Evidence of Henry Reading

We put the kids to bed at 8:30PM last night. That meant that Henry got up at 5:45AM this morning. He sleeps 9-10 hours at night. Period. He also takes 2-3 hour naps, so we know that he's getting at least the minimum amount of sleep for a child his age (12 hour minimum needed). He woke up when Jeff was on a walk with the dogs. Henry wanted Daddy of course. He was irked that Daddy wasn't there. He calmed down once I took him to the living room to read.

We left the house earlier than usual this morning. I don't like the idea of the kids being at daycare for long hours, but we think that Henry needs more time on the playground. His class goes outside at 7:30AM. We arrived at daycare shortly before 7:30AM. Henry's class was getting ready to head out the door. He joined them in line rather than holding onto me tightly. I did get a kiss out of him before he scampered down the hall and out the door. Miss R was a little confused. We usually start the day there around 8-8:30AM when her class is on the playground. But she was fine.

The other day, Jeff mentioned that Henry again demonstrated some reading skills. It was Monday night. Jeff hadn't yet read the Sunday comics, which is a ritual of his and Henry's. He pointed to "Get Fuzzy" and asked Henry which comic it was. Henry knows his comics. Jeff was surprised when Henry seemingly got the comic wrong and called it "Garfield." Then, Jeff read the comic which I have scanned below...

"Good night, Lily. See you tomorrow, Lily."

Jeff picked up Henry at Grammy and Poppy's house. Henry helped Grammy with laundry and outside work in the morning and then took a 3 hour nap from 1-4PM. When Jeff picked up Miss R, he asked the teacher, Miss Kristen, how Miss R had behaved today. Miss Kristen said that Miss R is always a piece of cake to take care of. When they returned home, Miss R gave me a huge hug as usual. Henry gave me a one a couple minutes later. Henry begged for Couch Mountain, so we made it for him. Miss R just wanted me to hold her.

Miss R, especially, enjoyed watching Lily (formerly known as Puppy Puppy). She also liked saying Lily's name, which Miss R pronounces as Li LEE.

I made the kids dinner. It was a little bit of this and a little bit of that. They had grapes (Miss R's new favorite), asparagus tips, sweet potato bisque (they didn't like it), pita with eggplant hummus (thumbs up), naan (always good), and beans (Miss R liked them but took forever to try them; Henry had one bite).

I took Roger and Lily for a walk. Lily did very well on the leash. We ran into Hal (and Annie and Luke) and Yvonne (and Banjo and Chocolate). Yvonne commented on how Lily looked like Precious as a puppy (Precious was her dog who passed away in February). Lily did well getting inspected by all of the dogs on our street.

Jeff gave the kids a bath. Henry discovered the joys of pulling the plug on the bath tub. Consequently, it was a short bath. We read books in the living room for awhile. We brushed our teeth. And then, around 8:30PM, we said that it was bedtime. I told the kids to say good night to Lily. Henry was so cute. He said, "Good night, Lily! See you tomorrow, Lily!" Getting the kids to sleep was a struggle. Henry didn't look the slightest bit tired. But we are going to attempt to get them off early tomorrow, so that Henry can have some time on the playground in the morning. His class has playground time at 7:30AM.

While we were getting the kids to bed, Lily relieved herself in the living room...again. This time it was my turn to admonish the poop in front of her, and then take it outside and praise it. I hope that Lily potty trains quickly.

Sick Day for Henry

Yesterday at school, Henry wasn't feeling well. I talked with Miss Diana this morning. She said that he was holding his stomach a couple times. He had some digestive issues, but he didn't quite meet their threshold for "call home." And then last night as we picked up Henry at my parents' house, he had two rounds a throw up (not a lot of throw up, but a little).

This morning, he had another gushy diaper, so we decided that he shouldn't go to school. Grammy volunteered to take him for the day. She met me in the parking lot of the daycare. Miss R was completely peeved that she didn't get to go with Grammy too. In fact, when we walked into her class, Miss Josie noted that she looked like she was in a bad mood. She didn't wave goodbye to me as she marched off to see Miss Kristen.

I stopped by Henry's room to pick up some diapers. He's been using pull-ups and hasn't needed the diapers. Miss R was short on them so I figured I'd just transfer his diapers to her room. Miss Diana has beeen actively working on his potty training. He's doing a great job. I talked to her for a little while. I asked how he was doing socially. She said that he is doing well. He seems to be more aware of the rules than the other kids. She said that when they are doing something that's not allowed, she can tell on his face that he knows they are going to get in trouble. She said that when he runs around and the teachers tell the kids to calm down, he is the first to respond to the request, peels off from the rowdy group right away, and does some other activity. They don't use time out as a discipline technique. They use stickers and treats as incentives. She said that the other day, they wanted the kids to sit down. So Henry sat down and said "Henry...sit down...sticker...please." She was pleased to hear him speak. Apparently, he doesn't talk much at school. She said that he is the one in the class who always says "please" when requesting something. His favorite spot in the classroom is where they keep the airplane toys. He is a big fan of the airplane.

In other news, we got a weird call from someone trying to locate Miss R's bio father. The person began the call by asking Jeff questions about who we were. He didn't give any identifying information. Jeff said, "Why don't you tell me who you are?" The person claimed to work for a state office. That label did appearl on our telephone. He referred the person to Miss R's case worker. That's the only information he gave out. The question is: Why did they have our telephone number?

No calls yet on Puppy Puppy. I think that we are going to call her Lily or perhaps Penny. Puppy Puppy isn't yet potty trained. We've never had to potty train a dog before b/c we've always adopted adult dogs. Jeff found some instruction on puppy potty training. He tried it out this morning. Puppy Puppy had pooped in the living room. He took Puppy Puppy over to it and scolded the poop. Then he took the poop outside and praised it. According to his source, we have to keep this up for two weeks. Usually after that time, the dog understands where it is and is not appropriate to poop.

Directions

This morning, we got off to a decent start. I had to get the kids out the door early b/c I had a 9AM for Puppy Puppy as we've been calling the new dog. We haven't been brain storming official names yet b/c we don't want to make plans and then have them altered if someone were to claim her. So far, no calls.

Miss R was a grump this morning on the way into school. She got really mad at me b/c I wouldn't let her bring her cup into school. They provide cups there. They don't really want the kids coming into school with drinks during times when the kids are playing, lest kids swamp cups, etc. So Miss R put on the water works this morning when I was in a hurry.

Henry didn't cry when I left. Miss Lulu was giving the kids treats of some sort. That took priority over our morning guilt trip.

I rushed back to the house, picked up Puppy Puppy, and took her to a 9AM vet appointment. It wasn't a full check up. We didn't even go to one of the rooms. A vet tech came out. She said that Puppy Puppy is about 7 months old. She is not spayed. And she isn't microchipped. Another vet tech asked if we had called Animal Control and the Humane Society. I said yes. She said that we "could" also put an ad in the paper, but there are "collectors" who will respond to ads just to get extra dogs. She also said that there are people who respond to the ads to get dogs for food or for satanic rituals. And then there are the people who sell the dogs for dog fighting or lab testing. Consequently, we have no plans to go that route. Jeff checked Craigslist today. No ads for "lost" dogs similar to Puppy Puppy's description. We both checked yesterday too. I figure that if a person wants his/her "lost" dog, then s/he will call Animal Control or the Humane Society and make a report. One of the vet techs said that if a pet is not claimed within three days, then it is the finder's dog legally (assuming that the finder has made reasonable efforts).

I taught until 4:45PM and then had office hours until 5:45PM. Grammy got the kids at school. She wanted to see Miss R b/c she didn't see her Tuesday. Miss R was clingy with Grammy until I picked her up this evening. Then, she clinged to me. The kids went swimming. Henry ate a lot of hamburger for someone his size. Grammy said that his teachers reported that he might be getting sick given his potty experiences today. Then, tonight, he threw up twice after Jeff and I arrived. It wasn't much, but it was throw up. He was fairly cheerful after throwing up. He just sort of did it and moved on.

During one of his acrobatic stunts, Henry managed to kick a glass that Grammy had put on a table. It shattered everywhere. Jeff had to get stern with Henry about staying on the couch while they cleaned it up. For Henry, he did a decent job listening, which isn't exactly his strength.

On our way home, Jeff went a route that we don't always take. When we got to a particular intersection, Henry was irked that we went straight, instead of turning right. He wanted to "find food." And if we had followed his directions, we would have run into an Eeegee's that we've gone to several times about a quarter mile up the road. We, however, went straight despite Henry's requests. We made a left turn on the frontage road. We were heading south. Henry pointed west and said "go home." I suppose it is just a coincidence, but his pointing did in fact point to our home's direction.

Henry and I read couple books when we got home. Miss R was sleepy, so Jeff took her to bed. Henry brushed his teeth (or rather Daddy brushed Henry's teeth). Then, Henry gave me a hug and two kisses and said "Bye!" as he marched off to his room.

Puppy Found!

