Friday, August 28, 2009

Getting bigger!

Today was Stephen's first day of "school." He is going to be attending Children's Day Out one day a week at our church. They have an actual curriculum, and are working on a lot of self help skills and preparation for preschool. This picture looks like Stephen was so excited that he was going to just march right off to school, but in reality, he was running away from Crazy Mommy and her camera. Shortly after I took this, I asked him if he was ready to go, and he yelled, "OOOOOOOL!!!" (School). I guess he was ready!
The report from Stephen's teachers is that his day was just AWESOME! He didn't cry when I dropped him off (and for the record, neither did I). He played well with the other kids (especially the girls, of course), ate lunch well (no big surprise there), took an hour long nap, and even did an art project! Our child, the one that hates to do Play Doh, crayons, and markers, did an art project involving gluing small pieces of paper to a larger piece of construction paper. It is currently hanging on the wall at school, but when I get it next week, I'll share it with all of you!

This is totally unrelated to school, but Stephen has been experimenting with different ways to play his piano. Jerry Lewis has nothing on this kid!

On the speech front, Stephen is continuing to make strides with catching up with his speech. He is saying new things every day, and is babbling more. And he isn't yelling or screaming in frustration anymore, so I think he is starting to figure out that communicating with words is much more effective. Telling me he is hungry is much easier than hanging on my legs and pushing me in the kitchen.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

SWEET ride!

Stephen got a wagon this week (thank you, Grandma Janet, and Granddaddy John!).I kept trying to catch him while he was laughing, but got these two silly faces instead.And this is when I stopped and said, "Stephen, SMILE!" What a goof! He wasn't upset, just messing around.
We are looking forward to many trips to the zoo with our new wheels, and can even bring a friend along now, too!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Post-Surgery Changes

I mentioned previously that this was a life-changing procedure for Stephen, and therefore for our entire family. The change can be summed up in one statement: Stephen smiles. Prior to having his tonsils and adenoids removed, Stephen was kind of a frown-y little guy. Now he just walks around with a smile on his face almost all the time. He is more outgoing, and more loving towards people other than his parents. It's really fantastic!



Sleep has improved as well. If he wakes during the night, it seems to be because he's had a nightmare, or in the case of the last night, there is a terrifically loud thunderstorm going on. He still takes a while to go to sleep, both at night and nap time, but I attribute this to him needing to just change his habits a bit. He was so used to fighting sleep because he had trouble breathing before, so I think it is just a new thing he'll have to get used to. All three of us, however, are appreciating better sleep.



Stephen can hear better too, and is talking a bit more. His speech therapist feels that Stephen is aware that he SHOULD be talking, but is self-conscious about it. He will talk quite a bit (and it is all developmentally appropriate phrasing and conversational) when he isn't thinking about the fact that he is talking, usually when Stephen is either having a really good time, or really angry. He is starting to talk a bit more outside of those situations too, but just at home with us. Hopefully he'll come out of his talking shell a bit more when he goes to school next month.

Reading... as you may have noticed from the Tucson post, there were a few pictures where Stephen was reading with someone. That is his new favorite thing - bringing books to people to read to him. He will do it all day long. Our theory is that now he can actually HEAR the stories clearly to see how they go with the pictures in the books, because previously, getting him to sit for even a short book (except of course, for "The Going To Bed Book.") was a chore.

I think that's it. Stephen is really like a happier version of his previous self, and we couldn't be more thrilled. The first week of recovery was really rough, I won't lie. But it was soooo worth it!