Just the Boys, part 2

I thought I'd make one more boys post before Sarah returns tomorrow.  We've had an eventful week.  Ben is doing very well today.  We saw the surgeon this morning and is healing normally.  He's almost all the way back to his usual fun self already.  Here are some pictures from earlier in the week.  You'll notice that I really kept him moving so that he didn't have the opportunity to focus on missing his mommy. 

 Benjamin needed some blood tests in preparation for his surgery.  He had a 1:30 blood appointment and a 2:00 pre-op with the surgeon.  This meant no nap.  Predictably, he completely flipped out when they took his blood.  When it was time to go home Ben fought hard to avoid getting in his car seat.  It was a beautiful day and he wanted his stroller so I loaded him in and walked the 20 minutes into the town of Landstuhl where we found an ice cream shop.  You wouldn't know it from this picture but he was thrilled to be in his stroller.  He didn't know what to make of the giant ice cream cone though.

We had chocolate, vanilla and banana ice cream.  Ben ate them all but he especially liked the banana.

As soon as he finished he made the hand sign for more.  Somehow, I summoned the strength to resist giving in to this face.

He stayed awake for the stroller ride back to the car and the first 20 minutes of the drive home.  He finally gave in about 10 minutes before we got home.  That's his barnyard animal sounds toy that he's clutching.

One of Benjamin's favorite places to go is the post office.  Here he is reading the address to me, one letter at a time.

 

 He likes to try to open the mailboxes.  Note the look of concentration.

 The post office has 3 hallways like this with mailboxes, perfect for chasing, hiding and running!  We go at night after everyone has already picked up their mail so that Ben can have his run of the place.

 He flies around the corners so fast that I have a hard time getting a good picture.

 Ben and I spent a lot of time outside this week as the weather has been beautiful.  This is the park on base.  Ben hasn't met a jungle gym that he won't climb.  I don't get very many pictures of him climbing though because I'm the spotter.

 Here's our big boy swinging all by himself!  Germany doesn't seem to have any toddler swings.  Often he'll sit on my lap but sometimes he likes to do it himself (with me pushing, ready to catch him if he falls of course.)  This picture was taken with an extended arm as I stood beside him.

With the onset of spring this week Ben discovered a love of flowers.

Ben held this flower all the way home.  He also said "Flowah" about 50 times.

 Here's Ben at kindergarten.  He was playing on the slide with the other kids until he spotted me talking with his teacher and ran over.

At the duck pond in our town.  This duck came right up to the edge of the water. Ben kept pointing and saying "duck", thereby ensuring that I too would bear witness to this momentous occasion.

Excited to play in his room.

Taking a week off from work and spending all of my time with Benjamin has caused me to reflect on how fortunate we are to have this beautiful little boy in our lives.  When I thought about what it would be like to be a dad, this is what I pictured.  This stage, right now.  Except I really had no idea just how much we'd love him.  Parenthood is awesome.

Safe travels Sarah.  We'll see you tomorrow!

Mike

Surgery

Another Mike post.  This morning Benjamin had surgery to remove his adenoids and insert tubes in his ears.  His hearing has been limited by frequent fluid in his ears and the tubes should help flush them out properly.  His adenoids (enlarged lymphoid tissue in the upper throat) frequently swell, impeding speech while causing further congestion.  The surgery went well.  Both of these procedures are common for young children, but it was still scary.  He had to be put under for the operation and the breathing mask scared him. He was also frightened to wake up after the surgery w/the mask on, a tube in his mouth, and an IV in his arm.  He really is a trooper though and he calmed down pretty quickly.  He is currently taking nap #2 of the day b/c we started at 5am this morning and he was drugged up so he's extremely tired.  He's predictably cranky and sore, but other than that he's OK.

Here he is looking pretty miserable post surgery.  I'm letting him do whatever he wants today.  Here he wanted to watch TV.  He hasn't smiled post-surgery yet, but he's eating well and speaking frequently.  He grimaces when he swallows.  We're sticking with soft foods, which happen to be many of his favorites anyway. He doesn't want to be put down much, so I've spent most of the afternoon holding him.  Its another beautiful day in Germany, so I think I'll take him out for a walk in the stroller when he wakes up.  He normally enjoys that.  We go back to see the doctor again tomorrow morning for a check up, but so far it seems that he's doing just fine.

