Scattered...and Nick's Development

My plan this morning was to blog about Nick's recent developmental evaluation, which I'll get to shortly. But I have to open with a little anecdote from this afternoon.

My drycleaning has been at the cleaners for almost 3 weeks. I forgot about it for about a week, and since then haven't been able to find a good time to go since stopping after picking Nick up at daycare isn't usually the best plan. Today I decided to stop before picking Nick up. I go in and while they are looking for my clothes I realize my credit card is in my purse in the car. I run out to the car to get my purse and proceed to search through looking for the loose card. (The night before Nick and I had attended a going away party for some friends and I left pretty quickly after paying because Nick was heading in a bad direction, thus dropping my card in the purse, not in my wallet). I basically unload my bag in the cleaners and my card isn't there. So, I give her my other card. She runs it through and to my shock and dismay she tells me, "It says its cancelled". I think about this for a minute and remember, oh yeah, when I was on my way to Chicago 2 weeks ago and tried to get cash it was denied. Did I do anything about this 2 weeks ago? No. Totally embarassed, I tell the teenager behind the counter that I'll have to leave the clothes because I have lost my card and the other one is no good. I felt so silly, for many reasons, but mainly because I should have followed up on the issue I had at the airport and also, I really had no idea what I did with the card the night before. This type of thing has been happening to me alot lately. This is just one little example. I have about 5 from my Chicago trip, and many more from recent weeks. I'm just wondering when did I become a scatter brain?

OK, back to the subject at hand which is Nick's recent developmental evaluation.

I worry. And after a very concerning language "screen" (I think the screener spent 10-15 mins with Nick), we decided it was time to have a full evaluation of Nick's development. Prior to the screen I thought he was doing great and making alot of strides, but the screen cast doubt on that.

The evaluation took 2 hours and included observation in the following areas: Cognitive, Expressive Communication, Receptive Communication, Gross Motor, Fine Motor, Social/Emotional and Adaptive. There were 3 specialists observing Nick and a student. Basically, Nick played for 2 hours straight with the various toys they provided and he was observed by the professionals. It was slightly nerve wracking for me. I don't think any one is surprised that a two year old will not perform on command. So, of course I worried when Nick wouldn't do the chunky shapes puzzle and when he wouldn't make the sound a cow makes. There are countless other things that he wouldn't do that I knew he could do. It was frustruating. But then he surprised me a few times too. He responded to the 1 - 2 - 3 consequences every time he was on the verge of a conniption and he threaded beads on a shoe string, an activity we have never tried at home.

I had no idea what the outcome would be. My main reason for wanting the evaluation was to make sure that we weren't missing a big red flag and to be sure that he is on track. In order to qualify for services in our county (and I think Virginia) a child has to have a greater than 25% delay in one or more areas, or an atypical development in one of the areas, or is diagnosed with a condition likely to result in a developmental delay.

In the end they "score" the children with the present level of development in terms of age for each area. Relatively, I wasn't surprised by the results of each area vs. the others. Nick had his most positive results in Social/Emotional, Adaptive, Cognitive and Gross Motor, where he was either at or close to 26 months (his current age). The areas where he needs more focus are Expressive Communication where he is at about 22 months and Fine Motor where he has scattered results ranging from 18 - 24 months.

One interesting factoid I picked up from the evaluation team is that it isn't unusual for a child that drools to also be behind in Fine Motor skills. Apparently it has to do with being placed on the back as opposed to the stomach and when a child is on the back they don't develop the strength through the upper body and face that is developed through play and placement on the belly. I hope I haven't butchered the explaination they gave me! Nick's drooling was identified as a potential issue in the original "screen" and it has improved considerably over the past month. But, it is still evident especially when he is really concentrating or if he is stressed out or uncomfortable. They referred to him as having a static face which they explained to me as child that isn't using his facial muscles as much as they would like. We have recently switched to cups with straws which I think are helping his strength. Some other ideas they gave me to improve his facial muscles are to have cotton ball wars on tables (blowing the balls around) and also work with bubbles and pinwheels. We have been working on these things more diligently since the eval.

