Weekends are fun

Cata got new glasses!

Big T is still a smiler :)

August 2009

Tomas is 7 months old now. Amazing how time flies. He is cute as a button. Still a pretty mellow boy. He coos all day long and is full of smiles. He likes to give kisses and loves to play with hair. He still rolls to his destinations but is now starting to rock back on his knees - oh no! :) He adores his sister and loves giving her kisses. Another love of his is food. There's a short clip of him eating one of his first little snacks. He is a good sleeper but much like our little Cata, is an early bird - up by 5:30. He plays peek-a-boo and gets desperate if you leave his sight. Overall, he's been an amazing little munchkin.

Cata as been doing great too! She tried a technology that is available that reads eyegaze and has a voice component. It's hard to explain but it's this amazing little $17,000 device that would actually let her communicate with us. It is a computer with a built in video that reads her eyegaze. Where ever she stares for a set period of time, that is equivalent to our double click of the mouse. As she gets more advanced, the device grows with her. So now we put choices that she would be able to navigate with limited number of pages that she can "flip" through. Then, we increase the vocabulary that is available to her as she grows. She can also play games on this and do educational programs. The hard part is convincing insurers that they want to pay for this. Here she is using it. Each time you hear the computer play some clip, it's because she chose that clip from 4 options and activated it with her eyes.

Summer 09

Summer has flown by. So are you ready for a picture overload? Here it comes! Our summer started off with a trip back home where we were able to attend the Rett Conference. It was a great conference and will have to be a post of its own (maybe I'll get to posting one of these days?). We had a great weekend with both of our families and lots of friends. The month of June was just crazy with my schedule but we managed to have lots of outdoors time. June also brought us a life changer - a new nanny who has made our lives so much easier. It took going through a few before we finally were happy. What a dream! Kevin and I celebrated our 7th anniversary in June and then Kevin's birthday in July. We managed to get away to a friend's cabin for a weekend. We said goodbye to Cata's school aide and welcomed a new one. We have found a new occupational therapist and a new speech therapist for Catalina and they both seem great. All in all, it's been a fun summer. Now here come the pictures:

Big T with Grandpa C. and Grandma C.

What a flirt!

Funny story - my parents have this statue of Alice in Wonderland (or at least that's what we have always called it). Well, Cata just LOVED Alice! She would walk up to the statue and just stare and smile.

My mom bought this little table for Cata and Sophia. They were really cute there. The cutest part was my dad sitting there reading with Catalina. I think they sat there for 1 hour reading together. Cata was just in heaven. She loves her Tata!

A gift from Grandma C.

Running behind Sophia in the yard

Tata with the grandkids

My man of a million expressions (and he happens to love glass bottles).

Remember that awesome nanny I mentioned? Well, she set up our little water playpark for Cata. Not only that, but she takes pictures of the kids having fun for us!

Goofy T. likes his foot still.

What are you looking at? Look at me smile!

Oh, this looks like something yummy...

The princess...

Out for a walk

This was our summer break to a cabin. I swear it was midJuly!

Ok, that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the photos!

4 Months Old

Little Tomas is 4 months old already. This has been the fastest 4 months of my life! He is a cute little guy - super alert, cooing all the time, full of smiles, and something that is new to us as parents - a good sleeper! Here are things he is up to these days:

He has learned to roll from his back to tummy. He loves to sit up with assistance and to stand with assistance. He has discovered that his feet are in reach and that they are a good substitute for his pacifier. He still likes to suck his fingers but I guess he goes for variety :)

He has these wild hands that fly all over the place when it's nap time. We still do a modified swaddle to keep his crazy arms in check because otherwise they hit him over the head, knock his pacifier out, and keep him awake. He uses his little hands to grab whatever may be in reach. He pulls his pacifier out, but if he can find it, he will also put it back in! He grabs the toys hanging down from his activity mat and has had some self-inflicted injuries by pulling the toys too hard :) Much like Cata, he doesn't love being on his tummy but we are working on that one.

Tomas is as social as Cata - he loves to look at people and loves to smile. His favorite person to smile at is Cata. She makes his smile a lot during the day. He loves being held but is also content sitting or laying down.

He remains a good eater. We will see this week how much he weighs! He is fitting nicely into 6-9 month or just plain 9 month clothes. He is also a good sleeper. Right now he takes 2-3 naps a day. A 9am and 1pm nap which are about 2-3 hrs long each and occasionally an early evening nap for about an hour. He then will sleep until 2 or 3 am when he wakes up for a feed. Hopefully that will be going away soon! He has been taking his naps in his crib but sleeping in a cosleeper right next to me at night. This too is changing as I have put him in his crib for a couple of nights.

