Skyler seems to be doing better. Slept all night the last couple nights, with the exception of waking up at 4am for whatever reason to have a diaper change a snack and back to bed. He's been eating, not as much as he used to but more than the last few days. He's very particular about being fed. He won't let you put anything in his mouth, he needs to be in control at all times it seems. Which is fine he is 1 and a half he wants his independence. It means we have to put the food in front of him and let him eat on his own terms, and things like yogurt just aren't working out very well right now because he doesn't have the motor control to feed himself something on a spoon yet. He has tried and succeeded a few times though, but with thicker things. We're still working on it. Many a mess will be made I assure you.
So I have today off and it is of course 6am and I am of course awake and have been for the past hour and a bit. Sleep on my day off? Why ever would I get to do that? I had to get up for Skyler, and well I couldn't fall back asleep yet. I just have too much on my mind. We didn't renew our lease. Today is the last day to do so. We sort of have some idea of where we want to live though so I'm hoping it all works out. It will be nice for Skyler to have his own bedroom, or rather for us to have our own bedroom as Skyler has had ours for the last year just about. The only problem is I don't think our next place will have as much storage as this place does. And we have way too much junk. It's time to downsize and we've been working on it. But it's so hard to do. Oh well, I'm going to keep at it.
Summer will soon be upon us (hopefully) and I'll be done work in two months time. I'm excited to have my summer off with Skyler, I think it's going to be so much fun. I'm going to try to find us some baby groups to go to since most of them are in the mornings and I'm usually at work. We also have some friends with kids who want to hang out this summer. I'm hoping we get some nice weather this year instead of last year where it rained and was cold for pretty much the whole summer. Our weather is so finicky the last few years. It's impossible to predict whether it will be nice or not.
I suppose I should try to go back to bed (if Skyler stays asleep), I hope you all are doing well.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Or Perhaps He's Sick. Duh Me
So yesterday after being up for 24 hours, (me that is.) Skyler who did not sleep at all last night and barely ate anything came out to eat with us at midnight. He had been coughing and sneezing all night, I tried giving him some baby tylenol to help him sleep, no such luck. Anyway he sat with us and ate! It was all going so wonderfully until he started coughing/choking so hard he puked up everything in his little tummy and boy was it a lot. Now in a normal infant no big deal, give fluids, try to get them to rest. In our case we had to wait until he was done puking, administer stress dose of prednisone and watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn't puke his drugs up or else it's time for an injection and a trip to the hospital.
Fortunately he did not puke again. But he didn't sleep much either. And neither did I. I'd say I've had roughly 8 hours sleep in the last 3 days now. Not sure how I will function at work today but I'm going to try. Luckily yesterday my supervisor offered me Friday off as a sick day. She jokingly said "I can tell you're gonna be sick by Friday" oh how accurate.
So yeah, baby not eating possibly a combination of wanting his independence and the fact that he's sick. I hope he gets better soon. And thanks for your advice, I will try it as soon as he's feeling better. I'm hoping he'll want to eat more.
Fortunately he did not puke again. But he didn't sleep much either. And neither did I. I'd say I've had roughly 8 hours sleep in the last 3 days now. Not sure how I will function at work today but I'm going to try. Luckily yesterday my supervisor offered me Friday off as a sick day. She jokingly said "I can tell you're gonna be sick by Friday" oh how accurate.
So yeah, baby not eating possibly a combination of wanting his independence and the fact that he's sick. I hope he gets better soon. And thanks for your advice, I will try it as soon as he's feeling better. I'm hoping he'll want to eat more.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Oh No, So it Begins
Where did my wonderful little baby go? He's turned into a fussy toddler. My child who would eat anything and everything in large quantities has begun refusing food. Foods that he previously loved. His latest thing now is to push away just about any food I give him. Yesterday a plate of vegetables. He picked off each piece and threw it on the floor. Strawberries? Swiped his hand across the table and threw them to the floor. Bread? Ate two or three pieces, threw the rest on the floor. The only thing he would eat yesterday was a handful of french fries. Today, a bowl of cereal this morning, he slowly picked at it until it was 2/3rds empty and then started whining and complaining. Yogurt? I managed to get the spoon into his mouth twice, he spit it out both times and refused to even open his mouth after that. Cucumbers? No way. The only thing my child wants to eat is cookies, french fries, and other junk food. I managed to feed him a lot of whole wheat crackers with hummus tonight but that's not a real dinner. Sigh. I gave him a bottle of toddler formula before bed.
This doesn't bode well for his growth. He is already tiny to begin with. I know he is a toddler and is going to go through these stages. I knew we had it too easy with the baby who loved everything. I'm worried too that it may be a side effect of his medications. He hasn't had any so far really, but I'm pretty sure either one or both have decreased appetite as side effects. He's been on the drugs since he was two months old it's not really feasible to think he will have no side effects whatsoever.
He also doesn't want to sleep all night anymore. He had me up at 2am this morning, he screamed bloody murder until I went to get him and then he wanted to play even though he was tired. What happened to my sweet little guy? Oh well. He is still happy as ever during the day and pretty healthy aside from not wanting to eat. I guess we just have to rough out those toddler years. I guess it's time I stock up on more formula. At least he seems to drink that..