This morning, Henry and Miss R had a good breakfast. They seem to be getting up on their own before 7AM. Miss R was not helpful about getting her braids done. I had let her air go natural on Monday b/c I like to give it a break. As she was having a bio visit today, I insisted that she let me braid her hair. It would take me less than 10 minutes to do it if she would sit still. But she doesn't. Then there's teeth brushing on top of that, which involves another wrestling match. Henry decided to put syrup in his hair this morning. Jeff got most of it out, but it still had that cruchy feel. Yuck! As of late, our "good teeth brusher" has decided to put up a fight during his teething brushing too. The dentist's proclamation that Henry has good teeth must have gone to his head.

The kids marched into school without much hesitation today. Miss R was irked at me b/c I wouldn't get her bring her toy dog into school. But once she was through the doors, things were fine. Henry cried when I brought him to his classroom. He wanted to go outside. Miss Lulu distracted him with some gold fish crackers.

After dropping the kids off, I headed home. Along the way, I spotted a dog in the road (a very busy road). I drove into a parking lot and turned around to look for it. Someone else was out of her car as I drove near the area. Her attempts resulted in the dog getting even further into the road. The dog eventually crossed the street and went into another parking lot. She followed it and tried to chase it around the lot with her car door open. I managed to get to that lot as she was driving out. We rolled down our windows, and I asked her if she needed help catching the dog. She said it wasn't hers but that she felt bad for it. Then she left. The dog, by this time, was on the far side of the lot heading toward the neighborhood. It is sort of a sketchy area.

I got out of the car, opened the doors, whistled to the dog so it knew I was nearby, and then I sat on the ground of the parking lot, and didn't look directly at the pup. It was about 50 feet away. I got one of the kid's bottles and poured some water so that it could see that I had goods. I got up and walked about 10 feet and sat done again. I did this a couple times, so that I was slowly getting near it w/o freaking it out. Eventually, I was about 10 feet away. I poured more water out. I then waited for it to come to me. It did. I petted it. Tried to give it some water but it didn't really understand the concept of falling water. I got ahold of its collar. It backed up. I was afraid that it was going to fight its way out of the collar. So I grabbed it around its middle and carried it to the car. No problems in the car. The dog was quiet.

When I got home, I opened the car doors but left the dog there. I went inside the house and told Jeff to take a look at the car. Apparently, he thought that I'd scratched or dented it. As I got food and water for the pup, Jeff investigated the damage he thought I'd done to our vehicle. When he couldn't find the dents, he finally looked inside and found the pup.

We kept the pup in the garage for about an hour. Let it get the lay of the land. I called the Humane Society and Animal Control so that if the owner calls and can give a description, they'll give the person our number. We aren't to release the dog to callers, however, until Animal Control gives approval.

The dog looks like she is a black lab. Very cute. She is on the small side. We think that she is a puppy still. Her teeth are very white, suggesting youth. She wasn't wearing a license. Around her collar was rope, suggesting that she'd been tethered to something. She was timid at first. Jeff put her on a leash, and we introduced her to Roger who was very interested in her. That broke the tension, and she opened up a bit more thereafter. After a couple hours, her puppy side started coming out. She wanted Roger to play with her.

About two weeks ago, Jeff came into my office and asked me if I thought Roger was lonely. I said yes. I think that he is. He loves us of course and doesn't mind the cats, but he really enjoyed Marley's companionship. They were so cute together. I told Jeff that if we got another dog, I thought that we should stick to labs. Roger has been absolutely fantastic with the kids. Labs are known for that. I said that it wouldn't have to be a pure breed or anything (of course). When there are so many dogs that need homes, it strikes me as not right to go to a breeder and never would I consider going to a pet shop that gets its dogs from puppy mills, which are vial organizations. I confess that I've always had a soft spot for floppy, unkempt dogs (usually out of the terrier breeds), but terriers are known to chase cats. I've also always wanted a Rottweiler, but I've read that they can have unstable temperaments and need lots of socialization so that they don't become overprotective of the family when friends come over. That just sounds like a lot of work. Last week, Henry's former primary nurse, Joyce, sent me an email from the Humane Society. They were having a special sale on their dogs b/c of overcrowding. Last weekend was too busy for me to take a look as I'm still working on the last book chapter. Jeff, however, stopped by Animal Control just to take a look. His sister forwarded him an email about a soldier and his dog, who happened to be a lab. At that point, we started joking about fate.

And now, we have a very cute lab in our midsts. We'll see what happens. It is quite possible that the owner will call the Humane Society or Animal Control. And if they do, we'll return her to them. Hopefully, they will take better care of her the second time around. Randi from Animal Control said that the pound gives strays 3-7 days before they put them up for adoption. If no one comes forward, then the pup will stay with us. We haven't named her. And won't do so until it is clear that she's going to stay. For now, she's just "Pup."

She's interested in the cats. When she was in the office with me this morning, Bitsy was pleading outside the door to be let inside. So I let her come in. Pup sniffed her but "recognized her as a being" as Jeff put it, which is good. I do, however, think that she wants to play with Bits, and I'm afraid that Bits could get hurt. At one point in the afternoon, Pup tried to chase Bits and Roger got in on the action. I yelled at them to knock if off and they did. The dog pack mentality can get out of control, so I nipped it in the bud.

Grammy wanted some one-on-one time with Henry, so she picked him up at school today. He'd had a good day. Miss R had her bio parent visitation. The parents had called yesterday to confirm their attendance, but then called after the visitation had started to say that they wouldn't be there. Miss R spent about an hour with her siblings. She came home with Dr. Pepper in her cup. I'm a little annoyed b/c it would have been the CPS supervisor who would have given it to her. Mind you, we did put juice (no sugar added) in her bag. And I've told the visit supervisor about needing her to stay on healthier foods (not Gatorade or anything sugary). I seriously don't get why people give children such crap. If adults want to make poor choices for themselves, fine. But why would anyone send their kids down the same path? That doesn't strike me as responsible. Childhood obesity rates for 2-5 year olds has doubled since 1980. It has tripped for kids 6-11 years old. And hasn't anyone heard of a little problem called diabetes? Per usual, I dumped out her cup as soon as she came home.

I don't know if they fed her dinner along with her Dr. Pepper. When she came home, she had some pumpkin bread and tons of grapes. I gave her four large grapes cut up into quarters. She then wanted "more." I gave her a couple more. A few minutes later, she wanted "more" again. And again, and again. Nice to see her excited about a fruit.

She was very clingy to me after dinner. Didn't want to be separated from me even if she was standing right next to me. She liked the dog but was cautious, which is good.

Henry came home around 8PM or so. Grammy and Poppy drove him home. Grammy said that he ate different things but not much of anything in particular. They didn't go swimming b/c of the weather.

Henry was more excited about the TV being on than in the puppy. I asked him if he liked the puppy and he said "no." Oh well. That wasn't exactly the reaction that we had anticipated.

Pup was good. She was interested in the kids, but I think her boisterous non-verbals made the kids wary.

The kids went to bed. Jeff sang Baby Beluga to them before heading off to bed himself.

Let Them Eat Charcoal

On Friday we went to Kate's start of the year departmental party. We were supposed to bring a dessert. Kate and I are both pretty pathetic cooks. Kate's mom had given her a "Kate proof" poppy seed bread recipe that we have had many times and enjoyed. I got it all mixed up before remembering our stove is out. So figuring I had nothing to lose, I threw it the bbq.

Well, needless to say we stopped by Trader Joe's to pick up some dessert for the party. It may have been a Kate proof recipe but it wasn't Jeff proof. However, Henry amused me with his attempt to eat the poppy seed bread. He ate the non burned part like corn on the cob. What wasn't burned actually tasted good. Then he took a very black piece and ate it. I didn't want him eating charcoal and so I took it away from him. Then he cried because I wouldn't let him eat charcoal. Go figure. Maybe next time I want him to eat something I'll just light it on fire.

At the party Henry was a busy body. He pretty much didn't stop running around the place the entire time, with Grandpa running after him. He evicted a few people from their seats so he could sit and talk with the adults. At one point it was raining slightly and some older kids were running around playing soccer and running in circles on the lawn. Henry had a great time running around with them. He also enjoyed the rain. He tried to catch water in his mouth from a stream coming off the roof and managed to get very wet. He also probably had 6 or 7 cookies while he was there.

At the end of the party it became clear that Henry thought it was a birthday party. He started calling out "Presents, presents" and then started to sing "Happy Birthday" to Harmoni, the girl who had the birthday party last week.

Miss R was very reserved. Kate had to hold her for pretty much the entire party. I eventually held her for a little bit so she could eat. Miss R had a major meltdown as we left for the party, and I think she was rather tired.

On Saturday I took the kids to a park in Oro Valley. We've been there a few times before. It wasn't terribly hot. The kids brought their shovel, rake and hoe and played in the sand as well as having fun on the slides and swings. We had lunch there as well before heading home.

After that they had their usual routine, home for nap, up for a snack/lunch and then off to Grammy and Poppy's for the afternoon and evening.

On Sunday we went to the zoo. They fed the giraffes and watched the polar bear swimming. It was a pretty typical visit. Most of the time was spent playing with the frog that squirts water from its mouth. Henry was absolutely soaked. Miss R was conservative but did manage to get her head in a couple times. When we went home I stripped them both down to just a diaper.

