(About 5 days have passed since I started writing this post. Since, then, Richard's been back for another appointment. So, I figured, I may as well just squish the two updates together. I'm sure I'm not done the boys' update yet.)
It's been over a month since I last updated the boys' "Baby Book" entry. There's been so much to update. Lots is written down, but so much isn't. Funny stories. Cute things that have happened. With so much going on with Richard and life, I just keep forgetting to mark it all on the calendar.
Norma said today that Dexter was on his phone saying, "Bye bye AJ" all day long. He used to say, "AJ", then recently, has been calling him "Da-jah", and now is back to AJ again.
I'm going to go through my calendar of events here. There's no way that I've written all the words that Dexter has started saying, but some of them are there.
June 2 - Dexter freaks out at the grocery store with Richard when he sees oranges in the produce section. This kid LOVES oranges.
June 3 - Dexter starts consistently signing 'orange'.
June 10 - Dexter signs 'apple'.
June 12 - Dexter really starts using 'yes' and 'no' for answering everything. Nods yes and signs or says or shakes his head 'no'.
June 13 - Dexter's tantrums are starting to transform. They are less laying on the floor and pushing himself around and more angry. I almost think he's swearing sometimes in baby language.
June 22 - AJ stops saying, "Last time ago", and starts saying, "A long time ago". This soon, days later transforms into stories and dream telling that start with "A long long long long long long long long long long long long long long time ago when we went..."
-Dexter says, 'mouth' this day.
June 23 - Erica watched the boys this day.
June 24 - Leah watched the boys this day.
AJ has really become a fan of radio songs. He will request them, like:
"Can we listen to Let's Have Some Fun This Beat Is Sick, I Wanna Take a Ride on Your Disco Stick?"
or
"Please put on Boom Boom Boom"
or
"Can you turn on a-a-a-a-a-alcohol?" (I know I know, that last one doesn't sound very good)
Also, Dexter's really great at talking to Richard on the phone at the hospital. He gets so excited. "Hi Dada Hi Dada!" and then starts laughing. He walks around the house talking to Richard all down the hall. Sometimes he's babbling too, as though he's having a conversation, but I have no idea what he's talking about.
June 25 - I watched Dexter and Rya. I'm sure I wrote this down because something funny happened, but darned if I can remember what.
-Dexter started using the word 'thank you' and 'thanks' today consistently. It's really cute to hear. He uses it appropriately, like when I give him a bottle in the morning.
Around now, Dexter also starts signing 'hungry' and saying the word, 'mine'. Can't imagine where he learned that from!!!
June 26 - Leah watches the boys for the last time this school year.
-Dexter murmered/copied me saying 'bedtime story'. It was cute. He's really started mimicking lots of words now. Sentences to, but not comprehendable. Rather, just a copy of sounds.
-When I put AJ into bed, he gets a certain order of things that happen....
Brush teeth/go pee (Daddy's job)
Bedtime story
Hug Kiss High Five
Three Flips
Three Throws in the air
Then I toss him up into his loft bed. I usually sign the old 70s Sesame Street song:
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
11 12
do do do do do do do do
do do do do do do
do
do do do
12!!!
Well, this night, he tried to request that song by trying to sing it. He can count way far, like to 100 (with some assistance jumping to the next 10s like 40 50 60 etc), but it's funny trying to hear him count to 12 to a tune. But he almost did the 'do do 12!' part perfectly.
July 1 - Canada Day - Before heading to the hospital to spend the night with Richard, I took the boys for a big fun day at the water park and playground in Langley. They had a great time!!
July 5 - Dex says, "finished".
July 6 - Dex says, "morning" to AJ.
- AJ is excited about his new Fruit of the Loom undies. He asks daddy what he wears. Daddy says, "Mine are Hanes". AJ turned to me to say, "Daddy wears Fruit of the Hanes".
July 7 - AJ sounds out his very first word. Now, sounding letters is not new. I venture to say that he's known his letter sounds for near a year now. As of late though, he's been big into asking me or telling me what letter words start with. He even exaggerates it, like "Mommy, that's a banana. B B B, banana. Banana starts with a B.
-This particular day, we were looking at an Eric Carl book. The word ball was there (with a picture of a ball - don't get too excited). He said, in sounds, " buh ahh llll lllll . That says 'ball' mommy!"
July 13 - Dexter screams for Babybel. Who wouldn't?
July 16 - Dexter's new thing - Not going to bed unless he had 2 of his dinosaurs.
AJ and Dexter have decided, after a fun day at Auntie Jen's, that they both love watermelon! YAY!
July 16 - Swimming lessons in the morning. Makenna, Emerson, Jaxon, AJ, Dexter, and the mommies. After the swimming lessons, a morning in the fun and sun and the pool at Jen's house!!!
July 17 - Jen takes AJ for the day so he doesn't miss his swimming lessons while I take Richard to the hospital for another visit and drag Dexy along too!