This doesn't bode well for his growth. He is already tiny to begin with. I know he is a toddler and is going to go through these stages. I knew we had it too easy with the baby who loved everything. I'm worried too that it may be a side effect of his medications. He hasn't had any so far really, but I'm pretty sure either one or both have decreased appetite as side effects. He's been on the drugs since he was two months old it's not really feasible to think he will have no side effects whatsoever.
He also doesn't want to sleep all night anymore. He had me up at 2am this morning, he screamed bloody murder until I went to get him and then he wanted to play even though he was tired. What happened to my sweet little guy? Oh well. He is still happy as ever during the day and pretty healthy aside from not wanting to eat. I guess we just have to rough out those toddler years. I guess it's time I stock up on more formula. At least he seems to drink that..
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Under The Sea
It's been a busy week as usual. I'm so glad it's almost over. I'm beginning to enjoy working with my new supervisor. She's not perfect, but who is? At least she seems pretty level even if she's kind of rough around the edges. Work is going well. My kids are hilarious and crazy of course. We went on a field trip to a marsh. They were showing us around the marsh, talking about plants. We had been there all of 30 minutes when one of our kinders came up to me and was complaining about looking at the plants and this what he said: "I've been here for three days, and I just want to stand on some rocks!! When are we going to stand on some rocks!?!" That pretty much made my week.
Skyler had OT yesterday, he's doing great, she suggested we get him some of those shape sorter toys. I've been meaning to pick some up for a while now but haven't. She said it will be good for his motor control. Also she is very impressed with his visual range. He is definitely seeing further than before, and his play and movement and interests are all mainly visually guided. He may hear something but he will turn to look at it right away and see if it's of interest. She also pointed out that most children with visual impairments are apprehensive when it comes to touching new things, but Skyler is more apprehensive about new things when he can see them. He will stare at it and concentrate trying to figure out if it's safe before he makes a move to touch it. Textures however don't bother him in the slightest.
As for me, I am beginning to get a little burnt out lately. C has been working nonstop pretty much. He has been working almost a full week and everytime he's not at work someone is calling him from work or he's going in to do interviews for new applicants or he's going in to cover a shift. I got dumped off at church with Skyler on Sunday because he got a call from work saying someone had called in sick. I ended up spending that service in the nursery with Skyler because my nose wouldn't stop running and I had no tissues so I went downstairs to blow my nose and never made it back up. It was lonely up there without him. I'm so proud of C for being such a hard worker, but we talked today and I told him that his family still needs him too and he does need some time for himself as well. He agreed and said he'd tell them not to call him on his days off anymore.
And now, what did I spend my night doing tonight? Scribbling and cutting and gluing and being silly. Nothing like working in a daycare to make you randomly want to create things. Here's the finished project, Skyler's new placemat (laminated of course):
Don't mind the hilarious size differences between things. Nothing in this picture makes sense, which is probably because I'm a prairie girl who's never even been near a coast, and my drawing skill leaves much to be desired. And yet I think it's kind of cute nonetheless. Also Skyler helped paint the background blue with his fingerpaints so that makes it special right there.
Skyler had OT yesterday, he's doing great, she suggested we get him some of those shape sorter toys. I've been meaning to pick some up for a while now but haven't. She said it will be good for his motor control. Also she is very impressed with his visual range. He is definitely seeing further than before, and his play and movement and interests are all mainly visually guided. He may hear something but he will turn to look at it right away and see if it's of interest. She also pointed out that most children with visual impairments are apprehensive when it comes to touching new things, but Skyler is more apprehensive about new things when he can see them. He will stare at it and concentrate trying to figure out if it's safe before he makes a move to touch it. Textures however don't bother him in the slightest.
As for me, I am beginning to get a little burnt out lately. C has been working nonstop pretty much. He has been working almost a full week and everytime he's not at work someone is calling him from work or he's going in to do interviews for new applicants or he's going in to cover a shift. I got dumped off at church with Skyler on Sunday because he got a call from work saying someone had called in sick. I ended up spending that service in the nursery with Skyler because my nose wouldn't stop running and I had no tissues so I went downstairs to blow my nose and never made it back up. It was lonely up there without him. I'm so proud of C for being such a hard worker, but we talked today and I told him that his family still needs him too and he does need some time for himself as well. He agreed and said he'd tell them not to call him on his days off anymore.
And now, what did I spend my night doing tonight? Scribbling and cutting and gluing and being silly. Nothing like working in a daycare to make you randomly want to create things. Here's the finished project, Skyler's new placemat (laminated of course):
Don't mind the hilarious size differences between things. Nothing in this picture makes sense, which is probably because I'm a prairie girl who's never even been near a coast, and my drawing skill leaves much to be desired. And yet I think it's kind of cute nonetheless. Also Skyler helped paint the background blue with his fingerpaints so that makes it special right there.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Updating
Okay so I have sat down at least 6 times over the week to attempt to write a new blog post. And I have failed all 6 times. Anyway here I am, along with Skyler who keeps attempting to help me write this post by pressing the ` over and over. I think he's trying to say "Mom you're doing it wrong. Old people shouldn't use computers" My child gets cuter and cuter each passing day. I don't think he could stop if he tried. Right now he is in the process of yelling "Da! dad! Da! Ga!" as his daddy tries to nap on the couch.