Again they went to Grammy and Poppy's for the afternoon. One of the days on the weekend they went swimming and had a good time. They also enjoyed reading new books and watching new movies. The current favorite book is Bambi. It might also be the current favorite movie. They also watched the Garfield movie. On Sunday Henry was telling Grammy he wanted "Honey, Honey." Grandma was a bit confused until he finally said "Mamma Mia!" For those unfamiliar, Mamma Mia is a musical that was made into a movie last year. Henry loves the "Honey, Honey" song. Apparently Miss R enjoyed dancing to it as well.

Today I picked the kids up around 4pm. Kate had her first day of class, and she teaches in the afternoon and evening so it was just me and the kids. Henry didn't want to come home. I came just as his class was about to go outside and he really wanted to go with them. He was able to run around a play a little because Miss R's class was outside. Miss R apparently had a traumatic experience last week on the playground when a strong wind blew a dust cloud over them. Today she wouldn't leave her teacher's side while on the playground.

On the way home tonight the kids were cracking me up. Miss R was squealing a happy squeal as loud as she could. She has a very high squeal and it sometimes feels like she is going to burst an eardrum. Henry then yelled back, "Stop it Miss R, stop it Miss R!" She didn't listen but it was very funny.

At home we rough housed for a while, devastating the house as we are prone to do in Mommy's absence. Then it was dinner, walking the dog, bath, books, brushing the teeth and bed. There really is a lot to fit in before they go to bed. It isn't easy to get them in bed by 8pm, which is when I feel they should go to bed. When they go to bed and when they get to sleep are two different things, but they usually don't fuss to long before zonking out.

We had another "Henry can read" moment tonight. After rough housing and playing couch mountain we settled down and I started to read them the Sunday Comics. One of Henry's favorites is "Get Fuzzy", a cartoon about a rather caustic cat and a dim witted dog. He points to it and says "Get Fuzzy" most days. Today I asked him what comic it was. He replied "Garfield." I corrected him, a little surprised he didn't get it right. Then I read the comic. The first bubble was one of the characters mentioning a Garfield book. I was blown away, again. He can read.

Miss R has been impressive lately. Her language skills are going through a boom phase. She is rather soft spoken and doesn't pronounce things terribly well. However, she is saying a great many more words independently and is mimicking very well. She says more and please along with the signs for those words very well. She has also shocked me with her willingness to eat fruits and vegetables. Initially she would not touch them. I thank day care for much of the success in that area.

Tomorrow Miss R has a visit with her family. Thursday we have a visit from CPS. Other than that, hopefully it will be a quiet week, knock on wood.

A Trying Dining Experience

On Thursday morning, the kids got up early. So we started the day early and I managed to get the kids to school in time for Henry to meet up with his class on the playground. Of course, he was stubborn and ran everywhere BUT the area for kids his age. Meanwhile, the classes for Miss R's age group came onto the playground about 10 minutes early. Usually, Henry's age group gets the area from 7:30-8AM and then Miss R's gets it from 8-8:30AM. This actually worked out for me b/c Miss R joined her class waiting for the slides. So I spent my time running around after Henry. He ran to this area where they have playground equipment that looks like ships. He pointed to a part of the wall that looks like a chest and said "Open it. Open the treasure."

We picked up the kids a bit later than usual, around 4:30PM approximately. Miss R was happy as usual to see us. We picked her up first. Then, we took her over to get Henry. He was on the floor. She went up to him and hugged him. Henry looked red. The teacher had tried taking them outside but they came in after 10 minutes b/c it was too hot.

We went to the mall. I needed some clothes. Jeff started the kids off in the play area, but they started squabbling over shoes. So Jeff took them on some escalator rides and to the pet store.

I met up with them, and we went to Red Robin for dinner. The kids were horrible. Super whiny. Wouldn't listen. Henry made Miss R cry. We don't know how. Miss R would only be quiet if I held her and I wasn't allowed to sit down while doing so. I took them to the bathroom b/c Henry said he needed to go potty. He tried, but the set up wasn't toddler potty training friendly. I ended up getting sprayed. The food was on the table when we returned. Henry dropped his half of the hamburger on the floor. Miss R wanted anything that she didn't have in her possession. Jeff looked stressed through the entire meal. It wasn't a fun family night out. At the end of the meal, Henry announced that he wanted to see the dogs. I said, "Let's go home and see Roger." Henry repeated, "See the other dogs. See the other dogs."

Miss R fell asleep in the car. I put her to bed when we got home. Jeff took Roger for a walk while I read Bambi and Corduroy to Henry. He was very interested in letters tonight. He'd point to a letter and want to know what it was. He wouldn't let Jeff brush his teeth, but I was for some reason in his favor. He did a very nice job opening his mouth for me.

Tomorrow I have our student orientation at school to attend. I get to meet my new Ph.D. students, which will be nice. I'm a little sad, though, that the nice summer has come to an end. And I'm extremely disappointed that we didn't win the Powerball last night. Tomorrow evening, we have the department party to attend. My parents offered to sit the kids, but I want to show them off. Besides, Henry seems to like parties. Grammy and Poppy, therefore, will come to the party too. That's an advantage of having my dad teach in the same department as me. Hopefully, the kids won't cause too much chaos.

"Hi Ho, Hi Ho, To Grammy's House We Go!"

I forgot to mention on my last post that Henry's "developmental coordinator" (term appropriately put in quotation marks) called on Monday morning to say that they were taking Henry off their rolls b/c we weren't participating in services and my private insurance was paying for the PT. I said why is my insurance paying for services that the state had promised? I said that Henry's IFSP guaranteed him services. That's important b/c in our state, the insurance companies use state programs for children under 3 as a way of avoiding paying for therapists. Technically, the state early intervention program is supposed to pay for services for that age group. I also said "Since when have we not been participating in services?" Little Miss Lazy Liar said, "Well you asked me not to come out anymore." Ummm...yeah...that's a bold-faced lie. I said, "You were the one who said that you wanted to handle our meetings over the telephone." She said, "You signed a form saying that I didn't need to come out." That may be true. I've signed so many forms for them, but I remember asking her explicitly if signing anything would affect his ability to get services and she had said "no." I was extremely peeved at being lied to. She said that if we wanted to continue with services, we had to get a prescription from Henry's pediatrician and then her agency would bill my insurance. OK. Let's employ some rudimentary logic here. If I was going through my pediatrician for PT services, why the [fill-in-the-blank] would I bother dealing with her?

I'm actually really angry over this issue. I hate liars. One's word is a mark of one's integrity. And this woman has lied to me. When she offered in May to hold the meetings over the telephone, we agreed b/c it wasn't like she actually ever helped us in anyway. She doesn't seem to know [fill-in-the-blank] about child development. She never tried to get to know our son. When she did grace us with her presence after not showing up consistently, the meetings were short and she provided no insight whatsoever. Her only use was getting the forms signed for Henry to continue therapy. Uggh. I don't know if I mentioned on previous entries how little Miss Lazy Liar tried to getting Henry removed from the program by claiming that she couldn't get hold of us and we didn't answer our telephone. That's another bold face lie. Luckily, that time, they sent a letter so we called and she wasn't able to remove him from the program. Given that Jeff works from home and I do my research at home, we are nearby the telephone almost all of the time. And gee wiz, everyone else who actually dials are number seems to get through. I think that she just didn't want to come out anymore b/c we are in an inconvenient location.

Oh how we sorely miss Tara, Henry's first developmental coordinator. She was very nice and diligent. The therapists liked working with her b/c she did the paperwork on time and was organized. Tara visited Henry every week until she got sick and had to suspend working for awhile. Tara didn't know much about micropreemies when she was assigned Henry's case. What I liked about her is that she tried to get down on the floor and work with him. Honestly, he scared her a little bit at first b/c she was afraid that she'd break him. But she learned and she really wanted to help kids. What a contrast!

Right now, Henry is getting PT services, but we opted to go with evaluations every 3 months. He still has some slight issues, acknowledged by the PT and his neurologist. He holds his right arm into his body when he runs. And, he toe walks. He is young, so he might grow out of it. But given his history, he needs occasional monitoring.

I was so pissed off at little Miss Lazy Liar that I almost started yelling at her on the telephone. I don't take to lies well. Jeff is going to talk with her supervisor and get a copy of the so-called form that we signed saying that we didn't want to participate in services.

In the meantime, we'll talk with Dr. Bianchi about getting a script to continue Henry's therapy. He noticed Henry's toe walking at the 2 year check up. I don't think that he'll oppose an evaluation by the PT. Plus, we have the neurologist to use as a resource as well. I suspect that we'll fight with the agency just to make sure that the supervisor is confronted with the lies and people are made to feel uncomfortable. They are superfluous as an organization if parents end up using their insurance to cover everything.

Back to Tuesday's events, Jeff and I went to the dependency hearing. I gave a quick report on Miss R's medical and developmental status. Nothing has really changed for Miss R specifically except that the state moved to have a permanency for her in two months. By law, hearings for permanency are held 6 months after a child has been removed for children under 3. At that hearing, one of two things will happen. Either the court will severe parental rights to Miss R, or they will grant a continuance, meaning extra time for the parents to demonstrate that they are making progress. After the hearing, her bio mom approached me and said "Thank you for taking care of R" and gave me a hug. She had tears in her eyes, so that made me have tears in my eyes.

