Tents And Manners

I love catching my kids doing the right thing.  It's something I've been working on for five years, and I hope to continue working on it for a long time!  But all that to say, you can imagine my pleasure when I heard from the kitchen Isaiah using all kinds of words to try to get his sister to play in his tent with him.

You have to listen carefully at the beginning.  (I was trying to sneak up on them, knowing how any kind of recording device immediately stops whatever cute action my children are doing!)

Perhaps in another post I'll brag on Isaiah's speech development, because it really does deserve some serious bragging, but I'll just leave you with this for now.

And at last he succeeded.

Have a happy day, please.

Here's The Scoop

For a while we've been working with Isaiah on perfecting his fine motor skills.  We've specifically wanted to encourage him to use utensils when eating.  And guess what?!  He's finally wanting to do it himself!  We're so excited!

I realize that most 5 year olds have mastered this skill, so this might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people.  Just take my word for it.  It is a big deal!

Just think, Isaiah, soon you'll be able to eat ice cream all by yourself!  That will be a great day.

Nine Months With Nadezhda

Nadezhda, I thought you were fun at 8 months, but it just keeps getting better!

First, dear girl, your statistics:
Head circumference 43 cm (25th percentile)
Height 26.5 inches (20th percentile)
Weight 16.02 pounds (10th percentile)

And then the fun things that you are up to these days with some of my favorite photos thrown in for good measure (in no particular order):

One of these days you'll be doing "funny face" like you brother!

You are able to keep yourself content much more easily, especially if Mama is in sight. I love to watch you play with your toys, which usually end up in your mouth at some point. You also clap them together with such gusto and excitement that I smile every time.

And speaking of your toys, you will purposefully move around to get the one that you want.  You usually will turn circles on your belly to get a toy that you previously slung somewhere behind you.  You are also perfecting your backwards jump, which is lots of fun and has put you under several pieces of furniture.  You don't usually like being under the furniture, but thankfully you calm down pretty quickly when I come rescue you.

You are getting closer to real crawling though.  I've caught you several times rocking back and forth on all fours, never with the camera, however.

I love to watch your relationship with your brother.  The two of you can really start to play together now.  Isaiah loves to get toys out for you, though he doesn't always understand that you might not be finished with them when he is.  He enjoys entertaining you in the truck on our multiple drives to therapy or church or the store.  He finally has an audience!

If I have you with me when I get brother up from his "nap", he always insists that you lay in bed with him.  I love watching you love on each other, though I usually have to protect brother from your loving, but he doesn't seem to mind you pulling his hair and ears and trying to eat his face.

And you provide him with great motivation for doing his walking when we're home.  I can't wait for the two of you to play hide and seek together!

While your brother is your favorite little person, you love to make friends with everyone we meet.  You do a great "bashful" smile as you capture hearts.  And as long as you can go back to Mama whenever you want, you're usually ok with being held by someone else.

You started clapping my hands together, and in that process you have begun to learn and appreciate praise.  You get so excited when I tell you that you've done a good job for something.  It's really quite amazing how your face lights up with joy.

You're expanding your menu.  Actually I haven't found anything that you don't like.  You want to try everything.  I have to hold you back sometimes from stealing my food!  You have added pears and carrots the last couple of weeks.  And you have started to figure out a cup.  I was concerned about that since you previously liked the bottle and then rejected it when brother had his surgery.  You are quite the opinionated little girl!

You tried to feed yourself some baby crackers, but your cute little hands weren't quite coordinated enough yet.  Almost there!

You still nurse really well, but with one noticeable difference.  At first your legs used to be like an indicator light, but now they are like a weapon!  I think you are already starting to practice for the Rockettes!  Once I really thought you were going to kick me in the head.

And speaking of eating, you always entertain me when you eat.  I don't think people will truly understand your range of motion while eating, so I just have to include a video. (Sorry for the length.  I tried to edit it, but for some reason the edited version wouldn't load properly.)

Did you notice those sweet baby toes?

I love you, Nadezhda, more and more every day.

Resistance Is Futile

Last week seems really far away and really near at the same time. Isaiah and I are getting used to him having a catheter hanging out of his belly. I call him my little Borg.

