the shape of things

Last week Tante came over for the 5th to the last Gossip Girl and was in for quite a surprise from her Nephie. :)  Thanks to friend Tisha for the app recommendation of Toddler Teasers, Ben has mastered his shapes and moved on to numbers and colors.  Molly was in awe as she watched him play with complete success.
We have worked a lot on colors in our everyday play but hadn't done as much with shapes.  Not only did this app help Ben master them, he caught me by surprise about a month ago when he transferred what he had learned to his Dad's old stuff-the-shape toy that migrated to our house:).  He said "oval' and "star" while putting them in and knocked me off my rocker. 
Last week I finally investigated and discovered the number and color options and quickly spent the $3.99 as he seems to love this format and it certainly works.

 

This is Ben's sticker (reward) page from this app on my phone.  He has similar pages on Ryan's phone and the iPad.  This app is a WINNER!

I've also been meaning to "write to remember" for a couple of months how Ben has started saying letters when out in the world and frequently from the backseat of the car.  I think I first noticed the "a!" "A!" "a" when a Uhaul truck was stopped next to us.  The most fun part of this phase of rapid learning is that I have no idea how "on pace" or age appropriate any of it is.  I know a little from his speech evaluation but I seem to read less and less about where he "should be" and focus more and more on how fun the "now" is.  Because we are also heavily focused on the speech right now and reminded to let the other stuff go, it's a fun bonus when his unexpected learning shows itself.

Ben's speech therapy is going amazingly well and the progress is quick.  I will also say it continues to be EXHAUSTING.  I try to give myself breaks but changing the whole way you would naturally interact does not come easy.  I've agreed to just let myself do the best I can and refocus when I lose focus.  Cathy's tools for engaging Ben and helping him talk are almost magical and certainly despite the exhaustion, there's nothing more rewarding than those sweet words :).

because DaDa rules the world...........

So admittedly I wish DaDa was less of a novelty around here because it would mean he was home more often and taken for granted like I am :).  Alas, this is not to be for some time as the projects for Ryan are just getting bigger, but last night was an all new low... or high-depending on who's side you're on.

Post-nap Ben and I were enjoying some snuggles on the bench and looking out at the Christmas lights on our house and the others on our street.  Of course this elicited a loud and repeated, "DaDa! DaDa! DaDa!" (really blogger would cancel my account if I wrote all the DaDa's that were uttered.)  I explained and smiled over and over that yes, "DaDa installed the lights and did a darn fine job."  Then Ben turns to the mantel with several candles burning that he had been in awe of since waking.  As he points, "DaDa! DaDa!" 
"No Ben. Mama! Mama decorated the mantel.  Doesn't it look pretty?"
"DaDa! DaDa!"
"NO! MAMA! MAMA! Mama did that! DaDa does not do EVERYTHING!"

Then Ben crouched down, crinkled his nose and sternly yelled (as loud as he does) as he pointed at the mantel, "DADA! DADA!" If I've ever seen him truly angry this was it for Ben.  There was no question in his mind that DaDa had done that mantel and I should be stoned for even questioning it.

So, I gave in and told him (in a most passive aggressive way) that if he wanted to believe DaDa had decorated the mantel, birthed him, and created heaven and earth than that was fine.  I may or may not have thrown in something under my breath about waiting for DaDa to come make him dinner..........

Happy Holiday Season!!

gobble....gobble...gone!

(insert Mrs. Doubtfire voice here) HEeeeeelllloooooooo!! Though I have a few other posts started, it feels like forever since I've shared anything about our happy little family! We had a most-welcome and generous interruption to our routine last week when Nana Pat came and painted the kitchen.  There will be pics on the Tiny Tudor blog shortly.  We must have the smallest kitchen that takes the longest to paint because of ALL the edging and little nooks and crannies.  Without Nana it would have likely remained red for many years until we do a big expansion so I am VERY grateful.

So, before I knew it, Thursday was upon us! Ryan and Ben headed off to the 16th annual Pigskin Classic with Ryan's friends from WAY back and MeeMee and I headed down Louisiana Street for the Turkey Trot.  
It's been many years since I've run the Turkey Trot in Wash Park and I certainly felt a home field advantage.  I was really proud of my time as my runs of late have been more frequent but far from fast.

After a quick shower I gathered the pups and headed to MeeMee's to get ready to gobble gobble.  Ryan, Ben and Tante were already there and we watched The Blind Side as we took turns making the final dinner preparations.  Dinner was delicious as usual and per my plan I was extra hungry after my run.  Sadly, Ben had little interest in THE Turkey dinner or the leftovers.  I'm thankful for many years to change this!  We watched most of Love Actually before heading for home with leftovers in tow.
Ryan said the best thing about that "Sunday" night was that it was actually Thursday.  Four days together as a family was a very welcome treat!!

