Changing Focus

When i downloaded pictures from my camera this morning and they spanned easter to end-of-school activities, it confirmed something i had been sensing, our rhythms have definitely changed this year.  While our focus for the past few years has been firmly on our family and close friends, we've shifted a little bit more outward in the last 6 months. 

Henry and Silas are both enjoying close friendships with school friends that have resulted in drop-off playdates (i time i thought i'd never see with Silas).  And with all of our family friends moving to the burbs, we've developed some close new friendships with neighborhood families we've met through the boys' school.

All to say our center has shifted to very close to home, and yet focused more outwardly than when the children were te-niny.  I've gotten very involved with the parents group at the school (check us out, www.friendsofgoetheschool.org) and we find ourselves spending our weekends at the farmers' market, the playground, swimming at Humboldt beach; all things we can walk or bike to.

So check out the April-June photo album for a recap in pictures!

There were the boys' actual birthday celebrations:

May day secret flower deliveries to make.

 Multicultural day--  the preschoolers represented Jamaica and sang "dei-o" and kindergarten did the Chinese fan dance. 

Fall Fun

A noted lack in posting. I was away an entire work-week two weeks ago and i feel like i'm just about caught back up where i have some time to mess around once the boys are in bed. Plus, i hosted my parents for a fall visit this weekend that was lovely; albeit cool.


After several years of sticking largely close to home during their visits, we were all over greater Chicagoland. The nap schedules or our little people still constrain all day touristing, but we headed out to the NW suburbs for fun at a local pumpkin patch. The highlight of Silas' trip was the tractor ride-- which i remember him balking at completely last year. Henry loved every minute of the kids truck ride he got to go on. I believe the wacky fun house and the strawberries were also a hit, although at that point i had taken Silas to look more at the animals because the wanting to ride, afraid to ride conflicting feelings were just too much for him.

From October 2009

He did very much enjoy watching the sheep eat, the chickens peck around and the rabbits nuzzeld up against the warm back corner.

That night Henry had his first swim lesson at the new "warm" pool and he seemed to do quite well. Once i saw him get in and follow the teachers' lead without begging me to get in too, everything else was gravy. It was a little chaotic before class started with so many kids getting sorted out, but i'm hoping it will be a little calmer and Henry will be a little more assured.

Sunday my parents and i went out to the Frank Lloyd Wright house and studio in Oak Park. I hadn't been out there since soon after moving to Chicago, and it was very fun to play tourist again. It's a cool house and amazing to picture the prairie coming right up to within sight of his house. The boys sat this trip out and probably just as well. Henry might have at least listened attentively for the tour but we had a 2 hour wait before it started that would have thrown him over the edge.

Last event was JT volunteering at Henry's school to get the flower beds cleaned out and planted with spring bulbs. Volunteering seems to be a new thread running through our days. This Saturday it's my turn to help set-up the fall festival.

Vacation Update

We're somewhere past the mid-way point of our annual vacation to Bethany Beach, DE. Henry is enjoying his 5th beach vacation and this is Silas'. Each one has been a little different and a little better. I think last year was the turning point with both boys sleeping normally through the night and not waking up at 6 am. Although this year has had some downs (Silas' crazy homesickness and tantrums, my sinus infection, lots of mosquitos) i think they've primarily been overrun by all the fun we've had at the beach, the pool, the park, and hauling the boys around in the bike trailer.

It's pretty fun seeing what the boys are like each year while we're here. Last year Silas was just learning to walk and Henry was pretty cautious at both the pool and at the beach. This year Silas is of course EVERYWHERE, running like a banshee, cautious but making huge progress at the pool and small progress at the beach and Henry is progressing towards fish status. In the pool Henry wears his swim vest and paddles over the whole pool, working on keeping his legs straight while he kicks. He wants to spend the biggest part of our time at the beach running in and out of the water and has been in swimming several days with myself or JT. Silas wants to go "see" the water now a few times an outing, but absolutely, positively does not want his feet or any other part of his body to touch the water. I think we have moved past the waves being "too loud," although he does still ask why they are loud.

JT and i are loving things too. We've celebrated our ninth anniversary (technically July 2nd, but we postponed our celebration until we were on vacation and had plenty of time to chill, read and talk to each other-- once JT and my Dad finished Halo. I'm doing the sprint triathlon two weeks from now so i've been exercising quite a bit each day and loving having the time (and backup) to do it. I tested out my wet suit, which fits and i managed to get it off and on, although the jellyfish in the water freaked me out and cut my ocean swim short.

Rotating Playgrounds

From July 2009

This summer we've gotten in the habit of going by the playground 3-4 afternoons after i pick the boys up from school. It helps the boys unwind, lets me have a chance to just play with them before we get home and i'm distracted by housework, and lately it's given us a chance to appreciate some of the benefits of living in the city.

We've taken to going to new parks every so often and now have a stable of 5 parks that we rotate based on request. The boys have named each one, so there's the "bear park," Silas favorite and named for the bear statues that spray water, the "shower park" which has an awesome water feature like a gigantic showerhead that Henry adores running through, the "close" park-- which happens to be the one 4 blocks from our house, the "sandbox" park and a few others we're still creating names for.

