Family Fun and Day 5 Recovery

I will say this for having surgery and Kyle staying home for a week, the boys have never been more happy playing with Dad than these past few days. Thought I would start with family first for those of you who don't care about the surgery stuff.

The hardest part about surgery is sitting on the sidelines. I feel like I am watching them grow without me. Yes, it has only been 5 days, let's not get so dramatic. However, being forced just to sit and observe is SO different than being in the action. You catch things you may not see otherwise. For example, how a 3 year old Grant looks like he's going to be 15 soon sitting on the couch. That couch gets smaller every day.

Logan is a mover and a shaker. He is not crawling yet, although I won't say he sits still by any means. He is everywhere. He wiggles. He rolls. He scoots. He even grabs tables and pulls himself across the hardwood floor. His favorite thing of late is to roll off the carpet and get to the hardwood floor so he can pound on the wood. He gets the biggest grin on his face and just pounds as hard as he can to make noise.  No toy or dog, or piece of furniture, is safe.

Logan has 4 teeth going on 5. The bottom two came in together as a set, followed by the top 2, and now a third on top. He is very happy to bite and chew on whatever you give him... even if that means the ear of a dog who is sleeping unfortunately too close to Logan. Poor Ollie. 

Find the baby! This scene started out with all the toys in the basket and Logan sitting next to the basket. 10 minutes later, and this is what you see. The dogs are "taking a break" as well call it. We have a lot of "invasion of space" issues between both the kids and dogs, so every now and then everyone takes a break to have their own space.

Here Grant is helping Logan open his mail. Grant has caught on to the idea of sending and receiving mail, and loves to open mail. He opened Logan's card and read it to him, and then handed it over for Logan to chew on. 

Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary, which means we have spent more years of our marriage in St. Louis (7) than in California. Kyle said "let me make dinner!" Which really, you should always say yes to. He made a lovely dinner of steak and salmon, asparagus and oven roasted potatoes. He even set dinner on the island for us to eat instead of the table because he knows his wife can't sit down for that long of time just yet. We ate standing up, next to these two crazy kids.

Trying on his St. Paddy's day hat. Wasn't too thrilled, but didn't mind much.

 Grant had to get in on the action too.

Dinner was lovely. We had a fabulous dinner, the boys ate at the island with us, and we had Sinatra in the background. Grant ate standing up on his stool, which is one of his favorite things so he was very excited. Grant also helped Logan eat some baby finger food and drink out of his water container. He's turning into a great big brother. We danced around the kitchen and laughed. For being such a screwy week, it was a dinner for the memory books.

Yesterday it was close to 80 degrees outside, but only a few days before, the boys had to get bundled up to go play. Logan has taken to the little blue car like he knows exactly what he is doing. The very first time Kyle put Logan in the car, Logan stuck out his hands, grabbed the steering wheel and honked the horn. For those of you who were with us in college, Logan is wearing the same gray knit hat Kyle wore at Cal Lu.

Grant has a few different vehicles to drive around the yard on, but for slow walk with Logan he hops on Thomas. We are working on learning that you can't crash Thomas into your little brother, or his stroller...or the dog, or the mailbox, or Mom... It's a work in progress.

This happened just this morning. The picture above is Grant at 10 months. 

The picture below is Logan this morning, at 9 months. 

Both liked to scoot backwards across the floor. It is a good shoulder workout, but also leaves your hands free to defend yourself from the hooligans known as Toby and Ollie.

Day 5 Recovery

First of all, I went back and looked at the blog from before and noticed all my typing errors. I'm not going to fix them. I'm leaving them there as a sign of the times. I was typing for maybe 5-7 minutes, and then I had to get up and walk around the room for a bit. Then sit back down and type. Part of me really wants to go back and fix them, but you've all already read it, so meh.

I am also amazed at how many people have told me they had this surgery, or are going to have this surgery. My doctor did say it was "that time for this generation". Seems like every generation hits a point where a few start breaking. I did ask him if I can attribute my original incident to pregnancy hormones or working out or anything, and mostly he just said "Normal wear and tear. Be happy it happened when it did. You could have been alone in the grocery store."

And then I thought - or worse, NOT alone in the grocery store with Grant and Logan as I writhe on the floor in pain. I did tell Kyle, if it was 200 years ago and calling an ambulance was not an option, I would have been looking for the nearest shovel to just whack myself in the head with. Just take me out.

