Project Runway Designer in the Making

Henry got up early this morning. Sigh. Again, he didn't get the memo that he can sleep in on the weekends.

He didn't eat much. At one point, he claimed that he wanted "macaroni cheese." He got pancakes instead. I read to him while Jeff made them. After rejecting a good part of his breakfast, he and Jeff played. Then, Jeff took him to my parents' house. They had late afternoon plans, so they wanted him earlier than usual.

He didn't sleep much (except in the car). He helped Poppy in the yard. Henry identified pine cones to pick up and told Poppy where the dog poop was for disposal.

When he returned home around 4:30PM, we tried to get him to take a nap. Our efforts were unsuccessful. I was impressed that he knows the word "cell phone." He was having a pretend conversation on Jeff's cell phone that lasted a couple minutes.

While Jeff worked, it took me awhile to get Henry's jacket and shoes on him so that we could play in the backyard. Henry discovered the treadmill and swung on its railing. He also sat down at the kitchen table, which is covered with mail. He made himself a hat out of one of the envelops...completely unprompted. I'm thinking of trying to get him an audition for Project Runway. He already shows creativity. And if there is ever an episode where the task revolves around using envelops to create high fashion, he is sure to win, especially if he is allowed to be his own model!

He and I spread bird seed around the backyard. Henry did a good job getting some of the bird seed into the bird feeder while I held him up. He climbed on things and generally kept me on my toes.

He didn't really eat dinner. He had a bite of my rice. He wanted his bottle. He had a bath. His articulation is amazing. We went through the names of the various Harry Potter characters. He has no problem repeating three syllable words now. I was throwing some four syllable names at him. He has some trouble with clear F sounds. After his bath, we watched a couple minutes of "Lucy is the boss" video from o-tube. Jeff took Henry to bed, and he was down within a matter of minutes.

Jeff and I will be doing lots of cleaning tomorrow in preparation for the state inspection. Yikes! In the afternoon, we have an appointment to meet a foster mom who has worked with medically fragile children. I should be done with my last manuscript tonight (then my attention returns to my book). In the evening, we are going to my parents' house for my birthday dinner. Erin and Brian will be there.

Next Saturday, Henry will be going to his first birthday party. One of my friends is having a get-together for her daughter's first birthday. I'm honestly looking forward to showing him off a bit. A downside to staying cloistered during RSV season is not being able to show him off as much as we want. Obviously that downside isn't as big as our desire to keep him healthy! Jeff was telling me about how Patty was just so impressed with Henry's vocabulary on Thursday. For some reason, the phrase "lean back" came up. When people ask how he is doing and I mention his vocabulary skills (I've been saying that he knows about 150 words, but I'm confident that it is a lot bigger than that right now especially if you include proper names from all of his books and Thomas the Tank Engine videos...it is probably past 200 words by now...that's spoken words, his comprehension exceeds that), I've gotten the looks that say "18 month olds don't articulate that many words and you must be another over the top proud parent." I confess that I am the latter, but he does have an extraordinary vocabulary and can't wait to show it off. :-)

Chasing Bitsy

Henry had an appointment with Shirley the PT this afternoon. We learned on Wednesday that DDD has decided to cut all intervention services as of March 12. So this will be our last appointment with her (at least for now). I think that we can actually appeal the decision b/c PT and OT are written in our IFSP (individualized family service plan, which is in essence a contract with state). Given the length of the appeal process, however, and knowing that Henry is doing quite well, I suspect that we'll discontinue services BUT pay out-of-pocket for evaluations a couple times a year. And then if Henry does need a return of regular services, we'll just have to pay for it somehow. Jeff asked Shirley about private payments. She has never done them before (everything has been through insurance or EIP), so she'll have to look into it.

Jeff reported that when Shirley arrived, Henry said her name. She was surprised to hear it. She thought that he looked great! Toe walking is still an issue. She wants us to get some different kinds of shoes and was willing to go shopping with us if we wanted. Very kind of her.

Henry spent part of the afternoon chasing Bitsy around with some packing paper from my birthday presents, which arrived via UPS and Fed-Ex. Jeff set one of them up...my second monitor (26"). It's beautiful. Ah, to have two monitors again! It is heavenly! How did I go this long without dual monitor support?

Anyway, Henry had fun with the paper. When Jeff and I talked on the telephone (I was at school today), I could hear Henry squealing at the top of his lungs. He and Bitsy are quite the pair. She is a very good cat for a little boy. More like a dog actually. She does scratch him every now and then, but given the number of times he pulls her tail, I figure that they end up even.

