The End is Always a New Beginning

Today was the last day of kindergarten. I have one more day of work, tomorrow, and it's an inservice day so half of my kids won't be there. So I had to say goodbye to most of them today. It was very sad. So happy to have my summer off though.

In other news, we got invited to a garden event with the Queen of England on Saturday. My mom made me buy a new dress. I'm not like a huge British monarch buff or anything but it's still pretty cool. And the dress bit segues into my next thing.

Last night I designed, cut, and sewed my handfasting (like a wedding) dress. It's dark blue with a light blue sash. I wanted red, but I already had the blue satin, it had been sitting in my craft closet for a few years. Plus blue is my favourite colour and for a cost of $2.50 (for the elastic) to make my dress you just can't go wrong. Don't mind how tired I look in the pictures. I had just worked all morning, took care of the baby all afternoon, cooked, cleaned and then sewed a dress so I was a little worn out.


In Skyler news, he's saying "I like that" now. It's the cutest thing, and it sounds so clear too. Even his nursery teacher at church heard him say it. She said it was so cute and funny to hear him say that. He's seeing a lot of things for a blind kid, his OT is impressed as usual. He's even stood on his own (for about 15-20 seconds each time) twice in the past week! He even did it while his OT was here. So that was awesome.

We've finally moved everything into the new apartment but there's just not enough room in here for everything so it kind of looks like our living room is a still shot from that Hoarders show. It's mostly bookshelf stuff since our bookshelf basically disintegrated when we tried to move it. We need to buy a new one, but C is always working when I'm not and vice versa. Hopefully Friday we'll be able to get a new one. I have Thursday off of course but it's Canada Day so I doubt anything will be open. I plan to go to a street festival with my mom and Sky on Canada Day.

Anyway there's a ton to say I'm sure, but I have to brave the lovely weather to get to the store. So I leave you with a picture of Sky stuffing his face at his auntie's graduation party.

More News

Skyler is learning more and more each day. I'm so proud to be his mommy. I'm thrilled that he knows that the garbage can and the toilet are "yuck" though the other day I was folding laundry and he was wandering around as he does, and I hear "yuck. yuck. yuck." I turn around and look into the bathroom where my little man is attempting to lift the lid and stick his hands into the toilet bowl. Kind of makes me think he's not quite getting what "yuck" actually means even though he clearly knows that certain things are yuck. Haha.

His vocabulary now consists of: yeah, no, mum, dad, up, down, kiss, cat, meow, knock, door, duck, quack, Skyler, grama, and cut. There's more I'm sure, but I can't recall each word at the moment, I know he learned how to say "cut" today as I was holding him near the aluminum blinds and told him he couldn't play with them because he might get cut. He then started yelling "cut! cut! cut!". He's learning all sorts of new things. Today he finally used his red car to walk with! I was so excited. He's finally starting to balance better on his own. It's awesome.

I can't wait until June is done, so close now! Loving the new apartment, still have a few things in the old one, as soon as C and I have some free time we'll probably be able to move the rest over here. I hope you are all doing well!

Home Is Where Your Heart Is, But Also Where Your Stuff Is

It feels like it's been forever. We are finally living in the new apartment, though some of our stuff is still in the old one. We moved last night we now have a living room over here. We still have to move the baby's dresser, most of our clothes, the bathroom stuff, and the pots & pans etc. But for the most part we're moved, and the apartment looks great. I love it already, part of me though is sad about moving from our old apartment. I liked it there, it was familiar, the dining area was bigger, but oh well. I am sure there are tons of new memories to be made here. The living room looks much nicer here. I even made Skyler his own reading corner in the living room, it's cute.

In Skyler news, the monster has been quite cranky the last two days. I'm pretty sure it's because of the move though so I'm hoping that levels out soon. He's been pretty good this morning, he's just mapping out the new apartment now that we added furniture. Before he was pretty good at finding everything but we snuck in the furniture last night while he was sleeping so things have changed a bit. Yesterday I crocheted him a new hat, because the "summer" weather we've been getting so far this year has been deplorable. Nothing but nonstop thunderstorms, rain, clouds and seriously cold temperatures. So I made him a new hat I used two different strands of yarn at the same time to make it double thick. It should last him through the coming fall and winter as long as his head doesn't grow too much.


Anyway I hope you all are well. I'll update again soon hopefully, assuming time doesn't slip away from me too quickly.

