This week

Let's see, I'll recap some of the highlights of this week.

Wednesday, Blake stayed home from work because of the snow and ice. In the afternoon, he took Nate out to play in the snow. I don't have any snowpants for Nate because we usually don't get too many good snows, so I dressed him in a pair of pajama pants and a pair of water-resistant type pants on over them. I thought it would be fine as long as he didn't just sit in the snow. What did he want to do? Sit in the snow. A half hour after I sent them out, I went out to find Nate having a great time sitting in the snow and throwing it all around, usually in his own face. His pants were soaking wet! I brought him back in (while he screamed "Play in the snow!!!!!!") and his poor little legs were so cold and red. Time to buy snow pants! But he had a terrific time.

I asked Nate if he'd like to try some hot chocolate, which he's never had. Yes! He knows he loves chocolate! Hot chocolate sounded good. So I just made us some instant, poured it in his sippy cup, and let it cool down. He was excited to try it, but recoiled in HORROR when he tasted it! It was hilarious. Nate is a milk and water guy. I guess he's never had a warm drink before either, so that was too weird for him. He gave it one more sip, and he was done.

Yesterday was our experiment with having PT in the afternoon, after nap. Don't you know this stinker WOULD NOT take a nap?! I was so frustrated with him! But he didn't throw one single fit during PT! He does much better in the afternoons.

During PT, Nate is a ... creative problem-solver. That's a nice way of saying it. He can find any shortcut or easier way of doing something. At one point, the PT wanted Nate to walk by himself with just her legs behind him to steady him. So she put a toy in each of his hands and told him to bring the toys to me. First, he dropped the toys and grabbed the table to hold onto to walk to me. She told him, no, you need to take those toys to mama. So he stumbled along a few steps and when he got pretty close, he just threw the toys at me! Ha! I certainly wasn't expecting that, and I don't think I would have thought of doing that myself. He's a smart kid--too smart for his own good sometimes.

Last night I went to play Bunco with some women in the neighborhood, and Nate went to visit Brian, Sunny, and Dakota, whom he LOVES. They said that Nate wanted to play trains (big shocker) and wanted to use their coffee table as the train tunnel. So he got down on the floor trying to decide how to crawl under the table, and after a few tries finally figured out how to crawl under there. Once he was under the table, he got excited, tried to raise up quick, and bumped his head. They had to pull him out. Then he thought he'd be really smart and trick the table by turning around and backing up under it. He was so excited when he got underneath that he tried to raise up and bumped his head again!! Silly boy!

Hippotherapy is cancelled today because they still don't have power. It looks like we got some more snow, so I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere today. Have a good weekend!

RV and Boat Show

Blake hyped Nate up for the RV and Boat Show by telling him there would be boats and that we would see fish. I wasn't so sure there would be fish there, so I thought that was a little dangerous to promise. When we got there, I think Nate was a little confused because he expected the boats to be in water--makes sense. But he did enjoy seeing the boats. In fact, while we were looking at campers, he kept saying "Back to the boats! See the boats!"

Finally we did find a big long tank with about 25 bass in it (where a professional fisherman gave fishing lessons throughout the day). We were able to go right up to the tank, and Nate was at first excited to see the fish. "Wook! Fish! Dare swimmin, swimmin in the water!" But then something about them started scaring him. He was cringing and shuddering, especially when one would swim fast. So we talked about the fish and how they weren't scary and what they were doing. He said, "It's a mama and a daddy and a baby fish! Wook, the baby's swimmin! Ooh, baby fish is very scary! Scary fish! Swimmin fast!" And then a few minutes later ... "Dare wonderful."

I've been slacking on the updates this week. I've been so exhausted that I've just been surviving for the most part. :) I'm almost out of the first trimester, so hopefully I'll get a little energy back here in a few weeks.

There were a few cute things I wanted to get down though.

Sometime last week, Nate was sitting at his train table saying "It's wonderful! It's wonderful!" I don't know where he picked that up, but it sounds funny coming from a 2 year old. Same for what he said a couple days ago when eating something off of Blake's plate: "It's dewicious! Dewicious!" Ha! And Blake told me this morning when he gave Nate his pancakes, Nate said, "It's hot. Be careful!" Then touched them and repeated, "Dare hot, be careful." I think that one might come from once last week when I totally burnt his mouth with some hot peas and he was so upset that he wouldn't eat anymore. I felt terrible. Now he's learned his lesson that you can't trust your parents to not give you food that's too hot!

