"Looks Good"

We had a visit with Henry's pediatric neurologist, Dr. Fike, today. Henry was put on the big boy scale and weighed 27 lbs. His height was 34". His head circumference was 46.8 cm.

She said that he "looks good." She measures his development by actual age. She said that he looked like he was on target for all of his skills, perhaps a bit ahead on verbal skills. He can be considered "caught up." We explained our concerns about how he holds his right arm into his body when he runs most of the time. She had him run up and down the hall. The good news is that she saw no traces of difference in his legs. He may be holding his arm that way for balance. But he certainly has full mobility and use of the right arm and hands, so it is just something to keep an eye on, but nothing to worry about per se.

Dr. Fike wants to see him one more time for follow-up in one year. If we want, we can have an MRI done to see if there was any residual damage from the prematurity (such as the cerebellum bleed). Or we can wait. If he has problems, then do the MRI at that time. As a neurologist, she said that she is always interested in seeing pictures of the brain, but that in Henry's case, she didn't think it would change any course of action that we'd take with him at this point b/c he isn't showing any problems. It might give us some peace of mind if it were to show up clean. But he'd have to be given anesthesia. Weighing the costs and benefits, we are leaning toward not getting an MRI done at this time. While we'd certainly like additional peace of mind as parents, we think that it isn't worth the risks of being put under. I'm certainly not phobic when it comes to such things for myself, but Henry's already defied a billion different odds for one life time. We just don't see any point in adding to his plate of risks.

We showed off Henry's political knowledge skills. Dr. Fike thought that was pretty funny. She thinks that we should make a video of him and post it on youtube (see if he gets invited to the White House!).

In the evening, Grammy and Poppy invited Jeff, me, and two of my colleagues and their spouses (Steve, Jamie, Kevin, and Julia) to the Magellan Dinner, a fundraising dinner for our college. Uncle Brian took care of Henry while we were out. Brian said that Henry was easy to take care of. He was fairly "subdued." They watched Sponge Bob, provided that Henry said "please," read books, and ate dinner. Henry fell asleep in a chair about 45 minutes before we got back to Grammy and Poppy's house. Aunt Erin arrived shortly after we did. We chatted for a couple minutes. Henry slept through all of our chatter. He was awake in the car and wanted to watch a little Robbin Hood before going to bed. But he went down without too much struggle.

Today's phrase:
315. "This way" (giving Jeff directions on how to get to Grammy and Poppy's house)

23 Months (Actual)

Henry turned 23 months old yesterday! Can't believe that he'll be 2 years old in just under a month.

Grammy picked him up yesterday afternoon and took him to her house. He had a great time, but he didn't eat as much as she would have liked.

Jeff picked him up after dinner. They got home around 8PM. We let him watch "Aladdin" as he had his last bottle of the evening. I'm enjoying our end of the day ritual. He gets what he wants (watching TV), and I get what I want (snuggle time on the couch with Henry).

Henry got up at 7AM this morning. We read three books ("Robin Hood," "The Penguin Who Hated the Cold," and "The Haunted House"). I like our morning ritual too. Again, it involves snuggle time on the couch together as I read and he drinks his bottle. I ask him questions and he answers them by talking or pointing. It's nice.

Words that I keep forgetting to add to the list:
308. Island of Sodor (Thomas the Tank Engine's home)
309. Little John
310. Sheriff of Nottingham
311. Pablo (the Penguin)
312. Pluto
313. Aladdin
314. Abu (Aladdin's monkey)

We'll keep trying to add to this list. But he's picking up on things much faster than we can keep track.

Today, we have an appointment with Dr. Fike, Henry's neurologist for a follow-up appointment. The grandparents, Jeff, and I are doing to a dinner tonight. Uncle Brian will be taking care of the Doodle Bug.

That's all for now.

Reunion with Grammy and Poppy!

I talked with my Mom on Sunday morning. She and my Dad felt better. We decided to let Henry go over to his grandparents' house in the afternoon. It had been well over two weeks since Grammy had seen Henry. Henry had talked about her several times on Saturday. At one point, I asked Henry what he wanted to see next at the zoo and he said "Grammy." Alas, Grammy wasn't one of the exhibits.

Jeff had to work a little bit on Sunday afternoon after lunch. Henry and I read books while we waited for Grammy and Poppy to arrive. I changed him into a new outfit. As I did so, I put him on the potty as an experiment to see if he would pee if I asked him to. He did. Very impressed with his body control. He seems to be catching on quickly. No intentions of pushing it more than what we are doing right now.

Henry waited anxiously at the door. He was ready to go to Grammy's to look at pics having been rebuffed by me several times. We've been getting more strict about no pics (in addition to no TV) except after bath time b/c he gets so ridiculously obsessive about looking at digital media. Why did I ever let him see his blog? That's what started his obsession. As we waited for Grammy and Poppy to arrive, Henry swung on the handles of the tread mill. He also read "Robin Hood" to his penguin Rob...



Grammy and Poppy arrived. And Henry was happy to see them. He then spent the latter part of the afternoon at their house. He helped Poppy pick up dog droppings in the dog yard. Apparently, Henry likes to help by pointing out where the "poop" is. He read books. Watched a half-hour of Sponge Bob. We were informed by Grammy that Johnny Depp is doing one of the voices of a character on the April 17th episode.

Jeff and I arrived at 6PM. Henry was running around the pool area. We've never seen him so wound up. He did several laps around the pool in our presence. We had a nice dinner. Henry didn't eat a whole lot...except for a whole banana. At dinner, I told Grammy and Poppy how we'd been reading "The Haunted House." Without the book present, I asked Henry several questions about "The Haunted House" and he answered them correctly.

KATE: Henry, what happens in The Haunted House when Mickey touches the picture frame?
HENRY: Zooom!
KATE: And what sounds do the bats make when they come down from the balcony?
HENRY: Swooosh!
KATE: What sound does Pluto make as he, Mickey, and Donald fall down, down, down through the door in the floor?
HENRY: Ow! Ow! Ow!

Darn good reading comprehension if I do say so myself. What a memory! Surprises me b/c we are talking about things that are not visibly within our proximity.

We came home. It was 8PM. So we skipped the bath. We let him watch some "Robin Hood" on the TV as he drank his bottle. Then, he was off to bed.

This morning, Jeff was up around 5AM or before b/c he is working on EST. Henry is very sensitive to Jeff's absence. He woke up at 6AM. So I dragged myself out of bed. We read lots of books as he had his morning bottle. At one point, he said "bird seed" as he pointed out the back door. I said that we didn't have any, which is true. Our bag of bird seed was infested with bugs so it got ditched. I told him that we'd go shopping for bird seed later today.

Alicia and Karina arrived. Henry managed to make a present for me before I left the living room. I went ahead and changed him. As I changed him, he said to me "Shopping?" I said, "And what would we go shopping for?" He replied, "Bird seed." A long memory indeed.

The Pink Flamingo from San Domingo

We had a nice Friday afternoon. I came home around 5PM. Jeff had to work for an hour. Henry and I hung out. The TV was on, so I let him watch a little bit. We played. Jeff's work didn't take as long as he thought it would. We attempted to watch Arizona in the Sweet 16. Henry wasn't interested. I guess that was OK. It was a painful game to watch anyway, so we stopped. I had brought a pizza home from Frog & Firkin. It had goat cheese on it instead of mozzarella. Henry liked it. We noticed, however, that he had a slightly rash on him at bath time. We didn't know what he was given for lunch, so the jury is still out on pizza as cause.