Henry wouldn't eat his dinner. He had just a couple bites. But Jeff counted up his ounces and said that he's had about 30 ozs of goat's milk today, which is on the heavier side for an almost 19 month old. We tried to weigh him last night. We think that he's up to about 25 lbs. We are wondering if he's better able to put on weight b/c he's no longer on the acid blockers. Acid blockers make the digestive process inefficient. Just wondering if perhaps now that his system is breaking down the foods better, he is actually absorbing the calories. We feel that he's increased his milk intake overall ever since he went off Prevacid.

We watched some Thomas, Winnie the Pooh, and Snoopy clips on the computer...on the new screen of course. Then, Henry went to bed. That's all from here.

Signing off...

"Come on!"

Today, Henry played outside with Jeff. He found a broom and made designs in the dirt with it.

After work, I stopped by UMC and dropped off the breast pump that I had been renting for the past 22 months. I think that Rene the LC was impressed by the duration that I stuck with it. She told me that it was good that I didn't bring Henry for a visit. They've had nine cases of RSV in the hospital. She characterized it as a bad RSV season. I checked out today's state RSV report. There have been 58 cases in Pima county in the last three weeks. That's a huge increase in comparison to December when there was only a handful. Anyway, I dropped off a picture of Henry for the nurses to see.

Henry and I watched Thomas the Tank Engine when I got home. So I guess we are letting him watch TV now officially, but we are still trying to limit it. We watched the DVD on James the Engine. It had shrink wrap on it. I took it off the case and then asked Henry to take the wrap to the garbage...and he did! I got him some pea crisps as a snack. As I handed him the cup, he said, "Nank you!" (that's "thank you") complete with sign language.

At dusk, we went for a walk that took forever. Walks with Henry take a really long time. He had to point out all of the "poop" in the road. Given the number of dogs on our street, not to mention the packs of coyotes and the horses, there was a lot to observe.

Henry was very cute calling out for Roger. Roger had run ahead of us. I squated down a little, getting down at dog eye level, clapped my hands, and called out "Roger, come on!" Henry copied me. He squat down, put his hands together and yelled "Come on! Come on! Come on!" It was so cute.

We ran into Yvonne who had Banjo and Chocolate with her. Precious died a few weeks ago. Henry looked around and said "Precious!" which was so sweet but made us a bit sad too.

Henry wants to live on puffs and crunchies alone. He was irked that we wanted him to eat something besides snack food. He rejected ham, raspberries, and a cheese crisp. He finally accepted some pancake. It was a very poor dinner. He looked tired in his high chair, so we gave him a bath and got him ready for bed.

Here he is playing with Pete the Pirate Penguin:



I want to buy Henry a Fisher Price village. Jeff thinks Henry has enough toys. Jeff's already purchased my b-day gift so I can't ask for more gifts for that event. But I'm requesting a Fisher Price village for my wedding anniversary present (day after my birthday).

Foster/Adoption Training -- Day 15

Jeff took Henry to bed last night. We switched places at 3AM. I had just finished an article manuscript, and Jeff wanted to go to the store to get supplies for sweet potato burritos for the class potluck we had tonight. He headed to our new Walmart grocery store (we aren't fans of Walmart but it is the closest grocery store to us boonie dwellers and it's the only venue open at 3AM). Jeff came home and made the burritos. One of our classmates is vegan, so Henry made a version of them just for her and made the tortillas from scratch (b/c all of the store-bought ones contain animal products). Not sure how Jeff and I have been together for 16 years, and I had no idea that he knew how to make homemade tortillas.

Henry got up at 6AM. I swear that he has a sensor that goes off if Jeff leaves the bed. Jeff's kind of like a human security blanket.

Henry and Karina's nap time has been getting pushed back later than usual. They don't settle down until after 11AM these days. Henry caught me coming out of Jeff's office right before nap time. He insisted that I read "Little Quack" before his nap. Glad that he's become very interested in books again. His interest in books comes and goes in waves. There are days when maybe he'll read two books and days when he reads twenty-some of them. After Alicia left, I was still working, doing the final analysis check for my manuscript (I always run my analysis at least twice to make sure everything it correct). I let Henry watch Thomas the Tank Engine while I checked the last table. Henry is amazing. The show goes through several of the engines with their names printed near them. Henry could name all of the trains shown. Gordon has suddenly become very popular with Henry.

