The end of another weekend

Today Nathan was not a good boy in the toddler room at church.  We went to pick him up and he was in time out crying.  They said he was doing a lot of pushing today.  He used to be so well behaved in there.  On Friday, there were only 3 kids in the class at his daycare and all of them boys so they were all doing a lot of pushing.  I guess that carried over to today at church.  I think at daycare he was pushed first and he just started pushing back.  Today at church I am afraid he started pushing, although they did not mention if any of the other kids were pushing him.  We need to break this bad behavior fast!  We have noticed at home that he is getting more aggressive, too.  He is doing so in  a playful manner, but we keep reminding him not to be so rough.  He also picks on the dog a lot.  Poor Nina!

Time for an update

Last Thursday, 1/26, I took Nathan to the zoo again.  We usually go once a week or once every couple of weeks, especially now that the weather is nice.  I love taking pictures at the zoo. 

On Friday, 1/29, Nathan had daycare.  When I went to pick him up I was told that there were only 3 kids in the class that day and all of them were boys.  Boys will be boys so I guess there was a lot of pushing.  Nathan had to do time out several times.

Today we went to a U of A basketball game against Washington.  It was a whiteout game so we all had to buy our whiteout shirts.  They ended up losing right at the end.  I think the final score was 67-69.  We left a little early because Nathan was getting cranky.

They ran out of kid's shirts!

Speech Therapy

On Monday, 1/23, we had a consultation with Nathan's speech therapist and another speech therapist.  Since Nathan has not made a lot of progress in the last six months THEY suggested that Sue, the other speech therapist, take over Nathan's therapy.  I have not been happy with Nathan's speech therapy thus far so I was all for the idea.  Sue's credentials are higher and so we will be paying more for her, but it would still be less than transferring his speech therapy to the hospital's program like his pediatrician suggested.  I also asked for weekly sessions to start.  We were supposed to be meeting 3x a month in the past, but we were lucky to get 1 or 2x which impaired Nathan's progress.  I think weekly sessions will help Nathan and it will help me to stay focused on his therapy.  I think it is going to be a lot more demanding on us, but I am hoping that it will pay off in the long run.  So Nathan's former speech therapist will still oversee his case, but she will no longer be doing his therapy

However, they share a lot of my concerns, concerns that I fear could indicate a bigger problem.  It is still early to tell, but these things do not seem normal:
1) He only says a few words and he does not say them correctly.  For example, he says dar for car and Nana for our dog Nina. 
2) He does not pronounce the ending of words.  So many of his B words (belt, balloon, bike) all sound like ball. 
3) He repeats sounds.  Mama, dada, wawa, Nana, dogdog, etc...
4) He says moo when sees a cow.  That is a good association, but he has never said cow and so far that is the only animal sound he has said.
5) He does not say simple common words like hi or bye. He has said yeah and no a couple of times, but that is all.
6)  He seems to get a little confused with his language.  Like when we are going downstairs he says up...but maybe because he knows how to say up and has yet to say down. 
7)  He has not picked up many signs.  He knows milk, all done and more.  More is actually not even done correctly since he made up his own version.  And, even though he used to say milk now he only does the sign for it.

On a lighter note, I talked to an old friend on the phone on Tuesday.  I don't even like to talk on the phone, but we talked for over an hour.  Conversation flowed freely and I felt like there was so much more we could talk about as well.  I hope we can keep in better touch because I miss her friendship...and I think she feels the same way about me. 

It has been awhile...

since I have updated our blog.

On Wednesday, 1/18, Nathan was supposed to have speech therapy.  She did not show up.  When I called her, she said the other therapist who was going to be there also to do Nathan's re-evaluation could not make it that day and she thought she had called me about it, but realized that she must not have done so.  I was upset to say the least because this is the second time she has not shown up and there have been numerous occasions where she has rescheduled, usually only an hour or so before our appointment.  We are now having the re-evaluation done tomorrow and I plan to talk to her about this issue.  It is unprofessional.  Just because I am a stay at home mom with a flexible schedule does not mean that it is not an inconvenience to me and my son when she constantly does this.

On Thursday, I took Nathan to to the zoo. 


On Friday, Nathan had daycare.  I decided to go to the Botanical Gardens to take pictures of the butterfly house.  I mistakenly started driving toward the zoo so I just decided to go there first.  It is nice to be able to take pictures there without Nathan sometimes.  I got some good ones, too.  Then I went to the Botanical Gardens and got some good pictures of the butterflies.  Of course that took up most of my day so then it was time to pick up my boy!

On Saturday, Paul bought me flowers...just because.  He rarely buys me flowers or anything else anymore so that was a nice surprise.  He knew I was not too happy with him the last several days so he did it to tell me he was sorry and to show me that he still loves me.  Actually, he said they were from Nathan!

Today we actually went to Sunday School.  I guess that is another New Years resolution we have added because it is something we want to start doing on a routine basis.  It is tough because it takes us 45 minutes to get to church and it is hard to get up and out of the house an hour earlier. 

