Almost Wordless Wednesday: Summer Fun

There will be some captions involved...lots of pictures just not a long post.

Splash Park Fun 

Marloe was timid at first.

Grayson tested the water and...

discovered it was a perfect bum cooling temperature.

Marloe saw this and decided to test the water also and...

decided to also cool off her backside first.

Marloe stood back to observe the kids playing.

There's Wee Pie and Little Sweetie having fun in the sun.
We love our new home!

This is the life.

Going to find more trouble. Notice the bear crawl. He is fast on those hands and feet.

Marloe ran this way and...

that way...

back and...

forth.

This day led to two tired kids that were in bed by six...pure heaven to this mom!

On a totally different day we went to Carl Sandburg's home. Here is my handsome husband sitting in the poet's thinking chair at the base of Glassy Mountain.

Hope your summer is full of fun. Make it count folks!

What a week! Surgery update and signs that Wee's terrible twos are on the way.

This past week Grayson went to his first speech therapy appointment through a private office. I am very optimistic about this therapist. The drive isn't far either and they are flexible with scheduling later in the afternoon so I won't miss work. He has his second appointment tomorrow so I will post on that really soon. We are hoping that the upcoming surgery (tubes), along with the speech therapy, will improve his receptive and expressive speech abilities.

Along with tubes in his ears, Grayson is also getting a stint in his tear ducts and his adenoids removed. This surgery is scheduled for this Thursday. Last Thursday, Drew and Grayson went to a pre-op appointment with the opthamologist, Dr. Davarro. Drew texted me at 4:15 to let me know they were still waiting. The appointment was at 3:30. I told him to go complain. Seriously, an 18 month old, at the doctor, late in the afternoon, having to wait 45 minutes to an hour to be seen...uh not working.

Basically, I think Grayson destroyed the waiting room. Drew claimed he crawled everywhere, pulling things down, ripping up pamphlets, and bothering other patients attempting to do homework. He even attempted to crawl back into the actual office by pushing open the door and crawling on back to be seen. Drew finally told the receptionist that if they weren't seen soon, Wee would actually tear up the waiting room and he wasn't going to stop him.

Grayson in a better state than he was at the doctor.

 Grayson is all boy and beginning to show more and more that he is about to be a full fledged toddler. He shows this by getting into anything and everything. Once he is into it, he makes a mess of the room or himself. He also enjoys long tantrums on the floor when told no and testing his parents once told he can't do something. This includes playing in the toilet (yep, he's had his hand peed on), pulling hair (mine and Marloe's), biting (anyone who gets in the way), and banging hard things on our glass coffee table (yeah, I know, it's time to put it away). I also failed to include that he does somersaults out of the bathtub and it doesn't even phase him.

 Seriously, this kid is going to be hell on legs when he can finally walk.

Here is Grayson and the coffee table. The balloon didn't even last 20 minutes because Grayson managed to pop it shortly after.

On one more note. I ordered and have been reading a book, My Friend Isabelle. The book is a children's book, about a little boy named Charlie and his friend Isabelle, who is a girl with Down syndrome. Tonight I read it to Marloe and tried to introduce the concept of Down syndrome to her and the fact that Grayson is a child with Down syndrome.

I think it is way too early. Little Sweetie now thinks that Down syndrome is a store like the Dollar General. "Okay mommy we go to Down syndrome store with Grayson like we buy the juice from the Dollar General." I think I'll wait on that explanation and for now we will just read the book for pleasure instead of teaching a lesson.

Have a good week to everyone. More surgery updates and hopefully some really exciting news about the move coming up this week!


My mom is super excited about us moving.



Guest Post From the Husband

I'm the husband- Drew. I was pushed into the office and instructed to make a "guest post about the r-word." Ummmm...ok.  I'm not quite as excited about the blog scene (or blogosphere or whatever it's called) as my lovely wife.  All the stuff I have to read seems a bit too cutesy and perfect and, frankly, a crock. But, I will humor her. Wait a sec...she just told me not to post anything until she's read it...anyone have a copy of Fahrenheit 451 nearby?

Anyway, the "r-word".  Hmmm...really? The "r-word", the "n-word", the "f-word", the "I'm too emotionally insecure to actually say it, so I'll act like a five year old and say the first letter- word." The word is RETARDED. Retard. Nigger. Faggot. Ugly, unfair, and, at one time, socially acceptable. I don't think we do anyone any favors by making the word seem less offensive by only referring to it by its first letter.  People don't feel the word when it's been neutered by the PC Gestapo.  They lack the understanding of why it dehumanizes people when they are denied its dehumanizing effect. (But, I'm still going to do it, because Elizabeth doesn't appreciate those words typed all over her blog.)

Not that I am innocent. All those words have crossed my lips.  You should've seen me ask, "Have you seen my baseball?"... it used to crack the kids up in high school...and here I am.  My little "r-word" is splashing and laughing and playing in the tub with his mother and sister.  And if I ever hear anyone refer to him as a retard, I have a wide range of imaginary responses on tap-from quick and clever retorts to water boarding.  I prefer daydreaming of the latter...

Why the change of heart?

 Because Grayson is a person- a human, a boy, a child, a toddler...a person!!