I did call the doctor's office on Monday to ask about my nerve pain in my leg. Like I said before, if this surgery was just about my back, I would high-five the doctor, declare it a success and be on my way. Instead, I'm calling about leg pain. Whereas some people have crazy leg pain before surgery, I was numb, so in my brain I am now rationalizing being "not in pain" before surgery to "being in UNPLEASANT pain" after surgery. Thankfully, the PA at the office I spoke with was actually in my surgery and told me that my body had started to put calcium around the herniated portion of the disc and the doctor really had to fight to get it out. So yes (in her exact words) "your nerve is probably really pissed off". I started a 6-day pyramid steroid pack yesterday and am already feeling the relief. Yes, taking too many steroids in your life will ruin you, but a 6 day pack to ease the pain is a risk I'm willing to take. Now, of course, the trick is not to do anything extra today. I feel the best I've felt in 5 days, but you can't run out and do cartwheels yet. 

After your brain, there are 3 main parts of your body that need to be strong, especially if you lose or break one of those parts: back, core, and legs. Everything I do now that my back is out of commission is being powered by my legs - except one leg is really mad at me. Just think of every step, every chair, every move you make you have to plan out and make only your legs do the work. If we were in boot camp I would say "turn off all your other muscles and let your legs do the work". 

If you have been told you need the surgery, think about your normal day. Think about when you stand up out of a chair if you can use your legs or need your arms to help? Also think about your weight. The human skeleton has made a lot of poor trade-offs in order to stand up erect, and lower back issues are a function of how we are built. Extra weight will slow recovery and not help at all in the future. Do I mean get as skinny as you've ever been in your life? No. But do I wish I was maybe 5 or 10 pounds lighter before the surgery? Life would be easier. I don't mean getting rid of muscle, because you need every little piece you can get for this to go smoothly, but think about it in a logical process. There is also no exact "all better" date. It's not like with a broken arm when you are 6 and they take off your cast and you are all better. Your back is a moving, functioning main piece of your skeleton. It is basically healing while you are still bending and using it. There is no magic date. For a calendar's sake, you are out at least 2 weeks, but don't schedule any mud runs for a long while. Also, every person is different, so for everyone who said they popped right back in to action - congratulations. I am very happy for you. For others, it will take longer. Healing is not a competition. The competition is between you and your brain to not let your body do what it thinks it can the minute it starts to feel better. Holding off is the hardest part for me right now.

I've had a few people ask about this surgery and if I would recommend it. I must say, it's hard to recommend as I am not in your body and can't feel your pain, but so far so good. As my leg was before, I could not function properly, my leg did not keep up with my activities, and all I could think about was in the future Grant and Logan would have the mom that "couldn't keep up", and no one wants that. I feel like I am on the right track to recovery. I will keep in mind it has only been 5 days and I still can't pick up a child until the 2 week mark. No exercise for at least 4 weeks, and as my doctor said "None of that boot camp business for 6 weeks until we know what your back can handle." I will say that you have to know your doctor, and you have to make your doctor know  you and your lifestyle. In our first meeting I told him I was thoroughly annoyed with my leg that it didn't work and it was slowing me down. After that, we each knew who we were dealing with. I do feel lucky to live in St. Louis for our past few family health issues. I feel like we live in this rare combination of an area where there are a ton of specialists (especially per capita it seems), many doctors who are great at what they do, many teaching hospitals, and every time we need help we seem to keep winding up with the right doctor at the right time. For that, I am thankful.

As my friend told me a few days ago, "Back surgery and recovery is not a sprint. It is a marathon. You are now in a lifetime of recovery, rehab, and rebuilding."

Challenge accepted. 

Until next time, keep exploring!  If you think you've missed a post or two, just scroll down and look on the right for the Older Posts link. 

Love and hugs,

M, K, G, L, T & O

Arts and Crafts and Back Surgery

Hello all!
Been a while since we've posted. I was going to go back and go through my list of things and pictures to blog about, but there's no way... so we are starting fresh! Here we go.

Back Surgery

To be specific, last Thursday March 16 I had a Lumbar Microdiscectomy L5, S1. Click on the link to take you to a text description. You're on your own to look up a video...although there are a few great ones out there.

This all relates back to my herniated disc from right after Logan was born. Or as Grant calls it- when the firetruck came to pick up Mommy. At the time, the ER docs didn't know it was a herniated disc, just a lot of leg pain. If you didn't hear about that story, click here and scroll down to "Tuesday, July 5. Finally settling in to a routine..." to read about it.