Mother's Day

***WARNING - loooong post :) ***

Happy Mother's Day to all those mother's who may read this. Today was a great day. I feel so grateful for the opportunity to be the mother to 2 wonderful kids - Cata and Tomas. Not only that, but I also feel blessed to have such a wonderful mother who has been a great role model for me.

So life has been busy in our household. My month of call is over which has been a relief. What that means is I am actually home once in awhile when my kids are awake this month :) Logging 75 hours a week at work makes the work-life balance a little off-balance you might say. But I have 3 more weeks before having that schedule again so I am enjoying every minute I can!

Feels like lots has happened since my last post about a month ago. We went to Chicago to see Dr. Percy, a fantastic, caring doctor who has devoted much of his time to girls with Rett Syndrome. It was a good visit. Nothing really new - just checking in and seeing that Cata is still doing well. It was nice to meet other families and girls with Rett(Brooklyn, Hannah, Lindsey and others)! It's nice to connect with others who are going through similar yet different experiences. I wish we had more time with the families. We also got to spend some time with and old friend, Viki, and her daughter which was lots of fun.

Cata has been doing great with her therapy. Unfortunately she has lost some more hand function which has been sad to see. She no longer can finger feed herself. She can occasionally pick something up with a rake grasp but not from the table, it has to be from your hand. Even then, it's not perfect. Often when she is able to pick something up it falls from her hand before she can get it to her mouth. She also no longer picks up her sippy cup to take a drink, something she was doing 4-6 weeks ago. The other hard thing to watch is she has difficulty bringing the spoon to her mouth now - she either doesn't grip it or drops it before she gets it to her mouth. I'm pushing her to regain these skills because I think she can, but it's going to take time to make up lost ground. Despite these setbacks, she has made great strides in other areas. She is interacting more with toys (as much as you can interact with a toy that you cannot pick up with your hands). She loves "playing" with toys but someone else has to be the one making the toy play. It's hard to imagine what to do with a toddler who cannot do anything with her hands, but that's what we have. It just takes 100% attention and entertainment - no such thing as independent play for her - yet. We are working on alternative ideas but that's for another post. That said she loves lots of the games she gets to play. And she especially loves being with others. She has new friends at school that she loves to socialize with. Today our great friends where over for dinner with their 3 kids. Cata just had the time of her life running around with the 2 older ones. Here are a couple of pics of Cata tonight - Cata looking on as J reads a book, running to catch J

She has been super smiley and seems to be communicating her needs/wants to us better. Or maybe (probably) we are just getting better at knowing what she has been communicating to us. There seems to be less frustration. Her love of Tomas is just growing and it's adorable to see. I can't wait to see them together when he is mobile! She goes to his pack n play or crib and just stares in at him, she stares at him waiting for his eye contact and gives him a huge smile, she walks up to his activity mat and stands over it smiling at him. She's a cutie. There have still been a couple of times when she gets frustrated or maybe overexcited and gives a loud grunt noise which scares the daylights out of little Tomas but those are few and far between now.

Speaking of Tomas, he is growing up too quickly! He is quite the little chatterbox. He spends most of his awake day cooing and carrying on. He is still an easy baby - falls asleep easily for naps and bed, takes good long naps and goes about 7 hours between feeds at night (which happens to mean a 3am feed still). He nurses well and takes the bottle well when I'm at work. When awake he's content. His newest thing is to grab his toys and hold onto them. He will grab any toy - something hanging above on his activity mat, a toy placed in his reach, something on his swing...He grabs and moves them around. Yesterday I even saw him transfer a ring from one hand to the other! He also will grab a burp cloth left near by and somehow always manages to pull it on his face - dunno why but it's cute. He still sleeps in a cosleeper next to my bed but he did take his first nap in his own crib today. Ugh, the thought of putting him there for the night - I'm not ready yet :) He is holding his head up nicely and has found a new love - his feet. He grabs them and holds onto them rolling side to side while on his back. He attempted to roll from back-to-front twice this week but I don't think they were complete rolls. Some of my favorite recent shots:

Now that spring is finally here to stay (hopefully!!) we have been able to get outdoors more and enjoy the parks and the lakes: