May 2012 in Pictures

M&M discover tree climbing.

Warm weather visits NorCal for a few days. 

M&M partake of their favorite food (cake frosting) at friend Kate's birthday. 

Every day, several times a day, for the last month, M&M have asked to ride the merry-go-round at Oakland Zoo.  We went on a bender last week, and the kids took 3 rides each, followed by the roller coaster, cars, and airplanes.  The impressive part is that we squeezed it all into the last hour that the park was open. Leaving was the tough part... 

Maddy takes the plunge -- eventually.... :)

Milo's Makes the Growth Chart & a Farewell to Friends

Here's a pleasant follow-up to our last post.  As you may recall, our slim hero weighed in at just 28 pounds (clothed).  That's roughly the same weight he was almost a year ago. Since he has a reasonably healthy appetite, this raised concerns about possible Cystic Fibrosis.  Luckily, tests came negative, but the question remained: Why's Milo so skinny?  We met with Milo's doctor at the end of April and apparently making the appointment was enough to solve the problem.  During the visit Milo weighed in at just over 31 lbs. and was 38.75" tall. That's enough to place him in the 25th and 45th percentile, respectively, in both categories for his age. (If you're interested in taking a closer look, you can find the comparative growth chart here.)  Though, it's worth noting that most of the other calculators all come up with differing numbers.  The stats above came from our pediatrician -- some fairly reputable sites with growth calculators place him lower, about 15th and 25th (or so).  Regardless, it's good news and we'll take it.  

What's the secret?  Hard to say... Of late I've taken to making the boy Ovaltine with whole milk and half and half. That seems to be helping.  Yeah, it's high in sugar, but it's also high in fat, protein, calcium, and a list of other good stuff that the kid needs more of. I had practically forgotten about the existence of Ovaltine, but a friend in New Zealand sent us a big tin of a drink called "Milo," which as it turns out is the down under version of Ovaltine, more or less.  (Though there is a hot internet debate about the differences between the two. I'd pick Milo over Ovaltine base the name alone, but Milo is hard to come by in the U.S.) I also use the low sugar version of Carnation Instant Breakfast Drink with success.

Daredevil Maddy - April 2012 

The little girl has Moxy. She will generally attempt to climb to the highest point of every play structure we visit, and I usually have to remind her not to jump.  She's been doing quite well of late, and during a recent parent teacher meeting, her teacher suggested it may be time to reassess her.  You might recall that Maddy & Milo are both enrolled in a special pre-school program where they get pretty significant hands-on instruction, as well as occupational and speech therapy.  At this point, Maddy is functional at her age level and beyond.  She will still need some speech therapy to assist with her Janis Joplin voice and some OT as well, but she can get that in a mainstream pre-school program. 

Milo is also doing very well overall and has made huge progress.  He's still having trouble with speech, particularly answering "why" questions.  For example, if you ask Milo why he likes to jump, he might say something like, "Well, you see, the caterpillar likes to eat pie and ice cream and salami and apples..."  Essentially,  he's quoting sections from the "Very Hungry Caterpillar."  The good news is that he actually plays very well with other kids his age and he is ahead of his peers in a few other areas.  He'll need another year of his present classroom for the added support, but that's no surprise.  Frankly, we thought Maddy would too. 

Easter - 2012.

Unfortunately Dad was away for a month during the Easter holiday attending training for work on the East Coast.  The kids got to dress up and hunt Easter eggs with Mom and friends.  

Oakland Zoo - April 2012

Oakland Zoo - April 2012

The kids bid farewell to Dad's beloved Necky Chronic - April 2012

For those of my paddling buds who follow the blog, you will be stunned to know that I've finally parted with the beloved Necky.  It was probably the greatest playboat I ever owned and I've owned it longer than any other kayak -- since 2004.  Alas, it was getting old and since I've put on about 20 pounds since I bought it, I'm just too big for it.  Milo loved it because it was red.  Out with the old...

M & M - Earth Day Festival, Alameda, April  2012.

The kids have come around to liking ice cream in a big way -- surprise, surprise. They were giving out free cones of green ice cream during the festival and the kids did nice job of polishing them off.  By the way, the pictures above do a great job of illustrating the differences between the way the kids eat.  Milo is very neat -- when he finishes a meal, his hands are clean and there usually isn't much mess anywhere.  With Maddy, a hose is often needed.  A powerful hose.  I sincerely hope she eats this way on her first date. 

Rockin' out!  The kids still love music.  Birthdays are coming up and I'm actually pretty tempted to buy them one of those DeRosa kids drum sets. Maybe in a year or two we'll look at some guitar lessons. For now, strumming along is good enough.  

Maddy and Rea - 06 May 2012.

One of the tough parts about military service is that either you or a large number of your friends move to a new duty station each year.  This year, several of the kids' pals will be headed to a new part of the country.  Maddy and her friend Rea got to know each other pretty well this past year.  Hopefully we'll get assigned together again soon. 

