June 2007

It’s been a long week.  Lots of therapy appointments and trying to find routine that works for all of us.  Yesterday Aaron took Trent to speech.  Unfortunately he just wasn’t in the mood and acted very “2” during the session.  I wonder some times if all the therapist sessions and forced activities get to the babies.  I think the PT therapy is especially hard for Sophie.  It was clear at her session on Tuesday she was afraid of the swing and being forced to walk on the stairs.  It was so hard for me to watch.
Today the early interventionist came (we’re still trying to make up sessions we missed during the week we were on vacation) and the babies worked on creating pictures with stickers and crayons.  Trent is much better at focused activities.  Today he worked on his picture for a solid 15 minutes.  I’ve also noticed he stays very focused when he plays with his cardboard and plastic blocks.  Sophie on the other hand gets “done” so quickly.  It worries me that we’ll never be able to get her to slow down. They are both so different.

Everything is a toy or provides entertainment. Tonight they took the empty laundry basket from me after I’d put their laundry away and pushed it throughout the house for a good 20 minutes- pushing and chasing each other.  Aaron and I just cracked up.  It was like watching a commercial as they ran up and down the house, running after each other a laughing.

Thankfully Sophie’s sleeping has turned a corner and she’s made it through almost every night this week.  I am so happy.  I think it’s all the daily activity that is helping to tire her out and facilitate a full nights worth of sleep.   Woohoo!

Tomorrow the babies will be official “2” and will now longer be classified with “adjusted or corrected age”.  Just two straight up.  Ideally they’re also supposed to be completely caught up from a development perspective.  We think they’re amazing but I guess we’ll have to wait until the next check in the Stanford development center to get the official status on where things stand.  For now, we’ll just continue with the early intervention, speech and physical therapy to ensure we’re giving them all the support they need to continue on their development path.

It’s been a busy couple of days.  On Sunday we took the babies to a 50th anniversary party for our friend Becky’s parents.  Thank goodness there were several kids there and we were in a private room at the restaurant where the party was.  The babies were VERY busy but with a lot of help from my girlfriend Deidra, we were able to control them.  On Monday night Sophie had early intervention therapy at our house and our friend Deidra came to stay the night.  It was so nice to be able to spend time with her and have her participate in our Monday night neighbor dinner.  Poor Trent continues to be afraid of animals and was especially afraid of the dogs that were at the barbeque.  I’m not sure where it’s coming from but he’s just petrified.  The funny thing is though – Trent has no fear of our dog Bella or our cat.  He was also scared when Aaron showed him so caged rabbits on Sunday as we did our weekend walk.  It is so odd.  We just can’t figure it out.

Today I took Sophie to physical therapy and the early interventionist came back to see Trent. I’ve gotten to the point though where I know it’s time to make a change for Sophie’s physical therapy.  She cries all the way to therapy and each week it just gets harder.   While I like our therapist, she actually has played more of an administrative role in the recent years and chasing Sophie is clearly a lot.  There is also a lot of bending, lifting heavy swings that hook to the ceiling and crawling around- and for the last two visits I’ve found myself doing a lot of it as I’m directed by the therapist.  I actually think moving Sophie back to homecare would help us (me) balance a little better as a family and so I’ve contacted the Early Start folks to request a change.  The juggling and scheduling seems to get a little harder everyday and the last couple of weeks have felt like I’m failing on all sides. The good news is that I’ve been in contact with Sophie’s original physical therapist Karen and she’d be more than willing to take Sophie back as a client and will come to our home.  The last step is just getting all the paperwork through Early Start.  I just want to ensure Sophie is getting everything she needs. I am also concerned about all the time/progress we lost in the months Sophie spent going toe to toe with her former therapist.  I feel terrible that I didn’t push harder for a change and I am not about to let any more grass grow under my feet.

This evening our neighbor came over to cut the babies hair. She was so funny last night at the barbeque.   He’s only two and yet Amber was asking me “what we should do with Trent’s hair”.  Typically I take them to my stylist but she was off last weekend attending the Gay pride celebration in the city so we needed an alternative.  I feel so guilt. They love going to see Sadie (although the other customers in her salon tend to me less than thrilled to have the quite sanctuary of the salon “invigorated” by our babies). Hopefully Sadie will forgive me for taking them to someone else.