Grammy and Poppy picked up the kids at daycare. Poppy reported singing "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, to Grammy's house we go!" in the car. It was a little song Poppy made up, but he said that he hasn't sung it in a really long time. Today marked the second day that Henry has refused to go swimming. He had some slivers in his foot that Grammy removed. We suspect that they are from the wooden playground set at the party on Saturday. Jeff and I feel bad that we didn't notice them. The kids both ate very well at Grammy's house. Grammy said that both of the kids' teachers said that they had very good days at school.

I love seeing the kids after we've been away from them for a couple hours. When Miss R sees us, she lets out a huge squeal of delight and runs and gives me a huge hug. This then prompts Henry to give me a hug too. It is social modeling at its finest. I'm pretty sure that without Miss R, Henry's modus operandi would be to take us for granted, look at us, but then continue about his business and then say hello completely on his own terms and in his own time. I talked with my mom a little bit. Henry and Miss R discovered the klinex box. Henry took pieces and then "Put it in the garbage" and then came back for more. I put a stop to throwing away perfectly usable issue in the garbage after the second attempt.

When we got home, Henry insisted on reading "Bambi" which he had borrowed from Grammy's house. It is a rather long children's book, but he enjoyed it. Miss R requested "bed" twice. We got the kids their bottles and put them in bed. I don't think that it took the kids long to fall asleep. I don't think that Jeff waited for them to fall asleep. He settled himself onto some pillows on their floor and fell asleep first.

A Week of Appointments

It has been a crazy week in terms of appointments. My co-authors and I submitted our book manuscript to the editor. I, however, still have to finish my chapter on absentee/early voting, which will hopefully be done by week's end.

On Monday, we picked up the kids at daycare around 2:30PM. We took them to their check up appointments at the pediatrician's office. Henry weighed 26 lbs 12 ozs. Miss R broke the 23 lbs mark. The great news is that their ear infections have cleared. Henry still has a little fluid, but it isn't infected. Jeff had the brilliant idea of picking up Eeegee's and feeding the kids before Miss R's lawyer came over to the house at 4:30PM to meet her for the first time. We usually have appointments with caseworkers around the 5PM hour. They often run over an hour and the kids get really crabby when their meal schedule is delayed. We got home at 4:10PM. The kids ate a ham and cheese sandwich and some french fries. Miss R likes lettuce. Henry wouldn't try it. Jeff's suggestion was brilliant b/c the kids were happy during the lawyer's visit. He said that with little ones, there isn't much for him to do meeting them, but he observed her and talked with me about the UA. He went there as an undergraduate and had some interesting anecdotes about the professors. We gave him our perspective on Miss R's progress in our home. He observed her and Henry playing together. They were having a fine old time making high squeaky sounds at one another, which is their current hobby. Who can make the loudest, highest pitched squeal? The meeting ended with Miss R and Henry wrestling on the floor. Miss R was on top of Henry. He was pinned and said "Help! Help!"

Poor Henry. Hopefully we are not guided by a gender bias, but we tend to rescue him less than we do Miss R. Given that he's about 5 inches taller than her, we tend to take his actions more seriously than hers. Plus, if he gets a scratch, he'll recover. If she gets a scratch, she'll recover but we'll have to file an "incident report," which is a bit of a pain. I've mentioned to Jeff how we are a bit more discipline-oriented with Henry too, when it comes to saying "please" and "thank you." That's been driving in part by Miss R being less verbally inclined, although she is coming along so well. We're going to have to be "please" and "thank you" task masters as she gets more vocal. The one area where I don't let Miss R get away with anything is hitting. Henry's no saint but he isn't a hitter. Miss R is. I think that it is her way of playing b/c she smiles as she does it. She also doesn't take our warnings of "we don't hit in this family" (said in a stern voice) seriously b/c she laughs at us.

We desperately need a new "timeout" location. It used to be their room. But now that they are sleeping there, we don't want it to be perceived as a no-fun room (or they'll never want to sleep there).

We went on a family walk after the lawyer left. We ran into Yvonne and her dogs Chocolate and Banjo. When Henry saw them, he said "Precious!" Precious was Yvonne's dog who passed away in February. Yvonne told Henry that Precious was no longer with us, but I'm sure he didn't understand. He brought up Precious again several minutes later. Hopefully, the reminder didn't make Yvonne too sad but made her happy that her beloved dog is remembered.

On Tuesday, Jeff went to a CFT. The bio parents weren't there. Jeff gave his report on how Miss R is doing. Most of the time was spent on the other siblings, which I suppose makes sense given that Miss R isn't receiving any special services. My mom picked up Henry at school and spent the afternoon with him. Miss R was picked up by the CPS driving service as she had a visit with her siblings and mother. She was returned around 6:30PM. Jeff went and got Henry. I stayed with Miss R and we snuggled on the couch and read the "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" book several times. I was pleased that she had initiated us reading a book together. Not only can she point to objects when asked, but if I pointed to an object, she could tell me what it was. Usually, it is Miss R who is a "Krabby Patty" in the evening right before bed. Last night, it was Henry. He had cried in the car on the way home and was very moody in the living room. So, with much protest, we brushed their teeth and put them to bed.

Miss R was the first on up this morning. She woke at 6:30AM. Henry didn't want to get up. As usual, she was as happy as a clam to see her teachers. Henry laid a major guilt trip on me but eventually have me a strained "happy face."

Miss R's appointment week continues as we have a dependency hearing to attend at 4PM. My mom will be picking up the kids. Jeff and I will head to court. Per usual, we will continue to be vague about Miss R's status and family situation. We don't expect any major decisions to be made at this particular hearing. The point of the hearing is to update the court on the status of the case. We'll probably give a short report on Miss R, her medical check ups and how she is doing in our home, which is very well.

Big Kid Beds and B-Day Party

Last night Henry slept the whole night in his own bed! He woke up once around 2:45am but went to sleep again without too much trouble. Tonight we are trying both Miss R and Henry. So far they have both woken up once.

This morning I took the kids to the mall to play. It's a fun place to go in the summer when it is hot outside. I also like it because there is nothing too dangerous and it is pretty well enclosed. Those two qualities made me feel ok taking them there by myself. Kate had to work. It is probably cool enough in the morning to take them to a regular park but Henry would run and climb the highest piece of equipment and poor Miss R would have to be dragged in his wake. They can both have fun at the mall.

Henry did get knocked down a couple times. Nothing serious. Once I think he tried to take a girls cat doll away from her. When she left he reached toward her and called out, "My kitty, my kitty." The girl's mom smiled.

We also visited the pet store in the mall. The ferretts were very active, and we watched them for several minutes before checking out the puppies. We also rode up and down the escalator several times. The kids do a good job stepping on and off. Henry did try to get on without me once and nearly fell down, but I caught him.

In the afternoon they went to Grammy and Poppy's house for a couple hours. We picked them up around 5pm to go to a birthday party for one of the girls in Miss R's daycare class. They had worn out their grandparents in those 2 hours. Both seemed kind of tired and Henry was very non compliant (not unusual) while Miss R was crabby.

They both did well at the party. There was a bouncy castle, sprinkler toys on the grass, a swing and slide and toys. Henry loved the bouncy castle but still doesn't really jump. He seemed to have the most fun crawling in and out of it. Miss R took to the sprinkler toy. It was a garden hose hooked up to and inflatable elephant that squirted the water out its trunk. She took hold of the trunk and spent the time pointing it at everyone, including kids and parents. Henry got the brunt of it several times. They filled a small pool and he and some of the other kids played in that as well.

He loved the slide but was a wooden play structure and he didn't have any shoes on. We now need to pull several slivers out of his feet. Miss R loved the swing. She will sit on a swing for a long time, happy as can be.

The cake was wonderful. It had two tiers, one of confetti cake and one of chocolate. There was ice cream in between layers and rich frosting inside the outer frosting. Certainly ridiculous amounts of sugar but delicious. The kids both enjoyed it.

Henry distinguished himself while we were inside for the cake and presents. Of course he made several attempts to get at the wrapped presents until he finally decided the unwrapped ones were fine. He had fun doing high fives and bumping knuckles with the birthday girl's father. As we left he repeated "Happy birthday Harmoni" a few times to the delight of one of the other moms.

[Following text added Monday morning; Unfortunately, the dates on blog entries are calibrated to when you start the entry, not when you post it.]

They slept fairly well in their beds after a rough start. Henry woke up 4 times before I even went to bed while Miss R woke up once. So I decided to sleep on their floor. Miss R woke up around 5am but went back to sleep. The both ended up sleeping until around 7:30am which is pretty late for them. Miss R has been waking up on her own and being the first one up. That is very different from a few weeks ago when she was an absolute log in the morning, once even sleeping through Henry climbing over the top of her.

On Sunday I took them to a park that has a splash pad, different water works shooting water in creative ways. We have been there a couple times before. They did ok but weren't overly enthusiastic. Miss R eventually got up the courage to run under some misters. Henry slipped and fell a couple times and I think that curbed his enthusiasm.

After the water we played on some playground equipment. Henry had a great time on the slides, as usual. Miss R demanded my help on a ladder she had climbed 99% of the way. When I refused , trying to get her to do it herself, she sat there for about 10 minutes before finally going the last little bit. Henry wanted to play on the big slides but I didn't think I could watch both of them on a large structure by myself.