Mike

Just the Boys - Easter

Sarah went back to the states this week to be with her sister Katie, her brother in law Brian, and their new baby Sophie.  That means you get a rare Mike post!

Thought I'd start with a few pictures of Benjamin eating at the table.  He's getting too big for his high chair, though we still put him in there for especially messy foods like cereal.  The smile in the first picture is b/c he's proud of himself for pouring water from the measuring cup into the mug and drinking it.

Evidently Benjamin was repairing something when I called him to the dining room table on Sunday.  He is laying his eyes on his very own Easter Basket for the first time.

Face it, you'd smile too.

He's eating a german kinderegg.  It's a chocolate egg with a plastic yolk w/toy inside.

Plastic yolk, Ben.

Here's the toy.  It's a little bunny with string for arms.  You can pull his hands away from his body a few inches on each side.  Ben loves it.

Later we went to a party.  There was an easter egg hunt.  Ben enjoyed carrying his basket around but didn't want to put the eggs in there.  Once he had two, one for each hand, that ended the egg hunt for him.  He spent the next several minutes shaking the two eggs.

An attempt at a picture of the two of us.  Obviously the chocolate from the plastic egg is much more interesting than the camera.

 

 When we got home we played one of Ben's favorite games.  He watches through the kitchen door while I walk around the house calling his name, because clearly,I have no idea where he is.

 At just the right moment he spring out and scares his daddy, much to everyone's delight.

      

Its been 3 days without Sarah here now and so far its going about as well as I thought it would.  For the most part we're having a great time but it's clear Ben misses her.  He was very grumpy this morning but came around this afternoon.  I'm developing an even deeper appreciation for all the stay-at-home moms out there.  How do you get anything done?  This is intense!

Mike

March, Here & There

Catching up on photos from the last few weeks...Here is Ben with one of his favorite foods, cheese.  And he can say it, too.

Naming the numbers on the kitchen clock.

Earlier this month I babysit "N" again.  He was "throwing a tantrum" (quietly lying on the floor) because he didn't want his mama to go.  Ben did not understand this passive resistance, being that he is much more familiar with the screaming-and-flailing-type tantrum.  He patiently waited it out until N was ready to play.

In general, they got along.  Not too many fights over toys.  But they both drew the line at the recliner.  Surprisingly, no one got thrown overboard.

Enjoying a walk to the park on a chilly day.

Mesmerized by a video game at the E-Club (restaurant on base).  He was just watching the intro, no coins were put in to actually start the game.

Last Saturday there was an Easter egg hunt at our local base.  All the other kids had a grand time.  Ben refused to let Mike put him down.

A cookie made it all worth it.  He says that word, too.  But it sounds more like "key-key".

Duck Pond

These were taken almost 2 weeks ago; I'm trying to catch up.  Mike has taken Ben to a park and duck pond across town several times.  I went along this time.

Ben is too big for our toddler swing but still afraid to hang onto the big swings by himself.  But oh boy does he love swinging with Daddy.

Considering climbing the slide ladder all by himself.

Yeah, that's more like it.

He almost changed his mind but went down the slide once.  Then back to the swing.

Checking out the ducks.  It's not obvious in the photo but part of the pond was still frozen.

Heading home.

This was before we started restricting the pacifier to bedtime.  That went much better than I thought it would.  Every time Ben woke up, we would take his pacifier from him and hide it in another room, telling him that he would have it again when he went to bed next time.  The first couple times were rough.  Then he only cried for a few minutes.  After about three days of this, one time he woke up and just handed me the pacifier.  He hasn't fussed about it since.  As long as he knows that pacifier will be in his crib when he goes to sleep, he's fine.  And he has even started to suck his thumb sometimes.

So Many Appointments

I haven't posted much about all the appointments and evaluations Ben has had in the last few months, and it seems about time to summarize what we've been up to.  When he had his 2-year checkup before Christmas, the pediatrician was concerned about his speech development and referred us to a speech pathologist.  We saw her in January and she was very concerned that his speech had regressed a lot since we came to Germany.  She was also concerned about his personal-social skills.  First, she asked that we make an appointment with a pediatric specialist to evaluate his development more thoroughly.  Second, she put in a referral to the early intervention office.