 There were no family pictures this day:( and no great ones of Ben, but it was a wonderfully relaxing time with the family.

post-turkey coma with Tante

Tante is getting a knife-skills class for Christmas!!

Ben always has to help with MeeMee's laundry.

He convinced MeeMee to read LOTS of stories :)

Ryan hit up Rockler Friday morning and I held true to my lounging and decorating pledge until we met up with the Heimer's and Witherspoon's for Thanksgiving Part Deux at Colorado Hacienda.  Ben just loves being around Cousin Ian and was such a trooper over our 2 hour lunch.  A Little People Nativity set from Nana entertained him and he still loves the sheep and the baby most of all:).

We Ryan spent the afternoon installing an outdoor outlet as 90 year old homes don't have them :) and hanging our outdoor holiday lights.  I put the finishing touches on on Saturday afternoon and claimed true domestic diva status when I declared that I needed a crafting vest complete with hot glue gun holster.

On Saturday morning Tante joined us for "Small Business Saturday" that we started at The Local for delicious breakfast.  We all got a few needed items and had fun shopping in our neck of the woods.  We did hit up Ikea for pots and pans for our Adopt-a-Families but decided it was ok to shop one Big place if it was for such a good cause.  We even enjoyed an unplanned dinner at Il Vicino with the Lineberry's as they dropped off some borrowed Thanksgiving decor Saturday afternoon.

Ben picked up the bill at breakfast.

The rest of Saturday and Sunday were wonderful and relaxing.  Ryan did break out the work computer for a bit but before long I noticed he was back to designing his table saw cabinet under the guise of "working."  As quickly as the holiday fell upon us, it was over.......gobble, gobble......gone!  Thankfully it was just practice for the longer break in December.

Supervising the light hanging.

 

After a while Ben would "stay in his yard," but had the most fun tip-toeing to the edge and looking to me for response-Little Turkey!!

making progress

 

Ben had a few gifts that came with requests to open immediately.  We have some practice to do in the next month as he's had that farm since birth!

This year's Thanksgiving proclamation:
 Gratitude! The most wonderful emotion! This year I'm especially grateful to have my own home with my own little family. I'm grateful for the growth and deepening of old friendships in the last year-especially over one week in July :). I'm always overwhelmingly grateful for Ben's birthmom's most amazing and unselfish gift. Speaking of that, more than 10% of my Facebook friends (and lots of friends of friends I've never met) wrote to their reps in congress and the senate asking for an extension of the adoption tax credit. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!! You helped me meet my goal in less than a week! Thank you from the bottom of my heart and Happy Thanksgiving to All!!

I've been advocating via Facebook to encourage my friends and family to write to their Senators and Congress people asking for an extension of The Adoption Tax Credit.  My secret and personal goal was met in less than a week and I was repeatedly awed by the words and actions of my friends and total strangers alike.  Now I get to follow up and let my reps know how many people this matters to.  This step will be my great pleasure!

Fallen Hero

My Dear Ben,

"Hero" is a term that you will hear a lot in life.  Thankfully there are only a handful of true hero's as most of them perish while being hero's.  Yesterday your Dad and I said goodbye to one.  Dad went to college with (even dated) his beautiful wife, Tami.  You've already played with his kiddos at the Lineberry's on the Fourth of July.  This hero's name was James and he worked tirelessly to make the world we live in better.  The best part about him is that he did it all with humor, loyalty and love.  We will talk about him and the amazing things he did as a police officer, husband and father more as you grow. You should know that the world we live in is better because James was a part of it. When this blog is a book and we're reading through it, be sure and ask us about James and his family-we will all benefit from the reminders of goodness, kindness, loyalty and love.


Love you so much,
                            Mom

pee

So, yesterday afternoon Ben had a bath after lunch (because he had already begged me for a bath at least 1,278 times that morning.)  As I plop him in his towel on our bed for "lotioning," I get an important return phone call I decide to take knowing Ben will hop up and run naked through the streets house.  Near the end of the call he is standing at the french doors with ALL of himself pressed against the glass and he takes a step back and says, "pee!" Of course he then pees all over the floor. 
As I'm gathering the diaper and cloth etc. to clean him up and contain his madness, I discover another puddle in his room.  The door had not been his first offense.  I finally got him cleaned, diapered, and dressed in some nap jammies and tossed him in the crib-uh oh!! Poor poor Jelly had clearly been on the receiving end of some of the pee. I set him in the bathroom sink for bathing and try hard to get through settling for nap with no Jelly.  Well, Ben did not take this laying down-literally.  He had been pointing to his crotch and saying "pee" since I had praised him repeatedly after initially saying, "noooooo! are you peeing?" at the door.  So, I explain that some of the wonderful pee had gotten on Jelly and he needed a bath (oops) mama to clean him and he would be back in business after nap.
That's when the sadness really set in and the howling , "peeeeeeee........Gewwwwwy!"  "Gewwwwwwwy.....peeeeeeee..............peeeeeeeee!" Every time I entered to settle him he begged for Gewwwy through the crotch grabbing and pee wailing.  Thankfully Ben didn't persist as long as my giggles.
The best part was when I later learned the whole phone call was unnecessary and the friend I was helping said, "I sure hope you didn't go to too much trouble."  I'm SO glad I did :).

