Updates on the boys

Our poor little personal blog has been neglected lately, since Jamie and I started The Playdate Crashers Podcast.  Regrets, apologies, all around.

So, a few things...

Spencer is almost 15 months old!

• Spencer started walking almost a month ago and is a pro at it now.  We took down the baby gate that had been blocking the kitchen entry and he has been fairly good at not driving me nuts.  Cabinet locks are a good thing.
• Spencer has finally gotten an interest in sitting down and reading with us.  His favorite book is "Farm Sounds", one of the Lamaze books that Jamie and I reviewed for the podcast.  He loves the animal sounds and brings it to me a few times a day with a big grin on his face.
• Spencer is really starting to "get" more things now.  He'll go get a book when we ask, he toddles down the hall to the bathroom door when we tell him it's bathtime, and he'll go his highchair when it's time to eat.
• I'm still nursing Spencer, just first thing in the morning when I'm trying to get a few more minutes of sleep and at night before he goes to bed.  As of now, I've been nursing him longer than I nursed Miles.
• Spencer got his first haircut.  I couldn't go through with a full haircut, taking off all the curls, but it looks cute :)
• He's starting to be more of a big boy, walking around with his sippy cup, wrestling a little with Miles.  It's amazing, the transformation that starts after they turn one.  *sniff*

Miles is 2 months away from his THIRD birthday!

• After starting to be bothered by some concerns we have about Miles's speech and language development, we had him evaluated by our state's Early Intervention program.  He didn't qualify for services and the evaluator basically said we should celebrate his strengths and keep working with him at home on the other stuff.  We're still helping him learn how to handle social situations and working on helping him build sentences, but we were relieved to learn that at least at this point, we shouldn't really worry about where he's at.
• Miles has had an explosion of growth in his ability to read, which I guess he might be what is called hyperlexic.  Now when I say read, I don't mean sight words.  I mean phonetically sounding out words.  He has been reading short words like cat, bat, man, etc. for several months and around the time of his evaluation, we started showing him how words make sentences.   (Video of him reading word cards)
• As of last week, he is now reading his early reader books on his own, cover to cover (not always perfect, mind you).  He had been hesitant to try to read books on his own for awhile and would just fill in words sometimes, but over the weekend he just started doing it!  (Video) He has I think 6 early reader books like this one and we have started going to the library to get more books.  Today he shocked me by picking up a new Biscuit book (we have 2 Biscuit books but not this one) and reading it almost perfectly the first time he saw it in the library!
• He is still fascinated by letters.  A few weeks ago, I stopped at a Valero gas station to fill up.  When I got back in the car, he said "2 V's!  One upside down!" I had never noticed it before, but check out their logo.  And again, yesterday we were in downtown Lexington and he saw the Hyatt:  "2 V's! One upside down!"  :)  And he wants to learn the ABC song backwards.  I sang it for him one day and now he won't stop bugging me to do the ABCs backwards!
• We've had some potty training regression, but I think we're on the other side of that for now, knock on wood!  We had a situation where he peed all over himself at WalMart and he now remembers that every time we go.
• He is starting to get a nice little friendship with our friends' kids.  They are very close in age and he always asks if we are going to "Friends' house?" when we get in the car.  Today I caught him singing the ABC song tune with "Addison Addison Addison" instead of the letters :)  Cute.
• He has had some big milestones lately but really I'm just so thrilled to see his personality blooming.  He is so sweet and friendly and loving.

I don't have some touching, tear-producing way to end this, I just wanted to write down all of these great little tidbits about the boys today.  :)

Confusion Abounds

We've been doing all kinds of traveling lately but we're finally home and starting to catch up on our lack of sleep.  I've also been able to catch my breath on all of our concerns about Miles. 

As of Monday (of this week) I hadn't heard from the First Steps about the questionnaire I had filled out for Miles so I called the person listed at the bottom of the letter, the District Child Evaluation Specialist.  She went over the results of the questionnaire, the Ages & Stages Questionnaire (ASQ-3), with me and told me that he was below the cutoff in several areas and because of this qualified for the full developmental evaluation.

Today (Wednesday) I received a letter from the person I spoke with and it contained further information about the results.  Of the five areas scored in the evaluation we did (Communication, Problem Solving, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, and Personal Social), he was "below the established cutoffs" in Problem Solving, Gross Motor, and Fine Motor.  This is a bit confusing to me, given that our major concerns are about his communication and social skills (and that whole crazy letter fascination thing).

I did my own research about the scoring of the ASQ-3 and figured out his scores:

• Communication - 45 points (out of 60 possible) (cutoff score is 25.36)
• Gross Motor - 40 points (out of 60 possible) (cutoff score is 34.80)
• Fine Motor - 25 points (out of 60 possible) (cutoff score is 12.28)
• Problem Solving - 30 points (out of 60 possible) (cutoff score is 26.92)
• Personal-Social - 40 points (out of 60 possible) (cutoff score is 28.96)

So it seems to me that he isn't technically below the cutoff in those areas, but he is in the shaded area (close to cutoff) in all but Communication.  After those scored questions there are open-ended questions for the parents to answer and on several questions, my answers must have flagged some concern.  For instance, Question #2 asks "Do you think your child talks like other toddlers her ages?  If no, explain."  I said No and wrote "No use of pronouns, very caveman-like.  Repeats words and phrases we say, very little spontaneous language.  Doesn't seem to understand many questions."

Perhaps the final decision of hers to refer us on for the developmental evaluation was based more on my responses at the end plus his scores being close to the cutoffs.  I still don't understand how he had such fabulous scores on the Communication section...?

Anyway, we are now waiting for a call from the Early Intervention (EI) office in our county to schedule our intake appointment where we will fill out paperwork, learn about the First Steps program, and answer some questions about Miles.  They will then schedule our in-home evaluation with a chosen evaluator.

I'm not really sure what to think about this latest information but I guess the important thing is that the full evaluation should shed a little bit of light on what kind of services he could benefit from in the Early Invervention program, so I'm looking forward to that.

Small update

We met with Miles's pediatrician this morning to go over the concerns that we have about his speech, letter obsession, and social skills.  While she did say that all of it could be normal, she did point out that autism is such a wide spectrum, and many signs can be very subtle.  She gave us a brief screening, called the M-CHAT, which I had looked at over the weekend.  He "passed," which I figured he would, but even so, she is making the call to the Early Intervention services to set up an assessment to see if he qualifies for Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, or Physical Therapy services through EI.  At this point, I am convinced he at least needs some Speech Therapy services.  I really hope this assessment happens soon, because waiting can be agonizing!

Putting it out there

I hestitate to write about this.  I'm not sure I will publish it.  If I do, I might regret it.  But it wouldn't be the first time I've regretted writing something.

Tomorrow morning I am calling our pediatrician to ask about setting up an appointment with her to discuss some concerns that Brandon and I have about Miles.  Specifically, we want to ask if he should be evaluated for autism spectrum disorders.

There it is.  It's out there, the A word.

I'm expecting (hoping, actually) that everyone reading this is shocked and thinking "What?!  He isn't at all what I would consider at risk for autism!" I hope that my friends haven't noticed peculiarities and not voiced their concern.  I pray that this comes as a surprise to everyone.  Otherwise, what has taken me so long to get here?

I'm hopeful that our pediatrician will pooh-pooh our concerns and say "He sounds like a smart, well-adjusted, happy little boy!  See you in a year!" but what if she doesn't?

I don't really care to get into all of the specifics, but basically I am concerned about:

• His intense passion for letters.  First it was just the letters themselves, then their sounds, and now making words.  He sings the ABC song about 100 times a day (might be underestimating that) and recites the letter sounds in alphabetical order repeatedly.
• Some language issues including responses to questions and speaking more like from a script than from some spontaneous place.
• Social interaction stuff, rarely playing with other kids when he is around them
• Prefering to wander around saying his letter sounds instead of playing on the equipment at the park

There is more (I have a list in a notebook of "Things That Worry Me" and "Things That Calm Me" -- at my friend Monica's suggestion I'm not just recording my concerns but also things that make me believe nothing is atypical) but I'm tired and don't want to ramble.  But this is what's going on in my life and I need a place to write this stuff out. 

