In other news, Ollie’s speech therapist is impressed with the sounds he’s making and confident that he’ll be caught up to his peers by kindergarten. She brought me this nifty report of all the sounds he made (She recorded a session and transcribed his sounds). He adds new words each week and has been continuing to surprise people with his language. Even his teacher at daycare commented on it. “He’ll just out of the blue say something and I’ll be like, Was that Ollie? and it was!” So says his teacher.

Landon is becoming more responsible. He and I had a “Mom and Landon Day” on Tuesday, where in Ollie went to school and we went over to Tempe Marketplace. We saw Tintin, which was cute, although a little more violent and a lot more alcohol than I expected. It was very much an action adventure movie. After that we had lunch together at Red Robin, where we played a lot of Tic Tac Toe. After that we hit Dave & Buster’s and played some video games. We ended up hitting Game Depot and looking at dice too. After all of that, we got snow cones and then went to pick up Oliver.

Bobby has been feeling under the weather recently. He stayed home from work on Tuesday, called out sick, which never happens. Today he’s finally going to the doctor, so hopefully he’ll feel better soon. I started pushing him to go when he came home from work early for the second day in a row, and told me he didn’t feel up to going Hench Dinner. On the bright side, he got this neat new toy, called The Nest. He installed it right away, because he was so excited. But, partly because he was sick, there were issues.

I’m on vacation from work this week, which is wonderful, so Tuesday night I stayed up WAY LATE reading, at around midnight I finished my book and put it down, only to discover I was freezing. I got up and put my heated blanket on, noted that the heat was still on, and tried to sleep. But I just got colder. My heated blanket is small, and any part of me sticking out was cold. Around 2AM I realize the heat has been on for two hours and I’m freezing. I check the The Nest App on my phone, which tells me that it’s trying to heat my house to 73, as requested, but that it’s only 65 in the house. So now I know there is a problem. I get out of bed and check, and yes, it’s only blowing COLD AIR. So in the middle of the night, I fiddle with it and get it turned off, then cover the boys with extra blankets, and try to sleep. (Our room is the coldest one in the house.) I didn’t want to wake Bobby up because he’s been so sick.
I am too cold to sleep. At 3AM, Bobby gets up to go Potty, and I tell him what’s going on. He goes and messes with it, and ends up rewiring it and fixing the issue. Now the nest works great! Love it.

Ollie started walking

Bobby and I went to a car auction

I took a photography course

Landon brought home lice and had his annual Allergy blood draw

Ollie had a well visit

My boys and I all go to the park, and Ollie is big enough to walk there on his own

Bobby gets access to the benefits at his work, and we take our first weekend trip, down to Tuscon.

Paid photo shoot!

Easter!

Attended a great friend’s wedding

Saw my work turned into art

Watched Landon grow and graduate

My first maternity shoot!

Spent time at DISNEYLAND and SEAWORLD

Spent a lot of time in the pool

Added a nephew

Took the boys to the museum

And to Sunsplash

Took Landon to a play!

One Cabin trip this year. We need more.

And I lost a bunch of weight

Trip to Sedona

I had a birthday!

Ollie started at a new school

And Landon started Kindergarten

Landon turned 5

And had a Mario Swims Party with an Awesome Cake

Bobby and I celebrated 11 years of marriage and 16 years of being together by taking a child-free weekend in Sedona

We took the boys to Flagstaff

We went to the Zoo

And the AZ Herpetological society

Laura’s kids stayed the weekend with us, and we went to a pumpkin patch

I went to work in corset for Halloween

I went to a bar with friends to see Christian Kane preform

The boys continued to enjoy going to the park

And we had a wonderful Henchoween

We visited one more pumpkin patch

And the night before Halloween, Landon decided to scare us by almost choking to death on a coin.

Oliver to his Halloween surgery, tonsils and adenoids out, Tubes in his ears so he could hear, and he also started his therapy.

Ollie wasn’t really up for it, but we did have his birthday party at the park, he turned TWO!

We had a nice Thanksgiving

And a very fun Henchgiving

We saw Santa at my work

And made lots and lots of good food at Baking day

We made our annual trip to Holiday Hill

And Henchmas!