Nate's PT sessions are getting progressively worse. This time he started his tantrums at the beginning and wouldn't do a thing during the whole session. It's so frustrating to see Nate crying while she continues to make him work (which I don't blame her for--I know that's what she needs to do) and also that it feels like each week that he is so resistant is almost a wasted week of PT. He ages out of early intervention in June, and I'm not sure what kind of therapies he's going to be able to get after that. So I want to make the most of what we have while we have it. I've asked Dee to come in the afternoon this week to see if he acts better after his nap. But in the meantime, I think I've figured out part of the problem. Nate is getting in his 2 year molars! That would explain why he has wanted his paci so much this week and why he has been such a bear. I'll give him a dose of motrin before PT this week. :)

I think we're going to the RV and Boat Show today. We've been pretty much every year when it's been in Louisville since we've been married. I think it's mostly Blake who is the big dork and I just go along. :) We'll see how Nate likes it this year.

1. This morning, Nate coughed and said "Es-snooze Me." (excuse me)

2. A little later I was doing laundry and heard Nate fake laughing for a really long time. I walked in the kitchen to see him looking at his reflection in the refridgerator door, and he said to himself, "You're so funny!"

3. We went out in the snow, and Nate midly enjoyed it.

4. We tried out the walking sticks, and Nate took several steps on his own with them! He didn't like it, but he did it. Not sure if Miss Dee (PT) is going to approve of these walking sticks because of how they fit on his arms, but it would be really neat if he could start walking with them.

5. At a friend's suggestion, a month or so ago I applied for The Littlest Heroes Project. It's a volunteer organization that pairs amazing photographers with "little heroes" who are going through or have been through a tough medical experience. We found out a couple days ago that we were accepted! This photographer is AMAZING. And she's super nice. She'll be "shooting" us on March 26, and it's all free! Now I just have to figure out a good location for our photo shoot. I'm soooo excited about this!

Church this morning

This morning after I dropped Nate off at Sunday School, I walked by the window where I could see in his room. Poor Nate was sitting in the floor with his lip puckered out like he had lost his best friend. :( The teacher had sat him in the floor for just a second to go get some tape to tape his sticker on his shirt better. I don't know if he was sad because I had left him a few seconds before that, or the room was just overwhelming, or what. He kept that lip puckered out--it looked like he was trying hard to not cry. And I probably looked the same way standing out in the hallway! My crazy pregnancy hormones have me a mess. :) Well, the teacher saw him looking upset and took him over to get him interested in a toy, so I figured he'd be fine.

But for the first 10 minutes of church, I was worried about him, so I decided to go back and check on him through the window. Sure enough, he was sitting in the teacher's lap with his lip still puckered out. Poor guy. Then he looked up and SAW ME and started bawling! I thought it was a mirror inside, but I asked someone in the hallway how much they could see, and he said it's tinted but in certain lights they can see people outside. Oops!!! I went in the pick up/drop off area to ask how he was doing, and they said he seemed tired and was tearing up easily. I told them there was a paci in his bag, and the teacher said she was going to go get him a blanket and let him lay down. They said they would flash his number on the screen in the worship service if he continued being upset.

When we picked him up, the teacher said he didn't really want to color or play or even eat his snack (!) and he just sat there in her lap most of the time. I don't know what got into him. But when he saw me, he said, "Hi, Mama! Church fun! Play with bubbles!" Hmmm. Then we went out for lunch, and Nate was a HAM! He was cruising around in his walker and got lots of smiles and head pats and comments about how well he was doing in his walker. :) When we got home he took a very long nap. Hopefully he was just tired and is not coming down with something. He has seemed happy all evening.

Because of his long nap, we didn't get a chance to go to the train show again. Darn. :)

Big Day!

Nate was so excited about today! Since last night, he had been talking about playing soccer, seeing Granna and Pop, and the train show. This morning I asked him if he wanted to go to soccer, and he said, "No. Train show." :) But he went with me anyway, and my parents met us there.

