El Guapo

Happy Kid, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Jon is replacing the Evil Child-Eating Garage Door Openers as I type; we went and bought new ones last night and I'm ashamed that we didn't do it sooner because the price wasn't that bad.

The fridge also decided to die over the weekend and the fridge guy should be out to look at that today, too. I'm glad we have a chest freezer.

Brenden is doing good. I was real worried about him being in pain because he was prescribed only about 3-4 days worth of Lortab, but he is cruising along fine on Advil now. His finger, while a nice shade of purple, looks better than expected. I won't post pics - while I'm amused by adult boo-boos, little toddler boo-boos make me want to throw up until I'm inside out.

For some reason, Brenden has finally gotten a case of Velcro-to-mommy-itis. He has never had problems with me leaving before but the last week (it started earlier than his run-in with the garage door).
He also insists I stay with him while he falls asleep.

A quick note on Tampa: my dad is doing pretty good; the chemo is tiring him out but overall he doesn't look much different than the last time I saw him. I have never been to their new house down there and it's very nice and right next to a golf course. Brenden and I wandered over there a few times to walk around (with no golfers around, of course). Dad & Ilu have a pool so of course we spent a lot of time in there.

We also visited the Florida Aquarium, and while it's small compared to the other ones I've seen (Baltimore, Chicago, Chattanooga, Gatlinburg), it's impressive and worth checking out. We also visited the Tampa zoo which is freakin awesome. It was way too hot, however and B wasn't in the best mood because of it. We tried to visit the beach but the surf was rough and seaweed-infested. We managed to pack a lot into a 4 day vacation!

Ouch

happyboy, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Ugh. This entry was supposed to be a trip report to Tampa. We had a great time, thank you. Look at the photos and I'll blog about it later.

But yesterday afternoon Brenden broke a finger. It was the tip of the finger, but it was mashed flat - one of those things that happens in an instant.

I took one look at his finger and told Jon we needed to get him to the hospital. We loaded up in the van and took him to the little one here in town. I was so glad we were able to get in immediately. A nurse gave Brenden some Lortab and Benadryl, and I'd say it took about 20 minutes before it kicked in. In the meantime he was crying pretty bad.

After some X-Rays (and that wasn't fun either) the doc told us he had a small fracture. That's not so bad. He will probably lose the fingernail, and what is upsetting me is he damaged the fingernail bed, so he may not grow a nail back where he hurt it.

Once we left the hospital, Brenden was feeling the Lortab just fine and was cheerfully pointing out the window of the van and going "Ooo dada wook!" at everything. We stopped to fill his prescriptions and we ate some MacDonald's while sitting in the van waiting for them to be filled.

I didn't have much appetite but Brenden packed away just about all my french fries and took a bite out of each of my Chicken McNuggets. I wasn't that hungry, anyway.

Jon and I were quite rattled about this. Jesus, if he had broken his leg I think both of us would have dropped dead from heart attacks! Skydiving doesn't hold a candle to parentood when it comes to terror.

Fashion Model

backpack2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

We're leaving tomorrow afternoon for Tampa. Jon found out that Southwest flies out of Birmingham direct to Tampa for some seriously reasonable prices. In the meantime:

Letter to Brenden Month 25:

I heard back from the good folks who tested you, and you 'eligible for services' in the area we suspected - communication. I am meeting with someone next Wednesday where we will draw up a plan of attack to get you talking better. Neither your dad nor I think there's anything wrong with you but maybe I'll learn some things about little kids when I meet with this guy. It will be interesting to see the full results of this test.

Ironically, I think you are getting better at talking. You love saying "Dada, woo! Aypluh!" (Mom and/or dad, look, there's an airplane!). And I love it if I ask you if you want something. You will hear an important key word in my question, whether it be "juice", "chocolate", or "cheese", and you'll say "yeah! Yayayah!"

And even though you resist trying new words, you are not above new sounds or actions, like you love imitating faces we make, or when we all brush our teeth together you picked up spitting pretty fast.

The big news of this month is of course climbing out of bed. What I haven't reported yet is you learned to climb over the gate we put up in your doorway pretty damn fast. I'm sorely tempted to duct tape you to your mattress when it's time to sleep but we'll give you a chance to sort it out. I really should have bought you a larger bed because you will grow out of the toddler bed in oh, about 3 months I'd say. We love you, monkey-boy!

messy2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

No word yet on Brenden's testing - not that I would expect a government agency to be that fast.

We will be visiting dad and Ilu in Tampa next weekend - turns out Southwest Airlines has some pretty sweet deals on direct flights out of Birmingham.

I'm rereading the Harry Potter series in anticipation of the 7th and final book, which will be released July 27th. I am getting it from Amazon and will read it as soon as I get it otherwise I will go insane trying to avoid spoilers which I expect will hit the internet any moment now.

It's been a slow news week.

Not about the Cat

Kitteh2, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

The assessment was pretty fascinating. I was impressed, first off, that Brenden actually listened to the women who came by (one is a neighbor 2 doors down, by the way - that was amusing). The assessment involved many questions for us (us being me, Jon, and our babysitter) which ranged to how much fun my pregnancy was to Brenden's health to how he interacts with other kids (not aggressive, but not into sharing).

I can't remember all the tests - they were fairly comprehensive, but they included rattling several things where he couldn't see to see if he noticed, and seeing if he could color with a crayon in a certain direction if shown how. He was asked to match pictures of shapes to one another and he got a few of those (he aced the stacking, sorting, and shape matching). He started faltering when one of the testers set an array of objects in front of him (a brush, a cup, a shoe, a few other things) and asked him indirect questions about the objects like "Brenden, would you like something to drink?" (Brenden ignored the cup in front of him but ran to get his sippy cup). He got the "what do you put on your feet?" but missed the "would you like to fix your hair?" That's fairly advanced though.

He absolutely wouldn't answer questions about some mommy/daddy/baby dolls but I think he was losing interest at that point.

Most of the language questions they asked us, and we came up with about 10-12 words between us that he uses on a regular basis. He doesn't use pronouns, and he rarely forms compound sentences (beyond dada nana meow).

We'll find out what the results are Thursday. Have a happy 4th, y'all!

Oh, PS Helly and Alan, you are most likely right, he'd probably take to those words like a sponge to water. The last word I can think of that he learned was "poo poo!" (which he occasionally says while clutching the back of his diaper).

Stealing Nancy's Photo

Brenden & Dad, originally uploaded by nheiges.

My friend Nancy has written on her blog about her son's reluctance to be adventurous while Brenden seems to be fearless. Her son, though, has remarkable language skills while Brenden's skills are starting to lag. I'll trade you a little adventure for language, Nancy.

Seriously, Brenden's babysitter has talked me into getting in touch with ChildFind, a state sponsored program that helps screen for and correct possible deficiencies in toddlers. I know, he's only 2 for Pete's sake, but he doesn't have the same language skills most children his age have. He seems to not want to learn new words and is extremely stubborn about it. For instance, we have been working with him to get him to call me "mama", but usually he ignores us, or says, "No, Dada!"

2 speech pathologists are coming out this afternoon to evaluate Brenden. If nothing else, maybe they can give me tips on how to get him to start saying things. If they find a problem, well... I'll deal with that when I get to that point.