Henry went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and spent a lot of time outdoors, picking up pine cones in their side yard. He also read lots of books. Poppy looked a little tired when we arrived to pick up Henry.

We had 15th foster class tonight. It was potluck night. Jeff's sweet potato burritos were a huge hit! We had a visitor tonight. Ed is one of the foster parent trainers, but he hasn't been involved with training our class. He has been a foster parent for 35 years and has helped nearly 400 children during that time. He has adopted five of them. Another five of his foster children have had terminal illnesses and passed away in his and his wife's care. It sounds like he has taken in some very medically fragile children. Our only complaint about tonight's session is that we would have loved Ed to have stayed and talked with us longer.

We are nearing the end of our foster training. One more class to go and then graduation! The class has been moved to Monday, which is fine with us. It's my birthday that day. Then, Tuesday is Jeff's and my wedding anniversary. That's also the date of our state inspection.

We have been discussing our vehicle situation. We don't think that there is anyway around it. A mini-van is somewhere in our future.

It's 11:30PM. I was going to try to work, but I'm beat. Time for an early bedtime. Signing off...

Joe-Bama

Jeff had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon near my parents' house. In the car, I asked Henry who the Veep was, and he said "Joe-Bama!" Saying Obama's name and derivations thereof is his most current obsession.

Henry and I dropped Jeff off at the doctor's office. Henry spent some time with Grammy. Drank three bottles, while I picked Jeff up. Then, we picked up Henry and headed home. Henry was very cute at Grammy's. I asked him who I should kiss. He said, "Dada." So I gave Jeff a kiss. I asked again who I should kiss. Again, Henry said, "Dada." I kissed Jeff again, at which point Henry says, "Kiss Henry!" So very, very cute. I have to savor these moments while I can.

Henry played with Jeff and read lots of books. They took a nap for about an hour and a half in the late afternoon. I'm still working on manuscripts.

Henry ran all over the house in the evening. He was quite the energizer bunny. We worked on jumping. We're pretty sure that Henry knows four colors: blue, red, yellow, and green. I'd ask him for a certain color ball from the ball pit, and he'd retrieve it. He had a bath and then Jeff took him to bed. Sounds like they are asleep now.

I forgot to mention that over the weekend, we had another "Can Henry read?" moment. Jeff was watching the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, which took place not far from here. Henry was watching it too and started staying "ATT, ATT, ATT." Jeff had no idea what he was talking about. Then, Jeff looked at the television screen, and there was an AT&T advertisement on one of the holes. Coincidence? We have had a string of very weird moments just like this. I googled "gifted babies" about a month ago. There was a quotation that basically said that babies are born geniuses and then we (meaning parents, family, and caregivers) spend six years undoing their potential (that's rather a depressing thought). I suspect that Henry would benefit from a strong preschool experience. Jeff and I need to visit the Accelerated Learning Lab (ALL) and see what that's like. The ALL is a charter elementary through junior high school, but they also have a preschool. We've avoided daycare for obvious reasons. And I'd like to get him potty trained before sending him off. We haven't made any effort on the potty training, other than buying him a bilingual Elmo potty (cheers in English and Spanish). I figure that Henry will tell us when he's ready.

Tired Boy

We went to Joel's on Sunday morning. Had a lovely breakfast. Henry walked around the courtyard. We ran into our friend Carolyn and her daughter Adelyn. Adelyn is having a 1 year birthday party in two weeks, and Henry is invited. That should be fun.

Henry refused to take a nap, although he fell asleep in the car on the way home. He didn't want lunch either. So he played. He ended up taking a nap around 4:15PM, but Jeff didn't want it to mess up his bedtime, so he woke him up around 5:15PM to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner. He was pretty cranky when Jeff woke him up.

He kept Grandma and Grandpa busy as usual. He had lots of book reading requests. They dropped him back at the house around 8:30PM. No signs of sleepiness. We gave him a bath. He managed to throw a full cup of water at me. I can't remember what time we finally got him to bed, but it took a long time for him to settle down. 10:45PM or something. Yeeish. How are we going to handle that and another child or two from foster care?

On Monday, Jeff had a doctor's appointment in the morning. I got up and managed to take a shower without waking Sleeping Beauty who was stacked out completely. I got ready for work. Alicia and Karina had already arrived. As I was packing up my laptop, Prince Henry emerged from the bedroom. He transitioned well (relatively speaking) to Alicia, but he was clearly irked that Daddy wasn't around as he arose.