The result of the day was that Nick does not qualify for services. I was so relieved and really thankful that he is on track. The women who evaluated Nick were so good with him and it was a very positive experience. They also put me at ease by telling me how impressed they were with how well he is doing after such a short time with us. I was actually shocked by this praise but ate it up, of course :-)

Finally, they armed me with many ideas for different activities to stimulate the Fine Motor development and also to increase vocabulary and language. I have to say it was a very well spent 2 hours and I was so proud of how well Nick handled it.

Aside from the developmental news, we are in week 4 of our lives without daddy being home during the week. The best thing we have done to help with the transition is to set up a camera for using Skype for video chats with daddy on most nights. Nick is starting to really enjoy and look forward to talking to daddy on the computer and it is a fun way to feel like we're not so far away from each other.

Have a great 4th of July all!

Outer Banks Trip and More

This post is going to cover a hodge podge of topics because I'm getting stressed about being behind and this is my attempt to catch up!

The most fun thing we have done since Nick's birthday is to spend a week in the Outer Banks. We loaded up Nick, Abby and all the beach toys and headed south packed to the gills. We had a wonderful house that was just a short walk to the beach. The best thing about the walk to the beach was all of the earth moving equipment working on the road near our house. Nick could have spent hours observing the workers. Luckily, we were able to coax him away with promises of the ocean and sand.

The ocean was foot numbing cold most of the week but Nick didn't seem to mind. The morning of Mothers Day was the first day we went down to the beach and Bill and I had to tag team to play with him in the water because of how frigid it was. It turns out that Carey and her family were staying very close by during the same week, and we saw them briefly down at the beach on Mothers Day. We also had the pleasure of spending a few hours together later in the week. We had a great time, Nick loved playing with Carey's children (who were sooooo sweet with him) and Carey and her family are awesome!

The week went by way too fast, the weather was great, and we were all sorry to leave. Here are some random pictures from the week.


Bill and Nick splashing at the pool



Mommy and Nick at the oceans edge


Good Times at the Beach!




Nick enjoying himself poolside


Fun with Carey and Family


Abby watching over Nick

The week after our trip, Nick had a speech assessment. Unfortunately, neither Bill nor I was present for this so we don't know exactly what went down. I will say I am quite concerned about the results and have contacted the early intervention people to have a complete language evaluation done. We hope to have this scheduled as soon as possible.

We have recently started back to our church. We took an extended break to transition Nick to being with us and felt like it was time that we return. We have been welcomed back with open arms but are still very new to the congregation and don't know many of the members. Despite being new, this morning was a special day for us because an Adoption Blessing was said for Nick after the baptisms. It was very nice, somehow I didn't cry, and we are thrilled that we did this. So many people congratulated us and made us feel welcome. One elderly couple told me that in all their years of attending this church they had never seen this blessing in person and how incredible they think it is. How sweet is that?




Have a great week everyone!

Nick's 2nd Birthday!

When I last blogged, over one month ago, I had every intention of blogging about Nick's birthday in a matter of days. Now, more than 30 days have passed and I'm finally getting back to business.

We had a really fun day celebrating Nick's birthday with family and friends. Everyone came over to the house for a cookout and party. In the end we had more than 40 guests, which in the past would have been no problem. But now, with one of us taking care of Nick the whole time, this was quite the undertaking. One thing I wasn't expecting was that Nick would want me to hold him continuously for the first hour (at least, it may have gone on for 90 minutes). I should have realized he would have this reaction to all the hubbub, but I didn't.

The good news is that my friend Anne brought a Nascar Bubble Car that Nick adored and that provided endless entertainment. We also broke out the bubble mower, singing mower and various other toys with bubbles!

Nick also got to spend time with his new friend Harper, who was not only adorable, but did her fair share of mowing the yard!

We had a Thomas cake because he is Nick's favorite, and Nick enjoyed the sugar high!

Above Nick is enjoying the icing on his "2".