I think my son learned how to say the word "no" tonight.  I asked him a question and he shook his head no.  So I teased him and said, no?  He repeated no like 3 times.  Not sure if I like him saying that word...but since he is not a big talker I guess I will take it!

He got bit!

Well, we did not do much for our 3 day weekend/Martin Luther King Day.  We tried to stay in as much as possible to try and get over our "colds".  We ended up going out Sunday afternoon for lunch at Olive Garden and then we went and bought a steamcleaner.  So, Sunday and Monday we steamcleaned our house.  I also did some cleaning/reorganizing, particularly in Nathan's room.  During that process the talk of another baby came up.  We had pretty much decided we were one and done, but now Paul is saying it is still a possibility.  I think he would have another one in a heartbeat if he thought I could handle it.  That is the million dollar question, though, because motherhood has been very tough on me, especially without family here.  There are many reasons why we should not have more (our ages, finances, Paul's diabetes, etc...), but one of the reasons we did not have another one right away is because of Nathan's speech delay.  We really wanted to see if that resolved itself to make sure that we were not going to have to deal with a bigger underlying problem.  It is still questionable at this point.   

Today Nathan got bit at daycare.  I guess he had a book that another boy wanted so the other boy bit him.  He went to timeout and his parents were told.  I asked the teacher if Nathan was at fault in any way and she made it seem like he wasn't.  However, the write up says that he and the other boy were fighting and pushing.  Nathan does not push, but maybe he would if was pushed first.  Still, I am glad he was not the one biting and I hope he never does.  I did not make a big deal out of it because I know biting is common at daycare.  I guess they take further action at the daycare if the child repeatedly bites. 

I did my workout tonight and I took a bath!  However, I did not eat good today and I have not been eating good in general.  It is much easier to keep up with exercising than it is to diet.  I will keep trying with the diet, but at least I am still exercising.  Something is better than nothing. 

Tomorrow Nathan has speech therapy.  I believe he is supposed to be reevaluated because it has been alnost 6 months already since he was first evaluated.  I think he has improved, but he is still not where he should be.  We had considered looking into speech therapy at one of the local hospital's here per the peditatrician's suggestion, but I think we have decided against it for now.  I looked into it and our insurance will not cover it, but it will cost almost 3x what we are currently paying.  We also considered stopping the speech therapy altogether because we are not sure if it is helping and I am not happy with the state's billing system (they are just now billing us from way back in August and they give a lump sum amount each month that we are supposed to pay like within 10 days of the bill date...no details about what days they are billing for or anything).  I guess we are sticking with it for now, but I really hope that Nathan just has an explosion with words soon. 

3 day weekend!

Actually, it is like a 4 day weekend for me because Nathan goes to daycare on Tuesday!

Well, Nathan's runny nose was much better today so he was able to go to daycare.  Once again, he was a great boy.  He napped the full 2 hours, he went pee pee on the potty and she said he listened well at story time (I thought, wow, is that my son you are talking about?).  I love taking his art projects home, especially because we don't really do crafts together at home. 

I did not work out this morning, but I had a very active day.  I was out and about doing errands, I got to eat lunch at Chipotle and the rest of the day I cleaned since Fridays are my cleaning days.  I am seriously considering taking a bubble bath and going to bed soon!  After all, Nathan got his bubble bath tonight!

News Year Resolutions not going well....

Monday I was good about my resolutions.  I worked out, I drank my lemonade with prickly pear, I drank water, I only had one coke, etc...

Tuesday Nathan went to daycare.  I was absolutely lazy that day.  I had to get him to daycare in the morning so I did not do my workout.  That set the tone for the whole day.  I planned to do it after I got home along with a lot of other stuff...but nothing got done!  Nathan was good at daycare, though, and did very well with the potty training again.

Today Nathan woke up with a runny nose.  I did my workout, had SOME lemonade with prickly pear, but otherwise it was not a good day in terms of my diet.  I think Nathan's runny nose is getting better, but time will tell.  I hope he is better by Friday or they will not allow him in daycare.  Stinks because we are paying for it either way. 

Also, ran our credit reports today and got our credit scoress.  Disappointed that my rating went down from an A to a B!  I am not sure why.  I have not looked at the report in detail yet, but I am guessing it is because I no longer make an income. 

Another weekend gone!

Yesterday Paul did some much needed work on the landscaping while I watched Nathan.

Today we went to church, tried a new Mexican restaurant (which we liked), got the Christmas tree down (the ornaments are another story) and Nathan said a lot of new words.

Nathan said box, truck, bus and duck.  I only heard duck.  Daddy heard box, truck and duck.  They said he learned to say bus in the toddler room at church.  He also tried to do the sign for water.  I am very hopeful!

I also got carded.  I just turned 37 and I got carded when I ordered a margarita at the restaurant. 

TGIF

Nathan had his 2nd day of daycare today.  Once again she said he was good and had fun.  They take a 2 hour nap and he only napped for 45 minutes today, though.  You would think he would be tired when he got home then...not.  He was a terror for those 3 hours before daddy came home.  I was so busy during the day doing errands and cleaning that I did not get to enjoy my day "off".  I also did not get nearly as much done as I had hoped.  Story of my life.  The ironic thing is that Wednesday and Thurdsay he voluntarily went in his room and took a nap when normally he resists sleep altogether.

Speech therapy or no speech therapy...that is the question

Yesterday Nathan had another speech therapy session.  She showed up this time.  It went okay.  Basically, she had him color a bunch of pictures of things that start with the letter B.  The object of the session was to repeat the names of the objects to get him used to hearing all of the B words.  We are supposed to do them at home for the next couple of weeks until his next session.  At that time, she is bringing another therapist to reevaluate him and set new goals.  It has been 6 months already.  I had hoped for a lot more progress by now.  I am just hoping that he will start talking up a storm any day now and that he just was not ready to do so before.  I know boys tend to talk later than girls and some do not talk until closer to age 3.  Maybe I would not worry so much if his pediatrician was not as concerned about it as she is.  Per her suggestion we are getting him a hearing test, scheduled for March.  She suggested switching over to the hospital's speech therapy program, but I looked into the cost and it is almost 3x what we are currently paying through the state.  Since he just started daycare we are hoping that will help with his speech, too. 

Nathan's First Day at Daycare

Nathan started parttime daycare at Casas.  He will be going Tuesdays and Fridays.  He did great.  I dropped him off and he did not cry or anything.  He just started playing and did not even notice me leave.  Ms Sally said he was a good boy.  He went pee pee on the potty a couple of times.  He took an hour nap.  The rest of the time she said he was very active!  I could see it in her eyes that she was sympathetic to the fact that I have to keep up with him at home!  Hopefully, he does well on Friday, too!

p.s.  I forgot to mention in yesterday's post that Paul made me breakfast for my birthday, per my request!

My birthday!

Well, today I turned 37.  I am quickly approaching 40.  Of course my husband is already over that hill.  I feel my age, too.  What I do have going for me is that I do not look anywhere close to my age.  I hope that continues.  For years I hated that I looked so young, but now that I am getting older I like it.  The hardest part about being 37 is that I have to keep up with my 2 year old!  Maybe if I get in better shape I can be more active with him.

Today Paul had the day off work.  We went and got haircuts for him and Nathan.  Then we went to lunch at Pappoules Greek Cafe.  For dessert we walked down to Sweet Things Cupcake Shoppe.  From there, we went to Discount Tires to rotate our tires.  That is when they told us that we needed new tires.  Our current tires were about 5 years old.  So for my birthday I got to buy 4 new tires!  They also told us that we needed a wheel alignment.  So, we headed to Pep Boys to get an oil change and a wheel alignment.  It was getting somewhat late by this time so we headed to Taste of Texas for dinner.  I got a free birthday entre and a free sundae.     

Happy New Year!

Yesterday, New Years Eve, we spent the day at the Phoenix Zoo.  We were so tired from our excursion that we were all in bed before midnight! 

Today, New Years Day, we got up and went to church.  Then we went to Grimaldi's Pizzeria for lunch where we got a free large pizza for my birthday!  The weather was absolutely beautiful today right around 80.  We all came home and eventually took a nap.  We also all woke up hot because our house actually warmed up quite a bit with the warmer weather outside.  I am not complaining yet...check back with me in the summer to hear me complaining!

Nathan went poopy in the potty for the first time today!

Our New Years resolutions:  For Paul, his is pretty simple.  He just wants to start exercising more.  His diet is already not too bad and he can't really lose any weight, but he is hoping that exercising more will allow him to reduce the amount of diabetic medicine he takes.  We took steps last year to achieve this goal by buying new bicycles.  Then all of the sudden the weather turned pretty cold here.  Now that it is warming up again maybe we can get out there and do some bike riding.  We are also doing more walking activities.  We went to Sabino Canyon on 12/26 and we did a lot of walking yesterday at the Phoenix Zoo.

I have several New Years resolutions:

1) Starting a blog was one of my New Years resolutions so I have already accomplished that!  Now I just need to update it regularly.

2) Eat healthier and exercise more.  This involves eating less sweets, eating out less (which means I need to cook more) and drinking less diet pop and more water.  Other than bike riding with the family, I also plan to ride my stationary bike at least a few times a week.  This should be easier to do now that Nathan will be starting part time daycare.

3) Work on my scrapbooks and take some photography classes.  I have already bought a Groupon for a 3-hr workshop on the basics of digital photography.  This is something that could be very useful to me since a year ago I bought my Nikon D90 and I still do not know a lot about the camera.  I also really need to work on my photographs and try to preserve the heritage photos before they further deteriorate.  Again, maybe now that Nathan will be in school a couple of days a week I will have more time to work on this time-consuming hobby! 

4)  Then there are a lot of other misc goals.  Be more positive.  Think before I speak and keep my mouth shut more!  Control my temper.  Take more bubble baths.  Get more massages.  Get more sleep.  Declutter.  Limit unneeded spending.  Pray more.  Read the Bible more.  Spend more time with my son and husband.