Random Pictures

Quinn on a ride at the mall.

Cooper.

Quinn on the ride home from speech.

Cooper on Matt's shoulders.

Quinn on Thanksgiving.

Cooper eating ice cream on Thanksgiving.

Quinn holing hands with Grandpa Don at the table.

Quinn and Ronald McDonald.

Horseback Riding!

Quinn getting ready to get on Snowy.

Up he goes!

And were off....

He did a great job riding today. He did most of it himself with the helpers just holding on so he wouldn't make any sudden movements and fall.

Then they turned him around and he wasn't so sure.

He decided the best thing to do was just put his head down on that nice soft fur and take a nap!

It's Genetic!

Cooper loves to sneak back into our office and get on his daddy's computer.

Of course his favorite part it the number pad :)

I am really concerned about our sofa. I think Cooper is killing it and we just can't be buying a new one right now. It is a toss up as to what will be the cause of death. It could be that Cooper uses it as his own personal trampoline (of course Quinn loves to bounce on it too). Or it could be that Cooper has discovered how to make the recliner part pop up and makes sure to do it every time he walks in the room. You should have seen the shocked look on Quinn's face the other day when Cooper reclined his seat while he was sitting in it! Seriously, no one ever told me about the extreme damage two little boys can do to a house. Almost every room has something in it that has been broken or at least damaged by my kids. Not to mention the dog, we bought Portia a fancy new dog bed for her cage at Christmas and it already has a huge hole dug in it!! And she has decided that since Quinn chews on her toys it must be okay to chew on his. Oy!

Can I just say how glad I am tommorow is Friday?

It never stops. Just when we think we have a room completely childproofed....the child grows. Cooper will be sleeping with the lights on from now on. Why? Because he is finally tall enough to switch the light on, but not tall enough to get it back off. We turned that light off at least 5 times tonight before we just gave up. The funny thing is that while he loves to switch the light on, I don't think he really enjoys sleeping with it on. Maybe that is why he woke up so early today, sigh....

The good news is that the kids are now officially allowed to eat whatever they want. No more gluten free/casein free diet, it didn't work and it sucked. Bring on the pizza and chocolate!

So Cooper had the morning off from school. Since he was tired and had a runny nose we both took advantage of that fact and took a nice mid-morning nap. Of course, when I woke him up for our visitors (speech, ot, and teacher), he was a cranky mess. That was okay though because they weren't really here to see him. Today was our transition meeting. What is a transition meeting? Well Cooper turns 3 in June and on his birthday he is no longer going to be part of infants and toddlers. He has to go to school and that means Mommy has lots of big decisions to make. Oy! It was totally deja vu for both me and his teacher, we just did this with Quinn two years ago. Ms. Dorothy even kept saying Quinn instead of Cooper by mistake, it was totally surreal.

And guess who perked up and got all interested in speech lessons when Quinn's speech teacher got here? Yes, Cooper. He behaved pretty well though and didn't intrude too much into Quinn's time. Quinn did a great job today. His teacher said his eye contact had really improved since last week. She was holding a ball and saying it and she swears he actually said "ball" too! He seemed to be trying to imitate her mouth movements alot too. Our homework for this week is to add the signs for "up" and "down" which are just pointing up or down. I need to put together a babydoll, blanket, and bottle and teach him how to pretend to feed and cover the baby. Apparently if he learns this his IQ score goes up 18 points, his teacher says she is teaching to the test, sounds good to me. I also have to make some picture cards and work on having him point to them. It was funny, we were sitting at the table and the teacher pulled out her "pizza" card for Quinn to identify. She kept saying the word "pizza" so Cooper came running over to make sure there was no actual pizza there (we refrain from using that word around here since the new diet), he was totally dissapointed when he realized it was just a picture, goofball :)

Weird, neither of my kids pooped today. Usually I change at least 4-6 dirty diapers everyday! And both notes from school say no poop. Should I be thankful or worried?

My kids both did good jobs at speech today! Cooper didn't cry at all, in fact he couldn't wait to start and he dragged me all the way down the hall to the room he has therapy in. He has such a great memory that kid! Now he just has to get even more comfortable so he can start talking. Quinn did a great job too. They have been trying to get him to push the communication button for quite a while and today he did it all on his own. His therapist pushed him in the swing and then she would stop him. He would lean over and push the "more swing" button with no hesitaion and he did that over and over! I was really proud, he is starting to get it!

Cooper has the day off school tommorow and then we all have a three day weekend! Yay!

Cooper has finally decided to become a carnivore! Today he ate half a bag of pepperoni and a bunch of bacon. Amazing, I have been trying to get him to eat pepperoni forever because I knew he would like the spiceyness. And yesterday he kept stealing my bacon from me. Once he came over and I tore a little piece off for him and went to hand it to him, he reached around took the big piece out of my hand! I don't mind though, I am just so glad he is eating some meat!

