How I see it.

This picture below is not quiet perfect, or rather so it seems. 

Stare at the heart of it long enough though and the image corrects itself.

First Long Walk of the year.

We went for a walk to the farm. 

  He walked the whole way there and back - stayed with me and listened for cars.  I asked him to show me how to get home as we got closer.  Just before our house he exclaimed - "HOME" and ran through the brush and past the chicken coop.  Fun!  So looking forward to Spring and Summer with him.  Time to get out of the house! 

"I am fishing"

"Fishing" was his idea.  I had told him that we
were not jumping in puddles today.
Too cold and still a long walk
back home, and despite that we normally
allow for freedom to jump in puddles he
actually listened and followed my request.

Sitting to watch cows eat.
Its is so nice to know that I can tell
him now the fence is hot don't touch it,
AND he gets it.  

This walk was so wonderful.  The air only slightly chilled. The sun setting of the farm.  Christopher exploring along the way.  Christopher following directions.  Christopher walking both ways.  And I never once had to address a mini melt down of his, or chase to catch him from running away, or be fearful of his darting into a car, or fearful of him touching the electric fence.  He has come such a long way from last years walks, when I used to have to bring a stroller just in case I needed it with all kinds of snacks, toys and drinks to keep his attention. 

CROUP! YUCK!

At home sitting with cool mist before we left for ER.

At Baystate - pretending to be a Lion in the Lion Cage (Crib)

ROAR

Watching Scoobie Doo waiting for Daddy to come rescue us.

Thank you all for your well wishes. 

Sat night he had first bout with it and we were able to manage at home.  Sunday night was a completely different story.  We took him to ER - from there we were brought to Baystate via Ambulance. 

He was such a trooper! Three pokes to get IV.  He was really brave.  Samarra's (classmate friend) Grandfather was one of the EMTs that transported us to Baystate last night (rather this AM).  Christopher was awake from 9pm last night till just before we arrived at Baystate just before 2am.  He kept saying "I go home now" .  He slept right through till the early Dr rounds at 6:45am and then fell asleep again on our way home at 1:00.  The IV ended up on his left hand with a board to hold it still, to which he replied "Oh, come on!" when he realized that he couldn't use his hand.  But he tolerated it and didn't try to remove it.  The security band on the other arm was more upsetting to him this morning and it took about 15 mins for him to get over that then no problem. He is still sleeping now.  He will be pleased to find himself at home I am sure when he wakes up.  

He had two breathing blow by treatments and IV push of the steroid, so I suspect that we should have a good night sleep tonight and that he will return for school on Tuesday.  We have follow up apt with Dr. in a few days.

Ugh! I hate croup!

Once again another sleepless night.  1am the familiar sound of the "barking" cough!  This usually means a trip to the ER to settle him down and get his breathing back to normal.  But with his new language skills he and I were able to communicate and understand each other better.  I was able to comfort him and tell him what we needed to do.  Daddy, Christopher and I set up camp down stairs for a bit of Netflix sitting in front of the froggy cool mister.  I sent Daddy off to bed to get some sleep so if need be we could take shifts.  Christopher and I sat through the movie and then one short episode of Garfield and he seemed to have a more normal breathing rhythm so I told him time to sleep.  We shut off the TV and laid down in the living room on his jumping mattress.  He teased me by steeling my blanket over and over - I was a bit grumpy being so tired and told him to "cut it out"  a newer phase of his, and so he did.  He slept till almost 8am.  Still sounds barky - but we made it through the night no ER and so far no steroid.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that we may need to use the steroid before bed tonight if he still sounds this bad.

Well looks like we are back in diapers for now.

ZERO interest in the potty.  Not even trying, so back to diapers for now.  Not sure what else to do.  I don't think that he cares about going in his pants.  I want him to be able to use the potty on his own.  Not because we are bringing him to the bathroom every hour to avoid a mess. I don't want to push him to use the potty and have it unpleasant experience.  Once again I am going to fall back on my previous and still active belief that "when he's ready, he'll be ready."  For now thats the way it goes.  We had a few days this time, maybe next time we can go a week.  For now - back to diapers.  Maybe pull ups - but not till I use the box of diapers that we bought last week.  Then I will only buy pull ups after that.

Better-Start Classroom Performance

Last night the Better-start Class hosted a short performance for family and friends.  We had pizza, visited with friends and enjoyed their reading of "Pigeon Wants A Puppy".  Written by Mo Willems.