All About Dexter
-I just love all of his head nods and 'huh?' When it's the morning, and he's finished his bottle, I ask him if needs a 'change' and he nods his head, 'yes', says, 'uh huh uh huh', and gets off the couch and heads to his room signing change. He climbs up on the change table himself most mornings too.
-Yesterday morning, he was in my room and sneezed. Out of habit, I said, "Gezhundheit", and he looked up at me, bewildered, and said, "Huh?"
-Although Dexter's word list is getting up there, I still don't consider him much of a talker. He has words that he says, but he still hasn't really clued in that words could really help him gets what he wants. But Grannie says that Dexter just chats away in the stroller when they're on walks.
-Screaming at the fridge for Babybel - An example of Dexter not using his signs and words to get what he wants would be the 'screaming for Babybel' day. Dexter runs to the fridge. He tries desperately to open it. I open it. I ask what he'd like. He can sign 'cheese'. But does he? No. He just screams. I lift him up to show me. I ask him over and over and over. "Cheese? Cheese? Cheese?" with the sign. Finally, he signs 'cheese'. Jeepers. Was that so hard? What's with the screaming.
-Shortly after Richard came home from the hospital, I had him put Dexter to bed while I was out doing something like gardening. I guess he's a little 'out of practice'. He comes out to say that Dexter's crying really loudly and angrily for the past ten minutes. I decide to investigate. I find that Richard hasn't given poor Dexter his soother or his dinosaur that he sleeps with!! No wonder!
-Speaking of Dino. Dexter was really having a rough time falling asleep last night. I went in to see what all the hub bub was about. He wouldn't cuddle with me or anything. He had his soother. He had his dino. I spotted his 'backup dino' under the bed. As soon as he saw that, he grabbed it, snuggled in, and let me put him back in bed. Uh oh. Not enough that he's addicted to his dino. Now, he needs two?
-Today was cute when AJ yelled down the hall, "Deeeeexxxxyyyy!!" and Dexter yelled back, "Yaaahhhh?"
-Dexter will need a doctor's appointment soon to look into his ear situation. If I'm not mistaken, he's had about 5 ear infections this year. So, we're going to talk about tubes.
All About AJ
-So, it's nothing new that AJ can say my Starbucks drink "Grande Sugar Free Hazelnut Breve Americano Misto" and can order his "Kids Half Sweet Chocolate Milk With Whip". But he also can say my iced drink name too. In fact, when I go to the drive thru, I get a little flustered because he likes to say it at the same time as me.
-Did I already mention AJ drawing my starbucks drink on the Magna Doodle? Yes, complete with spill stopper and foam. Nice.
-About 2 or so weeks ago, I took AJ for a really great trip to the library. I don't like taking Dexter yet, if I can help it. I pick him up some books, but he hates being in the stroller there, and if I let him out, he just takes off, and I can't get any books. AJ is fine in the library, normally, but just seems more like he's 'along for the ride' so to speak. Except this past trip. This time, AJ did what I have been encouraging and waiting for....
He helped me pick the books. He took a book off the shelf. He looked through it. He decided if it looked like it might be good. He then would put it back where he got it, or would put it in the bag. I also let him choose all of Dexter's board books this time.
- AJ is still really into the whole "What letter does _____ start with?" And is more and more into sounding out. This whole week has been, "Hey mom?"
me - "Yes?"
AJ - "That's a truck. T -t -t- t truck. Truck starts with T."
me - "Yes, truck starts with T! Good thinking!"
Today, while he played a computer game that has sight words and sounding and stuff, he sounded out the word 'paper'. That was exciting. It was a game where you have to sort the litter into plastic, paper, and cans. He sounded, letter for letter, the word paper. And then said, "Paper". However, he had heard the word paper in the explanation. But, he didn't know which word said it until he sounded it out. If that makes sense.
-AJ went for another visit to the speech therapist. Again, she went on and on about how great his communication is, and how 'way' above average he is for vocabulary, which, of course, is nice to hear, but I wanted to focus on the reason I was there. I know his communication is fine. It's his articulation that's 'behind', for lack of a better word. Probably all my fault for talking so fast myself. But this time, to my odd delight, she actually acknowledged my concern about his lisp (fronting of his S). It's still not a worry for his age, but she did give me some more little things I could do with him to work on it, without letting him know that's what I'm doing. She also mentioned his throat being a little 'bulky' like his adenoids, maybe? I can't remember. But she said that can be a common reason for fronting the S. She said I should mention it to the doctor at his next visit. So, I will.
