Watermelon mini-session

In looking for a new photographer, I chatted with one who was doing a mini-session of kids eating watermelon.  I decided to brave the heat to see if she could handle my wild boys.  These photos were the results.  They were either eating, running, jumping, or wrestling, but I think she got some good shots.

Benny Boo:

William the Conqueror:

 Eating oranges and watermelon (the 2nd and 4th are my favorite of this series):

Running:

Watching chickens at Malcolm Blue Farm (where all the photos were taken):

Flag photos:

Pure joy and brotherly love (the 2nd and the 4th are my favorite of this set):

First movie ever and sleepovers

Quick post as our movers come today to start the process of going to our next home.  Liam's (age 5) 5th home and Ben's (age 4) 4th home.

Yesterday they saw their first movie in a theater.  Liam is very sensitive and Ben gets overwhelmed by sensory stimuli easily, so I was worried but they did great.

Buying tickets for Monsters University:

Ben LOVED movie popcorn and hogged the bag, and then ate almost all of it.

Liam gave the movie two thumbs up:

In other news, they have been obsessed with sleeping together.  They call it "having a sleepover."  They'll be sharing a room in our new home, so they might as well.

Issues du jour

Issue 1: Ben is finally interested in talking to share ideas, at least in very small settings and with people he knows well.  GREAT!

Did I just say great?  Let's change that to a great big headache.

Liam likes to talk, a lot.  If you let him, he will talk while walking in circles non-stop for hours.  I drove to Atlanta with him this weekend and on the way there, he talked the entire 3 hours with only occasional "hmmms" of agreement from me.

Now, Ben is also trying to talk.  This has resulted in a lot of tears from both boys and accusations that the other isn't letting him talk.  Have you heard about how Asperger's monologue?  Have you ever wondered what happens when you get two together and they both try to monologue?  I can tell you it isn't pretty. By the end of the day, I don't want anyone talking to me.  Today it resulted in a meltdown before school.

Issue 2: Ben is waking at night crying and saying his throat hurts.  It started with his last ear infection.  Does he have strep throat or still infected ears or is his reflux back to waking him up at night?

Issue 3:  The boys have finally watched their first movie all the way through, actually 3 movies. Both of them are into Star Wars.  There have been obsessions before but they have been Liam's alone.  Now they are both obsessed.  They want the Playskool figurines but they are hard to find.  What we have is fought over, hoarded, hiddenw ith the secret place forgotten, and I seem to live and breathe Star Wars between movie quotes, managing fights over figurines, and listening to Liam's ideas for episodes 7 throuh 136.

Here we go again, feeling like I am back in 2009

thankfully minus the deployment and newborn who screamed non-stop....

Ben started the process of his evaluation through the neurodevelopmental clinic here.  He'll have 4 different evaluations in all by 4 different specialists then on October 10th, the developmental pediatrician will review the total results with us.

Today was Ben's OT evaluation as part of this process.  I *know* Ben has Sensory Processing Disorder.  I wrote about it in this post.  That was in December 2010 when Early Intervention started services with Ben for Sensory Processing Disorder.  I wrote about it again in May when Early Intervention upgraded the status of Ben's services and encouraged me to take him to a Licensed Master's in Social Work (LMSW) for Floortime to address his extreme tantrums as they were beyond the expertise of Early Intervention.  The LMSW confirmed Ben is a sensory seeker and we have been working on tactics.

Therefore, today should have been no surprise, but it was for some reason.  I think because I view Ben has higher functioning than Liam, so I never expect Ben to qualify for services.  Then when Ben does qualify, I am reminded of where Liam started with his delays.  In addition, the amount of therapy sessions is exhausting for me, and I have been pushing through, just wanting to get Liam intensive therapy until he starts elementary school, and now I feel I am back at the starting point with Ben and am looking at 19 months PAST Liam starting school of intensive therapy with Ben.

It is a bit much.

So, the OT said Ben has Sensory Processing Disorder, specifically sensopry modulation disorder which is the most common type.  As part of this, he has some mild fine motor delays.  Tl treat this, she recommends to continue Early Intervention.  Ben has moderate trouble with sensory integration and emotional modulation.  She said the best way to address this is private OT, like Liam attends.  So we'll be adding another weekly appointment, though I know there is quite a wait list.  The logisitics of scheduling it will be quite challenging to say the least.  Finally, she was QUITE concerned about Ben's extreme toe walking and immediately recommended a PT evaluation.  So, in the course of a week, I find out BOTH boys need PT evaluations.

Tomorrow Ben sees another specialist for testing.  I imagine developmental testing.  In two weeks, he has his speech evaluation.  Finally on October 10th, he sees the developmental pediatrician and later that day, he'll meet with me and Dave to review his findings.

I have earned my wine tonight I think.  It is only Tuesday and Liam has done 5 hours of school, 5 hours of ABA, 45 minutes of speech, 45 minutes of ABA, a 30 minute session with the school OT, and an hour of Tumbling.  Ben has had an hourt of Floortime and an hour OT evaluation.  I have driven 6 hours over the course of 2 days, done 3 loads of laundry, and cooked a roast chicken.  There has been no naps and a wake up at night.  There has been too much stress and not enough fun.

Which boy is which?

So who is who?

Liam was clearly bigger (Ben had sweatpants and a shirt under his outfit while Liam had nothing but a diaper) at this age, rounder, with chubbier cheeks, and Ben has more hair, but they are clearly brothers.

Then to show how much Ben has grown in the last year:

2010:

2011 (same costume on Liam but a different size....2T/3T last year and a 4T/5T this year):

They are so cute when asleep

I wish this were a more common sight in our house.

No one can deny these two are brothers, for sure.

The day it snowed inside

Consider this a PSA to check all Melissa and Doug toys for styrofoam and remove it.  Styrofoam sticks and jumps from person to person.  Liam's OT found many pieces on her when working with him after this incident.  Our dumber cat (Sammy) was covered in it.

Ben thought it was the best thing ever.  He was so white that Liam was calling him "my snoeshow hare."

In the above photo, Liam is laughing at Ben.

Ben did the "Ben Ben dance" the whole time the vacuum was running, except for the moments he threw himself on his belly to watch the white bits swirl inside our Dyson.  Liam, like his Mommy, was more worrried about the mess, but he loved that Ben was covered in white and seemed tickled that Sammy managed to stomp through it too.

Why I would have made the perfect wife for Henry VIII

I make little clones of my husband, and they look like each other too.

The boys this weekend (Ben 22 months, Liam 3.5 years)

Liam wearing the same sweater at 19 months in the days after Ben was born:



So, apparently number 5 is optional

At least to Ben.  I got him counting on video as he is obsessed with it.  He has decided that number 5 is over-rated and skips straight to 6 after 4.  Still, not to shabby.

Here is another video.  This one shows Ben counting.  Liam joins in.   It also illustrates how jealous Ben gets when the attention is turned towards Liam.  I think that is why he learned to count; he is competetive and does't want Liam doing anything he can't do.  Sigh......

Baby Bunching--toddler style

Last summer I wrote alot about what it is like to have "2 under 2" or baby bunched kids.  The first 5 months were incredibly rough, but things got a bit easier after Liam turned 2 when I had to turn in my "2 under 2" status and just use the baby bunching status. 

About 2 months ago, Liam and Ben suddenly became great friends and I was beginning to re-think my stance on baby bunching (for the record, my stance is DON'T DO IT if you value your sanity and marriage...and it hasn't changed).  This friendship made for some great photo opportunities.

Unfortunately, things change quickly in a household with two babies, and we are no longer feeling brotherly love here. Ben is really a toddler now--not just walking, but running, jumping, dancing, talking, and yelling "mine" ALL.THE.TIME.  Neither Liam nor I are pleased with the replacement of our sweet, flirty baby Ben with a fiesty, opinionated, grabby toddler. Liam is expressing his discontent with pushing baby Ben.  He goes to time out approximately 5 times a day for pushing, and most of those are after a 3 count pushing offense (he gets 3 pushes before a time out, unless the push is particularly malicious).  But there are pushes I don't see, and times Liam simply head butts Ben or slyly pushes him. There are times he pushes Ben when Ben giggles and grabs Liam'shair, so I feel it is unreasonable to punish Liam.  If I did put Liam in time out for all pushing, I am not sure he'd ever leave it.

Ben has started stealing Liam's favorite toys (his Thomas trains, his cars, his Tomas magnets, his favorite stuffed animals) and yelling "MINE!"  Sometimes Ben just hold his hands over Liam's things and giggles when Liam cries.  Ben has started pulling Liam's hair, kicking him, or slapping his face.

I had about a month where I allowed them to ride side by side in grocery store race car shopping carts, but I am back to wearing Ben for everyone's safety and sanity.

Everyone said that the first 2 years of baby bunching are the hardest, somaybe it will be better in another year? Or maybe at least one of them will be potty trained, so I am not chaning 5 poopy diapers a day.  That idea seems like heaven right now.

A Comparison at 1 Year

I will do a post tomorrow all about Ben, but wanted to post some comparison photos from their 1st birthday photo shoot.

Both sitting on the block:

Showing off their smiles (Liam had so many more teeth):

Both of them giving their sweet look (do you see the mischief in Ben's eyes?)

On a side note.....poor Ben...I didn't realize that his romper was that wrinkled.  I count on Dave to take care of ironing and noticing what needs to be ironed.  I am clearly useless without him.

Sharing

I am beginning to slowly see some benefits of baby bunching.....not enough mind you to ever want two children this close again, but enough to make my solo parenting more enjoyable.

Ben is very mobile now.  He crawls quickly, he pulls up on everything, he cruises, he lets go and stands without assistance, and he sometimes lets go on one thing to grab another.  He is also intensely interested in everything Liam does.  Luckily, Ben plays like a big boy.  He can throw a ball.  He can drive a car while crawling.

Liam isn't much interested in social play.  He is becoming more tolerant of Ben playing near him and even with the same item.  He tries to share with Ben, as the video shows.  Occasionally, he even interacts with Ben.  He is a very good big brother in his own way, and clearly loves his baby brother.  Ben, of course, worships Liam, as only a little brother can.

I am looking forward to times when they can play together even more.