Weekend

We had a wonderful time on the retreat. It was a low-key retreat without much planned; we all just played games, went on a nice walk, some went snowboarding (not me), ate out twice, had some times of worship, some of us girls scrapbooked, etc. The cabin we stayed in was REALLY nice (it belongs to one of the participants' uncle). It has 6 bedrooms, 4.5 baths; Jon and I had our own room and own bathroom. Two couples did have to share a room, but that's it. It was relaxing, fun, and beautiful!

We came home to a happy but sick son. :( Nate has a fever, cough, and stuffy nose. He is still acting OK, though, so it's good to know he isn't miserable. I pray that he feels much better by Thursday, though, because he and I are going to Virginia for a last-minute trip! I'm very excited.

Banana

Retreat

Jon and I are going on a marriage retreat this weekend to Big Bear with 6 or 7 other couples from church. I've really been looking forward to it! Nate will be staying at Ray and Colleen's house. This is the second time we will have left Nate with grandparents for more than a quick overnight (the retreat is 2 nights). Nate likes it so much at Ray and Colleen's house that he most likely won't notice we're gone. It's nice not to have to worry at all.

I'm looking forward to some time with friends and with my husband... without school! Since Jon started University of Phoenix a few months ago, he has been so busy with it. I am so proud of him for doing so well--working a more-than-full-time job, taking care of a wife and son, and getting great grades in full-time college classes! But doing all of that means that he gets home from work every day, eats dinner with me, and goes right to work on school work. He's usually still working when I go to bed. Weekends aren't much better, since his classes have work due usually on Fridays and Sundays. Anyway, he's trying to have his work done for the weekend so we can have a true retreat. I can hardly wait!

Better

Today was the first day in nearly a week that Nate slept until later than 6:00 a.m. Who knew I would ever rejoice to get to "sleep in" until 7:00?

Night before last, I had a vivid dream that I had our baby, and it was a boy--but we still hadn't picked out even one boy name we liked, so the baby went nameless for a few days. In the dream, I ended up calling him Eli, but I think that's because my friend Ricci's 4-month-old son is named Eli (Elijah).

Audiology appointment

I'm no longer sure Nate is sick. I think he just might be having some monster-strength teething. He woke up a little after 4:00 today and was up for good at 5:00 (in a good mood at least). What happened to last week, when he slept in until 8:00 every day?

Nate and I got back from his audiology appointment a few minutes ago. It went well, and he has normal hearing. Nate sat in my lap in a chair in a small room with a window (how's that for 4 prepositional phrases in a row?). Anyone who knows Nate knows that keeping him in a sitting position, especially in my lap, is a feat in and of itself! I lured him with Honey Nut Cheerios. Anyway, in the room there are two speakers, one on the left and one on the right. The doctor turned on various noises (quiet static, different pitches of a whistling noise, etc.) in one speaker or the other and observed to see if Nate would look toward them. If he did, a toy just below the speaker would light up and play. The doctor also spoke through a microphone a few times in the left or right speaker. Nate seemed to respond to most all the cues if he wasn't trying to get out of my lap. He did well. So no surprises today!

Changing plans

Nate woke up this morning with a cold. Bleh! If he's sick, it changes most of this week's plans--at least any plans that involve someone else watching Nate. I was going to go in for my glucose test (a pregnancy screening to see if I have gestational diabetes) on Wednesday and have my neighbor watch Nate, but she has a 9-month-old daughter. I have really been looking forward to getting my hair cut on Thursday, and Casey is supposed to watch Nate, but she has 4-month-old Bennett. I just remember not wanting to watch someone else's sick child when Nate was really little (heck, I still feel that way now). And unless Jon can get home early on Wednesday, I will probably have to stay home from AWANA because I shouldn't put Nate in the nursery. Nate has his audiology appointment tomorrow, which I will still take him to. I hate when Nate is sick!

Progress

Jon and I have really been encouraged in the past 6 weeks or so with Nate's development. It's like having the evaluation at the end of November spurred something in him! He has become much more interactive with others, especially other children; he started doing the sign for "more"; he learned all 9 of the shapes in a puzzle he got for Christmas (I ask, "Where is the [trapezoid, circle, triangle, pentagon, etc.]?" and he picks up the correct shape); he points to objects in books when asked where they are; he now pays attention much more often when his name is called; he seems to understand even more of what I say to him. It is a bit of a relief. Several people who know what they're talking about (educators, etc.) have also known that the word "autism" has floated around in reference to Nate, but they have commented to me that he does not fit the picture of the other kids they've seen with autism, even high functioning autism. That is promising. We still aren't sure if we'll take him to the pediatric neurologist, but at this point I'm leaning toward no.

Promised pics

Here is Nate in his new car (and the first picture has the back/side of our house in the background). :)

Car

Jon did get a car on Saturday! It's our first car purchase together, since we have had the Sentra and Tiburon since before we got married. Jon traded in the Tiburon, so now he'll drive the Sentra and I'll drive our new (well, new to us) 2006 Dodge Durango. It only had 12,000 miles on it. I'm super excited!--especially now that we don't have to worry about fitting car seats and passengers into our vehicle. :)

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.