My first thought about my boys being 19 months is the fact that in just under 5 months they'll be 2! 2, really!?!?! Wow, it was a long road getting them here... 2 years in fact, and these past 2 years, since they've been a part of our lives, have flown by crazy fast!
The thing on my mind of late is once again the lack of vocabulary. I've gotten some comfort from Mr. Gary Welch. A great man and a speech therapist too. He's given me some comfort and also some ideas to help Coen and Liam along with their speech. Even though Gary and their Dr both say there's nothing to worry about quite yet, I just can't help but feel I've failed them in some way. Just my mommy guilt acting up again I suppose.
Coen has picked up a few new words over the past few weeks which is comforting. He's now up to 11 words. (I've been writing them down since the Dr said to keep a tally so I know how many they're saying by their next check up.) Liam is still at 2 words.
I've been battling with sleeping arrangements again. Liam still sleeps in a bassinet in our room for naps, but is quickly outgrowing it. He does fine for the most part during the night in his own room/crib, but for naps he tends to wake about 45 minutes into his naps and just doesn't sleep well in his own room. My next experiment will be putting the bassinet in his room and see how he sleeps. I'm trying to figure out if its the room or the bed... hopefully it's the bed since that's an easier fix.
They still love the outdoors! During these recent warmer days, we've spent some time at parks, the zoo and in our backyard. I'm excited for more consistent warmer weather. I enjoy walking them up to the park and letting them play. Great exercise for me pushing 50ish lb stroller up a hill and fun for them to get out of the house and run around.
The boys had their first dentist visit. I know some people say, 'why so early?', but I like to think it's not too early. My hopes are going early, they'll get used to it and not be scared about a dentist cleaning their teeth up and also we'll find any potential problems early. Also, for us going early was a good thing. I read that you don't need to floss until their teeth start touching, which usually won't happen until they have all their teeth... well not in our case I guess. Their teeth don't touch yet, but Dr. Spencer said that there's not as much room as he'd normally see at this age so they needed to start flossing now. Just 3-4 times a week for now. I wasn't expecting that, but maybe this will prevent any issues from popping up.
Tooth count! Coen is up to 14 teeth now. Top canines are in and now he's working on the bottom two. Liam I think is done for now. He seems like his gums bother him sometimes when we're brushing his teeth, but I can't see or feel his molars yet.
Motherhood at 19 months. Just more worrying and now beginning to think about birthday #2!
I realized after posting this I left out a few new things about their personalities that I thought I should have added in. One for instance is Coen and acting shy. I honestly do think he's shy or at least a bit reserved, however he's been giving this 'shy, I'm not going to smile' look and it is beyond adorable. He'll put his head down and look up at you over his glasses while smirking and trying his hardest not to smile. I find it completely irresistible.
Liam has been going through a mommy phase. It's nice to know he wants me around, but at the same time hard because I have another child to take care of and it's even more hard on the people he refuses.. daddy, aunts, grandmothers. :( I know his is just a phase so it will pass and soon I'll be the one he's refusing, so for now I'll enjoy the time he wants me to cuddle him. Liam also, has been showing signs of potty training. Coen did for a while, but those passed and now he'll pee just about everywhere anytime he's nakey. Liam has been notifying me when he's gone or is going to the bathroom. Twice now he has also gone into the bathroom to go... in his diaper, but still I think he's starting to make the connection. So I may brave it and try with Liam to see how he does. We tried with Coen a few weeks back and he didn't have any accident all morning, but began getting very fussy and irritated. He then had an accident when I had my back turned for a second, I went ahead and diapered him up, and he almost immediately pooed. Then he was happy and care free. I think his fussyness came from wanting or needing to go, but not feeling comfortable without his diaper. Which is odd since he pee's all the time on the floor. In any case, we've set potty training aside for Coen at the moment and we may try with Liam soon.
I haven't posted any new pics recently so enjoy!
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I'm a few days late posting.. as usual. This time I have good reason, the boys have been sick. :(
It typically starts when we visit people. There will undoubtedly be someone that has a cold, flu or something and anytime there is, you can bet Liam will catch it. It tends to start with Liam and then moves on to Coen and myself. (Once, Coen and I escaped an illness that Liam caught, but only once.) This time it's a nasty nasty cold. I've never seen them look and act so sick before, so I took them to the dr.. 'well, it looks like they have a cold'... really? This sick and just a cold? The dr said they look great otherwise, ears very clean, and lungs sounded good, so there's not much we can do for them. UGH! In any case, it looks like Liam is on the mend. He still has a horrible cough, but his nose has dried up some and no more fever. He's also back to his typical 1 nap. (For a few days they were taking 2 naps ranging from 1 hr to 3+ hrs. For me, it was a nice break from crying fussing babies. It's so hard for a mother not to be able to do something for your child when they're hurt or sick.) Coen on the other hand seems to be a bit worse off. He basically didn't sleep for 2 days when he first got sick so that just compounded and made him feel really horrible. He is sleeping better now and acting better, but still has a fever that keeps popping up. Anyway, that is a very long explanation as to why I'm late posting.
I was expecting by 18 months Coen and Liam would be talking up a storm. I was wrong, very wrong. Liam still says basically nothing. To ask for something he points and says eh? Coen still has his few words, but nothing new since 'bubble'. The dr said that at 18 months they like to see children saying about 4 words. She didn't seem concerned that Liam wasn't saying any. She did say to start keeping a tally of how many words they start saying because by 2, they should have about 50 words in their vocabulary... really? 50! We have a lot of catching up to do.
Real quick our 18 month stats: Coen is 32-1/4 in. long (49th%), weighs 23 lbs 13 ozs (22nd%), and head circumference is 49cm (82nd%). Liam is 33 in. long (71st%), weighs 22 lbs 7 ozs (9th%), and head circumference is 50cm (95th%). Yup, still has his daddy's big head. :) Since Liam is on the slender side, the dr suggested giving him some instant breakfast in his milk once a day to boost his calorie intake. She said if he did get really sick and didn't eat much that he doesn't have much reserve. So, we tried it, but that was the first day he was sick and didn't want to eat/drink anything.. so we'll try again now that he's feeling better. I had been giving him some of the pediasure shakes that have lots of extra vitamins and minerals. He likes them, but they're very expensive, so I'm hoping he will take to the instant breakfast shakes.
There's not much new from the last month, except for 1 thing. THEY LOVE MUSIC! They've always enjoyed me singing to them. (And if you've ever heard me sing, I'm surprised they like any kind of music after hearing me butcher songs.)
Here recently I set up a small TV in our living room with a DVD player so the boys can watch Veggie Tales occasionally. (I'm not big on a TV being the babysitter, but a 30 minute video I'm ok with.) They won't sit through the entire video but when the intro theme song and silly songs with Larry come on, watch out! They will literally run to their couch and sit down at stare intently while the songs are going. I find it incredibly cute and I absolutely love the fact that they like music so much. (Their favorite story so far is 'The Ballad of Little Joe' aka Joseph and the coat of many colors.)
Tooth count, since teething as picked back up. Coen's top canines are about to cut through, but haven't quite yet. So his total is still at 12. Liam has cut all his canines so that brings him up to 16! Dr confirmed that once he gets his 2nd set of molars (between age 2-3) he'll be done! (Until he's much older.) Just 4 more teeth!
I'll part with this little ditty:
If you like to talk to tomatoes, if a squash can make you smile. If you like to waltz with potatoes, up and down the produce aisle... have we got a show for you! .....
(Brings back memories!)
I'll be doing their 18 month update in about a week or so, but thought I would share a few quickies.
Yesterday we picked up their glasses. Coen already seems to be doing well with his prisms. The assistant there said to watch him for any behavioral changes. That the prisms can sometimes cause young children to become very irritable because the extra light reflections can bother them, and being so young they can't tell us there is an issue. I thought to myself, wow this can't be a worse time to watch for behavioral changes! Coen has begun teething again and is having sleeping issues so he's been quite the grump the past week. Anyway, he seems to be adjusting well already. After only observing him for the few hours he's had them, his eyes don't seem to cross as often. Maybe it's my wishful thinking, but they appear to be helping correct the eye turning issue already.
Liam has been doing amazingly well too. I think he was excited to have glasses like mommy and brother. Yesterday afternoon he only took them off twice and only once today so far (it's still morning though). He likes to touch them.. a lot, but he keeps them on much better than Coen did when he first got his. (Of course Coen was 5 months younger.) One super cute thing and a reason I think he likes having glasses is, when he touches them he'll look at you and grin and then keep on playing. It hasn't even been 24 hours, but I'm hoping they work well for the both of them.
Ok, now on to bubbles!!
For my Mom's side of the family we just had Christmas this past weekend. The boys made out like bandits and received lots of cool gifts from their Aunts, Uncle, cousins, Grandma and Grandpa Rick. One of the gifts was a Finding Nemo book with sound buttons. (You know the one, as your reading you match the pictures in the book with the picture to the right sound button.) The story was finding the hidden bubble. One of the buttons is Nemo saying "bubbles, cool!" The boys just love this book. I think it is quickly becoming a new favorite.
The other day I heard Coen trying to say apple. I worked with him to help him along, and he kept saying app or pulpul. I figured, close enough, he'd get it when he was ready. Well today, I hear him saying abul. I thought 'wow, he's getting closer to saying apple'. Nope! I was wrong. This whole time I think he was trying to say bubble! He was sitting with the Finding Nemo book and hitting the button where Nemo says "bubbles, cool!". After he'd hit the button he would say abul. I think all this time he didn't want to say apple, I think he wanted to say bubble. Maybe he wants to say both apple and bubble since they have similar sounds, but in any case I'm glad that he's trying to sound out what he's hearing. It's just too cute to watch them learning.
