Wee School

Bryant starts Mothers Morning Out on Thursday. He will go two days a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30-1:00.

So today, Bryant and I went to the church to meet his MMO teachers, Miss Lissette and Miss Bobbie.

He wasn't thrilled at first just like every Sunday morning drop off, but after a few minutes he explored the room and played with the toys. I think he touched everything in the room. He did some vacuuming, played with the truck and Thomas the Train, open and closed the toy kitchen cabinets...just like the real ones at home, played with a shape sorter, was fascinated with the paper apples on the ceiling and clung to this laughing/tumbling Elmo. Needless to say, when I asked if he was ready to go bye-bye he shook his head no. Good sign, right.

Tuesday's they will have music and motion time and Thursday's they will have time on the playground. Otherwise the daily schedule is the same.

I am not allowed in the room on Thursday (or any day) during drop off so I had to at least get a picture of him playing today.



He will (I will) carry this bag with all of his stuff everyday and this tin box that will be his lunch box.

Update

Two very important pieces of information to share are that we have Cable! and our AL season tickets arrived! We will be selling most of our tickets, hopefully, and watching the games via our newly installed U-Verse since that is the whole reason we got it.



Bradley is doing great!!! I am 21 weeks today.

At my Perinatal appointment on Wednesday everything checked out. He is growing and my placenta looked good. The next Perinatal appt. will be at 28 weeks.

He is very active in my belly and surprisingly, likes his hands by his face just like Bryant always did. I think he might even like to suck his thumb...


Profile with hand at mouth


Leg and foot



top left - head and torso with hand at face
top right - profile with hand at mouth
middle left - profile
middle right - no clue, but my guess is face
bottom left - arms and hands
bottom right - tush and wee-wee

Our Thursday playgroup friends met up at the new Splash Park last week for some water fun. I wasn't sure how B would do but he surprised me. I actually think he enjoyed it. I followed him around the entire time while he played. He was all over the place.





Nick took this pic of Bryant on Sunday. He is watching You Tube videos of Elmo and holding a little calculator.



Here he is again watching Elmo...



Bryant's speech therapy appointment was eventful this week. I ended up taking him to the Dr. in the afternoon and found out he has a left ear infection...Hence bad mood Bryant during his therapy session.

He wasn't into lunch so we quickly moved on to other topics. Bryant did very well with incorporating the "signs" from last week into our day to day activities. So, this week we are to continue with those "signs" and really focus on Bryant watching our mouth when we say the word for the "sign"; "more", "yes" and "all done". The new sign to learn for next week is "help" and he is already picking up on that one pretty well.

We also spoke more about Sensory Integration (click link to read about it) and next week we will complete a sensory profile to determine if Bryant will need to see an Occupational therapist.

Bryant's therapist made this point so it's important to note it from the article, "Nobody has the perfect sensory system; we all have our own quirks whether we are aware of them or not. Children also have their own little quirks."

We are still at a stage of trying to understand if this is something Bryant will need additional therapy for. It's hard to explain if you are not around him day to day, but we need to determine if some of the things he does like rocking in his chair and banging his head on things is an attention seeking thing or if it is providing a gratifying sensation to his body. The sensory profile will help. Right now we know that Bryant enjoys pressure on his body and rough play; wrapping him really tight like a burrito in a blanket, bear hugs and helping him jump to feel pressure all through his body.

Please pray for our patience during this time. Obviously, we want to do what is best for Bryant, but it's hard to stay focused on that and not get frustrated.

Bradley is still Bradley

I had my 20 week OB appointment and ultrasound this morning. Bradley is still Bradley! The arrow points to the spot...



He was all over the place during the ultrasound and even before. He started out upside down with his feet over his head. He moved around so much he wore himself out and fell asleep. It was funny!

This is Bradley's profile...


This was Bryant's profile...


It is obviously hard to tell in these pictures, but I have a feeling we are looking at two completely different looking (and acting) boys. I can't wait to find out!

In other news...

Bryant had his first speech therapy session today. The time went by so fast. This session wasn't very hands on as she wants B to get used to her being around. She will come once a week for the next 18 weeks. Same person, day and time for 18 weeks.

Today, she watched him eat, or I should say, not eat. He didn't want his pasta so he had some chips and a ton of fruit. Which re-confirmed that Bryant does need this oral motor therapy. Makes sense now why he likes things that are spicy and sour because those foods "wake up" his mouth.

For example, on Sunday, Bryant pulled the lemon juice concentrate from the fridge and wanted it so I let him taste it...he made a funny sour face, but asked for more. He liked it! I told this to the therapist today and she was speechless. She uses lemon juice in her oral motor therapy and most kids do not like it. Bryant will be an exception.

He learned the sign for "more" today and we will be learning some additional signs during this process. This weeks assignment is to incorporate the signs for "more", "all done" and "yes". Bryant never picked up on signing when he was younger so I just stopped doing it. I'm sure he would have picked up on it eventually had I been more persistent and consistent with it. He literally was signing "more" after doing it for 10 minutes. It was awesome!

We will also be doing some facial massage before meals to help stimulate or "wake up" the nerves in his mouth. Interesting...

More to report next week.

20 Months

I'm not quit sure what he is doing, but it's really funny to watch. He did the same thing a while back with his stack rings and I called it stack yoga... if you remember that blog post.



I took this picture this morning. B was hugging this Elmo and I thought it was really sweet. At one point he had it cradled like a baby, not intentionally, because he has no idea what that means, but it was really sweet.



I ask Bryant, "where's the baby" and he knows to put his hand on my belly. I'll also say for him to "love the baby" and he will lay his head in my lap. So sweet!

We had music camp at our church Mon-Wed. It was a baseball theme, so B wore his cap on Wed to camp. I think he had fun. He likes the instruments and he would clap and tap his feet, but that's about the only participation I got out of him. He preferred to stand still and watch. He gets that from both of us...I was always shy and Nick was too. The highlight was that he did hold a little girls hand on Tuesday, which put a pretty big grin on his face...moments like that when you need a camera. I took this picture in the car on the way to church. He wouldn't look at me.



Bryant will start his speech therapy on Wednesday, 7/27. I don't know how frequent we will meet with the pathologist right now, but we do have 18 visits with her. One of the requirements for speech therapy his to have a hearing evaluation. We did that on Monday and Bryant passed. So, I know he can hear me...he may not listen very well, but he can hear.

I am very optimistic and really expecting Bryant to blossom in the next few months. Especially since he will be starting mothers morning out in August.

Baby update

We had our appointment with the Perinatologist today. We are happy to report that the baby is growing perfectly on schedule with my due date.

I will see the Perinatologist at 20 weeks and again at 28 weeks to monitor the baby's growth.

Sweet baby hangin' out in the womb.



They asked if we wanted to know the sex prior to the ultrasound and we said yes. The tech had no trouble finding "it"...



It's a Boy!
Bradley Lawrence Gardner

Our sweet boy with his hand by his face just like his big brother did in the womb.