For Valentine's Day this year, my parents got us tickets to a production at Mountain View called, "A Night with Andrew Lloyd Webber". So while they watched the kids, we went to the show (which was pretty good considering they're high schoolers) and then afterwards we went to Tucanos and stuffed our faces. Tucanos was having a special deal for Valentine's where you get two chocolate dipped strawberries and a rose with your meal, and since Dave had a coupon for his birthday, we decided to use it for V-Day.
Dave got me a dozen red roses (he always picks out the most beautiful roses) and I got him a leather keychain with a picture of us from where we were engaged. I think he liked it. ;)
We got the boys a character set of Toy Story 3 (little characters) and they loved it! We gave it to them just as we were leaving for the show and it calmed Cruise right down (of course).
The Boys: Cruise
I had Parent Teacher Conferences with his teacher at Vineyard last week. I had prepared to hear the worst, but as his teacher, Miss Tina, went over his IEP goals, I was pleasantlly surprised. He has been raising his hand, waiting nicely in lines, and singing along during singing time. His teacher loves him. She said she could just wrap him up and take him home...and she already has 4 children! However, apparently Cruise regressed quite a bit over the holiday break which means he qualifies for summer school!!! So he'll be going 3x a week to his Vineyard preschool this summer. Next school year he'll be preparing for Kindergarten, so he can go as many as five times a week.
Bridges Preschool is still awesome! It's growing and growing, so now there is a morning and an afternoon class. Cruise is still in the morning class with five other classmates. He generally does really well now and is actually participating in art activities and not freaking out as much about having paint or glue on his hands. Laurie, the director, talked a little bit with me about starting to separate from Cruise during class time (since I'm right there by his side for the whole two hours) so he can begin regulating himself and not depending on prompts from me to do what is being asked. I totally agree, however, I kind of don't want to. You see, Cruise was a daddy's boy up until age 2 1/2, so he's been my little pal for the past year and I'm not sure I can handle it. I don't know if I'm ready to give that up. I think he'd do just great! But Mommy is a bit scared of Cruise not needing her around. I'll get over it.
Cruise has starting singing... A LOT! It's just awesome! His favorite songs lately are 'Wheels on the Bus', 'Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee', and 'Frosty the Snowman'. He will be playing and just singing on his own, no big deal. I love having music back in the house since he couldn't handle it for so long! Up until about 4 months ago, Cruise would scream every time I would try to sing to him. Now I find it as a great distraction from his haircuts. Yesterday as I was cutting his hair, I went out on a limb (expecting a huge meltdown) and started singing "Wheels on the Bus". Well, lo and behold he started singing it with me! And for the rest of his haircut, we sang all his favorite songs as he sat nicely for me. First time ever.
Cruise has been saying his first 3-word sentence regularly: "I want _____" and most times we can get him to say "please" at the end. This has been just wonderful! It actually has helped end tantrums and meltdowns because when he starts to lose it, I say, "What? I don't understand you. Say, "I"..." And then he'll calm down, and say (through tears), "I....want...._____" (usually it's candy). It's so nice to finally get a sense of what your kid wants in their own words!!!
We're also getting a small glimpse of him answering questions. The only question he'll answer presently (most of the time) is, "What's that?" and "Who's that?" I LOVE IT!!! I can't express how amazing it is to get an answer from this little stud of mine!
He has also been calling out to Dave and I, "Mom!!! Dad!!!" That also is awesome! It's so fun to hear him call me Mom. He has been doing awesome with counting: he can count up to fourteen and down from 10. He also can spell his name out loud correctly. And now when he sees someone crying, he says, "Cry. Sad." We have made progress with 2 emotions!!! He can successfully and accurately label sad and happy!!!
Cruise finished up diagnostic testing just recently and it is currently being scored. This will be his second diagnostic testing but his first that is actually signed by an actual doctor. So I guess you can say this will be his official diagnosis once we get the scoring/results back.
Cruise and Jett have been getting along much better lately. Cruise will always give Jett a toy when we ask him to. But if Cruise starts crying/whining, then usually Jett will give the toy back. Cruise hasn't been clobbering or pushing Jett any more (which is such a relief) and they both laugh at each other when they're being silly.
Here's some video of Cruise. You'll probably think I'm annoying by saying his name over and over and over again, so sorry in advance:
Jett
Jett is now 15 months old! Jett was sick for a couple weeks recently. It started out as stomach flu and then went to a double ear infection. He couldn't keep anything down for almost two weeks and wouldn't drink fluids other than his milk (which didn't help at all). We took him to the doctor a few times: the first time he got a shot of antibiotic, but still was throwing up so we took him in again, got another shot of the antibiotic and a shot of zofran (anti-nausea meds), as well as a prescription for zofran. He was so dehydrated that his pediatrician said if he got worse, they'd have to hospitalize him, so luckily the zofran helped quite a bit and Jett was finally able to keep food down.
He had lost some weight due to his constant vomiting for two weeks, the poor guy, and was back at his weight from when he had gone in for his 12 month check up: 20lbs. But since getting better, he just eats, and eats, and eats, and eats! This morning he sat at the breakfast table for a half hour just stuffing his cute little face to his heart's content. It has been quite evident of his weight gain just in the past week. He not only eats his food, but then steals Cruise's food as well...he even manages to use a fork half of the time! He's still such a little guy and I honestly don't know where on earth he puts all that food, but man can that kid eat!
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| Jett eating with a fork. |
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| Jett eating Cruise's food. |
Jett is such a teaser and thinks everything is funny, even my angry face. He loves to laugh and do his big cheesy grin. But when he's sad or mad or any other negative feeling, he definitely has to let everyone around him know.
Jett doesn't like wearing pants. I think I end up redressing him about 8 times a day because I always find him and his pants in two separate rooms. He also doesn't like socks. I can't wait til Summer.
Jett keeps learning more and more words, like Mo for Elmo. Every time he sees an animal that growls or roars, he makes a cute little roaring sound. He loves bears! And despite his advances in expressive language, he likes to pretend he doesn't understand us when we tell him what to do.
He loves to play "Keep away from Mom" which is where he has something he's not supposed to have, like my phone, the remote, candy, etc. and waves his arm around so that I am unable to grab it. In a nutshell, he's my little mischievous son.
But he is such a sweetie. He is a great snuggler and will let me just hold him while we sit and watch a show together. So even though he's a Daddy's boy, he at least lets me snuggle him once in a while. :)
Cruise's Field Trip
Today Cruise and I drove up to SLC to the Clark Planetarium where we met the rest of his class from Bridges Preschool. Cruise had a blast! This was his first time being introduced to outer space and he was in heaven. I got him a hot dog and a drink since he seemed to be hungry and I wanted to avoid any reason for a meltdown.
He got to run around for awhile and touch/look at everything before the hour long show in the dome. The show was geared towards little kids and Cruise was that annoying person who comments all throughout the movie. But, it was Cruise, so of course it was cute and everyone else thought so (luckily his class was the only one in the room during the show).
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| Eating lunch on the moon. |
After the show, he picked out a toy from the gift shop: a space shuttle and astronaut. I wanted to get the $5 space shuttle, but Cruise had to get the one with the little space man that came with it, which of course cost $9, but how often do we go to the planetarium? So I was a sucker and bought it for him. We headed out to the car with Cruise announcing, "5,4,3,2,1...BLAST OFF!!!" Everything was fine until...the freeway. That was when Cruise started screaming, crying, and trying desperately to climb out of his seat. By the time we got home, he was all tangled up in his seatbelt and still screaming. I untangled him and of course he went booking it down the street...so not the best ending to a perfect morning, but hey, you take the bad with the good, right?
2 comments:
I love to read about your adventures. They distract me from my own. I love your boys and can't wait to see them again in April!
Your kids are seriously the most adorable things in the world (other than mine, of course ;-D ) They seriously are just so great! You are one blessed momma! It's so fun to hear about everything that is going on and to see how much both boys are growing and getting bigger in so many ways! You're doing an awesome job! Keep it up!
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