He managed to sleep in it last night without falling out (we did put a higher rail on the long side), and spent a fair chunk of yesterday putting his stuffed animals down the slide (along with other, noisier things) - I think it’s a winner.

So last night, Ian asked Justin for a sticker, so Justin gave him some address labels from the local animal shelter. (I gave them $35 three years ago, and they’ve been sending me address labels ever since, in the hopes of getting another $35, and they’ve probably spent my original $35 spamming me to get more money.) The labels have cats and dogs on them, so Ian was happy.

Today, I was trying to rock Leah to sleep, and Ian was once again bugging the everlivincrap out of me. I finally told him that if he didn’t calm down and let me get her to sleep, I’d put a gate up in the doorway and lock him out of her room. He finally disappeared, and was so quiet I knew he was doing something he shouldn’t be. I finally got Leah out, and went to find Ian… he’d climbed up and found more address labels. Of course, next to the labels, there were some very temping pretty stickers with berries on them, so Ian put several of those with some address labels on his shirt…

What’s the going rate for mailing 35 pound odd-shaped packages?

Anyway, I took Ian to speech therapy, even though I didn’t think he needed it.  Ian and I spend so much time together that I always know what he wants, even if he can’t talk.  To me, that’s fine, because if I hold out for him to say a word, it leads to a tantrum, and I just really don’t want to deal with that.  The first thing the therapist did was show Ian really neat toys, and then force him to say a sound or use a sign to get the toy.  Leading to… tantrums.  Yeah.  Ian hated therapy.  I hated watching him go through it.  He wouldn’t cooperate, he’d grab for the toys, the therapist and I would tell him no, and it was just sad.  I didn’t care if he couldn’t talk, I knew he’d do it eventually if there was nothing physically or mentally wrong with him.  But then the therapist would ask what Ian calls me, and I’d have to admit that my toddler couldn’t say “mama,” and I’d get sad about that and consent to more therapy.

Ian didn’t make progress in therapy for the first few months.  He learned a few signs, mainly “want more” and “cookies,” (yeah, the SPEECH therapist started off by teaching him sign language), but Ian wouldn’t make sounds–except “kaboom.”    Of all the words he could have picked up in therapy, why kaboom?  I’ll never know.

Speaking of cookies… part of her process was to offer Ian either cookies or juice, and get him to say/sign for one or the other.  Ian always chose cookies, but then couldn’t talk while chewing.  Then he’d get thirsty, but couldn’t/wouldn’t ask for juice, and she wouldn’t just let him have it.  That drove me crazy, because I knew the poor kid really NEEDED a drink and couldn’t get one, and I was too uncomfortable to speak up for him.  I thought maybe it was just my reaction to therapy, but Justin and his mom both went to sessions and agreed that it wasn’t working for Ian.

By his second birthday, he knew maybe 5 signs and 5 words.  Then Leah was born, and I couldn’t give Ian my full attention, and I couldn’t follow him to see what he was pointing at.  Then Justin’s mom was here for a week, and she was very interested in Ian’s therapy.  She came with us to a session, and worked with him the rest of the week, trying to get sounds out of him.  The next two week’s after her visit, we didn’t have therapy.  Guess what?  Ian started talking.  Non-stop, like a parrot.  He’d repeat everything, and he started retaining sounds and words.  It was amazing.

After his two-week break, we went back to therapy the first week of June.  The therapist said that our last session would be in July, but she’d try to get him into another program.  I said, No Thanks.  The therapist was offended, worried about Ian’s well-being, wasn’t sure I was doing the right thing, pointed out that he still wasn’t saying “mommy”… then she heard him talk.  And she backed off.  She actually had the nerve to say, “Wow, you must have really been working with him at home this month!”  No, I’ve been working with him at home since therapy started in January.  He just started talking on his own, when he wanted, just like I knew he would.

Two weeks ago, Justin taught Ian to say “Mom-mom.”  :)  My dad has been trying to get Ian to say Mama for a year now, and was quite shocked to hear it on Friday.  Dad said that I shouldn’t wish for Ian to talk, because once he starts he’ll never stop  :)  He was right, Ian drives me nuts repeating words, and the boy has no volume control.

