348, Overwhelmed

In Georgia I raked the leaves. William got a walk every day, walked around, and got to play in the leaves. He liked all the toys his grandmother gave him. William liked it that there were people around to hold Andrew, so I could attend to him.

William throws away things for me now, in the garbage can, and gets my print out and brings it to me. But he's also throwing away anything, and we have to teach him what trash is.

Looks like William might get some speech pathology services in the home. He's not going to have to go to school.

Andrew seems to grow and grow. Gretchen asked what his name is. His name is Andres but I call him Andrew. We don't call William Guillermo, but I suppose we could.

Rich saw the pictures from Thanksgiving and asked about Braxton. He's a cut little boy, I hope he is well.

I gave Andrew a bath this morning, my first for him. Much easier to give a second first bath, though.

Diana tries to rev herself up to go back to work Monday. Diana is over meeting the (hopefully) new baby sitter helper for Abuela. Hope William gets along with her.

William ate strawberries, yogurt and chicken so far today.

347. OT

The OT evaluator came. She says he's fearless, when he jumped onto the ball. She says she's not going to recommend any OT services, he's normal to advanced in some areas. He stacked 7 blocks, he's only supposed to do 3 by now. She said he has good index finger use, his peripheral vision is great. He is willful, which is age appropriate. She says "no" doesn't mean anything until children are 21 months old (William is 19.5). Perfect grip of pen for his age. He's right handed! He has strong abdominal muscles. Good fine motor skills, organized. He relates well, with good eye contact. He fed the toy clown (he would not transfer play with the speech pathologist). He may be sensitive to noise. He dislikes the vacuums but not so much that he doesn't want to watch me shave. He could put the toys on a string and squares, triangles and circles in. He has a variety of sounds, and talks after he does something. She says, "he's telling you what he did." He doesn't like the swing, or bending his head back to get the shampoo out, but it's not significant, that would mean more if other things line up with that, but it doesn't. She thinks he's great. Maybe he could get some speech services to give him a boost, but from what she saw and her competence of OT, there was nothing wrong. Such a relief. Now we one more hearing test, and have the big formal evaluation.

346. Georgia

William can point to his mouth, nose, ears. Not yet his chin, cheek or eyes. The OT is coming tomorrow to evaluate.

We got home from Georgia last night. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting us. Thanks to Zane for holding Andrew so much, and running around trying to make everyone happy. Thanks to Megan for her humor and driving Diana and Virginia. Thanks to Virginia for all her help. To go to my grandparents to help out her sister for 5 days is quite a lot. Thanks to Angie and Abuelo for driving us to the airport, and thanks to Abuelo, Jimmy and Angel for picking us up.

William liked Braxton. We got some good pictures of him. It was good to see David, Nancy, Jessica, Benjamin and to meet Molly.

345. Christening

My mother says I didn't really talk till I was 2. Michael's mother says they drained some water in his ears and then he started talking. William went to bed at 1 Wednesday night, and I got him to bed by 10 Thursday night.

One of our doulas had a baby. The other sends her warm regards.

My mother said when I was a teenager, I didn't like overhearing my mother talking about me. She brought that story out at the meal after the shower, in front of my friends, which was slightly embarrassing.

Emma got William back Friday, when he was under the weather some, for all his pushing and hitting.

The Christening was in Spanish, to our surprise. Supposedly they alternate language, and supposedly this week was English. So the many people who did not speak Spanish were in the dark. Cliff liked it, because he said it helped him to see other aspects of the ritual. I had a hard time with it, and I have a hard time being in the church. I still have many negative ideas about other religions even though I've finally found one myself.

Ray said, "you can't have any more kids, because you've run out of Catholic friends." Diana said, Michael, who is Josephine's husband.

The meal was good. I enjoyed having time with others.

344. Spider bites or mites

Spider bites or mites, but not Chicken Pox for William. The doctor gave him antibiotics and benadryl. He went to bed at 9 and woke up at 7.

Coming back from retreat, not seeing them for essentially 3 days, Andrew seemed huge. William's hair is laying down. It only stands up in the back.

William has had a fever, and has been cranky, but he's over. He's slept with us a little. I went to bed with him Tuesday night at 8, and got blissful sleep. Wednesday night he was more prone to crying. Seems OK today, though.

William is the process of being evaluated for speech and language. I've hesitated to write about it, we're worried. He's doing OK, but he's not speaking so much. We haven't met with the people yet. I had a bad day where I imagined disaster scenarios. But I'm going to hope for the best now.

Saturday Kathy (Glamma) and Rich are coming in, for the christening of Andrew. Ray is going to be the godfather, and Aida is the godmother.

Diana says she can now distinguish between my, William and Andrew's farts.

343. Boo!

William slept for a while. I took a shower, and when I came out, they were all awake. I took William for a walk outside. I took him to the flea market, but he was clingy and wanted to be held instead of ride in the stroller.

Diana reports William has watched the Backyardigans, and there's one about being a ghost, and saying "boo!" Diana says it to him occasionally to get him to play, but he doesn't respond. Today he went to her and went "boo!"

I was reading him one of his books, and the word "hug" came up an he hugged me.

Abuelo and Abuela came over, and he gets very afraid of Abuela because in the past she meant that I was dropping him off, saying goodbye. He pushed her.

He's eaten well today. Strawberries, tomatoes, beans, carrots, broccoli, eggs, lasagna.

342. Drawing

Friday morning I took Andrew over to his grandmother's. Diana went over around 2. He got to play with Emma, AJ and Venus. William spent some time with Steven upstairs. Steven lent him a car to play with.

They put up the child guards, finally, and fixed the AC so it's flush in the window so there's no draft.

Saturday morning I took Andrew out for a little walk to buy picture frames. Then I took William to the park. He fell asleep, and I brought him home.

William likes to draw. He sits and he gets a crayon and paper. And he draws. We're trying to limit him to the paper, not to draw on other things.

341. Elmo

William woke up again in the night, for the second night in a row, Wednesday. When I came home he was asleep. He was hot, they turned the heat on. Andrew has slept a lot. Aminta and Steven came over. Then Aida and Natasia.

Thursday he was walking fast back and forth to the bedroom. Diana decided to watch TV unhindered by William's DVDs in the room. William was very torn where to go. Watch the DVD and his father read, or go into the room with his mother on the bed, with Andrew. His nose is running like crazy and he's fussy.

We swear he said "Elmo" and something else, I forget. But he doesn't repeat. I think he's teasing us.

340. Halloween

Tuesday morning William woke up and gave him a bottle. I fell asleep on the couch, but woke up later and put him to bed. He woke up early, so it doesn't look like I can meditate, unless Diana gets up, and I'm reluctant to ask her to get up. Only if she's breast feeding. When I meditate in the morning it changes the quality of my day, but it's not a panacea. Just something that enhances life for the better. Additionally, it's a spiritual practice for me. It's the last thing I cut out, but even that gets cut out at times. But today I get to meditate, Andrew is going to be fed.

Monday night, I told William that I loved him, and he put out his cheek for me to kiss.

William was Mickey Mouse, and Emma was Minnie Mouse. AJ was Human Torch. Steven was the Wizzard. Venus was a genie and Natasia was Pocahontus. Andrew was a pea in a pod. We went trick or treating for 45 minutes and had a good time.