Happy to attend he skips into the cafeteria.

While not sitting like his school friends - he does stay present in the circle. 

Trip to the State House

Waiting in line stinks! And its cold out here.

What will I say to the Governor?  I got it!  "Babies can't wait, fully fund and support Early Intervention please!"

There was a point where Christopher shook the Governors hand but living in the moment I didn't get to capture on film.  This was taken after we stepped back to give others a chance to express their concerns and joys of EI too. 

Link to News Coverage of the State House Stroller In: Click below.

In the news.

48 Hours

Could it be . . . ten years ago Hawk at the age of 3 and 3days declared just before bed "no diaper" and we never looked back.  Well now it's been 48 hours since Christopher has made the same declaration.  No diapers for 48 hours and counting.  Dry bed, each morning.  We even made a 2 1/2 hour (one way!) trip to a NY rink for hockey game today and still we've had no accident.   I brought his potty chair just in case.  He looked so cute sitting on it in the back of the car.  He didn't actually go but he tried with out fuss.  I even brought the extra car seat just in case it got messy on the way, but never needed it.  I don't know we'll see . . . tomorrow is Monday so it's back to school hopefully he gets through the day at school without fail.  When they are ready they are ready!

Trying new foods . . .

Trying new foods has been a significant issue.  We are currently stuck on a diet of less then 10 items.  So we recently saw a nutritionist but thats a different post all together.  Soon I will write more on that.

Last night the family, excluding Christopher, enjoyed a special treat.  Take out Chinese.  So tonight he spotted the left over fortune cookies on the center island.  I offered to open one for him.  I broke it open to show him that it has a surprise note inside for him.  He found pleasure in that.  And to my ultimate surprise he even put a piece into his mouth to try it.  Standing there at the center island up on the stool he immediately spit it out.  Oh - well so he didn't like it - BUT he tried it!!

His first fortune cookie ever read:  "You are a bundle of energy, always on the go."  Geeze ain't that the truth!

If it’s not said who will hear?

Before & Now

Before we had our son;

I knew nothing of Early Intervention.

Before I learned of and experienced the  benefits of Early Intervention;

I knew nothing of Advocacy.

Before I learned the simple steps of Advocacy;

I knew nothing about my voice.

Now our son is a graduate of EI;

I know that we have support.

Now our son attends school;

I know that his success is built on the foundations learned through EI

Now I understand Advocacy;

I know that I just need to share my story, and passion for my beliefs.

All it takes is using my  Voice  to be heard.  It's that simple!

JC

I see RED !

Christopher is learning his colors.  So far he has Blue and Red down.  He's probably got more but I haven't heard him say them on his own.  I wonder if these are his favorite two colors?  He's lately taken to asking for his BLUE pants, and his RED car.  Well red car I get cause that is the color of lightning mcqueen!  

Tunnel

Better Start has been working on habitats and animal tracks and patterns.  Proof he's learning.  We are walking through the parking lot on our way into the Dr's Office and he yanks on my arm to point out to me the animal tunnel.  "Ook a Ton nail"  Of course we had to stop and explore it for a few minutes.  I admit I was a little worried that something might actually come out.

No Booster Seat

This goes back to about a month ago - just getting around to posting.  And yes I took these photos while driving, but as you can see it's not the only law I am breaking.  Notice the toddler climbing into the front seat with his brother!  OK, so I thought since he is big enough, weighs enough, and old enough it might be time to switch to the booster seat.  Wrong!  Climbs himself right out.  Looks like I am going to have to find a five point harness car seat for a monster size child.  By the way this all happened less than 1/2 mile from home.  So I was driving slow and simply drove home.  I would have obviously pulled over if not for being feet from our last turn. Thankfully we were close to home - because I can only imagine how many times I would have had to pull over to put him back in - he was definitely stuck in a defiant I want to do it my way streak!  Now that some time has passed we might try again on shorter trips - but I will have the other seat in car as back up!

Hair Cut

BEFORE

Well I brave another home hair cut!  Still pretty traumatic but gets easier each time. This time he sat much better though he definitely protested! But with far less tears and a lot more words.  After we were all done he became very upset and confused why his hair was on the floor and WHY are you putting into the vacuum Mommy?  He motioned to put it all back onto his head. 

RUNNING AWAY - PULLING AT HIS ITCHY SHIRT.

