Top 10 Moments of 2015

Happy New Year!!

I want to start off the new year with a little recap of our family's big events of 2015. It will give me a chance to think about what I am really thankful for from the past year, and it will also give me an opportunity to share about Henry's latest and greatest milestone which I can't believe I haven't written about on the blog yet!! 

So here we go! Here's our top 10 of 2015!

1. Calvin's Palate Repair Surgery

A big deal for our "22qT" (Get it? Because 22q deletion.) This was his second surgery, the first being a hernia repair when he was 5 months old. In this surgery, he had one last hernia repaired, and he had his submucosal cleft palate repaired. (Check out the post from his surgery for the details.)

While it does not seem to have had an immediate impact on his speech, it was a necessary first step toward getting his palate and the surrounding anatomy as functional as possible. It's complicated. Every time I try to explain it I'm afraid I'm getting parts of it wrong... but basically there is likely at least one more surgery in his future to help him with his speech development, but this surgery had to happen first. And it went as well as could be expected. And we're so thankful to have had awesome doctors working on our little guy. 

2. Our Magical trip to Disneyland

I'm so glad we got this trip to Disneyland and California Adventure in before we said our goodbyes to the west coast. And I'm not even remotely sorry that the boys were so little that they won't remember it. James and I will remember it and we'll remember how happy it made them at the time and how much fun we had as a family. And we'll all relive it through the pictures! 

3. Camping with Toddlers

We went on 4 camping trips last year, bringing our total to 6 camping trips since the babies were born. We got to enjoy different parts of California's gorgeous landscape... redwoods, hills, lakes, the bay... we even got to visit an observatory and see planets and stars and stuff. Our little urban babies (at the time) got to get dirty and enjoy some nature. And by the 6th time around, I think we pretty much got the hang of it. On the Must Bring list: just-add-water pancake mix, lots of baby wipes, glow sticks, and a laid-back, I-don't-care-how-dirty-the-kids-get attitude. (Seriously, toddlers will get SO DIRTY. SO SO DIRTY.)

Here are my past posts about our camping trips:
China Camp
Little Basin
Fremont Peak

Anthony Chabot

4. Calvin Went to Preschool

I was so nervous about sending Calvin to preschool! But in all respects it turned out to be a good experience. His teachers were so kind and patient with him (and with me!). The class was very play-based. Calvin got to have his speech therapy one-on-one twice a week at school. And he loved going to school. In fact, I am feeling a little mom-guilt about the fact that we are not putting him into preschool again until the fall... For a few reasons, mainly financial, we are going to keep him tot-schoolin' with me at home until next school year. I know he will be excited when he gets to go to preschool again! In the meantime, I am going to enjoy having him at home for a few more months. And I know Henry is happy to have his brother around again too :) 

5. Mom and Dad did some Races

James and I are pretty proud of our fitness accomplishments of last year. We ran two 5Ks with City Beer Runs in the spring, and then I started training for the Giant Race 10K in August. Meanwhile, James was continuing to do his bike-train commute to San Jose, and once or twice a month he would bike the entire 60 miles from SF to SJ. This helped him train for the Marin Century race in which he rode a total of 135 miles, including biking to the race early in the morning!

James and I ran the Giant Race 10K together in August. I did not keep up with my running after that, but James' sisters have talked me into training for a half marathon in April... so I guess it's time to dust off my pink sneakers! (And buy some cold weather running gear because YIKES IT IS COLD UP IN HERE EARLY IN THE MORNING!! I miss CA weather already.)

6. Most Awesome Family Halloween Costume So Far

I am still so proud that we pulled this off. And I still can't believe how we lucked into these awesome pics at the zoo!

7. Mom and Dad do Invisalign

One of the benefits of James working for Align is that we were both able to begin Invisalign treatment. Invisalign is a way to straighten your teeth with clear trays called "aligners" instead of metal braces. I started in March of 2015 and James started in April. My teeth were pretty darn crooked... especially my two front teeth. One stuck out in front of the other and in some pictures it would look like I was missing a tooth! It is harder to tell from James' "before" pic why he needed Invisalign because it was his bottom teeth that were crooked and you can't see them when he smiles. 

March 2015

April 2015

December 2015

Now I'm about a month away from the end of my treatment and I'm so happy with the result! James' treatment got a little complicated and he's having some dental work done before he is able to finish straightening his teeth, so it may be a couple more months for him. Again, you can't tell from his smile!

