Tiny hand

Tiny hand
November 20, 2010 (one day old)

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Lilypie Premature Baby tickers

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Summer daze

Wow!  I can't believe it's been over a month since I've written!  The last time I wrote was the day Jason left again for Egypt, and he's been gone five weeks.

The three of us (Jamison, Cayden, and I) have been keeping busy and trying to keep cool.  It has been a long, wicked hot summer already, and the hottest couple of months are still ahead of us.  We broke multiple records in the month of June - several individual days' records were broken, the driest June ever, the overall hottest June ever, and twice we tied the record for hottest temperature ever recorded in Denver.  I'm sure I'll get very little sympathy from anyone else right now considering most of the rest of the country is melting too.  And it is true that at least we don't have the humidity to go along with the heat, so I'll try to stop complaining...

The good news is that this time around (with Jason being gone for another two month period) has been MUCH easier than the first time.  Since we can now go out in public with Cayden, a lot of the stress is relieved.  Not to say that it's easy being a pseudo-single mom with two under two, but it's easier

We wasted no time in setting up lots of play dates with many of the friends we've missed spending time with during our isolation over the past year and a half.  We've met friends at different playgrounds, at our house, at the "sprayground" (a playground that sprays and splashes water from different structures), and even ventured out to the Wildlife Experience - a sort of museum/zoo-without-live-animals, only stuffed (as in taxidermy stuffed) animals, with my old high school friend, Stacy, and her little guy, Brody.
- Chasing fish at the Wildlife Experience -
It's hard to tell in this picture, but there is a projected image of fish swimming on the floor,
and it moves and reacts when you step into the image area.  Pretty cool!

One afternoon, we went to Kidtopia - a weekly event put on during the month of June by an outdoor mall near us.  They have games, contests, and activities like face painting and people making balloon animals, all for free.  The week we went, they had a petting zoo. I took Cayden and Jamison inside the enclosure and surprisingly, Jamison was the one who clung to my leg, scared, while Cayden took off exploring.  They had at least a dozen pygmy goats, a donkey, little chickens, rabbits...Cayden loved them all and squealed with delight each time he pet something.  I wish I would have been able to get some pictures, but I didn't have my camera with me.

We've spent a lot of time cooling off at a few different friends' pools as well as in our back yard.  We have a little inflatable pool I bought a couple years ago that you can hook a hose up to and it will spray a sprinkle of water.  Cayden was terrified of the spraying water and did nothing but scream and cry whenever it was on.  He calmed down a bit when it was off, but still didn't want much to do with it.
Cute but apparently very scary crab-sprinkling-pool
 
So since it seemed Cayden wasn't thrilled with the pool, I bought a water table to play with.  He likes it and will stand there and play with it for a good long time, and he splashes enough so that he gets a little wet and cools off at least a little bit.

After playing on a little outdoor plastic slide at a friend's house, I bought a similar one for the boys.  Cayden was climbing on it before I could get the thing all put together!  This guy has no fear and he is a CLIMBER.  I guess having been through what he went through in 111 days in the NICU, nothing scares him!
King of the mountain!

We went to my best friend, Laura's, brother and sister-in-law's house for the Fourth of July.  They have their own pool and we were the only guests there, so it was great to have the whole pool to ourselves. 
Hanging out with Aunt Bee on the Fourth of July

Happy birthday, America!
With all of this activity lately and all of these new adventures, Cayden has barely been making it until his nap time.  In fact, quite often, he passes out in his high chair at lunch before I can get him into his crib!
Too. Tired. To. Eat. Anymore.
Developmentally, Cayden is doing well.  He's walking all the time and is getting steadier on his feet.  He still falls quite a bit, but I think that's usually either because he's tired or because he's trying to go faster than his little legs can carry him!  He'll probably continue with physical therapy for a few more months, as there are still gross motor skills he may need help mastering, but he'll probably no longer need PT by the end of the year.

Amy Jo, our occupational therapist, says that he's doing so well with fine motor skills that we'll likely only need another month or so of visits from her.  His language and communication skills are developing rapidly and his vocabulary is exploding!  Two weeks ago, I was concerned that he was only saying maybe three or four words.  Since then, I've been keeping a list and every day, he adds a word or two.  He's up to more than 20 words now!  The Developmental Pathways coordinator said they'd monitor his progress and reassess in a few months to see if they think he needs speech therapy, but everyone is pretty certain he's right on track and should be fine.

Thankfully, this second time with Jason being gone seems to be going by faster than the first time.  I'm sure keeping busy has helped, and I know the boys are happy to be able to do and see more than just the inside of our house.  Jason is due home around August 4th, and we are counting down the days!  We plan on having a big party when he's home, so stay tuned for details on that!

No comments: