Over the past almost 27 months, we have met quite a variety of healthcare providers in dealing with various oddities for our lil guy; fortunately, none of them for threatening health matters.
There was the time he saw a physical therapist at the age of 3 1/2 months because of a mild case of torticollis. And then there was the ENT doctor who removed a cyst from his tongue on the day of the power outage (they sent us home to house with no power which had no power or heat in the dead of winter for 3 days!) We've met with speech and occupational therapists, and even last week we met with a fantastic pediatric neurologist who spent an hour with us explaining with great detail his insights on facing a neurological developmental expressive speech delay. My tongue gets tangled even trying to say that last one.
And today we had another interesting experience, which Colin found to be so much fun: he met with an audiologist to have his hearing checked. This is a routine recommendation for kiddos with speech delays and who also had jaundice as an infant.
I was curious as to how they test kids this young, as it's not like they will raise their hand when they hear a sound. So...we sat in a sound booth and they projected sounds from either the right or left corner. When he looked towards a sound, he was rewarded with a very brief animation on a screen the direction of the sound. It is a bit of a game that rewards him for looking the direction of the noise.
This kind of conditioning with the animation was a huge hit for Colin and at one point he was so tickled that he turned around and gave me a huge hug (he was sitting in my lap) as if to say, "Thanks for the cool play date!" He was jabbering with excitement through much of the session, so the audiologist had to pause until he was being quiet enough to listen for the fainter sounds.
All is well with his hearing (as we suspected), but we didn't want to be the parents who didn't have his hearing checked and then in kindergrden learn he can't hear his teacher. Now we know!
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The "Fleecing" of Summer
Tonight we put our son to sleep in his winter PJ's. I think I have given up on his short sleeved PJs! Fleece, people! I put my son to bed on the night of July 31 in fleece!
We were at a playdate at a beach park yesterday and it looked like a scene from late October. Colin and his friend were each wearing their jackets (and pants, of course) and the other little boy was wearing a light knit stocking cap.
Umh, can someone please tell the weatherman that it's August 1 tomorrow?
We were at a playdate at a beach park yesterday and it looked like a scene from late October. Colin and his friend were each wearing their jackets (and pants, of course) and the other little boy was wearing a light knit stocking cap.
Umh, can someone please tell the weatherman that it's August 1 tomorrow?
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Colin Update
Our little guy is nearing 27 months old and I thought I'd update you on some of his favorite activities, etc., since it seems to constantly change. Here are a few of Colin's latest pleasures in life:
1) BUG CATCHING: We got Colin a bug catcher and container for Easter and were never sure when he would find much use for it. Last week Matt introduced bug catching to him one evening and he hasn't been the same since. In the evenings he goes to the back door and says, in question format, "Bug? Bug?" The most fun critter to catch is currently a grasshopper. They hop away but pause long enough to be re-caught. The ones in our yard are less than an inch long, but they are oh so much fun to go after. He picks them up and stuffs them in his container, and I won't guarantee they retain all of their legs, but he loves them, nonetheless.
2) SHARK ATTACK: One of his favorite animals is a shark. Not sure why, but he loves imitating the biting action of these fierce warriors of the sea. He saw them in person at Sea World and has talked about them daily since that trip last month. He even has a shark toy for his bathtub (2, actually) and a shark t-shirt. Chomp, chomp!
3) EATING LOTS: A friend recently asked us when he started his growth spurt. We thought of responding that we don't think he's ever stopped. We hear some toddlers survive on thin air, but we don't happen to have one of those toddlers. Ours ate dinner for over 1 1/2 hours tonight and ate 1 1/2 grilled chicken thighs, 3 breakfast sausages, one corn on the cob, Caesar salad, some carrots, half a piece of Naan bread, half a glass a glass of milk, and I can't remember what else. Where did he put it all?!!
4) BOB and DORA: He LOVES to listen to either his Boyz in the Sink CD or to Dora the Explorer. And he also likes his Veggie Tales Contemporary Christian Hits version of the Newsboys song, "Shine." He was singing along and waving his hands like a rock concert today after church. Cute; very cute!
5) COAT RACK SNAFU: Today at church he made quite a scene after snack time. He went and hung on the coat rack and the whole thing came tumbling town. He and others are fine, but can you believe he is dismantling his classroom? He loves to hang on anything, especially monkey bars. It's too bad that he chose to substitute his church coat rack for a monkey bar!
6.) FLOWERS: He enjoys picking flowers and smelling them, and is especially thoughtful at picking dandelions and other weeds to offer up to me. Very sweet and thoughtful!
1) BUG CATCHING: We got Colin a bug catcher and container for Easter and were never sure when he would find much use for it. Last week Matt introduced bug catching to him one evening and he hasn't been the same since. In the evenings he goes to the back door and says, in question format, "Bug? Bug?" The most fun critter to catch is currently a grasshopper. They hop away but pause long enough to be re-caught. The ones in our yard are less than an inch long, but they are oh so much fun to go after. He picks them up and stuffs them in his container, and I won't guarantee they retain all of their legs, but he loves them, nonetheless.
