A Day of FIrsts

Today Kellin had his "first" haircut.  Of course he had haircuts in China, but this was his first haircut since he came home, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well he did.  He usually doesn't like people touching his head, although he's gotten better about it.  He did cry, of course, but he stayed about as still as you could expect a toddler to sit and he was fine once it was over.  And he looks so handsome!  Here you can see my handsome boys (Pooh and Tigger got their hair cut too).

Kellin tried yogurt for the first time at supper today and he seemed to really enjoy it.  He ate almost half a container of it, and THEN he signed "all done."  All by himself, without prompting.  This is the first time I have seen him sign without holding onto someone else's hands.  I think I blogged just a few days ago about how he never does signs or actions without holding our hands - and now he does it.  He changes SO FAST!

Kellin was very cuddly today!  Of course, he often enjoys cuddling with us, but I realized just how much he usually squirms around when being held, because today he laid his head on my shoulder, put his arms around my neck, and just snuggled in.  For several minutes at a time.  It was so precious.

Two Months Home

Kellin will have been home two months tomorrow, and I know it's been too long since the last update, so here is what's new with us!

The biggest news - Kellin is CRAWLING!  All by himself!  He stays within the living room mostly and usually will only crawl far enough to get a toy, but still, he is doing it!  He's been able to stand up for a long time, but we are seeing that he is cruising along furniture more often, usually when he's trying to get closer to a window to see the light.

He is understanding more language.  For example, when asked if he wants to sing a song, he will reach for your hands, ready to do the actions.  And the other day, I said, "Where are your toes? Should we take your socks off?" and he reached down and started pulling his socks off.  As far as talking, he's really not saying any words yet.  He makes sounds and very occasionally repeats a sound you say to him, but that's about it.  He loves music and has favorite songs that he will "request" by trying to move your hands through the actions.  He hasn't yet figured out that he can use his hands to do actions or signs without hold onto an adult.  We are not really sure what that is all about and how to help him use his hands independently.

He has a favorite toy.  And when I say favorite, I mean he is slightly obsessed.  It's a musical cube that plays classical songs when you push the buttons on each side.  It's a good thing because he will nearly always crawl to get it, and it's also something we can put him on the floor to play with and he will play pretty appropriately without stimming much.  But it's sometimes a bad thing because he doesn't want to do anything else.  He has a few other toys that he likes, too (all musical ones), but the cube is clearly his favorite.

Kellin will play on the floor now.  He scoots around, crawls, and explores in a limited way.  He stays sitting up most of the time, but even if he lays down, sometimes he sits himself back up all on his own.

We are still struggling with eating and sleeping.  Kellin eats a few spoonfuls of baby food 2-3 times a day, but it's not really increasing, and he won't touch any finger foods at all.  Most of his calories are still coming from his bottles.  As far as sleeping, he will sleep about 6-7 hours when he first falls asleep at night, and then wakes up sometime between 3:30-4:30.  And then we just hope he goes back to sleep - sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.

And a few other fun pictures:

And a few pictures of Rabbit, Tigger, and Pooh:

Rabbit on her 10th birthday

Rabbit is a great big sister!

Daddy with his boys

Tigger in a quiet moment

Tigger LOVES Mr. Sox (our cat)!

Pooh is a pirate!

Pooh built robots

Our "twins."  Can you believe they are only two months apart?  And Kellin is older!

Eye Exam

I didn't want to push Kathleen's very well written birthday tribute to Rabbit down from the top of the blog, but I figured that people would want to know how Kellin's very intensive eye exam went today. Might as well give you the whole story.

The adventure started with a car trip up to Minneapolis, with just Kellin and I.  He does not travel real well.  Back that up, it started by him not being able to eat after 6am or drink after 9am.  Even further, the adventure started when Kellin decided to wake up at 4am.  So traveling alone in the car with a tired, hungry little boy.  Well it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Kellin of course fell asleep as I got off 94, 5 minutes before parking.  I was early, as I often am when only traveling with one instead of 4 children.  I decided to hang out and let him sleep for awhile.  Upon arriving at check-in, I got a receptionist who was obviously new, but that was the only issue I had with staff.  Everyone else was great.  We were brought into the hospital room(?) around noon, and they immediately took Kellin's vitals, which made him very upset.  It took a good half hour to get him to stop crying.  Clearly lack of sleep and sustenance was catching up with him.