It's really not that bad, and it is temporary. In 6 weeks when his hole is more permanently fixed, the catheter will be a thing of the past, but he'll still have the "implant" in his belly, so I can still pretend that he's trying to take over the world.

But he doesn't assimilate in his take over. He's way too cute for that. He simply charms the pants off of you!

Here's Isaiah and his favorite toy pals (McQueen represented on the shirt) waiting to get things rolling after we checked in.

All of Isaiah's nurses and doctors were quite taken with him while he was in the hospital. Several nurses would make their rounds much more frequently to our room. The cleaning lady would come by to chat.

I had to get my post-op snuggles from my groggy hero who told me that Kermit did very well but his tummy hurt.

The floor doctor called him a rock star because of how tough he was. And boy was he tough!  I think I would have cried much more than he did with all that he had to endure before surgery, let alone having surgery.  

After surgery he was told he could have "anything his heart desired", so thanks to our friend Anna, he chowed down on some cheetos puffs.  Thanks, sweet friend!

When his first nurse said goodbye, she promised that should would always remember him.

See, resistance is futile.

In Progress

Well after an eventful night, Isaiah was finally ready for surgery.  My dear husband stayed with him all night so that I could be at home with Nadia, who also had a slightly eventful night.  I love my husband.  And my son.  And my daughter.

Anyway, all that from my slightly sleep-deprived brain to say that Isaiah is currently in surgery.  Please pray that they can find his appendix, which seems to be the kicker in this situation.  If his appendix isn't playing a tricky game of hide and seek, then the surgery can definitely be done laparoscopically, which means only a short stay in the hospital.  If his appendix does decide to be shy and sneaky, then they will have to make an incision to perform the necessary work, and we'll be in the hospital for about a week post-op.

We are already praising God for the fact that he is having this surgery today.  This morning there was a slight chance that we were going to have to postpone, which really wasn't an option during this time in the States.  Thank you for your prayers thus far, and please keep on hanging in there with us!

P.S.  If you're wondering why the appendix is so important, click here to learn more about the A.C.E. Procedure.

Prayers Appreciated

Normal is relative.  You know another word that's relative?  Routine.  Yep, that's relative, too.

Tomorrow we check Isaiah into the children's hospital in Jackson for a routine procedure that involves all the prep that would precede a colonoscopy. Then on Tuesday he will have the ACE Procedure.  The doctors say this is routine.

Yeah, well, having my child put to sleep for several hours by unnatural methods isn't exactly part of my daily routine; I don't know about yours.

So we would greatly appreciate your prayers for our Little Man.  He's quite a trooper, but I think the next couple days are going to tax even his wonderful spirit.

I'll try to post updates from the hospital, but I don't know how well I will be able to access the Internet.  I will thank you ahead of time for praying for Isaiah and for Thomas and me as we help him through the next few days.

And you can go ahead and thank God for the help that his grandparents are giving us with Nadia.  Always good to have some praises mixed in with requests in my humble opinion.

Listening...

This afternoon I was trying to rest, but not succeeding, and I enjoyed listening to Isaiah "nap"...

It went something like this:

Anna!  Anna! (This is our friend Vanessa, who for some reason Isaiah has decided should really be called Anna.  She's coming to see us for a week, and Isaiah's pretty excited about it.)

Mommy!  I'm Coming!

Daddy!  DA-ddy!

Bye, bye, Honey!

These phrases were periodically repeated along with some other things that I couldn't understand through the walls, even though he was talking really loudly.  Gotta love a growing vocabulary!

Something Fun and Cute (I think)

Check out our new post at Learning Together to see what we've been working on in "school" so far this week!  I couldn't wait until the end of the week to show it off.

Airplane!

Isaiah and Daddy have a new favorite game...

Counting with Isaiah

During our N week we focused on numbers a good bit. Isaiah seems to be getting the concept of counting a little bit better. For instance...

The other day he asked to play with his colors (aka markers). He was moving them from the box to the table and back again, nothing unusual. Then I noticed that he was saying, Two every time he picked up a marker and moved it to its new spot.

Isaiah are you counting? I asked with partial disbelief.

Yes, ma'am!

Such a cutie!

SEW: Joe Cool

Lovin' my cool dude walking around!

