Craniosacral Therapy

Timothy seems to be responding much better to CST now. He's much more relaxed and doesn't seem bothered by it at all!

Some pics from our last session:

Pics

Bits Total

Yesterday, daddy organized our Bit and word cards to make it easier for us to keep up with what he's done and what he hasn't done.

While he was at it, he counted up the total number of Bits of Intelligence cards that Timothy has SEEN so far (I think we started ~4 months old).

Timothy has seen...

Drum roll please.........




272 Bits of Intelligence Cards (plus the 15 we've seen today).

I was very impressed with this number but daddy, who is a very goal-oriented individual, wanted to know what our goal was so he could calculate whether or not we could meet it or if we need to start doing more. I couldn't give him a goal...I said my goal is to teach him as much as I can in a fun, honest, stress-free way.

We looked online and the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential website lists that some children have seen 5,000+ Bit cards by the time they turn 5. If we continue to do what we're doing now, we'll be very close to that.

Now, if we can just keep ahead in making them - that's the hardest part (he goes through 100 a month)!!! (We found a wonderful, wonderful website where parents share Bits - www.theclassicalmommy.com).

PIctures Cotd

Pictures

How to know when your child's outgrown the swing.

Timothy at the park.

Timothy and daddy swimming.

TweedleWink

Well, when I started looking in to perfect pitch, a friend on the childbrain forum (a forum of parents who are educating their babies using Schiada or Doman share experiences, materials, and advice) pointed me to TweedleWink DVD's. They're Doman DVDs and they actually teach math dots, have Bits of Intelligence, reading words, focus on speed reading and poem memorization, science, AND they teach perfect pitch!

We got them in the mail yesterday and I'm very, very impressed. Now, I think it's much better to sit with your kid and show cards and look him in the eye and spend that one-on-one time together with the physical cards, and I do usually. However, there are times when life is hectic and that simply isn't possible. Now, I have a 7-min. video I can put in that will teach perfect pitch, the structure of the atom, fibonochi sequence, and so much more!

Needless to say, I'm glad I found TweedleWink!

Jump-a jump-a jump!

Timothy actually jumped in his jumperoo today:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ni1bnz-5OI (video)

Cut

Timothy hurt his chin. I really don't know how it happened, either. He was creeping, then he started crying. When I came in, he was laying down on the carpet in the playroom. I can't keep a bandage on it because he drools too much.

You can see it here: http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y172/texaslady22/DSC01467.jpg

Trust me, it's much worse than it looks...especially for me.

We've been really working hard in our swimming session the last two days and we've really seen results!! Timothy has not swallowed any water at all. Every time, he comes up smiling. We don't have too far to swim in the bath, though, so I hope it warms up soon so that we can swim in the hot tub.

Timothy seems to like the President Bit cards and I believe he's either finished with the sea creatures or he has one more fish to do today. Our vote has three options tied for first...thanks for all the help, loyal readers (and I say that in the most sarcastic tone). We'll be starting a new category soon.

Timothy decide 4:50am was a wonderful time to wake up this morning. He's taking a nap right now...I hope it's a long one so that I can clean up around here!!

Well, as you can see, Timothy's quite fond of the jumperoo. He hates to be put *inside* of it, but he does like to play under it. He's moved all of his favorite toys there so that he can play.

He's also started feeding himself. He gags himself with a spoon (literally), so we let him dip zwieback toast into babyfood. He likes it very much!

Rice Cereal

Parents - I know you don't want your kid to have all the unnatural things in Gerber rice cereal, I don't either. However, DO NOT make your own. Tried it, didn't work. Made a mess, ruined our blender. I guess Timothy will have to eat all of those preservatives.

I Heart Daddy

Timothy's 22 Reasons I Love My Daddy:

1. Daddy was the first person who held me when I was born.


2. Daddy was the first person to feed me a bottle.


3. Daddy dances with me when I'm fussy.


4. Daddy read the swimming book so that I can learn to swim.


5. Daddy says "Hi, Timothy" when he comes home from work.


6. Daddy puts me to bed each night.


7. Daddy bought me a onesie and a book in Oregon.


8. Daddy reads to me.


9. Daddy still has patience left, even when mommy loses hers.


10. Daddy truly cares about my development - moral, social, intellectual, and physical.


11. Daddy turns off the tv when they start teaching the ABC's.


12. Daddy stops on his way home from work if we're out of rice cereal.


13. Daddy helps mommy make babyfood.


14. Daddy makes up songs for me.


15. Daddy swings me upside down.
    
16. Daddy does my laundry.
17. Daddy shows me cards.
18. Daddy creeps and crawls with me.
19. Daddy's silly.
20. Daddy gives me lots of kisses.
21. Daddy's always worried that I'll get sick.
22. And, most importantly, daddy loves me forever!!

I sure have a great daddy!! He's the best daddy a boy could ever ask for!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Family Reading Time

Timothy got more mail today!! [Actually, one card we got two nights ago when the mail came late and he was already alseep, so we slipped it back in the mail today so that he could get it out of the mailbox! lol] This time, he was very interested in the cards themselves and not just the envelopes!! THANK YOU!!!

Tomorrow is his first Valentines day!! I'm excited for him, if he's not excited! He said he's treating for Sonic breakfast tomorrow, so we're thrilled! They have really good breakfast bistro sandwiches.



Timothy has now said "hi" about 4 times and today he said "hey". Daddy said "hey bubba" and Timothy said "hey". But he didn't just say "hey", he said it very "cool"-like. It was more Fonz-ish like "heeeeeyyyyyyy" We got a kick out of it!! He's so funny!



Daddy's book _How to Teach Your Baby to Swim: From Birth to Age Six_ (also published by the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential's Better Baby Press) arrived today so we had family reading time this evening. Daddy read the swimming book and mommy read _Alice in Wonderland_ and Timothy watched Your Baby Can Read (during nap time he "read" _Around the World in Eighty Days_). Daddy said the swimming book is a bit different from the phamplet we got from the Institutes (published 22 years ago) because it tells you to have the baby float and bob to hold its breath. I've not read it yet, but it sounds informative. We're ready for it to get a bit warmer so that we can start going in the hot tub consistently (daddy and mommy enjoy it plenty, but we don't take Timothy out when it's pretty cold).

Perfect Pitch?

Well, Timothy's almost 6 1/2 months now, and the window for him to have perfect pitch is quickly closing (a few more months and then it's over).

We *already* do a full math and reading program, a full physical program, the infant swimming, and a modified encyclopedic knowledge (Bits) program. But, it would take literally about 3-5 minutes a day for him to have perfect pitch. It seems worth the tiny investment to me!!

We plan on him starting Suzuki music lessons at about age 2 1/2, and the perfect pitch would be quite useful.

Our "goal" with Timothy is to make it where we give him every opportunity - if he wants to run marathons, we want him to have the physical ability to do so. If he wants to play piano, we want him to have an advantage when he starts. And we want to teach him everything we possibly can in the first 6 years while learning is EASY!!

But, I have some amazing news for you guys - Timothy talks!! It's been over a week now with absolutely no pacifier, and yesterday daddy came home and said "Hi, Timothy!" Timothy smiled at him and said "Hi". Then, later, he creeped down the hallway into the bedroom and said "Hi!" I guess he's officially a talker!!

I started thinking about it, and we never said stuff like "Gogogo booboo" to Timothy - we always talked to him using real language. So perhaps he'll just skip babbling all together and move on to real language (apparently). "HI!" I'll try to get a video of him saying it - he's so adorable!

Pictures

Have no time...just posting pictures.

Resolution

Well, I think everything is ok for now. I called the doctor, and Timothy's obviously fighting some sort of a virus, and there's nothing we can do about it. He had no business being on antibiotics in the *first* place. Because Timothy hasn't had another bloody diaper, we can only assume it was from the medicine and that it was an isolated case, and there's nothing else that needs to be done now (besides keep the air moist and suction his nose for this cold). And, of course, we need to control his GERD.

Timothy's been creeping all around today...I'd say he's gone over 300 feet just in the past 2 hours!! It's amazing! He's been pulling up on EVERYTHING, though, so the creeping probably won't last too much longer!

I explained to Timothy that we are not going to have any medical panic attacks for ahwhile, now. We're done with that and we're just going to live a leisurely, quiet life.

I hope he listened.

Bloodwork

Well, we just got Timothy's bloodwork back from CareNow.

The following items are HIGH:
WBC (18.6 should be 4-10)
LY (71.5 should be 20.5 to 51.1)
LY# (13.3 should be 1.2 to 3.4)
MO# (can't read what it is)
Plt (483 shuld be 150 to 450)

The following items are LOW:
GR (21.9 should be 42.2 to 75.2)
RBC (slightly low)
HgB (slightly low)
Hct (slightly low - 30 should be 35 to 60)
MCV (slightly low)
MCH (slighly low)
MPV (slighly low)

Actually, he only has 4 things that are in the normal range!!

I faxed these to the doc and asked him to call me at his earliest convenience and let me know what he thinks.

Look Ma, No Hands!

Timothy *finally* started holding his own bottle - a real blessing since we'll be feeding him an extra time each day. The bad news: he only does it when he wants to.