Happy Birthday Nick!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring All! I've always been a fan of spring, but this spring has been extra special because of all the things we have to celebrate!

We had a fun Easter weekend. We colored Easter Eggs on Saturday afternoon, well...Bill did. Nick wasn't really that into it, but Bill did a fabulous job! On Easter morning Nick had a fun time finding his Easter basket and all the goodies inside. He was very distracted by both the chocolate and the bubbles. Which to pursue? More bubbles or more chocolate. This is one of the really hard decisions Nick has had to make recently! We spent the afternoon of Easter at my sister Jill's house with my nephews, Jill's mother in law, and my Dad and Gretel. We had a really nice time eating great food, relaxing and watching the Masters. Here are a few shots of our spiffy little guy on Easter!

Nick's birthday was later in the week and we began the day with a special waffle breakfast. Nick spent all day with Bill and then we went out to Red Robin for dinner with a small group of friends. Have y'all ever been to a Red Robin? I had only been there for lunch before and didn't realize they would have a big lifesize Red Robin there to greet the kids. Not a big deal, right? Oh, no, no, no. Poor little Max who was with us was quite traumatized by the big red bird. I wasn't sure he was going to make it to the table but he eventually did. He did spend most of dinner under the table, but he ended up having an OK time, poor guy. I was just thankful that Nick wasn't afraid of the bird as well! The servers serenaded Nick with their Birthday song and of course I didn't have the camera ready (bad mom!) and they brought him a sundae which he absolutely loved. Every time he took a bite of the ice cream his eyes would get really big and he would kind of shake his head, it was pretty funny.

On Saturday we attended our neighborhood Spring Festival which included an Egg Hunt, Moon Walks, Face Painting and a Petting Zoo. The Egg Hunt was hilarious. Nick was way more interested in watching all the other kids pick up eggs than to pick up eggs of his own. I was finally able to convince him to put some eggs in his basket and he kind of got the hang of it but then he was more interested in opening the eggs than finding more eggs. I think it was really overwhelming for him. We keep telling ourselves that next year at the ripe age of 3, he will really be into all this stuff, we shall see!

After the egg hunt we stood in line for the Moon Walk because at the Irish festival Nick had gone in so we thought for sure he would want to do it here. Not so much. We waited in line for about 10 minutes and by the time it came to actually go in, he would have nothing to do with it! We knew he wouldn't do the face painting so we headed for the petting zoo. In the end, he really just wanted to run around the amphitheater.

After the Spring Festival Bill's family came in from Northern Virginia and we started the 2nd celebration of Nick's birthday. I think I'll save that for my next post because this one is getting really long!

Have a great week everyone!

This Should Have Been Written 2 Weeks Ago!

It has been almost a month since I last blogged. I can't really explain the absence, except I just haven't felt like doing it. Similar to why I haven't been running on the recent cold, rainy mornings we've had lately. Enough excuses, I'll try to hit the highlights of the past few weeks.

I suppose the most exciting news is that Bill has a new job lined up! YAY Billy. This is really great news and we are both very thankful because its such a tough economy and its a job Bill is really excited about. There is just one catch, the job is in Maryland. So, the plan is that Bill will live in Maryland during the week and come home on the weekends. He has two friends from his former employer that are also going to be working at the same place so they will hopefully be able to get an apartment together. He is probably going to start in early June but they are still working out the details. We know that this will be tough on Nick. We're planning to contact our Social Worker to see if she has any advice on how to ease this upcoming transition.

Nick has been sick on and off for the past 2-3 weeks. Nothing too major, although early this week he had a 103 fever that didn't respond that well to Tylenol. He is on antibiotics now and doing much better. He is definitely sleeping more soundly and for this we are very happy!

Nick continues to grow like crazy and he is talking alot...we just don't know what he is saying. His appetite comes and goes, its frustrating but I have learned not to try to force it. If he doesn't want to eat, he isn't going to eat, it's very simple. The worst habit he has picked up and seems to be taking a long time to shake, is spitting. He is still spitting and he still thinks it is hilarious. We have tried many ways to try to break him of this habit, and they are working on it at school too. So far, nothing seems to be working. We'll keep plugging away.