I need to do a "Spencer Turned One!" and "Miles is 2.5 + 1 month old!" post.  Just not today.

Update:  We have an appointment to see our pediatrician tomorrow (Tuesday the 15th) at 11:15am.

11 Months / 2.5 years!

I rather liked making my monthly update post from my Facebook statuses, so I'm doing it again this month. 


Spencer:

• Ahh, Sunday Naps, how I've missed you! C'mere and gimme a hug. (Spencer just took his longest solo-and-non-crying nap EVER, can you tell?!)
• Spencer is not a fan of tonight's dinner. I just watched him pick up almost every piece of food on his tray, put it in his mouth, and spit it out. Makes a mommy cook feel good.
• In Pigeon Forge with Spencer waiting for the rest of our group to arrive! It's weird only having one little kid to chase after!
• Spencer keeps bringing me the standard-issue motel pen. I think we're playing fetch.
• I don't know why, but Spencer always seems to have something in his right hand when he crawls around. He has somewhat of an obsession with the Aquadoodle pen.
• I think I found the cause for the repeated late night wakings for Spencer... A new tooth! Come on through, tooth, so my kid can sleep!
• Spencer has his first fever :(

Miles:

• Miles is finishing his 5th pancake. 5th.
• I'm recording myself reading some more books to put on a CD for Miles, since the first set was such a big hit.
• This morning Miles was so excited to see Spencer that he (without prompting) bent down and hugged him. And then during breakfast he didn't want all of his pancake, so he gave it to Spencer (and then whined because Spencer wasn't getting any syrup). So sweet, my boys.
• Miles is in his room but not asleep. His room is just down the hall from the living room, where Brandon and I are sitting. In the past 5 minutes, I have coughed and Brandon has sneezed. After each of these, we have heard Miles say "Bless you, mama!" and "Bless you, dada!"
• Miles is in his room for naptime. I can't tell if what I'm hearing is his real snore or his fake snore...
• All of a sudden Miles has become an expert at using a computer mouse.
• Miles figured out how to click and drag on his Starfall games. Oh my. He might be able to get a tech support job by his 3rd birthday.
• In other news, Miles took a super long nap and didn't wake up until 6pm. This could be a fun evening.
• I'm listening to Miles chime in with some of the words to the books read on his "Books Read By My Mommy" CD that I made for him. Cute :)
• Miles has learned to say "I'm sorry, mama" when he comes out of Time Out. And he just took a napkin over and tried to clean off a very messy spaghetti faced Spencer. So sweet :)
• Always fun to have your 2 year old come running into the kitchen, screaming, with a bloody mouth. (He's fine but it did scare me...and him!)

Both:

• Remind me not to stay in a hotel with the boys again until they are at least 10...
• is enjoying some pre-dinner music by Miles and Spencer on Grandma's piano. It is delightful.
• It seems like we are starting to get to a point where the boys can play together in the other room for awhile or at least play separately in the same room. This should help my sanity...until they realize they can break things together and/or wrestle each other mercilessly.
• So lately Miles has become "The Boy Who Cried Poop"...He keeps telling us that he pooped when he hasn't. Like 5+ times a day. What's the deal? I thought maybe it was time to start potty training, but maybe not...?

Here's what everyone has been up to in the last month:

• Traveling to Tennessee for Christmas with my parents (and getting stuck in a snowstorm on our drive!)
• A trip to Gatlinburg for Spencer, Brandon, our church youth group, and myself
• A weekend alone at Grandma and Grandpa's for Miles while the rest of us were in Gatlinburg
• New teeth and fevers for Spencer
• New words and emotions for Miles
• Miles has become a computer whiz/nerd and can now sound out words like cat, map, hit, etc.