Today Skyler decided instead of sharing his food with daddy he would tease him, offer the food and then stick it in his own mouth. Quite hilarious I wish I had caught it on camera. Meals at the table together are quite nice. Skyler's been feeding himself quite well, and exploring his world. PT visited again on Wednesday, she said he is pretty much on par developmentally with his gross motor skills, we just need to encourage him to stand while holding onto some more "shaky" things. He's only holding onto things he is sure are secure for the most part right now. He is still hating that feeling of instability. We want him to get comfortable with that so he will stand and walk on his own.
Speech therapy says he is doing well too, meeting his milestones and ahead in some. She said by one he should have one word, but we'll count "no" and his "ahh dun" as his words. She said he's got great oral motor skills and she has no worries about that. She said that after our next visit we won't see her or PT again until we reach the top of the waiting list. Which for SLP is about 2 years or so, and PT is around 6 months. PT isn't that bad of a wait, but we already have our CNIB OT, so PT isn't really a necessity, I'm more concerned about speech. Since my coverage does pay for Speech therapy I'm considering getting him a private SLP. If you have any thoughts/experiences with this let me know, I could use some advice.
Wednesday we had a church session entitled "Journeys: U, UU, and US" or something like that. Anyway it was great. It was a two hour thing from 7pm to 9pm, and there are three parts. We stuck Skyler downstairs with the caregiver. It was his second time there, and I was worried he might fuss because it was past his bedtime. I snuck down at 8 to peek and he was crawling happily around the room unlike last time where she had to hold him the entire time. So I snuck back upstairs (one good thing about having a blind kid is he doesn't always notice you checking up on him and therefore doesn't get upset about me showing up and leaving again) and when I went back down at 9 to get him I heard crying through the door. Oh no I thought he must be upset and ready for bed. However when I opened the door I saw the caregiver holding the other baby L (little girl who's almost two.) who was crying and ready for bed, while Skyler was standing happily at the table.
She said he was great the whole two hours. Didn't fuss a bit, he played ball with L, and ate goldfish, had his bottle, and was overall a wonderful little guy. I was amazed with him! Especially since he was awake past his bedtime. After church we decided to stop at my mom's since it was on our way home and Skyler and I were hanging out in the kitchen next to my mom when Skyler decided to jump ship and reached over for grama to hold him. It was very cute, and my mom was so happy that he's comfortable enough with her now that he is going to her on his own. Lately he's been very attached to me, so it was nice to see him go to grama from me.
I had my interview today for volunteer services. I think it went quite well. She said she'd have somewhere for me to go by next week or the week after at the latest. I'm quite excited. I can't wait to go and volunteer and get some more experience. I'm pretty sure other things have happened since the last post, but I can't really think right now so I'm going to leave this as is. Thanks for all the comments on my last post everyone! And if you have any suggestions/ideas about the SLP thing please let me know.
Today Skyler decided instead of sharing his food with daddy he would tease him, offer the food and then stick it in his own mouth. Quite hilarious I wish I had caught it on camera. Meals at the table together are quite nice. Skyler's been feeding himself quite well, and exploring his world. PT visited again on Wednesday, she said he is pretty much on par developmentally with his gross motor skills, we just need to encourage him to stand while holding onto some more "shaky" things. He's only holding onto things he is sure are secure for the most part right now. He is still hating that feeling of instability. We want him to get comfortable with that so he will stand and walk on his own.
Speech therapy says he is doing well too, meeting his milestones and ahead in some. She said by one he should have one word, but we'll count "no" and his "ahh dun" as his words. She said he's got great oral motor skills and she has no worries about that. She said that after our next visit we won't see her or PT again until we reach the top of the waiting list. Which for SLP is about 2 years or so, and PT is around 6 months. PT isn't that bad of a wait, but we already have our CNIB OT, so PT isn't really a necessity, I'm more concerned about speech. Since my coverage does pay for Speech therapy I'm considering getting him a private SLP. If you have any thoughts/experiences with this let me know, I could use some advice.
Wednesday we had a church session entitled "Journeys: U, UU, and US" or something like that. Anyway it was great. It was a two hour thing from 7pm to 9pm, and there are three parts. We stuck Skyler downstairs with the caregiver. It was his second time there, and I was worried he might fuss because it was past his bedtime. I snuck down at 8 to peek and he was crawling happily around the room unlike last time where she had to hold him the entire time. So I snuck back upstairs (one good thing about having a blind kid is he doesn't always notice you checking up on him and therefore doesn't get upset about me showing up and leaving again) and when I went back down at 9 to get him I heard crying through the door. Oh no I thought he must be upset and ready for bed. However when I opened the door I saw the caregiver holding the other baby L (little girl who's almost two.) who was crying and ready for bed, while Skyler was standing happily at the table.