It has been 6 months after the initial incident, and I was not in pain. I had numb spots here and there on the back of my left leg and the bottom of my foot (from the nerve being pinched), and my leg was slow to respond. For instance, my right leg would sprint and my left leg would just try t keep up. I looked like a galloping horse of some sort. Either way, I was not in pain and had gotten used to working around a numb leg. This made it incredibly difficult to rationalize with my brain why I needed surgery. Yes, I needed surgery to release the nerve and make my leg work properly again, but the night before surgery when you are not in pain???? You start to rethink your thought process.

The short version of surgery is that you put on your fancy surgery gown, they knock you out, put a tube down your throat to make sure you keep breathing, flip you over and do a small incision in your lower back, cut off the part of the disc sticking out, sew you back together, flip you back over and you wake up. Easy peasy.

I tell you what, my throat hurt worst of all. I also learned that when I wake up from anesthesia, I am a crier. Full on tears for no reason. I heard the nurse ask Kyle if I was normally this emotional? I just remember needing so much water to drink and being sooo thirsty and my throat hurting - scratched raw like when you eat triangle tortilla chips and the corners scratch you as you swallow them. Once you wake up and go potty (proof yet again that most things in life revolve around going potty), you get to go home.

Here's how they send you home - big band aid, prescription for Vicodin and you can take a shower in 2-3 days. I must say, the actual back part of the surgery is not as painful as I though, and definitely doable. I can sit, stand, lay down, all for short periods. No bending over. Not that you shouldn't bend over, but that you can't, your back won't let you. If it was just the back, this surgery would be super easy. The problem is that your nerve is now released and needs to settle. That means twinges of pain down my leg that I haven't had pain in for the last 4 months. It's like a dirty mental flashback to the original injury. You just have to let the nerve settle. 

In the meantime, you sleep when you can, stand and walk when you can, and sit when you can. Sitting is the worst for me right now as it hits the nerve running down my leg and I get that pain all over again.  I've been walking around the house and am hopeful to go outside tomorrow. Toby and Ollie definitely know something is not right and have been following me everywhere, room to room. Last night I slept in the basement, as it is easier to sit up and switch sides to sleep on rather than roll over in bed. I had these two with me all night long. The first night I was home, every time I opened my eyes in bed, I would look at Toby and he was already looking at me. I think he watched me all night. When he saw me awake, he would talk to me with his low humming growl, and I would say "It's okay Toby" and he would close his eyes and go to sleep.

Sunday is day 3 of recovery - Thursday doesn't count as a day since you are mostly still screwed up on anesthesia and shock - and I'd like to say I'm doing well, although I would also not like to anger the karma gods. I did get to shower (YAY) and take off the band-aid. What is left is a 2 inch strip of stitches. Not so bad considering what they actually did to me inside. 

Over the next two weeks (and forever after that) is to get better. Walk, strengthen my core, eat right, no excess weight, and just work on getting better. I am the person who reads too much and watches too many videos before a surgery, and I did learn that walking is the best way to strengthen your back. Hold all your core muscles tight to hold your body together and walk. Legs, core, and back - the 3 main things that hold your body together. When one of them goes out, you rely on the other 2 to get you through. I also am not allowed to pick up any kids for 2 weeks, which is why Kyle took some time off. It worked out to be during Grant's spring break, so they are getting a lot of playing time.


Speaking of playing time, I saw this idea online and copied it for Grant. Kyle put it together, so basically I just bought the pieces.

6 potted plant buckets from Ikea  $0.79 each
Lazy Susan from Ikea - $9.99
Kyle screwed the pots on the Lazy Susan and I filled them with fun stuff and off we go! We have crayons and markers upstairs in pencil boxes on the shelf, but we were constantly carrying them up and down to the basement and back to the kitchen. This one stays downstairs in the basement on the table.

We've also been finger painting and dot-painting lately. Pulled out the arts and crafts tote the other afternoon to see what we could play with. We are in between napping and not napping, so some days we are tired, but we just need to sit quietly and work to rest our brains.

See the green tray he is painting in? $5 at Michael's. WORTH EVERY PENNY. Contains the mess. Should have bought more than one.

Glitter! We also had fun with glitter. Lucky for mom these glitter tubes had sprinkle lids (like spices do) so you don't dump as much glitter all over the place. Still....I think the kitchen floor got a full sweep and mop that night. 

Grant also has a blank book from his arts and crafts table. Almost like a journal, but a book full of blank paper. Fun to use with stickers as he will put stickers on the pages and then color around them later (pic above).  

If you have not heard of washi tape, this house has a small addiction with it. It is technically patterned scotch tape, used to make stationery, add to your calendar or planner, or for fun decorations. You can buy it Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Target... but Etsy.com is the place if you are looking for specifics. I use it in my family planner that I have and the family journal I just started keeping - those two can be their own blog at a later date.  I looked on Etsy for some fun washi tape for Grant to play with and found a roll of tape that looks like a road, and then a roll of tape that is really stickers of cars and trucks. We opened them today and he had a blast putting them on everything. The best part is, since is mimics Scotch tape, it comes off of most things. If you look up in the Lazy Susan picture, you can see one bucket that has tape in it. One tape is trains and the other one is dinosaurs.

Grant likes to type on the computer. Today we were talking about holding down the Arrow Button (Shift) to make a small "g" turn into a big "G".  He also thought my desk could use some cars and trucks on it. The washi tape roll also came with street signs as well. Funny thing is that it was from a Japanese seller, so all the street signs are in Japanese. No one has noticed yet. 

The hardest part about having surgery and not playing with the boys is exactly that - not playing with them. I feel like I am sitting on the sidelines literally watching them grow. Kyle put Logan in Grant's old car the other day and he immediately grabbed the steering wheel and honked the horn. I see driveway races in our future. Logan has 4 teeth now, going on 5. Whereas Grant got teeth one at a time, Logan seems to get them in sets of 2. He is so curious and aware of the world around him and super frustrated when he can't get to where he wants to go. He rolls all around the house and I keep thinking any minute he is going to start crawling. 

The family dynamics in our house are a bit like a science experiment. Toby stays away from both Logan and Grant, but will run out to the van every time I come home to make sure I brought home everyone I was supposed to. Toby will, however, pick and choose his chances to give Logan a kiss and get some formula off his face. Toby tolerates Ollie, but Ollie follows Toby everywhere and just wants to be near him. Ollie and Grant play and run, but Ollie will bring his toy to Logan. Logan has picked up the game pretty quick and will hold on to the toy while Ollie plays with him. 

Click here to see a video of Ollie playing with Logan. 

And of course, everything goes in our mouth. Ollie lost this round, but I'm sure there will be more. I am hoping to get back on track with the blogging discipline and write again soon!

Until next time, keep exploring!

Love and hugs,

M, K, G, L, T & O

Go Outside!

Hello all, 

We've had quite our share of weather these past few weeks. We've had snow, rain and sun, and then back to snow again. Thankfully, I'm not yet one of those people who has enough snow clothes to put them away for winter, as I've heard most mothers complain about lately..."right when we put the clothes away, more snow arrives!" Nope, not me. I have clothes. When it's cold, I put on more clothes. That's it. Correction: Grant has a Snow tote, but he also has real snow pants and jacket, which I'm sure after he eats lunch today won't fit him anymore anyway.

Fun with Pictures

I was going through pictures and came across these two...Me from sword class a few years ago and Grant last October at the pumpkin patch...in case you were wondering where he got that face from.

The Sun!

When the time changed, the sun started attacking Grant on our way to school. He does love his sunglasses, and will hide his eyes with his hands and say "bright!".
Do you want your sunglasses? "YESH PLEEEZE!"
...it bugs me when kids say "ya". I know I did it when I was younger, and I've heard other kids and adults do it, but ever since my brain decided to be a grammar nerd my ears can't take it. Now that Grant has found the talking bug, we've really tried to instill "yes please" and "no thank you".  Now every time he says yes, it comes out with a great roar at the top of his lungs "YESH PLEEEZE!"

Helping Dada

The other weekend was sunny and lovely to be outside. Kyle was wiping down the truck and Grant wanted to help - he LOVES Dada and wants to do whatever Dada is doing. So he grabbed and towel and pitched in.

 He wiped down the doors..

Went around and wiped down all 4 tires...

Then he decided his own vehicle needed cleaning. He wiped down Thomas' face...

 And the top of his head...

 And the back...

And then without any prompting, he stood at attention when he was done, like we were coming to inspect it. It was too funny. We all agreed that Thomas goes much faster now that he was clean.

Speaking of Thomas and trains in general, we have recently discovered that trains outside are much more fun than inside! We grab our trains, we grab the chalk and draw our own track outside, and off we go!