8. Crazy Cross-Country Move

Probably the most life-changing event of last year: James took a job at Duke University and we made the leap into a new life here on the east coast. It was a decision that we put a lot of time and thought and prayer into. We are so grateful that we got the opportunity we were waiting for to be able to relocate and be closer to our parents and brothers and sisters. We are sad to be so far from our loved ones in California. We will miss all the places that became special to us there. But we really believe this was the right move for our family and we are happy to be here getting settled in North Carolina. So here's to the new year in our new home in our new state! 

9. Christmas Morning in our New Home

We even got to spend Christmas morning in our new house! The boys woke up to find dinosaur tracks and what appears to be a T Rex shadow on the walls of their bedroom! Then, there were gifts around the tree, treats in their stockings, and another big surprise in the playroom!!

Are these two the cutest or what?!? They were super adorable on Christmas morning and spending those special moments in our new house helped make it feel like home. 

OK, Drumroll Please........

10. Henry is Walking!!!

Yaaaaaaay! Hooray for Henry!!

This video cracks me up. Henry is toddling around like a drunken sailor... Calvin, who I assume is hamming it up for the camera, keeps assaulting Henry - acting like he is going in for a hug, but instead knocking poor wobbly Henry over... and their cousin Davis keeps trying to help Henry and get Calvin to make amends for pushing his brother down!

Henry took his first steps in November. His very first independent step was from his speech therapist, Monica, to me during speech group. Little by little, we saw him taking two... then three or four steps from one piece of furniture to another. In the beginning we could hardly get him to walk to or from one of us because he would just collapse and expect to be picked up. But by the end of November he could make it from one end of the living room to the other and he would walk from one person to another without begging to be carried. He was able to really show off at his last therapy session with our California PT, Will :)

That video is from Thanksgiving, and over the past month he has gotten stronger and sturdier. He doesn't crawl to get around anymore, he gets up and walks! He can't stand up from the floor without pulling on something to help him, but he will crawl over to the nearest wall or piece of furniture or person's legs and pull himself up to walk where he wants to go. He still stumbles and falls or gets tired and sits down fairly often. But his progress has been amazing and so heartening! We are so proud of our "Super Duper!" (Get it? Because Dup15q.)



It was a good year. So much to be thankful for.

And thank you, dear readers, for caring enough about our little family to read this blog :)
I hope you, too have much to be thankful for from 2015, and I wish you lots of love and blessings for the new year.

Peace.

Babies and Bluegrass

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a big, free music festival held in Golden Gate Park every year on the first weekend of October. James and I went for a couple of years after we moved to the bay area and before we had the kids. There is great music, and it can be a fun atmosphere, but it does get really crowded because, hello, it's a big free awesome bluegrass music festival in Golden Gate Park! 

It was actually James' idea to bring the kids to HSB this year, which surprised me because James generally dislikes crowds, especially with the kids in tow. (It took a lot of convincing to get him to say yes to our Disneyland trip.) But he has been feeling particularly adventurous this fall, and we decided that with a little planning and a solid willingness to bail if necessary, no matter how early, it would be worth a go. 

We invited some of our friends with kiddos and got a resounding round of Hell No's. Fair enough, friends. Fair enough!

We went as early as we could manage to get out of the house. It wasn't as early as I'd hoped, but it turned out to be early enough. The music was set to start at 11, we were nearing the park a little after 10. Parking can be a nightmare in the city under normal circumstances. For a free festival like this one, you've got to either (1) not drive - best option, but we didn't want to risk having to ride the bus while Henry was having a meltdown, (2) get there super super duper duper early, (3) park really really far, or (4) pay for parking... if you're lucky and there are pay lots available. Some of the nearby schools were opening up their parking lots/blacktop space for paid parking as PTA fundraisers, so we decided that was our best option. It was perfect. It was a bit of a walk from the school to the festival fields, but not too bad and the timing worked out such that the band on the main stage was just getting started as we arrived. 

There are several stages at HSB, and each stage has a different lineup of bands and musicians. We assumed that we'd only get to see one band before we'd have to leave because of the babies, so we picked the main stage where Chatham County Line was playing first. James had checked this band out ahead of time and liked their music. If we were only going to get to see one band, this would be a good one. 

The field was pretty full, but not completely. We snagged a spot for ourselves at the edge of the crowd - convenient for a quick getaway in case of a meltdown. We had packed food, water, the usual diaper bag essentials, and a few small toys. 