Henry has been exploring more and more in the past several weeks-- climbing to the top of ladders, wanting to do the monkey bars, hanging from the rings and dropping on his own, and climbing up steeper and steeper slides. It's awesome to watch. Silas has been going through a bit of a timid stage lately. He still adores the swings but constantly tells you "no high." He and Henry entertained each other for a good half hour last week "chasing" each other around the playground. I'm hoping that habit takes over because sometimes i'm just not up for another round of tag!

Physical therapy, i think we've found a match

Long-time readers, aka family members will remember that Henry was in physical therapy as a baby. He started around 9 months old and continued receiving therapy until just before his 2nd birthday. He received therapy through a few different practices; the last of which we were very unhappy with and after we left it turns out it closed. We weren't particularly happy with the therapy being delivered and we did not at all have a clear sense of the goals Henry was trying to reach nor any kind of guide for when we would get there. We were trapped on a therapy treadmill where each developmental stage brought with it a new skill that Henry needed help "strengthening."

I say all of this because i was very reticent about getting Henry back into therapy. I didn't want to repeat the bad experience, nor get back into the struggles with Henry about "practicing" the skills he was learning. We've been talking closely with our Ped. and it wasn't until Henry's 4 year appointment that we thought it was a good-idea to get him evaluated again. Our Ped. referred us to a practice that is very close and that she highly recommended. Other than the billing situation (they don't take any insurance) we have been very pleased. The office is convenient (halfway between our house and Brenda), we currently have a 5 pm slot and will soon have the 6 pm slot, and the therapist is quite good and Henry bonded with her almost immediately.

We had an initial evaluation and received a written report that we discussed in an "evaluation" meeting with Caroline the therapist this past week. Henry has some weakness in his legs, particularly his right leg. His core strength is also somewhat weak. She set out a number of physical goals for Henry, i.e. being able to walk up and down steps "reciprocally" without holding on to the railing; being able to hop on one foot, jump forward at least 30 inches, etc. She estimated in the written report that it would take 1 weekly session for 3-4 months and then going to bi-weekly session and then just periodic check-ins. During the evaluation meeting this week she said she thought it wouldn't actually take that long because of how quickly he was progressing just in 3 sessions.

The report also said that he was wonderful at following instructions, very easy to work with, eager to do the exercises, and kept trying multiple times until he got something without getting frustrated. Many of those traits i've witnessed personally but the not getting frustrated part was a pleasant surprise. This time around everything is better because as parents we feel good about the practice and the therapist and where we're headed, but primarily because Henry is excited to see Caroline and looks forward to practicing his new skills. I'm glad i didn't let our previous negative experience make me drag my feet any longer on helping Henry in this way.

Light on the essay, heavy on the photos

From July 2009

From July 2009

From July 2009

Is pink for girls?

We've made it much farther than i thought we would before a dawning of gender happened in our house. Henry and Silas have both liked traditionally "boy" things from the get-go, all manner of transport vehicles, and balls for sure. But until today we've had no discussion of things "appropriate" for girls and boys. I know Henry knows who is a girl and who is a boy but he hasn't asked and i'm not sure he could explain what makes them actually different. You're supposed to answer questions when they're raised and not overwhelm kids with more than they want to know-- at least that's our current logic.

So today in the car as we're about to pull up at the park Henry says "Pink is for girls." A little bit of question mark at the end of the statement. I told him that lots of girls like the color pink but that boys can like it too. I told him that a lot of times people say "blue is for boys" but that lots of girls like blue as their favorite color. He was happy and i didn't prolong the discussion or probe to figure out what had raised it. I do know that pink has been one of his favorite colors and right now he and Silas have us mark on the calendar who gets to use the sparkly pink cup that was left by a playmate last weekend (and that will be returned clean next weekend!)

Summer Documentation

I know i need to post some pictures, although honestly i need to take some pictures! But, i thought i would use a few minutes of quiet time to post something rather than wait for the perfect convergence of events when i've got pictures readied as well-- you'd be waiting for a bit longer i dare say.

I'm home now and not traveling again until early August. That's a one-day work trip and the boys are coming with me. They get to spend 3 days with Oma and Opa by themselves, and then after picking JT up we're all headed to the beach with my parents-- Gran and Nonna and my grandmother. It was really hit or miss for a long time whether JT would be able to come to the beach this year, so we're especially looking forward to the vacation since our whole family will be together.

The list of things that various parties want to do is pretty long. There's swimming and sandcastles and jumping in the waves of course, there's flying kites, playing mini golf, eating a 5 guys burger, as well as cooking fish, going to our delayed anniversary dinner at the Buttery, and finally renting bikes and a bike trailer, possibly renting jet skis and going to a baseball game. We'll have a full schedule and can't wait to have enough time off to enjoy it all.

Quick update i didn't make before. Henry had two one-hour evaluations with a physical therapist. We'll get a full written report, but the initial feedback was that he has weakness in his legs (one more than the other although i don't remember which) and that he needs to be able to strengthen them so he can jump as far as he should be able to and do things like hop on one foot-- which he can't do at all right now. The other issue is that he has "collapsed arches." He stands and rolls his feet inwards so that his arch is almost touching or touching the ground. We've ordered some shoe inserts that is supposed to help with that. He starts his weekly sessions next week. More to come.