Sunday, September 27, 2009

Favorite Quotes

Yes, they continue to amaze us, these kids of ours. Here are our favorites from the last month or so:

As Sophie was heading out the door to school, I hollered, "Do you want your iPod?"

She replied, "No, I have a book. I only need my iPod if I don't have a book."

Now there's a child after her parents' hearts! Lost without a book at that age, and still, both of us. How wonderful that she's discovered this lifeline of learning and entertainment. She's to the age that Jeff is finding books for her that he's read about...and she and I are reading some of the same series. Very fun at a time when we may sometimes struggle to connect.

Now Emma. They have this little beehive in her classroom. If you behave, your bee stays in the hive, and you color in a green honeypot on your calendar that goes home each night. Bees with behavioral challenges ;0 may have to move out of the hive to yellow, orange, or even red honey pots. After three nights of green honey pots, Emma heaved a sigh of satisfaction while looking at her green honeypots and told me, "Mommy, I know I'm always going to have green honeypots. I'm always going to listen. That's just the way God made me." Such a sweetheart...and with only two days left in September, so far she is right.

On to Owen. Since he got the tubes put in his ears, he has begun to hear so much better, and guess what--speak! Just little things, but more than his former repertoire of "Mama" and "Uh-oh". He now says "apple" (aaa-ooo), and "hot" (aahht), "light" (sounds just like hot but I know the difference!) can imitate the dogs barking, and understands little phrases. For example, when I say, "Do you want to take a nap?" he starts to cry, or if I say, "Are you hungry?" he'll say "Mmm!" SO cute! My favorite Owen quote? We walked by the stove and there was a boiling pot of water on it. He saw it and said, unsolicited, "Aaahht!" By the way, he is also walking! Today is his 18 month birthday. I'll be sure to get a snippet of video to post of him walking.

Now for a photo. I've discovered the best way to get kids interested in a long-forgotten toy or anything is to put it by the front door to be loaded in the van for its journey to GoodWill. Here's a case in point. The little couch was a birthday present for Emma on her 2nd or 3rd birthday but we find ourselves tripping over it more than anything these days...until they all had to squeeze on it. How I love these kids!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Solid Food:Owen::Chocolate:Ann

Yeah!!! My boy can eat something besides a liquid diet! Here he is, almost frantically consuming the little Gerber-type "puffs", on deck is some macaroni and cheese, and under the chair are Shadow and Abby waiting for morsels to fall from the tray. We saw Dr. Kelly today and he said Owen is healing beautifully, so we don't go back for 6 months. (I just LOVE that little dimple that flashes as he chews. And notice the little "smack"? He could not do that without a palate in place, bless his heart. A new sound we noticed. He's getting used to the wonderful feeling of a mouth repaired the way it should be...so amazing!) After next Thursday, three weeks from our surgery day, Owen is cleared to eat anything. All is just about right in the universe! Now it is time to focus on developing his speech. We are SO thankful for Dr. Kelly and the wonderful professionals at Vanderbilt. And for mac 'n cheese. Enjoy, sweet boy.


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

My little imitator



Emma used to imitate us so much we called her "the Emma-tator". Owen seems to be the same way. When it was the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, I passed by the TV holding him as they were showing President Kennedy emphatically saying those famous words, "We choose to go to the moon..." I put the words in italics because if you watch the footage, he is gesturing with his hands very forcefully, almost pleadingly. I looked down at my little 15 month old, and his eyes are glued to the TV, and his little arms are doing the same movements! Then, a month later, we are at Emma's kindergarten check-up with our pediatrician, which happens to be not too long before Owen has his surgery. He's on the albuterol nebulizer treatments and we are holding our breath hoping he'll be well enough for surgery in about 10 days or so. Dr. Meneely runs through the standard checklist of things 5 year-olds should be able to do: hop on one foot, hold your arms out like this, move your hands like this, etc. He looks over at Owen on my lap, and he's watching Emma and doing the same thing with his hands! Dr. Meneely was quite amused. :) He said, "OK, Owen, watch Emma...see how she's breathing? Now breathe like Emma!" But this morning takes the cake for me. We are out front in the cul-de-sac, Owen on his little car, and Shadow's running around with us. It's a beautiful morning and we're taking advantage of the fact that there's not much happening out there, letting Shaddy-boy run free. He's so good about not running off. Mommy's his GPS, so says Jeff anyway, and he doesn't like to get off my radar (although he will follow Abby, who is a free spirit, so poor baby has to stay inside). So out comes our neighbor, gets ready to go in his truck. I start hollering for Shadow, the neighborhood Welcome Wagon, to come back over. I snap my fingers. Then I hear Owen holler for Shadow: "Ahh ooo AHH AHHH!!!" OOOH ahhAHHH!" The best part is, those tiny 17 month-old fingers are trying to snap. Yep, he's looking down at them, little thumb and pointer finger, flicking them together, not sure why he's not achieving the same effect as Mommy, but he's going for it just the same. We gather up Shadow and I can't stop laughing. I love this little guy so much!

A week out of the hospital...

and Owen is doing better than we had hoped, overall. He resisted napping most of last week which was exhausting for me--can't help but wonder if he was a little traumatized by all that happened in the hospital. He also was not so happy with the lack of solid food once he got home. Seems high chair = solid food. Hey, I get that. Sort of like being on a diet...always eating but never satisfied.

I hunted around in storage until I found this little walker that was Sophie's. We have video and pictures of her "walking" behind it when she couldn't really walk. He has been having a blast ever since we got it out. At first he let it get away from him, but he's really learned to balance and keep himself upright. He'll be walking by himself in no time. Technically he's already walking...takes about 3 steps at a time. Then he gets so excited he plops down. He's been standing alone for a long time so we thought he'd be walking before now, but I'm glad that at least this surgery doesn't seem to be setting him back any. This little clip was taken the first day he was playing with it. Since then he's learned to go the loop downstairs, back up when he gets stuck, swing it around and go the other direction...pretty cute. Our happy little guy. Happier when he can eat some Teddy Grahams. :)