We are preparing for Nick's second birthday, next Thursday, and then the following Wednesday is one year from the day we first met him. We have alot to celebrate in the upcoming weeks!

I'm going to close with some pictures from the Irish Festival we attended a few weeks ago. Nick got to experience a bounce house for the first time. He didn't bounce though, he just sat there, mesmerized. I'm hoping he'll be able to bounce at our neighborhood Spring festival in a few weeks. He also almost had his face painted, but didn't really like it so he had his hands painted instead. Bill got his face painted as well as a special bonus! The best part were the firetrucks. We spent a long time at the fire station, looking at the trucks and running around. Enjoy.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

The first week of Bill as a stay at home dad is over and I think it was a good week. As I mentioned in a previous post, Bill's company is shutting down and his last day of work was a week ago. Because Nick has done so well in daycare ("school" as we call it with Nick), and really seems to be loving it, we didn't want to pull him out completely. We decided to have him go to school 3 days a week and stay at home with Daddy for the other 2 days.

It turns out that the transition has been a bit tough on Nick. He loves his days at home with dad, and the next day back at school he is shy when I drop him off and hesitant to leave my side. This isn't how he had been in the mornings when in the past he would go join the group in whatever they were doing. I think it will just take some time to get used to the new routine.

Nick has been talking so much lately. One of his favorite pastimes is to point to everything he sees, wanting to know what its called, and then repeating it back to us. Amazing. His repetition doesn't always sound like the word, but he is trying. He has started calling his classmates by name, and also his teachers. He is also saying thankyou at the appropriate time, which is really sweet. He is still announcing his bodily functions, although not at the appropriate time. It seems any activity at all, farting, peeing and pooping, all amounts to "poopy" in his mind, which he tells us whenever anything happens. His teachers tell me he does the same thing at school. I find it pretty amusing, not sure why. It's going to be so unfortunate when he is in the potty humor phase and I can't keep a straight face because I'm laughing. I'll have to work on that!

He continues to love music. His favorite being the CD from our Music Together class. He asks for it almost every night and will sing (he tries) and dance and also likes to dance with Mommy and Daddy. He also loves the CD of love songs his Uncle Carl put together.

Last weekend we had gorgeous warm weather here in Virginia and headed to our local playground with Nick. He had a blast and we were totally taken aback when he was able to climb up this metal structure/wall (see below). We had no idea he would be able to do it. I was so proud of him! Here are some pics from the day.

Finally, I think I kind of messed up. His school had picture day on Friday. I made an effort to dress Nick in the sweater that I think he looks best in, and put him in jeans. A cute casual look. Well, I was totally surprised when I dropped him off, the little girls all had dresses on, not the normal casual dresses one might wear for a day at school, but church type dresses. The little boys were dressed similarly. I thought, oh boy, I missed the boat on this one! But when I thought about it, we really don't have many dress up clothes for Nick, is that bad? I'm going to have to work on that one. I think the pictures will still be cute, even if Nick is a bit on the casual side!

Have a great weekend all!

Blog Break

In the spirit of Spring Break I have been taking an extended Blog Break. Not that I've been the most dedicated blogger lately, but I also usually don't let 3 weeks go by.

Part of the problem is that I finally got onto Facebook and it is totally addicting. I knew it would be which is why I resisted for so long, but the pull of finding long lost friends and acquaintances was too strong.

Nick has been doing great and we are currently enjoying a visit from all of my brothers and sisters. It is the first time we've all been together since my wedding and it has been alot of fun.

Nick has decided that he is an Abba fan and loves the song Dancing Queen (one of my favorites as well). Here is a shot of Nick with Uncle Pat, watching the Dancing Queen video on the computer and trying out some new dance moves!

Last night we got about 7 inches of snow, which is beautiful but really cold. Here is a picture of our street.

Well, its time to go try to dig ourselves out of this so we can get together with the rest of our visitors!

Happy Snow Day!