The whole point of this is… I’m writing down all of the words Ian can say now, so the therapist can have a record of his progress.  Not all of these words are comprehensible to anyone but me, but he has 38 words and 21 signs in his vocabulary.  Wait!  40 words, I forgot yes and no.  And lordy does Ian know how to say no.  I’m not including words that Ian has just repeated once or twice, I’m only counting words he uses spontaneously on his own.  41, forgot purple.  42, forgot butt.  Yeah, don’t teach your child to say “butt,” you’ll regret it.

In combination, he can convey complete thoughts.  Example:  Our neighbor has two red trucks, and parks one on the street and one in the driveway.  We walked by the other day, and there was a truck on the street, but not in the driveway.  Ian pointed to the red truck on the street, made the sign for “one,” said “red,” pointed to the empty driveway, made the sign for “where,” and said “red” again.  And I totally understood that he was asking where the second truck was.

One day last week, Justin went to work before Ian woke up.  Ian made the sign for “where” and said “dad-dad.”  I said, He went to work already.  Ian said “go up?”  I was really confused and asked what he meant.  Ian repeated “Go UP?” and pointed to the attic door.  OH!  When Justin works from home, he goes upstairs.  I said, No he went DOWN the hill and got in a bus.  Then Ian repeated “dad-dad go go bye bye” for an hour.  Woops, bye isn’t on the list.

I know, no one else is impressed by this, but when you’ve been waiting a year for a kid to reach a milestone, it’s big.

Signs Ian uses:  (21)

where
done
hot
cookie
milk
juice
water
want
more
help
sleepy
hear
one
wash/bath
brush teeth
bird
see/boo!
hungry
thirsty
binky
around

Words Ian uses:  (43)

uh-oh
butt
yes
no
open
close
cold
bug
park
out
off
boo
yum
boom/kaboom
bird
snack
blue
yellow
red
black
brown
bath
car
cat
green
laptop
diaper
up
down
dump
bubble
pop
go
mama
dada
Leah
Tom
Eli
Pooh
in
more
glue
purple

I know I should have done the list in a spreadsheet so I could count easier and alphabetize, but I did it in Word.  Oh well, Justin can redo it later, he actually likes doing that.

Yeah, you’ll notice that “laptop” is on the list.  Only Justin’s son could be mute for 2 years, then come up with laptop as one of his first 50 words.  It sounds the same as “diaper,” so I need context.

Edited to add: Obituary at  The Examiner

• Week before last, Ian and Leah’s Arizona Grandma (a.k.a. my mom) came to visit for a week. Ian greatly enjoyed having another Grandma around to run ragged, and Shawna got a bit of a break from having to deal with two little people on my first week back to work.
• Leah is growing well, having put on about 2 more pounds in the last couple of weeks. She hasn’t been officially measured since her 2-week doctor’s appointment, but we’re approximating with the bathroom scale. She’s definitely not malnourished.
• Her eyes have stayed blue, and in the sunlight, what little hair she has is almost red; definitely much more red than Ian’s was. She seems to possibly have an allergy to something in her environment, possibly one of Shawna’s bath products, as she’s been getting a rash on her face after being held. The pediatrician’s office wasn’t too worried about it, but we’ll check back with them at her 6 week appointment.
• Ian is definitely taking the idea being a 2-year-old to heart, including the “wanting to be independent and do things for himself but not being dexterous enough or physically able to do things”, the “random mood swings and tantrums for no particular reason”, and the “strong opinions about what type of diaper, what pajamas, or what shirt to wear today”. I’m sort of envisioning this as being what having a teenager is like, except a teenager you can’t necessarily pick up and carry into their bedroom with, “I’m sorry, but you are going to bed now, and you’re not wearing your galoshes to bed.” We’re all learning the art of picking our battles, though.
• On the other hand, Ian is also becoming much more interested in creative play, crayons and Play-doh, building towers, squirt bottles, and other such. He also likes to “help” with many of the everyday things around the house - some of which (taking out the trash, doing the laundry, scooping the litterboxes) he is actually helpful with, and others of which (loading the dishwasher, vacuuming, doing dishes, putting ice in the glasses for dinner) he is questionably helpful with, but is quite offended if he is not allowed to help.
• We’ve determined that going out to eat (formerly one of our favorite pastimes) is probably something which is best limited to special occasions when trying to do so with two little people. In general, though, this will probably be a good thing for our wallets and our waistlines.
• Other random milestones: Ian and Leah attended their first They Might Be Giants concert at the KC Jiggle Jam; Justin (and Ian and Grandma Sue) participated in the Urban Photo Safari; Leah turned one month old; Shawna had her first night out without the kids tonight, and everyone is still in one piece.