Henry is putting together more complex thoughts and sentences. While Miss R was protesting on the ladder, he sat at the top and said "Miss R, climb up, slide down." He wanted her to finish climbing the ladder and slide down the slides with him.

After a good nap, in their new beds, they went to Grammy and Poppy's house. They were in much better moods today than yesterday.

Last night they again slept in their beds. It didn't take them long to fall asleep. I again slept on their floor but probably didn't need to. They both did wake once each wanting a drink of water. It's almost 7am and they are still sleeping at this point. I might have to wake them up.

Puke and Pearly Whites

I stayed up until 3:30AM working last night. At one point, I went to check on everyone. Henry was snuggled into Jeff, looking angelic and content. Adding to the cuteness was Miss R who had moved across the bed and sidled up to Henry, putting her head on his arm. Oh so cute!

Around 2AM, I heard noise coming from the bedroom. Jeff came out of the room with Henry in one arm and puke along side his other. We went to the kitchen where I cleaned them up with a wet wash cloth. I got Henry some water to clear out his mouth and then did some clean up in the bedroom. Jeff sat in the living room with Henry for awhile. Henry was calm, but eventually asked to "go to bed" and so they did.

Around 7AM, I got up and looked in on the gang. I'd slept in what should and hopefully eventually will be the kids' bedroom. Henry and Jeff looked exhausted. Miss R was waking up and in a very good mood. She's finally settling down into a better night time routine. When she wakes up well-rested, she is a delight. She woke up Henry and Jeff with her chatter. We decided that it was best not to take Henry to school. While he technically could have gone to school based on their guidelines on sick children and he seemed OK this morning, we decided not to chance it. We didn't want Henry to have a relapse at school. We decided to let Miss R go to school as she hasn't shown the slightest inkling of being sick. As I got ready to take Miss R to school, Henry said, "Stay home with Daddy." He'd actually been paying attention to me several minutes earlier when I told him that he would be spending the day with Daddy.

We ran late this morning. I didn't get Miss R to school until about 8:45AM. She has seemed really taken with Miss Kristen as of late. I gave her a hug, put her down, and she ran across the room to give her teacher a huge hug. I talked to the developmental coordinator for the school in the hallway for awhile. She strikes me as a very proactive, upbeat individual. I learned that they keep developmental profiles on the kids. Apparently, they move kids around classrooms in August and January. I'm guessing that Miss R will have to wait to January to move up to the two year old room. Although we placed Henry into his class by his actual age, it sounds like he'll actually be in that same classroom until he is 2 adjusted just b/c they don't switch kids around in May.

Jeff took the day off work to take care of Henry. Henry had a fabulous time and was obviously enjoying himself when I arrived back home. The living room was already a disaster as the boys had been playing Couch Mountain while watching the PGA Championship. Henry told me he was watching "TNT!" He also wandered about the living room with his golf club hitting balls and saying "Tiger Woods." It came out several times as "Tigre Woods." He is getting some loft on the balls, which is impressive. I guess that Jeff won't get too upset if Henry ends up breaking a window as long as a golf club is involved and Henry is using good form.

Henry took a nap in his bedroom today. Jeff says that he goes to sleep fairly quickly...once he stops talking, that is.

When it was time to head out the door to get Miss R, Henry said, "I'm ready to go." I was obviously holding up the show putting my shoes on. We picked up Miss R in the afternoon. She was in a different classroom b/c Miss Kristen was assigned a different "early voyagers" class to watch and Miss R wanted to be with her. They switch the teachers around in the early morning and mid-afternoon depending on the teacher: student ratios. We went to the kids' first dental appointment with Dr. Bunch. As we drove around the parking lot looking for a space, Henry said "Dr. Bianchi!" The dentist's office was indeed in the same complex as his pediatrician's office.

Unfortunately, our dental insurance doesn't pay for pediatric dentists. We could have taken Henry to my dentist. One dentist per household for some reason, according to our policy. Given Henry's history, I wanted him to see a pediatric dentist. And the choice was a good one, even if it meant that we had to pay out of pocket (ouch!) for Henry. Miss R was covered though; her insurance is more comprehensive than ours.

As we walked into the office, there was a loft at the far end for kids to play. There was also a Pacman videogame table. One could play free of charge. I filled out the paperwork as the kids played. They loved the loft. The dental hygenist came out and talked with us in the waiting room so that the kids could play while she gave us some background on what to do under certain circumstances if kids hurt their front teeth (a concern given their age and propensity to bump into things). She seemed pleased that we are cautious in the amount of juice that we give the kids and that we don't give them sugary drinks as a normal part of their diet. Milk and water. Juice sparingly.

The dentist's working area was a large room with five dental chairs and some regular chairs for parents. The dental hygenist had explained that with kids their age, we'd probably be doing the holding, but she had the kids climb in the chairs to get used to the idea of them. I put Miss R into the chair that she instructed me to. The chair next to us was occupied by a patient being treated by the dentist. Henry was all over the place. He found a chair across the room to climb in. Henry joined Miss R in her chair as the dentist got ready to exam them. I put Miss R in my lap.

Dr. Bunch introduced himself and decided to start with Henry. He explained again that they usually don't exam kids Henry's age in the chair, but he'd give it a shot. I gave Dr. Bunch the background on Henry's prematurity. He asked Henry to open up, and Henry did. The doctor was surprised. Henry didn't fuss until about halfway through the exam. Dr. Bunch said that Henry had nice teeth. He didn't see anything wrong with the enamel. It is fairly common for preemies to have enamel "hypoplasia" which is associated with tooth decay down the road. I've also heard parents of micropreemies report that their kids' teeth get worn down fast. Between Henry's extremely premature birth (skipping out on the calcium transferred in the third trimester), the length of time that he was on diuretics in the NICU (about 2 months), and the warnings we had received about how he was at high risk for brittle bones from the sapping of calcium from his body, I was anticipating a less positive report. Dr. Bunch repeated how surprised he was that Henry opened right up. He said that kids don't usually cooperate in such a fashion until they are 36 months or so.

Then, it was Miss R's turn. Dr. Bunch had her sit in my lap facing me. He sat in front of us. I lowered her head into his lap holding her arms. Her exam didn't go so well. The first thing that he said was that she had hypoplasia in her bottom right tooth. I thought that I'd seen something in that area the other day, but I was hoping that I was mistaken. He also said that she had other teeth that didn't look good. Four cavitities right now. He wants us to start using children's tooth paste with fluroide. He normally doesn't recommend it until kids turn 26 months b/c it can theoretically cause some discoloration of the teeth if given too early. In Miss R's case, she has to have it so that the teeth don't rapidly decay any worse than they are. He is going to put some coating on her teeth next month. He is hoping to slow down the problem. In a child her age, if he does fillings, she'd have to be put under. He does have an anesthisiologist on staff. Because of a condition that she has, it is unclear whether they'd want to risk putting her under in his office, which is what they normally do. He is going to consult the anesthisiologist and see if it would be better to perform the fillings at TMC (one of the hospitals in town). Hopefully, the coatings will slow things so that she wouldn't require the fillings right away. He said that her teeth were more consistent of children with circumstances like Henry who were born very early and didn't get the nutrition in utero that they needed. To clarify, I asked what were the causes of enamel hypoplasia. He said: (1) poor nutrition in utero, (2) bad diet, and (3) individual propensities. Often a combination of things.

The kids were given toys toward the end of the examinations. Henry checked out the office again. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Looking around." As I was paying for his examination and fluoride treatment, he managed to bump his head against the receptionist's desk. He was upset at first but then I asked him to sing "Five Little Monkeys." He stopped crying and gave his best performance of the song ever.

We decided to take the kids to "Monkey Business" for games and dinner. They were excited to be there. I won a dinosaur toy for Miss R. She liked playing the SpongeBob car game. Henry was all over the place. The dinner was good, but Miss R was cranky and didn't take well to being told "no" after poking me in the face with a fork and then later putting macaroni in Henry's hair. I took her to time out in the car for a minute. She seemed calmer after crying for a minute and recognized that if she stopped, she could go back inside. But then she got moody about something else. Jeff took her to time out a second time b/c she was screaming her head off at being told "no" again. We'd contemplated leaving, but I thought that would send her the wrong message: Everyone gets punished when Miss R acts up. We aren't that strict, but we do have boundaries when it comes to throwing tantrums, especially in public. I think that she was very tired. Not sure why. She'd slept 2 hours 40 minutes at school during nap time. She fell asleep on the way home.

Henry stayed up and watched "Monsters, Inc." Toward the end, I fell asleep. Princess was snuggled into me. Henry came over to us and put his head on Princess to snuggle with her too. I had my hand on her so that she knew she was OK. I wasn't going to let Henry crush her with his love.

Miss R is asleep in our bed right now. Jeff put Henry to sleep in his new bed! Not just a nap but a real, honest to goodness attempt at a night's sleep! Jeff moved our sound machine into the kids' bedroom so that Henry can go to sleep with the sound of the waves, our usual night time background noise.

A Tarantula on the Window

On Wednesday morning, as I was walking the kids down the hall to their classrooms, a teacher to whom I wasn't acquainted commented on what a happy child Henry is. She said that she's good friends with Miss Kristen, Miss R's teacher. She said that on Friday during their splash time outside, Henry and Miss R found each other on the playground and sidled next to each other and gave each other hugs.

