Milo & Madeline

Friday, April 1, 2011

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!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

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!

Sunday, January 23, 2011

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!