(If you give a mouse a cookie..) If you drive trains on chalk tracks, then they need a bath - not to mention your pants, your shoes, and the entire boy. His shoes and pants were not green when this day started.

Why stop at chalk? Of course trains can go in the sandbox.  The sand makes chugging down the track a little harder, but we manage.

Then of course the trains need a bath again. Miraculously, all the talking trains survived the multiple baths that day. I don't know that I'd throw them in the bathtub, but they did great in the quick little baths throughout the day. I love the kitchen stool we got for Grant. He can't really drag it around to where he wants it, but he can stand next to it and point to it and ask "Momma mooove tool," and then he runs and points to the spot on the ground where he wants it.
You want me to move the stool over there? "YESH PLEEEZE!" Of course we are more than happy to follow orders and move it.

All things trains, all the time. When the weather is not so great, Thomas comes inside and Grant will line up other items behind him to make a longer train. I'm waiting for that day when he figures out how to tie up chairs to Thomas (or the dogs..or a little brother...) and drag them all through the house. With 2 dogs, 1 boy and another boy on the way, I'm totally over trying to keep the floor spotless. We are more into "just don't burn the house down" territory.

Party Like it's 1960!

Our lovely friend had her 40th birthday a few weeks ago and had a fabulous 1960's themed cocktail party (think Mad Men).  Everyone dressed up and looked fantastic. There was champagne tasting led by a professional sommelier, delicious food, and era-appropriate decorations. A great time was had by all. Here is our "let's be serious first" picture. I'm about 16 weeks pregnant.

 Smile!

No party is complete without the smoking and drinking pregnant woman picture.

All in all, we've had a great few weeks. Uncle Jason was just here to visit (more on that in the next blog), and thank you to those who are asking, I feel great. Just about 22 weeks and moving right along. I'll find a picture of me with Grant at 22 weeks and post both shots for comparison. All I can say this time around is that it goes much faster since I'm not calendar watching like I was the first time, plus I'm chasing little man around. The only real difference is that the aches that happened towards the end of the first pregnancy have started to show up earlier, but if that's all I have to complain about, then I'm not complaining one bit.

Until next time, keep exploring!

Love and hugs,

M, K, G, T, O and G calls him, "bebe"

Big Boy!

Look out world, we are entering Big Boy status. 

School has started, and it is all the rage. We love school. We only go 3 hours twice a week, but we have so much fun! As soon as I pick him up, he jibber-jabbers all he can to tell me what he did that day, right up until he falls asleep. After 3 weeks of school (6 class days), he has yet to make it all the way home awake, and that is okay by me! Thankfully, he transfers well to his crib and as long as we have a snack before we head for home he will stay asleep and take a great nap.

Before school started we talked about all the fun things he was going to get to do. The class has a turtle and a hamster the kids can feed in the morning, plus puzzles, games, painting, and toys outside.  He was ready and rearing to go.

Here we are with Dad on the first day of school. Mom had a bad back that day and had to call in for reinforcements, so Dad jumped in. With this school, they do something really helpful and the teacher came to visit Grant at the house a few days before school started! It was just for 15 minutes, but it was fun for him to meet her "on his own turf" and show her his toys and say hi. Then on the first day he walked in the classroom like they were old friends. 

With Grant, there are no tears. He's happy to hold your hand on the way in to class, but once he sees all the fun stuff to do, it is almost as if he holds up his hands and says, "Peace mom! I'm out. See you later." and walks right in to class without looking back. 

Another fun thing about school is that Grant is in charge of taking his tote bag to and from school every day. Sometimes there is nothing in it, sometimes a piece of paper, a note home from the teacher, but every day the bag goes to school and comes home. I like that it teaches responsibility, how to carry something, be in charge of something, and it is too stinking cute to see all the toddlers carrying their bags. Plus, the preschoolers have a different bag, so at drop-off in the mornings you can tell who goes where by which bag they are carrying. So fun!

With school only 2 days a week and swim lessons on Saturday, I thought how bizarre and confusing it must be for Grant to wake up and wonder where we are going today? We talk about it at night when he goes to bed, letting him know tomorrow is a school day, but what else could we do? A calendar! I grabbed some poster board and post-its and made a make-shift (read - okay if he destroys it) calendar. We read it every morning when we come downstairs, and then before we go to bed we look at what we are doing tomorrow. I am still waiting for my swim stickers to come in the mail, and then we will know on Saturdays we swim.
On a sidenote - when did stickers become so hard to find and so expensive? I remember stickers being sold everywhere for maybe $0.99 a pack, and now that I actually want to buy stickers, I can't find them. I am not paying for those scrapbooking stickers either. Moving on...