We ended up getting to see two bands before we felt it was time to move on. Chatham County Line was great. I really enjoyed them. The second band, Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands was also good. Henry fussed for a minute when we arrived, but James strapped him into the Ergo and he was able to take a little nap. He slept through Chatham County Line. Calvin was his usual chill self. When he started getting bored, we snacked and played with stickers. 

Sitting in the sun with James and the boys listening to good music in Golden Gate Park... I'll take it! Crowd and all ;)

After the second band we were all getting a little restless and the crowd was rapidly thickening, so James and I decided to quit while we were ahead. (An important lesson we are slowly learning!) We made our way out of the park and back to the car and then took some time to let the boys play on the playground of the school where we'd parked. So convenient! :) It felt like such a nice day, I wasn't ready for it to be over quite yet, so we decided to hit Mitchell's Ice Cream and take advantage of the fact that most of the city was headed to the bluegrass festival, which meant less crowds than usual everywhere else! 

Anybody else go to HSB this year? Or take kiddos to music festivals? 

Here's a clip of Chatham County Line performing The Carolinian at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass.

While Calvin's Away, Henry will Play!

Calvin started preschool last week! Eeek!!

He was excited to be dropped off on his first day and I didn't even cry! ;) Seems like his first week of school went well. Definitely some adjusting happening, but he's happy and eager to go each morning and when I go to pick him up, he's always sitting on the rug with his classmates listening intently to the story his teacher is reading and craning his little neck to see the pictures. 

While Calvin is at school, Henry will continue to be pretty busy with his therapies. But on that first day, I ended up canceling all of Henry's therapies so that I could have more time to spend dropping Calvin off. After we said "Bye Bye" to big brother and dropped Daddy off at the train station, Henry and I decided to go celebrate Calvin's first day of preschool at Hop n Play!

Hop n Play is a fun indoor play space for littles. We actually had Calvin's 2nd birthday party here. They have toy play areas, some small carousel-type rides, an air bounce room, and this cool balloon room where four fans blow dozens of balloons around in circles. So simple. So awesome.

I wish I could cancel therapy every day and do fun stuff like this with Henry!

No, not really. 

Ok, yeah I do. But I know, I know, therapy is important. So we'll all put on our big boy pants and go to school and work and therapy and save fun stuff like this for special days :) 

I think it will be nice having lots more one-on-one time with Henry. I had that with Calvin before Henry was born, and now it kind of feels like it's Henry's turn. I'm sure the year will fly by and before we know it, it will be time for Henry to start school! So we'll try to make the most of it while we can. 

Happy Monday! 

Monday Funday: Fun with Paint

For Monday Funday, I bring you Calvin and Henry getting messy with some paints in our kitchen! :)

This was the first time I'd given Henry real fingerpaint - until now, I only let him paint with yogurt or jelly or pudding because I was afraid he'd eat the fingerpaint. He didn't eat it (yay!), and it turned out the paper was just as entertaining as the paint.

When Calvin saw what fun Henry was having getting messy, he decided to join in.

These two crack me up. 

Happy Monday! Have a great week :)

Henry Wellness Update: Motor Moves

Thinking about how to write about Henry's motor development without it being super boring was bumming me out. (Which is why it has taken me so long to put this post together!) So I decided it would be more fun to share a few videos that show off his moves.

In this video, Henry is with his occupational therapist (OT), Julia. Putting items into a container is both a speech goal and an OT goal for him. He knows what to do, but he's got to open his hand and drop it! Hard to say if his hand is not getting the message, or if he just doesn't want to put the toy in... At this point, I suspect it's the latter! He sure liked that blue block!

Even though he never does put that blue one, in, I like how you can see him manipulate it with his hands in this video. He turns it over and over, uses his fingers and wrists, passes it from one hand to the other, waves it around and shakes it. That hand and wrist control is important as he learns practical skills like the taking out/putting in that he's working on here, as well as self-feeding skills like using a spoon.

If you're happy and you know it... CLAP YOUR HANDS, KID!! What a joker! I swear he can clap at the right time in this song. He can. I've seen it! He also raises his arms up on the "Hooray" part. I swear! He does! But of course I couldn't get it on video! Well, it still shows he can clap and it cracks me up every time I watch it! Hope you got a good laugh too! :)

Clapping is a big milestone because it shows that he's got the motor control of his hands and arms, as well as the coordination needed, to bring his hands together. For Henry, it also reveals something about his receptive language because he has learned verbal cues for when to clap. He claps when we cheer "Yaaaay!" and he claps when we sing "If You're Happy..." (even if it's not at the right time every time!). 