Here are some of my favorite pictures and videos from the last month:

I love you, my darling boys!  I love how you've grown in the last month.  Every day is a new adventure with you.  I thank God every day and night for the privilege of being your Mommy.

10 months / 2 years, 5 months!

I'm trying something new this month.  Instead of trying to remember all of the little milestones that happened (and missing 75% of them), I'm going to look back at my Facebook posts and include all the relevant ones.

Spencer (10 months old!)

• Good morning! Now Brandon is sick and Spencer just puked all over me!
• My timing is awful. I changed the sheets on our bed, the last set that hasn't been vomited on this week, and not 10 minutes later Spencer (who had been puke-free for 5 hours) had a fountain-like stream of barf all over them.
• Spencer woke up early this morning, sat up in bed, and started clapping! It was the first time for clapping and it was so cute! Would have been cuter if it were not 6:30am though...
• Spencer and I are much happier people since he started sleeping at night.
• Spencer has officially outgrown his hooded baby towels. I've been trying to squish him into them for awhile now, but there's no denying it at this point. Sad.
• I think I can safely say that last night was the best sleeping night we have had with Spencer in many many months. He still isn't sleeping through the night (he did until he was 5 months old) but I only had to get up twice all night AND he isn't crying when he goes to bed.
• Whose baby only woke up once last night? Oh, that would be mine! (Finally!)

Miles (2 years, 5 months old!)

• No more than one mile from home after a nearly perfect 6 hour drive, Miles puked all over himself. And what did we have for dinner? Spaghetti, of course!
• Miles is playing with their Little People Nativity set and he told me that baby "Hajee" (Jesus) was in his nest (manger). :-D
• Three years ago today at almost exactly this time of the morning, I found out I was pregnant with Miles. Now I am listening to him cheerfully wake up for the day. I am so blessed.
• During 1 short Spencer nap, Miles and I made 2 cute reindeer crafts. Success!
• Miles gives awesome Eskimo kisses.
• My searches haven't found much on this, so I will just ask...How "normal" is it for a toddler to pronounce some words backwards? For instance, Miles will say "puck" instead of "cup" and a few other words like that. Just curious...
• Miles is looking through my old yearbooks. I should stop him before he realizes Mommy is a huge dork. Oh wait, pretty sure he knows already.
• I'm waiting for my little cookie helper to get up from his nap so we can make some more cookies :)
• I love the way Miles says Santa..."Attah!"
• Miles is helping me teach Spencer sign language. Very cute :)
• Miles is fascinated with the thermostat...but only when I am out of the room putting Spencer down for a nap.
• Miles and I are making cookies for Santa!
• Miles won his first game of Candy Land!
• Remind me not to stay in a hotel with the boys again until they are at least 10...

That pretty much sums it up!  :)

9 Months/2 Years, 4 Months

Don't worry, Blogger blog, I haven't forgotten you.  I've just been busy with the new podcast and all.

Last week, as it always happens together, Spencer reached the 9 month milestone mark, and Miles is now 2 years and 4 months old.  Here's what they are up to...

Spencer:

• Wow, kid, you are on the move!  As soon as you figured out "proper crawling" about a month ago, you totally took off!  Not only are you fast as lightning at crawling, but you are pulling up, cruising around the furniture, climbing stairs, and standing for short periods of time with no assistance!
• What an eater!  You're ready to eat anything we give you - any kind of vegetable, fruits, some breads now, and some meat (just in time for Thanksgiving)!  You're nursing about every 4 hours during the day and eating food about 3 times a day.  I'm still trying to get you to figure out the sippy cup, but that's no big deal
• You're starting to do some cute verbalizing these days.  You do some "ma ma ma ma ma" and then some "da da da" and then "beh beh beh" and then you blow some raspberries.  You are the king of the raspberries.
• You have graduated to taking "real" baths with no apparatus helping you.  We were having you take baths alone at first, in an infant bathtub.  Then we moved you to the infant bathtub with Miles in the big bathtub.  Then we got an infant bath seat that we used until about 2 weeks ago.  You love the bath!  You love splashing and playing with Miles in there.  You guys are so cute together.
• Speaking of being cute and playing with Miles, you're starting to 'toughen up' a bit.  He is pushing you around less, and you don't get your feelings hurt as much when he does it.  You're not so quick to burst into tears if you topple over, either, unless you're very tired.
• Which brings us to your sleeping habits.  *sigh*  I miss sleep.  But we have made some progress.  Using The Baby Whisperer's method of Pick Up/Put Down, you have learned to fall asleep on your own.  Last week out of the blue, you slept for 5 hours straight in your bed!  Tonight you have been in bed for a few hours, waking once so far.  It's definitely better than what it has been for the last few months though, so we are grateful.  I am looking forward to you sleeping all night and then moving you into Miles's room.  You guys will have so much fun together as roommates.

Mommy and Daddy are both so proud of you and the sweet little boy you are.  We love you very much and can't imagine life without you!

Miles:

• I can't keep up with you these days!  You are learning so much!!  First you learned the entire alphabet before you turned 2.  You learned all of your colors, even pink and purple.  You learned numbers 1-9 very quickly.  Then you learned all of the letter sounds.  Now you are starting to try and sound out little words like "cat" and "dog" and gibberish words you make up with your letter blocks.  After the holidays we might start doing some workbook stuff very slowly with you. You're so eager to learn and to show everyone how smart you are!  We are so proud of you!
• You made your first phone call last week.  We were at your Grandpa's Big's fiancee Kathy's house and I was holding Spencer.  Your daddy came up to me with my phone and said "Your mom is on the phone."  You had walked over with him and were grabbing for the phone saying "Grandma! Grandma!"  I talked to her for a second, then let you talk.  After a few minutes, I figured out that you had called her!  You have a real knack for figuring out electronics.  You would sit and play with Daddy's iPhone or my iPod Touch for HOURS if we let you.  We have decided to limit your screen time, though.  You get very into it and while it does help keep you occupied at restaurants, I don't like you getting so hooked on it.  You have learned how to play Eye Spy, so I like playing that with you.
• You also have learned to play Memory matching games.  You like playing games where I hide pictures or objects around a room and you find them.  You don't quite have the hang of not peeking, but we'll work on that.  You are getting some more games for Christmas, and I'm very excited about playing games with you while Spencer naps in the mornings.  That can be our special time.
• You have had some emotional and social development lately, which is exciting to see.  You are starting to notice when people are sad.  If you see someone with a sad face or if it looks like they are crying, you'll say "Cry" in a really sweet voice.  Someone at MOPS told me you comforted her daughter when she was upset that her mommy left her at the class by patting her and saying "It's okay."  You have spent some time playing with friends lately, which is really good for you.  Maybe that's why you are getting better at playing with your brother.
• You still love reading your many Bibles and you can pick Jesus out in the pictures.  You call him "Ha-gee" for some unknown reason.  I am looking forward to doing more Bible lessons with you as you get older.  When we read books together, you are starting to fill in some of the words that you recognize or remember.  I love your little voice.

You are a funny, sweet, and cute little boy.  We are so proud of you and look forward to every day we are blessed to spend with you.

Boys, you have stolen our hearts.  You fill our days with laughter and joy.  God orchestrated the way your lives came to be, and we thank Him for entrusting you to our care.  We love you so much!

2 years/3 months & 8 months old!

Time for another update on my babies!

Miles - 2 years + 3 months old:

Where to begin?  I am amazed every day at how smart you are!  You are starting to talk more and put together little sentences.  The other day you and your brother were eating breakfast in just diapers (no shirts), and you said "Belly!" pointing to yourself.  Then you looked at Spencer and said "Belly!"  Then you looked at me (I was fixing an omelet) and you said "Where you belly?"  I loved that.  I'm trying to start working on some sight words with you, which I think you will really like once I'm able to concentrate on it with you.