Nate got to try out his new walker at soccer today. He's still pretty wobbly because of the swivel wheels, but he'll get used to it.

Today happened to be "balloon day" at soccer--they have the kids try to keep a balloon up in the air as long as possible without their hands. Well, as many of you know, Nate should not be around latex balloons because people with spina bifida are more prone to a latex allergy. So I pulled Nate off the field for that portion of the class, and thanks to Granna and Pop being there to play with, he didn't get upset about it at all. We were able to go back on the field just in time for the obstacle course!

After lunch and a nap, Nate got a wardrobe change to his train shirt, and we headed downtown to the convention center. Of course, Nate was in HEAVEN at the train show. There were big model trains and small ones, really elaborate set ups and some simple. It was so funny--most of the time there, he was so serious and interested, he barely smiled. He acted like this was his job! :) But his favorite trains were this guy's fairly large trains all set up right on the floor so kids could gather around and get really close. I think he could have sat there all day and been happy.

He got a new engine for his train table--Percy, who he played with for the rest of the day. And he also got his picture taken sitting on Thomas! The photographer also gave each kid a conductor hat, bandana, and wooden train whistle (all for the ridiculous price of $20!!!!). Nate was intensely interested in all of this, but did not feel the need to smile, no matter how much the whole family made fools out of ourselves. But I love the picture anyway, because he looks just like his daddy! There's a picture of Blake as a child with this exact same face! There is no doubt this is Blake's mini-me.

(This is a picture of a picture.)

With our ticket today, we got a handstamp, and we're thinking about going back tomorrow after church. :) I personally had my fill of the train show, but I think Nate could go there every day.

Friday

I haven't had much to report in the way of funny conversations this week, but I'll update on what's going on with Nate.

Wednesday morning, Dee the PT came for her weekly visit. Remember, the previous week she had said no more crawling, and I think we did a great job of increasing Nate's walking in the house. This week Dee was really impressed with how much stronger Nate feels and looks when he's walking holding onto one hand and when she's prompting him to stand on his own. He really is getting much stronger and more stable. He still views standing by himself as a game. I think he could do it for a few seconds, but the instant you let go of him, he collapses on purpose. Not sure how to get over that.

Nate also got a "new" (to him) walker this week. A friend of ours donated it to us since her son started walking independently and no longer needs it. It has front swivel wheels, which will make it easier for him to maneuver on his own when he's out. I don't particularly like using it in the house, because I can see it's going to scratch up our walls and baseboards! So we'll probably have that one in the trunk of the car for using while we're out and use the old one inside. The new one is a little bigger, and it's clean without all the stickers and streamers like his other one. It's kind of "big boy" and I don't really like that! I might need to add a few stickers. :)

As many of you know, Nate has "sensory processing disorder." It's really confusing to explain, but it affects many different areas, including eating/brushing teeth (he is slighly orally defensive), walking (it's like he's afraid to be off the ground), and behavior (he gets overwhelmed easily and "melts" ... even more than most 2 year olds). He has these issues most likely because he was premature. Fortunately, it's something that we can fix, and he's already improved greatly over the last few months with the simple things we're doing to help him process his senses better. The one thing I have not been successful with is "brushing." I have this special little brush, and I'm supposed to brush it over his arms, hands, back, legs, and feet, then do "joint compressions" where I basically squeeze all his joints together. It seems really wierd when I explain it, but he really enjoys it. It calms him down, and it might also help him feel more comfortable standing and walking. The problem is that I'm supposed to do it every 2 hours! All day! For 2-4 weeks. After that, we should see results in his behavior and maybe other areas, and the changes are permanent. The problem is, I cannot keep up with this schedule! I just forget to do it. So starting yesterday, I have set the alarm on my phone for every two hours, and yesterday I did really well. Interestingly, Nate did really well too! I think it helped him. So I really want to keep this up for the 2-4 weeks to see what we can accomplish. I could use some prayers to help me keep up with it!

