This is Kellen.
Kellen has some challenges, as I'm sure every child does. He is stubborn as heck. There are some days he just won't give in and throws the BIGGEST tantrums. There have been several days I've contemplated jumping out the second story window. ;) His language has been a little slower to develop, which was hard for me to accept considering what I do for a living, but I knew early intervention would be key in getting him caught up. He receives speech therapy twice a month (I'd prefer more, but that's what our home district provides for children under 3). He has made tremendous progress and will probably not qualify for speech therapy any longer once he turns 3. When he first qualified at the age of 2, his expressive language was at the 8th percentile. Only 3 months later, his expressive language jumped all the way to the 30th percentile! Amazing little guy. He can be kind of clumsy and is very cautious with anything 'sporty', but this doesn't bother me one bit. For a while I was getting an earful from his speech therapist that his gate was wide and he sometimes toe walked, which really had me thinking something was wrong. But once I stepped back and looked at other kids his age and did some research to what kids his age are able to do, he wasn't that different. I mean, you are a speech therapist, lady, not a physical therapist. So, I'm trying really hard to be more laid back about this all and am learning to just support Kellen in his interests and provide him learning opportunities in areas that he's not super into. Just as he's learning the ropes of being a little boy, I'm learning the ropes to being the mommy of a little boy.
Love you, Kellen.
This is Mila.
Mila is almost 7 months old. This little girl is my world. Seriously, she is the sweetest, most snugly little baby on the entire planet! I was convinced throughout my entire pregnancy I was having a boy, so when this little angel popped out and they said "It's a girl!" I was in complete shock, and quickly became very excited that I'd get to do all the mom of a girl things. Pink dresses. Tights. Bows. Headbands. Ballet. Barbies. Dolls. Shopping. Tea parties. Prom dress shopping. Wedding dress shopping. Baby shopping! Most importantly, I was just excited that I'd get to have a sweet little daughter to build a mommy-daughter bond with. How blessed am I to get to have a mommy-son and mommy-daughter bond? Very blessed.
Even though Mila has only been in this world for nearly 7 months (16 months if we want to get technical), I've already learned so much about how she works. She's obviously a very beautiful baby! She has dark blue eyes and the most chubby little cheeks you've ever seen. Her thighs are pretty delicious as well!!! She is very independent, yet wants to know that mommy and/or daddy are nearby at all times. Her language and gross motor development definitely seem to be her strengths; she started babbling before she was 3 months old and began sitting by herself at 5 1/2 months. (Interesting comparing Mila and Kellen's development, because Kellen's strengths were fine motor and social). She LOVES her big brother - he definitely comes in at a close 2nd to mommy (and I think if it weren't for the boobs, Kellen would be in first place). Speaking of, she's still nursing like a rock star. There was a week or two where she wasn't a fan of nursing during the day, but we soon realized that she had an ear infection. Once she finished her medication, she went back to her normal nursing routine. She loves eating as well (just like her mama) - so far, she has tried avocado, apple, banana, pear, sweet potato, squash, yogurt, peas, carrots, and cheerios. Exciting stuff, right?
Mila continues to struggle with sleep. She has never slept through the night. There have been maaaaybe 2 nights where she has only gotten up once, but most often she gets up 2 - 4 times a night. We tried the kind of cry-it-out method with her, but it just didn't work (for me). Aaron was fine with the crying, but I just couldn't let her cry for more than 10 minutes at a time. So right now I'm just trying to go with the flow and am keeping my fingers crossed that she will figure it out.
She's a perfect little sweet pea now, but you wouldn't have known it 2 months ago. From 3 - 5ish months she had some major night-time colic. She would cry almost non-stop from 4ish until 9. It was to the point where no one would watch her because of the crying...not even grandmas! This was a very hard time for us all, but especially for Aaron. I could go on and on about this 2 month span, but now that I'm on the other end of it, I've kind of forgotten how bad it was.
These are my kids. My life. My job, I guess you could say. I love these two kids SO MUCH and really enjoy being home with them. But I'd be lying if I didn't admit there are days I'd like to drop them off at a daycare so I could have some time to myself. Being a SAHM can be very isolating. Boring. Messy. The days are extremely long. But don't think for a second I don't remind myself how very lucky I am to be in this position.
Am I going to be able to do this again next year? I'm in the process of trying to figure that out right now. I will most likely be blogging about this soon, as I have until February 1st to decide my fate for next year (work and make $$ vs. SAH and make no money).
Yah, love that you are blogging again! You kids are beautiful. And thanks for sharing your insight about Kellen's speech, I have been really struggling with the fact that Mason hardly talks and will be 2 in a couple weeks. I will admit over the last month his vocab has really started to take off, I think maybe it has to do with the fact that we have taken the nuk away during the day (only gets it when he is sleeping) and without that thing in his mouth he is able to talk more... so I blame I myself. We will see what he says at his 2 year check up but we may look into some speech therapy as well but I dont want to get myself too worked up over it yet. And Mila is the cutest little thing ever. Keep the posts coming, loving hearing about your adventures as SAHM. There are many days I wish I could do it and then some Sunday nights after a long weekend of single parenting I reminded that I don't think I would survive as a SAHM.
ReplyDeleteMandy, it's so hard not to be concerned when it's your baby. If your gut is telling you to find out more about it, you should. If you don't get a lot of advice from the pediatrician, you could call your home district's early childhood department. Most districts have an 'early intervention' department. Just share that you have some concerns with your son's language development and they will send a speech therapist out to speak with you. It's super laid back and not a big deal at all. Most likely they'd just come out, tell you not to be concerned, and maybe give you some interventions to try. And then if it doesn't get better in a couple months, they can assess him and see if he qualifies for help. Next time we see each other I can go into more detail about the process, or you can just give me a call. In terms of the nuk, I was totally the same. That was one of the first things they told me to do (get rid of it during times when he could/should be communicating). It's hard because you want your babe to have his comfort/lovie, but you also want him to be able to communicate. Gah, this mothering thing is so hard, isn't it? You're damned if you do and damned if you don't!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice! We have his two year check up the end of this month (eek, two years already), we will see what the dr thinks and go from there! I am trying to not focus on it so much but it is hard some days!
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