Quinn's haircut is growing on me. I hope he doesn't get made fun of at school because of it. He is so adorable it would take a lot more than a bad haircut to make him less cute.

Tommorow is my first "parent training" at KKI. I am looking forward to it. Then Tuesday is the first day I can observe Cooper's class (at least that is what the other parents say and they are way more on top of things than I am), I am really looking forward to that! We will all be huddled around the two way mirror hoping to catch our kids doing something amazing. I just hope my kid doesn't do anything to any of their kids while we are all watching! That would be embarrassing.

Quinn's new speech teacher came over today. She is awesome and if anyone can get Quinn to talk it is her! She says it is important for everyone who spends time with Quinn to work with him on his speech so I am going to put her recommendations here.

1) Say, Show, Do- We need to make Quinn an active part of everything we do with him. We do this using three steps. First, we get his attention and say what we want him to do. Second, we show him what we want him to do. Third, tell him to do it; if he doesn't do it we will do it with him using hand over hand. Example: Quinn get your coat. Show Quinn his coat and motion that he should get it. Take Quinn's hand and help him get his coat.

2)Tracking Skills- We need to get Quinn looking around more. Take a desirable object (toy, chip, spoon) and move it out of his line of vision so he has to track it.

3) Signs- The signs we are going to work on are "More" "Go" "Me" and "Done" each should be done 20 times a day using hand over hand.

4) Waving "hello" and "goodbye" everytime we leave the room or put something away.

Yesterday I took Quinn to his horseback riding therapy. It was a nice place and they even gave Quinn a pair of boots to wear (no sneakers allowed), it was really dusty and they have a different idea of "heated" than I do, but I guess that is what barns are like. Quinn was very excited to be there, but he wasn't thrilled with the actual riding. I was watching from the other side of the arena and he kept flopping all over the place. His therapist said he struggled a lot but didn't cry. I really think he would have cried if he hated it, I think he was just a little uncomfortable and unsure. We are going to continue because I think it will be really good for him. The whole ride home he laughed and babbled and he usually does that after he has a really good time (like on the way home from the fair), so I think maybe he did like it.

Today was Cooper's first speech session at Loyola. He did fine the first half of the session, but really fell apart at the end. I think he just needs to get used to it there. Also, when they took him to the motor room he was not exactly thrilled to see his brother already in there! He didn't make a sound (except for crying) the whole time we were there so he was obviously uncomfortable. But tonight at dinner he said a new word! He was sitting there making "m" sounds and wanting more pickels and then all of the sudden he was saying "more, more, more"! Yay!

Guess what Quinn let me do tonight? Brush his teeth!!! Okay...Matt had to hold him down but he opened his mouth for me and didn't cry or anything. He didn't even bite down. I sure hope this lasts!

Good news on the urine front. I called the lab and they have some little baggies that I can use to catch the pee in the diaper. I just have to pick them up and pray that they work!

Today I made an appointment for Quinn's first Hippotherapy (horseback riding)session. We go on Wednesday night, weather permitting. Don't worry about the cold though, I have been promised that they have an indoor heated riding ring. That will be much better than last time we had hippotherapy, talk about cold!!! We also have our first appointment with our new speech therapist this week. She is coming on Friday afternoon, right after Cooper's speech therapist leaves. Busy, busy, busy!

This morning I had my infusion for my arthritis medicine. It didn't go well, first they couldn't find a vein and then I almost passed out while they were taking blood. Luckily I recovered before they got out the smelling salts...yuck! Since I was unavailable, Grandma Donna picked Cooper up at school #1 and drove him to school #2. Then Grandma Jan picked him up from there. Wow, two grandmas in one day! Tonight Cooper decided he likes the Panda Puffs cereal that I have been trying to get him to eat for months now. What is with this kid?? Oh well, glad I didn't throw it out.

I am hoping tommorow either brings perfect weather or a snow day for BOTH kids. I am so over winter.

For those of you who think Cooper is ready to be potty trained....Forget About It!!!

I need to collect a urine sample from him so I thought if I can just get him to pee in the little potty it will be simple. I tried tonight, armed with Skittles and everything.

Cooper is completely terrified of sitting on the potty.

I have no idea why but he just won't sit. I got him on there twice but I had to wrestle him on there. Even the Skittles didn't help. So no, he is not ready for potty training.

He does, however, have great control of his bladder because when he started peeing all over the bathroom I yelled "no!" and he stopped immediately! I think my best chance of getting a sample may be to let him run around his room naked and just catch some pee in the container as he goes. They supposedly make these little bags that stick to him under his diaper and catch the pee, of course no one gave me one. I have to call the lab and ask if they have them.

After tonights fiasco I promised I wouldn't try the potty again for 6 months. That seemed to make both me and Cooper feel a little better.