After I calmed him down, we waited about an hour until they finally came to sedate him.  Usually parents are not allowed to attend, with good reason.  Given Kellin's situation though it was decided that I should be there with him.  That was the most gut-wrenching two verses of "Twinkle Twinkle" I ever sung.  I kept it together until he was out.

After waiting another 2 hours he was finally back with me.  He took his time waking up, did I mention he was originally up at 4 am?  Eventually we left with him never having woken up enough to eat.  Luckily he pretty much slept the whole way home.  At home he seemed back to his old self pretty much right away, which is good.

Now for the part you have been waiting for.  Kellin is not a good candidate for a cornea transplant.  The doctor basically said we could try, but it would be unlikely to improve his quality of life.  He said we would find ourselves "27 surgeries later wondering why we had done this." And we want everyone to know, we are completely ok with this.  We don't want any, "That's too bad." or "Maybe someday with better technology."  We never anticipated Kellin to have any vision, we are grateful that he has sensitivity to light.  I almost felt guilty bringing Kellin up to the doctors today.  I don't think he needs to be fixed, he is perfect the way he is.  It is good though to actually have the information about what is going on.  One thing the doctor did mention is that he is at risk of having increased pressure in his eyes and it should be monitored.

A Very Special Birthday

Today is Rabbit’s 10^th birthday.  She is my oldest child and only daughter, which means that ten years ago today I became a mother for the first time.  This year marks our daughter’s entrance into the double digits and it is also her golden birthday.  It’s a big year!

Ten years ago, after a VERY long labor, ending in a C-section anyway, our daughter was born.  Even when she was just a newborn, everyone remarked on how alert she was.  She seemed to always have her eyes open and be gazing around the room.  We knew she was curious.

Within the first couple months, we noticed that she was not content to sit and cuddle, instead preferring to always be held upright and facing outward so she wouldn’t miss a thing.  She enjoyed playing on the floor and didn’t mind entertaining herself.  We knew she was independent.

She crawled before she was seven months old.  She said her first word at nine months and was putting together sentences just a few months later.  I remember at her 18-month check-up with the doctor, we mentioned that Rabbit knew her colors.  The doctor didn’t believe that, and so she pulled out some crayons and asked Rabbit to tell her the colors, which she did perfectly.  She knew all her letters before age three and began reading at age four, without anyone teaching her.  Again and again, she displayed the ability to absorb knowledge without being taught, and demonstrated her near-perfect memory.  We knew she was smart.

At age three and again at ages six and nine, Rabbit became a big sister to three little brothers.  It was quickly obvious that she loved babies and toddlers and was a great little “mother” to them.  She would spend her time playing with and teaching them.  We knew she was kind and caring.

At age eight, Rabbit was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.  Suddenly, she was in the position of having to monitor everything she ate, prick her finger many times a day to check her blood sugar, and deal with needles and injections.  Within a year, she had mastered the day-to-day management of her diabetes and managed it mostly by herself.  We knew she was strong.

Rabbit, you are an amazing person!  We love you and are so proud of you!  Happy Birthday!

Changes

This week means a big change around our house.  My leave from work is over, and I will return to my job on Monday.  Eric begins his time of staying home with Kellin and Pooh.  I am looking forward to getting back to my students (I teach two classes of preschoolers with special needs, and I LOVE my job), but it's sad that my time to be at home with my two little ones is over.  Of course, they will be having a blast at home with Daddy and I know they will be in great hands!

