April Pictures

Some runner-up pictures for the month. Enjoy!

Holy Family, Mona Lisa, States

Yes, the video does end abruptly. It takes about one minute to upload every 5 seconds of video. I asked Timothy to identify the words, his ball fell, he chased after his ball. He doesn't answer the question until 2mins later, and I didn't want to upload all of that.

Daddy knows Timothy can do math, he knows he can do words, but he's always been a skeptic of the Bits program. "How could Timothy know every picture we show him?", he asks. Now that Timothy's answering question after question right, even with things we haven't shown him since he was 4 months old, daddy is a believer.

First Parade

We took Timothy to his first parade. He slept most of the time, but he woke up for about the last 20mins. He REALLY liked the marching bands, but he didn't care too much about anything else.

He is NINE MONTHS old today! We hope to upload some videos today, but it takes SOOOO long to get them uploaded!!

HAPPY boy!

Timothy has been consistently sleeping through the night for the better part of a week!! Horray!!

He finished "great art" Bits and is now starting medical equipment!!!!

Ice Cream Cone

Timothy loves to eat solid food. We've only been giving him 12-15oz. formula/day (3 bottles) because now he wants to eat FOOD more and more.

It's been difficult to decide what to feed him. Every time I ask myself "what do kids eat" I think chicken nuggets...fish sticks...pizza. We want to find healthy meals for him that are also easy to pick up and eat.

Pasta goes over really well. Above, Timothy's eating bowtie pasta, string cheese, and sweet potato fries.

Timothy also loves ice cream cones. I read in my recipe book that you can give kids chicken salad in an ice cream cone and I liked the idea. Timothy cannot have mayonaise, so here is my Timothy's special chicken salad recipe: 1/2 package cream cheese, 3oz. pureed zuchini, 1/2 shreaded chicken breast, two large cut-up carrots. Mix and serve in an ice cream cone.

He actually ate so much of this...we were really surprised!! We had to serve him 3 ice cream cones and very little got on the floor! It went in his stomach!!!

Rainbow

Timothy was playing with the water in the vacuum cleaner when he was SUPPOSED to be playing with blocks in his playroom. What a mess! I'm glad it was clean water, though.

He also got a motorcycle toy from his great aunt. He didn't really "get" it, but I'm sure he will soon!

TOOTH COUNT - 6

Check

We stopped using a list long ago. However, lately, his program has just seemed so...easy. We're finished with cards by noon and then we just have the rest of the day to play, crawl around, listen to music...and that gets a little old.

Here is what we do in an average day (in no particular order):
TweedleWink video (science, art, reading, math, perfect pitch)
Spanish language video or audio
Classical CD (music)
Geography Songs (music, geography)
Cards Set “A” – 3x (reading, Bits)
Cards Set “B” – 3x (reading, Bits)
Sequences – 3x (math)
Hallway Art – 3x (art)
Chapter book (reading)
Picture book (reading, art)
BrightBubs music time (music, social)
Swimming (physical)
Whole family hide-and-seek (physical, social)
Grasping – 5x (physical)
Afternoon poetry walk (nature, poetry, language)
Phrases - 3x (reading)

Now, sometimes we'll swim 2x in a day. Sometimes we'll grasp 10 times and not read a picture book. Some days we'll look at the Hallway art 8 times. But, the above list is usually a minimum. Sometimes we don't do our poetry walk, and sometimes we don't do BrightBubs. But everything else we consistently do.

Swimming, Bubbles, States, Paintings

Swimming, swinging, 2 new categories of Bits, a trip to the park and Pizza Inn...wow! Timothy had a great day today!!

Stood Up

Timothy stood up yesterday...in the middle of the room...with nothing to pull up on or balance himself with. He got one knee and then just stood up.

I watched him to see what he was going to do once he was there, but he just looked around and sat down.

Sequences

We've been doing Timothy's math on the computer using the Genogee Prodigy Math CD and he LOVES it. Yesterday, he completed the CD. That means we're back to cards, and the card preparation.

We've started sequences today - 10, 20, 30, 40, 50
Tomorrow we'll do 2, 4, 6, 8...
We'll do some others, forwards and backwards, and then we'll move on to
1, 2, 4, 8, 16 etc

He was intrigued this morning.

Right now, he is napping. He screamed from 1 to 4:30 last night...fun.

Daddy Fed Me Today!

Stubborn

Timothy and I are both incredibly stubborn.

