Winding Down the Year

We're almost at the end of 2011. So I'm now ready to spend another six months trying to remember what year it is when I write checks. It takes about that long for the new year to sink in. Either that or I write '2001' everywhere. 2010 was really hard to remember because there was a '1' and a '0' just like in '2001'. But I digress.

We had a nice Christmas. I got the only thing I really wanted: Doug had a great Christmas. I also got some new Vera Bradley gear. We got to spend Christmas Eve with my Dad's family and Doug was really into my Grandfather's trains. Christmas morning we stayed here and my parents came to us in the afternoon. Doug got a lot of cool stuff. Our house looks like Santa just decided to stop at our house and dump all the toys from the rest of the block here. We had Christmas dinner over at my Grandma's house and Doug enjoyed a nice roaring fire in the fire place. Fires in fire places are evidently the most awesome thing ever. It was busy, but over all nice.


Doug's Grandparents in Kansas City sent him enough track to choke a hippo and we had a lot of fun on the 26th building track for his trains.


I decided that we were going to start the new year out with a clean house, so for the past few days we've been cleaning and taking down the decorations. We cleaned out the closets and pantry and donated things we didn't need or want anymore. I feel like it's a little easier to breath without the clutter, dust and decorations around. We're planning a very laid back New Year's Eve. We plan to go out for a late lunch and then come home and put on our pajama pants and watch movies and eat cocktail meatballs. I've been looking forward to this for weeks, it should be great!

Happy New Year!


Doug doing his part in the clean-up effort. Not pictured is his dancing to 'Some Kind of Monster' (I told him it was about Cookie Monster). If you can picture 'The Elaine' dance from Seinfeld without the kicking, you can picture Doug dance.

New & Old Traditions

I have to say, that one of the most fun things about having my own family is determining the various traditions we keep during the holidays. This year is the first Christmas we're celebrating in our new house, so it's the first time we've decorated it. We moved in a year ago in November, but spent Christmas in Kansas City.

We decided we really needed something on our lawn, so we got an inflatable Santa. I think he must be kin with the Wicked Witch of the West, because during the day he looks like a puddle.


We always hear about the Garden of Lights in Wheaton, but usually after the fact. This was the first year we made it out to it, and it was a blast. Doug loved running around and looking at all the light sculptures. He's wearing a nice coat that his Uncle John gave him last year. It finally fits!


Inside one of the buildings at the park they have a model train exhibit. Doug was completely fascinated by it and we spent a good half hour in there.



Here he's looking through the tunnel, waiting for the trolley to return.



Every year growing up we'd go with my Grandfather and Uncle and cut down a fresh Christmas tree. I was very excited to include Doug in on this tradition with my family. Below he's pictured with his Uncle John scouting out trees.


This is the tree that Jeff cut down. Doug is very fond of sticks, every time he picks one up I try to get him to say 'Expecto Patronum!'. No such luck yet.

After we cut down trees, we go for lunch. The place we eat is near train tracks. We happened to sit out on a screened in patio, about 10 feet from the tracks. We saw two trains go by and Doug was in heaven!


This is a picture of the tree at home. Note that Doug is diligently UN-decorating the tree. That's a train (with moving wheels) that Nan gave Jeff many years ago. Doug's pretty sure it's his awesome new toy. Also note the seasonally appropriate Darth Vader t-shirt.


My high school has a 'Cookies with Santa' event for Alumni and their families and this is the second year we've taken Doug. I've still yet to see any '01ers there (ahem), but we had fun. It's a nice no pressure situation for the kids to see Santa.


Last weekend we went with my family to to Strasburg PA to see Santa on a train. Maybe the reindeer were in the shop? Anyhow, Doug is very into trains and it was a blast.




Santa gifted Doug with a small engine, so I'm pretty sure any lingering anxiety about Santa is now completely gone.

I'm really hoping we'll add the Santa train ride to our Christmas traditions.

NO!

I never taught Doug the sign for 'no'. It looks too similar to the sign for 'bird'*. Once, I asked him a yes or no question signing 'yes' and 'no' and he looked up and around for a bird, so I abandoned that. Plus, it's kind of a nice perk to have a toddler who doesn't scream or sign 'no'. The other night Jeff and I were trying to get him to say the word 'no', but as he has in past times, he pointed to his nose and we just took it for a simple misunderstanding. In the past week, Doug has been putting his index finger to the side of his nose. I didn't know if he was altering a known sign or creating a new one. I had no idea what he meant. A few minutes ago, I told him it was time for me to take my shower. When I shower, I put Doug in his crib with his toys and sometimes he'll nap. Anyway, he didn't want to go to his crib, despite the fact that he was crying and walking in that direction. Then I saw him place his index finger next to his nose and look up at me. He did it twice more. He was objecting! He was signing 'NO!". Leave it to Doug to make up his own sign for 'no'.