The Verdict Is In

Yesterday morning I was trying to wake C up so we could take Sky to his appointment. So I'm saying "Chuck! Chuck! Wake up!" And I hear this echo, (but slightly different version) of "Quack! Quack! Dadaa!" and then a small person goes crawling quickly over to his dad to wake him up. I cracked up, the poor kid can't make a "ch" sound yet, but he knows his dad's name, and is making an effort to say it. Haha, and poor daddy is now known as quack.

Now on to the important stuff. Yesterday we saw endocrinologist number 4. First meeting with her, and I have to say I liked her the most of all of them. I told her I was worried about him gaining and then losing, or basically staying the same weight for so long. She reassuringly told me not to worry, it's only been 3 months, he's a toddler, he's got teeth coming in it's okay. He has grown in height and is growing perfectly on the scale for a "petite" person. Which is fine, both C and I are pretty short, and we were pretty small as kids too. So he's doing great. She said his bloodwork came back from the last bloodtest and was all good so we don't have to do any bloodwork until 4 months from now at the next appointment. And we're just going to keep an eye on his height and see if he stops growing.

She also said that her and the other two female endocrinologists will be working as Skyler's team and that any decisions they make regarding the human growth hormone will be made as a team. She said three minds are better than one. She also noted that we're (Chuck & I) the specialists when it comes to our son. She was warm and kind and smiled a lot and said she wished she could see Skyler every week because he's just so cute. So she gets points in my book for that. We also found out as we grabbed a card on the way out that she's the medical director for the pediatric endocrinology clinic. Bonus. Of the other two doctors we're seeing on the team we have met one and she was lovely, we haven't met the last one yet, but hopefully she's just as nice.

Skyler's appetite seems to be coming back somewhat now that his teeth have broken through, so that's a relief. Hopefully he'll go back to wanting to eat everything in sight again. And this morning he reminded me again that he is no longer a baby. He woke up at 4am and I changed him and brought him to the couch with me for some cuddles. My child has no interest whatsoever in cuddling. Used to be he'd snuggle up and breastfeed, when he was a baby. This child wants nothing to do with that, but he's more than happy to step on my head and anything else that might be in his way. Ahh toddlers. Always on the way to their next big adventure.

Wow

Things have been slightly stressful over here to say the least. The apartment is still not finished being upgraded or whatever you want to call it. Our tub was done today, the hardwoods are getting done tomorrow, the fridge and stove on Wednesday and the carpet on Thursday. We've been living in two apartments for the last week or so and it's making me insane. At first it was slightly neat, but the novelty has worn off. I would like to be in one place now. Right now we're back in the old apartment (minus our bed which we have to go move tonight into the living room of the other apartment because they're doing the floor in the bedroom over there tomorrow) so we're on the couches, and we moved Skyler's crib back in here for the time being. PAIN IN THE BUTT. Sorry, had to get that out of my system.

I've been having headaches the last 4 or 5 days and I don't know why. Stress maybe? But I've been way more stressed in the past and not had headaches. I don't usually get them so it's odd for me. Time is ticking on the school year, we'll be done in less than a month now. I have mixed feelings. I really do like my new supervisor, so the last few months have been good. I'm really going to miss the kids, but at the same time, wonderful glorious freedom! And I won't have to hear my name whined at me a million times a day for petty things, which is always a plus. I'm still going to miss them though. I'm working on a slideshow of our year together for the kids to take home as sort of a kindergarten grad present. It's looking pretty cute so far.

Skyler is talking and comprehending more. I love it. He is still on the duck and quack thing. He now will point out his rubber duck every time we enter the bathroom, and the ducks on the garbage can which I didn't even notice at first. He will say quack and duck whenever he sees them or whenever we go in the bathroom at all. He also says "Yay!" which is pretty cute. Oh and I learned yesterday that while giving Skyler a bath is like going to Seaw.orld because you're not in the water but you'll still get wet, that taking a shower with Skyler around is like telling him that he's going to Seaw.orld and he'll want to get wet even though he's already taken his bath for the day. I went to shower yesterday and he went straight from the bedroom to the bathroom as soon as the water turned on, and he flung open the curtain and laughed (thanks for the confidence boost kid! :P) and every time I tried to close it he just opened it again.