At bath time, we sat him on his Elmo potty before putting him in the tub. He was unhappy at first but then he peed, which earned him a big round of cheers.

We had a very nice family Saturday. We went Joel's for pancakes. Henry ate so much that we were afraid he'd make himself sick. He ate pancakes, eggs, ham, and strawberries. He had fun turning his hat around backyard (see picture on left). We then headed to the zoo. He fell asleep in the car, so we sat in the car awhile while I read aloud from "Twilight."

We woke up Henry after 15-20 minutes (a cat nap) and headed into the zoo. Henry enjoyed walking up and down and up and down the steps into the lower viewing area of the polar bear cage. Boris the Polar Bear was swimming laps and came right by the window where Henry was perched. Henry liked that.














Watching other kids was probably the highlight. Henry is a very social guy. He ended up patting on little gal on the head, which was kind of funny. He crawled around a play object that looks like a turtle shell. He climbed up and down a concrete step.

At the flamingo area, I said to Henry, "Look, there are the pink flamingos" to which Henry responded "San Domingo" which would complete a line from his Rainbow Rob book "A pink flamingo from San Domingo." We used to read Henry that book all of the time, but it hasn't been in our rotation in months. So interesting that he remembered the line.

The baboons ended up being an animal favorite right after the people. He said "baboons" several times throughout the visit. He also pointed out a "peacock."



When we came home, he wasn't tired. We are a bit frustrated that he forgoes his naps on the weekends b/c then he gets very, very tired in the evening. We played in the living room and read books. Henry made a hat out of an empty strawberry container. Jeff took him on a walk. We had dinner. Henry ate fairly well. He was practicing eating yogurt with a spoon all by himself. Played with the Russian dolls.

Henry again used the Elmo potty before his bath. That didn't stop him from adding a little bit to the bath water. Sigh. But we were pleased that he is beginning to use the potty.

We watched a little bit of "Aladdin" as he drank his last bottle of the evening. Then, it was time for bed. A very busy but fun family day.

Words for the list:
305. Baboon
306. Peacock
307. Genie (from "Aladdin")

This morning, Henry started tossing and turning around 6:25AM. It seems that is doesn't matter when he goes to bed; he'll always get up around 6:30-7AM. We even shut the doors so that the sun wouldn't come into the bedroom. Doesn't matter. He just knows.

Henry and I read "The Haunted House" and "The Magic Grinder" before breakfast. Jeff made eggs, which Henry liked. He wasn't as hungry as yesterday though. Then, he and Jeff went on a walk.

That's all for now.

"Save me, Daddy!"

Yesterday in the late afternoon, Henry and Jeff were playing in the living room. Henry showed off his golf swing. Jeff is so happy about it. It is a pretty hard swing. Very direct hit on the ball. I told Henry "I'm gonna kiss you," which is what I usually say to begin a Henry chase. Henry giggled and ran across the room to Jeff and said "Save me, Daddy!" That's new.



He had Rob the Penguin "Go slide!" several times. Henry also learned to go down the slide laying on his back. The slide had a lot of static on it, so it made for many interesting hair styles.

It was incredibly windy yesterday, but we went on a walk nevertheless. Ran into Hal. Henry said his name several times. Luke, who is a very large Ridgeback and a bit arthritic, looked like a puppy bouncing around when he saw Henry and gave him lots of kisses.











At dinner, Henry fished all of the green beans out of his minestrone soup. Jeff and I fished out all of ours to give him more. He was very into green beans and strawberries last night. Two bites of macaroni. We called out for more green beans, but we didn't have any on hand.

After dinner, we played with my Russian dolls, given to me by my Aunt Gloria. We also played with them the night before last. Henry wanted to play with them again. They are actually quite great at teaching how things fit inside each other and how to open canisters.
















Henry had his blue dog Spunky slide after dinner. He also danced with Spunky. Unprompted by me. Henry had touched a toy that made music. He was holding Spunky so he wiggled him around and said "dancing."



We are struggling with potty issues. As I have mentioned before, having a wet diaper isn't much motivation to get changed (although when he has a super wet diaper in the morning, he does get up earlier than we'd like). For the last couple weeks, he has been releasing a tablespoon or two of drops right in front of the tub. We figured that knowing this was great b/c we could get him to sit on a potty right after we take his diaper off. We tried that night before last and he was very upset. I don't want him to be upset or angry over being put on the potty b/c I don't want it to be an unpleasant experience. But within a minute of taking him off the potty, he'll release a little bit. If anyone has some sage potty training advice, we are all ears. We've had to empty and restart two tub fulls of bathwater now. We wish that we had a more environmentally friendly plumbing system that would take the water to the outside plants rather than the sewage system at this point. The water isn't dirty enough to completely waste, but it isn't clean enough for him to play and bath in it. Sigh.

We let Henry watch TV after his bath. Youtube clips were driving me crazy, so I'm glad that we are now sitting comfortable on the couch after his bath. Last night, we put in "Aladdin" even though he wanted "Robin Hood." Jeff and I needed something different. He seemed to like it. We didn't get to the part where Aladdin meets the Genie yet. We'll do that tonight.

Henry is now my official wardrobe coordinator. This morning, he wanted me to wear a scrunchy. I put a white one in but he wanted me to wear the red one so I switched. Either he was giving me fashion advice or just seeing if he could boss me around.

Henry's word additions...
295. Macaroni (how could we have forgotten this one?)
296. Green beans
297. Hal
298. Penguin
299. Dolls
300. Dancing
301. Shower
302. Open
303. Close
304. "Save me, Daddy!"

This morning, we read some Thomas books. He keeps pushing for the TV, but we tell him that he doesn't get to watch it until evening. He eventually relents. We read "Big Things" (short for "Little Engines Can Do Big Things") and "Calling All Engines." I'm amazed at how Henry picks up on the subtle differences between the engines. Several of them look alike to me.

Alicia told me that yesterday, Henry said "Give kiss" to her while she was changing him. After she changed him, she said "Do you want me to give you a kiss?" He said "Uh-huh." Very cute. Alicia brought dolmas today. They were great. Henry wanted a bite. Alicia was surprised that he was so enthusiastic over them.

Danger Prone Henry

Henry and I spent some time in the afternoon together. Then he helped Jeff make potatoes. Not really a whole lot to report. He seems drawn to turning ordinary activities into X-treme sports. Tonight, he was trying to put the pointy end of the umbrella in his mouth. He's also been going after Bitsy's tail A LOT and has scratches to show for it. Sigh.

We ate dinner in the dinner room, which is blocked off to prevent unsupervised used. I left Bitsy in the dining room as I closed the gate and turned out the lights. She can get out on her own, but Henry was very irate that I left her there and got upset. So I had to let him watch me get her out.

Words to add to his list:
292. Mirror
293. Bee
294. "Kick it!"

That's all for today from the Wild Kingdom.

Shopping

We took Henry shopping yesterday afternoon for a new bed. He was entertained at first but a bit put out that we didn't let him run out the door into the parking lot. We are such tyrants about the rules. The shopping expedition was brought on by our desire to get one of the spare bedrooms ready for potential placements. We have all of the pieces for a placement (hence we passed the inspection), but we'd like to get a single bed and take down the double in the spare bedroom. Our bedrooms are small, and it would be good to give a child some extra space. We are also thinking of getting Henry a toddler bed in some interesting theme. Haven't looked for a Sponge Bob bed yet, but I suspect that would rank high on his list. He got bored by the showroom fairly quickly and wanted to "Go home!"