Kellin's newest skills:
-Drinking from a sippy cup (and even holding it himself sometimes)
-Crawling! (still with a little bit of help but he is SO CLOSE)
-Exploring! He uses his ride-on train to get around, and if he is sitting on the floor, he feels around for the toys and objects near him.
-Talking?  I'm pretty sure I've heard him say a meaningful "mama" a few times, and the other day he said the name of his older sister.
-Making connections - he has certain songs that he loves, and will reach for our hands to get us to do the actions.  The other day I started singing "The Ants Go Marching," which is a song that Daddy had sung with him a few times but I never had.  He immediately dropped the toy he was holding, reached for my hands, and tried to "show" me how to do the actions.  Unfortunately, I didn't know what actions Daddy had taught him - but it was SO AMAZING that he remembered the song and actions all on his own.  And after only having heard it a few times!
-Preferences - he has definite favorites among his toys and he will protest by holding on or fussing if you try and take one of them.  Such a dramatic change from the passive little guy he used to be!
-Sleeping - I will cautiously say that sleeping is again improving, but we will see if it continues.

Kellin will have a sedated MRI, eye exam, and ultrasound of his eyes on Tuesday, so please keep him in your thoughts and prayers that day!

Up!

When I first met Kellin, I quickly learned that his preferred position was laying on the floor or in his bed, on his right side, curled up in a fetal position, and usually doing some sort of "stimming" (hitting/poking his eyes, playing with his spit).  Sometimes he would stand holding onto something or walk with his hands held, but anytime he was left alone, he immediately retreated into his favorite position.  He had no strength to sit up at all.  In addition, when he was in this position, he completely retreated into his own little world.  He didn't react to voices or sounds, and would push away any person or object that touched him.

So the goal became to keep him upright as much as possible.  He was much more engaged with the world when he was being held, sitting, or standing.  At first, a few minutes of being held or kept upright was all he could tolerate.  But we kept working and trying . . . and I am thrilled to say that after weeks of hard work, now Kellin is UP most of the day (except for sleeping time)!  He stands at the wall, couch, or other surfaces; he sits on his ride-on train or rocker; he SITS on the floor.  Up until just the last couple days, if I had to put Kellin down on the floor without me next to him, I would always sit him up, but as soon as I walked away, he would slump down and curl up on his right side.  However, these last couple days, several times I have walked away and come back a few minute later - and he is STILL SITTING UP.  This is a huge step forward!

We are still working on crawling.  Kellin is at the point that he is definitely capable of crawling on his own - but he has zero motivation whatsoever.  Of course, he can't see all the things around him to explore, but it has been a huge struggle to find anything he will try to move toward.  His favorite musical toy sort of works, sometimes, with some help, but if not prodded forward, he just stays in one place on his hands and knees.

Kellin is making some very small steps toward communicating.  He is babbling more and is saying "mama" often.  I'm still not sure if he is actually calling me mama or not, but he is saying it often.  He seemed to repeat "ah da" after I said "all done" one day, and just today I discovered that when I say "all done" and take his hands, he will move my hands in the "all done" sign.  It is clear that he is understanding several words - eat, up, blankie, night-night, choo-choo, all done, no, cube (his favorite toy) and his name.

He is doing a good job eating his baby food three times a day and drinks a bottle 4-5 times a day, but he has begun throwing up 1-2 times each day.  It seems to be random; we can't find a pattern as far as time of day, activity, or any certain food.  Kellin sees his pediatrician on Wednesday, so we will see if she has any suggestions.

Sleeping unfortunately is regressing.  After sleeping through the night for a while, he is now back to waking up during the night and having difficulty getting back to sleep.  We have rearranged our bedroom so that his crib is right next to our bed and will see if that helps.  It's hard to say because during the night, Kellin often prefers not to be touched.  Although he has gotten to the point of really enjoying being held and engaging with others during the day, he likes to be left alone at night.  He is clearly excited to be put into his crib at naptime and bedtime and if I try to delay that by rocking him or singing, he will only tolerate that for a few minutes before he starts fussing and squirming to be left alone.  I know that this is what is familiar and comfortable to him - to be left alone in a crib - because it's all he knew for the past two years, but it's still sad to see.  Even when he is yawning and acting very sleepy before being put into his crib, he will usually spend 1-2 hours babbling, giggling, and playing before finally dropping off.  I can't decide if this is necessary "down time" and he should just be left alone to have that time, or if he is isolating himself too much and we should be trying to spend more of that time with him.  I was excited this morning when he woke up fussing at 5:30 and I tried bringing him into bed with us (which rarely works) and he fell right asleep cuddled up with me. :)