He's still 19 pounds, even though he has been eating and getting formula supplements when he doesn't eat as much(and sometimes even if he does) and we have endocrine tomorrow. I'm so not looking forward to it.. I'm betting the reason he isn't gaining weight is because of the meds he's on (steroids and thyroxine, they both can cause weight gain or loss) but I doubt the doctors will take that as a reason. It's likely going to be time to do the 8 hour blood test for HGH since he hasn't even gained a single pound in 4 months. Sigh. I guess we shall find out tomorrow. Fortunately I have tomorrow and Wednesday off since my kinders will be in kindergarten all morning instead of with me on Wednesday. Hopefully the appointment will go well.

Other Skyler news, I'm not sure of the exact reason but it seems that Skyler is seeing more lately. It could be that he is just developing and his eyes too are developing more, or maybe it's the patching that seems to be causing him to use both eyes a lot more while looking recently or his brain is connecting the other things and filling in the blanks for what he can't see, or maybe it's something else altogether but he is seeing more things/further away than he used to. I'll be passing by something while holding him and he'll reach out and try to grab even though in the past he had no clue it was there. Very exciting stuff! We have OT on Friday I'm excited to see what our OT thinks of this new development. All in all it's a busy week. I hope you all are well. And now your reward for skimming through this post:

Baby with an eyepatch!

He sure loves the sand! Gotta take him to a beach one of these days.

Screaming Phase

My little man thinks everything is a walking toy, which is awesome. He's constantly screaming at the top of his lungs when things don't do exactly what he wants them to (which is not so awesome). Such as yesterday during his half hour eye patch tv time he was desperately trying to reach Gro.ver on the screen which is just a bit too high for him, so how to solve this problem? Screech like a banshee, that should help right? It was kind of funny if I pretended I hadn't been listening to him scream all afternoon because of the various little things that tick him off in a given day. He also has 4 teeth breaking through the gums right now, might be part of his reasoning for the screaming. Also yesterday he would not touch anything I tried to feed to him. What did he want to eat? French fries, at midnight. GAH my child. Delicious vegetable stir-fry with turkey made by daddy? No thanks, I'd rather have junk food. We're trying to supplement him with toddler formula again since he has made literally no weight gain in the last two months.

And we are currently in the process of moving. Next door. Our new apartment is the apartment right next to us so moving is fun, in a kind of annoying way. If the company that owns the building had bothered to get the repairs done on time we could be moved in already, but as it is we're waiting on a new stove, new fridge, new carpets, new hardwood floors (which they said will likely take more than two months.. sigh) and they have to paint the entire suite before we can move in. So we've moved some of our stuff over, but not all of it and it's kind of frustrating. Yesterday I went to heat up some food and remembered the microwave is next door.

Skyler of course is not exactly thrilled about what's going on yet as he mainly doesn't know. His room is still pretty much empty because we need them to paint it first before we can put his stuff in it. I'm thinking it will be a big adjustment for him when we finally do get to move in because he's a little guy and it's a big change, but then you factor in the blindness and that he has to relearn the entire layout of his home and everything, it should be interesting. He's figured out how to draw with markers now and he loves colouring on himself and finger painting on his new desk is always fun. I've decided that when his room is done I'm going to put up poster board all along the bottom of the wall so that Skyler can decorate his room however he wants without ruining the walls.

Also the day before yesterday he rode his little red car by himself for the first time ever. He finally figured out how to make it go, normally he just sits there wondering why I put him on such a boring toy. Well now he is cruising up and down the hallways. Today he even figured out how to turn. It doesn't have pedals so it's pretty slow moving and it's almost impossible to turn, but he found a way, he just stands up and moves it until it turns or he starts screaming until I turn it for him.

So of course my next thought was "Oh that's soo cute! He needs a tricycle next!" Which was immediately followed by "Hmm wait a second is putting a blind kid on a trike such a good idea?" He can't see where he's going at all, and giving him something that he can speed around on may cause all sorts of injuries and mayhem. I can just picture him crashing headfirst into every wall, and every piece of furniture, not to mention people's legs. Also the thought of him outside on something with wheels gives me a heart attack. I'd be terrified of him speeding away from me and off into the street. And yet despite all of this I think I'm still going to get the kid a tricycle. Every kid deserves a trike, and besides, it's not like anyone's going to let him have a driver's license. Might as well let him learn how to use the only set of wheels he can legally drive.

We'll just have to get him one of those little bells so he can warn people when he's coming. And I'll just have to find a yard with a fence that he can drive in. And even sighted kids crash into things from time to time, he'll just have to learn where things are.

Oh and one more thing I have to share with you. Five year olds are hilarious. One of my kindergarten kids said this at the snack table yesterday: "I know why God is invisible. It's because he's naked.. And no one wants to see that."