We ended up going to Toys R Us to see what kinds of beds they had. They do have a Thomas the Tank Engine bed. We ended up buying him some markers to start our arts and crafts projects. We need to get him a table sometime soon. We ate dinner at Jason's Deli. Obama was on their TV. When Henry saw him, he shouted out "Obama!"

When we got home, we let Henry watch Robin Hood. He managed to say Friar Tuck as opposed to yesterday's Triar Fruck. Henry had his bath. He likes these suction cup frogs that are supposed to prevent slipping in the bath tub. He was very into hanging them on the side of the tub "up-down" or "eye-down" (we think that means "upside down"). I believe that it was last night that he told us he was "Happy Baby" at the end of the bath.

The word list continues to get bigger. He's said some of the words before. It's just that we don't remember until he has said them more recently.

283. Friar Tuck
284. Lady Cluck
285. Dinosaur
286. Shake
287. Umbrella
288. Wash cloth
289. Swing
290. Slide
291. Shopping

Dinosaur was a surprise from the toy story. He has dinosaur magnets on the refrigerator, but we were impressed by him figuring out that a foot tall dinosaur toy was also a "dinosaur" given that we don't use the word much.

Henry woke up this morning around 7AM. He always wakes up refreshed and ready to start his day. I'm a bit slower about the whole wake up thing. He is currently playing in the living room with Alica and Henry. I just heard him outside my door saying "See mommy." I wish that I could see him now, but it is now time to get back to work.

"Turkey Bummy"

Henry was difficult during dinner (or anti-dinner). Jeff and I are trying to come up with a new game plan to get Henry to eat. I think that we are going to make mashed potatoes tomorrow. Hopefully, that will stimulate his appetite.

We let him watch "Robin Hood" during dinner. Toward the end, we got ready for his bath. Henry ran out of the bathroom to the living room before we could get him in the tub. He yelled "Marian...pretty!"

281. Pretty
282. Ice

Here is Henry counting in the tub...


After his bath, Bitsy walked into the bathroom while we were dressing him. He said "Bitsy...turkey bummy!" He must have picked up on that from me. My sister Carolyn used to run around and call people or animals "turkey bummies" when she was a toddler. I'm quite sure that I've referred to Bitsy as a "turkey bummy" because she can be just that. I haven't used it often and don't recall using it on Bitsy in a long time. Bitsy has actually behaved herself lately. Just goes to show that one has to watch everything one says around Mr. H.

Henry fell asleep within a couple minutes of Jeff taking him to the bedroom. He is exhausted.

Holy Cow!

Jeff just took a call from A Place to Call Home a few moments ago. They were looking for a foster home for two girls, 5 and 7 years old. No other information available. Jeff came to my office and asked me. We unfortunately had to turn the agency down. We think that it is important to stick to our tight screen for Henry's sake. We are stunned. Guess that means that the state has certified us. Our application was submitted early last week. Wow.

"Catching Up" to Actual Age

The past few days have been a bit of a blur. All in all, it has been filled with lots of family time. I don't remember much about Friday. We went on a walk in the evening as usual.


















On Saturday, Henry woke up wanting "pancakes." I asked him if he wanted to go to Tohono Chul Park or Joel's. He wanted to go to "Joel's." As soon as we sat down at Joel's, he demanded "pancakes." He ate a lot. Probably had 3/4 of a decent sized Joel's pancake. Joel, the owner and chef, came out to our table as he sometimes does. He asked about syrup b/c Henry was eating it plain. We explained that the pancakes were tasty enough w/o the embellishment, which he was pleased to hear. Hands down, they are the best pancakes in town (probably the best that we've ever eaten). Afterward, we played on the grass. Walked and rolled down hills. Visited the turtle pond, which was fully stocked with turtles. Then, we went to the Kids Center, a medium-small toy store. Lots of books. We bought Henry a book and then a tee-ball set. Came home. Henry took a long nap. Poppy visited him after he woke up. Grammy was still sick. After Poppy left, we played tee-ball. He was entranced with the parts of the tee-ball stand for whatever reason.

















We spent Sunday morning at home. We went for a walk. The Wildcats played at 11:40AM. They won! We were supposed to attend a wedding in the afternoon and Alicia was supposed to come over to babysit. She called about three hours before the wedding to cancel b/c Karina was sick and said her husband who had surgery 2 weeks early was unable to look after her. So I ended up going w/o Jeff. I'm pretty miffed about the situation b/c it isn't like our friends get married every day. It was a lovely wedding. I didn't get home until 9:45PM. The Doodle Bug was sound asleep.









We've noticed the past week that Henry's play skills have progressed in the bathroom. We've noticed that he has imaginative play with his bathtub toys. He makes Pete and Sam "lean back" on the edge of the bathtub or "dive" into the water to go "swimming." Very cute.

Here are additions to our word list as far as we can remember:

254. Fire pit
255. Water spout
256. Bike
257. Golf swing
258. Soccer ball
259. Arm circles
260. "Stand head" (as in "stand on your head")
261. Sink
262. Camera
263. Cheese
264. Soy bacon
265. Asparagus
266. Snowman
267. Gorilla
268. Polar bear
269. Kangaroo
270. Sheep
271. Robin Hood
272. Marian
273. Tiger Woods
274. "Back!" (as in "get back" to the dogs)
275. "Turn it on" (in reference to the television)
276. Sleep
277. "Turn around"
278. Bank robbers (characters in "The Haunted House)
279. Money bags (objects in "The Haunted House")
280. Again

At one point over the weekend, we turned off the TV. Henry then reached for the remote and said "turn it on." Jeff was walking golf at one point. Henry saw Tiger Woods on the screen. The commentators made reference to "Tiger" and Henry responded "Tiger Woods."

This morning, Henry said "Javelina!" in his sleep. Must have been an interesting dream. We had an appointment with Cuyler for an OT evaluation. She said that DES has again reversed its decision and will be paying for services b/c there are some law suits in the works if they don't. So, it looks like today's session will be covered. But who knows. The decisions for DES to pay seem to switch every couple days. If DES doesn't pay, we were willing to do so, because we believe that these evaluations are very important.

Cuyler had Henry do several tasks. She was impressed by his attention span and verbal abilities. Basically, she was testing two things with the Peabody scale: grasping and visual-motor integration. She said that the grasping scale stops at 15 months and doesn't resume until 42 months b/c the basic grasping skills don't change all of that much during that time span. The changes that do take place are very subtle. Henry tested at the 50th percentile for adjusted and actual age on grasping.

Visual-motor integration was the other area tested. He was at the 35th percentile for his actual age and the 75th percentile for his adjusted age. She said that he basically looked like a 21 month old on those skills. She says that at 2 years old, we can start thinking about him by his actual age. This is when kids often "catch up." I won't rehash our perspective on "catching up," other than to say that "catching up" implies that he was behind and we don't know why anyone would expect a preemie to "catch up" b/c development starts when sperm meets egg not when someone happens to come out of the womb. But, his legal birthday is April 30. That's the day that society recognizes. And given that he is "advanced" for his "adjusted" age, it doesn't really matter.

The places where Henry did not perform as well with test tasks were the areas that we didn't expect him to do particularly well. He gets frustrated fairly easily with puzzles. Shape matching and fitting was where he got some points off. But he did really well with drawing, which surprised us a bit b/c we haven't done a whole lot of drawing. And he was awesome with block building, which is something that we only do occasionally. He managed to stack six blocks, which is something that we hadn't seen before. Again, this begs the question: Have we held him back? He can obviously do things that we haven't done with him.