Giada, Milo, Rea, & Maddy together for the last time for a while. 06 May 2012.

The kids will also be saying good-bye to a few other friends this summer as they move on.  It looks like next year will be our turn to move on.  Hopefully we'll land in the northeast and reconnect with old friends there. 

The March 2012 Post

Maddy Smothering Milo - as usual. December 2011

It's been a while, and much has happened since the last post back in December before Christmas. In a nutshell, lots of sickness (cold & flu); a major scare (Milo was tested for cystic fibrosis); and we had some good times too.

Some of you may have already seen my post on Facebook, but a couple weeks back the kids had to head to the pulmonologist for another check-up. They weighed Milo and he came in pretty light -- still under 30 lbs., where he's been hovering for a while now. He seems to eat well, and that fact combined with his size and some of the coughing issues he has lead the doc to want to test for cystic. Elaine and I felt pretty sure that wasn't likely, but I have to admit as the days went on it started to feel like it made more and more sense. Of course, from there I did the inevitable research and learned just what an awful disease cystic is. Luckily, the drama ended pretty quickly -- we were able to get the boy tested early the following week and he came back a resounding negative. It was definitely a big relief, and it's solidified my feeling that my kids, along with all preemies, have more than paid their dues and are owed a free pass on every other shitty, life-threatening disease out there. Who's with me?

In other testing news, we also just received the results of Milo's latest speech testing. The results were a bit troubling, though not completely unsurprising. By comparison, Maddy is definitely more verbal than Milo and has an easier time with language in general. With all of the budget cutting and limitations on special education services, it's sometimes hard to know whether the results of testing are completely legit, or whether the evaluator might have massaged the numbers on your child to ensure a result of at least a 30 percent delay. As it turns out, 30 percent is, more or less, the magic number to qualify a child for special education services. In this case, Milo came back around 37% delayed in several areas of speech (receptive language, expressive language, and symbolic play). Though his articulation (speech production skills) was actually quite advanced - he tested at the 5-year-old level in that area. We haven't had a chance to discuss the results yet with the therapist, so it's hard to know exactly what it means right now. Ont he plus side, his teachers seem very happy with his progress. Hopefully there's a big break through around the corner - there usually is.

The Run Up to the Holidays

M&M at dance class - December 2011

As most of you know, the kids love music and dancing. We figured it would be nice to enroll them in some kind of dance class. Poor Milo. Even here in the Bay Area, he was the only dude in the room. The class was supposed to be a dance and movement class, so we figured it would be fine for a boy and it basically was. He had a great time, and while M&M were clearly the boldest and (if I may say so) the most gifted dancers in the room, they were also pretty chaotic and hard to control. That's the price of their gift of dance I guess. On the final day, they were supposed to do a recital but for some reason Milo decided he wanted nothing to do with it so he and I spent the session outside on the playground with Dad. From what I gather, teaching 3-year-olds to dance is better left to the pros.

This being the kids 4th Christmas and the first that really seemed to click, I took every opportunity to use the old cliche of Santa as a omniscient deity who was always watching and ready to impose charcoal for any act of misbehavior. Maddy still occasionally reminds me (as recently as today in fact) that "Santa is always watching." So it was a special treat when the big guy himself paid a visit to our neighbor's house a few weeks before the big day. The kids were completely impressed and not at all frightened. I'm glad to report that neither peed on his lap - which was nice for him.

Maddy & Daddy Ride the Giant Slide at the Six Flags Great American/49ers Holiday Party

We also discovered that the kids love giant slides more than just about anything else, except maybe a giant bouncy house. Through a stroke of luck, we managed to get invited to a big holiday party the San Francisco 49ers put on for service members and their family. M&M spotted the giant slide, and after one trip Maddy had decided that this was her new purpose in life. Milo was almost as enamoured with the thing.

M&M and Mom - Christmas Eve 2011

We did the whole program this year, including cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. We even bought the matching jammies.

Of course, Grandpa was on hand for this year too.

In case you haven't detected the theme, Milo is pretty into fire trucks and firemen. His final present was a pretty sweet vintage fire truck I found for him. This thing was straight out of the 50's - made of heavy metal and sharp edges all over! I'm not even sure how this thing manages to get to market in the current age of safety recalls. I'm sure this truck will be around for years to come. Definitely built to last!

All in all, a great Christmas...

Amusement Parks - the Next Frontier

Maddy & Grandpa - Happy Hollow, San Jose December 2011

One of the things I've enjoyed most about the kids becoming 3-year-olds is their new found love of amusement parks. Sure, they liked the zoo when they were in their twos, and they've liked going to playgrounds for a couple years now. Still, it's only recently that Milo was willing to get on a merry-go-round. But these days they love rides in a big way!


By the way, I think I've mentioned it before, but if you have kids age 3 to about 9 or 10, Happy Hollow is about the best park I've been to. They give a substantial discount to folks with Oakland Zoo memberships and parking is free (or seriously reduced) for military. Really nice place!

