Update

Jon is in Buena Park at this moment possibly buying a car. Our Sentra has been great 'til now, but the only way it will fit the new baby's car seat and Nate's car seat is if the passenger seat is pushed up all the way, leaving essentially no leg room (I'd have to sit Indian style somehow). So Scott is with Jon right now as an impartial voice of reason and because Scott is a great haggler.

I've been searching for different fabrics to use for crib bedding if this baby is a girl. I want to do green and pink and have found some really cute ones. I'll choose between the first two paisleys (either the simpler just pink and green one or the more elaborate one) and try to find coordinating fabrics like the ones below those.















Nate has an appointment with an audiologist next week (1/9) for a hearing screening. Jon and I are both sure he hears just fine, but this is a "rule it out first" precaution I guess. My mom and grandfather have genetic hearing loss, so it is of course a possibility. The referral for the pediatric neurologist has also been approved, so now it's a matter of deciding whether we want to take Nate. The pediatrician told me that every child he refers to the ped neurologist does get diagnosed with autism--it's like every child has some sort of symptom that could be assessed that way. So he said that, if we do take Nate, we should take the diagnosis with a grain of salt. The reason we would still take him is that, with a diagnosis, Nate is ensured the highest quality therapy (at no cost to us). So we'll see.

Signing

I have signed to Nate since he was about 8 months old. I say I sign to him because he has never done any signs in return. I got discouraged with the whole signing thing after 6+ months of him not getting it, so I mostly stopped except for every once in a while when I'd try it for a day or two. He finally got it on Saturday, though! He realized that, when he does the sign for "more," he gets more food without having to make a fuss. He doesn't do the sign exactly right, but hey, I know what he means!



I should mention, too, that Nate has never clapped before!

Merry Christmas!

Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
“Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”

Luke 2:8-14

LE

Our friends Neil and Casey came over last night (with their 3-month-old, Bennett) to have dinner and exchange gifts. They gave Nate a Little Einsteins (LE) book, and I just know he is going to love it. I don't have any LE paraphernalia at the house, though I have browsed the children's book club I joined to see if they had any LE books, but they don't. Nate still watches LE every morning and often one in the late afternoon while I make/start dinner. I haven't showed him the book yet because I'm waiting for Jon to get home from playing basketball. I figure I get to see Nate do a million cute things every week while Jon is at work, so if I can save something and let Jon do it with Nate, then I will.

News buff

Nate is fascinated by the ticker at the bottom of the news channel. I don't know what he's doing here, but he does it nearly every time it's on.



P.S. There was obviously not a lot to report on.

Labels and new look

I've been having fun today applying labels to lots of my posts. Blogger finally caught up with everyone else and has a new version that allows this. My labels so far are Baby #2, Cute things Nate does, Deep thoughts with Katie Varela, Editing, Flute, Jon and me, Nate's development, Parenting, Pictures, Pregnant with Nate, Trips/holidays/events, and Work.

Funny, but this post doesn't fit into any of those categories.

And you'll notice the change in look, I'm sure. I'm still messing around with it and will make some more changes I think.

Christmas thanks

Christmas card drawn by my 7-year-old student (whose 9-year-old sister takes lessons too):

R2

We went to an annual ornament exchange last night and came home with some cool ornaments, one of which is a little R2D2. We sometimes call Nate our little R2 because of the assortment of funny sounds/beeps he makes. I'm putting Nate's name on it and am hanging it on the tree!

3-footer in front of the 4-footer

Treeless

Is it terrible that we don't yet have a tree? Although I love having one and decorating it, I'm really not looking forward to what it means to have Nate and a Christmas tree in the same house. Even if he doesn't pull it over on himself, we'll still have to hang ornaments waist high or higher. Maybe we'll just buy a three-footer and put it on top of the table in the corner. I wouldn't have a place to put presents (they're all wrapped and stacked in Nate's closet), but that might still be the best solution.

Nate's evaluation

A couple of weeks ago, at the recommendation of Nate's doctor, we took Nate in for occupational therapy and speech evaluations. We got the full written evaluation in the mail over the weekend. I wasn't particularly surprised by any of the results, and I was pleased with how thorough and observant the evaluators were. He has a greater than 50% delay in speech/language development (both receptive and expressive), a 47% delay in cognition, and a 47% delay in social/emotional development (the name of this one surprised me, as Nate is happy and doesn't seem to have emotional "problems," but reading the description explained it, since it relates to his not paying attention when his name is called, not shaking his head no, not imitating facial expressions, and not bringing a toy to share with a caregiver). They evaluated other areas, but these are the ones with the greatest delays.

They recommended an hour of occupational therapy per week, an hour of speech therapy per week, and three hours of ABA per week. I had to look up what ABA was, and I found some links like this. Although it talks about autism, Nate has not been diagnosed with it (I'm not ignorant or blind, though, and I realize there's a chance this diagnosis could still happen). The "social emotional/ABA play-based goals" the evaluators listed for Nate are that he will "imitate clapping at appropriate times ... imitate facial expressions ... stop playing and turn to look when his name is called ... bring a toy to therapist/adult/parents to share ... [and] follow one-step commands in play such as put in, put on, put away, etc."

I feel a little overwhelmed with the amount of therapy they are recommending... five hours per week? We were only doing one hour before with the physical therapy. I'm interested to see how they want to break that up (five days per week? Two or three days per week with several hours at once?). I guess sometimes I just feel busy enough already. (Ask me in four months when our next baby is born, and I'm sure I'll say I didn't know what busy was.) Though the number of hours is a little overwhelming, I'm still not overwhelmed by the outlook for Nate. Nothing we read in the evaluation changes who our son is. Nothing changes how we love him. He is still a happy, sweet, funny, good-natured boy who has a family that loves him. We would do anything for him, so if it is good for him to have some therapy several hours a week, then so be it.