2 years (+1 month) post-op

Wrote this blog July 26th and just realized I posted to my old blog...oops.

Can't believe it's been (over) 2 years!  We haven't decided whether or not we're going to St. Louis this year for his TEAM check-up.  His speech seems pretty good to us, any teeth/cranio-facial stuff can't be done for years, don't really need to talk to the geneticist or psychologist again, and hearing seems to be good as well so there doesn't really seem to be a need.

Picture from May '08 compared to today:



If Adam were a dog, I'd say he has a strong prey drive.  Anytime we go to the Community Center play area, mall petri dish (-er, I mean, play area), or a park, Adam gravitates to anyone running.  The kids running may not even know he's there but he's running after them, screaming if they scream, and laughing.  If they stop, he follows them around thinking they are his new friend.  I see him talking to them - probably asking them to run again. I usually have to tell him to leave them alone because he really gets stalker-like sometimes.  Today at the Community Center, a little group of boys were being really nice and letting him play with them.  When some left, 3 decided to play duck-duck-goose.  Adam sat down with them and I tried to explain the rules but anytime someone else was "goose", Adam went chasing after them.  When he was "goose", the other little guys let him win.  It was soo cute! Much better than last weeks experience with a 4 year old named Giovanni.  It started off cute with this kid wanting to play chase with Adam and tickle him but then he started tackling Adam to the ground.  Then it turned into what looked like wrestling moves so Adam couldn't get up.  A couple of times he grabbed the back of Adam's shirt to stop him from running.  I told the kid to be careful but he thought that the rubber floor made it OK or something.  The nanny tried to tell him he was being too rough too but I just wanted to get away from the kid, so we left.  Good times!

1st Day of School

Adam was very excited to go to school this morning! He finished his breakfast and said "Let's go!" I tried to explain that we still had 45 minutes until we needed to be there but we still ended up leaving about 15 minutes early. We wasted a little time checking out the bathroom and taking pictures outside.

We parents got to stay for about 45 minutes while the kids played, did a craft, and had snack time. We were the snack-bringers. I wanted something creative to go with the Teddy Bear Picnic theme of the day. My original idea of making bread in a jellyroll pan (thin) and cutting it out with bear-shaped cutters didn't work because I didn't have enough batter. I ended up making banana bread muffins and gluing a chocolate Teddy Graham on top with icing (thanks Mom!). I actually made some apple-carrot muffins first but they looked too healthy and I was afraid the kids wouldn't touch them. Anyway...one of the other mom's said I was setting the bar a little high for the rest of them or something like that. Oh, well! I'll bring Goldfish next time!

Adam's craft project was a picture of a Teddy Bear that they had to color and glue on pom-pom noses and googly eyes. They had different colored pom-poms and eyes for the kids to choose. Adam chose yellow everything..."like Winnie the Pooh." I thought that was really cute!

Parents left after snack. Adam was ignoring me at first, absorbed with all the toys in the room, while I was trying to say goodbye. Finally he started following me but decided to yell at a sleeping baby and then rock it's car seat really hard on the way to the door. Part of me was mad at him and part of me was mad at the parent for just leaving their baby in the middle of the floor like that. I left and I could hear the teacher by the door trying to distract Adam.

Pick-up time was 12:00. I was running a little late because I thought Dave was coming with but he had gotten a phone call. I got there with a couple minutes to spare but parking is across the street and the light takes FOREVER to change. Luckily, Adam wasn't the only one still there. :) The teachers said he did really well and even helped pick up other kid's carpet squares. Adam said that they went to the gym and played basketball, sang songs about teddy bears, the teachers blew bubbles, and he knocked some kids over. He said he had fun!

Another big thing for him today is that he finally figured out how to ride his big wheel!! He no longer pedals backwards! We did a test drive around the block and then he said he wanted to ride all the way to the park. The park is a straight shot down County Line but it's about a mile to get there. Well..he did it! It took a long time with all the steering into the grass but he did it! He played a little while on the slides and then wanted to swing. He was totally beginning to zone out so I called Dave to come pick us up. When he saw Dave he ran to him..and became very awake again! We managed to get the overly tired crazy man to sleep just after 8! Whew!!

Next week - the beach with my parents!

School bus

Forgot this in the previous post...

About a month ago we were sitting at a stop light and were next to a little red van that had "OURDAY PRESCHOOL" printed on the side of it. I told Adam that was the "bus" for his school. (I don't know if they really use it as a bus or what it's for really...). Fast forward to today and a regular school bus drove by our house. Adam said "That's not my little red bus. That bus is for big kids!".

i just can't believe his memory!

Funny things said

I wish I could remember all the funny things Adam says in a day! Yesterday, I was driving home from the library and Adam says "I got a small arm!" I was like 'Uh-oh! Who noticed?" So I asked "what Buddy?". He said "I don't got a big arm, I got a small arm. Mommy, can you get my cup with your big arm?" Oh - OK! He couldn't reach his cup that had fallen next to his car seat.

The other night he wanted to read his own bedtime story. He chose to read "Little Bunny Follows His Nose." It went something like this. "Hi Little Bunny! Listen! Oh, I see peaches! (scratch and sniffs) Ewww!! Too yucky! Oh, Hi Guy! Listen! I'm going over there. Squirrel. What are you doing in the tree squirrel? You have pine cones in there? Let me smell! Eww! Stinky! Listen! I'm going home. I smell yucky cookies! (hee hee hee). Little Bunny is going to bed. The End."

Adam got another time-out in the Sprouts Room yesterday, this time for pushing and hitting. They ladies said they thought it might have been due to a bunch of crazy boys in there and he was influenced by them but after a talking to and time out, he was fine. They said he was good today (the crazies weren't there). BUT, when we went to go play out in the lobby, Adam stood all the way at the top of the clubhouse/slide thing and spit. I saw it fly al the way down toward me. So I ran up to the top, grabbed him and left. He continued to spit all the way to the car and even on the window once I got him in his seat. Uggh! If he even hears you mention the word "spit" (like when I was telling Dave about it), he starts.

On a cuter note, he walked to the Sprouts room holding hands with a little girl named Allison whose mom is in my work-out class. It was so stinking cute watching them walking down the hall, hand-in-hand!

Tomorrow is Open House at his preschool tomorrow! Next week is the real deal! He's been in undies and pants almost 2 weeks now so I guess he's officially potty trained (and he's been staying dry at night too!).