Today was filled will play and we have two very tired babies tonight. They were both were hungry for dinner but could hardly hold it together as they sat in their high chairs. They spent over two hours today in their little pool and clearly had all their energy worked out of them. We’re also hoping the sun helps Sophie’s eczema (which is rearing its head again).
We’re working very hard with Trent on his speech and saying sentences. He’s great at saying “Ok” to everything but we’re trying to get him to say “I want a … or I have an xxx”. He’s trying so hard and its’ clear he’s frustrated.
Today we received the paperwork for Sophie’s upcoming CT scan (just a check up for her hydrocephalus), which will take place late in July. The paperwork assumes she’s never had one and we’re new to this. It was really interesting to read. It reminds me how far we’ve come. The appointment is scheduled for very early morning in hopes that she’ll sleep through it and not have to be sedated. The early appointment time will require some special arrangements for Trent but I’m sure he’ll understand how important this test is for his sister.
They are so connected. He’s always looking out for her and she’s always checking in with him. I’m sure all twins are like that but it’s clearly amazing to watch. [[Image:the_kids/SKTKH623.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/SKTK623.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/BBP623.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/SkP623.JPG]]

I can’t believe today is the first day of summer.  Where has the year gone?  The last two days have been busy.  Yesterday I had one of those quarterly all day planning meetings (continued today), which required help from my folks to get Trent to therapy and help from our wonderful neighbor Jean to watch Sophie while I picked up Trent from speech therapy.  Aaron has started playing ball on Wednesday nights again and I really, really want him to be able just to have a “guy’s night” so Wednesday will be all mine with the babies through the rest of summer.

Trent’s speech therapy was absolutely thrilled with his progress and said she can definitely see the influence of his Early Intervention therapy.  In the past she had always had to do 10 activities because he would quickly lose interest.  However, yesterday she noticed that he was much more focused and only had to do 5 activities.  After quite a bumpy road through the last 7 months, we finally have an amazing Early Interventionist and couldn’t be more thrilled. The babies have clearly bonded with Gayle (who came again today) and with every visit – seem to learn new things.

I’ve now moved on to running to Quincy ME in the morning (yes, I’m a 70’s girl).  Poor Sophie, this morning she was sitting in her high chair when I was running and she saw Quincy giving a person a shot and she started to cry.  She was so upset, holding her arm and crying.  Looks like all those shots and blood draws she’s gotten are remembered.  It was the oddest thing to see.  Thankfully she calmed down after they scene changed.

Our little man was so Mr. Cranky tonight.  He just cried and cried.  It was so odd- he rarely cries.  We’re not sure if he’s getting new teeth or what but he was MAD for almost two hours.  He kept saying “outside, outside” so finally he and I tried to walk around the block.  He cried for almost a block and then said, “run”. We did run but I unfortunately was wearing slides.  Wow that was hard.  I must have looked really, really lame.  It did help him feel better somewhat and we were finally able to get him relaxed with his binkie and Elmo.

It’s funny how life changes.  Aaron and I have never been big mixed drink people but we do have a few shot glasses left over from our 20s.  Who knew they’d be the perfect size to pour Sophie’s meds into and make it easy to draw out with a syringe?  Somehow I always feel compelled to explain when people notice the shot glass next (or at least our non standard caregivers today)- I don’t want people to think we’re doing a shots for breakfast.
Today was one of those funky days.  I had meeting that I needed to be at this morning so I arrange for a babysitter to cover me at home this morning.  Tia’s was also gone today taking her son to the airport so we had another one of our old babysitters this afternoon.  All worked well.  The babies were thrilled to see their old sitters (the college students) but of course both meetings I went into the office were cancelled.  I told my co workers if there are any meetings they want to be assured get cancelled- make sure I change my childcare around and it will ensure a change.  I just had to laugh.  A short morning though- I came home at 10:45 though to take Sophie to physical therapy. Both babies were chanting “LoLo” – their new name for Lauren. The last time she sat with them- they were just starting to talk.
Sophie did great in PT. I was permitted to stay through the whole session today and Sophie didn’t even seem to notice I was there.  She’s back seeing Carol the therapist she started with as a baby- and who is now taking over since the other therapist has left. Carol asked me if Sophie was acting as she normally did and I said I wouldn’t know since I had been “excused” over the last 3 sessions.  Carol just gave me a look (I guess since she’s the owner of the clinic and the person I had raised my concerns to).  Sophie did great though. She walked up and down the stairs holding the rail and her balance was SO awesome.  I was very proud.
Our big boy was under the weather yesterday with a fever and QUITE cranky, but seems to have rebounded.  Aaron put him in a cold tub last night to cool him down – which worked but certainly ticked him off.  Needless to say, he assumed the same this morning at 6am when I put them both in the tub (I was too tired last night) and he just cried and cried. Poor little guy. Thankfully though his fever is gone today and is back to his happy self.  He also had a visit with Gayle his Early Intervention therapist. She is truly amazing; She comes with a plan, certain objective,  games. and a book. The babies love her.  We are so lucky to have her.

