Summer fun.

Good times caught on camera.

Splashing with Griffin

yum!

The watermelon photo is my new all time favorite. Love.

Big Boy Bed

Anderson graduated to a big boy bed two weeks ago today. His crib did not convert and we decided to skip straight to a twin bed. We're shocked how easy it has been.  Sometimes he crawls out once or twice right after story time, but then he falls asleep and is out for the night.  No more middle of the night wake-ups (not sure if that was just because of his last 4 molars though) and even better when he's up in the morning he doesn't scream & cry. A stays in bed for the most part and says "dada?, dada?" until Dad comes to get him.  Yup, that's the father & son bonding time - I wouldn't want to start messing with it.

On the speech front, Anderson gets about 5 hours of speech therapy a week. 4 in a classroom setting and 45 minutes of 1:1 time.  We've seen a surge in vocabulary already and are hoping we'll start seeing some good 2-3 word phrases soon.

Odds & Ends

Anderson started speech class last week.  The EI system takes forever, so we 're happy to see him start. It's twice a week for two hours at time.  I think we've already seen progress in the 4 classes he has been to. Anderson now signs "me", because they require the children to say or sign me to take a turn. He's also added a few new words - avocado, shark, snack and a few I can't remember. 

He also tells us, " I stink", when something is going on in the diaper whether it's 1 or 2.  In fact just this morning he tells me "I stink" so I take him out of his crib, unzip the pj's and have him sit on the potty since I noticed his diaper was dry.  Low and behold he stands up, raises his arms and says "yay" - all for the right reasons! His first time going poop in the potty was a success.  I hope we can keep this up and really get him trained by September.  It's a bit a of stress point.

We're also looking at various stores to get Anderson his own twin sized bed.  I think this will help the potty training front and help him see the progression from baby (diapers) to big boy (underpants).

Happy 2nd Birthday, Anderson

We just love this guy to pieces.

Julius makes an appearance once again.

Handyman Birthday Party

For Anderson's 2nd Birthday we decided on a tool/handyman theme.   Bri and I have been on a little home improvement kick around the house and Anderson loves taking the hammer and using is it; he also knows exactly what to do with a wrench. As an added bonus he really digs watching some Handy Manny every now and then.

Since our house is in a perfect location for a party - hello, park - and we have a 12' trampoline it's only natural that his birthday parties will be held here until further notice.  One of the best parts of having a child is planning and creating a birthday party.  It's a bit ironic since I personally do not like parties for my birthday and this started even before that fateful day.

Invites I printed on #10 card stock

Finished product - hand cut

Instead of goodie bags I made goodie toolbelts! It is really easy and cheap! 

Toolbelt from Oriental Trading Co ($14.99/dozen)

Felt/Stencil/Yarn ($5 total from Michaels)

Cut a square and sew over the "Handy Dad" label 

Cut letter out of felt and glue to square. Ta da!
(Approx $1.65 per toolbelt!)

For less than $2 I have a great "goodie bag" that can be used over and over again for some creative play.  Now, I could have stopped here but I wanted some additional goodies for the kiddos to have.  Inside the pockets I've included tool shaped bubble sets ($5.99/dozen), an activity pad ($5/dozen), homemade tool crayons and a party toy ($2/dozen)

Crayons from ebay ($10)

Tool Chocolate Mold from Amazon ($2)

Melting down the crayons

Pouring the melted crayon into the mold

Finished! We made 6 tools in 8 colors.

The crayons were inserted into a colorful bag and then all the goodies were placed in the tool belt.  Here are the finished products!

Tool belts for all the kids!

Keeping with the theme I made some tool shaped chocolates to put on top of the cupcakes we were going to serve.  The chocolate molds were $2 on amazon and the candies were the one's Michael's sells. Michael's always has a 30-40% off coupon via email so sign up and go multiple times if need be.  One of my work locations is less than a mile, so I made frequent lunch time trips to maximize savings. I melted and dyed the white candies and painted them in the molds.  Once it cooled I poured the chocolate candy over it. Easy peasy, just a bit time consuming. 