A special ed preschool teacher from early intervention came to the house to do another evaluation of Ben.  That determined that Ben had enough issues to qualify for the early intervention program.  She and another speech therapist evaluated him again later.  From that, they determined that while he was still within the normal limits for personal-social skills, his communication is quite delayed.  The teacher and speech therapist came back last week to interview me & Mike in order to come up plan for working with him in the next few months.  I am glad to know that they will be helping with issues other than speech, like how unbelievably independent and strong-willed Ben is.

Early on in this process, the early intervention teacher was concerned that Ben never had a proper hearing test and has had a little fluid in his ears every time we've taken him to the doctor since last summer.  So she made it possible for us to make an appointment with an audiologist.

Ben saw the audiologist about a month ago.  She gave him a hearing test, and after she poked around in his ears with some instruments, she said that he had some fluid in his left ear that was preventing the eardrum from vibrating.  This was definitely the reason that he didn't respond to the low tones from the left.  She also said that if he has fluid in his ears he may not be hearing some sounds, specifically consonants.  So this is why he sometimes leaves off the beginning or end of a word.  She scheduled another hearing test (at the beginning of April) and suggested that I go back to the pediatrician if he shows any signs of ear problems.  He has been tugging at his right ear, so I take him on Friday to check for fluid.  I don't know what the chances are of him getting tubes to drain any fluid that might be there, but the audiologist said that if we don't make any progress with the pediatrician that she will try to refer Ben to an ear/nose/throat doctor.

It also took a long time to get an appointment with the pediatric specialist, but we're so glad we saw her.  She evaluated Ben for an hour and a half.  She was awesome.  She said that she understands why Ben's healthcare providers have been concerned that he has "lost" speech since we came here, and that a big concern for a kid like this would be autism, but she doesn't think he's autistic and provided a bazillion reasons why not.  She said that a big move like we made can be really disruptive for little kids, and she emphasized the importance of keeping routines to give him some sense of stability.  But she also talked about how incredibly persistent Ben is, even for a toddler, and how we need to overcome the challenge of providing structure and discipline for him.

Talking to the specialist really motivated me & Mike to try harder to be consistent with Ben.  The specialist suggested we start out with one behavior and add on from there.  We have had a hard time getting Ben to sit in his high chair for meals, so we started with that.  We have been making him sit in his high chair (or the Big Boy chair at the table) any time he eats a meal or snack.  He still resists but understands that if he wants to eat, that's where he'll be doing it.  After about ten days of that, we also took the pacifier from him when he wasn't sleeping.  The pacifier has snuck back into use during the day over the last few months.  Now he only sees it in the crib.  This has brought many tears and tantrums, but he seems to understand that he won't get it if he's not sleeping.  It is really hard for us to be more persistent than Ben is, but we are sticking to our guns.

Sorry for the all-text post...more photos soon.

Bazaar

 

 We were spoiled by a few days of warm weather last week.  Then it snowed again, just in time for the weekend.  We went out anyway on Saturday to a bazaar at one of the local bases.  I had gone to one there in the fall and found a lot of great stuff.

 

Mike at the cheese booth, always one of the most popular stands.  We got there early so he didn't have to fight to get free samples.  We ended up buying cheese, beer, jelly, and soap.

Even though Ben never left the stroller at the bazaar, he was tuckered out on the way home.  Sleep has been irregular this week.

Trying to cram himself into his DVD basket.

We got Ben a toy piano around Christmastime.  He had so many toys that we decided to give it to him later...and then forgot about it.  Mike put it together and Ben went to town.  He also likes playing with one of the household cleaning sponges.

Sometimes eggs are the only way to get this kid to eat protein.  He's getting much better about eating with a fork and spoon, but he gets impatient and makes scrambled eggs into a finger food.

This is the glass door to our living room.  Not only can Ben now latch it closed, but he can also reach the door handle and open it again.  In a related story, I just got a baby gate to install at the top of the stairs for when we transition him to a toddler bed.  That will probably happen in the next couple of months.