We celebrated Hanukah, Bobby made Latkes

Christmas was fun

And the Family Christmas Gathering was a blast

We’re doing New Years with Laura’s family.
How was your 2011?

I have no idea where he learned it, but it is the CUTEST THING EVER.

Both the DSI and the Speech therapist think he is making good progress. I Agree with them. Ollie spent some time in the one’s room yesterday and his one’s teacher was really impressed with him.

With the speech therapist on Weds or the DSI on Tues he said a bunch of things this week, including:
Five
Go Go Go
I Got it
All Done
Open
Lion (no L sound)
Hi

Last night at dinner he was happy and was playing his games. He sat in my lap and did not have a meltdown at 6:50-7 like he normally does. I took him home at 7:10pm without fuss.

Oliver is meeting with a speech therapist and with a DSI once a week, and those appointments seem to be going well. Oliver’s speech seems to be improving some. He is clearer and has been adding new words.

Landon is doing well in school. He’s in an afterschool Karate class and he loves it, which is cool. He’s still doing his swim class, which is only 30 minutes a week, but he’s up to level six and still really enjoys it.

I had some paid photography shoots recently which made me rather happy. I enjoy doing the portraits and the weddings both!

Thanksgiving went well. My Uncle Jack and little brother Sam seemed to enjoy Bobby’s cooking. Bobby did ALL the cooking, with the exception of the French Silk Chocolate Cream Pie, which I had made the day before.

After we ate dinner we trucked over to Bobby’s parents’ house. We didn’t see most of the family this time, but Mickey thought Ollie was doing better, and was overall impressed with his behavior. She does think that Ollie is a lot like Bobby was as a child, personality wise. I’ve wondered if some of his issues might not be pure stubbornness and a predilection to take after his eclectic father.

Thursday night I went combat shopping. This was the first year we went out at night, rather than in the very early morning, and it worked out rather well. We hit Michael’s first, and I got some good deals. The nephews are getting science kits and books for Christmas from us. Science kits were well priced at Michael’s. After that we hit Wal-Mart, which was a bit crazy, but went well overall. I didn’t get some of the T-shirts I wanted to grab Landon, but I got almost everything else on my list. We swung through Walgreens and then went to Target. We got to Target at 11:30, and got in line to enter. The line was super long. They opened the doors at Midnight and began letting people in. We did not get into the store until 12:30AM. It took that long for the line to move that much. Still we were home by 2AM! Not too bad! I’m about 80% done Christmas shopping at this point.

Friday was Henchgiving, and here is a picture of everyone who attended, except for two people who wandered in late (and not including the children, as they were playing) (Also I noticed someone is ducking, and you can only see the top of his head!):

Dinner was much fun, and Oliver was SO GOOD! He was happy and babbling and sat in my lap with a smile despite staying up late. Everyone thought he was making more talking noises, saying random things, and being much more open and interactive! I was so happy and so proud of him.

Overall things are going well. I’m attempting to find my Christmas Spirit, because I am excited for the season, but having trouble catching the mood this year for some reason.

I’ve tried before to get Landon to watch Star Wars (A New Hope) with me, but it never holds his interest. He’s watched the Clone Wars cartoon on occasion, but hasn’t grown to love it. I’ve heard the theory that Episode 1 is more kid friendly. Bobby is out of town, so last night I fired up Episode 1, popped some popcorn, and settled in with both boys.

Landon seemed to enjoy the movie. I don’t know if he’ll want to watch more or not. Landon kept asking me who was a bad guy and who was a good guy. He wanted it to be very cut and dried, no gray characters allowed. He had a little trouble understanding that Qui-gon was really dead, and that they burned him. When it was time to tuck him in bed, we had the following conversation:

Me: So did you like Star Wars?
L: Yes, but not the guy who got stabbed.
Me: Darth Maul? The guy with the red and black face?
L: No, the one who got stabbed in the belly.
Me: Qui-gon? The Jedi? Why didn’t you like him?
L: Cause he died. He wasn’t very good. He needed more training.

I LOLed.