Cuyler said that Henry has now entered the arts and crafts phase. She said that construction will help build those visual-motor integration skills. That means that I get to go to the crafts store in the near future. I also want us to get Henry a table appropriate for his size.

When the test was over, Henry announced that he wanted to "Go home!" He wasn't very patient during Cuyler's discussion of the test with us. We went to Trader Joe's afterward. Then home. Henry took at 10 minute nap in the car, but wouldn't sleep when we got home. I suppose that means he'll be going to bed earlier than usual tonight.

After having a couple bites of macaroni and one bite of pizza, Henry left the kitchen. We read "The Haunted House." I asked him questions about what was going to happen next, and he answered them. I was stunned. Mickey, Donald, and Pluto are in a passageway at one point in the story. The ghosts are coming toward them. I asked Henry, "What did the ghosts say?" He said, "Go away!" That was the right answer. At another point, I asked him "What did Mickey, Donald, and Pluto trip over?" His answer: "Money bags." Again, the right answer. Not bad for a 19 month old/22.5 month old.

A Beautiful Day for Golf

This morning, Henry said "stretch" as he saw Roger stretching as he got up from his slumber. Another word to add to Henry's list.

Henry got Alicia to make pancakes for him this morning. His pancake obsession continues. He has been soaking his diaper thoroughly after his breakfast since Monday. We've been quite fortunate on the diaper front. He really hasn't been a leaky baby all in all. Alicia mentioned that he must be holding it and then releasing. That's actually a good thing, I suppose, in preparation for potty training. I don't know when that will be. We haven't really done anything on the potty training front b/c we've been waiting for Henry to show some sign that he wants to be potty trained. This could prove problematic b/c with Henry's Herculean pain threshold, a mere wet diaper isn't going to motivate him to action. I suspect that motivation will come from a more deliberative, cognitive route rather than a physical one. I suspect that once he realizes other kids use the potty, he'll want to use one as well.

In the afternoon, we decided to go to Funtasticks and play putt putt. We hadn't been there in a long time and the day was beautiful. There were several families there but it wasn't overly crowded by any stretch. Henry noticed the bumper boats and mentioned "swimming." Henry watched the kids on the mini go-cart course and shouted out "Kids!" Henry was fascinated by the carousel and liked the "ponies." Jeff got three golf balls and two clubs (one large and one small). He brought our disinfectant hand spray and cleaned them before letting Henry touch them. We didn't bother trying to keep score on the putt putt course. Henry would run after our balls, pick them up, and put them in the hole by hand. Turns out he knows the word "hole." For whatever reason, Henry preferred the big club, so Jeff and I took our shots with the small one most of the time. He enjoyed jumping off the obstacles on the various holes as they were a perfectly climbing and jumping level (about 6" from the ground). Henry took a pretty good tumble and roll on one of the holes but he didn't cry. I'm quite sure it would have sent any other kid into hysterics. We brushed him off, and he was ready for the next challenge. His favorite holes were the ones where he could send the ball through a hole at the top of a hill and then watch it roll onto another green.

We had to get Henry shoes. Shirley (PT) mentioned at his last visit that she thought shoes with a hard back might help to discourage the toe walking. After putt putt, we went to Stride Rite at the mall. We weren't keen on going to the mall during RSV season, but we knew that was the place to go for his shoes. It was a focused mall visit. The salesperson was surprised to hear that Henry was 19 months. She thought he looked big for a 19 month old and said that his feet wear big for that age. I confess that I was pleased to hear someone say that he was big for his age. That was a first. She measured him at a 7 1/2 shoe size. She recommended getting a 1/2 size up b/c she said that he's going to grow out of the size 7 1/2 within 2 months. They were having a sale (buy one, get the second pair 1/2 off). We ended up getting a size 7 1/2 pair and a size 8 pair. Normally, we would have just gotten the 8. But given that the shoes were being purchased for a therapeutic purpose, I wanted to make sure that they fit well...even if they only last 2 months or less.

We came home. Had dinner, which we picked up on our way out of the food court. Given the germy nature of public areas, we didn't want to sit at the public tables in the food court. Henry somehow new that Jeff had gotten him fries. How he knew is a mystery.

Henry is getting very good at splashing water out of the bath tub. We watched pics for a few minutes after the bath. And then he was off to bed.

Jeff and I have come up with a few word additions to our list. My mom also alerted us to some as well. Henry has been saying "Margaret" in reference to writing on the pad with a pen. My mom always has a pad and pen near her. I suspect that he has heard Poppy say "Margaret" several times while my mom was writing out lists or cross things off lists. Because I'm not confident that "Margaret" is being used in reference to Grammy, it hasn't yet made the list.

239. Yogurt
240. Pen
241. Stretch
242. Hank (apparently, he sometimes calls Poppy "Hank")
243. Tim
244. Clean
245. Broom
246. Remote
247. Help
248. Kids
249. Dive
250. Swimming
251. Hole
252. Glasses
253. Nickelodeon

The last one on the list took us by surprise tonight. Henry took the remote from Jeff who had just turned off the TV (we allowed Henry to watch the last 5 minutes of Sponge Bob). Henry pointed the remote at the TV and said "Nickelodeon." I don't mean to point an accusing finger, but I think that the grandparents have some explaining to do.

Words that Henry Knows

Henry decided to eat before I came home again. He insisted on pancakes again, so Jeff whipped out some potato pancakes for him. I got home by 6PM. We went on our family walk with the dogs. As we walked out of the garage, Henry turned around, walked back in the garage, and then closed the door. He popped his head out the door a few second later after Jeff called to him; he had a huge grin on his face. I put him in his wagon. Jeff remembered to bring Henry's newspaper. He requested the "comics." He enjoyed his wagon ride with comics and bottle in hand.

Jeff reported that while reading the Pokey Little Puppy, which Jeff hadn't read to him in awhile, Henry filled in some of the words. There's a part where the puppies are being counted. Henry filled in "1-2-3-4." He is doing more filling in these days. Last week, I believe it was, he started responding with "Manha Manha" at the right part of the song. I would sing the main part, and he'd do the "Manha Manha" part.

He was pleased when we got home b/c I let him watch Sponge Bob on the computer. I have got to find a different episode. I could only find one full episode on youtube. I really don't understand why people post clips of Sponge Bob with things like music from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" as the backdrop. Very annoying.

We gave Henry a bath. Yesterday, I suggested to him that he have two of his bath toys give each other a kiss. He did that again today. The octopus kissed the sea horse as Henry was playing with them. So cute.

We are certainly letting Henry watch TV now. We sit with him while he watches and make comment b/c I don't want him turning into a zombie. Frankly, I still wish that we had never let him see the TV until 2. But once the floodgates were opened, it is nearly impossible to go back. He certainly takes a lot in from the TV. I gave him the choice of Aladdin, Thomas, or Robin Hood. He chose Robin Hood. Rather than picking up where we left off the other day, we started at the beginning b/c kids like repetition. We watched Robin Hood and Little John escape and Sheriff (again) and trick Prince John (again). It was nice having Henry snuggle with me on the couch.

Jeff put him down w/o incident. Didn't take long. Henry appears to be going to bed a little earlier these days BUT he has also reset his wake up time to 6AM.

Last night, Jeff and I decided to attempt to create a list of the words Henry knows and says. It reflects what we can recall, although on the walk tonight, we came up with another 10, so the list is far from complete. It doesn't include animal sounds or words he knows but doesn't say (e.g., "lips"...he knows where they are but hasn't said the word, except when mimicking us, but that doesn't qualify as really using the word in context).

