Aubrey Says

At Aubrey's 12 month well check up, she had no words.  She babbled a lot, and even alternated sounds in her babble, just no words.  I was told to keep an eye on her speech and if she did not develop any real words soon she would need to be evaluated.  YIKES!

Luckily for me I have a few good friends who are speech pathologists so I called one of them to ask for advice.  I was aware that Aubrey did not have any words, but I didn't realize it was a concern.  My friend calmed me down, she wouldn't evaluate a child until at least 18 months so we had time.

Aubrey made some progress by her 15 month appointment, speaking 3 unusual words; shoe, jump, and doggy.  We were on the right track and I began keeping a list.  Any spontaneous word she spoke was written down.

When I was asked about her speech at her 18 month appointment, imagine the look I got when I told the doctor Aubrey has 75 words not including names and characters...  Wait, you mean everyone doesn't keep a list?

I have stopped keeping a list, but its been so much fun watching her language develop.  Now with stringing words and phrases together.  Aubrey began putting words together by saying a name and a demand.  Phrases have just begun now at 21 months.  Miss Independent told me while I was trying to brush her teeth the other morning "I do it".
And her cutest phrase she says with an evil face and wiggling her fingers "I get you" and chases you to catch and tickle.

This is the best age :)

Spring Break Fun

Growing up we never took vacations over spring break, it probably wasn't until I met Brian that we started taking a trip while I was off work for the week.  I guess since I haven't been working it has occurred to us to take a trip the past few years.

Liam is off school this week and with lack of plans and my new babysitting gig we also have J's sister here with us.  She is the same age as Liam so he was excited to play with her this week.

A necessity of surviving the day with multiple children is to have a plan.  My children will beg for television if they get bored, and with spotty weather forecasted for the week I made a list of things we could do.  But turns out it wasn't necessary because the rain has held out until night time.

Are you sure?

A few months ago I was approached by a friend, asking if I would be interested in providing an in-home childcare for her son.  YES!  There was no hesitation with my answer. 

When we began discussing the logistics of how it would work, Brian asked me "Are you sure you can handle this?"  Yeah, it'll be great!

When sharing this upcoming experience with my neighbor, she asked "Are you sure you want to do that?  When will you sew?"  Yeah! I'll sew at naptime, it'll all work out.

My thought process during this time was, Jude (the boy I'm watching) is the same age as Aubrey, she will be able to socialize with someone her age.  I will be able to bring in some extra money, lets face it- Liam's bills don't pay themselves.  And of course I was really excited to do all this without going back to teaching.

So here I am 4 weeks into our new routine.  THIS IS GREAT!!!

I am very much as excited today as I was the day I said YES.  We have had some ups and downs.  Aubrey has struggled to adjust to sharing attention, but its okay.  This will be good for her.  Jude is an absolute joy to have around.  He is ALWAYS smiling.  These two will learn to love each other!

Celebrating Normal

Once Upon a Time, I could have wall papered our house in hospital discharge papers.  I rarely read any of them because it was so routine.  Tuesday Liam had his first surgery of the year.  It was the most routine surgery he'd ever had, but it was anything but routine for us.



Unfortunately chemo caused a lot of damage to Liam's teeth, so much he will have to be put under anesthesia to do the work.  But of course it was not as simple as just scheduling the procedure.  FIRST they required us to prepay for the procedure, we would have to wait to be reimbursed by insurance later rather than insurance paying the dentist office.  THEN Liam had to be cleared by his doctor for anesthesia, this did not happen.



Liam was not cleared for anesthesia because his tonsils were too big.  He has never had any infections or problems, they were just naturally big. After we found that out, I spent all afternoon calling around trying to see if we could find an ENT that would be at the hospital the same day as the Dentist; no luck.



After a visit to the ENT, who agreed his tonsils were large but not that it would effect anesthesia, we scheduled the removal.  Even though the ENT did not agree that it would effect the anesthesia, he did believe with tonsils that large we would see problems in the future and they would have to be removed anyway.



We arrived at the surgical center not so bright but very early in the morning.  Liam was his fun loving self, making his nurse laugh.  After he received his versed (medication to decrease anxiety) his already imaginative mind kicked in to hyper drive.  Our bags at the end of the bed became packages he had to deliver, as Liam attempted to climb out of his bed to do so.  Luckily I was right there to catch him.



After he was taken back for the procedure, I went the waiting room and anxiety settled in.  The whole procedure was supposed to take 15 minutes, but it was an hour before the doctor came out.  Parents whose doctor came out after ours were taken back to their children before us.  I just wanted to hold my boy! 

When we were finally able to see Liam, we found him angry and irrational.  We knew were prepared for this from his past surgeries.  He wake up from the anesthesia angry.  It took some time to calm him down, but then we were able to take him home.



Liam has had a difficult week, he has been in pain. He just wants to be held and cuddle up, but that is a struggle with Aubrey running around. He is most miserable in the mornings, ready to play in the afternoons. I am hoping he will go back to his normal routine next week.