She said he was great the whole two hours. Didn't fuss a bit, he played ball with L, and ate goldfish, had his bottle, and was overall a wonderful little guy. I was amazed with him! Especially since he was awake past his bedtime. After church we decided to stop at my mom's since it was on our way home and Skyler and I were hanging out in the kitchen next to my mom when Skyler decided to jump ship and reached over for grama to hold him. It was very cute, and my mom was so happy that he's comfortable enough with her now that he is going to her on his own. Lately he's been very attached to me, so it was nice to see him go to grama from me.
I had my interview today for volunteer services. I think it went quite well. She said she'd have somewhere for me to go by next week or the week after at the latest. I'm quite excited. I can't wait to go and volunteer and get some more experience. I'm pretty sure other things have happened since the last post, but I can't really think right now so I'm going to leave this as is. Thanks for all the comments on my last post everyone! And if you have any suggestions/ideas about the SLP thing please let me know.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Weekends Are Good
We had a busy weekend. Yesterday we drove out to Ontario, it was gorgeous. Living in the prairies means that seeing any kind of actual terrain aside from flat grasslands gets me all excited. There are rocks in Ontario, and hills. We visited at our friend's parents place. They live out in the wilderness by Lake of the Woods in a gorgeous home that they built themselves, so we did some exploring and poking around. Took lots of beautiful pictures and came home tired but happy at the end of the night.
This morning we opted to skip church and have a lazy morning. We got up and moving around twn thirty and made a huge Sunday brunch which we ate as a family at our new table. I did all the prep work (including making the pancake batter from scratch) and set the table, while Chuck cooked the bacon, eggs, pancakes, and hashbrowns. Of course we had syrup and fresh strawberries and bananas with our pancakes. And a glass of blueberry juice. I added a tiny amount of it to Skyler's water in his sippy and he went nuts drinking it as though it would disappear if he didn't gulp it down in time.
Skyler's still doing amazing with the potty, he used it after his breakfast this morning. We've been keeping up with it every day, and he has no complaints. He actually claps each time I sit him on it. Oh and he pees in it now too. We're just working on the sign for potty now so he can tell me when he needs to go. Oddly enough I use potty time to work on other things. While he's on the potty we brush his teeth, and learn about the different body parts (singing head, shoulders, knees & toes etc) and we comb his hair. The other day I gave him a faux hawk. Haha. Honestly though he's spoiling me with the lack of dirty diapers lately. I love it. He also sleeps through the night and freely gives hugs and kisses, along with big happy smiles. I couldn't ask for a better toddler.
I hope you all are enjoying the weekend as much as I have been.
(P.S. Doesn't he look like a big boy in the last picture?? Where did my baby go?)
This morning we opted to skip church and have a lazy morning. We got up and moving around twn thirty and made a huge Sunday brunch which we ate as a family at our new table. I did all the prep work (including making the pancake batter from scratch) and set the table, while Chuck cooked the bacon, eggs, pancakes, and hashbrowns. Of course we had syrup and fresh strawberries and bananas with our pancakes. And a glass of blueberry juice. I added a tiny amount of it to Skyler's water in his sippy and he went nuts drinking it as though it would disappear if he didn't gulp it down in time.
Skyler's still doing amazing with the potty, he used it after his breakfast this morning. We've been keeping up with it every day, and he has no complaints. He actually claps each time I sit him on it. Oh and he pees in it now too. We're just working on the sign for potty now so he can tell me when he needs to go. Oddly enough I use potty time to work on other things. While he's on the potty we brush his teeth, and learn about the different body parts (singing head, shoulders, knees & toes etc) and we comb his hair. The other day I gave him a faux hawk. Haha. Honestly though he's spoiling me with the lack of dirty diapers lately. I love it. He also sleeps through the night and freely gives hugs and kisses, along with big happy smiles. I couldn't ask for a better toddler.
I hope you all are enjoying the weekend as much as I have been.
(P.S. Doesn't he look like a big boy in the last picture?? Where did my baby go?)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Four for Four
So Skyler is 4 for 4 with the potty. Meaning 4 tries, 4 successes. We missed yesterday because I was sick and daddy took care of him for the whole day and I guess daddy isn't down with the potty routine yet or something. But he was back on the potty today after lunch and dinner and he did his business both times without a problem. I haven't changed a poopy diaper in 3 or 4 days, so I'm pretty happy right now.
Still waiting for our table to come in, and still waiting for the other company to come pick up this table that we can't assemble. Sigh. So I have a pile of junk sitting on the floor in my dining room instead of a table. I want to pack up his high chair already and stick his new booster seat at the table. The idea is for us to start eating lunches together as a family, and on the weekends we can have our breakfasts and dinners together too. I mean we would eat together before, but Skyler was always in the high chair and not at the table with us. I can't wait to go grocery shopping and to make some meals to eat at the new table when we finally get it.
I've been feeling weird lately. I know Skyler and I have a cold coming on, but last night I started to get chest/stomach pain. It happened right after I had about a tablespoon of real milk (oops..) obviously this was a bad idea since I'm lactose intolerant. I'm thinking it's some sort of gas pains or something, but it really hurts, I couldn't fall asleep until 3am and even then it was still there when I woke up. It seems to have subsided a bit now, but it still happens every now and then. I'm also apparently really dehydrated, at least I feel that way. Skyler and I both passed out at 3pm today and I didn't wake up until 7!! I thought he was going to wake me up, but I guess we were both so tired. When I woke up it felt like I had been eating cotton balls in my sleep. Yuck.
I'm going to try and drink as much water as I can (without killing myself hopefully) and get some rest. I've been cleaning but the place is so cluttered right now that I can't stand it, and there's not much I can do about it because those people have to come get that box of junk, and my dad has to come pick up the old couch that's taking up my living space but he hasn't returned my call yet. I'm just going to try to ignore the problem for now, maybe do some meditation or some arts and crafts. At school we're making placemats so when we set the table for lunch all the kids and staff have their own placemat. We just need more mactac. I told my partner (the girl I work with) not to mactac mine yet because I want to bring some pictures of Skyler to put on it.
So I placed a request for a bunch of resource books through my local library. Books about teaching children with special needs, that kind of thing. Some of my kids need the extra help and I want to know the best strategies to help them. Also I'm hoping there might be something about teaching blind/visually impaired children as well. Anything that may help me with Skyler is always worth checking out. I'm just waiting for them to call me to let me know the books have come in to the library closest to me. Hopefully they will get them soon. I also discovered my library has online services! I checked out a few ebooks yesterday, some audio and some pdf. Very cool service. Basically you check out the book and then download it and you get 14 days (just like a paper book) to read it or listen to it on your computer. Some of them let you print the whole book, some don't. Some let you put the audio file on your ip.od or whatever. And after 14 days the book is automatically returned for you so there are no late fees. I thought this was pretty neat.
Ever have those moments when you know there are a million things you need to do and yet you just don't feel like doing any of them and so you sit there looking around kind of bored or you go on fa.cebo.ok and do literally nothing? That's how I feel right now. I'm actually tempted to either plug in my external and sort through some old pictures or burn myself a dvd of some old Bu.ffy episodes and sit and watch that. I just can't decide. I already did most of the dishes, and a load of laundry so it's not like I've accomplished nothing today. Plus I worked all morning and took care of Skyler all afternoon. I suppose I should feel pretty good about sitting here relaxing.
I hope you all are well, I'll post some pics of Skyler soon, he just had his NP appt yesterday and he's almost 18 pounds now and he's doing great!
Still waiting for our table to come in, and still waiting for the other company to come pick up this table that we can't assemble. Sigh. So I have a pile of junk sitting on the floor in my dining room instead of a table. I want to pack up his high chair already and stick his new booster seat at the table. The idea is for us to start eating lunches together as a family, and on the weekends we can have our breakfasts and dinners together too. I mean we would eat together before, but Skyler was always in the high chair and not at the table with us. I can't wait to go grocery shopping and to make some meals to eat at the new table when we finally get it.
I've been feeling weird lately. I know Skyler and I have a cold coming on, but last night I started to get chest/stomach pain. It happened right after I had about a tablespoon of real milk (oops..) obviously this was a bad idea since I'm lactose intolerant. I'm thinking it's some sort of gas pains or something, but it really hurts, I couldn't fall asleep until 3am and even then it was still there when I woke up. It seems to have subsided a bit now, but it still happens every now and then. I'm also apparently really dehydrated, at least I feel that way. Skyler and I both passed out at 3pm today and I didn't wake up until 7!! I thought he was going to wake me up, but I guess we were both so tired. When I woke up it felt like I had been eating cotton balls in my sleep. Yuck.
I'm going to try and drink as much water as I can (without killing myself hopefully) and get some rest. I've been cleaning but the place is so cluttered right now that I can't stand it, and there's not much I can do about it because those people have to come get that box of junk, and my dad has to come pick up the old couch that's taking up my living space but he hasn't returned my call yet. I'm just going to try to ignore the problem for now, maybe do some meditation or some arts and crafts. At school we're making placemats so when we set the table for lunch all the kids and staff have their own placemat. We just need more mactac. I told my partner (the girl I work with) not to mactac mine yet because I want to bring some pictures of Skyler to put on it.
So I placed a request for a bunch of resource books through my local library. Books about teaching children with special needs, that kind of thing. Some of my kids need the extra help and I want to know the best strategies to help them. Also I'm hoping there might be something about teaching blind/visually impaired children as well. Anything that may help me with Skyler is always worth checking out. I'm just waiting for them to call me to let me know the books have come in to the library closest to me. Hopefully they will get them soon. I also discovered my library has online services! I checked out a few ebooks yesterday, some audio and some pdf. Very cool service. Basically you check out the book and then download it and you get 14 days (just like a paper book) to read it or listen to it on your computer. Some of them let you print the whole book, some don't. Some let you put the audio file on your ip.od or whatever. And after 14 days the book is automatically returned for you so there are no late fees. I thought this was pretty neat.
Ever have those moments when you know there are a million things you need to do and yet you just don't feel like doing any of them and so you sit there looking around kind of bored or you go on fa.cebo.ok and do literally nothing? That's how I feel right now. I'm actually tempted to either plug in my external and sort through some old pictures or burn myself a dvd of some old Bu.ffy episodes and sit and watch that. I just can't decide. I already did most of the dishes, and a load of laundry so it's not like I've accomplished nothing today. Plus I worked all morning and took care of Skyler all afternoon. I suppose I should feel pretty good about sitting here relaxing.
I hope you all are well, I'll post some pics of Skyler soon, he just had his NP appt yesterday and he's almost 18 pounds now and he's doing great!
Monday, April 5, 2010
TMI Update
Uhm my kid must really like the potty cause I stuck him on it right after his dinner (before his bath) and he did it again!! I'm not even kidding. This kid is awesome! I just had to tell someone. Twice in one day. I love my kid haha.
TMI Alert
Feel free to skip past this paragraph. Haha. Skyler just pooed in his potty for the first time!! Woohoo!! So exciting for me. We only bought it for him on Saturday night and we weren't even home on Sunday. So he'd sat on it a total of one time before today. I thought I should sit him down on it and get him used to it (which I intend to do every day probably around the same time as part of his potty training) and we sat for a bit. He whined for about 2 seconds, but then we started singing, and clapping and patting. You start the clapping and patting and he's there. He loves to sway and rock back and forth and clap his hands and pat his legs. Lots of smiles! I decided to put him on it after lunch because I know that's when he usually goes. Anyway he relaxed, and then yeah! One less diaper change for me! My life is awesome. :D
Last night I stayed up way too late (midnight or a bit after) finishing my latest project. I'll have to take pictures of them for you. I made Skyler a set of flash cards. Each one is a picture of something or someone with large print on the top and Braille on the bottom. They're all laminated and everything of course. I made one of me (it says Mommy) one of my mom and my dad, one of chuck's mom, Skyler's ball, the phone, Skyler eating, Skyler sleeping, etc. The idea is that we can show him what's going to be happening next so that he has some idea what's going on.
I learned about visual aids/flashcards and sequencing from my Autism workshops actually and I thought why not try it? So I figured I can show him the picture of the phone, and the picture of whoever we're calling (Grandma for example) and say "We're going to call Grandma on the phone!" because he loves to talk to everyone on the phone. I usually will put it on speaker phone whenever I am on it so he can hear them. This way he will know who we're talking to. Also I still need to get a picture of the car, but I want to be able to show him the car, and the person we're going to see so he knows we're going in the car to visit whoever. I was thinking about it, even for me, I would be annoyed if I was unable to talk and people just kept taking me places without telling me what's going on.
I figure this way he has not only audio cues/words (us telling him what's happening) but also a visual to focus on and to help his memory. I know that I personally have a visual memory, and I know that while Skyler is low vision he does use his vision very well, and a lot. He is definitely using all his senses. Another idea is that he can use them to communicate to us, while we're definitely trying to encourage his oral communication skills it's going slowly, and the baby signs are fantastic but he doesn't have a sign for everything. I think having cards to point to when he really wants something or is too upset to sign for it would be good too. Encouraging communication in all it's forms is definitely a good thing, I want him to recognize the pictures and know what they mean along with the spoken, written and Braille words. Eventually.
It was very cute when I showed him the card with my picture on it. He looked at the card, then looked at me, then a huge smile came over his face and he looked back at the card. It was like he was thinking "Hey that's you! I have a picture of you!". I think it will be perfect for when he's with my mom or whoever babysitting him or if he's with his daddy while I'm at work, he can find the card with my picture on it whenever he misses me. Same with the card for daddy of course. Anyway I used the cards today to tell him that we were going to go to the potty and he seemed to get it. Yay for learning aids.
I hope you all are doing well. I'm off to attempt a nap.
Last night I stayed up way too late (midnight or a bit after) finishing my latest project. I'll have to take pictures of them for you. I made Skyler a set of flash cards. Each one is a picture of something or someone with large print on the top and Braille on the bottom. They're all laminated and everything of course. I made one of me (it says Mommy) one of my mom and my dad, one of chuck's mom, Skyler's ball, the phone, Skyler eating, Skyler sleeping, etc. The idea is that we can show him what's going to be happening next so that he has some idea what's going on.
I learned about visual aids/flashcards and sequencing from my Autism workshops actually and I thought why not try it? So I figured I can show him the picture of the phone, and the picture of whoever we're calling (Grandma for example) and say "We're going to call Grandma on the phone!" because he loves to talk to everyone on the phone. I usually will put it on speaker phone whenever I am on it so he can hear them. This way he will know who we're talking to. Also I still need to get a picture of the car, but I want to be able to show him the car, and the person we're going to see so he knows we're going in the car to visit whoever. I was thinking about it, even for me, I would be annoyed if I was unable to talk and people just kept taking me places without telling me what's going on.
I figure this way he has not only audio cues/words (us telling him what's happening) but also a visual to focus on and to help his memory. I know that I personally have a visual memory, and I know that while Skyler is low vision he does use his vision very well, and a lot. He is definitely using all his senses. Another idea is that he can use them to communicate to us, while we're definitely trying to encourage his oral communication skills it's going slowly, and the baby signs are fantastic but he doesn't have a sign for everything. I think having cards to point to when he really wants something or is too upset to sign for it would be good too. Encouraging communication in all it's forms is definitely a good thing, I want him to recognize the pictures and know what they mean along with the spoken, written and Braille words. Eventually.