Timothy loves to show how much he knows. He usually smiles at the right answer, but I like him to touch the right answer.

Watch the video - it goes something like this:
Which is Australia?
Timothy crawls towards the right answer
No, you have to touch it - which is Australia
Timothy smiles at the right answer
Nope, touch it. Which is Australia?
Timothy bangs below the right answer
No, sweety, touch the right answer - which is Australia?
Timothy comes close to touching the right answer but doesn't.
Which is Australia? You have to TOUCH it
Timothy finally touches it
Which is Europe?
Timothy touches it

I have decided that I am not going to be so stubborn - it couldn't be fun for him. It's his game and he can play with whatever rules he wants.

At the end of the video, he wouldn't grasp for me and I don't know why - he usually loves to grasp.

And for those of you who are going to email me and ask - YES! Timothy IS crawling to take down the cards at the end of the video and he *did* make me play it 3 more times (he got them all right). Then he crawled away.

Ear, Nose, and Throat

Look at his face - Timothy just LOVES to learn!! He has a thirst for knowledge!!!!



Timothy looking at parts of the brain.



Timothy looking at phrases



Hugs after parts of the brain



Timothy and daddy at the doctor's office

Yes, that's right, we're not at a museum in this picture - that's an actual doctor's office. It appears to be 30-40 years old, but it's a working doctor's office!!

Anyway, there's nothing wrong with his ears - nothing at all! He has a normal amount of fluid in them and does not need tubes (just as I suspected)!

Crawling

As I've said before, the physical program is the program that's the most important. So much intellectual development is tied to physical development, so we try to focus on the physical first and the intellectual second.

Right now, Timothy needs to be crawling everywhere. Doman's goal is for a child to crawl 400 yards/day. Timothy sometimes crawls twice that amount (a half mile!). This is how we get him to do it~



Timothy LOVES to chase our vacuum! And he's always exploring anyway. He likes to play hide and seek when mommy and daddy hide and he crawls in the next room to find us!!

I think he's better!!

We think Timothy's better, and it happened by accident.

Because we were going to a new doctor, we went to stay with family the night before. I forgot his medicine. The next day, he was fine - he had plenty of energy and was back to his energetic and vivacious self! So, we haven't given him his medicine since then and he's been very happy.

I think that doctors put children (and people in general) on too many medications. Timothy was on Zyrtec and I do not think he needed it - he acts better without it.

He has not screamed as much - he did scream some but then again 3 more teeth came in all in the same night, too. It is painful to cut teeth.

Timothy has been crawling, exploring, and playful. It's so nice to see Timothy be Timothy again!!

Thank you all for your prayers and emails. I was very, very worried. Motherhood is frightening.

Daddy showing Timothy art by Fernando Botero.

Mommy showing Timothy the days of the week.

Timothy's first Easter.

We don't know anything new with Timothy. I will post whenever I learn something or schedule something. We're doing our best, here.

Right now, we're waiting on the results of his bloodwork (should be this am). I have a call in to another doctor, too.

Not Taken Seriously

Pic: Timothy eating quesidilla and avocado for lunch today - he's had an appetite, just no energy

Well, the doctor says that everything's fine. His ears look a little bit bad but he seems find otherwise.

We told the doctor that Timothy has NOT been himself and something is wrong, but he didn't take us too seriously. He just did some bloodwork.

Maybe he's screaming because he's teething, he said, and he can't explain why he's lethargic.

We're not satisfied and will be doing something else. We're not exactly sure what we're going to do yet, I'm just sick to my stomach. It's horrible to know something's wrong and have the doctor not believe you, but I've been here before and I know that it's necessary to press the issue.

Timothy is 20lbs 5oz - wow!!

He's just laying around right now, too.

Ignoring the Elephant in the Room

I haven't mentioned it on our blog. I hoped that by not mentioning it, it wouldn't be real. But, alas, it's been several weeks now and it is.

Timothy hasn't slept through the night in a month. He wakes up screaming and nothing helps - not rocking him, not holding him, not feeding him. We thought he's fussy or teething or he had an ear infection. We went to the doctor. He did have an ear infection.

He finished his round of antibiodics and the screaming is still just as bad - he probably screams 5 to 6 hours a day. No improvement. We went to the doctor and his ear is slightly red, so the doctor says to give it another week and then he'll refer us to an ENT.

Four days later, he was screaming more than ever, but he's not pulling on his ear at all. This scream is urgent, it's painful - something's wrong. He's not fussy, he's not sleepy, he's hurting. We have an appointment to an ENT next Monday.

About five days ago Timothy started to get lethargic. He'd just lay down in the middle of the day for a few minutes. This has increased more and more until the last two days he lays and stares at the wall for several hours a day. If you know Timothy, you know that he's crawling and destroying and playing and exploring...not laying down. So, we almost went to the ER last night but we didn't. We have an appointment at 2:30 today.

I think the things that worries me the most is that deep down I know something is wrong and I know he's trying to tell us that. I have no doubt. Daddy thinks it's his stomach and I do, too. I've read an article on what I think it might be, but we'll see what the doctor says today.

I'm afraid it's serious and I didn't want to suddenly spring it on my readers, so I'm letting you know what's going on now.

Please pray for us.

EAT

Someone asked what/how much Timothy eats in a normal day. So, today I will document what he eats:

6:30 - 5oz. formula while he was still sleepy (we tricked him)
8:30 - 1 piece of toast, 2 oz. pear and oatmeal mix, 2 oz banana and rice cereal mix, 1/2 oz cottage cheese
11 - 5oz. of formula
2 - 3oz. sweet potato, 1oz. yogurt, some plain cooked corkscrew noodles (I have him about 3/4 cup, most ended up on the floor but some got in his mouth)
4 - 3oz. formula
8 - 1 piece of toast, 2 steamed carrot pieces, some pureed carrots, 4 banana puffs, banana "juice" (pureed banana and water in a sippy)
9 - 5oz. formula and off to bed (I certainly hope)

Timothy got his THIRD tooth today, upper left front and center!!

Pons, Corpus Callosum, Cerebellum

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These are Timothy's current sets of Bits of Intelligence. I printed these particular encyclopedic knowledge cards from www.theclassicalmommy.com/. I show him each card 3x/day. I normally do 2 cards in each set, but Timothy wanted another brain card today so I let him have it.

~

I wish that I could learn things like Timothy does. Man, it's amazing!! What he does when I try to get him to show how much he knows is impressive, but what's more impressive is what he shows me on his own!!!!

~

Today, he went to where we keep the new cards and was trying to get in to them. I told him "No, we're doing these cards today!" I had just put a new one in and he had only seen it twice. He kept trying to get into the new cards, so I told him "Show me you know these and I'll get you a new one." I put three parts of the brain down, and each time he pointed to the right one (well, one time he picked up the right one and put it in his mouth). One he had only seen 2 times!! So, Timothy knows the pons and the corpus callosum and the cerebellum. The sad thing is, I do not. If it weren't for the back of the card, I wouldn't be able to teach him anything *sigh*

~

Timothy's never got one wrong with Bits of Intelligence or Math - he loves them. Sadly, though, he has tested wrong in reading. We've probably asked him to identify a word 5 times since he was 4 months old...the first three times he did it right, the second two times he did it wrong.

Was he tired of the game? Does he dislike reading? Did he truly think that "asparagus" was "spaniach"? Or was he just pulling our leg? I'm not sure. But Doman says when they start picking the wrong answer, they're tired of that game, and we haven't tested him in reading for almost 2 months now.

~

I can tell, though, that Timothy can identify words. One of his words the last two days was "attack" and daddy always shakes his arms and says "Attack, attack, attack, attack!!" Timothy LOVES it! After he had seen the word about 4 times, he smiled when we held up the word before we even said "attack" because he knew daddy was going to shake his arms. So, he's showing that he does know some words. It's very obvious, though, that he loves math and encyclopedic knowledge much more than reading. I'm glad - maybe he'll go into a profession where he can make some money, unlike mommy's profession. :-)

Reflection

Who is the boy I see

Staring straight back at me?

When will my reflection show

Who I am inside?

Colors

We've never really worked that much on colors. One of his video teaches the colors adn I've said them in passing, but I was still shocked when I realized that Timothy knows his colors.

We bought the Candy Land DVD game on clearance at Walmart, and decided to play it the other day. We told Timothy "Go to a red square" and he went right to a red one (and picked it up instead of sitting on it). Then we said yellow and he went to a yellow, and blue and he went and picked up a blue. We asked him 4 different colors and each time he went to the right one.

I don't think he understood the object of the game (actually, I'm not sure I understood it either), but he DOES know the colors. David thinks it's funny that I knew he could do multiplication but was shocked when he knew his colors!

The other picture is of daddy and Timothy in our backyard - Timothy loves to be outside!!