Here's what we came up with...

1. Daddy
2. Mommy
3. Poppy
4. Grammy
5. Roger
6. Marley
7. Bitsy
8. Princess
9. Jackson
10. Erin
11. Brian
12. Alica
13. Karina
14. Ramses
15. Indy
16. Precious
17. Choco(late)
18. Banjo
19. Brandy
20. Luke
21. Annie
22. Izzy
    
23. Aucky (Austin)
24. Joe
25. Patty
    
26. Kyle Fogg
27. Nic Wise
28. Barack Obama
29. Joe Biden
30. Shinseki
31. Harry Potter
32. Snoopy
33. Lucy
34. Charlie Brown
35. Thomas (the Tank Engine)
36. Henry (train and self)
37. Edward
38. Gordon
39. Toby
40. Rob (as in Rainbow Rob)
41. Sponge Bob
42. Patrick
43. Squidward
44. Fresh Prince
45. Gonzo
46. Animal
47. Piggy
48. Elmo
49. Cookie (Monster)
50. Oscar
51. Mickey (Mouse)
52. Minnie
53. Donald (Duck)
54. Winnie (the) Pooh
    
55. Tigger
56. Scooby
    
57. Reader (as in the Story Reader)
58. "Be Happy" (Story Reader book)
59. "Snack Day" (Story Ready book)
60. House (as in the book "The Haunted House")
61. Grinder (as in the book "The Magic Grinder")
62. Cat
63. Kitten
    
64. Dog
65. Puppy
    
66. Bunny
67. Rabbit
68. Snake
    
69. Cow
70. Horse
71. Goat
72. Frog
73. Lion
74. Tiger
75. Giraffe
76. Javelina
77. Coyote
    
78. Spider
79. Bat
80. Owl
81. Turtle
82. Zebra
83. Bird
84. Bird seed
85. Mouse
86. Fish
87. Duck
88. Monkey
89. Hippo
90. Sea horse
91. Zoo
    
92. Cayman (the turtle...his toy)
93. Sam (the snail...toy)
94. Pete (the pirate...toy)
95. Eyes
96. Ears
97. Head
98. Bonk!
    
99. Hair
100. Tummy
101. Teeth
102. Toes
103. Knees
104. Nose
105. Finger
106. Penis
107. Butt
     
108. Hi
109. Bye
110. Good night
111. Go home
112. OK
113. Uh-huh
114. No!
115. Sit down
116. Lie down
117. Lean back
     
118. More
119. Please
120. Thank you
121. This one
122. Hot
123. Ouch!
124. Purse
125. Balloon
126. Clock
127. Plate
128. Sock
129. Light
130. Run
131. Jump
132. Walk
133. Block
134. Potty seat
135. Camera
136. Hurt
137. Huggies (hug)
138. Office
139. Hat
140. Drum
141. CD
142. Mail
143. Cell phone
144. Knife
145. Moon
146. Kite
147. Bottle
148. Cup
     
149. Eat
     
150. Milk
151. Tea
152. Pepsi (grandparents claim that he hasn't tried it, he just knows what it is)
     
153. Water
154. Chicken
155. Turkey
156. Pancake
157. Banana
158. Dolmas
159. Fruit
160. Coffee
161. Cheerios
     
162. Crackers
163. Noodles
164. Crunchies
165. Strawberries
166. Black beans
167. Peas
168. Melts (as in yogurt melts)
169. Red
170. Blue
171. Circle
172. Drawing
173. Crayon
     
174. Picture
     
175. Comb
176. Brush
177. Shoes
178. Playground
179. Slide
180. Ball pit
181. Computer
182. Newspaper
183. Comics
184. O-tube (he means youtube but it has stuck in his mind as o-tube)
185. TV
186. Calculator
187. Ball
188. Putt putt
189. Golf
190. Golf club
191. Golf ball
192. Basketball
193. Hoop
194. Hockey
195. Baseball
196. Eagles
197. Cardinals
198. Backpack
199. March
200. Tree
201. Bush (plant not the ex-president)
202. Cactus
203. Leaf
204. Flower
205. Rock
     
206. Boat
207. Poop
208. Pool
209. Sink
210. Books
211. Music
212. Window
213. Seat
214. Chair
215. Table
216. Ring
217. Shampoo
218. Bath
219. Bubbles
     
220. Towel
221. Up
222. Down
223. Outside
224. Pillow
225. Bed
226. Crib
     
227. Sleep
228. Blanket
     
229. Wagon
230. Airplane
231. Train
232. Truck
233. Car
234. Helicopter
235. Keys
236. Door
237. Puddle
238. Ocean (in reference to the waves sound on our sound machine alarm clock)

He continues to amaze us with what he knows.

Pancakes!

Henry is on the pancake diet. Last night before I got home with dinner from Sinbad's, Jeff reported that Henry marched into the kitchen, climbed into his high chair, looked at Jeff, and demanded "Pancakes!"

This morning, Henry also wanted "pancakes!" Alicia said that he ate better today than he has been eating overall.

We told Alicia about our foster plans today. She is amenable to the situation. I'm not sure how that would realistically work out with three kids in the house, but that's certainly a lower caregiver-child ratio than daycare. We received an email from Alison today. Our paperwork was officially submitted to the state, so now we just have to wait for certification and for a call.

Henry got put in "time out" by Jeff. I suspect that it lasted about 30 seconds. The infraction: throwing the couch pillow at Bitsy several times after being told "no." Bitsy is fine. If she had more sense, she would have left the living room after the first pillow toss. Still, we are trying to teach Henry to play but respect the animals...so throwing things at the animals or trying to stand on them is a no-no.

During our walk tonight, Henry was perturbed that he didn't have a "newspaper" to read while riding in his wagon. Nice to see a youngster interested in the newspaper. Now only if my undergraduates would start reading one!

Henry demanded "pancakes!" for dinner. We gave him some lentil soup and dolmas for a start. Then, Jeff made him a waffle (next best thing to a pancake). Henry also had banana. After eating about half of the waffle, he wanted more "dolmas!" He has unique and cultured taste buds for a 19 month old (adjusted).

We gave him a bath, watched some pics, and now Jeff's putting him to bed. It is only 7:40PM, a very early bedtime for our young man (although probably the norm for most kids his age).

Jump!

We had a quiet Saturday morning. Because I didn't work on Friday during the day, I ended up staying up until 5AM finishing a manuscript that got off to the editors. I slept in until 9AM. Henry didn't eat much, but he was in good spirits. He chased Bitsy around the house with the comics. I can't remember when it was (maybe Friday evening or Saturday morning) but Jeff had taken Henry for a walk. Henry read the newspaper (which of course he can identify and say) as Jeff pulled him in the wagon.

Henry took a nap around 11AM. We got him up around 12:20PM because we had a birthday party to attend. My friend Carolyn's daughter, Adelyn, had turned 1 year old. Carolyn lives on our side of town. There were five other children there ranging from 9 months to 3.5 years old at the party. It was a nice mix. Henry enjoyed watching the other children. The children were pretty much at the age where they all played side-by-side but weren't really playing together per se. Henry loved their lab Cassi. She was a big hit. Henry also enjoyed cake and ice cream. He only had a few bites, but we could see the sugar effects right away. He got hyper and then rather tired.