Henry is also making progress with waving for "Hello" and "Bye Bye," and he is using a couple of ASL signs (or his version of them anyway!). He puts his hand to his mouth to ask for food, and he does a sort of clap, bringing his hands together, to say "more." More overlap between speech and OT, and all really important progress for Henry's communication and coordination. 

Henry has been crawling for several months now, though at the moment he seems to prefer cruising as a way to get around. But I wanted to include a video of him crawling because his crawling development is really important for him learning to walk one day. He did "belly crawling" for a few months before he got strong enough to lift that belly off the floor and crawl on hands and knees. Now you can see him move pretty quickly up on his hands and knees. The alternating motion of his hands and his legs is related to learning how to take steps one day, and holding himself up on his hands with his belly off the ground helps him strengthen his abdominal muscles which he will also need in order to be able to stand and walk on his own.

(And James' backpack is stinky because he wears it on his commute bike rides every day and it gets all sweaty. He does wash it, though. In case you were worried.)

I took the boys to the zoo last week and it was a whole new experience with Henry now able to stand and cruise along the fences! It was a lot more fun! I'm not sure how much Henry looked at the actual animals, but he sure had fun with the fences! 

He's getting really good at cruising (walking sideways while holding on)! He doesn't put much weight on the fence/shelf/whatever he's holding on to. He just needs something for balance. He's also able to stand while holding on with just one hand for balance. His orthotics really help with these things, though he is pretty stable even barefoot. The shoes give him a bigger base for support, and the orthotics help him keep his joints aligned. 

In these last two videos, Henry is walking with Will, our new PT. Our former PT, Krystyna, moved away. I was really sad to lose her as Henry's therapist, but we are enjoying working with Will. As you can see, walking forward is a lot harder for Henry than walking sideways (what I call cruising). It takes more core strength, which he's still building up. Helping him practice walking like this can be frustrating for me because he is such a noodle! And he isn't super motivated to do it - he'd much rather turn around and have you pick him up, or get down on the floor and crawl, which of course would get him where he's going much faster! 

Will has Henry do some strengthening exercises - almost like baby sit-ups and squats - to help him work on the muscles he needs to better support himself. Henry also has a push toy that he can use to practice walking, though he is not a huge fan of it. He prefers to push our little Ikea end table across the room. 

In general, Henry's movements have become more controlled and his stability with sitting and standing (assisted standing) have really improved over the past few months. He's still got a ways to go before he'll be walking, but I'm so proud of the progress he is making! One of his therapists (sorry, I can't remember which one!) commented that it helps that he's such an active kiddo - always on the go, always moving around the room. For a kid with low muscle tone, all that activity helps him build that strength that he needs and gives him a chance to work on coordinating his movements. 

Again, to Henry's therapists - if you guys are reading this post, first, I can't thank you enough for your work with Henry! And second, if any of this doesn't sound quite right, please feel free to help me out! It is all a big learning process for me. 

I'll have one more wellness update on Henry sometime in the next couple of weeks, about his eating/feeding progress. Hopefully I'll get it posted before his birthday, but his birthday is fast approaching!

Too Busy to Blog! And a Quick Trip to NC

So far 2015 feels like a nonstop whirlwind of places to be, phone calls to make, and cleaning to do! Last year we would have stretches of time where we'd be super busy for a few weeks, and then things would calm down and we'd get a bit of a break. I am ready for one of those lulls, but there doesn't seem to be one in sight!

I feel so behind with blogging, but honestly, as much as I love this blog, it's the thing that has to go on the back burner when I'm feeling overwhelmed. If you follow us on Instagram and Facebook, you'll see I update those more often since it's easier to share some quick pics than to write up a whole post!

We had a bit of a break a few weeks ago with a quick weekend trip to visit James' brother, Stephan, near Charlotte, NC. Two of James' sisters came with their kids, and James' mom and dad came as well. We had a big family party to celebrate Stephan's 40th birthday. It's always great to hang out with family. And we never remember to take pictures because we are too busy enjoying ourselves! But I think that's a good thing. 

After we left Stephan's, we drove up to Raleigh and took Calvin and Henry to see the dinosaur exhibit at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. So awesome! 

It's a real diplodocus femur!

Digging for fossils

Sitting in a sauropod footprint

Rawrrr!