ZONING OUT - CRISS CROSS APPLE SAUCE
ON THE HOMEWORK TABLE.

          

THEN DADDY CAME HOME AND HE WAS

WILLING TO LET CHRISTOPHER DO HIS HAIR.

 I PUT A No. 6 GUARD ON SO IT DIDN'T REALLY

CUT ANY HAIR, BUT CHRISTOPHER DIDN'T

KNOW THAT. 

THANKS DADDY YOU WERE A GOOD SPORT!    

THE GUARD DIGGING INTO YOUR SCALP!      

AFTER

 

     CHEESE!  AT THE HOCKEY RINK THE NEXT DAY.

Brothers - Reading

Now that Christopher is enjoying books at bedtime I have had to fight my way into putting Christopher to bed.  Hawk wants to do it now every night.  Hawk used to love our story time at bedtime.  And so tonight I am taking the night off from the bedtime routine - big brother is doing tonight.  It's really special, I can hear him out here reading the same books to his brother that I used to read to him.  And its good for Christopher to have different people putting him to bed anyway - this way Mommy can sneak away!

Blood Draw Adventure

Today we had a long and over due put off blood draw scheduled.  Nothing serious, just a routine requirement to satisfy school files.  Well we had about an a little over an hour to kill in between school and the appointment.  Not enough time to drive home, so we headed towards the Dr.s and decided to stroll the Main Street a bit.  We went into the Main Street Department store that has a crazy cool toy area - that was fun.  We took the elevator!  Played with all the toys set out to play with. Then we choose to take the stairs - not sure if it was despite the loud sounds from up stairs (Vacuum) or if it was because of the noise and curiosity that he choose the stairs?  I was surprised - he had so much fun on the elevator and we don't get to do that often.  Also super surprised because the vacuum at the top of the stairs was loud.  Next we went a few doors down to the children's consignment shop and bought a really cool push and go Caterpillar. 

 THEN - it was time to go the Lab.  I felt bad cause we were having such a good time, and even though I told him what we were going to do he didn't get it.  Didn't get that there would be 3 adults there to hold him down and STICK him.  

Well, considering last time took 4 adults this time went much better.  Totally different this time.  This time he was talking to us, "No, No Arm!" "My MC Donald's?" ( A reward I had told him we would do after).  He even tucked his arms behind his body like they were out of sight it would all stop. They tried to find a vane in each arm - no sticking - just looking and decided he was too upset.  The vane kept disappearing.  So finger stick is was.  He was really upset - but very brave.   We think they got enough . . . well I hope so cause I do not want to put him through that again! 

"Ouch Mommy Kiss It"

"Momeee tis shoe"  (Mommy Tissue)

ALL BETTER NOW - GOT MY SIP & FRIES

"Lets rub noses like the Eskimoses"

"Lets rub noses like the Eskimoses"  Our nightly routine has one more step added.  Each night I lay for a few mins with Christopher before saying goodnight. I rarely stay more than 5 mins if that, it's been working so why mess with that.  Anyway, the past few nights he's taken and grinningly given me Eskimo kisses before I leave the room.  I have been giving Eskimos kisses to both my boys forever.  Its fun and silly.  At first Christopher had never been all that impressed by it.  But now he enjoys the closeness.  Closeness, snuggles and hugs are definitely something we do not take for granted from our little guy, as we are all to aware that we are very fortunate that he desires or tolerates any touching.

Keeping him safe ! ? ! ? !

About a month ago he opened the car door while we were driving!  Two weeks ago we learned that he had figured out how and is strong enough to open the 8' sliders to the outdoors.  Today we learned that he can now open the back door on his own.

The child safety's are now turned on the doors in the car.  And the sliders are now locked with long boards from the outside, which means no one can open them. And for now the back door lock will be enough . . . untill he figures that out too.

Ugh - it's a big yard out there, lots of woods, lots of dangers.  Staying one step ahead of  him is going to keep me young but is graying me early.

I just added two mattresses to the floor behind the couch since keeping from climbing onto the back is impossible - now not a matter of if but rather when he falls it will at least be a soft landing.

What a little bugger!

Water Table

Christopher has really taken to water play.  So after a few days noodling on how to create a water table without spending a lot of money I figured why not cut a hole in an existing table that currently has not much use in our house.  I pulled the sink bucket from under the sink that simply collects various household cleaning products, and boom - add saw - cut hole and now we have a water table.  Simple and easy on the budget.

Fun at childcare.