Summer is definitely here and we are very much enjoying it. On Friday Aaron and I were off and were able to have some much needed couple time that included lunch, errands and even a Toys R Us run to purchase a new pool for the babies. We tried it out on Friday night and they thoroughly enjoyed it. On Saturday we took them to the annual Willow Glen Street dance – Dancing on the Avenue (with 4 bands and about 10K other folks). Trent was so funny. We’re not sure what’s gotten into him but he’s suddenly afraid of all animals except for our cat and dog. There were police horses and police dogs and he was completely terrified. He also freaked out when we took them into the kid’s zone and he saw a person in a shark costume. It is so weird. He used to love all animals and over the last month, he is suddenly afraid. Neither baby has ever had any sort of stranger anxiety but he suddenly has it now. Hopefully it passes soon. The dance was fun though. Sophie was Miss social. Chatting with everyone, dancing with strangers and acting like a groupie by flirting with the band – which was a bunch of middle aged men. She flirted and they flirted right back. She just loved the music and demanded to get out of the wagon. Trent on the other hand was shyer and took a while to get into it. He dances as well but he is a guy and tends just to turn around in circles rather than dance. Not much beat but certainly has a good time. Needless to say they were completely worn out when we got home and both crashed. We’ll take what we can get though with Sophie- every night of complete sleep is a blessing.
Today we celebrated father’s day for Aaron – as well as my dad with a barbeque.. The babies just love being with their grandparents. I tried really hard to get them to say “happy father’s day” or “happy papa’s day” to Aaron but was only able to get them to say “happy day.” Oh well. We’ll keep working at it.
Next week it’s back to the schedule and juggling. Thank goodness our college student babysitters are home for the summer. I am so happy. We have two and knowing they can help us our makes life so much easier.
Sophie has Early intervention therapy with Gail tomorrow at the park and I can’t wait for Sophie to be able to show Gail her new moves and share her new words.

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What a nice week we had. The final day of our road trip was definitely the highlight (Fort Bragg and the beach a close second). After our marathon car ride on Tuesday we decided the best thing was to find a nice place to go fairly close to Redding. As it turns out Lakehead on Shasta Lake was less than an hour a way. After a little research, we were able to find a couple of cool lodges and just decided to go for it. We were so happy with our end result. We ended up as this great resort with 20 some cabins. It was so family friendly and right across from our lake. As luck would have it, we were able to get a cabin for the night and it turned out our cabin had a toddler play area right next to it (which we used while they were quickly getting the cabin ready for us). We had such a nice time. Lots of deer around, a nice pool and the lake. At a marina down the road from the resort we were able to rent a 19 ft boat and took the babies out for a 3-hour ride around the lake. The weather was perfect and thankfully the marina had toddler life jackets (I forgot those with just about everything else I should’ve packed but didn’t). At first they were both a little scared but once we got going they were both so happy to have the wind blowing in their faces – and me holding on to the straps on their life jackets They also both got the opportunity to steer with daddy and couldn’t have been more thrilled. While they looked the boat and talked a lot about “being in the water”, they were less than thrilled when we tried to take them into the lake with us. For now it seems pool are better (or the Ocean where a least Sophie can chase the waves). We had so much fun at the resort that we’ve already booked it for next year. It will definitely be something to look forward to. Aaron and I feel so fortunate for everything we have everyday. Mr. and Miss chatty with so much personality. The ride home was long but not horrible. Lots of gold fish, pointing our big trucks, trains and cows – kept them entertained. Tonight they’re both completely beat (especially Sophie). Our routine is completely off but I know we’ll quickly get it back. [[Image:the_kids/BWD.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/BOL.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/TKINM.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/BBWD.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/SKBR.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/SKH.JPG]] [[Image:the_kids/TKSKBRJPG.JPG]]