I was telling an acquaintance of mine about the calendar, and having no children, they asked, "Can he even understand it?"

Don't know, don't care. He seems to get the idea, and if not now, then maybe in the future he will. Would you rather have someone show you a new idea or concept before you are ready, or have them wait and not tell you until they think you are ready? All I know is that for 3 years in high school Spanish class every morning we had to say "Good morning. Today is Monday, September 14, 2015" (en espanol por favor), and I still remember it to this day. So if nothing else, Grant will learn his months, days of the week, and how to count to 30...between now and 3 years from now.

Another part of being a big boy is that we can climb up on kitchen chairs now. He can climb up on anything now. He like to sit at the table and eat, and originally requested all his meals served at the adult table. However, a negotiation was reached, and the three main meals are served in the high chair, with the after-nap snack served at the adult table. The after-nap snack is usually crackers and cheese with milk, which is the least messy of the meals during the day. Plus, Toby really likes crackers and cheese and is happy to help clean up. 

I accidentally bought the best book ever. While strolling through Target I grabbed it for him to read in the cart as I finished up the list. Yes, I know, I was boycotting Target for Amazon Pantry, but that is a blog for another day. We are back at Target with "list only" purchases on a "needs-only" basis. We tend to have a lot of rules...clearly I broke one of them already by buying the best book ever when it wasn't on my list.

After walking through Target and getting my list done at light speed, I realized Grant had not made a peep the whole time. He was mesmerized by this alphabet book. For every letter, it has arrows showing you how to properly print the letter, and as an added bonus, each page has a flap to show you one more word that starts with that letter. He loved it. He uses his fingers to follow the arrows, lifts the flaps up, and when he got to the end, he closed the book, flipped it open to the front and began again. Sold!

Grant's personality emerges more and more each day.  He is a funny guy, and loves to smile and giggle and laugh with you. He also has decided lately that he loves hats.We have a real hats around the house, but I also grabbed a few from the $1 bin - important hats like fireman, construction worker and army general.

Oh, and if you are wondering, I looked it up. Darn English.
emerge: to come into existence; develop
immerge: to plunge, as if into a fluid OR to disappear by entering into any medium, as the moon into the shadow of the sun.

New fun for our house also includes a magnet board. Our fridge has wood paneling to match the cabinets (which is way cooler than it sounds) and so we were at a loss to play with magnets on the fridge. A little Google search to see what everyone else is doing, besides paying the $50 some companies wanted for their magnet boards, and I found the best idea ever. This is an old-school oil pan. The kind your grandpa had under his car in the garage that is $11.99 at Ace Hardware. It is perfect. Plus, now he's not in front of the fridge. He loves it, and I love that he can play in the kitchen and be where I can see and hear him. 

One of Grant's favorite things is running around the circle in our house through the family room, entry way, dining room and back again. He thinks it is funny every single time he pops out of the swinging door, and really, who could blame him? Toby thinks it is a great game too and the two of them are peas in a pod, right up until they are mortal enemies. But best friends right up until then.

Another awesome purchase that I was not intending to buy - gigantic flashcards from Costco. They are just the right size for little hands to hold and play with. Stacking them in the box is the best part. They have great pictures and a clean large font to read. I have thrown out some flashcards in the past because the font was so flowery they were not easy to read. We have a ABC set and a First Word set. Love them both. Grant likes to look through the flashcards and find ones that he knows we have the actual object in the house, like ball or apple, and he will get up with the flashcard in hand and walk over to get the item.  He also will place the Dog flashcard over by Toby, because, you know, he's a dog. It's amazing to sit and just watch the wheels in his head go to work. With the airplane card, he will grab his ear and point towards the sky because we can usually hear airplanes flying over the house. Any animal card and he makes the sound of the animal. Interestingly, since we have not seen a van (we have an SUV), he would see the van card and I would say VAN, and he pointed up - to the ceiling FAN. Even when he gets it wrong he still gets it right. Thankfully our neighbor now has a van so we can see it in their driveway and talk about it.

My favorite part of every day is just watching him grow, learn, and explore. He is so happy to share his world with us and tell us all about it. You just have to sit and listen.

We have posted a few new videos since last time. Instead of listing them all here, just go to the Mandi Comer Sabie YouTube page to check them out.

Until next time, keep exploring!

Love and hugs,
M, K, G&T