Yes, I Finally Added a New Post!

First, May 6th was National Nurses Day. If you look back at our old posts, you'll see just what a tremendous role nurses played in saving M&M from all the numerous pitfalls of very early birth. If you are impressed with how well our 25 weekers turned out, the nurses at Alta Bates deserve a considerable share of the credit! Thanks. Thanks very much to all of you!

It's been a while - as Auntie Janet has recently reminded me. In fact I think this is the longest I've gone without posting an update to the blog. Consequently, this post is long. Very long. Maybe my longest yet. Maybe not. Of late there just hasn't been much time - between the 15+ doctor/evaluation/IEP/assessment appointments we've had over the last 5 weeks for the kids, along with the usual work schedule and so forth we've been busy. Really, really, annoyingly busy. Here's hoping that things slow down a bit with summer on the way!

We did manage to find time over the last few weeks to have some fun with the kids. On the home front, Elaine got bold and decided to setup the kids' easel outside for an afternoon of painting. The kids loved it and some of their works will no doubt fetch a tidy sum at the next big Christie's auction. M&M dubbed the collaborative work below "No! noooo! myyyyy paint." It now adorns a wall in my office. The asking price is $5,000, but all reasonable offers will be considered. Dig deep people.

M&M at work. April 2011

The aftermath. (Taken approximately 35 minutes after the above photo.)

Of course, April is also Easter time and the kids enjoyed their first ever Easter egg hunt down in the southwest meadows of our palatial estate. Maddy and Milo's older friend Callie showed the twins the ropes. Maddy was a quick study. Once she figured out that the eggs contained candy, she became a well-oiled egg-seeking machine. Milo doesn't have much of a sweet tooth. He filled his basket easy enough, but he was more impressed with the colors and just puttering around the yard.

Maddy & Callie - Easter 2011

Milo checks his booty.

Maddy shares a little with Mom. The little girl loves feeding people.

Callie, Maddy and Milo on the hunt.



The search is on.

Later on that day, we joined Callie, Ellie, and their Mom and Dad for Easter dinner. That's Maddy on the far left wearing Callie's princess dress. Elaine and Lara are toiling in the background prepping the beer glazed ham and various cheesy potato dishes. A delicious, low calorie meal!

Unlike Milo, whose hair grows in fast and thick, it's taken the little girl a while to grow her blond locks out. It didn't help that the poor kid got a butchered back in late January. Her hair is now long enough to require barrettes. And she definitely digs the barrettes!

Above: Maddy admires her look. If you look in the center right side of the photo, you'll see M&M's potty charts. It's a work in progress. Really, the potty training is largely a work with little progress so far. We had a few big moments several months ago when Maddy put together a few wees on the pot. Since then, nada -- not a poo, not a tinkle, not nothing! Meanwhile, diapers only get larger and more expensive, and the poop only gets bigger. I'm hoping that - like a lot of other kids - there will be a tremendous break through one day (soon!). That's always the way it seems to go with them, so it would make sense.

My dad tells me he got me using the potty by putting a small rubber ducky in the bowl and having me aim at it. Maybe we'll try that. Elaine just noted that I don't appear to have any strange duck peeing fetishes, so what's the harm? (Elaine also just asked me to delete the bit about the duck peeing fetish but I think it's pretty funny. Feel free to post a comment letting her know how funny I am and how my wit and irreverent humor keeps you all coming back for more!)

Another cute barrette shot.

Milo tries on Daddy's work shoes. May 2011.

Above: Milo enjoys one of Mommy's famous pancake breakfasts. Usually Elaine and I trade off on who gets to sleep in late on the weekends. Whoever gets up early usually makes breakfast. I generally make french toast; Elaine leans pancakes. You really can't wrong either way.

A couple weeks back, we managed to pull a few hours together to drive the kids down to Happy Hollow in San Jose. Despite the lame name, the place is probably my favorite children's theme park in NorCal. That's saying something, because I've been to pretty much all of them over the last couple years. I just wish the place was a little closer to home!

Above: Maddy loves the merry-go-round! Milo talks a big game alright -- pretty much every day he says, "I go ride tiger. I go ride tiger. I want merry-go-round!" But when we go to the park, he chickens out and sits on the bench with Mom or Dad. It's pretty amazing that the little guy will jump from ridiculous heights, loves to rough house, and especially likes me toss him in the air as high as possible. Yet, the fake tiger on the merry-go-round and his "Very Clever Crocodile" Pop-up book both scare him (though he still asks for them both every day). Fair enough.