After the party, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. They missed their boy. Jeff and I sneaked off to see "He's Just Not That Into You." It was funny but had a lot more drama than we anticipated. We enjoyed it though. We went to Trader Joe's and then picked up Henry. Henry didn't eat much, but he ate better for the grandparents than he does for us. When we arrived, he was reading books with Grammy. He sat in my lap and read The Nose Book by Dr. Seuss. When we were done, he said "Go home." So go home we did.

He fell asleep in the car on the way home, but of course woke up as soon as we tried to get him to bed. He was obviously tired but stubborn. He then tried to play us by saying he wanted in the "crib." We'd put him in the crib, but then he wanted "bed." We'd put him in bed, and then he wanted "crib." As we put him in the crib, he'd say "bed." We put him in the crib anyway and told him it was bedtime. He got very upset and angry. And he then had the vomit tantrum. Not fun. Really, really not fun. Puked on the crib sheet. So I lifted him out of the crib while Jeff went go get the paper towels. I put him on our bed. He proceeded to be upset and vomit all over me, himself, the carpet, and the sheets. Lovely. So I ended up giving him a bath while Jeff changed both the crib and bed sheets. Afterward, I tried getting Henry to bed but he wanted to watch pics. I wouldn't let him. I don't want him to think that he can get whatever he wants by vomiting. He was mad but Jeff somehow managed to get Henry to sleep in the crib. He slept there until 3AM at which point he made his way back to the bed.

We had a nice day today. We went to Joel's Bistro for pancakes. Henry usually plays once we get there, but today he sat at the table, looked at the waitress, and demanded "pancakes." Nice to see that his appetite had returned a bit. He ate a lot of french bread while waiting for the pancakes. Jeff read a new Thomas the Tank Engine book to him while we waited for the food to arrive. Henry had fun putting the bread basket on his head when it was empty.


After breakfast, we found hills to walk up and down. We found several neat trees and benches to climb. We made our way to the turtle pond. And the headed home. Henry fell asleep. As I took him to the bedroom when we got home, I laid down with him on top of me. He was sleeping soundly...snoring in fact. I was afraid to put him directly on the bed and have him wake up. I laid there awake with him snoring on me for about 2 hours and then tried to artfully get him onto the bed. That worked in part. He was on the bed but he was using my arm as a hand weight (see previous entry about Henry's sensory issues with his hands and sleep). So I laid there another hour. But at least in this position, I nodded off to sleep as well. Some time after 3PM, Henry popped his head up and said "Grammy!" several times.

Unfortunately, Grammy wasn't feeling well today. She thought it best not to see Henry today, but Poppy visited us b/c he and Grammy are busy on Monday. He couldn't go for more than two days w/o seeing his grandson.

Poppy and Henry played outside for awhile. After Poppy left, Jeff made dinner. While in the kitchen, Henry managed to perform his first real jump. He has jumped holding onto stuff before (e.g., the bars of the crib at the grandparents' house) and has jumped off the stairs. Lately, he has been sliding off the couch or museum bench w/o turning his body and lowering himself ; he just goes for it forward and lands on his feet. Well, tonight he actually got some genuine lift off. We clapped, and he clapped. I'm not sure if he really understood how what he was doing tonight was different.

We watched a Sponge Bob episode during dinner. That made Henry happy. His face lights up when he gets to see Sponge Bob. I truly don't get the appeal but that's OK. It suspect that Sponge Bob is kind of like Teletubbies. There's just no point trying to "get" them. Tonight's episode was about "imagination." Henry came close to saying the word. We had planned to let Henry play until 8:30PM given his long nap, but at 8PM he was ready for his "bath." Afterward, he mentioned wanting Harry Potter but really wanted Thomas the Tank Engine. I ended up putting Disney's Robin Hood in the DVD player. We watched the Oodalalie song and Robin Hood and Little John robbing Prince John. That was it. Henry wanted more, but I said that Robin Hood had to go to bed. So that's where Henry and Jeff went.

I forgot to mention on earlier posts that Henry is beginning to climb steps by alternating his feet with one foot per step (rather than step and bring feet together). When the home inspector came on Tuesday, Jeff pulled out the step latter to test the alarms. Henry demonstrated his climb skills by climbing the latter with alternating feet. Then on Thursday, when he came to school with me, he climbed the steps alternating feet on some of the parts. Way to go, Henry! Big stuff.

Verbally, he is learning new words. He is putting more thoughts in sentence form. He is responding with "OK" if I make a suggestion that meets his approval. If I ask him if he likes something, he'll nod or say "Uh-huh" if he likes it. He has been doing some long babbles with distinct syllables (kind of sounds like sentences), but we aren't quite sure what he means. We are confident that he knows what he means. And I really wish that we could figure out what "mogurt" means. I suspect that he thinks we are slow on the uptake.

If I give him a forced choice offering and he doesn't like the choices, he won't respond. "Do you want to read 'The Haunted House' or 'The Magic Grinder'?" No response if he really wants pics. "Do you want to go to the crib or the bed?" No response and he'll head right to the bedroom door and open it if he wants to play. He is able to see beyond the choices offered.

He doesn't lie. If I say, "We don't choke in this family, do we?" He'll say "no!" and shake his head (something that we've been doing since he was first drinking water). If I say, "We don't touch cactus in this family, do we?" He'll say "no!" But if there is something that he really wants to do, he won't respond. For example, if I say, "We don't climb on tables in this family, do we?," he'll go silent. At least he isn't lying, I suppose.

That's all from the Wild Kingdom. Incidentally, Jeff saw a rattlesnake in the road last night, so creepy critter season is upon us.

A Day with the Doodle Bug

Henry woke up in relatively good spirits this morning. He didn't feel hot at all. He said he wanted an egg for breakfast. I made him one, and he probably had one bite of it. Plus one bite of pancake and then he was "all done." Sigh.

We had canceled with the nanny the night before. So it was just me and the Doodle Bug today. I decided to take him to the zoo.







I forgot that it was spring break for many kids, and the zoo was pretty crowded. But we had a relatively quiet time in the South America section, which many people seem to skip for whatever reason. The animal highlight for me was watching the two jaguars wrestle in a hammock and get a little testy with one another. But Henry was much more interested in walking around than staring at them.

We made it over to the giraffes before they closed the feedings. For $2, you can purchase 2 biscuits. We bought four. Henry marched onto the feeding deck ahead of me while I waited for change. The zoo keeper on the deck was impressed by his enunciation of the word "giraffe" unprompted given that I was about 8 feet behind him. A little girl about 3 years old was ahead of us. She was scared of the giraffe and dropped the biscuit before the giraffe's tongue could touch her. Henry had a different approach. He held the biscuit out and let the giraffe's tongue wrap around his wrist and then move over his hand to extract the biscuit. No fear whatsoever. I was glad that we bought the four biscuits b/c Henry had a good time.

Henry watched a boy about 8 yrs old (I'm guessing) climb on a rock and say "I'm king of the world!" So Henry marched over to the rock and said "King! King!" By this time, the boy had jumped off. I let Henry climb the rock and jump from it too. And then we did it "again," and "again," and "again."

Henry mentioned Grammy several times throughout our zoo visit. Once in the car, Henry said "Grammy." So I asked him, "Do you want to go to Grammy's house?" His response, "Uh-huh" while nodding. We decided to pop by Grammy's. She offered Henry lunch and he had 1/3 of a pancake. He was pleased to be allowed to watch Sponge Bob during lunch. We then went with Grammy to the townhouse to meet Tim, the painter. Henry and I ran around the townhouse while Tim and Grammy talked. We then dropped Grammy back at her house. Said a quick "hi" to Poppy who stopped by as we were leaving. Then home.