It was very cute when I showed him the card with my picture on it. He looked at the card, then looked at me, then a huge smile came over his face and he looked back at the card. It was like he was thinking "Hey that's you! I have a picture of you!". I think it will be perfect for when he's with my mom or whoever babysitting him or if he's with his daddy while I'm at work, he can find the card with my picture on it whenever he misses me. Same with the card for daddy of course. Anyway I used the cards today to tell him that we were going to go to the potty and he seemed to get it. Yay for learning aids.
I hope you all are doing well. I'm off to attempt a nap.
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Date Night
I just had my first real date since the baby came home from the hospital. My mom offered to watch Skyler since Chuck has done so much for her in the last few months (shampooed and steam cleaned her carpets, upgraded/installed her tv, internet, and phone cables, gave her a newer computer, we also bought her a vacuum since hers was broken). We like to pitch in when we can, and she is very gracious and wanted to repay us somehow and she happens to love her grandbaby very much so she offered to babysit.
Today was a crazy day, we got our new table set delivered. Tried to put it together and uh yeah it didn't want to go. We called the company they said we have to call the webstore where we got it from. Which of course is not open until Monday. So we have a pile of table and chair pieces that don't fit together properly and a store that won't do anything about it even though they are in the city and they were open when we called. We decided we couldn't live without a dining room table for whatever reason and said that we're just going to return it on Monday when the store opens, and we went out to search for a new set. One that would be sturdy and look nice without costing an arm and a leg. We spent the entire afternoon searching furniture store after furniture store.
Eventually we settled on this at the Bri.ck. The only problem is of course they don't have it in stock right now and so we will have to wait until April 6th or 8th or whenever they get it in. Oh well it's a nice table, it was sturdy in the store and they had a huge sale on all furniture (20% off everything) meaning it was only $200. Not bad. Then of course we um somehow decided that we also needed a new couch. In fact, two new couches because we had to have matching ones. You would think that it would be me wanting this. Typically it's the guy complaining about the wife making them buy all this crap. Not in our family, this is why we jokingly call Chuck my wife. He's the one who needs us to have the matching set of couches. So yes we walked out of there with two brand new couches.
They are gorgeous honestly. Looks a lot better than the old hand-me-downs you've seen in many a picture of ours. The only problem is they are not as cushy as I'd like. We're kind of like the 3 bears in Goldilocks. Daddy likes it too firm, mama likes it too soft, and Skyler is just right. Haha. So I'm hoping these firm couches will soften up over time while C says they are perfect right now. Oh well the bed has a super thick pillow top. Ya win some ya lose some. They say marriage is about compromise, I think this one is fair enough.
Anyway having a lovely late dinner all to ourselves tonight was a wonderful way to end the evening. We managed to have a real drink (something we haven't done in 2 years) I had a banana strawberry rapture (It's like some sort of fancy smoothie with some vodka in it. Delicious) and he had a beer. We each got something different and we shared our dinners, and topped it all off with a super tasty brownie and icecream. Which I think the server (who was actually the manager since it was dead in there) gave us two brownies and two scoops of icecream even though we only ordered one just cause he was a nice guy. Totally awesome. It was a wonderful date!
I hope you all are having a great weekend as well! Oh and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!
Today was a crazy day, we got our new table set delivered. Tried to put it together and uh yeah it didn't want to go. We called the company they said we have to call the webstore where we got it from. Which of course is not open until Monday. So we have a pile of table and chair pieces that don't fit together properly and a store that won't do anything about it even though they are in the city and they were open when we called. We decided we couldn't live without a dining room table for whatever reason and said that we're just going to return it on Monday when the store opens, and we went out to search for a new set. One that would be sturdy and look nice without costing an arm and a leg. We spent the entire afternoon searching furniture store after furniture store.
Eventually we settled on this at the Bri.ck. The only problem is of course they don't have it in stock right now and so we will have to wait until April 6th or 8th or whenever they get it in. Oh well it's a nice table, it was sturdy in the store and they had a huge sale on all furniture (20% off everything) meaning it was only $200. Not bad. Then of course we um somehow decided that we also needed a new couch. In fact, two new couches because we had to have matching ones. You would think that it would be me wanting this. Typically it's the guy complaining about the wife making them buy all this crap. Not in our family, this is why we jokingly call Chuck my wife. He's the one who needs us to have the matching set of couches. So yes we walked out of there with two brand new couches.
They are gorgeous honestly. Looks a lot better than the old hand-me-downs you've seen in many a picture of ours. The only problem is they are not as cushy as I'd like. We're kind of like the 3 bears in Goldilocks. Daddy likes it too firm, mama likes it too soft, and Skyler is just right. Haha. So I'm hoping these firm couches will soften up over time while C says they are perfect right now. Oh well the bed has a super thick pillow top. Ya win some ya lose some. They say marriage is about compromise, I think this one is fair enough.
Anyway having a lovely late dinner all to ourselves tonight was a wonderful way to end the evening. We managed to have a real drink (something we haven't done in 2 years) I had a banana strawberry rapture (It's like some sort of fancy smoothie with some vodka in it. Delicious) and he had a beer. We each got something different and we shared our dinners, and topped it all off with a super tasty brownie and icecream. Which I think the server (who was actually the manager since it was dead in there) gave us two brownies and two scoops of icecream even though we only ordered one just cause he was a nice guy. Totally awesome. It was a wonderful date!
