Mile Stones

So everyone who have kids knows what a developmental mile stone is.  Whether it be walking, eating solid foods or talking.  Each child is expected to reach these goals in some acceptable time frame.  Now I don't know how we decided which milestones were worthy of note but we all know we looked at our kids and that calender and made sure they were meeting their goals.  And if our kid was a little slower than the kid down the street at say talking, maybe we brought it up to the doctor at our next visit. 

All of these above miles stones and several others are things we all take or took for granted.  Sure my kid will be able to roll over, sure he will walk, sure she will crawl.  Well the truth is all these milestones don't have to happen.  There is no law or rule that says your kid is going to do all of these things at any given time or perhaps ever.  Its okay even.

When your child is born we all bring it to breast or give it a bottle within the first hour of life.  What if I was to tell you that some kids fail this mile stone.  As it turns out Sam failed it we just didn't know it at the time.  It turns out the ability to swallow is a major deal and not every one can do it.  There are cool tests called swallow studies and they have the kid drink barium to see if they can keep it out of their lungs.  Sam couldn't keep it out of his lungs so he had HAD being the important part, an unsafe swallow.

So everything he drank had to be thickened with xanthum gum so that is was heavier and he could control it better and swallow safely.  We have a huge tub of the stuff in our fridge and tons of little travel packets in ever pocket and purse so we can thicken his drinks. 

Not only did we have to worry about drinking but when he was smaller we had to thicken his Tylenol and really get on his brother if he splashed in the bathtub to much cause he would aspirate that too. W e had a swallow study not to long ago that he sort of passed but not really.  They said be careful and have him drink slowly.  And we were.  We started letting him drink out of a straw with less or no thickener becuase the flow is more controlled with a straw.  We started using less Xanthum gum in his drinks so it would be thinner for him.

Well for the last couple of days I have not been using any Xanthum gum at all and his lungs sound great!   My kid can finally swallow thin liquids :)   Its just one more amazing bodily feat that I didn't know to be thankful for.

Happy Memorial Day

Last night my dad called me on the phone to ask if we wanted to go swimming at his brothers pool.  I asked the kids and I got a YES!  This morning we were all excited to go to the pool.  I went to the store early so we could be ready to go on time.  As I was on my way to the store I noticed they were setting up for the Memorial Day Parade, which I had forgotten about.  Oh well I thought, we are going swimming this afternoon so it's all good.

A few miles further from the parade and the phone rings.  Its my dad saying there is a change in plans and long story short we aren't going to the pool today.  This will teach me to tell my kids something fun is going to happen later.  I just felt so bad, like I had ruined the day which of course I hadn't but anyway.  I noticed that its only like 10am so maybe I can swing home and fetch the kids and still make the parade since we can't go swimming.  So I call Jeremy and tell him to take Max to the bathroom and grab some jackets cause we are going to the parade.  I pull up to the house, fetch the kids and away we go.  We arrive in down town at about 10:15 just to see people getting up and leaving the parade.  CRAP!

So I turn the car around I drive home.  On the way we see a garage sale.  We are a big garage sale family so I new this would perk the kids up since we missed the parade, I had yet to mention we aren't going swimming either.  So we are looking around at the garage sale and all of the sudden I hear Max say "i'm peeing".  I say why? and he says I don't know.  Then I get the giggles, really bad.  Did all that stuff really just happen and now my kid is peeing in some random persons garage?  Really?  Jeremy got in trouble for this one really since I said "make sure he pees before the parade"

So we go home and get new pants for Max and head for the grocery store to shop as a family.  You give the kids a free chocolate cookie, a banana and check out the fish dept and they forget the rest of the day even happened I guess.

We got home had lunch and realized both creatures needed naps so we got that out of the way and then had the task of figuring out what to do for the rest of the day.  The weather is crappy so nothing outside, no indoor play places were open either.  We decided on bowling.  First I had to have the "can Sammy do this thought"  but I couldn't think of a reason why he couldn't at least try to bowl so we went ahead with our plans.

As you can see they have this ramp that you aim where you want to ball to go therefore letting younger kids try bowling.  Max has done this a handful of times and really likes it.  This was Sam's first attempt at bowling and as you can see he beat his brother by a pin.

We came home had dinner and made banana bread.  They loved it.

A Day Out With Thomas

We were awesome parents this last weekend at took the kids to A Day Out With Thomas.   Its an event were the kids get to do various Thomas related activities and actually ride on Thomas.   It was at Greenfield Village this year which is only about a 45 min drive from our house.  

We decided to take a picnic lunch since I was starting The South Beach Diet and I didn't want to cheat.  I was worried the kids wouldn't want to sit and eat right after we got there but we all sat in the shade and had a good lunch before the fun began.

This is the front on Thomas.  He is huge.

 Whats a Thomas event with out lots of train tables.

 We had some sharing issues here, but it was a cool set up

Lego Thomas

 They had a gift shop obviously  and I was happy to buy the boys some sort of suvineer.  They had these great big Mylar Thomas balloons that the boys were very excited about.  Only problem was they were $10 each for a balloon.  I know they were cool and all but $20 for 2 balloons not gonna happen kids.  We settled on some cool Thomas shades.

 A nice lady took our picture while we rode the train.

You could go to the train after your ride and get your picture taken.  Sam couldn't take his eyes off Thomas, it was very cute.

 The hundred year old carousel

And Sir Topem Hat

We had a really good time.  The boys were on their good behavior and it went very well.

Cannoli

Sometimes I think I am a pretty cool mom.  Not often, but sometimes.  Today was a cool mom day.  There is a show on PBS called Curious George.  We watch it A LOT.  There is an episode where Curious George wants Canoli and cannot get it for various reasons that involve a cat and a chef and a scientist. 

Well the other day Max asks if we can have cannoli.  I asked why he would want some and he responded with "It's on Curious George and its yummy"  I told him I had never had a cannoli either but maybe one day we would try one.

So fast forward to today, I got to the local butcher/bakery and I see they sell cannoli and they are like a buck a piece.  Ohhh cool mom moment, and of course I have to tell the baker why I want them, probably thought I was nuts but who cares.

So I come home with a box of Cannoli and tell Max I have a big surprise.  I open the box and he eagerly eats a cannoli and then asks me what the surprise is.

Talking

That is actually a post from another blog I read
http://niederfamily.blogspot.com/2011/11/we-are-more-thankful-than-you-are.html
if you want to check it out.

Once again today I am reminded of how thankful we are.  Today I am thankful that Max is finally finally learning to express himself though language.  He has always been a late talker, had early intervention services and the like to get him to use his words.  The problem is he just barley passes something called an articulation screener so he no longer qualifies for any language services.

Who knew talking wasn't a given thing?  Who knew we needed to be thankful for the ability to fluently communicate.

To give you an idea on Max's lack of communication, his two year old brother has better pronunciation of certain words then Max does.  Sam can say his L's correctly and Max still says L's as if its a Y. 

Today we are on our way home from Preschool and I ask Max if they played out side for recess, "Yes mom."  Then I ask what they had for snack "Apple sauce and graham crackers" he says.  Now this is already more than I usually get out of him.  Every day up till now when I ask what he had for snack he would say "I don't know."  So I am already pretty happy about the conversation and then he goes on to say "Also I was the snack helper"  Wow did my son just volunteer information, holy cow I was very excited and thankful that he his FINALLY talking.


I was driving home from the hospital with Sam the other day and I was doing 80 in the passing lane and some person decided that was way to slow and swerved around us and gave us the bird in the process.  A younger me would have been pissed off but now I kind of feel sorry for that kind of person.  They don't realize they should be happy to be alive and able to drive.  Its a strange thought to think, gosh I'm kinda glad some things have happened to us, I'd hate not to appreciate what we do have.  Cause what I was doing on right near the Barton Drive exit was praying for the Mama's that have babies at Mott's that day and being grateful that we only had an appointment not an over night stay. 

Skiing

Isn't this just the cutest picture of my little boy before we go skiing?

And doesn't Sam look cute too?


It turns out not so much. 


Let me start at the beginning.  Their is a group in Mt Pleasant Mi called the Deaf Blind society.  Since Sam is legally Deaf Blind, although not really deaf or blind just duel sensory loss, he qualifies for services.  So every year they have a free ski weekend at Challenge mountain which is an adaptive ski resort.  I was so looking forward to this since I had never been skiing before.



So we loaded up the mini van and headed north.  It was a four hour trip for us and the kids were pretty good but ready to get out of the car for sure.  Once we got there we were supposed to have a welcome buffet.  Well the kids were so done sitting still they ran around the tables like little wild monkeys. 

We took them up to our hotel room and got ready to go swimming.  That part went okay but the water was cold so we didn't stay too long.

 The next day we were all ready to go the second the ski resort opened.  Max and I got our skis and thats when it started to hit the fan.  You see in order to ski you have to wear a helmet.  Sam didn't want to.  Also you have to wear goggles.  Sam really didn't want to do that. 
So Sam is super pissed off from the get go and they put him in this seat that is behind a snowmobile and they take him up the hill and then a guy skis behind him on the way down.  It looked cool and fun, Sam hated it.

Now while all of that was going on Max and I were trying to ski down the bunny hill.  I got to go down twice and it was fun and I like it.  Max however didn't understand/didn't want to follow direction such as what to do with your feet so he had two volunteers help him down the bunny hill and then he was done.  Bummer

So we went to find Jeremy and Sam and they were sitting inside and I start telling Jeremy about skiing and didn't realize that Sam was asleep I woke him up he was crying it was a mess. 
So its like 10:30am now, and the kids are done with what we had driven 4 hours and stayed in a hotel for.  So we load up the kids, grab some Wendy's and head back to the hotel.  Sam takes a nap after lunch and Max and I go back to the pool again. 



We decided that 1. the kids were to young for this and 2. While it was a bad trip it was not in fact grounds for divorce.

I almost forgot, Sam pushed the emergency help button on the elevator.  Also exciting.

Swimming

The other day Sam's pre school had a field trip to a local pool so I took both the boys.  While we had a good time I was reminded how upset Max gets if he can't touch the ground in the pool.  When they tell you a panicked person in the water can drowned you they arn't kidding.  Max nearly scales my body in an attempt to sit on my head the second the water gets over waist height.  So I decided we needed some lessons.

So we signed up both boys for swim lessons and they started today.  I was a little concerned by the fact that they started in the deep end since he hates not touching the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here he is crying in the corner

Thankfully he isn't the only kid terrified.  I thought it was really interesting their were 3 groups of kids.  The confident water lovers, the we don't love this but we will do it group, and the get me out of here group.  He did do the kicking like they wanted but only from the side.

They bribed him back in the water with a pool noodle.

And then their was Sam.  He loved his swim lesson.  He loved every min of it.

They tied a pool noodle to the kids and let them paddle around.