Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Great news for Hunter! Dev's imagination is blooming! No more crawling for B!

Hello everyone!

The temperature is still cool around here, but the holiday weekend looks to be warmer and sunny! Since we fenced in part of our back yard I’ve moved my computer desk to the side of my sun room so I can see out the windows. Devin is inside at the moment, but the evidence of his fun yesterday is still in the tree! Tim and I attended a dinner that marked the beginning of week long meetings and more meetings for Tim. The past two years he’s just packed an overnight bag and stayed in a hotel close to the location instead of driving the hour there and back again. We had our sitter come over yesterday and he had all three boys at once! They went outside at one point and now the big blue and white ball is being held tight in the tree, so hard to get that the bat Caleb used to knock it out is now also caught up in the branches!

It didn’t bother Dev at all that Tim and I were leaving, he likes Caleb that much! Devin was downstairs when Caleb arrived. When he came upstairs he looked around said, ‘Where’d Caleb go?’, then he saw Caleb and said, ‘There he is!’, and then ran and tackled him! This was the first time Caleb had all three. He’s watched Dev and B when Hunter and I went to the movie and saw Iron Man and when we went to Hunter’s Spring Concert and then just Hunter and Dev when B was a bit younger and I left. We only stayed out until 9:00, wanting to make it an early night because Tim knew that tonight would be a late night with him actually staying over at the same hotel as the out of state company employees. However, Bryce had a bad night. He woke often and he’s not quiet when he does! Tim was still half asleep when he headed out this morning.

The wonderful news this week is that Hunter made the honor roll! He has been so close every year, but it’s been his printing that holds him back each time. I’m not happy with his penmanship, but his teacher must have seen something to give him that extra point or so! On this subject I’m wondering if I shouldn’t be looking for a new OT. I like his current one. She’s been working with Hunter for many years now, but Tim was telling me of a woman he knows who’s son’s handwriting was so bad that his mom got him an OT and now his printing is neat and proper. I can’t imagine what the difference could besides Hunter’s lack of interest and sore hand muscles.

Hunter’s new favorite thing to say is, ‘Prove it’, and it’s driving me insane! He’s not even using the term properly. He asked me if I liked a pine tree or some other tree better and I said I liked the pine tree because they don’t lose their needles during the winter and animals can shelter underneath. He got in my face and said, ‘Prove it’. What? You’re asking me what I like, my personal opinion, so you don’t say, ‘Prove it’. Can you guess his response to that? It was another, ‘Prove it’, this time with more enthusiasm.

He’s still struggling with his speech. He’s not exactly stuttering, but he’s tripping over what words to use and pausing in the middle of his sentence, and the entire time he’s swaying back and forth on his tip toes, shaking whatever small toy he’s chosen to carry around. He’s tried my patience many times by leaving his small magnetic balls on the floor and he keeps pulling the tabs off the tops of pop cans and the erasers from pencils, playing with them and then leaving them on the floor. But he is doing excellent in school, he is interacting with kids his age and he is communicating with me, so although it’s hard to see him struggling, stimming and not remembering there’s a baby in the house, I am so thankful for how far he’s come!

Devin loves that he can go outside pretty much anytime he wants to now, but keep your shoes on, kid! He takes his sandals off and runs barefoot or he takes his shoes off and plays just in socks. It doesn’t matter to him! He is full of words and observations and makes sure I see everything he sees, that I listen to hear what he is hearing and if I share a forkful of something with him, he takes the fork and shares a forkful with me!

I can’t believe his imagination! I remember getting Hunter to pretend to feed his stuffed puppy a cheese ball being a huge event (the same day we taught him to sign more). Devin needs no help whatsoever! ‘It’s a cracker, it’s a car’, and, ‘No, it’s a plane!’ Then I have Hunter on the other side saying, ‘It’s NOT a plane, Devin, it’s a LETTER!’ They go back and forth like that with Dev adding some choppy chatter that Hunter might be glad that he can’t understand right now!

Devin is fascinated with trains right now and absolutely loves the Thomas the Train DVD I bought him. I think it’s terribly boring and kind of scary that these trains have mouths, but they don’t actually open and move when the train’s are talking. He’s been going down every night without much problem because he gets to watch his train movie. He walks around saying choo, choo and all aboard, telling me to holler stop and when I do, he makes a sound that is a pretty good imitation of a trains air brakes!

He is such a great helper in giving and doing things for Bryce, but he is two and is therefore very possessive of his trains and toy cars. If he hears Bryce waking up first, he climbs up on the bed with him and tells him that I’m coming. He shares his bath time bubbles with him and I think Devin stopped having a fit when I rinse his hair because Bryce doesn’t do it. Dev started that suddenly before Bryce began taking baths with him, but now that they are together he doesn’t do it anymore.

Bryce is speeding up! He’s not quite as wobbly nor is he as bow legged now that he’s been walking non stop for a couple weeks now. Only if he’s tired or crying does he crawl. He also doesn’t need me to nurse him to sleep for naps. He’s following Devin in that area; he just collapses wherever! He loves burying his head in a pillow, so I keep one on the floor in his room and in the play room and he’ll roll all over that with his bum up in the air.

He’s getting top molars and a fourth front bottom tooth, so that might explain the recent restless nights. One morning he was either making up for the lack of night time sleep or he was going thru a growth spurt, because he took a four and a half hour nap! I kept returning to make sure he was still breathing. He was always in a different position when I checked on him, and he was always still sleeping soundly! When I heard him stir he was all smiles after that little cat nap!

I think I will be getting Bryce a haircut this week. I don’t want to, but he is looking shaggy and I like to keep my guys looking neat and having easy go hair. Maybe.

Hope you all are well. Write me soon!

XOXO

Yo

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