You are able to play little memory games, so I think I'm going to get you one board game for Christmas.  I'm still trying to decide which one.  You loved going to get a pumpkin from the fun pumpkin patch and helping carve it.  I was surprised at how much liked the roasted pumpkin seeds.

You got to go Trick Or Treating for the first time.  You and Spencer dressed as Mario and Luigi and looked ADORABLE.  You haaaaaaaaaaaaated getting a mustache drawn on you.  I think you would have tolerated it if you had gotten a nap, but you have decided that naps are for babies.  You still have to have 2 hours of quiet time in your room and some days you do nap, but mostly you do not.  It is pretty frustrating to Mama, I can't lie.  Anyway, you did great on Halloween and figured out how to go up to the door (with one of us), hold out your Pumpkin and say "Tricktreat".  You would get very excited about the candy they gave you and would say "Woooooowww!"  Then we would tell you to thank them and you would.  You walked around a whole neighborhood with our friends - I was surprised you held up that long.

You've started being awfully mean to your brother, and I hope this phase ends soon.  I don't like having to send you to your room for smashing his head into the floor.

Even with some of the hard-to-handle things you're doing these days, you are a wonderful little boy and I love you so much.  I told Daddy last night that I miss having you sleep with us.  Once Spencer starts sleeping in his bed all the time, we won't mind if you come to our bed sometimes (SOMETIMES).  We're very proud of you and love you, little Twiddlebug.

Spencer - 8 months old:

What a big boy you've become all of a sudden!  I weighed you on our infant scale the other day and you weighed over 19 pounds!  You're wearing all 12 or 18 month clothes now and I'm a little worried that the 18 month Birthday Boy onesie I got you for your birthday won't fit you!  You don't look chunky, just solid, and older than you are.

You are pulling up to standing like you were born doing it, and you're "cruising" around on the furniture.  You have become fearless about attempting to get from Point A to Point B.  You are eating food a few times a day and consuming large quantities of Cheerios.  You have a great love for butternut squash.  You have good nights and bad nights when it comes to your sleeping, but I know it won't be like this forever.  You are really starting to get into playing with toys and like to play in the living room by yourself after Miles goes to bed.

You are one sweet little boy, baby.  I love your chubby cheeks and your little hands that reach out to grab onto anything of mine you can get - my hair, shirt, neck.  I love to see how you're growing, mentally, emotionally, physically.


I love you, sweethearts!

Oops

I was wrong.

Miles can tell me the sounds of almost every letter in the alphabet.  He doesn't know Q, X, or Z yet.

Quick post

I feel like I need to update on a few things with the boys, so here you go.

All of a sudden, Miles has learned a bunch of letter sounds!  What?!  He knows with fairly good accuracy already about a third or more of the letters' sounds!!  I got a little snippet of video of him the other day when he started saying them for us, but by the time I got the camera, he was getting tired of doing his parlor tricks.  Anyway, I thought it was pretty amazing.

As for Spencer, he has figured out how to stand up and hold on to things and immediately started trying to cruise around on the furniture!  Today he took a few "real" crawling "steps" so that is exciting.  I think he will be much less frustrated when he figures that out.

Spencer is still totally clingy and mommy-focused, but that's normal.  He isn't sleeping in his crib more than 10-30 minutes at a time.  I broke down today and bought some new pacis for him, thinking that possibly, maybe, it will help him sleep.  We shall see.

Speaking of pacis, Miles is now paci-free!!  He has only been using it for naps and bedtime (and sometimes in the car) for maybe a year or less, but last Thursday, I just on a whim decided we were done.  It came because the last one had fallen behind his bed and I wasn't going to search for it with Spencer on my hip.  He is still having trouble napping without it (he just thinks it's playtime), but he is sleeping at night without it!  Hooray!

Apparently nap/playtime is over, as Miles is trying desperately to get out of his room.