Pediatric Gastroenterologist

Our appointment with the Pediatric Gastroenterologist is on Monday.

He's had a few good-sized bowel movements since then, but he's still in (rather significant at times) pain and he still doesn't seem to be "going" normally.

And, of course, he keeps saying that his body (bottom) hurts.

Painting & Body Game

Here are some pictures from school today.

We read about Hannah wanting Samuel, we colored a picture for daddy, and we painted a Dick and Jane coloring book (which will later be made into a hand-painted Doman-type book with big print). Then we played the body game.

The muffin tin is his "school breakfast" each day - he loves dip, so he gets different fruits and french toast sticks (egg bread) to dip into yogurt dip (which is actually just yogurt).

Reading

Here's a picture of our little guy enjoying books. He especially likes action-type books (lift the flap and the like).

I have a video of him "reading" that I'll upload later.

Got a Lotta Poop

Well, if I was feeling a bit uneasy before, now it's even more so.

Timothy had an X-ray today to see how much stool he had in his bowels. The doctor could feel it in his abdomen, but he couldn't tell how far up it went and if it gets too far it causes a great deal of pain and discomfort.

We got a call from the nurse right at 5pm. "The doctor says he's gotta lotta poop in there," she told me.

So, he's in pain and discomfort for a reason.

The bad news: Having a lot of poop backed up doesn't change our plan of action at all - we're still going to do the two medications.
The good news: Having a lot of poop back up does mean that we'll get in faster with the pediatric gastroenterologist...they're scheduling an appoint ASAP.

"My Body Hurts"

It all started about two and a half weeks ago...

Timothy says "My body hurts" and grabs his bottom. He has a really bad diaper rash, so we don't think too much of it.

The diaper rash goes away, but still we keep hearing him say "My body hurts." He stops going to the bathroom normally and starts passing dime-sized, tiny, hard, black stools--about 4-8 of them a day, to be exact.

We went to the doctor last Monday and the doctor thought he might have pinworms. We got a medicine for the pinworms and were put on Miralax for the constipation. The doctor warned us to expect diarreah.

A week later (this last weekend), Timothy's still passing tiny, hard stools and he's still complaining about his body hurting. He appears to be in a great deal of pain at times. We went to the doctor again today and the doctor could feel stool built up, but he needs to know how far built up it is so we got an X-ray done and also checked his electrolyte level in his blood.

Timothy's been put on a new medication and he's to get an appointment with a pediatric gastroenterologist ASAP.

Please pray for Timothy!! I'm sure he's fine, but I know from experience that constipation is terrible.

Our New Schedule

Timothy's New Backpack

In January, we plan on starting My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum. We saw it at the Homeschool Book Fair last year and we just absolutely fell in love with it. Academically, it's supposed to introduce all of the letters and the sounds during the year course, but we love the WAY it teaches. For instance, the first week is about the letter /s/ so we'll focus on the sun. We'll talk about the planets (science). We make a sundial and measure how far the shadow goes (math). We get leaves and grass and make sun pictures (nature and art). We'll read books about the sun (reading). And, finally, we'll talk about how Jesus is the Light of the World (faith). So the curriculum incorporates all the things we want to do with Timothy! We plan to still do lots of things Doman-style (word cards, Bits, and math) but we'll have one central topic we'll be focused on.

Of course, the curriculum is designed for a 5-year-old and Timothy is just 2, but we think we'll be able to modify it to suit our needs.

So we're trying to prepare ourselves for the change to a curriculum, so we tweaked our schedule a bit and....it's been a fantastic day!!

Our schedule today was like this (actually, it's running about 40 minutes fast since he work up early):

7:00 – Wake Up, Get Dressed, Snack
Today we had waffle sticks.

8:00 – Morning Walk

We counted dogs. I think next time we'll do a tally sheet to keep tracks of the dogs we see.

8:30 – Free Play, Mommy Cleans Up

9:00 – Breakfast, “School” Time
Timothy did so great during "school" today...and he was happy the ENTIRE hour! We serve breakfast at the school table, and it's entirely finger foods served in a muffin tin. He had french toast sticks, banana, dried apricots, chunks of cheese, and yogurt "dip." He loved it!! We were really surprised by his attention span. We focus on J-O-Y during this time:

J - Jesus (Pray, Sing the B-I-B-L-E, Read Bible, Read Storybook version of passage, Recite verse)

O - Others (We talk about someone who's in need and we pray for them and color them a picture to mail and make them feel better. Today, we prayed for a cousin who's baby needs to flilp over).

Y - Yourself (Art project, read a book, play a game. Today we played the Little Bear matching game and we played a FHC-style sound game)

10:00 – Free Play, Spanish Music (Outdoor Play or ExploraZone)
We have over 30 CD's of little kids Spanish songs, and some of them are too cute. Timothy loves them, but he wants to hear the same CD over and over again.

11:30 – Sofa Time, Spanish Video, Mommy Cooks Lunch
Today we watched Little Einsteins in Spanish

12:00 – Lunch
Today we had bean and cheese quesidillas.