Speaking of Nate doing well yesterday ... I got up the courage to take him to the grocery store. I haven't taken him by myself in well over a month (ever since the post about him screaming through the store), but yesterday it was just necessary. Before we went in, I told Nate that I expected him to behave himself, and there would be no crying or tantrums in the store. He said okay. Inside, he started to get upset a few times, but when I reminded him of our no-crying agreement, he stopped! I was pleasantly shocked. :) We even had to wait in a long line, and I think Nate handled it better than I did.

This afternoon we have hippotherapy, then tomorrow Granna and Pop are coming to watch Nate play soccer. After that, we're all going to a model train show that is here in Louisville this weekend! Nate is going to FREAK! I've mentioned it and he has asked to go to the "train show" a few times, but I don't think he knows how awesome this is going to be for him. They even have a little train for kids to ride on. I'm sure I'll have pictures to share from that.

Have a nice weekend!

What Nate said today:

I was sitting by him helping him eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and he was as usual talking about trains, tracks, engines, etc. I was half paying attention, but I heard him say something new.

Nate: Thomas and Percy. Dare friends.

Me: Huh? They're friends?

Nate: Dare friends. Trains.

What Buster said today:

Buster: Hi! I'm still here! Heart's beating away! Don't worry, mama!

This is a profile view. On the left is the baby tush, and on the right is the baby noggin. Yay! I had a routine OB appointment this morning, and to my surprise, my wonderful OB let me have another ultrasound to see the baby's heartbeat so my mind would be put to ease. I really like this doctor, and I'm glad I have someone I trust because this pregnancy is stressful in many ways. But now that I've seen the heartbeat (twice!) my risk of miscarriage is only like 3%, so that's one worry I'm putting behind me! We talked about the prenatal testing we'll do, and she said she'll deliver me by c-section at 37 weeks, which will be right around August 1.

Church, part 2

I was talking with Nate about what he did at church this morning, and it went like this:

Me: What did you do at church this morning? Did you read a story?
Nate: Uh!
Me: Did you color a picture?
Nate: Uh!
Me: Did you ... blow bubbles?!
Nate (lighting up): Pop! Pop! Pop 'em!
Me: Did you have a snack?
Nate: Yeah! Mmm, cookies!
Me: Did you .... play with blocks?
Nate (rubbing his head): It's okay. It's okay.

Ha! I laughed so hard that he started laughing too!

Church

We had a lazy morning and waited until the last minute to start getting ready for church. But as soon as we mentioned it, Nate was ready! Go to church! Go to church! Blake was bringing him upstairs to get ready, and I heard Nate say, "Come on! Let's go to church!"

After the service, Blake and I went to go pick Nate up from "Wing F" and while Blake was waiting in line, I walked around the halls until I found a window where I could see into Nate's room. Apparently it's a mirror inside the room, so he couldn't see me. He and another little boy were playing with a box with leggos in it, and Nate picked up the box and poured all the leggos over his own head! It must have hurt or at least scared him, because he started bawling. There were about 3 nursery workers in there, and they missed the split second when it happened, so all of them rushed over to him to see if he was okay and ask what happened, and one picked him up to hug him. They were so attentive and tried everything to get him to stop crying. Finally, one of them found a Thomas the Train engine, and the tears dried up quick! Then they immediately had to take it away because Blake was there to pick him up, and he started bawling again. It was way past naptime! They said he was happy the whole time until just at the end. But I was so glad to get that little glimpse into his room to see that the staff really is wonderful with the kids! I think I'll be checking out that window more often from now on to see him playing with the other kids.

He's already correcting me.

Conversations from last night:

Nate: Mama?
Me: Yes?
Nate: Yes, PWEASE.

Okay, he's two! He shouldn't be correcting me yet!


Nate: Go night night.
Me: Oh, do you want to go night night?
Nate: No, train.
Me: Hmm, okay.
Nate (pretending to go to bed): Night night, Nate. (stroking his hair like I do) Love you.

Awwwww!

Conversations from today:

This morning we were looking at a picture book, and I showed him a picture of a baby crying. Nate started petting the picture and said, "It's okay! It's okay, baby." How sweet is that!

And just a few minutes ago, his tractor ran into a chair. Nate said, "It's okay, tractor. It's okay!" He's so reassuring these days!

It's Okay. I got this.

