Monday, December 27, 2010

Didja miss us?

My goal for tonight: a real life, honest to goodness, for real update on my two little guys :)

I'll start with my little chubbo tubbo.

Mr. TyTy had his 15 month checkup today and he's weighing in at almost 27 lbs and he's 32 inches tall. The doc says he looks perfect! He's a little behind the curve in his verbal speech, but he does sign a little bit and has no problems communicating his wants and needs with great enthusiasm and volume. Physically he's ahead of his peers. He's actually trying to walk down the stairs now instead of crawling, which is a little hard on my ticker... But he always holds on to the rails :) He's an eater and a drinker and a pooper and a runner... And he gives the best kisses ever. In fact, he kind of likes to make out. I'm warning you now, don't let this boy date your daughter!

And now on to my skinny mini.

Daximus Maximus is weighing in somewhere around 26 lbs now and he was 33.5 inches at last check. He is quite the eater and loves a variety of foods although he still doesn't chew or manipulate the food as well as we'd like and we still do all thin liquids via tube. He is making progress in all his therapy areas and we're about to start evaluations to determine what services will be appropriate for him when he ages out of Early Intervention and into the school district in April. He still has some significant delays in speech and OT areas, but his mobility is improving daily. He still falls... A LOT... but not as much as he once did. OT-wise he's catching up with his pointing and grasping but still has more catching up to do. ST-wise... Well, speech-wise sometimes he freaks me out a little. Dax is making slow progress with expressive verbal language, although he is making progress. He does best with repeating rather than spontaneous. His spontaneous speech is usually squeals or repetitive syllables that may or may not have any meaning. He's really gotten good at "copying" the squeals and screams of characters on TV, to a degree that it's creepy sometimes... And thanks to a certain Leap Frog DVD, he can now recite most of his letter sounds in exactly the same manner they do on the DVD. That's a little weird, too, to have a 2-year-old that, when presented with a letter, can tell you what sound the letter makes (but can't tell you that a cat says "meow.") His receptive speech is phenomenal, and he can identify his shapes, colors, letters, and many items. He's also able to match items to similar items (i.e. a red car to a yellow car) with pretty good accuracy.

Dax's skills are... Different. His brain seems to work in a manner similar to many people I've worked with who have autism, yet he has an ability to generalize that I haven't seen in those same people. His visual memory is amazing, and he can learn a sign today and still know that sign 2 weeks from now, even if he doesn't really know what the sign means. He verbally has a hard time mimicking others but physically he attempts to model behaviors he enjoys, like trying to copy a piano player's hand motions. He's very social and laughs and smiles so much and gets jealous of his brother and misses him when he's gone...

His brain is just so different than that of anyone else I've ever met. He really does have a beautiful mind, in every sense of the word. I'll be pushing for neuropsych testing as we do our evals preparing for school, as he is such a good learner in so many areas, and I want to know exactly how we need to be teaching this amazing little screwed-up brain of his...

And that's my update in a nutshell.

Dax's adenoids will be coming out Thursday, so any prayers would be appreciated for everything to go off without a hitch. Also, my dad has been in the hospital since Christmas morning due to some ongoing seizure issues, so any prayers for the seizures to get under control and for him to snap back into reality would also be appreciated.

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, and I wish you all an amazing new year!

And now, some long overdue pics!
 Santa's got a lap full of nice boys :)
 School pic
 Dax modeling his new glasses (Miraflex frames are AWESOME!)
TyTy drowns his post-shot sorrows in a strawberry sucker.

Love y'all!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Aubrie's Angels gift collection: Day 14

8 days left and... 20 gifts over our goal!!! What a huge blessing!

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

It's not too late!

Hi all! First of all, thank you all so much for all the gifts that have been donated to Aubrie's Angels this year! when I set the goal of 100 gifts I really thought I was overshooting quite a bit... But in 12 days we're already at 103 gifts donated! What an awesome outpouring of support! I'm feeling extremely humbled and abundantly blessed :)

We still have a few days left to go, but time is running short. If you've thought about donating but just haven't yet, I have an amazing friend and fellow preemie mom (her daughter Becca was a 13oz-er!) who is an Usbourne book dealer, and right now through Thursday she's taking donations to buy books AT COST to donate to these special needs kids who could benefit so much!

Please visit her blog here to find out more!

Thanks again everyone for your ongoing support... And I promise there will be a real-life update coming one day if I get to sit down! :)

Aubrie's Angels gift collection: Day 12!!!

10 days and.... The sky is the limit!!!
103 gifts collected as of today, and more are on the way! I am in awe of everyone's generosity!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Friday, December 10, 2010

Aubrie's Angels gift collection: Day 8

Have I told you all lately how amazing you are?! 14 days and 31 gifts left to go!!! We're almost there!!!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Aubrie's Angels gift collection: Day 7

Holy cow folks! 15 days and... Wait for it... 44 gifts left to go! We passed the halfway mark!!! You guys are amazing!!!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Aubrie's Angels

Alrighty folks, I am just super excited over a new adventure I'm undertaking, and I want YOU to join me! What better way to celebrate Aubrie's life than by giving to other children in her honor? And who better to give to than children with special needs?

Aubrie's Angels was born yesterday following a talk with Team Baby, as we rehashed just how good our kids have it... And here we are at Christmas focusing on buying more stuff for our kids who have everything when there are so many kids with special needs out there who don't have the sensory and/or developmental toys and equipment they need to reach their maximum potential.

So, here's the plan, folks! Starting right here, right now, my goal is to collect 100 sensory and developmental toys to help give some special kiddos a Christmas that will make the season brighter and help them learn and develop over the course of the next year. This is my trial and error year and I'm basically winging it at this point, but I'm coordinating with our local early intervention program and pediatrician's office to pinpoint some local families with kids with special needs and parents who want to help but just don't have the money to provide everything their child requires. (No HIPPA violating, scouts' honor.)

So, you wanna help? I'm open and willing to any toy donations (please, no money!), or, if you feel so moved, please locate a kiddo near you that you can help this holiday season. 'Tis the season for giving, folks... Hope and potential!

If you're interested in contributing, please email me at molliesheppard@att.net for more information!

 Aubrie's Angels' gift collection: Day 1
100 gifts and 20 days to go!

Can you believe it?

Two years ago today we brought home an eight-month-old little monkey who turned blue a lot and alarmed a lot and went to the doctor a lot.

We were scared shitless.

What an amazing two years it's been.

Happy Two Year Homecoming Daximus Maximus!