AJ and Pup- Best Buds














Pup at 8 months

Long Time No Blog

Ok, so the boys are sleeping early and I have some time! A lot has happened in the past two months. Pup had a great first Christmas and AJ got his kitchen and beloved BBQ tools from Santa. We brought them to see Santa and it was hilarious to see him ask Santa for BBQ tools. His grandpas bbq a lot. It was darling.



Pup has been doing well, but the day has come where the delays are starting to present themselves. He's now 8 months old and is starting to sit up really well and is almost ready to crawl. I can give him a Gerber "Puff" and he will self feed. At a PT evaluation he was found to have only emerging protective stem reflex when it should've been mastered by now. On a positive note, he did have some solid 8 month skills. So, he'll now have PT once a week on top of his regular infant teacher on Fridays. He also started to get OT monitoring once monthly to track/monitor his progress. He had that today and the OT thought he looked pretty good.

Puppy is now 8 months. Here's what he's doing:
smiling a lot (He's got 5 teeth)
Assuming hands and knees (should be crawling soon)
Sitting up unassisted for a longer time (starting to use his hands to keep himself up)
Transferring objects from one hand to the other
Beginning to self feed
Eating table foods (like potatoes, carrots)
Has liked almost every food we've given him
Saying lots of ooohs and aaahs but still not many consonants. I think I'm hearing mmmmmm and sometimes da da (but I'm not sure)

Dr. Hagerman is really concerned about his speech and wants him to get speech therapy now, but the regional center won't even look at him until he's 12 months. I'm thinking I may need to seek private therapy or see if insurance will cover it but I don't think they will. What exactly could they do at this point anyway? Any other moms have advice on this one?

Upon last well baby exam, Pup weighed 16.13 pounds. He's so much smaller than AJ was. His eardrum was still retracted so we are going back to Hearing Conservation to recheck his hearing. He will probably need tubes. At least he's had no ear infections and has remained healthy.


I found this infomercial for a set of DVDs called "Your Baby Can Read" promising to stimulate your baby's reading/language/communication skills. I read reviews, watched the commercial and bought into it. I don't know if it'll teach him anything but the videos are entertaining and educational as well as good for developing vocabulary. I don't know if it'll do anything for a child with fragile x, but I figure it's better than doing nothing. It comes with books, word cards, pictures....AJ likes it, too, so if anything it'll help him. It also forces me to spend more time with the boys which really is the ultimate goal. It'll also help to give Danny something to do with them when he's home with them during the day.

Snow!

I'm so annoyed with myself for not bringing my camera, but we went to the snow yesterday with the boys for the first time to go sledding. AJ had so much fun going down the hills. Dan and I took turns taking him down while someone held the baby. I was too scared to have him go down the hill. It was cold but not unbearable. There were lots of people, too, so parking was a little complicated. This is what it's like when it doesn't snow in your backyard. You have to drive to it. I'm so glad that Dan refused to let me throw his sleds away in one of my "Let's declutter" moments. I believe he actually pulled them from the trash can, but they worked very well. We definitely have to get some better snow clothes, though. Watching me on a sled was hilarious. That's something I don't ever think I have done. I was scared at first but kept wanting to do it again. It was exhilarating. I've never fancied myself as much of an athlete but maybe I could do skiing.

Piano Lessons

Today was AJ's first piano lesson. He was a little less enthusiastic as I thought he'd be, but I guess he's only 3 so it's to be expected. His teacher was so great and very patient. He learned where middle c was and got to explore the keys playing "Echo" with his teacher. His teacher would play out a rhythm and AJ had to echo it as best he could. When he wasn't being stubborn he did well.

Pup was hilarious tonight. Although I haven't heard baba in a while ( so sad...) he IS making a new noise. It reminds me of the sound you make when you prepare to play a trumpet. I can't really explain it. Anyway, he's pushing up on his hands really well now and is sitting up for a lot longer before tipping. I was told he doesn't have the instinct to put his hands out in front of him when he's falling so I have to practice on a ball....pushing him forward to get his hands out in front of him. It's weird as I don't know if AJ could do that....

I got in touch with a cousin from my father's side of the family tonight. We have spread the word about fragile x in our family and I'm not so thrilled to learn that many family members have tested as carriers. Thank goodness for Jules' doc who made the discovery.

OT Evaluation Today

Puppy had an OT evaluation today (Occupational Therapist) for fine motor, etc. So far, she said he's on track with typically developing kids so her recommendation was not to have OT at this time. He was grabbing things, pushing up on his hands, etc. That is, when they weren't in his mouth from all the teething. AJ kept watching saying, "Look, Mom, he's doing well." He and Daddy played with blocks while the therapist was here. She did say she had some concerns about some gross motor things. She felt he should be sitting up better at this point, but she's really not sure and would consult a PT to see if it warrants any physical therapy. So all in all, good news today. He was very smiley and happy. It wore him out so now he's. . .

Yum!

We took Pup to Disneyland for the first time.....an annual holiday adventure. He went on Dumbo, Pirates of the Caribbean, and others. Of course, with the exception of during this picture he wasn't at all fussy. It was a good day.

Here's A.J......He IS his mama's son for sure.

Pup tried carrots tonight. Liked them. His teeth on the top are really coming in. Drool everywhere and lots of hand biting. He's always laughing, especially at his big brother. It makes me happy. I just got the new issue of the Fragile X.org newsletter and there's an article in there by Jayne Weber that completely made me cry. It's all about the good that comes with having a child with FXS. I've been in a rut lately thinking about the future. Then I hear him laugh and I am healed. I'm having a really hard time lately, though, because as a teacher I have a few kids in my class with some special needs. One has autism and the other two don't have diagnoses but their behaviors are challenging, and they have definite learning disabilities. I think about Pup and what he'll be like when he's in school. Other teachers and even parents of other students are sometimes insensitive with comments about certain students, and I'm particularly sensitive to those comments now that I have my own child with special needs. I want to say, "Don't you know who you are talking to?" People don't get it.

OMG! I just turned around and AJ is playing "therapist" with Pup. They're doing "exercises."

Getting Brave

I've decided to start adding pics to the blog, as I love seeing everyone's photos. Here are AJ (aka Peter Pan) and Pup (the scary skeleton) in their Halloween costumes. Pup is now almost 6 1/2 months old. AJ is 3 1/2. They are best buds.

Pup is really enjoying solid foods. He's now eating sweet potatoes, squash, bananas, cereal, and started applesauce. Yum! He's opening his mouth and gets excited when he eats. (Don't we all?)

Top teeth are coming in.