I hope you all are having a great weekend as well! Oh and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
New Therapists
Today we had our first visit with Skyler's new speech language pathologist and physiotherapist. They came together as they both work out of the same place and I guess they provide services together which is pretty neat. (We're on a two year waiting list for regular services, but they apparently provide visits while you're on the waiting list. Bonus.) We enjoyed the visit even though Skyler woke up at 7 and didn't go back to sleep until after the appointment which was at 1pm. They were both very nice ladies though I am doubtful we will be seeing the SLP again after next month as she was 8 months pregnant. They scheduled two more appointments before they left, for April 14th and 28th.
The visit went quite well, they brought toys, Skyler of course was tired and didn't do nearly as much as usual especially since he had an audience of two unfamiliar people. He's used to his CNIB OT coming and bringing him toys but these two were new so he played shy a little bit and towards the end he was ready to pass out. But despite all that they were very impressed with him. They said he's meeting a lot of the markers of speech language development (she was very happy about his baby signs, and that he's definitely communicating, she said the words will come!) and the physiotherapist said she's seeing lots of wonderful movement. They were impressed with all the different things we expose him to in terms of activities and learning and experiences. They were pleased of course that we're so well organized and that I have a background in child development.
So next week we have our NP on Tuesday the 6th, CNIB OT on Friday the 9th, then the week after we have the Phsyiotherapist on Wednesday, followed by the SLP on Thursday the 15th, then we'll have them both together again on the 28th. Followed in May by opthalmology, endocrinology, etc etc. The list goes on. I'm not complaining, I love these sessions. First it gives me a reason to make sure the place is super clean, second I love showing off everything our son is doing lately, and third I love that if I have a concern about his development I have a team of people to ask who will be supportive, and let me know if he's on track, and if not they give me activities and exercises to do with him to strengthen those areas.
It does get crazy hectic at times though wondering when I am going to be able to squeeze everything in, and this Spring Break has not been much of a break for me and it's almost over. That's not just because of all the appointments though, there have been lots of other stresses in my life that I just don't need right now. Things that have nothing to do with my family for a change. Sometimes you just have to cut yourself off from others and let them figure out their own problems. I think this is one of those situations.
In other happy news I ordered a brand new dining set a couple of days ago and it's already being delivered on Saturday. Yay! Now to get rid of the old one. We've been looking for a new place for a while now. I'm still not sure where we're going to be in a few months time, but hopefully we'll have a nice two bedroom apartment in a nice area of town. The goal is still to save for a mortgage, but we may have to take a place with higher rent just so we can have our own room. I kind of miss being able to sleep in my $600 bed that I bought while I was pregnant with Skyler. It's just gathering clean laundry right now. Haha.
And now I shall leave you with a glimpse into the future, of my (someday) teenaged Skyler on the phone:
The visit went quite well, they brought toys, Skyler of course was tired and didn't do nearly as much as usual especially since he had an audience of two unfamiliar people. He's used to his CNIB OT coming and bringing him toys but these two were new so he played shy a little bit and towards the end he was ready to pass out. But despite all that they were very impressed with him. They said he's meeting a lot of the markers of speech language development (she was very happy about his baby signs, and that he's definitely communicating, she said the words will come!) and the physiotherapist said she's seeing lots of wonderful movement. They were impressed with all the different things we expose him to in terms of activities and learning and experiences. They were pleased of course that we're so well organized and that I have a background in child development.
So next week we have our NP on Tuesday the 6th, CNIB OT on Friday the 9th, then the week after we have the Phsyiotherapist on Wednesday, followed by the SLP on Thursday the 15th, then we'll have them both together again on the 28th. Followed in May by opthalmology, endocrinology, etc etc. The list goes on. I'm not complaining, I love these sessions. First it gives me a reason to make sure the place is super clean, second I love showing off everything our son is doing lately, and third I love that if I have a concern about his development I have a team of people to ask who will be supportive, and let me know if he's on track, and if not they give me activities and exercises to do with him to strengthen those areas.
It does get crazy hectic at times though wondering when I am going to be able to squeeze everything in, and this Spring Break has not been much of a break for me and it's almost over. That's not just because of all the appointments though, there have been lots of other stresses in my life that I just don't need right now. Things that have nothing to do with my family for a change. Sometimes you just have to cut yourself off from others and let them figure out their own problems. I think this is one of those situations.
In other happy news I ordered a brand new dining set a couple of days ago and it's already being delivered on Saturday. Yay! Now to get rid of the old one. We've been looking for a new place for a while now. I'm still not sure where we're going to be in a few months time, but hopefully we'll have a nice two bedroom apartment in a nice area of town. The goal is still to save for a mortgage, but we may have to take a place with higher rent just so we can have our own room. I kind of miss being able to sleep in my $600 bed that I bought while I was pregnant with Skyler. It's just gathering clean laundry right now. Haha.
And now I shall leave you with a glimpse into the future, of my (someday) teenaged Skyler on the phone:
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