The most recent news is both boys will have glasses. Coen went in for his 4 month follow up and Dr. Mark has decided to change his RX and will be adding a prism in his lenses. This will force him to use both eyes together instead of switching what eye he's looking out of. Dr. Mark said they would eventually ween him off the prism so he'd return to regular glasses and may also end up having to patch an eye also.
We noticed just over a month ago that Liam's eyes were starting to turn in as well. He didn't seem to want to use his left eye anymore. We're not sure why this started, but seemed to get worse in a short period of time so we made an appointment for him as well since we were taking Coen in for his follow up. Turns out Liam will need glasses too. His RX isn't as strong as Coen's and his eyes don't appear to turn as badly as Coen's so hopefully the glasses will be just the fix that Liam's eyes need. So we'll be ordering new lenses and glasses for the boys this coming week. Will post pics when we're all set with our new glasses.
The boys are as wild as ever! They are into everything. Climbing into their booster chairs, into our chairs, onto the kitchen table, on their chairs and table (new gift from Aunt Janet, which they love! They've even been sitting at their table for their snacks the past few days.) They are the energizer bunnies. They go and go and go.
Just the other day, Milo and I were sitting in the living room and we hear Coen and Liam yelling. (They like yelling and being boisterous when standing on things. I think they're objective is to get your attention so you can see what they're up to... and they also just like being loud.) So they're being very loud and we find Liam sitting and Coen standing on our dining room table. You can't help but laugh at their adventurous nature, yet it's so dangerous.
As part of our bedtime routine we've been brushing the boys teeth. They've never really protested, but don't seem to really enjoy it either. Here recently, when it's time to brush their teeth, we ask them, 'are you ready to brush your teeth?' and Coen will head straight for the door and say 'ahhh'. (Not all the time, but more often than not.) They really seem to be enjoying recently.
One thing that really amazes me about them is their willingness to play on their own. I will often find them sitting together reading books and playing with their toys. These are the moments that I can get some housework done. :) A few other things that keep them entertained for hours at a time: belts, blankets, climbing (that's a given at this age), our bed, laundry and laundry baskets, bowls/cups with a spoon. I am very blessed to have such independent boys.
At the last update the boys were getting over a 2 week cold. They got over it just fine then Liam came down with a 24 hour flu. It was my first night staying up with him so he could vomit. We spent the entire night in a chair in the living room cuddled up. I didn't get any sleep, but he did. I didn't realize how much he moves while he sleeps.. he was everywhere! I tried moving to the floor so I could attempt to sleep, but that just woke him up and kind of frightened him I think.. maybe because he wasn't sure what was going on. So we spent the rest of the night and early morning in the chair.
The following week, I got strep throat. Once again we were very blessed and the boys didn't get it. Neither did Milo! Milo had to take 2 days off work to take care of the boys because the strep completely wiped me out (I slept for two and a half days!). Luckily he had the time to take off. We have since known lots of people that have been sick and other than the short flu for Liam and the 2 week cold, the boys have been illness free! It could be that we don't get them out too often, but when it comes to freezing weather and sick people, my view is, why take the chance? Taking care of a sick adult is not fun.. throw in a toddler or two... no thanks! I am just very happy that we've been able to escape a lot of the illness going around.
A few oldies but goodies:
Some things the boys used to do as babies and have either resurfaced or they've held onto. When Liam is tired and you're rocking him to put him to bed, he will rub the tip of his nose back and forth. He used to do it all the time as a baby and here recently he's started it back up. I find it so cute.
When Coen was learning how to sit he would cross his legs. I remember some friends saying that it was so adorable... well guess what? He still does it. That's something that never left. He doesn't do it near as often.. maybe because he is constantly on the go, but occasionally you'll find him reading a book, sitting with his legs crossed.
They also like to help when getting dressed. For a while now, they'll actually straighten their arms or legs to make it easier when putting on their clothing, but they'll also pick up their shoes, socks, gloves, hats or other clothing items and try to put them on. Which means they also like taking these items off. Usually they'll only take off socks, and hats. They haven't quite figured out how to remove the other clothing items. :)
What else, what else... talking, nope not yet. I think they're definitely getting closer though. They will mock our sounds (and facial expressions), but they're not really into mocking words yet.
They have learned how to point to the following body parts: hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth (still have trouble with this one sometimes), arm, hands (sometimes they'll clap for hands), belly and feet. We're working on legs right now.. that seems to be a toughy.
Coen and Liam continue to amaze me daily and I am so proud and happy to be their mother.
