Worst. Costume. Ever.

Okay, I know, I know. I'm going to hear about this later, perhaps after Timothy has a therapy session. I procrastinated and looked at 5000 costumes online and I just could not decide. And then I saw an adorable Tiger costume for $10 bucks at Costco. Sold! The problem was it didn't fit even though he almost always can wear 12-18 size. In fact it's usually too big. Well this one was too small - it came to mid shin and we had to strain to lift it on his head.

So we took it back and the only thing they had left was these silly cows - with spots more like a Dalmatian dog then any self-respecting cow. I also didn't realize that the back would be so...realistic of a large sized...human rather than a pear shaped cow?! Very strange. Also although it was too big in the legs and arms it was still too small in the...how to say politely, uhm groin area. So. very. wrong. Sorry little man!

I gotta say all of the guys at the kids party really liked it and thought it was cute. The women...well let's say it was a little too close to home.

Anyway Timothy loved loved loved Halloween. In fact he was ready to go out the next night and do the same thing and was furious to discover that it was not possible. When we brought him home after trick or treating he kept trying to keep his costume and shoes back on and would run to the door looking very sadly out. He only got scared after a neighbor's kid came out wearing a "Scream" mask -- Timothy let out a scream and demanded I hold him the rest of the night. Who lets their six year old wear such a mask I ask you? Guess we'll find out in about 4 years....

Halloween is a special day for us in that we received our Letter of Acceptance from the Chinese Government on this day last year. I'll love Halloween forever because of this.

Balloons and birthday

I had a lot of stress planning Timothy's birthday party because I wanted it to be special and fun for him as well as a celebration of him. We celebrated his actual birthday somewhat quietly with just the three of us - four if you count his speech therapist, for his scheduled appointment and she very sweetly brought two gifts for him, really she is so nice. Timothy awoke to a surprise of his new little kitchen and recycling truck as well as new pots and pans and a shopping cart (gotta have the push toys). He loves the kitchen as I knew he would - mainly because he likes to open and close doors over and over again. The "burners" make noises and light up - really likes that. He couldn't even concentrate on the pots/pans or the cart as the kitchen and truck were enough. Again, I got him too many toys and even saved one of the others we got him for a Christmas present. So we had a nice quiet family day and spent a lot of quantity and quality time with our little man.



His birthday party was fine - next year we are going to Chuck E. Cheese, I swear, wow. We had it outside although on the cool side and borrowed our neighbor's moonbounce. Timothy even got in this time especially when his little friend and idol Carter went in to play. Spent all day Saturday decluttering my house (decluttering means moving cr** to the basement and hopefully on to a new home in Goodwill). Greg and I pride ourselves on not being too material but we have managed to keep a lot of junk over four moves in the last ten years. I watched a show on hoarders and that's what made me determined - but I digress. I cleaned and cleaned since all of our neighbors were going to be over...and no one came inside, but I now have a cleaner, less cluttered house!

Timothy had no idea what was going on - just that all his neighborhood friends were over and he didn't understand why. He did fine and we are so happy that he's our little son. We had two cakes as you can see including Elmo. His all-time favorite activity of the day? Watching his Uncle Scott blow up the balloons with the helium tank. He was transfixed and spent all morning pulling all of the balloons up and down from the ceiling. It's also what he played with all afternoon and evening after his nap. So much for presents.

He's grown almost two inches since we last had him evaluated and is now in the 10-25%. He weighs almost 25 lbs. We still have speech therapy every week with the focus now on sounds using the tongue like "d", "t", "p" and "b". He's very guarded with his tongue and uses it to protect the rest of his mouth. We try to massage his tongue and the sides of his cheek with a device called a nuk. Lately he's starting to move his tongue around in his mouth more as a result. He can also say about 35 words. Even words he already knows he's improved upon such as now saying momma for mom. He's only behind in speech by about three months according to the IA doc. It's probably more than that - he still has a long way to go but he really is doing just great. His receptive speech is even above age at 25 months.

Timothy can play by himself for long periods of time - about 45 minutes to an hour. He loves his puppets and making them dance to music or using them when watching videos about a farm or an Elmo/Sesame Street video about birds. He loves loves loves his Kindermusik class. He imitates us constantly with the way we are sitting or kneeling or lying down. He's laughing and smiling so much more after his second surgery to the point of doubling over, I love this! He sleeps most nights a blessed 11 hours a night - how lucky are we? Naps are another story much more difficult but getting better - sleeping really is important for brain development in little ones as well as mental health for much older ones. He also loves cars and trucks as well as any type size and shape of ball. What is also amusing is hearing him when he makes himself laugh. That's pretty darn cute. Preschool is fine - each week he gets a little bit better. Last week he started crying before we were out of the parking lot but only for the first hour. Monday is my first day co-oping with another group of children, heard this is quite fatiguing.

Eating lots of muffins

Running on the boardwalk

Lovin' VA beach or not being stuck in a car for four hours

Thinking deep thoughts or future album cover?

Ready for my first day of "school"

23 months old

I love my baseball glove and my footie pj's

My nice shirt fits my now

Ready? Go!

My friend Lara is moving across town :(

They won't let her go if I take her car seat!

Who needs eyes anyway?

Had a great summer - except for surgery!

Andrew and Matt try to work out energy before the big drive to Nova Scotia

Timothy and Carter at the Aquarium

Note the bottom lipI don't trust you anymore

Wish I had gotten a picture of his look of surprise

With neighbors Mike and Jakey

Girls really dig me

This will be a long post given it's been a number of weeks since I last posted.

Timothy is now doing well recovering from his surgery. It took him longer than expected to get back to his old cheerful self. He had about two weeks of being demanding, irritable and with a borderline fever. That's all behind us now. He was drooling for a bit, lots, just like when we came back from China so we've had to remind him and he's back to where he was before drooling only when intensely involved in a toy.

Lesley, our ST thought he may regress and lose some of the words he's learned. That has not turned out to be the case and he's even trying to say new words. It's still not easy for him as he needs to motor plan many of the things he says and that takes a few seconds. He can say the "o" sound and that is the sound he uses when trying to say "open" or "on" or "off" - he can get the second consonant sound usually enough for us to tell us what's he trying to say as in "boom" but he cannot say the first consonant of a word, for example "mom" sounds like "om". We've been practicing as this is not a word he says without prompting but he's getting better at it and it is taking him less time to motor plan the word. Since we've been working on it he holds the last "m" for a long time trying to make the word sound correct. He tries so hard! He can get discouraged as he knows he is not saying it correctly. We give him lots of props for trying.

He can do a somersault now as well as climb up our slide by himself and climb up the ladder at the gym where he takes a gymnastic class. I love this class but it's been me chasing him around for 45 minutes, and all of the little kids do this to some extent. But they've gotten better since the class began about 8 weeks ago. Now the kids are able to stay still when the teacher is explaining the safety rules. Most of the kids aren't able to do many of the skills but it's been fun to see them trying. And that's why we think Timothy has been able to do the somersault. He is quite proud of himself for this accomplishment.

We took T to our county fair just a few blocks down the street from us and he was less than thrilled to ride the rides. This is our fault though as I tried to put him on his first ride by himself, on "willie the whale" when he either cried or tried to find a way out the entire time, it was so wrong. I tried to put him on one of the animals on the Merry-Go-Round - forget it. He would only sit on my lap - not even next to me. This remained true for the little train. Even though his little friend Carter rode the pony he wanted nothing to do with it! He liked the giant slide with his Dad but was a little scared too. He did like the soft serve afterwards however.

He starts a Parents Day Out program in September one day a week for a few hours. I'm so happy he'll be around other kids and the structured environment with other kids will be great for him. It's going to be hard on both Timothy and I that first day but I know he'll eventually love it. We are also doing a Kindermusik class every Wednesday. I don't want to be as bored as I was last winter so I'm trying to keep us a little busier and we won't need (hopefully) to go to as many doctor appointments since his surgeries should be done and he'll be caught up in all of his vaccinations.

He's still a little guy in the 5th percentile for height (but at least he's on the charts now), tenth % for weight. He gotten a lot pickier about food since the surgery and will hardly eat meat any more. He's growing a lot more teeth.

Pretty good night

Timothy had a pretty good night last night and slept better than we expected. Went to bed at 9 and only woke up a couple of times - even slept past his time for more meds. His little face is a bit swollen and slightly bruised and he looks tired. Also his nose keeps bleeding so he has lots of dried blood in that area. His breath is terrible and this was expected. He's much more himself this morning but still not interested in eating anything other than Italian ices. Actually he's interested but it seems it hurts too much - won't drink milk, etc. He's doing really well and is our little trooper.

Second surgery update

Luckily Timothy's surgery was scheduled for 8:00 AM this morning versus 12 Noon like last time. He handled missing his bottle like the trooper he is.

He's a hurting little man. He's very tired from the medications, surgery. The good news is that the pain relief for him is much better than last time. He's able to sleep and even eat a little italian ice.

When he woke up from surgery he was in pain and a bit angry, understandably so. He got some morphine via IV twice and was able to sleep. His mouth and nose are filled with dried blood. We are trying to clean him out slowly. He doesn't want us anywhere near his face.

He's also pretty swollen in the face and a bit in the body. He's got bags under his eyes and his lip is inflamed due to receiving wound be gone in his lip to reduce scarring from his lip repair. Hopefully now is will be looser and easier for him to manipulate.

Overall things are pretty good for his recovery.