My parents have picked up the kids the last two days at school. Yesterday, the kids went swimming. I guess Henry hid some of the pool balls in the watering can when my parents were not looking. It took them awhile to find them.

On Thursday, the kids continued to have good days at school. Henry has been using the potty frequently at school. I'm not claiming he's potty trained, but wow, he's made a lot of progress.

The kids were energetic when they came home from Grammy and Poppy's house tonight. The excitement of the evening was finding a tarantula on our sliding glass door. Jeff and I didn't know that they could climb on glass. We'd seen them on screens and stucco of course. It rained today. The tarantulas seem to come out more when it rains. We actually haven't seen very many this year b/c it has been so dry. Tarantulas are actually fairly delicate creatures. Jeff helped this one back into the desert b/c we have pesticides in the outside area and don't want to wipe out the tarantula population. The pesticides are for the black widows and scorpions.

In other news, Jeff got me a new computer! I've been using my school laptop, which has tons of issues. The school loads some spyware that slows the system down so much that I couldn't take it anymore. It shouldn't take 1 minute to locate a frequently used Excel file. It just shouldn't. Anyway, my new computer seems pretty awesome so far. I'm signing off to run some data analysis in a timely fashion! The kids are in bed.

Henry Turns 2 Years Adjusted!

Today was Henry's 2nd year due date day. Two years ago, he was still in the hospital. He was recovering from his eye laser procedure, which he had done in both eyes the previous evening to prevent potential retinal detachment from ROP Stage III. He was to have bilateral hernia repair two days later. He came home 5 days after his due date, having stayed in the NICU 109 days.

At 2 years adjusted, Henry is a very energetic child. He loves to climb and "fall down." Ever since he learned ring-around-the-rosie, everything is about "falling down." This month, his new skill is singing. I suspect that it has something to do with singing at his daycare. He surprised us the other day by almost making it through his ABCs. He kind of rushes through H through P but the general intonation sounded about right. Yesterday morning, he was singing the "Harold the Helicopter" song from Thomas & Friends from his Story Reader. This evening, he made it through a verse of "Five Little Monkeys" by himself. Henry is a very sweet child and loves to give "huggies." He is a bit of a daredevil and has an uncanny ability to block out my voice when I'm telling him to do something that he doesn't want to do. Recently, he's developed a habit for taking toys away from others (usually Miss R) so that the former possessor of the toy has to chase him. He loves to play "chase."

If I could only describe Henry in five words, those words would be: loving, energetic, loquacious, smart, and delightful. My sixth word would be: beautiful.

I asked Jeff to describe Henry in five words. He said: talkative, affectionate, cute, busy, and smart. Jeff also added a sixth word: fun.


Here is a picture of Henry from two years ago. He weighted about 4 lbs 13 ozs.








And here's a video of Henry doing a speed version of "Five Little Monkeys" with a bottle in his mouth. Jeff thinks that Henry's going to be on the speech and debate team in high school.

NOTE: Henry is saying: "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and bumped his head, mama called the doctor and the doctor said, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed!'"

My mom picked up Henry at school today. His teacher commented on how much he loves listening to stories. She said that he concentrates during story time and doesn't move a muscle. He sat through six books today. That's our boy!

Miss R had a bio family visitation today. The driver didn't think that the parents came, but her siblings were there. She's now meeting her bio family at a later time on Tuesdays b/c her siblings have school. So CPS picks her up at daycare, she will be having visits from 4-6PM, and then the driving service will drop her back at our house.

Our original plan was to go over to my parents' house for swimming as soon as Miss R arrived home. But she looked very tired, so Jeff went to my parents', and I stayed home with Miss R. She and I had dinner. Someone from CPS must have bought her a McDonald's kids meal. It was french fries and chicken nuggets. She enjoyed painting her tray with the BBQ sauce. She ate a good part of her meal. Then, we sat on the couch and laughed. She had a second wind after dinner and was in a good mood.

Meanwhile, at my parents' house, my dad was recovering from spinal surgery so he took it easy. My mom and Jeff took Henry swimming. My mom sat with Henry in the loveseat in the deep end. Apparently, Henry really wanted Grammy to take him to the steps in the shallow end. After badgering, she acquiesced. When she put him on the top step, he said "Finally!"

Jeff said that he and Henry sang "Five Little Monkeys" in the car on the way home. Henry was singing it when he came into the house. We played in the living room for a few minutes before brushing our teeth and heading to bed. I was in charge of putting the kids to bed tonight. It took me about 20-25 minutes. Jeff hadn't eaten yet, so he was starving. When he popped his head into the room, Henry was kicking his legs up and down and Miss R was on her knees hopping. I don't think that they found my rendition of "Good Night Sweetheart" very soothing. They eventually crashed. Currently, Henry is sprawled in the center of the bed, arms out. Miss R is laying upside down, which she did last night as well. Last night, Jeff decided to sleep in the kids' room until Henry cried for him around 3AM. That's about when I made my way to bed, having stayed up to work on a book manuscript due on the 15th.

That's all for now. Signing off...

Changes at School

On Monday morning, Jeff and I heard Henry singing the Harold the Helicopter song from the Thomas & Friends series. He was so very cute.

Henry and Miss R's classmates had changed to some extent. Four children from Miss R's class moved up a level. Some of Henry's classmates moved as well. Consequently, Henry no longer looks like he is the smallest kid in his class. Miss Lulu is still Henry's teacher. It looks like Miss Stephanie is teaching a different class now. And Miss Diana, who worked in several classrooms but only in Henry's class in the afternoons, is now with his class all day. Both Miss Lulu and Miss Diana are Spanish speakers. Miss Lulu has a bit of an accent, so I'm guessing that English might actually be her second language (very good second language). I've noticed them talking to some of the kids in Spanish. I'm hoping that means that they spend some time teaching the kids a little Spanish. It is supposedly part of the curriculum, but we haven't noticed Henry saying any words in Spanish yet. Miss Diana reported that they didn't do potty training today b/c they were just trying to get the new kids used to the routine. In the younger room, the lunch and nap times are earlier, so the move was a bit of an adjustment for them. She said that Henry did well with the switch of having new kids in class. He clearly knows the routine, which is helpful (e.g., when to go to the table for snack, to head right to the sink after they've been outside b/c they always wash their hands after they've played outside, etc.).

Miss R's class has several new faces. She no longer looks like the smallest one in the class, but she is still very much on the small side. Very petite and well below the 5th percentile on height. Perhaps she'll be a gymnast. I've been asked by strangers if she is about 1 years old. They look surprised when I say that she is 22 months. I'm obviously no child development expert, but her skills strike me as age appropriate at this time. Her verbal skills have come a long way since living with us. Her fine motor skills have always been very good. Her gross motor skills seem pretty good now. I was concerned about her trunk strength, but I think that's coming along nicely. She can even jump off the ground with both feet. She's been singing a lot lately. I suspect that daycare has brought some of that out in her.

When I went to pick up the kids at 4PM, Henry was painting and doing a very nice job too. We then went over to see Miss R. Henry made a bee line for the toys. Miss R headed right for me and gave me a huge hug. She's awesome at making me feel like she missed me. In comparison, Henry gives me a smile, but I don't necessarily get the impression that he's thought a lot about us during the day. He of course continues to make me feel guilty when I drop him off in the morning, but I'm pretty sure that it is a big con.

Alison, our family specialist from A Place To Call Home, visited at 5PM for our monthly home visit. She was going to meet us at their school, but she had an emergency meeting. Maybe next month we'll fit it in. She said that her director has heard that Children's Learning Adventure is excellent. Apparently, its reputation is spreading. Glad that we got into the school before its reputation made it impossible to get in. I overheard the front desk staff member tell a caller that there are waiting lists now.

Alison didn't really have any information on the case. I did the updating for her. I told her that I got a hold of the lawyer last week. He forgot that Miss R had been assigned to him as he was originally brought onto the case to represent one of Miss R's teenage siblings who is deaf; the lawyer knows some sign language. He was assigned as Miss R's lawyer at the first hearing when it became clear that there was a potential conflict of interests for Miss R's first lawyer who was representing Miss R's other sibling who wants to return home (i.e., the lawyer felt uncomfortable arguing for the teenager to return home, while trying to figure out Miss R's best interest, which may not be to return home). We didn't attend the second hearing b/c CPS didn't respond to our calls requesting that they tell us when the second hearing was to be held. If Miss R's lawyer didn't remember that he'd been assigned to her case, that meant that she didn't have representation in court, which is frustrating. At least it was very early in the case when not much had happened. It just seems like Miss R is treated as an afterthought in meetings and hearings too. We understand the her much older siblings have some special needs and also have voices as they are almost nearing adulthood (meaning that age of 18). But we want the system to pay attention to her needs too. We are working as her advocates, but we technically don't have a role as "deciders" in this process. We want those that do have that role to pay close attention to the files. I hope that we've gotten the ball rolling by talking to her lawyer who said that he'd visit us next week before the dependency hearing.

A lot of people ask me how are we going to handle it if Miss R returns to her bio family. Honestly, I try very hard not to think about it. I mean, I do think about it, but I try not to. She feels like she is a part of our family through and through. I love her. Jeff loves her. Henry love her. So, I try to focus on the present. I think that I'd go crazy if I thought too much about a future that may or may not happen.