Every morning, Blake goes into Nate's room to get him out of his crib, and he makes Nate stand up in the crib before he gets him. Just about every morning I hear Nate on the monitor saying, "Oh, I stuck!" and Blake tells him it's okay and he gets un-stuck. This morning Nate slept in and I went to get him out of his crib as Blake was leaving for work. I said, "Stand up!" He rolled over, got stuck on his arm, and just as I was expecting him to say he was stuck, he put his hand up and said, "It's okay, it's okay!" and then stood up. Hahaha.

He had hippotherapy this afternoon, and first of all, I was amazed at Nate maneuvering his walker. He's been using it since September, but he still always needed help turning it--the wheels don't swivel, so he actually has to lift it up a little and turn it. I've seen him do it a few times when he REALLY wants to get somewhere, but for the most part, he walks straight as long as he can, and then I turn him before he runs into a wall or person or street. However, this week I've been making him walk in his gait trainer around the house, and it does have swivel wheels (it's just really heavy and doesn't collapse, so we don't take it anywhere), so I guess he got used to turning on his own. So today at hippo, Nate was slinging that walker around every which way. He also walked quite a ways backwards for no real reason. Very impressive.

Anyway, during the OT portion of hippotherapy, they were having him blow on a few different whistles. One was shaped like a boat, and wouldn't you know it, sounded just like a train. So he didn't want to put it down and started naming all his trains for Miss Katie. "Thomas, Percy, James ..." I thought, Oh lord, I can't get away from it! :)

Why do I take him to the mall?

Nate hadn't been out of the house for a couple days, and I had a few returns to make, so we headed to the mall(s) this evening. We first went to Macy's to return a maternity sweater that had a hole in it, and after getting Nate out of the car and set up in his stroller and walking over every square inch of Macy's, an employee told me they don't even have a maternity department. Grr. I also had returns to make at JCPenney, but of course that's at a different mall! I loaded Nate back up, then unloaded him again at Penney's, took the elevator to the right floor, and found what I was looking for. That's when Nate decided he wanted to walk. So I got the walker out and he took off! He had a great time running, then slowing down to look at the shiny jewelry, then running some more, then telling me "This way!" over and over until I would follow him.

Then he saw the escalator. Apparently, Nate has never noticed escalators before. Probably because we always use elevators with the stroller and all. He stood there just staring at it with this awe-struck smile on his face. We talked about what it was for a little while, and Nate was attracting a small crowd with his cuteness. A woman came down the escalator, and when she got to the bottom, Nate cheered for her: "Yay!!!" I told her, "Good job!" :) After standing there for several minutes, I told Nate it was time to go find a shirt for Daddy and pushed him in the right direction several feet. He then said, "Back up" and started walking backwards in his walker until he got back to the escalator! I would have liked to take him on it, but it was just impossible with the stroller and the walker and our bags. Next time Blake is with us at the mall, I'm sure riding the escalators will occupy a lot of time.

Anyway, then he whined a lot and wanted to leave while I was finishing my shopping. Somehow when I was putting him in the stroller I just laid my purse down in the floor and left it there, and didn't notice until I was checking out. Fortunately, an employee had just found it when I got back to it, and we had to get to the back of the line to check out again. Oh, it was just loads of fun. I don't know why I try to take Nate along when I have actual shopping to do. I need to either leave him with Blake to go shop, or just take Nate to the mall to let him run around and ride escalators.

Oops, sorry!

This morning while I was giving Nate a bath, I accidentally knocked over his bathtub Dora castle. Nate says, "Castle! Sorry!" and picked it back up. :) Then later in the morning, he knocked over his milk and said to his cup, "Oops, sorry!" He is way more polite to his things than he is to most people!

The physical therapist came this morning. This is the second week that Nate has pretty much refused to do anything and cried most of the session. I think his allergies are making him feel bad, and the PT prompted me to remember that I had changed his medication from claritin to alavert because it was cheaper and supposedly the same thing, but now that I think about it, I don't think it's working. So back to the claritin we go, and hopefully that will fix this allergy issue.

Most of the time I'm a pretty tough mom about PT. Even when he's whining and refusing to do anything, we push right through. PT is time to work. But when he feels bad, that's so hard. We had to take a break to hug for a little bit. :( But I'm glad the PT pushes him. Nate never complained so much about PT before we got this latest person. Part of it may be his age, but I think most of it is that she really pushes him. She has been so great for Nate.

