7 Months

Wow!  I cannot believe it has been 7 months since you have been born.  Although it has passed so quickly, it is also hard to imagine life before you were here!

You are rolling everywhere--which makes it quite difficult to change your diaper!  You are beginning to sit up and it has been quite helpful during bathtime.  We try to read books but they aren't very interesting to you yet.  You LOVE your Sophie the Giraffe, rings, vibrating star, cool teething toys from the fridge and anything else you can get your mouth on.  

This month you have expanded your culinary horizons and branched out to Cheerios (broken in half), Puffs, sweet potato and avacado you now like (yay!), yellow squash, carrots and mango.  I am feeding you two meals a day of cereal with a pureed vegetable or fruit.  For "lunch" I give you soft "table food" items like soft cooked carrots cut into small pieces, avocado and banana.  You attempt to pick it up in your hand but it usually gets stuck in your palm and then you forget about it (object permanence---out of sight, out of mind during this phase!) so I wind up feeding you.  You get very upset if I don't feed you fast enough.  You LOVE to eat.  Sometimes I need to put you in the highchair while I am doing something and you expect to eat while in there!  You also still love to drink from a cup.  I swear you think you are four years old---just like your big brother!  You nurse 4-5 times a day for 5 minutes or so. I don't think you are getting much--more like just going through the motions.  You communicate that you want to nurse by eating my face.  You have done this in previous months however now with two teeth IT HURTS!  

You went on your first extended trip from home as we ventured to Pennsylvania to meet two sets of Great-Grandparents and then headed to New Jersey to celebrate Gran-ma's retirement.  You were an excellent traveler.  You slept most of the time in the car and/or entertained yourself with toys or by watching your brother.  You slept great in your travel bed (thank you so much for that).  Since we have been back you have been waking around 2am.  I'm not sure if it is teething related, hunger or just wanting to see my sleepy face at that hour but either way you fall fast asleep after a quick nursing session.  

We never would have guessed that you were teething since you acted no different than before.  You are getting a bit long and heavy for the infant car seat.  I am thinking of upgrading you to Mikey's car seat soon.  We should also consider lowering the crib and baby proofing this house before you get any more mobile.  Those will be on my "to-do" list for the month of July.

Love you little boy!

Make that TWO TEETH!

FIRST TOOTH!

Yup, you read that right.  I can feel Nicholas' first tooth coming in.  It is his lower left front tooth.  I cannot believe this is happening already!  Okay, part of me can believe it since he chomps away on everything but why can't he stay my baby just a tad bit longer?  I know he can not wait to "catch up" to his big brother!  Mikey has no idea what he is in for!

For now I will continue breastfeeding.....until I get bitten.  (Mikey was 10 months old when his first tooth erupted and coincidentally he also weaned himself in that same month---biting was a non-issue.)

As soon as I can catch a glimpse of his tooth it will be posted here immediately!  Stay tuned!

Mmmm...TOES!

"Happy Mouth School"

Due to those insurance issues we had covering speech therapy back in the winter, I took it upon myself to have Mikey screened by the public school.  The public school offers special education services to children starting at three years old, should they qualify.  We live in a top rated school system so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

Mikey went for the initial screening which resulted in further testing based on concerns that were noted.  Our school system evaluates children differently than other school systems do.  Instead of it being a one time evaluation with each discipline, Wellesley puts together a small group of children (all being evaluated) and has them come to school over a course of six times so the team of clinicians gets to know the child really well (and avoids excuses like "he didn't sleep well last night", etc).  Mikey went on Friday mornings from 10-11:30 with four other children his age.  It was a drop off type thing so unfortunately I wasn't able to observe ANYTHING and no feedback was given upon pick-up.  We started back in March and didn't complete the evaluation process until May 10 since they had off for Good Friday and spring break.

May 24 was our IEP meeting.  We received the written reports two days ahead of time and everything made total sense.  They really got to know Mikey by working with him directly as well as through conversations/documentation from Eva and myself.  By the end of the meeting it was determined that Mikey is eligible to receive special education services in the Wellesley Public School system based on delays in every area of development.  They are looking at him as having a developmental delay.  No other diagnosis is needed nor anticipated at this time.  Mikey will be attending the five week summer program starting July 8 four days per week for 2.5 hours.  In the fall he will be attending school four days per week (Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri) from 9-2:30.  He will be receiving physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and will be a student in an inclusive classroom (with other children receiving services as well as "typically" developing children from the community).

Upon leaving the meeting one of my reactions was "OMG.  He is getting so many services!".  Here I am an occupational therapist that works with kids Mikey's age and younger and I was not anticipating he was going to get as much as he did.  It is a well known fact that Wellesley gives A LOT of services up front so that they can say by elementary school they don't have many children on IEPs.  This was partially reassuring but at the same time I am also blown away with how much help he needs.  All of my objectivity of being a clinician (obviously) went right out the window when looking at my own child.

Michael and I are happy that Mikey will be getting the help that he needs so that he can thrive in all areas of life.  Mikey works so hard every day to do things that many other kids his age can do naturally without hesitation.  I am looking forward to working with the school system and watching Mikey learn and grow this coming year.

The preschool is in its own free standing building around the corner from our house.  It has a big smiley face on the roof at the entrance to the school.  In working with other families that have sent their kids there, many children refer to the school as the "smiley face school".  Mikey calls it the "happy mouth school".  And he is thrilled that he gets to go back.  He is VERY disappointed that he will not be going there on the school bus, however.  It is very hard to explain to him that yes, he is going to school but no, the school bus doesn't go to THAT school!  (The official name of the school is Preschool At Wellesley Schools--PAWS for short.  This is how you will hear me refer to it from now on:  PAWS or Happy Mouth School!)

"Skinned knee D"

Yesterday was our first day at our new pool club (at Boston Sports Club here in Wellesley).  It was also Mikey's first experience with having both of his knees scraped up.  I remember as a kid the first day I wore shorts my knees would be cut up.  Here it has taken Mikey 4 years!  Mikey didn't cry initially but as I tried to clean out the cuts and bandage them up, then he started to protest...okay, more like scream bloody murder.  This morning he called me from his bed because he couldn't move.  He walked in a zombie like motion, hardly bending his knees due to the bandages.  So dramatic!

One Mikey's favorite books of the week is "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom".  The whole alphabet climbs up the coconut tree and the tree goes "boom boom".  "Skinned knee D" is injured in the collapse and now Mikey has dubbed himself "skinned knee D".

Self-portraits

This is what happens when my phone is unattended.  I wind up with 75-100 pictures of the exact same thing as Mikey just likes to hit the camera button over and over and over and over again!  I saved a few of these because I thought it was artistic and cute.

This is a test

I downloaded the blogger app to my iPhone. Here's a test to see if it will be possible to blog without having to sit in front of my computer...