Hungry Harry

For breakfast today, he had:

3/4 cup Calcium/Vitamin D fortified OJ
1/2 cup applesauce mixed with 1 tablespoon baby oatmeal
1/2 cup watermelon slices
2 slices of French Toast with syrup

It must be growth spurt time again. The boy ate more than his pregnant mother this morning. Soon, I'll have three boys like this, counting hubby. Yikes.

Harry Joseph, Twenty Months

Dear Harry,

I didn't forget you this month! It is just that I have been with you 24/7 for the last 10 days. You were "helping" me at the library all last week and this week has been crammed with EI appointments and other fun things (house hunting!). I am home with you today, on the last day of Spring Break and so far, you have peed and pooped on Mommy & Daddy's bed. Both were diaper accidents (The pee was a faulty overnight disposable, but the poop was my fault. Mommy is clumsy changing you these days!) and we will be spending the afternoon washing linens. Good times!

You have had some fun firsts this month. You got your first haircut. You were getting very, shall we say, "fluffy" around the edges. As cute as that was, you hate having your hair washed, so it had to be cut. You screamed and squirmed and screamed some more, but it looks adorable. I think it is going to come in thick and curly now. Who can resist a little boy with blond curls?

You had your first ice cream cake for Daddy's birthday. You didn't like the crunchy cookie center (are you my child?) but you LOVED everything else about it. As you can see from the photo above, we had to throw you into the tub pretty quickly after that. Next day, when you pointed to the picture of a cake in your alphabet book, you looked at me and said, "Dada?" Yes, we had cake for Dada. And it was good.

You also have what might be your first lovey. At playgroup the last two weeks, your friend O has brought her Curious George doll. You love that monkey more than anything and kept taking it from her. We decided you should probably have your own, so we went to the Curious George Store in Cambridge to get you one. The store is hard to navigate with a stroller, so Daddy took you outside, while I explored. I found just the right one and bought it. When I took it out of the bag to give it to you, you got the biggest look of delight on your face. I wish I could have captured that on film. I'll never forget it. Since then, George has become a pretty regular presence around the house. He gets carried around, taken on walks, hugged, fed, put to bed and told stories. You have two other "friends" (Pooh Bear and Philly Joe Giraffe), but I think George is starting to edge them out. We'll see. You are nothing, if not unpredictable.

I'll write more about our EI (Early Intervention) adventures separately, but suffice to say that you are doing well so far. We should be starting a speech group shortly. I'm glad we are getting this started before your baby brother arrives. It will be nice for you to have your own thing to do that gets you some personal attention. That, plus some warm weather for lots of outside play will do you a world of good, while we have a newborn around.

You are now demanding I put the computer away, so I'll close by saying that you just get more and more fun to be around. Your boundless energy and cheerfulness are great to have around, despite the diaper accidents and tantrums. (I didn't get to those, did I?) We can't get enough of you (except at bedtime) and just love you to bits, little boy. I've got to go get you to stop banging on the furniture, so until next time, big hugs and kisses!

Love,
Mama

Early Intervention Adventures

On the advice of his pediatrician, the SLP (Speech Language Pathologist) at our developmental playgroup and friends and family who have been through it, we had Harry evaluated for Early Intervention, due to his lack of speech. At 18 months, he only had two words (still the same at nearly 20 months now). He has many sounds that mean things to him and a TON of signs, both real and made up, but no real spoken language.

In every developmental area in the evaluation, gross and fine motor, social and emotional interaction, perceptual, cognition and self care he scored above his age level. Then, there was communication. He scored 18 months for receptive language, which is age appropriate, but 11 months for expressive language, which is a significant delay. They loved all of his signs, but those did not count towards his evaluation, which in a way is good. If they had, he would not have qualified for help.

He qualifies for 6 months of speech therapy, which is all play based and happens here at home. He can also attend a weekly group with other children his age. They want us to continue using his signs with him and introduce more so that he has a means of expression until the verbal ability kicks in. And it will kick in, they assure us. At the end of 6 months, we will reevaluate and see where we stand.

In addition to working with the SLP, we are going to work with the Social Worker to try to give Harry (and us!) some tools to aid in getting him on a routine. Since he was born, this has been a HUGE struggle. He is very high energy and very "spirited" and we have a lot of difficulty getting him to unwind and sleep, especially since he weaned. His communication problems do not make it any easier. From what I understand, this is a common problem with children who have speech delays. Given the tools and some language progress, we hope it might become easier for us to work with him towards some sort of bedtime (!) routine.

We're looking forward to getting started. I have to work through feeling like I've failed him as a parent, even though I know that is irrational, since lots of kids go through this. I'll get over it. I know this is a step in the right direction and I know he will be fine. I really can't wait for him to be able to tell me what is on his mind, beyond animal sounds and made up words. I know someday, I'll be saying, "Harry, can you stop talking for a minute? Mommy needs quiet." As the SLP at playgroup said, "I can make them talk, but I can't make them stop talking." Though, right now, that sounds like a very appealing problem.

Some Monday Thoughts

I think my cats know that, if they wake me up at any time past 5 AM, I cannot get back to sleep and then I will feed them.

Something about this pregnancy makes it physically impossible for me to get out of the house without something on my clothes.

I feel sad when I leave for work and Harry is still asleep. Sad, and a little jealous.

Leaning over to scrape snow and ice off your windshield, while standing on a slippery driveway, when 5' 4" and very pregnant, is not a fun way to start your commute.