Speaking of pushing him, our homework for this week is a toughie: No more crawling! :0 Say what? When we are out, he pretty much always walks except for long distances. But at home, his walker is kind of bulky and not easy to maneuver. But the PT wants us to make him either use his walker or walk holding onto one hand at all times. As daunting as this sounds, I do think it's exactly what he needs, and I was even thinking this morning before the PT got here that I don't make him walk as much as he should around the house. So we'll give it our best try.

Nate's joke

Nate is sitting in his tent, and I just heard him yelling:

KNOCK KNOCK!!!! (giggle)
WHO'S THERE!!!! (giggle)
BOO WHO!!!! (giggle)
WHATCHA CRYIN BOUT!!!! (giggle)

Oh, and I forgot to say yesterday that Nate tinkled a little in his potty! I have him sit on the potty after his bath while I read him a potty book. When he got off the potty, I said, "Nate! You went pee pee in the potty!!!!" He looked in and seemed just as surprised as I was. :) It was just an accident, but it was still a little exciting (for me ... Nate was not impressed).

Nate went to "school" today and was, as usual, having such a good time that he didn't want to come home. Today they were playing in this big tub of rice with shovels and funnels. This is Nate's idea of heaven. I tried telling him it was snowing outside (well, it was flurrying when I left the house, so a half-truth), that we would go home and play with trains, etc., but he still cried when I pulled him away from the rice. Miss Leslie told him he could play with it next week, and he kept repeating, "Next week. Next week. Next week." That seemed to make him feel better. When we got out to the car, he sat in the back jabbering away. "School fun! ... Play with rice ... spoon, shovel ... Next week ... Play with rice ... School fun!" He cracked me up!

When we got home, I asked Nate if he wanted to check the mail with me, and he was very excited. I made him hold only one of my hands, which he doesn't really like to do, but it helps if I say "Chugga chugga, chugga chugga, choo choo!" I think it gives him rhythm or something. :) We went to get the mail then came back up to the car (this took several minutes) and Nate said, "We did it!"

A couple new things Nate is saying ... He continues to experiment with putting words together, so now just instead of asking for help, he asks, "Help you?" Um, he has his pronouns a little mixed up, but it's pretty funny.

And with some prompting, his latest saying is "Big Brudder!" :) For those who don't know, Nate will be a big brother next August! Yay! Here's a bad picture of his little brother or sister. Before we knew Nate was a boy and had picked out a name for him, we called him Cletus. So we had to come up with a good name for this baby too. Introducing ... Buster. We saw a little heartbeat last week. :)

Some pictures from Christmas

I've been having problems uploading pictures, but I'll give it another try. Here are some of my favorites from Christmas.

At the SB holiday party

Eating Santa's cookies

Uh!

I haven't updated this week because I thought I would spare you from more train talk. All day long we play with trains, watch trains on TV, sing songs about trains ... you get the idea.

Nate recently picked up the annoying habit of saying "Uh!" in a really whiny voice when he's not happy about something. It's especially annoying because I know he can say "No thank you" or just plain "No" or even suggest what he wants instead. But I guess he can see that "Uh!" is driving us crazy, so he's sticking with it. It goes something like this: "Nate, let's change your diaper." "Uh!" "Nate, time to turn off the train and take a nap." "Uh!" Well, Blake has found the cure to "Uh!" A couple days ago, he was saying to Nate:

Blake: Nate, do you love Daddy?
Nate: Uh!
Blake: Can you say, Love you, Daddy?
Nate: Uh!
Blake: Do you want a snack!
Nate: Snack!
Blake: Okay, then, can you say, Love you, Daddy?
Nate: Love you, Daddy!!

Nate has been watching Blake play the Wii sometimes lately, and he really gets into it. He cheers for him and says "Oh no!" when he messes up. Once, Blake fell off a cliff and Nate cried. :) Blake likes having a cheerleader.

Earlier today, just out of the blue, Nate said so sweetly "Whatcha doin, Daddy?" Awww. He loves having his daddy here on holidays.