I know it has been a while. Now that we're caught up with the pictures, I would like to share some of the general things that happened over the summer/this fall, and also announce some changes.
Over the past year, I have been experimenting with including more pictures on the blog. I know that many of you don't really get to see KP very often, and this may be where you turn to see how handsome he is or how quickly he is growing. However, I have also noticed a drastic decline in the frequency of posts. This is due to a combination of things. One is that we just don't take as many pictures as we used to because KP is a man in motion. We take videos sometimes, but those are harder to edit and post. Which brings us to the second reason. Once we do get pictures, they have to be edited (which hasn't been happening lately), and the upload and publishing process is a bit more involved. So, you get pictures, but not much information.
I have been trying to figure out where to go with this blog now, and that has caused me to re-evaluate our target audience. Our readership is way down from 2 years ago, probably because KP has become boring compared to the minute to minute happenings of his newborn life, and also because posts have become so infrequent and unreliable. So, ultimately, who am I writing this for? At the end of the day, I keep writing for us, and for Everett, so that we can get this all published out in a book for us to keep here as a modern day baby book of sorts. Hopefully, this will be a record for KP to look back on and see how busy his young life was, but also to show him how strong he is, in case he ever doubts himself. Maybe it will serve as a record for him to look back on when he himself becomes a parent, and he can see that his parents went through many of the same struggles as he is going through. Maybe he'll see that we didn't always know all of the answers, and that will provide him some comfort.
Whatever the purpose, I feel that I am doing a disservice by focusing on the photos so much, because KPs story is being neglected while I wait for pictures, or wait for time to edit and publish pictures. So, from here on out, I am going to attempt to post more frequently. This is not to say that we will never have pictures again, but I would like to return to our roots where the pictures just enhanced our story.
Let us begin the recap:
Hand Surgery
After KP's visit to Scottish Rite, where they told us that they would wait yet another year before operating on his thumbs, we made the decision to search out a second opinion. At this point it was not a matter of "if", but "when", and we felt that a 2 year old with a cast would be much better than a 3 year old...well, maybe not behavior wise, but there is less impact on a 2 year old's activities with a cast than a 3 year old's. Anyway, we found a wonderful hand surgeon, and scheduled surgery for October. KP decided to get a runny nose and a cough the day before surgery, and let it fully be known in the doctor's office, so surgery was rescheduled to November 17 (Happy Birthday, Mimi). In the coming weeks, we will be pumping KP full of zinc, and airborne, and anything else I can think of to try to pump up his immune system and keep him well so surgery can happen. It is always tricky to try to do things this time of year, but with our work schedule, it is near impossible to do anything over the summer, so flu season it is. :)
This surgery will be on his right hand. We will do his left hand after his right hand has healed. For his right hand, the doctor will take a tendon from the top of his right index finger and redirect it to his thumb. This will give him the ability to pull his thumb up. She will also take a tendon from the bottom of his ring finger and redirect it to his thumb. This will hopefully allow his thumb to come in toward his pinky, giving him a pincer grip. While he is under, she will also deepen the webbing between his thumb and forefinger to give him a bit more mobility. He will be in a cast for a little over a month after surgery, and then will get some sort of OT to help him relearn his hand.
School
KP was registered to begin school at Little Saints this fall in a 2 day a week program. In August, our nanny flaked out on us without giving us notice, and so we were forced to reevaluate our plan. This ended up being one of the best things that happened to us. We found a wonderful preschool for Everett. He loves it, we love it. He is in the Level II classroom, which is set by their age on September 1. This was very important to us, because once he enters school, that is the standard that he will be held to, so we figured it would be best to start him now. He has made many friends at school, and after they are done with curriculum, they have a bunch of different activities that the kids do. We enrolled late, so he is not enrolled in a lot this fall, but next year we will probably take full advantage. Right now he does a tumble gym once a week that he loves. At school, he is learning how to listen, and how to share and take turns. A lot of the blog from here on out will probably have stories from school that his teacher has shared with us. :)
Potty Training
Potty training is still a work in progress with KP. He knows what to do. He knows when to do it. This week he is in a refusal stage. Also, we are still messing with his meds. We have pretty much given up on messing with his diet. There are just too many variables right now. When he gets older, we will teach him about how certain foods affect his bowels, and give him the choice of backing off of his meds in favor of controlling by diet, but we just aren't there right now. When given a choice, he makes good food choices, but the options have to be there. And, since most kids sneer at whole grains, they are not often offered at school. This weekend we started the pull-ups to get him used to them. We hope that as he uses them more at school, it will translate into him wanting to use them more at home. Right now, we're still ahead of the game. His doctors don't think that IA kids should be potty trained until they are 3, so we're good, but he can't move on to a Level III classroom until he is. So, the more we work on it, the better.
The Library
I have rediscovered the joys of having a library card. In college, the library started meaning something totally different to me than it did when I was growing up, and I have just rediscovered the loveliness of the pre-college library. :) KP has loved it because there is a story line that you can call, and you press a button and there is a recording of someone reading a story. Also, it has given us the chance to try out some different material for KP that we probably wouldn't have tried otherwise. Most recently, we checked out a DVD of trains, and a Thomas the Tank Engine read along book/CD set. KP loves books, so I look forward to a lot of fun in the future. Hopefully we will be able to make it to a story-time soon. :)
In general
KP has been developing nicely. He is speaking in 4 and 5 word sentences. He is very opinionated, and very independent. He has been taking instruction well, so it helps a lot when he is having trouble with something, because we can talk him through it (because if we touch it, he will tantrum). I've been finding this age tough to navigate, so I hope the next stage will be easier. I can't figure out right now if we are encouraging his independence, or letting him walk all over us. I think it is a fine line, and it is tough figuring it all out. Whew.
Stay tuned.
xoxo
Margot