Above: Milo climbs a steep, five foot rock wall at Happy Hollow. This bit was amazing! Milo spotted another older child climb this wall and he demanded to try it for himself. It took a couple tries, but he managed all on his own. He pulled himself up on the step in the top center, then he ran up the flights of stairs and took an enormous, enclosed slide down. I followed behind, but he took care of business without help from Dad. Pretty solid for a 2.7 year old!

Happy Hollow Slide Park. M&M did them all. The place also has a nice zoo, rides, a petting zoo, and a whole bunch of other great attractions.

Maddy keeps on trucking.

Milo - May 2011. Munching on snacks in the Happy Hollow Zoo.

What else do the kids love besides big shoes and hats, candy, and amusement parks? Singing and dancing of course - the standard toddler array. Here M&M sing ABCs with Mom. You'll see Milo strumming his guitar, which is easily his favorite possession.

Maddy's favorite possession these days is her tricycle. Since getting this new model, she's really taken off! The other day she rode down the street with me to a friend's house and back. It ends up being about a 1/4 mile round trip. Not too shabby! Milo can ride the tricycle, but he's not as nimble. He usually gets frustrated, jumps off and runs around on foot as fast as he can. Makes sense.

That's all for now. See you next time. Please, don't forget to tell my wife how funny I am.

Testing 1, 2, 3. . . Test . . . Test . . . Test

Stiles Family Calendar - April 2011

Notice all those crazy scribbles? All that writing represents the 10+ appointments and evaluations the kids have scheduled this month, not including the twice weekly visits from the developmental specialist. Since the kids are approaching 3, soon they'll transition to the local school district. That means a barrage of assessments... How unusual, eh? We figured the school district would want to observe the kids, but M&M are basically getting the full work-up, from withers to brisket. It's a scheduling nightmare, but the upshot we should have a really good idea of where the kids are at relative to other kids their age. We won't have the comprehensive results until the end of the month, but we at least got some good news about Milo today. He had a follow-up check on his hearing and it turns out he's hearing just fine. This was good news. Back in December, Milo had to have ear tubes inserted and a lot of heavy fluid removed from his ear canals. Since then he seems to be hearing much better, but sometimes it's tough to tell. The little guy definitely picks and chooses what he wants to acknowledge. I can whisper "cookie" two rooms away and he comes running. I can stand over him and ask him to put his shoes away, and he doesn't even turn his head. We figured that was going to happen eventually, but figured it was at least a few years a away. I blame the Wiggles.

Maddy, Milo, & Ella

In other news, we had a great time hosting our friends from back east - Jeff, Laura, and their daughter Ella. Ella assumed instant idol status with Maddy, and Maddy still says "Go see Ella?" at least every few days.

Milo & Jeff

Milo hanging out in his favorite place in the world, the front seat of my car. The little guy can easily kill an hour playing in the car. The tough part is trying to get him out before he's ready. That usually involves a fairly nasty tantrum -- something else that will hopefully pass with time.

Milo & Ella - Oakland Zoo - March 2011

I told the designer over an over, it ends in "y" not "ie." Maddy - March 2011

Maddy & Mom - Oakland Zoo - March 2011

Maddy loves the merry-go-round, so much in fact that she was able to happily tolerate the completely overwhelming skunk that took up residence under the ride. Every time the merry-go-round started, the skunk would scent. It was unbearable to all the adults -- several of whom nearly got sick. The kids didn't seem to care though. The video is below.

Good times!

Enjoying a snack at Little Farm in Berkley - March 2011.

Maddy rocks her new shades at Little Farm.

Daddy & Maddy - Little Farm - April 2011

Milo's favorite toy - his guitar. Whenever we're at home, he's usually carrying it around and pretending to be Cowboy Jared, the singing cowboy who visits their daycare every Thursday. Though he's a huge fan of Cowboy Jared, Milo's approach to guitar showmanship is much more in line with Jimi Hendrix. I've had to re-glue the poor thing at least a half-dozen times. I expect one day I'll walk into the living room and see him squirting lighter fluid on it.

See what I mean?

Maddy's favorite things? Basketball and wearing big shoes. That and she also loves macaroni cheese, Cowboy Jared (yes, her too), and other little girls who are her age or a bit older.

The kids have actually surprised us quite a bit with how much they love music. They basically want a stereo on at all times, and they have a pretty broad range of taste. They like kids tunes, rock, country, classical, and the recently developed a taste for reggae.

The little girl also loves her hats. Maddy hanging out in the backyard - April 2011.

Our latest visitors, our good friends Jenny, Matt, & their son Nathan came for a visit in early April all the way from England.

Nathan & Milo playing at Tilden Park (Little Farm) - April 3, 2011.

Jenny, Nathan, & Milo playing on the stairs at Tilden. Milo's other favorite thing - walking up and down stairs repeatedly. That and funny noises...

Matt entertains the kids with a few blades a grass and a good strong breath.

M&M enjoying the first warm day of the year in the backyard pool. April 4, 2011

Mommy & the kids - USCG Sector San Francisco - March 2011

This is Elaine early in the morning, eating a banana, before getting a chance to get cleaned up. I took the picture to harass her a little and thought I really ought to add it to the blog for posterity. :) See you next time!

Bona Fide Toddlers

It's pretty amazing how far they've come, and even harder to believe that in just 3 more months, the "babies" will be 3 years old. Of course they haven't been babies for a while now, but it's still hard to get used to the idea.

Much has happened in the last couple months. I returned from a 20 day kayaking trip on the Grand Canyon. An amazing trip by all accounts, but it was also the longest I've ever been away from the kids. We've had a steady stream of visitors for the last 3 months and the trend will continue through May. Of course, Grandpa came to visit over Christmas. Dad's buddy Matt came for 9 days in January. The day after he left, we had Kieron and Kirst come over from England to stay with us and join Dad on the Grand Canyon . In February, we had Michael and Rachel, who were kind enough to babysit too (THANKS!). Uncle Nathan and Aunt Anna will be dropping by this evening for dinner while in town, and then our friends Jeff, Laura, and their daughter Ella will join us for the week. Very nice to have visitors and the kids are really enjoying the new faces!

February 19, 2011 - Dad just returns from the Grand Canyon and joins M&M for breakfast. Note Dad is still sporting the remnants of his once mighty beard.

March 2011 - Maddy contemplates her bagel.


March 2011 - Milo hangs out in the backyard. You'll notice he's almost always wearing this fleece pullover. He's loves the thing and never wants to take it off.

On the medical front: During February Milo had his speech evaluation. Speech is probably the little guys weakest area. Recall that Milo had ear tubes inserted a couple months back too - this has definitely helped with his hearing, but he still has about a 30% delay in his ability to speak and understand. It's hard to say how much of this might be hearing related. At times he seems to hear quite well and it's tough to tell if he's just ignoring us. (Imagine a toddler ignoring the commands of his parents?)

Both kids recently had a follow-up with the pulmonologist and appear to be do doing quite well in the lung department overall. As you may recall, Maddy's vocal chords got nicked during her PDA ligation way back when she was only two weeks old. As a result, Maddy's voice is a little bit lower in tone, quieter, and raspy than most girl toddlers. Some vocal chord damage or paralysis is actually a common side effect of a PDA ligation -- see here. Milo's voice is also a little bit quiet and "airy" which could also indicate some damage, albeit minor. The pulmonologist is going to do a broncoscopy in order to have a good look the kids lungs and determine the extent of the vocal chord damage. It's possible that some surgery may be required to address the problem, but more than likely speech therapy will do the trick.

Once the kids are 3 years old, they will no longer be eligible to receive early intervention services from their current provider, Regional Center of the East Bay. Instead the Alameda school district will take over providing services for M&M as needed. This means another round of assessments which should give us a good idea of how much the kids have caught up to their peers.

February 26, 2011: Maddy takes the tricycle tour of the backyard. She's actually gotten quite good at riding the tricycle around and even manages to maneuver around the yard furniture. Pretty impressive stuff! Milo isn't that into the tricycle, but he absolutely loves water. Maybe Maddy got my cycling genes and Milo got the paddling genes.

After a couple of unsuccessful tries, we finally made it to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose. Lots of fun! The kids had a great time driving the fire truck (above), playing with the water, practicing making pizzas, and just generally running around in the grass. Good times!

Milo loving the water.

See you next time!

The Month in Pictures

M&M visit Fairly Land in Oakland - December 2010

Nope. Maddy's diaper smells fine Daddy.

Grandpa visits - Christmas week 2010.

M&M at the San Jose Children's museum. Unfortunately, it was closed.

Luckily, Happy Hollow was open! We'd never heard of the place before, but it turned out to be one of the nicest parks for small children we've been too. Above, Maddy takes her very first ride on a merry go round. Christmas Week - December 2010.

More Happy Hollow. This was one of several bronze statues our front. Notice the cow is eating money. Around back, he poops piles of change. Very clever indeed!

The Christmas bomb hits. Christmas Day - 2010.

Visiting with friends on Christmas. The Meyers family, the McKinneys, and Stiles family enjoying a little holiday cheer.

Maddy tries on Dad's muck boots. January 2011.

A warm day in NorCal. 23 Jan 2011

See you next time.