*The first sign I taught him was 'bird'.

Gah!

I'm half expecting agents from the Child Protective Service to be at my door today. I don't know how you can half expect something, but there it is. Also? My biggest worry about that is that they'll notice all the smeary sticky little hand prints on the coffee table that I haven't washed off yet. But there you have it.

Anyway, to make a long story somewhat shorter, we've called Poison Control twice in the past week! The first time was on Saturday. Jeff and I were just laying on the bed and Doug was running around, and then all of a sudden, he was on Jeff's side of the bed, chewing on something. We never did figure out what it was or if he swallowed it, but Jeff feared it may have been an ibuprofen pill he dropped. The pills are extremely bright orange, and there was no trace of the coating in Doug's mouth, so I doubted it. But to be on the safe side, Jeff called Poison Control, which basically said he'd probably be ok, but keep an eye on him. The thing we didn't know about poison control is that they take your information, and they call you back the next day to make sure the child is fine. Which I suppose they do for statistical reasons or something, because if Doug was ill, we'd take him to the doctor or the hospital and not wait around for a call to tell us that might be a good idea. But some people are stupid I suppose.

Last night I went to my bible study and Jeff and Doug went to swim class. On the way home from swim class they stopped off at the grocery store to get me some flowers. While Doug was in the cart, he was reaching for things, but Jeff thought he'd maneuvered the cart so Doug couldn't get a hold of anything. When Jeff was done picking out flowers, he looked over at Doug who was spitting something out that looked like tomato. It was not. It was Jerusalem Cherry plant, which has fruit that looks like cherry tomatoes, which happen to be one of Doug's favorite foods. Anyway, the cherries on the plant are toxic. When Jeff got home, he called Poison Control again. Because it appeared Doug spit the fruit out, he wasn't in any real danger other than an upset stomach. We turned on the baby monitor for the first time in a year so we could hear him if he got sick. We learned that Doug evidently has favorite songs on his fish mobile, and he'd smack the button to change the tune to a different one. I'd been wondering why it seemed the fish mobile was on forever.

Doug seems to be fine. We went to story time today, where he shared very nicely, most of the time. Afterward we went shopping. I had Doug strapped into the cart, and he was everywhere trying to grab everything. So I have a little more forgiveness in my heart today for Jeff. His penance last night was giving Doug a bath, which is exhausting and wet. Anyway, it seems I have a coffee table that needs cleaning...

Cool Moms Wear Pajamas

Right? Don't they?

That should give you a pretty good feel for how things are going around here lately. About three weeks ago, Doug acquired a cold. Then he gave it to Jeff. So, I pretty much didn't stand a chance. What was some minor sniffling to them became a whole ordeal for me, requiring Jeff to stay home one day and my mom to take Doug the next. The cold then developed into a lovely sinus infection. I've been tying to scrape myself together since then. You know how some one who has asthma wheezes, their lungs desperate for air? If my body could make a sound like that for all the sleep it craved, the noise would be deafening.

In other non-pajama related news, Doug is talking. For real. I've officially lost track of the number of words he has, which is a great sign. He's also working on the concept of 'off' and 'on', two of his new favorite words. At first, only the tv in our bedroom could be turned off and on, but then flashlights could be on as well as toys. This morning he brought me a can of play doh and said "on!", meaning to open it. Almost there. He's also been teething a ton. He's got his canine teeth coming in along with possibly three others. This has led to a bit of an eating strike on his part, but with some Advil and soft food, we were able to get him to eat something. We discovered at his 18 mo appointment, that he hadn't really grown at all. His doctor was concerned but not overly so. But now we have to see his doctor again in three months instead of six to check his growth. So his little eating strike has made me anxious. Some of my cousin's sons went through the same thing, so I'm not that worried. Maybe our kids are normal, and the others are huge? Anyway, I've resolved to monitor Doug's food intake more and try to make sure snacks happen more.

I finally joined something at our church. This is a big, hairy deal! I've been afraid to commit to something for a while, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to make it to something because I wasn't feeling well. I decided I'd missed too many opportunities and I joined a bible study. It's very structured and it meets for something like 34 weeks. So far, I'm enjoying it. We're supposed to do a little reading each day and make notes in a workbook, but typical me, I leave it all to the night before. I suppose some habits are just hard to break. Some how I didn't study the bible much in the 13 years I was in Catholic school. I'm not sure how it happened but it did. Right now we're looking at Jacob and Joseph's family and I really wish I had the sound track to 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat'. Oooh, I've discovered it's 8 bucks on iTunes. Nevermind, it sounds awful. It sounds like a high school performance. I shall wait and get a better one some other time.

Doug is asleep, and for my quiet time I'm going to go curl up with a Sookie Stackhouse book. Those things are addictive! Also, she's kind of like Jessica Lansbury, every where she goes, people drop dead. I would move out of her town if I lived there. Anyway, my book and a comfy chair is calling me!