2) SHARK ATTACK: One of his favorite animals is a shark. Not sure why, but he loves imitating the biting action of these fierce warriors of the sea. He saw them in person at Sea World and has talked about them daily since that trip last month. He even has a shark toy for his bathtub (2, actually) and a shark t-shirt. Chomp, chomp!
3) EATING LOTS: A friend recently asked us when he started his growth spurt. We thought of responding that we don't think he's ever stopped. We hear some toddlers survive on thin air, but we don't happen to have one of those toddlers. Ours ate dinner for over 1 1/2 hours tonight and ate 1 1/2 grilled chicken thighs, 3 breakfast sausages, one corn on the cob, Caesar salad, some carrots, half a piece of Naan bread, half a glass a glass of milk, and I can't remember what else. Where did he put it all?!!
4) BOB and DORA: He LOVES to listen to either his Boyz in the Sink CD or to Dora the Explorer. And he also likes his Veggie Tales Contemporary Christian Hits version of the Newsboys song, "Shine." He was singing along and waving his hands like a rock concert today after church. Cute; very cute!
5) COAT RACK SNAFU: Today at church he made quite a scene after snack time. He went and hung on the coat rack and the whole thing came tumbling town. He and others are fine, but can you believe he is dismantling his classroom? He loves to hang on anything, especially monkey bars. It's too bad that he chose to substitute his church coat rack for a monkey bar!
6.) FLOWERS: He enjoys picking flowers and smelling them, and is especially thoughtful at picking dandelions and other weeds to offer up to me. Very sweet and thoughtful!
Berry Blast!
Today we went berry picking at the local U-Pick blueberry farm. We spent a "whopping" $1.44 and got a huge container of blueberries. It has been a mild summer and they are just turning blue -- it will be a great August for eating a huge number of healthy blueberries!
Our other berry bonanza is compliments of our wonderful neighbors. They are out of town for a week and we are cat and plant sitting. As a benefit of feeding sweet Sammy, we get to go and pick raspberries from their multitude of ripe berry bushes (lest they go to waste while they are away) and we are in berry heaven.
Colin likes to pick a raspberry and immediately eat it and say, "Mmmmmmmm!" And I agree!
Our other berry bonanza is compliments of our wonderful neighbors. They are out of town for a week and we are cat and plant sitting. As a benefit of feeding sweet Sammy, we get to go and pick raspberries from their multitude of ripe berry bushes (lest they go to waste while they are away) and we are in berry heaven.
Colin likes to pick a raspberry and immediately eat it and say, "Mmmmmmmm!" And I agree!
Grocery Shopping: One Slice of Heaven, Please!
When we moved here 5 years ago, my big complaint was that to get all I needed I had to shop at about 3 different grocery stores. No one store had all I needed for the week -- what a time waster! When we were in Indiana I shopped each week at the new Kroger and I knew the aisles so well that I could put my shopping list IN ORDER of the grocery aisles (way too organized back then -- I know. It was before kids and when we were on a grad school one income, so I knew exactly what we needed -- nothing more, and nothing less.) But here, I don't even know where many items are in stores I have shopped in for over 5 years because my shopping is so sporadic.
After 5 years of shopping around everywhere, I think I have found a little slice of heaven in the grocery shopping world. The Safeway in our downtown recently built a new larger concept store that is in the base of a multi-use facility (with apartments overhead), and this Safeway rocks! It has everything I need all in one trip. But here's the best part: I got in on a grand opening promotion and I get 10% off my entire grocery bill for 60 days. That's like a coupon good for over $80 for a 2 month period, people (as I figure I spend well over $400 a month on food these days...)!
For example, I bought some fillet mignon from their clearance beef area (a great bargain area -- just freeze if you can't use it in a day) and for 2 steaks I paid $6.54. Then I got a 10% discount on top of that. How cool is that?!!! And ohhhhhh was that fillet so super succulent tonight for dinner. Yummy!!
But the thing I love most about this new store, besides the selection and the discount, is that I can park in covered garage parking and get kiddo all "saddled up" to get to the store so I don't have to get wet during the rainy season, which starts in Oct and goes through, well, another 9 or 10 months, so it seems! This is HUGE for me, and I am so thrilled that we can avoid getting wet to go food shopping!
Since grocery shopping is an inevitable weekly outing for me, it's nice to have an upgraded slice of heaven compliments of Safeway!
After 5 years of shopping around everywhere, I think I have found a little slice of heaven in the grocery shopping world. The Safeway in our downtown recently built a new larger concept store that is in the base of a multi-use facility (with apartments overhead), and this Safeway rocks! It has everything I need all in one trip. But here's the best part: I got in on a grand opening promotion and I get 10% off my entire grocery bill for 60 days. That's like a coupon good for over $80 for a 2 month period, people (as I figure I spend well over $400 a month on food these days...)!
For example, I bought some fillet mignon from their clearance beef area (a great bargain area -- just freeze if you can't use it in a day) and for 2 steaks I paid $6.54. Then I got a 10% discount on top of that. How cool is that?!!! And ohhhhhh was that fillet so super succulent tonight for dinner. Yummy!!
