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Journal Key:

Green = Steve | George = navy | Janet = Purple | Evelyn = Black

3/24/11 (Thursday)

Today was jury duty day for me, and I ended up getting home early in the afternoon, so I was able to pick up Owen from YBR. Mommy arrived just minutes after we got home! Then it was time for Owen's physical therapy session. He is really doing well and making plenty of progress. He can roll over with just the slightest tug now, and can get himself from sitting to hands-and-knees pretty easily and spontaneously. We are still working a bit on the tummy-to-sitting transition, but he definitely understands what he needs to do. Today we worked a little on getting him to sit up on his knees. The problem is that Owen just wants to stand up, so he had to be held in place a little. Moving from his knees to standing is a goal for him, but we need to strengthen his knees first. He did very well, even though we think he is a little under the weather this week and was somewhat crabby in consequence.

We even decided to take him out to dinner with us, which could have ended up as a very bad idea. He was not particularly interested in eating anything other than his Mum-Mums, but he did munch on those. He repeatedly (and with much personal fulfillment and satisfaction) threw all of his toys onto the floor, for us to pick up. He flirted outrageously with a hostess. It was good.

3/26/11 (Saturday)

Yesterday was our Friday night of fun. Shannon and the twins came over and ran all over the house. Cara played, not necessarily with them, but concurrently at least. I picked up Owen and he was probably pretty surprised to find all of the new people in his house. I ended up giving Owen a bath with the twins still there. They sat on either side of me at the side of the tub and "helped." It was a bit nerve-wracking.

By the time everyone had either gone home or gone to bed except Ev and I, we were both done and went to bed. In the morning, Ev woke up unwell. Not sure exactly what it is, but she was pretty much confined to the couch today. I took both kids to Cara's dance class, where Owen was very good and wandered around the class without being too-too distracting to the dancers, and we had lots of mirrors to look at and books to page through and floors to walk on. Owen had fallen asleep on the way there and he fell asleep on the way home, too, so I was able to plop him into his crib and Cara and I had lunch. After lunch he woke up and the kids and I went off to Middletown.

Janet took Cara in hand and they were soon off at Barnes and Noble. They ended up having a whole chocolate cupcake each, I believe, because they split one cupcake on two separate occasions. They read books and Cara also got a book which she should be able to read (actually it's sort of a dialogue between two people, so it can be shared between two readers, which should be fun).

Owen and I stayed at home with Grandpapa and GiGi, who came to visit. She was a great, great help, because she was always willing to walk Owen around the house or play with him. She also got him to take some sips of water from a grown-up drinking glass! Owen liked it and went back for many sips. We took Owen out for a walk in the stroller even though it was chilly. He didn't fall asleep at all. He spent a lot of time in the house playing with wooden puzzles and other toys that are there, and generally having a good time. He ate a few jars and many Cheerios. In the evening when we were wrapping up dinner and Owen was getting tired, Grandmama had the wonderful idea of taking him upstairs to play with his big block playset, which he hadn't played with all day. He had a great time with it, particularly enjoying when a door on one side opened up and lots of blocks would tumble out.

It's been exciting watching the progress Owen is making in his mobility--we saw a bit of that today. I see him getting closer to crawling and standing for himself, though he's not quite there yet. His language progress is harder to see. I did see and hear a few interesting things today. I asked him to show me the kitty in a wooden puzzle with animals, and he did seem to understand and he did take out the kitty. I also heard him very distinctly say the word "book" today. The only problem is, he never repeated it.

3/27/11 (Sunday)

I felt a lot better today and we all went down to Grandmom and Grandpop's house to visit and do the taxes. The length of the drive is really excellent for Owen; it was a nice midday nap. It was a long time since we'd been there. Owen, it turns out, is very fond of Rusty. Early in the visit, it was funny to see Rusty pick up his big squeaky plush Christmas bone and squeak it loudly, holding it right in Owen's face. They're the perfect height for each other. Owen giggled and squeaked at Rusty, he followed him around, he petted him, and he apparently really liked butting his head into Rusty's side as Rusty walked by. Rusty was curious about Owen, but his enthusiasm may have waned as Owen's became evident.

Cara was a very busy girl all day. She brought her bead-person kit, but soon she moved on from that to the paper-doll kit that Grandmom bought. It had stickers for a few pieces of sporting equipment, and Cara has started work on a series of athlete girls. Grandpop had to help her figure out how to make a baseball uniform. She spent some time at home this evening working on a basketball girl and a soccer girl.

3/28/11 (Monday)

Today I took Owen down to Trenton for his High-Risk evaluation. He's a little past 14 months, so they're treating him as a 12-and-a-half-month-old. First he was examined for cognitive development; he liked that, because he got to play with toys. The therapist gave him all sorts of different puzzles to work out, like how to get two cheerios out of a little bottle by dumping it. She noticed something that she said was very good: when he couldn't figure something out, he turned and gave it to me, looking for help. Of course, I'd just thought he was planning on dropping those things on the floor!