ninety-five

 
Yesterday we helped Great Grandma Lola (Papa Jim's mom) celebrate the big nine-five!! Though she asked once or twice whether she was eighty-five or eighty-nine, she mostly asked whether we could believe she was 95?  Overall she is in good health and enjoys her senior living community that's located near Jim and Pat.  
We had a delicious lunch and took some wonderful pictures.  The highlight was Ben and Ian playing together.  They were constantly calling the others name and worried about each others whereabouts.  They share a love of balls and are both loving to each other.  The balls might be a theme that sticks around for a while but we'll have to see about the hugs. :)
It was also Veteran's Day and Lola's late husband served our country for many years.  When we used to visit her in Kansas she would go on and on about living in their big house all alone while he was fighting the war.  It was a special day filled with important reminders :)

"nack" with Nana

Cute fam :)

I adore this one!

 

with cousin "Innnn" it does have a different inflection than "in" just no long -e- :)

Checking out Lola's card with Papa Jim

parent-teacher conferences

Last Wednesday we had Ben's parent-teacher conferences at his preschool.  Yes, he's 2 and has conferences, but it was actually really great!  In addition to lots of great news and plans, I feel really secure in the money we are spending to send him to this school because it is a sacrifice for us.
Well, Ben's teachers love him, but who doesn't? 

While he holds a special place in Danae's heart, it could be from all the "quality" time they spend attempting to get Ben to sit for story-time or other group projects. The teachers were surprised to hear he sits for long periods of book reading at home but I explained that he loves the school environment and all the toys and knows his time there is limited-he probably wants to soak it all in-and he's a 2 yr old boy!  Out takeaway from the sitting issue is to keep attempting library story-time with small goals for sitting that extend slowly.  I need to break down our library's FUNKY hours and figure out a time.

Ben's teachers were thrilled to hear he has started speech therapy and were eager to help in any way they can.  They invited his therapist to class and want to know what we are working on each week so they can help him too.  I was thrilled and explained that this was going above and beyond a bit but they were insistent that this is their job.

We discussed next year a bit and of course they think Ben would benefit from 3 mornings a week as I do, and we also discussed something important I hadn't considered.  We already know Ben will start kindergarten when he's 6 (or almost 6) because his birthday is so late.  His teachers mentioned that it's better to hold him back earlier than later so he should do two years in a 2 or 3 yr old classroom rather than doubling up when he's 4 or 5. It makes absolutely perfect sense, I just hadn't considered it.  I've gotta say that if Danae sticks around, our decision might just be made for us. :)

I'd been feeling like it had been awhile since I'd taken some dedicated, non-phone pics of Ben and I got a few that afternoon.................

:)

Hooray!

Those reading this post title today would likely think this post was going to be about last night's momentous election. Last night the USA elected Barack Obama to a second term in office.  As another friend said in her blog, it will be interesting to think about this time years from now when we are likely reading the post in book form around the Christmas fire. :)

Alas, no politics in this post.  The Hooray! is because Ben had his first speech therapist session today and it was wonderful.  Cathy (and it might be Kathy) was young and warm and great.  Ben seemed to like her very quickly and had fun playing with some of the toys she brought.  The first couple of sessions will just be about getting acquainted but I'm already incredibly excited about some of the tools Cathy gave us and to putting them to use.  

I might discuss some of them here and you know I will let you know how things progress.  For now, I am sighing a very deep sigh of relief that his therapist is great and that Ben will be getting some support.  I hope and pray that two years from now I'm thinking, "why again did we want him to talk so much?!?"

It's an amazingly gorgeous fall day here with temps in the mid-70's and we spent the morning on a great walk.  Something tells me Ben won't complain if we cap this day with a visit to Bonnie Brae "I-meem" before Mother Nature comes to and remembers it's November.

sleep on it

Dearest Ben,

The term sleep on it is one you will hear a lot in life.

"to sleep on it"

to postpone a decision in order to allow some time to think about the decision
to allow your subconscious to process a decision or problem during sleep

Most often you will be told to sleep on it when you have a large decision to make but sleeping on it can also help when someone has hurt you or you are frustrated by a decision.  I know there are lots of things you won't listen to me about, but when your Dad or I tell you to sleep on it-take our advice.  It almost always helps to clear your head and calm your nerves so you can make the proper decision or deal with whatever problem you are facing.

