Playing

The other day, we did some dress-up play with Stephen. He really enjoyed it, and liked looking at himself in the mirror, and the bonus was that the extra-huge clothes that he was wearing (but not in the first picture) were MUCH easier for him to put on himself!

Stephen was pretending to be a soccer player... (and playing for Daddy's most favorite team!)
Now, he's a hockey player! In case you can't see it, he plays for Purdue - Boiler up!

Stephen was dressing up in one of Daddy's running shirts, and tried on his shoes as well!!

We've also been playing outside, even though it's super hot out! Stephen really likes to chase his Dad around the yard...

And here they are after he caught him! I just love this expression...

We are headed out to PA soon, and we are going to take Stephen to meet Elmo and Big Bird at Sesame Place. We haven't told him yet, but we KNOW he's going to have a fantastic time. So I'll post pictures when we get back!!

Updates!

I said I'd update on all of the things we were working with Stephen on this summer, so I'm staying true to my word.

Stephen is doing really, REALLY well! We are working on learning to jump, climb steps without holding on (or at least go up and down ONE on his own), and riding the tricycle. All of these depend on Stephen's leg strength, which we have been working on diligently. We have been taking 1/2 mile walks in the mornings (before it gets too hot), to work on his endurance, as well as practicing with the trike. With the trike, he is keeping his feet on the pedals, and pushing a little bit, but not enough to actually make anything happen, so Mommy and Daddy put up with the sore backs to push him while he "works" the pedals. We go up and down the stairs all day long due to Stephen's continued refusal to use the bathroom downstairs, and while he CAN do one or two completely on his own (without holding on to a person, wall, or banister), he is terribly nervous about it, so we are working on his confidence in this area. The funny thing about this particular skill is that he had it down really well about 2 months ago, and then it was like he realized what he was doing, and got scared. We got Stephen a small trampoline with a handle, and we have been trying to get him to jump on that. So far, all he has done is bounce a little bit, but its more that he was doing at the beginning of the summer, so we'll take it!

Speech has been picking up a little bit. We hear more words from him spontaneously throughout the day, but he still isn't communicating very well. I know they are in there, and will come out when he's ready. He HAS, however, been using the few signs that he knows to communicate with us much more this summer, which has made everyone a lot happier. Now we just have to get him to start using the sign for potty...

Speaking of the potty, I think we can say that Stephen is potty trained at home. He has very few accidents, and will usually just head in the direction of the bathroom when he has to go. Most of the time when we are out, he will just hold it, instead of trying to let us know he has to go. If we are going to be somewhere for a longer period of time, I usually pack up his little potty insert thing that goes on top of the toilet seat, and he'll go wherever we are. We are still having a bit of an issue at Church school, but we are confident that it will work itself out when he is going there and to preschool again regularly. Stephen is able to step up on his step stool, and sit down and stand up from the toilet all on his own. He can also pull his pants and undies down on his own, and back up with minimal assistance. He can also get undressed and dressed with just a little bit of help now too, with the exception of his socks and shoes (which are especially difficult when you are a child with exceptionally sweaty feet...).

Stephen has just made a ton of progress this summer! He hasn't been very excited about sitting still to do things lately, though, due in part to his highly increased energy level that appears to be a result of his heart procedure. By the way, the device is still perfectly in place, and Stephen is having no complications as of his follow-up appointment last Monday. We will go back in November, and then we're done for a couple of years.

That's all for now, though! Stephen hasn't been sitting still long enough for me to get many pictures lately, but I'll try to put some up later this week!

Vacation!

We drove out to Tucson again for a long vacation this summer. Two days before we were to leave, this truck arrived at our house, carrying roofing materials. Stephen slept through the whole thing, even the forklift taking materials from the truck to our driveway.



This is how our roof looked 2 days before we left. Scary, huh? But, they worked hard, and managed to finish up cleaning the yard at 9pm the night before we got in the car to head towards Arizona. And now we have a non-dented, non-leaking, properly ventilated roof!

In addition to watching DVDs and listening to music in the car for the 2 day drive, Stephen entertained himself (and us too!), with an impromptu game of Peek-A-Boo!

The highlight of our vacation was the opportunity to spend 9 days in the pool. It's been a hectic couple of months, and we were all looking forward to unwinding.

Unlike last year, Stephen was not at all afraid to go in the pool, and once he realized that he could float pretty well with his PuddleJumpers, he didn't want to hold on to us much at all. He did so well with his kicking and paddling by the time we left that we are going to be looking at a place this week that offers year 'round swimming lessons at an indoor pool. Stephen really took to swimming!



He also enjoyed "jumping" off of the steps. Stephen quickly figured out to turn his head to the side so he didn't splash himself when he jumped (read: just stepped off the step when we counted to 3 for him).

Stephen also had this super-cool pirate boat to float in, courtesy of Grandma Janet and Grandaddy John. This was a hit, to be sure!