While we were in NC, we even got to see some snow!

Henry did not love the snow... I don't blame him. I don't love it either! 

Calvin, on the other hand, definitely loves the snow :)

We skipped Tot School for a couple of weeks after Valentine's day, because I was just too busy to put anything together! We're back to it, but I think instead of doing a post a week (which I clearly cannot keep up with!), I'll wait a few weeks and then combine our Tot School themes into fewer posts.

We're keeping it pretty simple at the moment with some animal habitat themes. Last week we did Arctic & Antarctic animals, and this week we're doing ocean animals.

In the meantime, I will try to get around to writing some therapy updates on the boys. Long story short, they're doing great health wise and they're getting lots and lots of therapy which is keeping us all really really busy!

Here's an adorable video of the boys (including James) playing in the snow :)

Happy Henry and Calvin-tines Day

Last week for Tot School we did all Valentine's Day themed play. In fact, we were having so much fun with all our pink and red and hearts and sparkles that we didn't even do a letter of the week! The letter N will just have to wait.

We started out the week by painting some Valentine cards for the boys' grandparents & great-grandparents. Calvin, Henry & I also painted cards for James. 

I picked up these Valentine gel window clings from Target and Calvin LOVED them. We did some letter matching with them too. Only problem was that he often wanted to carry them around the room and they kept getting all linty from his clothes and the couch! 

I included the gel clings in a Valentine sensory bin along with a few other Target dollar section items: the mini "koosh" balls, some heart-shaped "slinkys," the necklaces, and some heart buttons. I also added heart confetti and conversation heart stickers which I had leftover from last year and some red, pink, and white pom poms. The boys both enjoyed playing with all these goodies :)

After a while, Calvin took all the pom poms and koosh balls out and made "rain" with the confetti and stickers and buttons. (The stickers have paper backings so they are not sticky.)

Then we pulled out our Valentine mail box (also from last year) and Calvin played with posting the little items through the slot. 

I took some of the heart confetti and buttons along with some pink glitter and made two Valentine sensory bottles. At first I had made the sensory bottles in baby food jars, but they leaked so I switched to these little plastic jars that used to hold sprinkles for baking. 

And speaking of baking, on Friday Calvin helped me bake a very Valentine "funfetti" cake! 

The night before Valentine's Day, Hartley babysat for us and James and I went out for a Valentine's date night :) I love date night! 

For breakfast on Valentine's Day, James treated us all to heart pancakes. So cute! He thought about bringing them to me in bed, but decided that the babies are not ready for Pancakes in Bed just yet :P

He made them by pouring the pancake batter into a plastic bag and piping it like icing onto the pan. 

Our original plan for Valentine's day was centered around getting Henry's hair cut. We were going to make a day of it and ride the train down to San Bruno, where there's a nice kids' salon, take Henry for his hair cut, have lunch there in the downtown area, and maybe treat ourselves to ice cream or something. 

But the weather that weekend was so warm and sunny we couldn't resist the urge to do something outdoors instead. Still, Henry. Needed. A. Haircut. His long curls were always in his face. So I decided I could just do it myself really quick and then we could head out for a picnic instead of a train ride. 

In true second child fashion, Henry's first haircut was much less ceremonious (and also much less stressful)  than Calvin's first haircut. I was still nervous. And he wouldn't keep his head still! But once I got started it was actually easy. Snip snip here, snip ship there... and Voila!

Not too bad. We actually thought it would still curl, even though it was shorter, so we were surprised to see it stay straight even after being washed. Oh well. Bye bye baby curls. Henry is a big boy and deserves a big boy hair cut! 

With Henry's haircut done, we packed up and headed to Park Chalet for a sort of cheating picnic. I say cheating because it's a restaurant, so we get to have our picnic served to us, but that's what makes it so nice! It was pretty crowded, as it always is on such nice warm days, but we got a spot on the lawn and spread out our blanket. Calvin had fun playing with other kids there and we all got to relax and enjoy the gorgeous day. 

We headed home for naptime and dinner. Last year I wanted to do a fancy family dinner at home, complete with special Valentine's attire (pink bow ties!). This year we kept it low key: homemade pizza in our pajamas :)

I love Valentine's Day, as I'm sure you can tell, and I think Calvin really loved it too! Here's a cute video of him talking about the garland of hearts that we had strung up in our kitchen, and showing off the Valentine sensory jars. 

Hope you had a happy Valentine's Day! XOXO <3