Isaac gave me exactly what I wanted for Christmas - lots of independent walking! He has been very steady on his feet since yesterday morning, and is walking longer distances than ever. We're still talking "halfway across the kitchen" and not a 10k fun run, but he's definitely getting the hang of it.
We all have awful colds, so it's a very mellow, not-infecting-others kind of Christmas for us.
later addition: the best part of today was probably watching Isaac investigate the big box of packing peanuts my parents sent. Of course, there were awesome presents inside as well, but the peanuts were a total thrill and he spent a long time sitting in the box and throwing the peanuts out. The time I spent cleaning up afterwards (all hail the dustbuster!) was so worth it.
This may be the only time anyone ever describes Isaac's brain as Normal, so let's savor the moment, shall we?
The Neurologist just called to tell us that everything was normal on Isaac's MRI! So we're done with that whole line of inquiry, which was entirely too scary for me to even wrap my head around.
He is home today with Random Toddler Crud, Snot Division, and I'm home with him since I think I may be getting it, too. He feels well enough to lay waste to the house, anyway.
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Today is the two-year anniversary of bringing Isaac home from the hospital!
In current-day news, we now have An Actual Plan for Isaac. He's going to go to a special preschool three mornings a week starting in January, where there will be a speech therapist and a physical therapist and occupational therapists, and they'll work with him and with us (it's parent participation-style preschool, so one of us will attend with him). It sounds like it's going to be really good for him, and the therapists can refer him for more one-on-one time if they think he would benefit from more intensive work after observing him at the school.
Last Thursday, we had to take Isaac for the MRI his neurologist ordered. I was a total stressball about it from the moment it was scheduled, mostly because he needed to be sedated (holding still not being one of Isaac's hobbies). But it wasn't too bad; he couldn't eat after midnight (insert Gremlins joke here) so he was hungry and grumpy that morning, but really he was nicer about the whole thing than I probably would have been. I hate hate hated watching them put the mask on him to put him under. Dennis and I went to the waiting room, where I stress-knit. He was a little groggy when they brought him back to us, but alert enough to grab for the snack I offered him. By the time we got home, he was happy and went straight to playing. We'll hear back from the neurologist soon with the results, but I'm not expecting anything alarming.
I have a biggish empty Amazon box in the kitchen, which Gracie thinks is just for her. Of course, this means that Isaac has a fabulous Cat In A Box toy. From Gracie's perspective, I think it's something like: la la la la I'm sleeping in my box happy happy ARRRRGH GODZILLA! Poor Gracie. Bea pretty much gets ignored by Isaac (maybe because she picks her napping spots more intelligently, favoring no-boy-zones like Dennis' office), but he thinks Gracie is comedy gold.
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Isaac's second hearing test was no more useful than the first one. He didn't melt, but he also wasn't interested enough to provide any real data. There's another kind of test they can do, so hopefully I can get that scheduled soon.
I spent most of the weekend decorating the house for Christmas (or maybe just a really, really sparkly Advent, which is of course the exact opposite of what Advent is supposed to be, but ZOMG PIXIE ELVES!!). I haven't really decorated since 2005, so there was some pent-up energy there.
Yesterday morning, I had some friends over to make ornaments (ha! take that, crippling social anxiety!). I bought a lot of sequins and styrofoam and ribbons for super-festive Balls of Sparkle, and we also made some rather ridiculous dork-tastic ornaments using dead keyboards I salvaged from my office. Here is the IS4AC one:
Yes, the aluminum tree is up. It's not spinning this year, though; in the interest of averting cat- and/or toddler-related disaster, I decided to anchor it to the wall so it can't tip over. I'm actually less concerned about Isaac getting into it, since we watch him closely and have a gate up, but this is also Bea's first experience with the tree, and she's not the sharpest bag of hammers in the toolbox. I'm sticking to the shatterproof ornaments for the tree this year; the breakable ones are hanging from the picture rail molding in the living room.
I'm really not in a position to do another Cavalcade this year, but of course I reserve the right to throw in a few bad nativities in the next few weeks.
*I wonder how many lameass blog posts there are in the world with that title.
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We got the report from Isaac's evaluation. The whole time we were there, they kept reiterating that we should not, repeat NOT flip out over the report and the numbers and percentages and everything. They have to quantify the level of delay so that a) he can qualify for services, and b) so that they have something against which to measure his progress. So I was prepared, and I knew what it was going to say, but reading the report was still a bit of a gut-wrench.
We have a hearing test scheduled this week; this will be the second attempt, since the first one ended with a meltdown and it's hard to test subtle levels of hearing when the subject is howling with anger because his monster of a mama won't let him pull wires out of the wall. Toddler hearing tests are rather amusing; we were sitting in a soundproof room that had a speaker in each corner, mounted over a plexiglass box containing an animatronic stuffed animal. The audiologist was in an attached sound booth with a microphone, and her voice or a sound would come out of one of the speakers, and the associated animal would start dancing or playing the drums or whatever. So Isaac figured out that if he turned his head at the sound, he would get to see something cool. But then he saw the wires that make the whole thing work, and it was all over. I'm hoping for a better outcome this time.
We also have a meeting with his service coordinator coming up next week, to go over the report and talk about what services he's getting and what that will look like.
All of the stress and mindfuckery belongs to the parents; as far as Isaac is concerned, the world is awesome. His new favorite thing is YouTube; I thought it would be fun to show him the Isaac videos I've posted...he thought it would be fun to watch them again and again and again and again and again. And then once or twice more. His favorite one is the one called Gigglebutt from when he was about six months old. He laughs and laughs at that silly baby. Of course, the down side of this is that I can no longer use my laptop when he's around, because he immediately wants to get on my lap and watch Isaac or his other obsession, this crazy dog.
In other fun-ness, I got to have my first-ever root canal yesterday. Whee.
My new favorite site is One Pretty Thing, which aggregates all the fabulous DIY projects on the interwebz into one big inspiration pile.
I was a bit hyper last weekend and finished sewing my shower curtain, which is made from one of the awesome new Heather Ross fabrics and has giant squid all over it. I do love me some giant squid. I also made some valances for the living room windows. I'm looking forward to more exciting productivity over the long weekend, including Christmas-ifying the house. The spinning aluminum tree IS going up this year, even if it has to go behind a gate. The only shopping I'm planning to do is a run to the yarn store at 6:00 a.m. to get 35% off the yarn for Dennis' new sweater. Given the fit issues on the last sweater I attempted to knit for him, I've selected a top-down pattern for this one, so that he can try it on as I'm working.
Happy Thanksgiving! I keep having these odd moments where I feel vaguely guilty for having such an easy life, which is probably the sign of serious mental illness given that my life is...well, what it is. But it feels pretty easy lately, and I'm grateful for that.
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