Ollie watched some it, because Oliver loves popcorn. He sat on the couch next to me and ate popcorn with me. Landon had his own bowl of popcorn, and when that ran out, he started eating out of the large bowl Ollie and I were sharing. Oliver got so mad that Landon was taking his popcorn. I had to refill Landon’s bowl on the sly, so Ollie wouldn’t get too upset. Ollie spent a lot of the movie crawling around on top of me or yelling at the TV. I think he liked the movie, or at least, liked it enough to let us watch it.

Ollie seems to be recovered from his surgery. They are moving him up to the two’s room today at school. He is getting clearer in his speech. I think in the apple juice video I posted that he also says “I want that” and “I do, I do.” I could be wrong. In his bath on Saturday night he told me to “Blow Bubbles.” Mind you, some of this might just be him repeating words back to me, but that’s way more than he was doing three weeks ago.
One of the things the doctor keeps asking me is if Oliver engages in imaginative play. I’m never sure how to answer this, but now I am. Friday Ollie played peek-a-boo with his stuffed dinosaur. I watched him cover the dinosaur, and then act surprised when he lifted up the blanket to see the Dino. It was really cute. I also think he’s started trying to get Dino to eat cereal in the morning.

I’m hoping Ollie has a cold. He woke up really congested yesterday, and has a cough and congestion going on today as well. If it’s not a cold, I’m taking him to the allergist. He’s been off soy and dairy now for more than a month.

Anyway, there are three “choke points” where the coin can get stuck, and this coin made it past all three. Not sure if it’s a dime or a quarter, but he’ll poop it out at some point today.

And in other news, Oliver had his tonsils, and adenoids out today, as well as tubes put in. I’ll tell you about our day in pictures:
We had to be at the hospital at 7AM, which wasn’t too big of a problem. Ollie didn’t seem to really notice the lack of food or drink. Here he is waiting to be admitted.

Once we got the paperwork done we went to the second floor for surgery. We hung out in the waiting room for about 10 minutes before getting called back. Ollie got weighed and measured and we changed into these cute purple clothes that have kola’s in spaceships all over them. Then they brought us this cool car to walk around and entertain ourselves with. Oliver enjoyed “driving” around the block in it, and the walking was better than just sitting.

First I told the nurse Oliver’s medical history, then I told the anesthesiologist, and finally went over it with the ENT again. I got the details on what to expect, and kept Oliver entertained by more walking, or watching some TV. Finally, at 9:05AM, the nurses buckled him into the car and walked him to surgery.
I went downstairs and ordered all of his medical records, and then I walked over to the café for an iced tea. I took my drink back and sat down in the waiting room. It seemed like no time at all and the doctor was out to tell me everything went fine, no issues or worries. Oliver did have a bunch of sludgy mucus behind his ears that had to be vacuumed out.
I had been told they’d call me back before he woke, but by the time we went back there, Oliver was awake and SCREAMING. He wanted the bloody IV out NOW. He kept trying to take it off and he just kept screaming. His poor voice sounded so raw. It took about 15 minutes of me holding him and talking to him, and finally getting some Yo Gabba Gabba on the TV to calm him down. Once he was calm, he drank two juice boxes of apple juice.
Eventually we got wheeled up to our room for the night. He’s being kept overnight due to his history and his age. That way they can monitor him. The doctor said he might need a little O2 tonight, but we’ll see. He’d got his pulse oxygen monitor thing on his toe, most of the time, except when he kicks it off.
He basically spent most of the afternoon chilling out in my lap.

Or in Dada’s lap, when Bobby brought me lunch.

Grandma and Aunt Heather stopped by to talk to him and brought him a cool balloon. Ollie’s eaten two small jars or applesauce and he had two more juice boxes. He fell asleep around 3ish and is still sleeping.

And that’s my day so far!

Thanks to them, I’m getting in regular workouts, and not gaining weight despite my atrocious eating habits of late.

Ya’ll rock. Thank you.

Bobby’s skills in the kitchen are such a life saver. With Bobby being gluten free, Landon being Dairy free, and Ollie being Soy and Dairy free, feeding the family can be a challenge. But it’s a challenge Bobby has continuously risen to. He made a test cake the other day that was everyone safe, and it was so tasty.

My kids may have a special diet, but they get a special and TASTY cake every year for their birthday, and get to enjoy a lot of other wonderful foods besides.

And I love tasty food myself too.

Thank you Bobby! (Picture is a few months old)