Mayhem and Chaos

Usually when I take a shower, I put Doug in his crib with a few toys to keep him occupied. Today, I asked him if he'd like to get in the shower with me, which he loves. He responded by saying and signing 'yes', so I led him into his room to get him ready.

He started doing this:


I thought that because he was throwing ALL of his toys into his crib that he'd rather stay in there this time.



So I plopped him in his crib and went on my merry way. You may have noticed that he's now wearing shorts in this picture. A few weeks ago, he threw everything out of his crib as usual, but this time his diaper as well. For a few days I took the precaution of making sure he was wearing shorts or pants, but then I forgot about it. Until Monday, when once again, his diaper was on the floor. When I walked into his room, he just pointed and stared at it, as if he couldn't believe his own daring. But lesson learned, the child shall wear shorts!


This is what I found when I returned after my shower:

"Spring me!"

And this:



At least he was wearing his diaper.

Signing with Doug

I've been meaning to write about signing with Doug for a while, but I've only now just gotten around to it.

Way back when in the B.C. time (before children) I studied Speech Language Pathology and Audiology in college.* One of my classes discussed augmentative communication for children who developed typically, with the main method being American Sign Language. I recall that many studies were done about this and children were able to communicate earlier than their non-signing peers, had a larger vocabulary later on as well as a higher IQ. Contrary to what some people may believe, the studies showed that typically developing children who signed did not have a delay in oral language. I'm really tired of saying that last statement. One of the nurses in our pediatrician's office tried to say that signing made children 'lazy'. I just smiled and tried not to roll my eyes. Some times you just have to pick your battles, ya know?

Anyway, then after college I went to work in a learning center, with a focus on literacy and comprehension. One of our programs was geared to oral language comprehension and as a result we saw many students on the Autism Spectrum. The kids we saw came to us at all levels of language development. Some had good receptive skills, others were good at expressing language. Several had used some signs at point, and we'd sign too if it would help diffuse a situation. I'd taken several ASL classes by this point (but was by no means great at it, I'd forgotten gobs of it) so I could sign with some students as needed.

So, that was long, but that's the place I'm coming from. One of the things I learned in college was about babbling, you know, goo goo gaga, etc. I bet you didn't know that people actually studied this. At any rate, there are various stages of babbling that eventually lead to word formation. Earlier stages are like cooing, with 'ooos and aaahs' with later stages having almost a word like sound, things like 'dado' 'bada' ect. I'd always intended to sign with Doug. I'd bought a book on baby signing when he was about 3 months old with the plan to introduce it at 6 months old. Most babies can get the receptive part down by 8 mos, and then start signing back to you around 10 mos. Well, when Doug was around 6 mos, we started getting ready to move, and the book got misplaced or packed some where. The idea just kind of got shelved, I felt guilty about it, but there were so many other things going on, like moving! When Doug was about ten months old, I noticed that he hadn't advanced to the later stages of babbling in a typical developmental pattern. I wasn't concerned that there was a speech or language issue, he's a boy and sometimes kids will have typical language, but just later on. I believed that his first word would happen in the later end of the normal range and decided we would get cracking on signing.

Right about eleven months old, Doug surprised us by saying 'hi!'. I was pleased, but decided we'd continue on with signing. I think we picked three signs at first to work on, 'milk', 'more' and 'bird'. We chose 'bird' because we have a parakeet that Doug is totally fascinated by, and it's an easy sign (use your thump and index finger like a beak). 'Bird' ended up being Doug's first sign, maybe close to his birthday. A little after 12 months, Doug also began saying 'hot'. Everything concerning food is 'hot' as well as our wedding portrait, which is quite baffling. Then he began to sign 'more' and we really vamped it up. Then came 'milk' which he uses to mean beverage and the action 'to drink', which is totally a separate sign.

As in oral language, children who sign also create their own sign. Doug's first made up sign was 'lotion', which looks like you're rubbing lotion on your hands. He also made up a sign for 'toothbrush', 'open' and Herbert, his lovie.

In all, Doug has seven oral words and over a dozen signs by now and can use signs in combination ( 'more food' 'yes drink' 'please drink' 'please all done') . Very recently, I started to teach him the sign for 'yes'. The other day he started to say 'yes', which sounds like 'yish' while he was signing 'yes'. That was the first time he combined oral ans signed language.

I don't want to push signing on people. I think that every family has its own needs and that everything isn't right for each family. I do believe that signing has opened up doors for us and for Doug and that we're able to communicate with him much more effectively than if we didn't sign. I do encourage people with babies and toddlers to think about it and I'd love to discuss our experience with you, but I am by no means an expert in anything. Except perhaps catching food that comes out of Doug's mouth. Motherhood is so gross some times.


* I have my bachelor's degree, not a master's, so I am not an SLP and cannot practice as one.