FInished cupcakes with chocolate topper

I finished the theme off with some tool shaped sugar cookies, stuffed in Anderson's toy tool box and some construction hats.  Add a few colorful table clothes, balloons and some amazing weather and it was a recipe for success.  We enjoyed everyone's company and most important of all Anderson had a great party.

Dad surprised us with a great chalkboard drawing!
(yes, that's a door)

The party was such a success we took 3 pictures once it started. Hopefully Nan and Poa Poa will share theirs!

Happy (almost) Birthday, Anderson!

Speech

You might recall that I've posted here there that Anderson doesn't seem to talk too much.  Don't get me wrong - he has a lot to say, but doesn't seem to form actual words.  He didn't say mama until December, maybe.  He really tries to tell you things and the poor guy gets understandably frustrated with you.  It's been on our radar since his 18 month appointment and we were told that he would most likely just start talking one day out of the blue. Well it hasn't happened yet. 

Per Anderson's pediatrician we applied to the Early Intervention program in our county and waited to hear back from them.  In the past week we have had approximately 3 hours of evaluations.  Because we went through EI, Anderson was evaluated on all aspects of development, not just speech.  Today was our last appointment and it was with a developmental pediatrician who made the final assessment. 

It turns out that Anderson does have trouble talking.  No issues with his receptive language - he just can't get words out.  At 23 months he is about equal to a 15 month old.  Not bad, but 2nd percentile in speech - which qualifies him for some free speech.  The programs that contract with EI are very good and if we were to pay out of pocket would be a pretty penny.

She was also able check out the dude's toe-walking. It's something he has done since he started walking.  There are many reasons why a child could do this so we thought while we have a dev pediatrician's ear we might as well have it checked out since Anderson walks on his toes about 90% of the time. The last thing we want is for his tendon to become too tight or shortened and then require surgery because we ignored it.  Interestingly we've been referred to another evaluation with a Physical Therapist. It turns out that while Anderson is very quick on his feet and well balanced his gait is a bit off. I've noticed when he runs he swings his one leg out but didn't think much. It could be normal for him or it could mean he might need some PT for a bit and possibly some further evaluation on the size of his legs - he could have one leg that is a bit shorter and he's compensating by toe-walking.  I'm intrigued.  Long term it shouldn't mean much but anything to help him out and make him more comfortable would be great.  Agian, all of this would be paid for by the state because it's part of the "First 5" years program.

So Bri and I get to check out two programs in the area - one that is strictly speech and another that has PT in the same location.  We get to decide which program we want him in and then he starts his weekly sessions for speech.  PT would be a possibility after he get s another eval. Speech therapy coupled with him starting preschool in the fall should really help out.  Anderson rocked all the other developmental milestones, as we expected. Now we knew he was smart but in one area he actually is on par developmentally with a child who is 41 months in age - that's a 3 1/2 yr old and he's not even 2. 

Potty time!

It's 7:30pm and I've just put Anderson to bed. Bri is in Tahoe at a bachelor party. While he's living the old life for tonight, I find myself reflecting on how times have certainly changed and will never go back.  The highlight of my Saturday evening? Throwing a huge "party" to celebrate the fact Anderson peed in the toilet for the very first time! Go Anderson, Go! Yup, I can't believe how excited I got.  I gave him high fives, kisses, hugs and a special Thomas sticker. Then I put some big boy undies on him (that I randomly purchased at Sear's, on sale, only today -just to have when I toilet train him this summer) and did a little dance with him.  Not even 5 minutes later I put him back in his diaper and off to bed. 

I in no way think Anderson will be trained shortly but it's a nice step.  We put the ikea toilet in our bathroom 6-8 weeks ago just so he could see it.  Lately I've asked him if he wants to sit on the potty (clothed) and when he does I give him a sticker.  In just the past week I've taken his pants and diaper off occasionally and asked him if he wanted to sit - again a sticker. At no time do I mention doing anything on the potty, so it came as a shock when he sat and used it this evening.  My plan is to take a week off of work late this summer and try the "3-day" potty training technique I was given in a pdf.  Of course being a realist I plan to take a full week off...maybe it won't be that bad after all.