4 month old brute (Eli)

born April 30, 2007 8 lbs 7 oz



now 4 months and 20lbs 8 oz (1 week ago). Wow-za!
But he sure is sweet and cuddly. He loves to roll over but only towards the left. He is starting to try to roll to the right. He likes pulling his nuk out of his mouth and trying to reinsert it. Prema and Isaac love him and he loves watching them.

Brute!!

A Successful School Day

Prema started school today. She spent a 1/2 hour in physical therapy and a 1/2 hour in her new classroom. Everything went well. The teachers and other staff have done a great job reading up on the resources we have given them about RAD. They are also very amenable to me tagging along and jumping in with behavior management technique suggestions. Tomorrow we will go again for a 1/2 of occupational therapy. Next week she will begin spending more time in the classroom along with continuing the PT and OT.

Random Things

The kids are finally getting over their colds. Eli is the only one that turned into ear infections. I took him to the doctor Thursday morning and he is starting to come around today. He hates the medicine. At the doctor's office he weighed 20 lbs and 8 oz. He will be 4 months old on the 30th. The nurses were laughing.

Isaac woke up last night after a bad dream about dog food. This is really funny to me. Whenever he is around Thompson we catch him eating and drinking out of the dog dish like he is a dog. We also find him nibbling on the dog bones from time to time. We've tried telling him it tastes bad but he doesn't agree. A week ago in his sleep he shouted "dog food" and then last night he said he had a bad dream about dog food. I am very curious how these dreams are being played out.

I had a successful whole day alone with the kids as Grandma Cullum is hanging out with Sam for his triathlon. Thankfully the kids were very well behaved. Prema got her chores done. We had a good hour at the park, trip to eat lunch with Kyle at the office, and a grocery store adventure. I realize that other people have 3 kids and do alone all the time, but if I did that things would crumble at this house. The few hours I am home alone with the kids each day, I sometimes find myself creating new lyrics to familiar tunes about managing a 20 lbs baby who loves to be held a lot and two 2 year olds (one physically, one emotionally) throwing tantrums , testing boundaries and feeding off each other when they can see my stress level increasing by the minute. It is not a recipe for continuing to be patient and calm.


Kyle and I have gone 2 weeks without eating ice cream. This is our weakness. If you live anywhere near a Publix grocery store and have tried their ice cream/ frozen yogurt you know why. Delicious!!! and quite a cheaper alternative to the ice cream stores. It became a nightly habit when I was pregnant with Eli and had to stop once we realized that we were not going to get any thinner by eating it. We've both been really good about exercising and Kyle has done amazing at eating healthy. I'll post another time about all this.

love to all

Transitioning Back to School

Today we had a HUGE meeting about Prema's return to public school in the Deaf Education program. HUGE not only in size (15 plus people in attendance), but also in importance for our family and her future. We had been feeling that Prema needed to return back to school for academics to give myself and the boys a break from her and also for her to be around other deaf people. However, we also know that Prema is not fully attached yet and therefore we still need to keep her environment small and limited in the the number adults she is around. We came with our 4 goals to have Prema's therapy and academics be at school, but still giving her enough time at home to work on her attachment and be with family. The other important piece was the fact that Prema's test results show 10.5 year old normal deaf child but her academic abilities are lower than kindergarden level. Therefore we wanted her placed in at least 2nd grade but still having her academics focusing on the lower level skills she has yet to aquire. The meeting was a big success. All of our goals are going to be met. Prema will be attending school 3-4 hours a day depending on the classes schedule. She will be in a 2nd grade classroom. And we have made a schedule to try and eliminate as many changes in environment and adult interaction as possible. We are going to begin on Wednesday August 30 with a transition plan of at least 2 weeks where Prema goes only for a few hours a day with me shadowing. Gradually she will increase her time at school and without me there until we meet her permenant modified schedule. Keep us in our prayers as there are going to be some big adjustments for everyone involved (Prema, Isaac, Eli, Grandma Cullum, Kyle and me, teachers, etc).

Braces in Our Future

Today I took Prema to the orthodontist. If you have ever seen Prema in person there is no doubt that she is need of braces. However we were not sure until today what that would entail. It was quite an enlightening visit. The doctor spent an entire hour with us for a FREE consultation. We even got to bring home a panoramic picture of her teeth. The picture reveals the full truth. Prema's teeth are a mess. She has a lot of permenant teeth fixing to come in, but one baby teeth that doesn't want to come out to let the other in. Hence there may be at least one tooth extraction in a year. The permenant tooth that is trying to come in is making its own paths around the baby tooth right into the neighboring tooth. Mind you Prema has already had oral surgery in October to remove an extra tooth that was trying to come in between her two front teeth. Besides Prema's crooked teeth, she also has an asymmetrical jaw and an under bite. We were advised to wait until all of her permanant teeth come in before beginning treatment. At that time a better assessment can be made about if additional things (like breaking the jaw) need to be done to help her. Ultimately getting the jaw in line would help Prema close her mouth. Currently she has her mouth open all the time and only closes it if we remind her. Even then she struggles to keep it shut for long. So thankfully we have at least another year before we begin to consider fitting Prema with braces, but we probably need to start saving sooner. ugh!

Good/ Bad Bee

I've been having a good time playing a little game with Prema and Isaac during cuddle time: Good Bee/ Bad Bee. It was an idea Prema's therapist gave me for some fun during our cuddle time. I changed it to be Bee with a good choice or Bee with a bad choice since we are not bad or good people, but instead all good people who make good or bad choices (a.k.a choices we might not be happy with the consequences later). I cradle the kids in my lap and hold a bee (thumb and index finger together or a stuffed bee) and tell them a short story about the bee. If the bee has made a good choice the kids let him in to tickle them. If they bee has made a bad choice they swat him away. Isaac has gotten to the point where he likes to either tell me the story about the bee or he wants to change the bad choice into a good choice so that he can let him in. Its been a great way to reinforce their choices in a light hearted way. Every time I have cuddle time with one of them; they both request the game. So if you have any kids I highly recommend spending a little time to pull them up close and give it a try.

Tests are Normal

We got the results of Prema's tests today. Her MRI, EEG, and chromosome test all came out normal. No seizures or brain atrophy. This is very good news.