Stephen did quite a lot of chattering (both babble and comprehensible speech) while we were in Tucson, too! He has a habit of making strides with his speech when we get him out of his normal environment for a while, I think because he is so busy having fun that he doesn't think about what he's doing. Grandma managed to finally catch a picture of him using his sign language too!

Almost every day, Stephen and his Daddy played rowdy games of hide and seek, where Erik would hide, and Stephen would run up and down the hall looking for him until Erik jumped out at him. It was a lot of fun for both of them!

And of course, we went to feed the giraffes!

Instead of sleeping in his small inflatable toddler bed this year, Stephen slept on a twin-sized air bed at his grandparents' house. Since he did so well with that, he got to sleep in a "BIG" bed at the hotel on our way back home - he loved it, and didn't fall out once!
It was a great vacation in AZ, once again, but we were glad to get home, especially since we'd been travelling while Stephen was nursing a cold. I'll try to update soon about potty training, speech and a bunch of other things! This no-napping thing doesn't leave a lot of time for updating the ole' bloggy-blog!

Stephen's Art

I thought it was time for another edition of Art by Stephen! When he finished school last month, we came home with a LOT of stuff that he had either made himself, or had help making. As you will see, he is still not so fond of coloring, but he does enjoy other artistic activities! Some are from preschool, and some are from church school, but I'm not sure on all of them where they came from now...

This is his snack mat from preschool. He probably made this one of his first days there, and ate snack on it every day, which is why it's a little beat up looking.
And a seahorse that looks like he painted with watercolors. It looks like this came from preschool as well.

This is a lovely, multi-media piece. We have crayon, marker, and Dot-A-Dot paint pens (You may notice a trend with those - Stephen LOVES those pens. I think I'm going to get some for him soon.).

We have a finger-paint creation, that I think came from Church school. Stephen is actually pretty good about TRYING to stay in the lines. He gets the general idea, anyways.

We have another Dot-A-Dot creation here...

I'm not sure how they made this one, but it looks like a coffee filter.

More Dots...

And a LION!!

But this one, THIS ONE, is my very favorite. It was from church school, and was a collaborative effort with his new best buddy, Aiden. They play together a lot at school, and are pretty close together in age.

We are headed out to AZ soon, so look for some pictures from our vacation soon! Stephen is REALLY looking forward to spending some quality time in the pool at his grandparents' house.

Our little musician

I took Stephen to visit Erik at School last week, and he spent some time playing the piano in his office. Erik caught it with the webcam on his laptop. I stepped in once, because Stephen looked like he was going to take a header into the keyboard.

I think he has a real talent for music (although we already suspected).

Whoopsie!

I've been a bad blogger, and I apologize. We've had a very busy month!!

Since I've been remiss in my updates, I'll start waaaaaaay back at Mother's Day. On his last day of school before Mother's Day, Stephen brought this pot home for me. I watered it, and left it in the sun, and grass began to grow!


On Mother's Day, we spent some time at Grand Lake, in NE Oklahoma, with my parents. The best part of the day was spending a few hours out on a boat, which Stephen just LOVED!!!


Stephen also discovered video games while we were there. He LOVED pretending to drive the cars!! We didn't actually put any money in, since he couldn't reach the pedals, but he liked to steer.

Erik and Stephen and I returned home from the lake that Tuesday, and the following Sunday, we got a HUGE surprise! Around 4pm that afternoon, the rain started. And then came the hail... This was a big pile up by our garage door. We ended up getting about 30 minutes of golf ball sized hail.

These were the divets left in our lawn. It was BIG hail.

Thanks to our homeowner's insurance, we will be getting a new roof this summer, as well as having our siding repaired/repainted and a broken window fixed. Our A/C compressor was damaged as well, but luckily that appears to just be cosmetic, because we NEED our A/C - it's HOT!!

After getting all of the insurance stuff taken care of, Mom, Dad, and I began work on some much-needed kitchen updating. One of our cabinet doors fell off last fall, when the hinge broke in half. So, we decided to replace ALL of the cabinet hardware. As you might imagine, replacing 45 year old hardware had it's issues, but in the end, thanks to some wonderful labor, we have new hardware, and even replaced the lazy susan in our pantry with some slide-out shelving!!

(Whoops)



On May 25th, Stephen had his heart catheter procedure. They ran the line up through his groin (as you can kind of see in this picture), and inserted a 10mm mesh plug into an 8mm hole. The surgeon said that Stephen did perfectly, and when it was checked again in the morning, it was just perfect. Aside from a little soreness and bruising on his right leg, Stephen has recovered completely from this experience.

School is now over for Stephen for the year, and Erik only teaches summer school 4 days a week, so Stephen has been enjoying some quality Daddy-Wrestling time.

So, as you can see, we've been awfully busy, so it's been hard to find time for blogging. I'd much rather find time for this:

Playing is hard...