Having a moving truck block your parking spot at work sucks, until you realize that it means you get to take a closer spot. WIN!

Something about this pregnancy makes it physically impossible for me to wait until noon for lunch.

Harry Joseph, Nineteen Months Old

Dear Harry,

Once again, the month has flown by. I was just getting used to you being a year and a half old and here we are a month later. You've spent most of the month working on your indoor soccer skills. You are getting pretty adept at kicking the ball up and down the hall. You run so fast when you do this, it looks like your feet aren't touching the ground.

It's been very cold out and we haven't been able to get out much. The few nice days we've had have been spent stomping in slushy puddles with your boots. It's tough to find things to do when it's cold. Visiting the pet store is is usually good for 30 minutes or so. The grocery store is a regular outing. You love to point out all the food and say "Mmmmm!" We haven't ventured to the library lately. The last couple of times we went, you were not thrilled. It might be time to try again, though.

Speaking of the library, you know the sign for library and do that when I leave for work (if you aren't crying - have I mentioned separation anxiety?). You've been to my library a couple of times lately while Daddy has rehearsal and you have gotten to do a few new things. We visited the instrument library and borrowed a toy percussion instrument that made some great noise. You also got to spend some time playing a real piano. It was funny how you played one finger at a time instead of mashing the keys, like I expected. Mostly, you want to go visit all the rehearsals. It is hard, because you want so much to get down and party once you go in. I have to hold you back, and that is no easy feat! You just get so excited to see live music.

We bought you a "band in a box" last week that has lots of little percussion instruments and you've had a fun time making noise with those. We have even been able to reintroduce your cello a bit. For a while, you were quite rough with it and we had to put it away. You have lots of favorite songs on my/your iPod and have different "words" to request them. It is fun to watch your face light up when the song you've asked for starts.

We are still waiting for you to start talking. You make lots of sounds with the correct pitch and inflection, but you do not have the correct syllables. We know you can understand us, because we have to be careful what we say around you. To see what is going on, we have scheduled an Early Intervention evaluation for this month. We're curious to see what they say. Meanwhile, we love to listen to your silly babbling sounds.

I have a feeling that these next months are going to fly by just as fast. We are getting closer and closer to the birth of your little brother. You have no idea what is coming, but that is probably just as well. You are young enough that you will most likely not remember ever not having a brother. We are going to try to enjoy this time with you as a family of three, before the chaos of life with a newborn sets in. I know it will be rough for all of us, but I know, in time, it will be everything we've hoped for. Until then, just keep up being yourself and bringing us all the joy and sleepless nights we can handle.

Love,
Mama

Can I just say...

That ticker at the bottom of this page is starting to scare the hell out of me. How did this pregnancy get into the last trimester so quickly? I still have days where I feel shocked at the fact that I am even pregnant at all. Then there are the days and weeks where I know that I'm pregnant, but the end result seems like the far and distant future - think flying cars and teleporters. Then, I look at my pregnancy ticker and see that I have 88 (!?) days left.

Don't get me wrong. I am excited and curious to meet this new baby boy (Nathan James, by the way). It's just that I still look at Harry and think he was born yesterday. With that pregnancy, I was able to obsess about every detail, put my feet up and plan ahead. I felt like I was pregnant forever. With this one, I'm running around full speed trying to keep up with life and it is just flying by.

Granted, we are fairly well prepared for what is coming. After all, we just did this two years ago. We have everything we need, we know (for the most part!) what to expect. We are sure to be a bit more relaxed about things this time, but still it's coming at us with the speed of a runaway train.

Some people have told me that the switch from 1 kid to 2 is easier than the switch from 0 to 1, precisely because you know what to expect. You've had the life changing, mind blowing experience that is adding a newborn to your lives and lived to tell the tale - plus make a new one. I hope they are right.

I'm trying, in my slower moments, to imagine the possibilities of an easy going baby this time. One who sleeps! Because, what are the odds that we would have two high-needs, spirited boys in a row? Right? (RIGHT?!) And I'm trying to imagine a birth where the doctors weren't fearing for both of our lives. One where I would get to hold my new boy right away, while he's still warm and nurse him in his first minutes, instead of having him whisked off to the NICU while I'm laying there bleeding, not knowing when I'll see him again. Because that is what a new baby offers: a second chance. A chance for things to be different. Still marvelous, awe inspiring and frightening, but different.

The biggest difference with this baby is that he will have an amazing big brother who can teach him all kinds of things about the world. A big brother that put his parents through parent boot camp and made us work for every victory. Who taught us a million tricks and is sure to teach his brother a million more. I'm sure Harry will have plenty of feelings of jealousy after being our one and only for his whole life. But I can't wait to see the love in Harry's eyes and the adoration that I'm sure Nathan will have for his big brother. I can't wait for our family to be complete. I just wish that life would slow down a little bit so I could enjoy it a little more.

How sweet it is

The other night, I was exhausted and went to bed at about 10. Hubby decided to stay up for a while and I guess Harry stirred somewhere around midnight. Hubby went to him as Harry started crying. That woke me and I went in to Harry's room to find them laying down on Harry's bed, Hubby snuggling Harry and trying to comfort him. I lay down next to them and Harry crawled over to me and lay down. He put his hand on my face and fell asleep. We pulled pulled up the blankets and the three of us slept there, blissfully, until the morning.

If co-sleeping is wrong, then I don't want to be right.