Henry was talkative around Alison. Jeff said that my father had asked him Saturday if Henry ever stopped talking. Jeff's answer: "No." Jeff said that he was pretty sure that the trait didn't come from his side of the family.

Miss R and I showed Alison how we play ring-around-the-rosie. Miss R was very into a pair of sunglasses that Jeff's aunt had given her. She played with them for an hour and wore them throughout our house.

We made dinner, which the kids pretty much rejected. Miss R ate all of the corn out of the calabacitas that I made. She had some grilled cheese. The soup was a bust. The kids had a bath. And then it was bedtime. It took them about an hour to settle down.

All Recycling Band

Friday was a fun night. At home Henry has taken to pushing our recycling storage bin around the house. It has wheels and he keeps it upright most of the time. Of course at times he tips it over or pulls things out of it. We decided to try the kids on "The Music Man" movie (Robert Preston/Shirley Jones, not the Ferris Bueller version). Henry tipped over the recycling in the living room so during the 76 Trombones song we all grabbed water bottles and banged them together as we marched around the living room. The kids loved it.

We also piled all the couch cushions in the middle of the room for "Couch Mountain" again, by Henry's request. Of course both kids went to dive on the top at the same time and cracked their heads together. Nothing too serious, just a couple minutes of crying.

Saturday

we made a return trip to the

children's museum. The kids had a wonderful time again. I really enjoy just letting them run around and choose what they want to do. The only thing we have to worry about is Henry taking things away from other children and Miss R hogging certain activities like the fire truck. I think Henry's favorite is pushing the shopping cart around. He was very good at not running into people. Miss R loves the fire truck and might sit in the drivers seat all day if allowed to. She also chose some odd things to do for long periods of time like opening and closing the microwave door and hanging off a sink.

Afterward we stopped off at IHOP for some lunch. Nothing like pancakes for breakfast and lunch. It was great though, got in, ordered, food came up fast and we got out. The way a meal should be with toddlers. Henry spent much of the time trying to scale the divider between our booth and the next while Miss R drew on the table with crayons. We left a big mess and a good tip.

They napped in their new beds for a little while. However, they woke a little earlier than we had hoped so we took a nap with them in our bed for a while. We ended up having to wake Henry up because he was sleeping so long. I think he might be going through a growth spurt. He has been eating very well, a rarity for him, and sleeping pretty well too.

We visited Poppy for dinner. Poppy and I took the kids for a swim while Kate worked. Then Poppy made us dinner. The kids had a trifecta, pancakes and sausage for all three meals. I think they were quite happy with it.

Today, Sunday, I took the kids to the zoo in the morning by myself. Kate thought I was a little crazy for trying it. It was a bit of a rocky start but it worked out well in the end. We started out going to the gift shop to rent a stroller and get Henry a new hat because his old one is too small. Fifty dollars later I left with two hats, a toy for Miss R and a new book for Henry. They behaved well after that. Henry ran off a couple times but nothing too bad. We fed the giraffes. Henry is now tall enough to do it without being held, provided the giraffe has a long enough tongue.

By far their favorite thing is a frog that squirts a stream of water when a button is pushed. They probably played there for half an hour. Miss R was very cautious and it took a long time for her to try it, even though she had done it before. Henry on the other hand was having fun with a girl who was probably 4 and who was completely soaking wet. He took a few squirts right in the head but he handled it well. He later wanted to go back, saying "Frog again!".

As much as they enjoyed the frog they were not happy to play in the other area with shooting water. I believe Miss R wasn't happy to have the water squirt her by surprise. I really don't know why Henry didn't like it.

We had a little lunch, hot dogs and animal crackers, before going home. I gave Henry the animal cracker bag to occupy him while I paid for the food. He quickly asked me to "Open it" to which I responded, "In a minute." He then turned to a little girl in line and asked her to "Open it." He then walked over to a family sitting at a table and asked them to "Open it." Many chuckles were had.

In the afternoon they went to Grammy and Poppy's house. Grammy had been on a trip and just returned today. She probably could have used the evening off but they knew Kate has a deadline on her book coming up and needed some quiet time so they offered to watch them. They reported that the kids were very good. They went swimming and ate well at dinner.

When we returned home Miss R was very tired. Henry was still going great guns. He showed off his alphabet skills. He says them very fast but gets up to around m before becoming turning to babble. Kate said that he can fill in letters very well if you say a few and then pause. Miss R is getting in on the act as well. Verbally she has really taken of in the last month. She can be rather soft spoken and her enunciation isn't very good but she is saying and repeating a large number of words. However, when she gets tired and upset she still is unable to communicate anything more than crying and grunts.

Tomorrow we have a visit from our family specialist from our foster agency. She is going to meet us at daycare so she can see the facility.

Kiss Me!

Henry and Miss R have been quite the cute little pair lately. Yesterday, they were being a little pushy with each other, both trying to get between the couch and the bench. Henry ended up hugging miss R. Then Miss R gave Henry a kiss on the forehead. They both smiled. Then Henry said "Miss R, Miss R, kiss me again." She did and they smiled. Henry reached toward her and said "Kiss me, kiss me Miss R." Wish I had the camera.

This morning as Henry ate his breakfast he pointed to the flashlight near the sink and said "flashlight!" So I gave it to him. He then started shining it around the room and as he pointed it to the ceiling he said "Up in the sky" and as he pointed it at me he said "On daddy's shirt." Then he started to bang it on his tray table. I gave him a stern warning telling him to be nice to the flashlight. He proceeded to pull the flashlight to him and say "Hugging the flashlight." That was very nice indeed.

Henry saw Shirley, his physical therapist, for the first time in months yesterday. She didn't see anything to be concerned about. We pointed out that is still toe walking quite a bit. She checked his ankles to see if they were tight but they were OK. She tried to get him to jump but he still keeps one foot down. She brought a toy broom and he demonstrated how he can sweep. He also showed off his golfing skills. Since he is doing well, we're only going to see her quarterly from now on.

Today we picked up the kids from daycare and went to see Poppy. He needed some help on the computer and Grammy is out of town. As we were leaving the daycare building, Henry ran ahead, climbed up on a bench and looked in the baby room and said "Watch the babies." Then he ran down the hall farther and went into the director's office and said "I'm in the office." Dang cute.

After that we headed to dinner at Red Robin at the Tucson Mall. The kids ate well and had fun. Miss R couldn't get enough of the dried apples and strawberries we brought with us. She has been surprising me with her food choices lately. She would never eat fruit or vegetables at first. Yesterday she had second helpings of green beans and mandarin oranges. Today she had second helpings of strawberry/banana sauce at breakfast and then the dried fruit at dinner. I think daycare has a lot to do with it.

During dinner Henry and Miss R took time out to get their groove on. An "artist formerly known as Prince" song came on and Miss R started pumping her hands in the air in kind of a "raise the roof" motion. Henry then copied her. So she likes outlaw country and Prince, rather eclectic.

After dinner we went to the children's play area in the mall. Miss R really wasn't interested. She hugged a big teddy bear for a while and played a little but wasn't very active. Her teachers at school had mentioned she wasn't herself today and had some diarrhea so she may be coming down with the next wave of sickness. Henry had a great time. He kept Poppy on his toes moving from one activity to the next. At one point he got away from Poppy who then looked a bit panicked for about 10 seconds until he found Henry again. Henry's favorite thing was to slide down things and sing out "All fall down!" like the ring around the rosie song. He had pulled his sunglasses out of the diaper bag in the restaurant and kept them on during almost the entire time in the play area. He used to hate wearing sunglasses and hats. Now he is pretty good with both. Miss R zonked out in the car on the way home. Henry stayed up to read some Spongebob books. He may not know his Grimms fairy tales but he knows all about Spongebob, Squidword, and Patrick Star. I personally am sick of Spongebob and the Princess, which is his favorite.

Tomorrow is their daycare's end of summer party and water day so they get to play in the water and have fun food. We may put off their dentist appointment so they can enjoy the day.

Henry Can Read, Truly

On Tuesday, I took Miss R to daycare in the morning. Henry helped me drop off Miss R in her classroom. He loved running around a different room. I talked with Miss Josie for a few minutes and found out who had invited Miss R to a birthday party next week (a very cute blond gal). Miss Josie said that she and Miss Kristen were talking about how much Miss R has changed in the last 6 weeks. She is much more open and interactive with the other kids and is enjoying herself.

Henry was looking good in the morning. He hasn't had a fever in weeks, but he can't shake the cough. The daycare takes children as long as they haven't had a fever in the last 24 hours b/c that's usually the sign of contagion. But given Henry's lung history, we wanted to have him inspected by a medical professional. After we left Children's Learning Adventure, Henry and I had an hour to kill, so we swung by Barnes & Noble. Henry enjoyed riding the escalator. He obviously knew his way around Barnes & Noble b/c he announced to me that he wanted to see the train. And sure enough, he made his way to a nook where there was a Thomas the Tank Engine table with trains and tracks. We bought a couple books. Rode the escalators a up and down a couple times. Henry threw himself on the ground when I announced we had to leave, much to the annoyance of an elderly fellow. He said he wanted a snack. We stopped by the Starbucks counter. The only thing that looked remotely not as bad as the other sugary snacks was a rice crispy treat. Henry liked it. As we walked to the car, Henry pointed in the direction of the doctor's office which is in a complex across the street from the mall and said "Bianch's." Dr. Bianchi is his doctor. I'm not quite sure how he knew the direction of the office. I guess that he is just incredibly more observant about geography than I was at his age (or still am at 30-something).