Henry was asleep when we got home, so I took him to the bedroom where he fell asleep snoring in my arms. That lasted about an hour.

Jeff took over from there. That's all for now.

Henry is Sick Again

We started off Thursday morning fairly optimistic. We canceled with Alicia b/c we weren't 100% about Henry being sick or not. But the more we thought about it, it seemed likely that his symptoms were consistent with teething. He has had a low grade fever, but he is still his usual interactive self. A diaper rash appeared a couple days ago, and that's consistent with teething. When babies teeth, they swallow a lot of saliva. That goes through their systems and causes some redness on the backside.

My mom was going to take Henry in the morning, but between me needing to drive across town to A Place To Call Home and needing to pick him up by 2PM b/c she had a project coming in, I decided to take Henry with me b/c it was clear that data analysis just wasn't going to happen. I had a 10:15AM meeting with my research assistant, but I knew that meeting would be a quick one.

Henry and I headed off to school. I stopped by my colleague Kevin's office so that Henry could show off his political knowledge skills. He answered my president, veep, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs questions correctly. Kevin rightly pointed out that it was more than many of our students know. So true. We saw Nancy and Tina, two members of the staff, in the hallway as well. We headed over to my lab where all was quiet. I set up Henry at a computer to watch Sponge Bob Square Pants on o-tube, as Henry calls it. Sarah, my research assistant, was taken with Henry. She takes care of kids and apparently knew what Henry was saying when he kept repeating a word that I didn't understand. Turned out it was a Sponge Bob character. Henry was very good throughout the meeting. Around 10:50AM, we headed to Poppy's office as his class had ended. He was surprised but pleased to see Henry. We ended up walking back to the car together.

Henry and I went to A Place To Call Home to drop off the home inspection forms. Alison was in the main lobby when we arrived and pleased to see Henry. She showed his political skills off to the receptionist by asking him who the president was. The receptionist was impressed. It looks like Alison will have our packet sent to the state next week.

Henry pointed at several strip malls on the way home and apparently had some shopping in mind. I told him that we would stop by Eegee's to get him some fries. He then said the word "fries" about a bazillion times repeatedly until I had the fries in hand 20 minutes later. Henry ate several fries. On our way back home from Eegee's, however, he ended up throwing most of them up. So it appeared he was sick after all.

He wouldn't take a nap when we got home. Very frustrating. After Jeff got off work, we watched the Wildcats vs. ASU (they ended up losing). We tried to put him down at half-time b/c Henry wasn't that interested in the game and needed his nap. It was a losing proposition. I ended up falling asleep though. So Jeff let me nap. When I arose, I found Henry and Jeff in the living room. Jeff was watching golf, and Henry was sound asleep on him. When Henry woke up, Jeff got him some noodles. Henry took one bite and then proceed to vomit it all up. Sigh.

We gave him a bath. It wasn't a particularly long one. He was shivering quite a bit after the bath. We got him in his PJs, spent some time at the computer, and then to bed, which is where he and Jeff are now. Before he went to bed, we took his temperature. I think that it was 100 or 101. I just sneaked into the bedroom a couple minutes ago. Henry is laying with Jeff. He isn't hot to the touch right now.

I suspect that since we don't know what's going on, tomorrow is another no-nanny day. Looks like me and Henry will be spending the day together. I hope that he gets well soon. It makes me nervous when he is sick, especially given that it is still RSV season. And, I am feeling a bit guilty that he's gotten sick again and has none of my antibodies via breast milk to protect him. I wish that I had managed to pump through RSV season.

Long Naps and Fever

I was at school on Wednesday because we had a faculty meeting. I called Jeff around 3:30PM. Henry had just gotten up from a 3 hour nap.

When I got home around 7PM after going to Trader Joe's, Jeff reported that Henry was feeling rather hot. Had a 102 degree temperature. Jeff had stripped him down to his diaper to cool him off. Gave him some Tylenol.

Henry wanted to watch pics, so I let him. He wasn't acting sick, but he did feel hot. His temp came down to 100 degrees.

We let him run around the house sans diaper. Given his diaper rash, we had wanted him to have some air exposure anyway. He enjoyed the lack of clothes.

He went to a place where I have several books. He pointed to "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and said "Harry Potter." There are no pictures on the cover to identify it as a Harry Potter book. But I guess he was familiar with the color and knew what it was. I went to another bookshelf and pulled out "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." That book does have the book cover with picture. The cover has Dumbledore and Harry on it. I asked Henry where Harry Potter was. He pointed to the correct figure. I then asked where Dumbledore was. He pointed to Dumbledore. Very cute. But how does he know these things? I've never shown him the cover before.

We eventually gave him a bath. He was very upset when we were drying him off. He wanted Dada to hold him afterward. By this point, he actually felt a little cool to me. Temp: 98.something, but that's an under the arm reading, so really 97.something. Then onto watching pics with me. After about 10 minutes, I asked him if he wanted another clip or bed. He said bed.

Jeff set the alarm clock so that we could do a temp check. Henry feels hot again. Temp is about 101. Gave him more Tylenol.

Maybe he is teething. Maybe he is sick. I don't know. I thought that he was breathing a little hard last night when sleeping.

We will call Alicia this morning to cancel and Patty too.

Passed AZ Home Inspection!

On Tuesday, Jeff went to bed around 3AM, which is when I got up and wrote the last blog entry. The place looked great! Jeff took a personal day off from work. Henry got up early again, shortly after 6AM. He was very wet.

Henry was stubborn about eating his breakfast and lunch. The only thing that he wanted was pics and was most annoyed when he was told he couldn't have them for breakfast.

We read books. I ended up sending him to time out when he ripped a book. He thought the world had ended. While reading "The Haunted House," he picked up the phrase "Go Away!" which is something the "ghosts" (who are really bank robbers) say to Mickey, Donald, and Pluto. He also picked up the words "bank robbers" and said them several times.

The home inspector arrived at 3PM. She was very nice. I think that our agency has a reputation for preparing their future foster parents well. The whole thing took less than a 1/2 hour. She said that she could mail the home inspection forms into APTCH or I could drop them off. I'm doing the later so that our stuff will get mailed to the state by Friday. Then, it will probably be a month before we get our license (maybe less; one couple got theirs in a week).

Henry was cute around the inspector. Eventually, though, he considered her an obstacle to watching pics and started saying goodbye after 20 minutes.

It was Jeff's and my wedding anniversary. We took Henry over to Grammy and Poppy's house around 5:30PM. We went for a four-course dinner at The Melting Pot, which was really good. We stopped by World Sports Grille afterward to play three rounds of air hockey while our food was digesting. We picked up Henry around 9:30PM. He was sound asleep on Grammy. My parents reported that Henry had a relatively quiet evening. Read books but wasn't as active as usual. He fell asleep at 8:40PM, which is great. A bit of a surprise though, considering that he had a pretty good nap (about 2 hours) earlier in the day. Maybe he's growing again.

He was easy to put down when we came home. He burrowed his head into the side of my body, which of course meant that I was required to fall asleep with him. So I'm up now. Going to get started on my day. I'm finding the early morning hours good for writing.

Foster/Adoption Training -- Day 16: Graduation!

Henry had a good nap today (Monday), or at least seemed to if noise is an indicator. The house was quiet from about 10:30-2PM. He was very insistent about watching pics around 3:30PM, which I obliged b/c I knew we wouldn't get to it in the evening. We watched the Peanut's "Lucy is the Boss" clip, which has become one of his favorites from o-tube.