Dexter's Word List updated
Mama
Dada
Daddy
Hi Dada
AJ
cat
up
baba (what we call a bottle)
banana
hi Rya
book
car
"Chunky D"
keys
cow
dog
gram
more
Toboo
All done (do duh) - new
mouth - new
thank you - new
thanks - new
mine - new
popcorn - new
toothbrush - new
cracker - new
bye bye - new
cookie - new
morning (good morning) - new
finished - new
all gone - new
Dexter's Signs List updated
more
change (which he seems to occasionally be using to actually tell me he's pooped)
cracker
finished
hi
bye
sleep
eat
surprise
stop
daddy
kiss
milk
ball
cheese
pig
cookie
no
wash
grandma
chicken
help
rabbit
orange - new
thank you - new
water - new (finally)
light - new (this is one of his favourite signs)
hungry - new
toothbrush - new
grapes - new (actually he signs fruit for this, but he means grapes)
banana - new
sorry - new
please - new
he also has some signs that he makes up, but I haven't figured them out
Animal Sounds
-pig - he snorts
-lion and bear and dinosaur and tiger- he growls
-rooster - he says 'cocka'
Body Parts
-He points to facial parts
-More now, but would have to 'test' him to know what they are.
I'm missing many stories about the boys. Hopefully, I'll be reminded of more when I do a picture update in the next few days. I hope.
Norma
-Well, she deserted us.
-Not exactly. She headed over to the Island to get her hair done, see some friends, and spend some time with Richard's Grandpa. Just until Sunday.
-Of course, we're doing fine without her, but she's missed too. Gosh, I missed my mother in law so much, I used today to go visit my ex-mother in law! I just can't get enough of those great ladies!
-Sounds like Norma's having a great visit over there. Sitting in the hot car today made me appreciate all the driving she's been doing for Richard's doctor visits all the more. Thanks, Norma!
-AJ already asked where Grannie is, and she only left yesterday!
Another Friday and a Blood Clot for Richard
-Richard's had some really bad neck pain the past couple days. I just figured he was getting pain from being so tense about moving around with his sore bone-marrow-biopsy-bakc-wound. But, he failed to inform me that his neck was also swelled up. This, he tells me AFTER I spent 3.5=4 hours cleaning out the garage on Thursday while he tended to Dexter inside. Man. Although it felt good to get the garage cleaned up, a truck load ready for the dump, and AJ was a trooper out in the front yard with me wearing his gardening gloves and everything to help me, I felt so bad for Richard when I got in. His neck had a really big bulge.
-Anyhow, he had called and they wanted him to come in on Friday at 10am.
-I okayed it with Jen that I could drop AJ off with her around 8am so she could take him to swimming. (yes, with Makenna AND the twins - she's a good friend)
-For Dexter - I knew he'd sleep most of the way there and back, but I did bring the DVD player for good measure with a Baby Einsteing Signing DVD he had only watched once before. That was gold.
-I dropped Richard off. He had it in his mind that I wasn't staying at the hospital, and was rather going to just go have a good day with Dexter. Far be it for me to argue with that.
-Dexter and I headed to the mall, Toys R Us, the park for lunch in the shade with the ducks right beside us eating some crunched up granola bar that Dexter loved throwing to them, and then headed to Nomi's house (that is my ex-mother in law) for a visit in Richmond. Since I'm not familiar with Vancouver too much, and I'm VERY familiar with Richmond, it just made more sense for me to spend my day in Richmond. I know where parks are, the mall, etc.
-After all that, it was time to pick up Richard. He had been keeping me up to date through the day.
-It was in fact, a blood clot. He will have to inject blood thinners into himself, or I will be doing it. We'll see. Because it's not enough that he has Leukemia AND pressing dental work AND is still awaiting bone marrow biopsy results, he still needs more thrown at him like a blood clot. A Thrombosis to be exact.
-It's 11:45pm and I'm beat. The drive home was excruciatingly hot with no AC, on a Friday (you know THAT traffic), and the bridge back up forced us to take Lougheed Hwy home. Definitely not a first choice, but it ended up working out well. We got home by about 4:30pm.
-But the icing on the cake????? Looks like we might be having some transmission problems on the car. YIKES. Because the blood clot just wasn't enough. That greedy Richard wanted MORE MORE MORE. So he got a broken down car too!!! That Richard.
Richard has updated the details of his visit to the hospital today -
http://www.bitemefriday.blogspot.com
Thank Yous
-The person who dropped off the shirts for the boys - There was a mysterious H&M bag on my doorstep a few days ago. I still don't know who dropped it off, but thank you!
- Jen - for a fun morning on Thursday in the sun and lunch for the kids. AND for taking AJ on Friday so he wouldn't miss lessons while I took Richard downtown.
-Erica - For meeting us at the lake last week to add to our day of fun, in case I forgot to mention that then!
-Richard - For 'sucking it up' so I could get the garage clean. You sir, are a man to be reckoned with, and I love you for it.
-Dad - For taking us to lunch/dinner the other day, enabling Richard to have a beef dip and perhaps, the first almost normal tasting food since the chemo!
-Naomi (Nomi) - For a too short, but wonderful visit. Always so nice to see you!
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