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!

The Tucson Children's Museum

On Thursday afternoon, Henry and Miss R went to Grammy and Poppy's house. Grammy says that Poppy goes through Henry and Miss R withdrawals when he hasn't seen them for a day.

On Friday, it was Green Day at school. We made sure that Henry and Miss R wore green shirts. We picked them up around 4PM. We got Miss R first. She was happy to see us. Then, we got Henry. Miss R gave him a big hug when she saw him. Miss Stephanie reported that Henry had been a monkey all day. Every time she turned around, he was trying to climb on something (e.g., counters, bookshelves). He'd climb up on something and then lay down on it.

We took the kids to Monkey Business after school. They were very excited to return there. The flashing lights on the games seem to make them extra loud and extra crazy. It was exhausting. We had a big dinner. My dinner salad came out first. While I had gotten up to get us utensils, Miss R helped herself to the cheese on it. I ended up giving the kids the cheese and croutons while we waited for the rest of the food to arrive. Henry enjoyed the turkey and bacon from Jeff's very large sandwich. Miss R enjoyed the bread from it. She also liked the spaghetti. She ignored the strands that I had cut into small pieces and opted for single large strands that she could slurp into her mouth.

Jeff took charge of getting the kids to bed when we got home. It was an hour long event.

This morning, Henry and Jeff woke up some time after 6AM. Miss R and I slept until 8:15AM. I made the kids pancakes for breakfast. Henry had had crackers before we got up. Then, he had a dish of sweet potato puree (his request; we still have some baby food in the pantry). Then, he had two pancakes and some fruit leather. For him, it was a lot of food.

We took the kids to the Tucson Children's Museum for the very first time. It's only about 15 minutes from our house and is located downtown. It was a lot of fun. We were pleasantly surprised. There was a room just for children under 4 years of age. In the room, there were soft blocks to stack, beanie frogs to put on this belt that, with the pull of a cord, would move toward the ceiling making the frogs hit a fan that sent them flying all over the room, areas of the floor that lighted up with the touch of a button, soft stairs to climb, and other neat things.

The kids played in a room based on a sea theme. Henry crawled through a tunnel and climbed into a cubby hole filled with puppets. The kids played on a computer.

There was a room with a tangle of ropes to climb around. There was a room filled with drums to play. Another room had these lights that left writing on the wall if you touched the lights to the wall. The writing would fade after a minute or so.

Miss R's favorite room had the front of a fire engine in which to sit. She was actually a bit of a fire engine hog and got very mad when I took her away from the stirring wheel so that another child could have a turn. I let her return to it after the family had left. Henry and Miss R also sat on a police motor cycle complete with siren and flashing lights.





Miss R's second favorite room had a train that traveled around a track near the ceiling. She sat for several minutes pushing a button to start the engine if it stopped. Henry and Jeff played in a maze. Jeff reported that Henry cheated a bit. When he got stuck, he'd just get on his stomach and crawl under the barriers.

The last room that we visited was very large and had a shopping area, cooking area, doctor's area, and dance area. Miss R liked playing with the pretend food. Henry enjoyed pushing a shopping cart around the room. We liked the museum so much that we decided to become members. We are members of the zoo, but the zoo is just too hot this time of year.



We didn't get home until after 1PM. Miss R only slept for about 40 minutes. Henry took a much longer snooze. After getting Miss R some lunch, I took a nap on the couch. All in all, I'm doing much better health wise, but the excursion was exhausting. I wouldn't say that Jeff and I are over whatever we have. Every time I think that we are over it, one of us has a coughing fit. As I've mentioned before, we aren't contagious, but our lungs just haven't quite healed yet.

We took the kids to Grammy and Poppy's for dinner. We dropped them off around 6:15PM and picked them up at 8PM. When we arrived, they were watching Harry Potter at Henry's request. I think that Grammy was surprised at his selection. They like how he says "Harry Potter" with an English accent (probably b/c of the books on CD; the narrator, Jim Dale, is British). While we got the report from Grammy on how the kids ate, Henry went to their pantry, helped himself to some Trader Joe's Pirate's Booty, and walked around with the bag with his arm in it. With the bag up to his arm pit, his hand could just reach some of the puffs at the bottom. It was pretty cute. He graciously shared with Miss R. He also dished out some Pirate's Booty for the rest of us.

Grammy reported that she had told Henry that he needed another haircut. He said, "Todd!" That is indeed Henry's hair stylist. Poppy mentioned something about a "fountain" because there is a fountain in front of Gadabout. Henry said, "Pennies!" because he'd thrown pennies in the fountain the one and only time that he was there. He has a good memory.

That's about all from here. Tomorrow, we have an outing scheduled with Aunt Carolyn and Poppy.