To call him a retard is to strip away at his humanity and lump him into some inferior group. 

It's to say, ok, you are one of us...EXCEPT you're a little less.

Ever read Animal Farm? "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." That's basically it.

Someone has decided they are more equal than Grayson. 

Someone decided they were more equal than the homosexual couple up the road. Someone decided they were more equal than the black children playing in the park.  People are always figuring they are more equal than someone else.  It's all crap.

Grayson is equal. He doesn't need or deserve to be dismissed. God, or Nature, chose him to be born, just like anyone else. He made it through...he's here like everyone else. He deserves his dignity and his responsibilities, too.

But, I'm not totally there. When someone says "that's so (insert r-word)" or "Ha, Ha. Drew, you're so (insert r-word again)" I don't feel angry or bothered.  I give the obligatory "we don't say that" simply because I'm told that I am supposed to.  I feel more indignant when I hear the old man up the road say he's "sweatin' like a (insert n-word)."  My skin crawls when I hear people say "I hate watching two (insert f-word) kiss in public." I should be more bothered by "retard"...but, I'm not. Maybe because, far more so than the other two words, I'm more guilty of using it without thinking or remorse.  Maybe I resist getting offended because I feel so much like a hypocrite.  Then again, aren't all converts hypocrites to a degree? Maybe embracing your inner hypocrite is the first step on the road to salvation.

 I guess, at the end of the day, I have to ask if the word is useful.  It's not.  F-word= not useful.  N-word= not useful.  R-word= not useful.  I have to tell myself not to waste time with words that aren't useful.  They don't build relationships or understanding.  They foster hate and mistrust. They dehumanize...so, yes, I'm on board to end the word.    

The Traumas of a Flexible Child (Or how we compromise in the land of Wee Pie)

Poor Grayson has to eat his snacks off the floor if this Mommy wants to get anything done. Our floor is fairly clean, but I would rather feed him in his highchair. This just isn't an option after what happened to Drew a couple weekends ago while he was trying to feed Grayson in one of his crying fits he has when he is hungry and tired.

I have decided to re-enact the story of what happened:

 Drew, Grayson, and the Highchair

starring Dora (from the circus)

Once upon a time in the land where Drew and Elizabeth have crazy busy schedules between working full time, carting Marloe to dance, Grayson to therapy, and just trying to live life there was a night where the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home. Daddy Drew argued that the kids could just be put down in their beds and given baths in the morning. He reasoned that both would be very cranky and whiny from being woken up and plopped in the bath.

Mommy Elizabeth argued that Little Sweetie and Wee Pie (especially The Wee) were dirty from the day and had daycare and preschool germies all over them. Because of Grayson Goo's surgery and heart defect, he has a much lower immune system so she wanted to wash those germies away regardless of the temper tantrums that this would cause.

Weeeeellllllll....Grayson had a major tantrum. MAJOR TANTRUM, but he was bathed and dressed. Then Daddy Drew tried to put him down to sleep. Wee Pie wasn't having this. Mommy Elizabeth said he was probably hungry so Daddy Drew got him out of bed, put him in his highchair, and tried to feed him oatmeal. He wasn't having this so Daddy Drew sat beside him while he wailed in the highchair.

Then he looked over and saw this...

(re-enactment only. No inflatable Dora's were harmed in this picture.)

Grayson was hanging over the side of the highchair about to fall to his death! Okay this might be an exaggeration, but he would have been badly hurt. With quick, animal-like reflexes Drew grabbed Grayson Goo by the ankle in a flash. His heart was pounding. His mind flashed with images of what could have occurred if he had been across the room or not noticed Wee Pie's plight.

See, Grayson has extreme hypotonia all over his body. So he is SUPER DUPER flexible. That little Wee Pie, in his tantrumming state, had squeezed himself from his highchair and was attempting to escape. He did not know that this escape could have resulted in injury.

When Mommy Elizabeth came in the room and saw her husband clutching their son to his chest with wild eyes, she asked what was wrong. Daddy Drew rehashed what had happened and how badly it had scared him. To the point where tears were in his eyes. (I hope you don't mind me including that detail, Drew.)

Mommy Elizabeth sat Grayson Goo on the table and Grayson then proceeded to also tell the story with much gusto...waving his hands around and jibber jabbering. Daddy Drew said it seemed like Wee Pie knew what had happened and knew the seriousness of the matter. Mommy Elizabeth said that, regardless, there would be no more leaving the highchair to throw away trash or put a cup in the sink. Grayson also needed to be strapped in and attended to at all times. No zoning out for either parent...DARN.

You see, wee aren't bad parents. We all leave our kiddy poos unattended sometimes while we quickly get something, run to the mail box, go to the bathroom, or check our email. What we've now realized with Wee Pie is that we just can't do that. He is a pure mess and gets into everything. He is crafty, limber, and mischievous. Don't let the smile fool you.

And I am training his sister to clean up after him. First with the baby wipe...

Then we pull out the sweeper and dust pan. Looks like she is teaching Grayson. He is paying attention pretty closely.

Hair Pull! Have to get one of those in at least once a day.

Or his bottom can sweep it up, too.



Have a great weekend!