Look Ma- I won an award!

I won an award from Meredith! Yippee!! http://thenextinstallment.wordpress.com/

So here are the rules that go along with this particular award:

Thank the person who gave you the award.

1.Share seven things about yourself.
2.Nominate bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic!
3.Let your nominees know about the award.

Well, seven things about myself....I will try to make this interesting...

1. I love anything with peanut butter in it- especially english muffins with butter and peanut butter. My husband thinks it is disgusting, and I think it is pretty close to good sex! OH MY- did I just type that!?

2. I love playing the game, "If I made 100K..." I like to live in la, la land.

3. When I get to a weight I am comfortable wearing a bathing suit, I am going to find a way to get some money and go to an island just with my husband.

4. I require at least 6 hours of sleep, but to make me happy I need more than 7.

5. Even with my sleep requirements, I still think it is important to fit in me time, friend time, family time...I just wish there was more time.

6. I love both of my children for different reasons because both kids are very different.

7. My husband did something recently a lot of men wouldn't do, but did it for us, and I love him even more for it!!!

I haven't really found any new bloggers lately...but a blog that I absolutely love to read is The Pioneer Woman- you will see her on my reading list. She is a lot of fun!

Sleep Upsets

For Russ' birthday, we went out on a date night- no kids- just us. It was lovely. When we got home, Aiden was still up at 9:15 at night. It happens. He didn't want to go to bed- he freaked out- he wanted to play with the 10 year old that was with her mom watching the kids. I don't blame him. Well, with that and with the fact that he has been getting time outs and being sent to his room, we now have a problem on our hands. He won't go to bed! This is a kid that really never gives us an issue when it comes to bedtime. We can put him to bed before he is ready with a few books to boot, and he will sit quietly in his crib for an hour before dozing off. Now, he screams, hollar and freaks out. Oh- and he only seems to love his mom at bedtime now. No daddy- just mommy. This has been quite difficult for me since I still can't seem to adjust to having no time for myself in the evening to go for a walk or anything.

Last night, he was ready for bed- it was 9:30...so one book, a few minutes of rocking and no problem. But I will not have a child that goes to bed this late. I can't take it and it won't happen. Time will heal this, right?

Our Family

We had to bride Aiden with a PEZ dispenser so that he would sit long enough for a photo! :-)

I Love You!

My favorite time of day is when Aiden and I read books together before bed. He and I giggle, give each other kisses and snuggle. It is wonderful.

Last night, after reading, I had him facing me on the rocker, and I asked him if he could say, "I love you." He looked at me, smiled and wrapped his arms around me.

I love you, Aiden. My sweet, little boy.

Aiden's Evaluation Results

Aiden's evaluation was great! They did a great job! He had a blast showing off for them, plus they had all kinds of neat things for him to explore, which turned out to be his biggest downfall. They way they score is using a standarized test; a score of 85-115 is considered normal. They looked at five areas of development, and he scored well on all of them...but speech- he was at an 87. If we had him screened earlier, he would have been below normal which we knew. He scored low in one other area- cognitive development. His score was a 77, and it was this way because he can't sit and play with something for 5 minutes. He should be able to be enthralled with something and focus on a toy for that long, but he can't. We were not surprised to hear this. I was first noticing this when we would give him a bucket to fill and empty or to stack blocks. He never has liked blocks. If Russ and I build something, he will happily knock it over but he won't take the time to build it. If I give him a bucket, he will happily carry it around but he won't fill it to dump it. He will dump any container we fill though! If he had scored low on speech and cognitive, he would have qualified for services.

They are going to come back and look at his tactile issues. I am concerned about it, and they are happy to do the evaluation. I will keep you posted on the results.

The other thing they mentioned is how he is still walking part time on his tippie toes. This can become an issue because it keeps the leg muscles tight and can inhibit the way his leg muscles grow, etc. So we are doing some physical therapy on his feet by stretching them out when he lets us!

One more thing to note- my lovely son has said dada forever. Wouldn't you know when they gave Aiden some plastic figurines to identify, he said, "Mom!" I was shocked! Now he says, "Mom" all the time!

Aiden Speaks!

For a long time, our doctor was concerned with Aiden's speech, but we weren't worried. We felt that he knew how to sign to communicate, and we believed that because he is a boy, it would just take him longer. In speaking with others, they all said the same thing, "Boys just take longer to talk and when he does start talking, he will be speaking in sentences!" Well, Aiden turned two, and he was only saying a few words like dog, dadda, and ball (a bit more but that is all that comes to mind right now). Then Elijah was born. Aiden's temper got worse with frustration. We decided we would call child development services like the doctor had suggested. Well...

Wouldn't you know it- in the past month, he seems to have picked up a new word on a daily basis. The best was when was got him to say Vaughn- he can't say the g sound for grandpa or grandma, but on Father's day, he walked right up to Vaughn and said, "Vaughn." It was so cute. Russ loved it when Aiden walked past the trash can and just blurted out, "trash!" I can't wait for the day when he actually calls me momma. He only says it when he is upset but when I ask him who I am, he says nothing.

Next week is the visit from Child Development Services...so let's see what they think.

So Little Time...

It has been a while since I have had a moment to blog, and really, I need to be paying bills right now, and really, I need to be working at my job- not my personal life. But I want to take a minute or two to just get some thoughts put out there.

1- Having two kids is hard in numerous ways
2- You think your personal life is over after having one child...add a second
3- I just want 10 minutes a day to work out
4- I just want another 10 minutes to go the bathroom and maybe read a magazine too...at the same time or in seperate places
4- I love my children deeply and do not regret them
5- I just regret that my usual organized self can't pull it together
6- I have a call in a few minutes to talk about Aiden's development...hope that we can get him talking- it would help with our struggles with him lately

I have to go pee before this call...see- no time!