You've Got Mail

Today we went to check the mail and Timothy had TWO Valentine cards from his cousins!! (In case you didn't know, Timothy *loves* to check the mail). I said "Look! Look!! This has your name on it!!!" and he started kicking like crazy! We tore open the top for him and he had lots of fun with the envelopes...wasn't too interested in cards, though. Thanks so much...that made his day. He has so many people who love him!!

Timothy's doctor appt. went well. The new doctor is great, we love the office. They're SO professional. Right now, we're reducing the amount of formula he gets per feeding from 6 ounces to 4 and we're feeding him every 3 hours instead of 4 for the GERD. The GERD is most likely the reason he's had a cold for a month...it keeps a cold in his esophogus instead of letting him shake it. So, our main focus is to get the GERD under control. We need to get the paperwork faxed over from the doctors so that he can evaluate what to do about the white blood cells and anemia - he needs #'s. Because daddy has such a messed up GI history, the doc said we'll more than likely need to take Timothy to a GI doctor just to get check out (he said the last thing we need is for Timothy to wind up like David...I say that's for sure *only kidding*).

Geez, Timothy, can we stop the medical drama for a bit?

...

Timothy is almost a toddler it seems like. Today, he crawled out of the playroom while I was grading papers...TWICE. Just crawled away. AND he hit his head on the fireplace hearth. AND he ran off with my highlighter (again). AND he used the rocking chair to pull up and it pinched his fingers. AND he pushed a video into the VCR (it was in, just not pushed in), which made it automatically play. AND he tore up a bill we had to pay and ate half of it when we daddy was making dinner. HELP!!!!!

*#%#T%T

There are some not-so-polite things I'd like to say to Timothy's FORMER doctor.

The story:
Yesterday, after Timothy's bm, I was worried. I finally decided to take the diaper up to the clinic and have them look at it, just to reassure me. I took a bottle, fully prepared and willing to wait. Well, they didn't want to see it. They let me leave a message with the nurse, but not the diaper. A few hours later, the nurse called and said "It's probably fine, don't worry about it unless it's bright red." I told her it was the color of spaghetti sauce, and she said that should be fine...no worries. Well, I still worried. I sat around the house and worried some more, fretting about what if it really IS blood? I called back and said I'd like to bring him in anyway, that my paramedic relative had looked at the picture and said we needed an appointment. They could get me in tomorrow. What good is that? Tomorrow??

So I worried some more. And I called my mom and she worried with me. And, finally, I web registered at CareNow and drove in to Dallas. The doctor at CareNow wasn't too concerned...she thought it was a reaction to the antibiotic. Until, that is, she got the lab results back. His white blood cell count is very high, he's anemic, and she worried that he had something called NEC colitis. She recommended we take him to Children's ER immediately.

We did, and we waited. And worried. And waited and worried some more. At 2:00 this morning, we saw a doctor. He was very shocked at the amount of blood in the diaper and suggested that Timothy was anemic *because* of the bloody stool. We had to wait around until Timothy had another bm, but there was no blood in it. So, he couldn't justify any further ER testing. He told us to follow up with a GOOD pediatrician. I guess our old one is out!!

He wants us to make an appointment with a pediatric GI and follow up on a regular basis with a GOOD pediatrician. And, that's exactly what we're going to do!

I am glad that I persisted in this...

Follow-up appointment with a new pediatrician, a GOOD pediatrician, at 10:10 tomorrow morning.

Warning - Disgusting Picture Ahead

I'm sorry...I really hate to post this. Yes, it is a picture of Timothy's bowel movement. But LOOK at it. I'm worried. Yesterday, Timothy stayed with daddy while I went to class and daddy said he was worried because Timothy had a bm that looked like it had blood in it. Then...this. It's very red...so red it's almost purple.

The only new food we started him on was peas...peas wouldn't do that to his bm would they? Any advice on this one is appreciated!

TOOTH

Yesterday, we found that Timothy has now cut his first tooth! His bottom right is poking through the gum...and boy is it sharp!! I'm SO glad - the fusiness has been reduced since then!

The doctor said his two top teeth would be in within the next week or so, so it was a shock that the bottom tooth came out first. We hope that the others will be out in the next week so we can get all this horrible teething fusiness over quickly (before the next tooth, anyway).

Timothy has started pulling up on anything he can find. We've been discouraging it, but he still finds ways to pull up. Yesterday, he used the LeapPad seat to stand and it quickly toppled over on top of him. Then, he found the birdbath works well, also. We don't want to stop his development, but we would like him to creep more, so we're just trying to keep him moving as much as possible and we're spending time with him on the floor a great deal.

Today, Timothy starts 3 PART EQUATIONS! For example, 3+2+5=10. I can't believe he's to step three already...we've already done numbers 1-100, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Actually, we're really shocked about how much he's done! On his six month birthday, daddy and I discussed what all we've shown Timothy. We came up with a rough estimate.

