My Little Lovey!

There has been this really wonderful progression over the last few weeks that just melt a mother’s heart. I know every mom feels this when their little one offers a kiss or says I love you . . . I’ve just waited longer with my second than I did with my first.

Thane finally started calling me Mom with real intent just a few weeks ago, and it has since changed to “Mommy” which sounds so cute – rather like mom-mee. He also started giving kisses when asked for a kiss. He still can’t fully pucker (he has an oral motor planning issue), but he does his best!

Last night he came over to me and said, “Mommy, kiss?” I got all teary and bent down to accept his offer.

He kissed me and said, “Thank you! Anudder kiss?” Who would refuse that?!?

He kissed me again and said “Thank you! I ub you, Mommy.” He had the biggest, proudest look on his face. It was so sweet. Of course I told him, “I love you too, Thaney!”

At bedtime, Daddy asked for a kiss and Thaney obliged. Then he said “Mommy kiss?” so I got another two kisses from him, unsolicited by me. It was so sweet. I was actually up for an hour just thinking how wonderful this is and what a fabulous little guy I have!

Dwarves and Leprechauns

I always think of things to write when I am not near the computer. It’s been a rather busy week! I’ve been trying to digest a really long evaluation of Thane from a pediatric developmental physician, psychologist, physical therapist, speech therapist, audiologist and social worker.

I found myself sitting at my desk typing up a note to our family doctor. A bunch of medical tests were suggested and I am on the fence about some of them. I started writing and found myself saying things that I probably shouldn’t send in case they get into the little guy’s medical file.

The more I think about it, the less inclined I am to pursue the tests suggested by Dr. X. The report says at some point that it is unlikely something medical will be found, but then there is a “why don’t we see if he’s a dwarf” checklist later on. I really doubt he is a dwarf – leprechaun maybe, dwarf no. (Maybe that should be L.E.P. Recon and he can get a job in one of Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books.)

Now, I know the family doctor would get my humor because she has heard my wiseacre remarks for about 15 years now, but other medical folk may not appreciate it much. His hair may not be red enough to really look like a leprechaun, but he does have that magical quality about him!

I also got a quarterly report from Thane’s developmental therapy. There is a lot more progress in the past three months than in the previous six . . . but there are still a number of things he refuses to even try.

Oh, I have to note this as it is kind of funny . . . Thane recognizes McDonald’s – actually, he recognizes whenever we are within a short distance of one, before he sees the restaurant itself. Anyway, he has started saying, “McDonald’s! I like chicken with fries and a diet coke, ice cream, no sauce,” and he keeps going trying to place an order – it’s not like he can eat much from there and we don’t go often because of that. His memory amazes me, and it is funny listening to the “fries, Diet Coke” in the back of the car.

As we headed out today, Thane was the first to the door. He stood there trying to open it for a minute and then said “Oh c’mon door, open up!” He kept repeating that to the door louder and louder. He’s too funny.

Braeden starts piano lessons in a few days. Being the shop-a-holic I am, I purchased a new weighted keyboard for him to use for practicing at home. I hope he likes playing!

My Favorite Fruit Fly

Last night Braeden and I were talking. He said there were no Friday afternoon activities at school this week because they are working on a play. I asked Braeden what role he got.

"A fruit fly," he said with a big, goofy grin on his face.

"It's not the worst role you know," he added as I joined the giggling. "I could have been a credit card."

Of course, I am rather wondering why a fruit fly is better than a credit card, but I guess the fly gets more lines, moves more, and has a singing part. This should be very interesting!

This afternoon the American Express and my fruit fly sang one of the group songs to me. The fruit fly was laughing much too hard to be understood, while the credit card sang his little heart out.

I am looking forward to the show as it has already given me a lot of smiles and laughter!

If a picture paints 1000 words . . .

. . . enough said!

Mommy!

Thane’s calling me Mommy now. I am so excited!!! It sounds even nicer than hearing “Mom” for some reason.

We’ve been looking at real estate hoping to find a nice place to put a camp so we have someplace to go for a change of pace. I was hoping to only have to drive 1-2 hours, but we really haven’t seen anything we like that close. We’re thinking of making an offer on the piece pictured below. It’s been so long since we’ve purchased property we’ve had to read up on what’s involved.

One potential problem I see is that Thane just seems so fearless. I know that isn't really uncommon at his age, but I think he would walk off a cliff if someone didn't stop him. And when he gets mad, he wants to prove his point so badly he doesn't seem to care if he hurts himself. It's so hard to watch!

A sappy mommy moment . . .

A couple of big things have happened recently. My little one is diagnosed as having Pervasive Development Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS), language delay/ Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS – a motor planning problem), and “failure to thrive” because he is so small. He has allergies to wheat, eggs and milk, and in the process of taking him off wheat we realized he has gluten intolerance. He amazed us with rapidly gaining speech and starting to put sentences together – he gained about a year’s worth of speech in around 3 months.

The big things are definite mommy moments. Thane called me mom on occasion, usually when reminded to and echoing whoever was saying it, but this past week he has started saying mom regularly without any prompting. He comes right up to me and says “Hello Mom! What’s up?”

He’s also starting to kiss. I think my heart just melted three times because he just gave me three kisses! How wonderful is that? I have gotten a kiss almost every day this week. He still doesn’t fully pucker, but he doesn’t head-butt us when we try anymore. And this time he even made the choice to kiss me on his own.

I was posting a note to one of my groups and I was getting sappy about my boys. It’s really easy to explain the proud mommy stuff about Braeden. He’s warm, loving, intelligent, a deep thinker, and very creative . . . he is wonderful with his brother, wonderful with me, though he and his father drive each other crazy pushing each other's buttons. He’s the miracle baby I never thought I would have and now he’s growing up into a great person.

Thane is harder to explain. He is beautiful and magical. There is something about him that I can’t really put in words. And I never thought I would have a second child, so he's my miracle too.

My husband and I got incredibly lucky with these two boys!

Likable, Lovable Kids

I like my kids!

Braeden was the perfect diplomat in carpool today. One of the kids is younger and still requires a car seat/booster by law, though by size I would put them all four in them if I could. The younger one was being teased and Braeden acted as mediator. He also gave his friend a big hug when we dropped the first set of kids off, and another big hug when we dropped the younger guy off at home.

The “lelelelapop” kid is pretty cute too. He got more paint on him today – it’s getting to be a ritual I guess. I’m concerned that he got into some gluten today at school as his speech was just awful. He was trying to say flag, but it ended sounding much more like f--k! I was glad the 7- to 9-year-olds were paying attention.

My older two kids -- meaning my husband and Braeden -- got use out of our newly paved driveway today. They had their California Chariots out and were racing down the hill. Braeden also created some routines to show me.

Stylin'

Thane came home with purple hair yesterday -- he painted it at school. It only faded to a purple-pink with washing. Today he added a green eyebrow. It's actually pretty cute on such a little guy, but it seems a bit odd on such a little kid!

Adventures in Carpooling

Today was the beginning of adventures in carpooling. This is definitely going to take some getting used to. I picked up Braeden at school along with two of his classmates and a younger boy. Braeden was holding the little boy’s hand as they came to the car, strapped him into his carseat, and checked on him several times. Clearly he has the big brother thing down.

I didn’t want to get out of the car to get Thane at his school when I had a car full of kids, so I asked Braeden to go in and get his brother. He took the whole carload of boys with him to get Thane! I got my little blonde boy back with stylish purple streaks in his hair (he painted it himself!).

As we drove away from the church where his developmental preschool is held, Thane dropped something and said, “Oh God!” I had a carload of kids so I suggested that he should watch his mouth. That led to a big discussion about what he said.

The littlest guest in the car pipes up and says “That’s not a bad word! I’ll tell you a bad word! Son of a bitch! You never say that to a police officer or they can arrest you for it!”

With a bunch of boys, the farting came next. As soon as I heard it, I opened the back vent windows and made them all laugh. I figured I didn’t want the smell floating up front!!!

Tomorrow I get a different collection of children. Hopefully it goes just as well – no fighting and such. They all seemed so happy, so that was a big plus!

Today was Braeden’s first day of school. It’s so interesting to see his schedule – it so varied. He’s taking math, earth science, American History, literature, writing, Latin, Spanish, photography, art, musical theatre, voice, music theory, drama, and he is tutoring in the lower school. It sounds kind of grown up for 8!

Thane continues to entertain us . . . we went away for the weekend and the boys were playing in a field at Schoodic Point. Braeden was pretending to be a lion in chase of prey, and little Thane was running away shouting “No dragon! No!” I think he gets this pretend thing pretty well for a kid who isn’t even three yet.

Thane has a new speech thing he is doing with /le/ and /la/ sounds. He asked for a “lelelelelapop” today, meaning a lollipop, and Dave told him no. A little while later he stood in front of the drawer that houses the lollipops . . .

“Lelelelelapops? Oh lelelelelapops? Where are you lelelapop?

“Oh look! A lelelelapop!

“Lelelapop? How are you lelelapop?

“Lelelelelapop . . .

“I like lelelelelelapop!”

Yes, it worked. He got the lollipop he wanted by being so cute!

Our trip this weekend was to check out property for a possible camp. The picture of Braeden below is from the first place he actually asked whether we were going to actually buy a piece of land – he rather liked this piece, but we’re totally on the fence still. The lighthouse pic is just a very "Maine" photo, so I thought I would post it too.

Beach, Camping, School

It's been a busy week. Thane started school on Tuesday. He's been a riot this week. He spent an hour and half chasing seagulls on the beach, stopping to say "Birdie" and then approximate the sign for us (see picture below). His stamina is amazing. And every time one of the gulls flew away he would yell "Hey!" Then he would pause and say "Bye Birdie." He was running over sand, small painful (in my opinion) rocks, and even up onto the big granite stones. Yikes!


He took Thursday off from school as he was over-stimulated Wednesday night. He sat up in bed saying and signing his ABCs. For a kid who only spoke and signed 30 words a few months ago, he really amazes me. I can actually ask him what the sign is for things as he knows more than I do!

Braeden's camping trip went well, but he and his buddy were kept awake by an owl hooting. All the kids looked pretty tired at pick-up time today. It sure does look like a fun way to start the school year and it seems like everyone is looking forward to starting classes on Monday. I will be interested to see Brae's schedule. He wants to take Latin, extra science, and extra math. I think it is cool that he is filling up electives with some academic things. I was checking the bookmarks on his computer and all of his favorites are history sites. I'm not sure I would have been researching history on the internet at 8 years old, even if the internet existed back then!

Peek-a-Boo Man in the Moon

OK, I started a blog. What made me do it? It was listening to Thane play hide and seek with the moon as we drove home from Freeport this evening. Braeden is off at Tanglewood 4H Camp with his school friends -- bonding before classes begin on Monday. Thane was just too cute.

"Moon? Moon? Where are you Moon?"

Then the man in the moon peaked out from behing the trees . . .

"Oh look! There he ish! Hewoe Moon! How are you Moon?"

He actually spent a good half hour, maybe more, playing hide-and-seek with the moon. It was totally adorable.

We stopped at the grocery store as I asked Dave to get a copy of the Courier-Gazette's Thursday edition. I had emailed a cool photo Dave took on Monday as we were driving home from the beach. Dave wanted to check out his boat, and I said the sunset lighting would be a cool photo. We got a rainbow too. I call this "Rainbow over Moonrise." Moonrise is the blue Rhodes Meridian with the wooden mast in the middle of the photo. Not only did the newspaper publish the photo, it was front and just left of center on the front page -- lead position. You've got to like it!