Starting Over

Since I am finally starting to feel better, even without medication, I really want to get started in Tot School activities with Isaiah. I'm a girl who loves routines and really gets so much more accomplished when I have a routine. For the past several months my routine was get up, get sick, take Isaiah to therapy, try to survive the day.

Now we're back in Russia, and my routine has been adjust to jet lag, get up, get sick, try to survive the day and have some meaningful interaction with Little Man.

I'm ready for more! However, I'm having a really hard time finding a starting point in providing structure for both of us. I would appreciate any suggestions!

There are certain elements that I know need to be included every day, but I currently begin to feel overwhelmed when I try to think about fitting them all in! Here's the short list:

~Bible Reading
~Physical Therapy (walking, arm strengthening exercises)
~Occupational Therapy (I want to focus on hand coordination for now, thinking ahead to writing)
~Speech Therapy (increasing vocabulary)

And then the more "school" type activities can often be fit into the therapy categories, such as learning colors and numbers and letters.

And here are the other things I'm hoping to fit in every day:
~Grocery shopping, at least every other day so Thomas doesn't have to do it all. This will involve at least 2 hours of the day.
~Outside time for at least 1 hour. It takes us about 25 minutes to gear up for going outside, so I'd like to be there for a while.
~Rest time
~Reading time, books other than Bible Reading time
~Independent play

Am I asking too much? Perhaps I am, but I would appreciate the insight of others! I think that part of my struggle, too, is simply remembering that Isaiah learns differently than other kids. During our time in the States we became increasingly aware that while Isaiah learns well and continues to progress, there are definitely some delays. I have to constantly find that balance of pushing him, but not looking for things that aren't going to happen on a "normal" schedule. I want to make learning fun for him, just like every parent, I think. I want to learn him well, so that I can help him in the best way possible.

My 2-legged Zebra

Even with all the distractions, I hope that you can see how much better he's doing in his walking! Now if we can just get him to pay attention consistently, but that's hard to do with so many cute kids around.

First Steps

So, today Isaiah did this in therapy...

And we did let him get the car. :) This one doesn't show his legs as well, but he was doing a lot more of the work on his own this time. Most of the noise in the background is from the other two therapy sessions going on at the same time.

He had a little help from the therapist, as you can see, but the last time he did it more and more on his own! Praise God with us for all that He is bringing to pass!

Tot School--Some Changes

Isaiah is 44 months old

Well, official Tot School sort of got put on hold for a couple months. This break wasn't intentional, but we're trying to make the most of it. These days have been so full with moving into a new house, doctor appointment after doctor appointment, surgery and therapy. Things are finally starting to slow down, but in the midst of all that business a lot of learning has been taking place!

Isaiah after his tendon release surgery. He almost had to learn how to sit again as his legs were in different positions.

While we're still working on "school" stuff, there has been a focus on more physical development. Isaiah had surgery the end of August for a tendon release in order to prepare his legs to be able to bear weight. We go to his wonderful physical therapist two times a week to work on gross motor skills such as strengthening his arms to lift his body with a walker and to push himself in a wheelchair. His occupational therapist has been working with him on fine motor skills such as drawing and putting in puzzle pieces and dressing himself.

Here he had a break between physical therapy and occupational therapy. Please forgive the poor quality, I had to copy this from Twitter.

His beloved OT, Miss K working on lines and circles.

During his therapy sessions we also work on colors and identifying objects and following directions and problem solving. He's become quite proficient in choosing the correct color when asked, but he won't say the colors without a lot of prompting. His self-feeding has improved a lot, and he's finally drinking with a straw! (thanks, JanJan!)

He's been working on perfecting his straw technique by sharing smoothies with Grandma!

So at home, I've been trying to follow the therapists' lead, and I'm in the process of developing my Tot School plans based on the activities that they do with him in therapy. They have loaned us a stander with a tray, and we have been working on different fine motor skills at home, while learning shapes and colors and drawing. We're working on sorting, too, but he hasn't quite caught on yet, but he's getting better!

Coloring with Mimi and JanJan while working those legs in the stander.

Isaiah actually drew TWO CIRCLES all by himself the other day and TWO STRAIGHT LINES! That might not sound like much, but both those events were tremendous victories!

So, as things slow down, Lord willing, for us, I hope to be faithful again with Tot School. We do have some traveling coming up to visit some friends in CA, and several appointments again this week, but I do hope to get at least 2 days of official Tot School in each week (between appointments!). I've missed reading everyone's posts, as I've been too busy to even stalk all my favorite blogs! Hope everyone is doing well!

Be sure to check out the other Tot School posts linked at 1+1+1=1.

Release!

Did you ever see Father of the Bride? Remember that part when Steve Martin is at his daughter's future in-law's house and he's sneaking around and finding their bank book and then being chased by the dogs, but he can't remember the special word to call off the dogs? I know that I can't help shouting release at the TV every time I watch the movie, just knowing that he'll hear me and remember the word this time.

But that really has nothing to do with what I want to tell you, except that it makes me laugh and tomorrow morning we'll be dealing with the word release.

Tomorrow at 6 am we head to the hospital for Isaiah's surgery. He'll be having what's called a tendon release (see, there was a little connection) in his right heel, his left ankle and behind his left knee. The orthopedist surgeon (Dr. M) said it's minor, routine surgery; to which I replied, For You! But he's a neat guy and understood I meant no disrespect. The goal of the surgery is to relax these tendons so that his cute little legs will be able to be straight and flexible and receive help to do their job of bearing his weight.

Isaiah will be first or second for surgery, the actual procedure only taking about 30 minutes. Dr. M said the casting of his legs after the surgery will take longer than the surgery itself.

Yes, casting. He'll have a cast on each leg for about 3 weeks. I'm really curious what that will be like for Little Man who loves to increase his mobility but doesn't understand time yet.

But at least it doesn't effect his ability to watch baseball (or muppets)!

When the casts come of, he'll be fitted for braces that will indeed help increase that mobility, in fact, the goal is to get him standing!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I would appreciate your prayers for Isaiah and mama and papa tomorrow morning and the following days of recovery. All you parents know exactly what we're thinking and feeling, I'd imagine, and how ready we are for tomorrow morning to be behind us.

A Great Giveaway

One of the sites that I follow was featuring some giveaways, so I checked them out. Lots of times these giveaways are for things that are for girls, so they don't really apply for my little man. This time however, I was really excited to see what was being offered in the giveaway.

I had never heard of Jack and Lily shoes for babies and toddlers, but I think I'm in love! Go check out this great review of their product, but don't register for the tremendous giveaway, because I want to win it. :) Just kidding, of course! I would be thrilled for any friends of mine to win something as grand as these cute little shoes.

I think the reason that I got so excited is because the sandals and boots that they have actually look like a design that would fit Little Man's difficult to fit feet! Since he's not walking on his feet, his foot development has been a little odd. Finding shoes for him can be a real challenge, especially boots. But I won't bore you with all those details, just go read the giveaway for yourself and then check out the shoes at Jack and Lily!

SEW: C is for CRAWLING!

This was perfect for our Tot School C-week, but I couldn't wait to share it:  Isaiah--almost 39 months, CRAWLING!  

When he wants to get somewhere quickly, he still does his army-style crawl, but we're so excited to see increased strength in his hips and maybe even his knees!

Naptime with Isaiah

This morning I am going to a follow-up appointment.  Thankfully, our dear friend Luda is going to come and stay with Isaiah so that I don't have to haul him through a couple of metro stations that have tons of stairs and no lifts.

Another good thing is that Isaiah is pretty tired from a late night Sunday and no nap Monday.  Lord willing, Luda won't have to worry about him "napping" in this fashion:

How We Celebrate Valentine's Day

Well, actually we kind of forgot about Valentine's Day in general.  Thomas and I have never been big on the holiday, not anti-Vday, but not really into it either.  Hooray for those of you who enjoy it lots and lots.

Our Valentine's Day was really full though.  I had a 5-hour lesson for the majority of the day.  When I got back, though, we all headed out to Mega, our refuge of cleanliness and order.  We visited the Swedish Embassy (aka IKEA) and bought a bed.

A Big Boy Bed!

It was too late to set it up that night, but Sunday we had it ready to go for nap time.

Isaiah was Daddy's helper.

Isaiah LOVES his new bed.  We put it on him to see how he'd react, and then he got really upset when we picked him up because he just wanted to hang out on his new bed.

Night, night, Little Man.  Sweet dreams.

(and I'm happy to report that his first night in the Big Boy Bed went very well)