Love you SO much,

Mom

The broader point of this post is to fill you in on some steps we've taken for Ben to help with his speech.  I just needed some time to sleep on it because getting to this point has been more than trying.  We've questioned for many months whether to have Ben's speech evaluated as we have known he is behind for his age.  Colorado has a wonderful early intervention program for any development need and we knew that if Ben qualified we could have services at no-charge if our insurance declines to pay. A good friend who works as a physical therapist in this system warned me that it can take 2-3 months to begin services so that if we waited until Ben was 2 and a 1/2 he may not have many months of therapy.
This along with some other things caused Ryan and I to make the call and at least have Ben evaluated.  "It can't hurt," has been our mantra throughout this process.  The process happened very quickly for us and was completed in 3 weeks rather than 3 months.  Ben was evaluated last week and did qualify for services.  We will have a speech therapist come to our home for one hour each week until Ben is 3.  I am elated that there is help like this available and although my overall concern for Ben is minimal, "it can't hurt," is more than true.  We meet his therapist this week and I'm excited to get some tools to help Ben's speech progress.  Of course, his words have nearly doubled since we began this process as well as his repeating of words and sounds we say, but hopefully that will make the tools easier and the improvements  all the greater.

I took several days of sleeping on it before this post because the evaluation meeting for Ben was by far my most trying hour of parenting.  Opening your child up for criticism is difficult beyond belief and I was so distraught going in that I had even planned an extra long run that morning to calm my nerves.  I will spare many of the painful details but the gross unprofessional-ism and hurtful comments were horrible.  Our service coordinator has been amazing and went up to bat defending Ben more than once during his evaluation.  Our evaluators were older and clearly at some point in their careers have lost the compassion that is necessary when dealing with parents and our littlest humans.  It makes me sad to think they are there doing this every day and often meeting with parents without the self-confidence to stand up for themselves and their children.  There will certainly be follow-up on my end and I have to hope it might help change something.  I knew Ben would be criticized and demeaned at some point in his life, and that it would be painful to endure as a parent,  I just never dreamed it would be by people who were supposed to be helping him.

On a much brighter note, his on-going therapist was not at the meeting and sounds amazing! I am eager to meet her and get started using her tools to help Ben.  I am also thankful for this lesson in the end and the reminder that we are our children's only advocate and many times there will only be one chance to stand-up for them.

Happy Happy Halloween

Halloween was a fun celebration in the Heimer Haus this year.  On Tuesday night we attended the local high school's Trick-or-Treat off the street.  Although I was expecting an affair similar to ours in high school that this was far from, Ben had lots of fun running in circles around the gym and stopping every so often to play a game for candy.  I was thrilled at the diversity of the students and got a little wrapped up in daydreaming about someday as Ben looked up pointing to the "ball Ball" hoops and the basketball that was wedged in the ceiling.  You can't blame a mama for dreaming. :)

waiting for Dada....always!

first try of a tootsie roll-yuck!

MeeMee did a fantastic job on Ben's costume and I'm excited that it's durable enough for him to play in throughout the year.

On Halloween night we headed to the Old Gaylord Street shops for their second biggest event of the year.  You can read all about the official scoop here.  We left glow sticks in the pumpkins and candy on the porch and walked  ran to the fun.  Ben mostly enjoyed the throngs of kiddos and people but did partake in a little trick-or-treating from vendors and on the way home.  We ran into neighbor Joey who said over and over how he had wanted to be Super Whyatt like Ben was.  His parents had worried that no one who know who he was and we certainly experienced that from adults.  Lots of kiddos knew who Ben was and one boy even exclaimed, "oh no! not another SuperWHY!"

We enjoyed pizza and beer at IlVicino and temperatures in the 60's well after dark.  There was an awesome sense of community and fun and I'm already looking forward to next year now that I know what to expect and how to plan and to have a wagon full of adult beverages. :)

Tante, MeeMee, Nana and Papa all joined us and made the night complete.  Walking to both evenings' events in flip-flops is certain proof of global warming as I can hardly remember a childhood Halloween without snow.

One of our guests even quipped, "this is so fun it almost makes me want to get married and have kids!"  I'll leave it to the readers to figure out who that might have been.  

Hope you all had a happy and safe Halloween.

he loved all the Sesame Street costumes he saw :)

With neighbor Joey-fighting crime :)

 

Tres Generaciones (and a smile to die for)

The Creeper of Gaylord :).  His house was awesome and he hid in the street scaring people.

a last minute ghost joined our candy table :)

The neighbors had one pumpkin flaming with kerosene.  It looked SO neat!

night-night kissies for Tante :)