That will be all. I’ll try to get more pictures posted soon.

Ian has been doing well, he seems to be adjusting well to his little sister - I think having me home to provide him extra attention has probably helped to balance out the attention being lost to little sister. I started working half-days from home last Wednesday, and went back into the office for the first time today (still just half-days this week, though). Ian seems to finally be getting past his “going-to-sleep” issues, or at least doing a lot better job of doing so, and it seems Shawna actually had a good first afternoon with the two of them at home by herself today.

We had a very mellow weekend - went to a picnic in the park on Saturday sponsored by our financial advisors. Aside from being a bit windy and brisk it was a nice outing - Ian got to spend some quality time in the bouncy castle, and we got some free barbecue and out of the house for a bit. Otherwise, the weekend was just spent keeping the house in order, doing a bit of shopping, and lazing around the house. I can’t say that I’m exactly ready to go back to work full time; working from home, now that I have a reasonably private space to do it in, was kind of a nice thing - I think I’m going to start trying to do it on a slightly regular basis, assuming it doesn’t get too many people at work upset.

I also finally got my new camera, which I am thus far enjoying - I will leave you with a few photos to enjoy.

The hospital gave us the go-ahead to go home about 2pm on Wednesday, after both of the doctors had checked out mom and baby, and with some help from Shawna’s parents, we hauled out all of the stuff, and drove on home. It was a warm and pleasant spring afternoon, so after getting home, we hung out in the back yard for a while, enjoying the sunlight and first few blooming things of springtime. (Which, unfortunately, seem to be dandelions and violets in the back yard.) Ian played on his slide and showered his new sister with kisses, and Leah lounged on Mama and Dad’s lap, content to soak up the sun. However, being springtime in Missouri and all that, after an hour or so, it clouded up as thunderstorms rolled in, so we headed inside to introduce Leah to her new world. (Unfortunately, this also coincided with me discovering that my almost-2-year-old digital camera had given up the ghost, so I missed out on some good photo opportunities, until I went and got Shawna’s camera instead.)

The rest of the day went by quickly, with Leah still in “super-sleepy” mode, only waking up to eat every couple of hours. (The eating is going very well, Leah is catching on to the concept much more quickly than Ian did.) Unfortunately, she decided to choose about the time we were ready to go to sleep as a good time to wake up for a bit, but after Shawna gave her a bit more food, she curled up on my chest and was good to go for a couple of hours. The first night at home was uneventful; aside from not getting more than 2 or 3 uninterrupted hours of sleep, we were all surprisingly well-rested, all things considered.

Thursday and Friday have likewise been, for the most part, quiet and as relaxing as possible, under the circumstances. Ian and I ran some errands and went to the park for a while Thursday afternoon, while Shawna and Leah stayed at home and napped and bonded. Friday, Leah had a doctor’s appointment in the morning (healthy and happy was the verdict), and Shawna’s brother Johnny visited for a while in the afternoon, but otherwise a quiet day. Hopefully tonight will be restful and tomorrow will be the same.

I will leave you with a few more pictures, including one of the family’s newest Hollywood mogul-to-be:

Grandma and Grandpa brought big brother Ian to visit yesterday afternoon, but Ian was very suspicious of the little thing in Mama’s arms. During today’s visit, Ian was more curious and less suspicious, however, and at least leaned over to examine her a couple of times while Grandma was holding her. Great-grandma Nave, Shawna’s cousin Cassie, and Shawna’s aunt Vicki also came to visit today; Leah slept through most of the visit, but Great-Grandma was happy to hold her while she slept. Otherwise, it’s been a very quiet day, I think we’re all looking forward to going home to sleep in our own beds tomorrow night. (At least at home there aren’t people jostling up and down the halls all night and calling the nurse to the next room every 20 minutes.)

Leah looks a lot like Ian did at 1 day old, but honestly, most babies do. Shawna’s and her mom claim that they’ve seen a dimple - I haven’t caught her smiling enough to tell yet. She has the same long, delicate fingers and toes as Ian, and her legs are long and skinny too, if she’ll actually stretch them out. She likes to stay bunched up in a little ball - I guess if you’ve been that way for 9 months, it just kind of becomes habit. I’ve taken many more pictures, which I’ll post once I get home and have a better network connection. For now, I’m going to try to get some sleep, though.