Will had his early intervention evaluation yesterday. They determined that he does qualify for their services, so we will go through the process to further evaluate him, and meet with a case worker and then get assigned a “therapist” that specializes in what he needs. Basically it looks like he has multiple issues, so they are recommending someone who is a specialist in “Developmental Intervention”, or how children learn… which means they specialize in all of it, not one specific area. Will needs help with speech, and with eating. But also he has a lot of sensory issues and is not really aware of what he is doing all the time. Hopefully with some help we will be able to get him to learn more, and be aware of what he is doing… and also help him with communication so he isn’t so frustrated all the time. I’m hopeful that this will help us… we’ll see. Its a process that goes through the state, so it may take a little while, LOL
Will has some feeding issues, and it was suggested to us to make an appointment to get an evaluation by the feeding team at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). We made the appointment about 2 and a half months ago, and finally had the appointment yesterday. Read the rest of this entry »
Will had his first beach visit of the year this weekend! We went to visit with Pop-Pop and Mom-mom Lowess down in Wildwood NJ. We arrived friday and attempted to take Will to the beach late in the afternoon. He wanted no part of it, and wouldn’t let me put him down. I think the big-ness of the ocean scared him a little, plus it was such a different environment than we are usually used to.
Saturday we went down to the baby pool which is part of the condo complex where we were… this was a little better. Will was still afraid of the water, and very clingy, but he seemed to understand that he was warm, and the water felt better, so he put up with it, even though he was very cautious and unsure of what was going on.
Here is a photo of Will in the baby pool with mom:
We decided to head back to the room for dinner, and we had lots of play time there. We had a little difficulty getting him to sleep on friday night as it was a totally new environment so he was a little scared. Saturday night wasn’t as bad because i think he was just SO tired from the sun and running around that he conked out on the couch. Sunday morning we had breakfast while watching Caillou, and then we decided to try the beach again. We took him around in his stroller first which he seemed to like because he could see everything and he wasn’t as scared of it. Also the tide had gone out so there was a lot of hard sand to push the stroller on… Once we were done walking he seemed hesitant to leave mom, but eventually ventured out and played in the sand a little. It was a short trip, only for the weekend… but it was nice to be on the beach. Next time I hope he likes it a little more and we can truly enjoy it.
We had a great weekend for memorial day weekend… we traveled up to Toms River area (NJ) to see dad’s side of the family. It was a big family gathering, and everyone had a great time! To make it even more special, we had re-connected with some of our distant relatives on facebook who live over in England. They were able to come to the states and meet everyone! They had a great time visiting in NYC as well. Will was a little overwhelmed at the amount of people and all of the other children runnning around, but he eventually warmed up and was running around having a great time.
Here is a photo of Will and many of his cousins from dad’s side of the family:
Will has discovered dancing. He loves dancing along to the Wiggles, to the theme song to Caillou, even random music on TV… like the UPS logistics song on the commercial. LOL.
I chose the song “Everything Sucks” by Reel Big Fish for this video because the happy ska music fit his dance style, and well, “everything sucks” is a pretty good anthem for toddlers. hahaha.
Enjoy the radness of the Peanut:
p.s. sorry for the vertical video, i always forget to turn my iPhone to the side for video…
Will went to visit the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist this morning. They did 2 types of hearing tests… one where they hold a little node at his ear that hums and records how quickly/strongly the sound comes back from his ear drum. the other one is that we had to sit in a dark room and they do the sounds at different levels and pitches on both sides… when he looks to the correct side, a little animal lights up and plays music. It was kinda cute.
The bad part is that he had an ear infection in his left ear, so the tests were not a good indication of what his ears are like when he is healthy… so we are going back in 2 months. Hopefully then he will be healthy and we can get a good baseline test. They don’t think he has any hearing problems, but we do need to check. This could also be an indication of why he is not yet talking… we’ll see
We had a few days of being sick again. After visiting the pediatrician, we found out we have another ear infection. It was pretty bad this time because it caused another bout of the “reactive airway disease”… or the belly breathing and asthma-like symptoms. We were given a new drug for the nebulizer machine – this is an inhaled steroid similar to the drugs in asthma inhalers. After being on this, he cleared right up (from the breathing problems at least). The ear infection will go away with the normal antibiotics.
They explained that the R.A.D. can be triggered by any number of things, so I hope this isn’t a regular occurrence. And I hope he doesn’t develop asthma when he is older.
Of course this does not bode well for his Ear Nose & Throat (ENT) specialist visit in a few days…. we shall see…
Yesterday we had an eventful day. The really short version of the story is that Will has a cold, which caused him to have some breathing difficulty… wheezing and belly breathing. He also had a low-grade fever and some congestion. Read the rest of this entry »
Will had his 15mo dr visit yesterday. We are doing very well… he is still growing like a weed, but has not been gaining weight as quickly. He is now 28lbs and 35″ tall. He is doing very well with almost everything… only thing is he is not yet saying any true words, where by this age he should be. So we have to read to him more frequently and make an effort to speak to him more, help him build his vocabulary.
Also, he has another ear infection. This will be the 5th one in 5 months. So we need to go see the Ear, Nose & Throat people to make sure he is ok, and if not, get him whatever he needs to get better. I don’t know that he will be a candidate for tubes in his ears, but we will find out.
Other than that, good news all around. Happy Peanut!!!
Will does this cute thing now… if he is across the room and you hold out your hands, he will hold out his hands and walk really excitedly over to you. i like to call it his excited zombie walk!! hahaha