As we drove to Grammy and Poppy's house in the afternoon, we missed the light near the highway underpass where the train often comes (much to Jeff's frustration as the trains seem to sense when Jeff is coming and make him wait). As we waited for the light to change, Henry said "train." Apparently, he knew what usually comes by.

Jeff and I had our last foster/adoption training class. All in all, we felt pretty good about the process.

Tonight, there was a panel of recent foster parents. One couple had a very cute baby boy (10 months actual, 3 months adjusted) whose mother had been picked up on an arrest warrant from Missouri where she is currently serving time. The clock for severance from the child won't start until after she is out of prison. Perhaps a flaw in the system. If the point of the clock is to give children the opportunity to find and attach to loving parents, why should their needs be put on hold b/c mom landed herself in jail? It's not like the child's psyche gets put on hold while parent is serving time. Sigh. Anyway, the boy was very cute. The couple have had him since mid-December. His file didn't contain much information, but they did find his original pediatrician who was able to fill in some background information for them. I showed foster mom some photos of Henry from the NICU so that she could see what things looked like there. The boy had some issues similar to Henry's (e.g., hernia repair, lung issues and is currently on Synagis, etc.). Another foster mom (single) took care of 2 girls from a meth house until their aunt got the rights to take them. And, another couple are currently taking care of 3 and 5 year old siblings (from a group of 5) who have some behavioral issues (although things are improving). Bio mom's rights to the children have been severed. It is unclear whether bio father's rights will severed yet (to be determined in April). That couple just graduated in December, so they are very recent foster parents.

Our training is complete. Our home inspection takes place in about 11 hours from now. Then, all our paperwork will be sent to the state.

Jeff offered to take me to Pastiche after class (one of my favorite restaurants) as it was graduation and my b-day. I opted for a quick stop at Lovin' Spoonfuls for a cup of soup and then back to the grandparents' to see our boy. Henry was cuddling with Grammy on the couch watching a replay of the Eagles lose to the Cardinals. Henry had spent a lot of time outside in our absence. Grammy and Poppy had spent a 1/2 hour outside in the dark with him looking at the moon at his request shortly before we arrived. Poppy said that he and Grammy were cold but stuck it out as Henry wanted to be outside. Henry was dressed in his warm PJs and was comfortable there.

On our way home, Henry got to see the train at the crossing, much to his delight. He wasn't asleep when we got home but close. It took several minutes for Henry to settle down. I snuggled with Henry until 3AM when Jeff got me up.

Jeff had been cleaning in preparation for our home inspection. I'm working on a manuscript, which should be done in a few hours. In his cleaning, Jeff found my grandfather's service medal from Korea and his money clip. I have been looking for them for awhile, but they had gotten lost in the shuffle. These are two items that I really want Henry to have some day, so they were a great cap to my b-day. They are now in a very safe place.

A Visit with a Foster Mom

On Sunday, Henry got up early. He has readjusted his clock to a 6AM wake up. Apparently, his internal clock recognizes daylight savings even though the state of Arizona does not. He was very cranky by 10:30AM and Jeff managed to get him to sleep without much hoopla. Around 12:50PM, I asked my parents if they could pick Henry up b/c I wanted him to sleep as long as possible, and Jeff and I had an appointment at 2PM. They came around 1:30PM, which was great. By that time, Henry was up...prodded by me around 1:10PM...which only made him try to bury his head in the pillows. He is undeniably my child on the sleep front...a tad grumpy when someone tries to arise him from his slumber.

At 2PM, we met up with Foster Mom M. I'm not going to use her real name b/c many foster parents prefer their privacy. She is friends with our foster mom trainer for our MAPPs classes. Foster Mom M has been foster children for 7 years. She deals primarily with medically fragile infants, usually kids who were born having been exposed to drugs. She adopted her third placement D, who was born 3.5 months prematurely and addicted to meth. D is four years old now and doing very well. She had hydrocephalus and therefore has a shunt that drains the extra fluid from the brain into pelvis area for reabsorption. Foster Mom M has only taken care of infants, especially with the adoption of D b/c she wanted to make sure that D was the oldest in the house. Foster Mom M is going back to school soon, so that she can become a kindergarten teacher. With that goal in place and raising D, she has decided to stop fostering children (her last placement found a permanent home in January). She was told that foster parents usually get burnt out after about 5 years. She's lasted a bit beyond that. She will still be coming to quarterlies (meeting that take place every three months to keep foster parents' training active, which keeps them certifiable) b/c she plans to continue providing respite care on occasion.

Here's just a sample of what we learned/discussed:
(1) Ask for transitional time rather than having the child ripped from the foster home and placed back directly with the bio family for reunification. Apparently, transitional time often has to be requested.
(2) A lot of people do foster care for the money, even though the money is supposed to go directly for the child's expenses. She said that she has been surprised at how some of the foster care children appear at quarterlies...dressed in very worn clothes suggesting that the foster parents aren't spending the money on the kids.
(3) Make sure that your bio family comes first. If you are hesitant about taking a child into your come, then don't. She was almost given a charge whose description didn't match what was said over the telephone. The child in question was a shaken baby syndrome child and on several seizure medications. Because she also had D's needs to consider, she passed. She is a single parent. If the child had a seizure while she was giving D a bath or something, she wasn't sure that she could handle both children's needs at the same time.
(4) There is a lot of variance in the quality of CPS workers. Some are great. Some are terrible.
(5) Biological families will often view you (the foster parent) as the enemy.
(6) CPS sometimes makes mistakes. Sometimes they rip a child from a home and then ask questions later about the child's home situation. Sometimes they are very slow to ask questions. And sometimes, they don't ask enough questions about biological parents and reunify children with their bio familes even when it doesn't seem like the bio parents are going to do a good job (e.g., bio parents clearly displaying inappropriate levels of anger around others...gee, what do you think is going to happen to the kids behind closed doors if the bio parents already showing so much anger in public?).
(7) Having a foster child taken from your home is very hard. It is "like a limb being ripped from your body." And yet it is also important work.

Jeff and I filled out our special needs preference form when we left our visit with Foster Mom M. I think that we have a better understanding of some things that we think we can handle and some things not. Unfortunately, we just don't think we could handle a shaken baby syndrome baby at this time. And we are also skeptical about whether or not we could handle babies going through drug withdrawals, given that we have full-time jobs and Henry to consider. We are OK with respiratory issues, g-tubes (to some extent), injections (e.g., insulin), some developmental delays, etc. We are expecting some behavioral problems, but if the child is already showing extreme aggressive tendencies and/or abuse to others and animals, we will not be able to care for them at this time.

In the evening, we went over to my parents' house for my family b-day dinner. Henry had a great afternoon with Poppy in the backyard. As usual, they read lots of books.

Henry said Brian's name rather than referring to him as "Dude." He said Brian's name very well in fact. Erin was convinced that her name was going to be the very last that he'd ever say. But he surprised her with an "Erin" after the meal.

When my cake come out, Henry was sitting in my lap. I'm pretty sure that he thought the birthday song was for him, and he was delighted by it. He wasn't interested in the cake though after the candles had been blown.

This morning, Henry arose at 6AM. Sigh. I took care of him while Jeff worked as Jeff is on EST and we now have a 3 hour difference between here and Philly. Henry and I read "The Haunted House" and "The Magic Grinder." At one point, Henry dropped his bottle and said "Bottle fall down."

He's playing with Alicia and Karina now.