I left for work at 8AM. Around 2:30PM, I decided to head home b/c I wanted to see Henry before Grandma took him to her house. He played at Grammy's and had dinner there. Then, Jeff picked him up. The grandparents reported that Henry had macaroni and banana for dinner, but he refused the corn souffle, which he enjoyed several times the previous week. The boys got home around 8:30PM, and Henry was already passed out. I sneaked in some snuggle time with him. He woke up for a brief spell and demanded a bottle. Unusual.

We took him off Prevacid a couple weeks ago. We've been hoping that this time is the charm. So far, so good. It seems like the last couple days, his milk intake as increased a lot. And he is waking up with substantially wetter diapers than before. We don't know if that's Prevacid related or not.

Signing off from the Wild Kingdom...

22 Months Old Actual

On Friday afternoon, I played with Henry while Jeff addressed a work call. We dropped off Henry at my parents. We ended up celebrating our anniversary by going to see "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" (it was the movie that was playing at the right time). It wasn't a bad B comedy. We were a bit disappointed that many of the films we really wanted to see were already out of the theaters. We then ordered a pizza for take out and went to Trader Joe's before it closed. Picked up Henry and headed home. Henry took awhile to get to sleep. Jeff and I ended up watching a second movie that we had recorded on our DVR. "Juno" is an excellent film. And that was our anniversary...16 years since our first date. Not exactly the most romantic of anniversaries, but maybe we'll do a little better for our wedding anniversary (after the state home inspector leaves).

Henry was his active self at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandpa got bitten by Wembley (one of Erin and Brian's dogs) while he was trying to rescue one of Henry's toys from doggie destruction. It was a pretty decently deep bite, but luckily it didn't look like it would require stitches.

As today (Saturday) is the last day of February, that makes Henry 22 months old (actual).

Henry had breakfast at home. Last week, he requested "pancakes" at every meal. But he decided to reject them today. I had to work on my manuscript, so we didn't go to Joel's. I read a couple books with Henry in the morning. One was "Minnie and the Magic Grinder" (one of my favorites when I was a tot).

Jeff took Henry to the park and zoo. Jeff reported that our son is very much an extrovert. It was a beautiful day. He said that Henry had a great time running back and forth between the lion exhibit and the otter exhibit. He was a little bit scared, however, of the gibbons. Jeff got back around 1:30-2PM. One would have thought that Henry would have been exhausted. We tried to get him down for a nap for about a 1/2 hour. We gave up. Tried to get him to eat lunch while we all watched a taped Wildcats basketball game from a little earlier in the day. But no. He had other ideas.

Around 5:30PM, Jeff took Henry to my parents' for dinner. We figured that they'd have better success getting him to eat. And they did. Macaroni and cheese souffle, plus he drank three bottles. He has been saying the word "macaroni" a lot. Apparently, this evening, he told Grandma "Macaroni tomorrow," so that she'll plan ahead and have his current favorite on hand.

They returned Henry to us around 8:30PM. He had a bath. We watched some of Thomas the Tank Engine. And then it was time for bed. He is snuggling with Jeff now.

The big news for me personally is that I've decided to stop pumping. Today marked my last set of interludes with Suckie (Medela Lactina Select #974197). On Tuesday, I had a really long day at work. Wasn't able to pump. That took a huge toll on my already dwindling milk supply. I talked with Jeff about whether or not I should quit pumping or continue for the next two months. He said that he was going to suggest to me that I stop, but I think that he was glad that I brought up the idea first. On Wednesday, I only pumped twice (once in the morning, once at night). Probably pumped about 60 mls for the day. I was actually thinking that I could just pump twice a day and maybe that would be OK. Today, I pumped in the morning and got about an ounce. I tried pumping early this evening, and only pumped about 10 mls. I think that my body was telling me that it was time to stop. I went for a lovely walk as the sun was setting. And it just seemed like a fitting end. So I cleaned and packed up the pump that I've been renting from the hospital. This is the second breast pump that I've rented b/c the motor was making weird sounds on the first one a couple months ago (overuse perhaps!). In some ways, I wish that I had it in me to see Henry through to April on breast milk. Even small amounts of breast milk provide antibodies. But something would have give to increase the dwindling supply (i.e., lots more sessions per day, which would mean less time with Henry and less time on my work). In any event, I've made the decision to stop. I've done a pretty good job pumping as long as I have. And there is a sense of relief knowing that it is done.