When we got into the parking lot, Henry announced that he wanted to find the "Jungle Book." There is a Jungle Book in the doctor's office. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate it among the other books this time. I searched thoroughly, but no luck. Henry weighed 26 lbs 15 ozs with a wet diaper and socks on. He was 36" long. The person doing the measurements is new. I asked her to do his head circumference and I could tell that she wasn't doing it right from the get-go; you are supposed to measure from the widest spot using the area above the eye brows as a guide. She said it was 46 cm, which means his head would have shrunk by 1.5 cm since it was last measured.

The nurse practitioner said that Henry's ears are still infected. She prescribed a strong antibiotic hoping that it will knock it and the cough out. She asked if he'd been on a nebulizer or allergy medication before. I said no. She thinks that Henry might also be reacting to allergens and recommends that we discuss Singulair with Dr. Bianchi at Henry's next check up in 2 weeks. She gave me eye drops for his goopy eyes.

I dropped off Henry at Grammy and Poppy's house. I ran errands, such as getting Henry's prescription filled. By the time I got home, it was just enough time to eat lunch, answer a few emails, and then head off to my nurse practitioner's appointment and Jeff's doctor's appointment. The doctor put Jeff on an asthma medication hoping that it would open up the lungs enough for Jeff's body to heal. The nurse practitioner thought that allergies were aggravating my recovering. I am dubious at the different conclusions b/c I think that Jeff and I basically have the same thing.

We picked up Miss R after our doctor's appointments. She hadn't napped at all after she was returned from her bio parent visitation. We then headed to my parents' house and got there by 3:30PM. Henry was walking around with one of his Berenstain Bears books that has pictures of the other books on the back of it. He pointed to one and said "In the Dark." Jeff said that the book picture did indeed say "In the Dark." My mom said, "I don't think that we have that one." She went through the books and said, "We don't have it." We only have one Berenstain Bears book at our house that's about a scary tree. So again, it appears that Henry can read. Between that and his pointing to the "care" sign at Walgreens and saying "car," I'm pretty convinced of his reading skills. That said, I'm quite sure if I asked him to read something, he'd say "no." I remember my mom thinking that Erin was slow on her letters b/c she'd never demonstrated any letter skills in front of the family. When she was in kindergarten at the ice cream social, my mom caught her writing out the alphabet on a piece of butcher paper that had crayons on it for the kids to use. That's how she learned that Erin did indeed know her letters.

Miss R and I found Henry, Jeff, and Grammy in the pool area as we got ready to leave. Henry was sitting on the swinging loveseat singing "Rock-a-bye Baby." Jeff and I didn't know that he knew that song. I can probably count the number of times that I've sang it to him. I guess that's something my parents have been singing on the swinging loveseat. Henry did a great job. We then sang it together substituting everyone's name for "baby" for a verse. I often sing songs where I substitute Henry's name for a word in a song. For example, "Honey, Honey" becomes "Henry, Henry." Ever since Miss R joined our house, Henry insists that if a song is sung with his name in it, then we have to sing it again with Miss R's name in it. Quite the egalitarian.

Miss R was super fussy in the car. When we got home at 5PM, she and I took a nap. When we got up at 7:15PM, Henry and Jeff were out walking the dogs. The living room was in hurricane mode. Jeff and Henry had obviously been playing Couch Mountain. I found some chicken soup on the stove, which Miss R ate with relish (at least the noodle part).

When Jeff and Henry got back from their walk, Henry pushed the recycling bin around the kitchen. He knocked it over and dumped everything out, much to our chagrin. Miss R got out of her chair and picked up the bottles and cans and put them back in the bin, which was a pleasant surprise. Then Henry wanted to put things in the bin as well.

After dinner, we read our new books. Henry climbed Couch Mountain and sang his ABCs. He clearly got through H and then kind of mumbled through to P. Much farther than I had ever heard him go by himself. I was surprised just because neither Jeff nor I have been exactly been sticklers about teaching the alphabet. We go through phases where will sing the ABCs or write some letters on the bathtub with the bathtub crayons, but I wouldn't say that we've been consistent about it. I read somewhere that it didn't make much difference if you taught kids their numbers and letters before 3 or a little after it. It was more important to talk a lot and facilitate curiosity. That's one thing that the Catalina Methodist Day School said as well. They didn't programmatically teach numbers and letters until age 3. There was a discussion on one of my message boards about the teaching your baby to read programs where parents sit with flashcards and get their 9 month olds to read. I guess that we've been hoping the more organic approach would work best for Henry. I'm really excited that he's been reading some things for a couple months now (I won't deny that), but I'm a bit hesitant to whip out flash cards because I don't want Henry to feel like he is being forced to learn. I just want it to be a part of what he does "naturally."



We gave the kids a bath. Miss R hasn't been very easy to get in the bathtub this week. I hope that the anti-bath phase is short. She seems OK after 30 seconds of actually being in the water. After the bath, it was time for brushing teeth and bed.

This morning, Miss R was a log. I had to pick her up and take her to the kitchen. She opened her eyes when she knew food was nearby...not that she really ate that much. It was a struggle getting Henry to take his antibiotics. The nurse practitioner warned that it didn't taste as good as the other stuff. Henry's been great about brushing his teeth. I think that we are going to have to set time limits, otherwise he'd spend 20 minutes doing it. Miss R has been difficult to brush. We have an appointment with a pediatric dentist on Friday, so we are hoping that the dentist has some good tips. While I did Miss R's hair this morning, she sang a little song. I don't know what the song was, but she seemed to know what she was doing.

Oy Vey

I'm beginning to think that we are cursed or something. I was just telling a friend and a colleague how I was feeling better. Then, I proceeded to have a major coughing attack a couple minutes later, had some chest pain, and had trouble catching my breath. I had made Jeff an appointment with our doctor for tomorrow afternoon; Jeff sounds terrible. After my coughing spell, I called back to make myself an appointment and the receptionist said that the person I talked with shouldn't have made Jeff the appointment b/c those are "same day" appointments. She said that she couldn't make me an appointment b/c it would violate the "same day" policy and that I should call back in the morning. What a bunch of bureaucratic crap.

I called my mom who had just picked up the kids. She said that Miss R had a wonderful day. Henry did not. His teachers said that he was out of sorts in the morning and not acting like himself. He cried a lot. And he was coughing all day. So I made an appointment at the pediatrician's office for tomorrow morning. His doctor is out of town, so he'll be seeing the nurse practitioner.

I'm worn out. Jeff's going to pick up the kids in a little bit. Miss R has a bio parent visitation tomorrow, so I'm a bit moody to boot. We never know whether the parents will show up or not. And when they do show up, they send her back with Gatorade (despite the fact that we send healthy snacks and drinks in the bag). OK. I'd better sign off before I get on my soap box.

Breakers

Today was a great day. Jeff, Poppy, Aunt Carolyn, Henry, Miss R and I went to Breakers Water Park in Marana. Breakers opened up when I was in elementary or junior high. At the time, its claim to fame was that it was the largest wave pool in the world. I think that its current claim to fame is that it is the largest in Arizona. The wave pool takes 1.3 million gallons of water. I hadn't been to Breakers since I was in college. They've expanded the park considerably and acquired some water tube rides from another park that I used to frequent with my friends in high school.

We arrived around 10:35AM and found a great spot under some palm trees to put our belongings. We took the kids to the small children's area called Captain Kidd's Surfari. It was a pool with some slides. The pool was 18 inches deep. Miss R was pretty happy to just stand in the water. Henry, however, said "Hold you!" to Daddy. He didn't know what to make of the water. He wasn't interested in the splash pad. Aunt Carolyn and Poppy arrived about 20 minutes after we did.





























We took the kids in the wave pool but hung out close to the "shore." The water felt great. The kids loved the way the waves lapped against the shore line.















We made sure that the kids drank water and had snacks as the sun can be very tiring.











The Twins enjoyed playing in an area filled with toy houses, cabins, and slides. The Breakers seems to have the under four crowd pegged in terms of what they would find interesting. The kids probably spent half an hour in these little plastic houses opening and closing the doors and windows.

Toward the end of our adventure, Henry warmed up to the little kid pool and slides. We ended our excursion by sitting in the very shallow part of the wave pool, letting the waves lap against our legs (or torso for Henry and Miss R). Henry enjoyed crawling around in the water. Miss R enjoyed sitting on my lap.

When we got home, the kids were exhausted. They napped for the very first time in their own room! Miss R got up long before Henry. Jeff woke up Henry at 6PM b/c we were having dinner at Grammy and Poppy's house. Aunt Carolyn was there. She's leaving on Wednesday so it was nice to spend some quality time with her.

I felt really good today, which was a first in weeks. I think that Jeff was feeling OK, but he still has these coughing episodes (more than I am currently having). I'm hoping that the tide on our health has turned around b/c I'm looking forward to a busy and productive week!