Timothy has:
Seen 200-300 Bit of Intelligence Cards in many different categories
Seen 100-200 different word cards
Seen #'s 1-100, multiplication, division, subtraction, addition
Heard 70-80 different children's books
Heard 40-60 different adult chapter books
Enjoyed classical songs by over 20 composers

Not bad for the first six months!! We're really happy with the progress we've made, and he seems to be enjoying it.

Now, he's ALREADY up from his nap. I guess my computer time is over!!!

Viewer's Choice

Timothy is almost done with sea creatures AND fruit. We KNOW we want to start Presidents, but we thought we'd let our loyal viewers decide our other category.

Please help us decide which category we should start next! Vote in our poll below.

Along with Presidents, what new category of Bits of Intelligence should we start?
	Art: Self-Portraits of the Masters
	Science: Dinosaurs
	Math: Euclidean Geometry
	Geography: States
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Sore Throat

We took Timothy back to CareNow for his follow-up visit. This time, I insisted that something was REALLY wrong - he screamed for hours the night before. I asked them to look at his throat because *I* have a sore throat and, sure enough, it was red. Now, I asked them to a do a culture and they wouldn't because it's hard to do with a baby, so they put him on antibiotics anyway. I don't really like that...I believe that you should only put your child on medicine when it's truly needed and warranted, and we don't even know if this is strep and if the medicine will help (his throat could be red because he screamed all night, ya know?).

But, we're giving it to him because we can't take the screaming and it *might* help. It's worth a try. Tylenol and teething tabs haven't been helping the past week, and we're desperate!

Baffled

Well, we talked to the nurse at his doctor in SS, she said to take him to CareNow in Dallas. She had never heard of it before.

Obviously, NO ONE has heard of this before! It has the doctors completely baffled. One doctor looked at his leg, didn't know what to do, got another doctor, and she called all the nurses in, and none of them have ever seen anything like this. He IS science experiment after all!

They really didn't know what to tell me. They said watch him very closely and it very closely...they measured it and made a perfect diagram and want us to come back tomorrow and compare.

And we got some steroid cream prescription.

If I had my camera, I would get a picture of it and post, but I don't.

Geez, poor Timothy!! On the positive side, he's not screaming for 9 hours today like he did yesterday!!!!

Reaction

This morning, when we swam, I took off Timothy's bandaid and noticed a little bit of a rash on his right leg where he got his shot yesterday.

Timothy got his Synergis shot today for RSV. When we took his pants off, the redness has become little puss pockets around the injection site. The nurse said we should go back to the doctor's office (don't call - go) and tell them to look at the reaction he's having to this shot.

Well, the doctor's office is in SULPHUR SPRINGS and the RSV shot is in ROWLETT, so we don't know what to do. My mom says I should take him to CareNow in Dallas, but my dad says I should wait until the doctor's office opens back from lunch (1:30) and demand to talk to someone before we drive all the way back to Sulphur Springs. And my husband says we should drive all that way and take him in asap. I'm not sure what *I* want to do - I'd like to go get him looked at right now in Dallas, but I don't know what shots he got yesterday or if it would do any good.

We'll see.

6 month well baby visit

Last night, we had ANOTHER very rough night - VERY rough. Poor daddy has been up since 2am and has to work today!! We tried giving him a bottle and tried to rock him, but in the end we just let him cry it with the door closed out while we watched Medium in the living room. Timothy, what are you thinkin?

This makes up for it, though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzJGuY4dkNA Doesn't Timothy have the craziest laugh you've ever heard? Sometimes it's very creepy!! hahaha

Well, the doctor today said she wouldn't be shocked if the teeth come in within the next week, but surely within the next month, and that's why he's been up at night.

He's actually LOST weight since his last visit - he's down to 16lbs 15oz. She's not too worried, but he hasn't been taking a bottle too well. She said it hurts to suck on a nipple when you're teething, so she wants us to try 1) a sippy cup (tried it, have quite a collection, doesn't work that well) 2) a straw (bought a cup with a straw this morning...we'll see) or 3) a regular cup (tried it, works, but VERY messy).

We talked about his language, and she actually made me a bit upset. She said that we have to think of him as a 4 month old and compare his development to a 4 month old because he was premature. Well, on the developmental checklist of things he'll be doing from 6-9 months, he's doing every single thing ALREADY except the two language areas. To me, that signifies a problem. Why would he be extremely ahead in everything and very behind in language? But, alas, we can't put him in therapy or anything until he's behind developmentally adjusted for prematurity. *sigh*

She wants us to stop the pacifier immediately - since he's teething and crying all the time anyway, now would be the perfect time to pull the pacifier. It might help with his language, too.

So, for now, that's what we're going to do. No more pacifier, find a cup that works...