Our "Nutshells"

Just thought I'd write an update with "our nutshells", which was Jared's cute/quaint expression when summing something up..."and that's my nutshell", instead of "in a nutshell" :)

KYLE'S NUTSHELL:
Kyle is definitely enjoying school, and his teacher reports that he is making progress in terms of joining the class activities with less prompting. So that's encouraging. I have an IEP progress meeting next week with his team and will be very interested to hear their observations/recommendations.

He had his 3 year well visit a couple weeks ago and it went well. He was around the 90th percentile for both height and weight, and he also got his flu and chicken pox shots while we were there. He was a good boy with all the waiting (probably because I let him play with my iPhone the whole time!).

And as an extension of the "Uncle Mike" joke, his new thing is making jokes about who is who...Benson is Kyle, Mommy is Grammy, Nonnie is Grampa, etc, etc. I just LOVE seeing him be silly and hearing him laugh. Hopefully there will be more and more of that in the near future.

LUKE'S NUTSHELL:
I can summarize Pooks in two words...pure joy. I know I am biased, but he is just the sweetest, happiest, most adorable little creature in the world :) He is my little "sonshine" and I could just gobble him up! I love Kyle every bit as much as him, but Luke is just at a very fun age...everything is exciting to him and he doesn't have that edge/attitude yet (and hopefully never will!).

He has started trying to take some steps, and is very proud of himself when he does. If I say "do your walking", he'll let go of whatever he's holding onto and take a couple steps before doing a faceplant. Unlike cautious Kyle, Luke has absolutely no fear (which can be good and bad). It's like it doesn't even occur to him that he can't really walk yet when he tries, and it doesn't phase him when he falls. I think real walking is still a ways off, but when he's physically ready, he'll take off with no fear!

And I feel like he's blossoming developmentally in a lot of areas. He likes looking at books now and is learning to recognize some of the pictures, like car and ball. And he points to the pictures using both his index and middle finger...those are the two fingers that he's sucked since he was a newborn and I guess he thinks they are a package deal...adorable :) And he'll "dance" on command (i.e. bounce up and down while holding onto something) and giggle as he's doing it. He will also try to repeat more sounds/words now, including "apple" (in honor of Steve Jobs?). And whenever he does something that he's proud of (which is quite often...as Grammy says, he has a very good opinion of himself!), he will also look for a reaction and praise. While rubbing his feet together like a little cricket, because that's what he does when he's happy/proud :)

And last but not least, what would a blog post be without a Luke feeding update. Only this time, it will be slightly positive! My new schedule with him is to do high calorie (mixing a jar with formula/cereal) breakfast and dinner, and then focus lunch more on self-feeding. And I must say, it is pretty tolerable! Granted, that is largely due to the fact that Grammy is feeding him dinner most nights. But he seems to take his high-calories meals more easily (not thrilled about it, but will tolerate it with enough antics/distractions). And he is making some progress with finger foods, seeming more excited about feeding himself and getting better at swallowing. I did take him to a pediatric GI doctor, to rule out any kind of GERD issue that could be causing all his eating difficulties. He didn't see anything obvious but ordered a modified barium swallow test (to rule out any physical causes) and prescribed an antacid (as a trial, to see if things improved). For now, after reading up on it, I don't think I am going to do either one of those. He seems to be making progress, I am able to maintain his weight, he's growing well in length, and he's very happy, sleeps well and never seems in pain. So I'd rather not subject him to radiation for a test that he may very well not cooperate for anyway. I'm still thinking about trying the Prilosec, but for now I'm holding off.

MY NUTSHELL:
My nutshell is a direct reflection of their nutshells. Luke's progress with eating is HUGE and really has improved the quality of my life. While I still dread feeding him, I don't feel like I'm going to lose my mind during it! So that's progress. Oh, and something I should have included in Kyle's nutshell is the fact that he's sleeping until 6:30/6:45 every morning now...hooray!! Just in time for "fall back" :( What a difference that extra hour makes though...getting up at 5:30 with a soaking wet, grumpy, demanding little boy was NOT a good way to start the day.

Since Jared died, I have found it very important to always have things on the calendar, to both look forward to and help break up the monotony. Along those lines, since I work from home on a flex schedule (meaning I work 7 days a week so the days seem to just run together), I like having things that make each day feel a little different. Kyle's school schedule helps...that defines Tues-Fri. And I have also found that exercising helps too. Ever since Luke started sleeping through the night (i.e. I stopped waking him up to try to nurse him throughout the night!), I have been exercising 4 days a week and haven't yet missed a day! My "secret" is that I schedule the 4 days on my calendar at the beginning of each week, and that way it doesn't feel like an option to me. And the fact that my exercise bike is in my bedroom with a TV in front of it helps too...would be hard to make excuses! So that defines those days, and obviously I particularly like the feel of the 3 days that I DON'T exercise!

So those are our nutshells. I haven't been good about taking pictures recently, but I took some on our rail trail walk this afternoon. I especially like the one of Kyle leaning on the bench...it is SO hard to get a good picture of him so I treasure the good ones of him that much more!