12:30 – Book Time, Rocking Chair, Between the Lions
We limit book time to three books. All the books we read today were homemade books, and Timothy loves them. I'll pause and he'll read select words...he has the books memorized.

1:00 – Rest Time, Suzuki Music and Book on Tape (Violin Practice)

This is where it gets completely fantastic and wonderful. We decided that instead of trying to make Timothy nap in his room, we would do naps daycare-style. We put his nap mat on the floor, talked all lunch time about how he's to stay on his nap mat, and then turned out all the lights in the living room. We played classical music, he went to his mat, and he was asleep within minutes--no fighting, no fussing, no million pleas for water. While he sleeps, I play a book on tape for my benefit and his. Today we're listening to Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde.

On a normal day, the rest of the schedule would look like this:

4:00 – Snack, Daily Calendar and Misc.

4:30 – Chinese Videos or Music, Free Play

5:00 – Seat Work, Manipulatives, or Activity

5:30 – Eat Dinner

6:00 – Free Play

6:30 – Bath Time

7:00 – Book Time, Rocking Chair, Videos

8:30 – Sleep Time

Our Family Trip

I'm up at 4:30 in the morning, planning our family trip.

Now that we have Jimmy, I'm trying to figure out a way to be fair to both kids.

It's looking like we'll have to split up some. When we get to Austin, one of us will go with Timothy to the Children's Museum while the other one can take Jimmy to tour the capitol building. Now, I know what you're thinking. Touring the capitol can be fun for a child. I know it can. But not at this point in Timothy's development. After being in the car for hours, he will want to run free and play, so the Children's Museum is the best choice.

In San Antonio, we're going to do Sea World, the Alamo, Riverwalk, and Witte museum. We're staying at a kid-friendly hotel with a playgroup a bit off the beaten path (so it will be quiet).

What's really fantastic is that we're a member of the Association of Science and Technology Centers and we can get into several Science and Children's museums free! We took advantage of all the benefits last year when we went to Saint Louis and we really got into sevearl museums free, which was nice.

So we're looking forward to it!

Popsicle

Nothing special - just a kid with a popsicle :-)

Timothy Playing Violin

He can't start taking his own violin lessons for another 9 1/2 months, but he can still enjoy daddy's!!

Heard in our Home...

Strange things heard in our home

Mommy:

"If you're going to cry, I won't let you vacuum!"

"No - we do not put wheels in Mommy's nose"

"Look! The bowel movement is happy there!!"

Timothy:

"I ate Texas."

"Goodbye, Peanuts"

"Look - a dead thing"

Cars

Timothy got some awesome cars from Jimmy's parents in China!!

Their headlights turn on, they roll when you pull them backwards, and they even talk (in English).

We set them up for Timothy so that we could take a picture and he added his monster truck and then counted themto make sure they were all there.

Of course, we've been making sure he keeps these out of his mouth and washes his hands after he plays with them.

They're awesome cars, though, and he really loves them!!

Violin

Here's where David is after 3 weeks of violin lessons:



We haven't been able to find a music stand yet and David's going crazy having to use bookshelves or the top of the television to hold his music, but other than that he's certainly making progress, I'd say.

This week, they're supposed to start learning "Silent Night" so that he can be ready for Christmas!!

We Love Jimmy

Jimmy, our foreign exchange student from China, has been such a wonderful blessing to us all!!

He's great with Timothy, he's opened us up to a new culture, and he's encouraged us to look critically at our own culture (have you ever tried to explain a girl's shirt that says "I don't need brains, I've got these"?).

He's made us want to visit China, but he's made us want to see more of our community and state.

Most importantly, he's made us connected to himself and his family forever.

We are so grateful that we got such a wonderful student to share our home with us!!

Excuse Me, Blower

On Sunday, we had an outdoor curb-appeal project and Timothy loved getting to spend time outside.

David had used the blower and it was sitting across the sidewalk, blocking the way. Timothy pushed his mower down the sidewalk.

"Excuse me, Blower" he said most politely.

He waited patiently. Nothing happened.

"Blower, Excuseeee me!!" he repeated.

Then, of course, he broke down in an all-out fit because the blower didn't magically get out of his way.

I just thought it was funny that he said excuse me to the blower and expected it to do something!!

Our Pumpkin Picture

Saturday, Aunt Angie took Timothy and his cousin to the pumpkin patch. It sounds like they had a great time, minus Timothy freaking out in the hay bale maze that was just too scary for him!

On the way home, he wanted to hold his pumpkin, and he fell asleep within 30 seconds...pumpkin and all.

This is, by far, my favorite pumpkin picture of Timothy...and I have some cute ones!!

TA-Da!!

Here's Timothy doing some of his silly gymnastics!!

Our Star Planetarium

In a comment, someone asked the name of our star planetarium. It's Edu-Science Star Theater

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2320869

We got it for $20 during last Black Friday after-Thanksgiving sale at Toys 'R Us.

It has REALLY bad reviews online, but Timothy sure loves it. He likes that he can turn it any way he wants for it to project the different constellations (on my arm, on our wall, on his foot, etc).

Blanket Time

Yesterday, they had Daddy & Timothy day because I had to teach. When I came home, I caught them doing Blanket Time so I had to get a video