There were two things Owen didn't like. One of those things was the fact that he couldn't spend the entire time walking around. The other was when he was examined by the doctor. He's doing well, though. He showed that he can easily pull up to a standing position and that he stands up nice and straight, and the doctor isn't worried about his feet turning out because his ankles are very flexible and not fixed at all. Owen weighs 23 pounds 5 ounces, well past the minimum of 22 that the doctor wanted to see. He's grown an inch and a half in the past three months.

One new activity was seeing an audiologist! I sat with him in a little booth while he turned his head to noises and was rewarded by seeing toys light up and bang on drums. He did well, though he wasn't perfect. The audiologist said that those results were good enough, but she wanted to be more thorough. She distracted him with a toy and quickly did a very successful tympanogram! Next, she blew bubbles while he sat with sensors in his ears (one at a time) and passed an OAE. I know he passed all of this in January, but I was really glad I got to see it myself.

We ended with the physical therapist and speech therapist. Owen screamed through this entire portion in December; today was much better! He demonstrated how well he can roll over and sit up, and he certainly demonstrated scooting and walking. He scooted all over, even managing to scoot himself back onto the mat on the floor after he scooted off of it. The speech therapist was very happy with his babbling and his receptive skills, but Owen's still having some delays: I don't think he says any real words yet. Amy, the PT, thinks Owen's very close to walking. She noticed that when he cruises he's barely holding on. She held him up from behind and let him walk to me from a few feet away, and she let go before he got there. He did sort of take a few steps! Amy thinks that he needs confidence and we should try to keep his hands busy holding something and hold him just under his arms. Eventually we can just hold the back of his shirt. This really seems pretty realistic.

I tried this evening, not letting him take my fingers for support. I do think it'll work. Steve noticed him balancing on his own for a second, between cruising on the table and on Steve. We're definitely going to get there.

3/29/11 (Tuesday)

This week is spirit week at Cara's school. Yesterday she went to school with the blue scarf she acquired at a rock concert tied in her hair. Today was mismatched socks and shoes day, so she got into some mismatched socks and covered those with one shoe and one snowboot. Apparently PJ had the same idea--perhaps they planned ahead!

Owen's doorway toy is still exciting for him, and it actually is prompting him to go into an almost-crawling position. He wants to get through the doorway, but he has found to his dismay that he cannot scoot through it. So he's taken to bending forwards and getting onto his hands and knees, halfway through the door. He hasn't quite managed to start crawling. This evening Evelyn was also walking him with her hands under his arms. The amusing result is that Owen walks with his elbows stuck out and his hands at his armpits, still trying to get a hold. So Ev worked on getting him to hold something in his hands. But I do think it's going to help.

Owen was at his doorway toy when I walked through the front door this evening, and he gave me such a nice smile when he saw me. That was particularly nice as I've found that in the mornings he will eagerly fling himself into the waiting arms of the ladies at YBR. At dinner he went through two jars of stage two baby food without a pause, and was upset when the second one was done. Meanwhile his sister was busy eating her three hot dogs.

Tonight was sight word night. I was busy cleaning up after dinner so I had Cara read through her pile of words on her own. I told her to make a pile of the words she wasn't sure about. At the end, her pile consisted of one word. While she was doing her sight word work sheets, I was very happy to hear her trying to sound out the words she didn't know, something that she's been reluctant to do in the past. Then she read her new Duck Rabbit book with Mommy, and then she read her Cinderella book. And then she actually read her way through Tea for Ruby, which was basically a new book. It was very exciting!

3/30/11 (Wednesday)

I brought Owen home early today because his Special Educator was coming over. One really cool part was that when I got to YBR he was outside having a buggy ride! (When I called ahead, Miss Sandi said that he'd be "all spruced up" for it. This meant that he had his coat on already, which was great, and maybe they'd wiped his face or something. Who knows?) He was sitting in one of the back seats, and he started talking as soon as he saw me. Then he watched the buggy as I carried him in to get his stuff. As we walked to the car, he was looking down the street to the buggy and calling to his friends.

I took a minute to quickly vacuum the playroom before the Early Interventionist arrived. Owen was out in the dining room, and I wondered how he'd react to the machine. He reacted by scooting vigorously to the doorway, entranced and hoping, apparently, to catch the vacuum. I'm not sure what he'd have done with it. There would have been slapping involved.

The Special Educator arrived around four. She works with Owen on Fridays at YBR most of the time, but I wanted to feel more in-the-loop. She sang a lot of songs to him, and she spent a lot of time working with him on the noises that farm animals make. One of his goals, in his IEP, is to imitate appropriate sounds, like saying "vroom" when he pushes a car. I think we need to do more of this. Another thing we need to be consistent about it having him point at things. That makes sense to me; once he learns what it means to point, he can show us what he wants. I got another good tip that's sort of a project. I want to make him a picture book, with photos of us and the cats and other familiar things, so that he can practice identifying them.

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