It started with Megan and Bryan tossing pillows at Finn, and him asking for more, so then Owen wanted to "play" as well. So we'd throw pillows at the boys, at they'd fall to the ground laughing.

On that Friday, Owen's school had a "Welcome to My World" day. Parents were invited to spend the morning with their kid in their classroom. Keith took him to school, and was there for circle time, an early snack, the playground and the start of art class. I joined them at art class, then we did free play (which Owen wanted to spend in "Al Oft", the loft in his classroom), and then more circle time. It was very interesting to see how they handled things at school, and more importantly, how Owen acted. Owen was definitely excited to have us there. During the circle time they learned about shapes, the seasons, colors, and did a few songs. While most kids were pretty attentive to the teacher, Owen seemed to be all over the place. He participated, but it was hard for him to stay in one spot and didn't always follow the dance moves. It really struck me by surprise, as Owen has always been a bit shy. Keith asked his teacher if he's always like that, and she said only sometimes. I guess he was just excited to have us there, but I still wonder if that's a potential sign of ADD at this age. While he can play with his cars for a while, he doesn't seem to really focus on anything for any length of time. He gets distracted in the bathroom, we have to prod him sometimes during puzzles ... it's probably nothing, but I think both of us pick up on some signs that some of his socialization skills are a bit different.

The day before that, Thursday, Sophie had her surgery to fix her crossed eyes. During the outpatient surgery they go in and loosen the muscle behind each eye so they can correct themselves together. At her checkup this week the doctor said things looked pretty good, but it would take 6 weeks to tell if it was completely fixed or if more surgery would be needed. Poor Sophie pretty much had a triple whammy that week; surgery, a cold, and teething. She handled everything pretty well, but her eating has taken a nosedive. Her solids intake has gone down noticeably, but even more troubling, she started to refuse the bottle completely. She finally took about 3 oz from one of her bottles today, and has eaten more purees, so hopefully things are improving. It's been very frustrating, but I keep reminding myself that she wasn't feeling well (I think it's the teething more than anything, but who knows for sure). Whatever it is, it's pretty evident we are not getting rid of the G-tube anytime soon.

The good news is that Sophie is now crawling all over the place and is getting stronger. On her third first birthday, she stood up from her stool to a music table six times. Today she even pulled herself up (actually, she pushed herself up) from the floor to a stand in front of the kid piano! She spends a lot of time in front of the 3 steps that go up from our family room trying to figure out how to get up them, and she finally got one knee up today as well. Sophie's PT suggested that she might not walk until she is at least 2 years old, but I wouldn't be surprised if Sophie proves her wrong.

Owen's behavior has also improved a bit lately (from my last blog on the subject). We started timing him when he went potty to make him more efficient. Sometimes we actually use the timer, but most of the time the best motivator is for us to count how long it takes him to do a step (how long to get his underwear and shorts on, how long to flush and move the stool, how long to wash his hands, etc.). We also found that tone matters. We've tried a more positive tone with the counting ("how fast can you do this") rather than a "if you don't do this by xxx time". This has also helped, as he's been responsive to the latter when it carries weight (we'll put cars, or some other toys away), but not so much when it's just a trying to get him to do things. Mornings are a lot less stressful now that we've given up on forcing him to go potty before we go downstairs (now we wait until he says he needs to go), and we've gotten him in the habit of eating breakfast (at least most of it) at the table first before playing (so we don't have to get him to stop playing). So it's a little easier to get him to do things, but he still mixes in some prolonged dawdling and the occasional mini-tantrum throughout the day.

One reason it's been so long since I've blogged is that I wanted to get the pictures loaded to Picasa first. I uploaded a lot to the September album, some of which is below. October has been just as busy so far, so more pics will be coming, and with this beautiful weather, hopefully more of those pictures will be in the great outdoors!!