The Long Nap

Yesterday, I had meeting at school. As I left, Henry had a meltdown between me leaving and Karina stealing the radio he was holding. She tends to take his things and be kind of grabby.

I called Project Amor to find out what had happened with Henry's OT visits and why they weren't logged into the system. According to Rosie (a supervisor), she says that Henry is approved for 12 more OT visits between now and October. So that leaves a big question mark as to why Cuyler and her Mealtimes associates noted that he wasn't approved. I'm call today to sort things out with Mealtimes.

Jeff took care of Henry after Alicia left. Alicia had taken the kids to the bedroom at 10AM as usual, but they didn't settle down until noon. Henry didn't wake up from his nap until 4:30PM...and that was because Jeff prodded him to get up.

Henry and I read several books in the afternoon. He seemed more interested in that than in going for the walk. We didn't make it outside until dusk. We ran into Hal. He told me the medical school changed their grading to a pass/fail system and got rid of the honors designation (because it made less than stellar students feel bad). Perhaps this is why doctors don't work very hard once they get into practice. They are not challenged to excel, so why change poor habits once they are practicing? They seem OK with being average (Hey, I know 70% of the information! That should be good enough!).

Henry had dinner while watching a little bit of the Wildcats (truly awful performance against WSU). We gave him a bath and took him to bed at halftime (recorded the game on the DVR). He wouldn't settle down. Jeff took him to rock in the chair, but then he started yelling for mommy. I finally told Jeff to go and eat his dinner and then we'd switch. But Henry was so upset about Jeff leaving the room that he threw up all over the carpet. Lovely.

Got up. Let Henry sit in Jeff's lap while watching the Wildcats bomb. Then, Jeff took Henry to bed (Round 2). I did some things around the house. Had to knock on the bedroom door around 1:30AM to be let into the bedroom as Jeff had put the lock on the door (so Henry wouldn't escape).

Today marks 16 years since Jeff's and my first date (blind date). So we'll be toasting BJ and Dave at dinner tonight for making the match. The tentative plan is to go to the movies and then go for a quick dinner or just appetizers and drinks. Then Jeff is going to Costco after dinner with my parents (a wild Friday night).

Foster/Adoption Training -- Day 14

Henry has been going through major separation anxiety episodes every since Alicia and Karina came back. He is having tantrums that are just not like him.

I was feeling sick today. Still am. So I didn't go with Jeff to class tonight. Basically, he learned that being a foster parent is going to change our lives. I don't think that's exactly a newsflash. [What! Our lives will be changed?!? Oh, OK, I guess we shouldn't do it then.] Neither of us expects that it will be easy. And we frankly don't know how long we'll do foster care. But we know that someone needs to step up. Some situations require more than mailing a check to charity. Money often isn't the answer. People power is. I'll have to make up tonight's class some time in the next few weeks.

Henry ate a lot at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Jeff went through a series of questions with him on politicians. He even knows Kyl now! Who is the President? Obama. Who is the Veep? Joe Biden. Who is the Secretary of Veterans Affairs? Shinseki. Who is the Senator? Kyl.

When they came home, Henry was wide awake. He managed to turn off my laptop. After looking at some 0-tube together (Pooh's Lullabee), he was ready for bed. He's snuggled against Jeff now. Jeff has to get up and do some work. We'll see if it is possible for him to extract himself from Henry.

In other news, my co-authored book with Hardy and Jamieson is now under contract with Oxford University Press. The contract is in the mail. That's good news. Just wish I felt physically better to savor the moment. Alas, I'm sick, and I still have piles of work to do.

That's it from the Wild Kingdom. Until tomorrow...

Shapes

Henry woke up very upset Tuesday morning when Jeff attempted to get out of bed. He had a full meltdown. Alicia and Karina returned today. When I tried to walk past the kitchen to get to the garage, I said goodbye b/c Henry saw me. Another full meltdown. Alicia tried to distract him by going through shapes. It sounds like Henry knows circle, square, triangle, and star.

Jeff and Henry spent the afternoon reading and playing.

I didn't get home until 7PM. Had to stop by the grocery store on the way back from school.

I made Henry pierogies from TJ's. Henry ate a bunch of other stuff that Jeff gave him too.

He was obviously a very tired little boy. So he had a bath, we looked at "pics," and it was off to bed. Made me sad not to get to spend much time with him today. But that's pretty much going to be the week as I have a couple deadlines to meet by week's end. :(