But the thing I love most about this new store, besides the selection and the discount, is that I can park in covered garage parking and get kiddo all "saddled up" to get to the store so I don't have to get wet during the rainy season, which starts in Oct and goes through, well, another 9 or 10 months, so it seems! This is HUGE for me, and I am so thrilled that we can avoid getting wet to go food shopping!
Since grocery shopping is an inevitable weekly outing for me, it's nice to have an upgraded slice of heaven compliments of Safeway!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Texas Recap
Well we've officially been back from Texas a week today, and I am finally getting around to some detail to go with the pictures I posted.
Fortunately the weather in TX behaved and we managed to avoid any 100 degree days. I know I am a weakling, but I just don't think I could do a week straight of a heat wave!
Colin got to meet his cousins from Frisco, as they were still in town visiting from a long 4th of July holiday. I can see that over the years Colin and Tristin (2 years older) can go get into lots of "naughtiness" together there on the farm.
We also got to see my brother and his family, my grandparents, and my good childhood friend. Her daughter is going to be the panther mascot at the high school this coming year -- very exciting! She's matured into quite the young woman -- we even had discussion about where she will attend college in a year.
I also got to see a hs basketball teammate, as her wedding shower happened to be over the weekend I was there -- I hadn't seen this friend since we were all in Austin celebrating our 10 year state championship reunion, so it was great to catch-up. Her shower was like a bit of a reunion with many people, as I also saw cousins and teachers from my childhood. I was even called "Jean" by several of the women, which hadn't happened in a long time (that's my mom's name)....I just smiled an told them it was great to see them, as well. And I would imagine Mom spent many years being called "Vivian" -- I think that just comes with living someplace where people know you and your folks over the years.
~~
It was good to see everyone in Texas, though Colin was sure ready to return home to see his cat and his Daddy. This was the first time away that I could tell he missed his Dad. And apparently the cat missed us, too, as he howled at Matt each night for attention. I'll have to give that "howling" thing a try sometime.
Fortunately the weather in TX behaved and we managed to avoid any 100 degree days. I know I am a weakling, but I just don't think I could do a week straight of a heat wave!
Colin got to meet his cousins from Frisco, as they were still in town visiting from a long 4th of July holiday. I can see that over the years Colin and Tristin (2 years older) can go get into lots of "naughtiness" together there on the farm.
We also got to see my brother and his family, my grandparents, and my good childhood friend. Her daughter is going to be the panther mascot at the high school this coming year -- very exciting! She's matured into quite the young woman -- we even had discussion about where she will attend college in a year.
I also got to see a hs basketball teammate, as her wedding shower happened to be over the weekend I was there -- I hadn't seen this friend since we were all in Austin celebrating our 10 year state championship reunion, so it was great to catch-up. Her shower was like a bit of a reunion with many people, as I also saw cousins and teachers from my childhood. I was even called "Jean" by several of the women, which hadn't happened in a long time (that's my mom's name)....I just smiled an told them it was great to see them, as well. And I would imagine Mom spent many years being called "Vivian" -- I think that just comes with living someplace where people know you and your folks over the years.
~~
It was good to see everyone in Texas, though Colin was sure ready to return home to see his cat and his Daddy. This was the first time away that I could tell he missed his Dad. And apparently the cat missed us, too, as he howled at Matt each night for attention. I'll have to give that "howling" thing a try sometime.
Butter: Mmmmmm, Tasty!
So tonight I was on the phone with my college roomie, and we haven't talked by phone in maybe over a year. Wow -- where does the time go?
Anyhow, since I needed to call before it was too late central time and because Matt's still on a plane back from Hawaii, I gave Colin the ultimate babysitter while I was on the phone: Bob. Bob and Larry and the whole Veggie Tales crew to be more specific.
As the phone conversation drifted on, Colin came into the kitchen -- he had already eaten dinner, but that never stops curious hands from scavenging in the fridge. I went a few few times and rescued the cream cheese container from his hands and thought all was well.
At the end of my call I look down on the floor in front of the TV and wouldn't you know I failed to rescue a stick of butter. Yup, you got it! He managed to take about 5-6 bites out of the stick of butter and helped himself to his monthly allowance of cholesterol.
Mmmmmm, tasty. Didn't know he liked butter!
Anyhow, since I needed to call before it was too late central time and because Matt's still on a plane back from Hawaii, I gave Colin the ultimate babysitter while I was on the phone: Bob. Bob and Larry and the whole Veggie Tales crew to be more specific.
As the phone conversation drifted on, Colin came into the kitchen -- he had already eaten dinner, but that never stops curious hands from scavenging in the fridge. I went a few few times and rescued the cream cheese container from his hands and thought all was well.
At the end of my call I look down on the floor in front of the TV and wouldn't you know I failed to rescue a stick of butter. Yup, you got it! He managed to take about 5-6 bites out of the stick of butter and helped himself to his monthly allowance of cholesterol.
Mmmmmm, tasty. Didn't know he liked butter!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)