Another fun month around our household watching our favorite little
ones grow! Our Texas "winter" has grown steadily warmers and is
allowing for lots of fun and lots of play outside (sorry to all our
northern family and friends!).
Happy to be outside!
And very happy for sandbox time! This is one of their favorite things to do together.
"Momma, I'm ready to do the garden. Is the garden ready yet?"
Swing
time! And really enjoying the new disc swing Daddy got him...the bonus
being it's a great strengthening workout for his core (which is still a
bit weak)!
I was a little sad that I
had to go out of town for a few days this month for a conference, but I
knew Little Buddy would have a great time with Daddy and Little Sister
and that I would do well at the conference and perhaps get some quality
writing time in while I was alone in a quiet hotel room. Alas, it was
not to be. The time started off great...
Haha, Momma's gone so Daddy took us to Chuy's for dinner on a weeknight!
...and
then went south quickly, as I received a text early the next morning
that Daddy and Little Buddy had gotten sick overnight.
This is no fun.
With
Daddy and Little Buddy down, but Sister still ok, I hurried to try to
leave the conference early to get home and help out, only to be hit by
the bug myself as I threw clothes in my suitcase. Ugh. While the bug
lasted only about 12 hours, it hit all of us (but surprisingly-and
thankfully-not Sister) hard. We were all pretty weak for a few days as
we got our strength back. Little Buddy ended up missing four days of
school total (two of those were when he was really sick, one day was
just to make sure he was recovered, and the last day was because he had a
dentist appointment--no cavities by the way!). On the bright side, it
meant I got to spend extra time with both my kiddos together, which was
wonderful. I miss Little Buddy so much while he is at school and can't wait til summer!
Ran
errands, ate lunch, and played at the mall together one day--just like
old times! My heart was so full to have them together again!
We've also been working a lot on incorporating his occupational therapy
into his play. Lots of little things help develop his fine motor
skills so it's been easy to add in, the only hard part has been
resisting our urge to help him when he comes across something difficult
(we're supposed to urge him a few times to try to complete something
himself before we aid him) and allowing him to make a mess as his skills
develop (very hard for me)!
Mr. Chef is practicing his measuring and pouring (while also getting the kitchen pretty wet)!
Painting and Play-doh are great hand strengtheners (and great kitchen mess-i-ners too)!
Height and Weight
His
weight has definitely taken a hit from the stomach bug...He went down
to 53 lbs at one point! He's now at 55 lbs and his appetite has FINALLY
come back (it was so weird, for nearly a week after being over bug, to
just be satisfied watching him eat a few bites for each of his meals.
He's normally insatiable!), which reassures us. And he's now just on
the cusp of being 46 in. tall.
Personality
Still
a happy little boy, and his body is again adjusting to the demands of
school and therapy. He definitely still needs his nap, but we are
seeing less grumpy behaviors, meaning he is feeling less tired during
the day overall. If he gets very tired, we are seeing more inattention
or "off in his own world" behaviors, instead of having breakdowns.
Developmental Milestones
Let's
see...still just a lot of continuing work on speech, motor skills,
attention, and writing. We continue to see a lot of improvement in
speech, both in making his sentence structure more complex and in being
able to make himself understood to others.
We've
also had a breakthrough in that we've been able to ditch his Underjams
at naptime! This is a huge accomplishment. Now he only needs to wear
them at night. No other real potty developments (the stomach bug
definitely sidetracked that) but he is having less accidents at school
too, which is great, because he is desperate to join his friend Ethan
during inclusion time in the Pre-K class. As soon as he is dependable
about the potty at school and can be trusted to listen to directions
(very tough for him in distracting group situations), I think he'll be
able to join the Pre-K group for short periods of time during the day.
This would be a huge step toward full inclusion into a "normal"
classroom environment.
In terms of his therapy, Little Buddy had
his initial evaluation with our new therapy company. His evaluator was
great and we really liked her. She did, however, point out to us that
she would like him to be assessed by a Physical Therapist as well as she
is concerned that one of his legs is longer than the other. This type
of discrepancy could impact his core strength and ability to run, jump,
and pedal. He may actually need a shoe lift or, if severe enough, leg
braces. While we were a bit caught off guard by this new information,
we certainly welcome anything that will help our Little Buddy continue
to grow and achieve. Adding physical therapy to an already full regime
of occupational therapy, speech therapy, and school will be tough, but
it may also help him strengthen his weak muscle groups faster.
Little
Buddy has also started to become more aware of how his actions impact
others and how others' actions impact him. I'm certain that this is a
direct result of peer interaction at school, but Little Buddy's first
reaction when you ask him about something is to say, "I'm sorry." It's
actually gotten a little funny as he uses it to react correctly when
he's doing something he shouldn't do (like when we ask him what he just
did to his sister) and to react incorrectly (like when we ask him where
his shoes are). He's also learning the negatives in speech (e.g., "no,"
"not," "don't") but doesn't really feel like these apply to himself
when Momma and Daddy say them to him. No, he uses it more to tell
Little Sister to get away from his stuff (even if he's not been playing
with it)!
Fun Tidbits
Little Buddy's
been doing a great jog at run club! It's amazing to see how much
better his endurance has gotten and how much longer and farther he can
run before needing a break or getting disinterested. I'm so glad we
found this activity for him; it's just been great. It's allowed him to
be involved a sport with his friends without being stressed out over the
ability to pay attention to multiple people or follow complex rules.
Plus, running's just a great thing to love! He's already reached his 25
mile goal and will have his race at the end of this month. I'm so
proud of him!
Our happy and delightful boy!
Until next time,
LBM
Little Buddy's Momma