Milo finishing one a dozen (or more) trips down the massive slide at Happy Hollow.

Maddy takes one of her first roller coaster rides with Grandpa at Happy Hollow.

One of the most impressive moments came when M&M spotted a mini roller coaster and demanded to "ride the train." And ride they did... The moment the roller coaster would pull in, the kids would jump off and sprint around to the entrance again to score another ride. I'm sure we'd still be there now if we didn't eventually carry them away.

Milo goes with Dad for his first roller coaster ride.

Milo conquers his fears and tames the merry-go-round in impressive fashion.

M&M at their first swimming lesson. Jan. 15, 2012

We've wanted to get the kids into swimming for a while, and we finally managed to get them going this past January. Despite a well heated pool, poor Milo was still shivering with bluish lips after the first lesson. He is one skinny boy. Maddy kept a bit warmer, but we ended getting toddler wetsuits for them both. It's pretty amazing to see how independent they are now; before the start of each lesson they have to walk around the pool to their station and line up along the wall and wait a couple minutes patiently while the other lesson finishes. If only we could get that kind of compliance at home. Well, with any luck they'll be swimming like champs by summer just in time to try out some whitewater boating.

Maddy kickin' it old school at home. February 4, 2012.

Milo relaxes on the throne and contemplates an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba. I know what you're thinking, "Rob, you really shouldn't let him watch so much TV." True, but in my defense he spends most of his time on the potty staring at Elaine's copies of the New Yorker. Sure, it's not the Economist, but it's impressive nonetheless.

Maddy climbs on a giant fiber glass whale in front of the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, Feb. 2012.

Milo, Maddy (under Milo), & Mom having fun on the slides. The kids' friend Chris is coming down just behind Elaine. January 2012.

The kids other favorite pass time, digging in the dirt. Luckily, we managed to find the one stretch of grass in the Bay Area that isn't choked with the poo from Canada Geese (the most vile and hated of all water fowl).

M&M on their first trip to Monterey Aquarium, March 2012.

If you follow the blog, you probably recognize the wooden lion Maddy is sitting on above. I seem to include a picture or two of them sitting on the thing every few months. It's located in the visitor's center at Tilden Park near the petting zoo. Great place and completely free - that means we go there a lot. You just can't beat free. What can I say? It's hard to resist taking a picture of your kid on a big wooden lion.

M&M hanging out together at the park down the street.

Probably my favorite shots of Maddy. Amy, our baby sitter, snapped this one a few weeks back.

Milo takes us out.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays!

M&M are gearing up for their fourth Christmas, and the whole experience is much different this time around. Unlike last year, they get the gist of the naughty and nice list, and my threats to rat them out to Santa no longer fall on deaf ears. I've gone ahead and purchased an Elf on the Shelf in order to hammer home the idea that Santa and his minions are always watching. I may need to hide the Elf under one of their beds to drive home the point. Just kidding of course....

Milo & Maddy decorate their first tree. They went a little crazy with the red beads but a fine effort nevertheless.

Of course, holidays being a time of reflection, I thought it might be fun to have a look back at the kids over the last few holidays.

First Christmas - 2008

Ah, Christmas 2008. Fun times! We dressed the kids up in the above outfits with the hope of snapping a few nice photos for a holiday card. After taking something like 40 pictures, the above one was about the best we could come up with. That entire period is one giant, sleep deprived blur to me now. Thank goodness we documented things in the blog because I have nearly no recollection of the period from October 2008 to roughly March 2009. I seem to recall waking up twice each night (per baby) for feedings, though Elaine had the more difficult end of the arrangement. I also recall being in a constant state of worry about everything with the kids. Recall that this was the period when the kids could not go to any places that might have even small crowds of people due to their risk of contracting a virus or the dreaded RSV bug. Our big day out was the occasional trip to a small restaurant.

Christmas 2009

The following Christmas the duo become much more cooperative. It still took a while but I eventually managed to get a usable picture. The kids were about 18 months in the above shot (14 months corrected age). They were both walking at that point -- Maddy had just started walking a few weeks before. Pushing that wagon around was about their favorite thing in the world. I must have a hundreds photos of Milo running down the sidewalk with Maddy shrieking (happily) as she rode along. By this time, the kids were long since eating solid foods -- in fact I think they ate a much broader variety of food then than they do now. This was our last Christmas living in the cottage on Santa Clara Avenue. I also recall that the kids had to open their presents in two rounds since they still took two naps a day at that point.

Christmas 2010

By last year, M&M were full-on toddlers if not little kids. The above photo required about 12 attempts. Maddy still isn't smiling but close enough. They were starting to get the whole idea of Christmas: they liked presents a lot and for a change they were more impressed with the gifts than with the boxes and wrapping. As typical 30-month-olds, M&M were down to about 12 different non-fruit/non-candy foods they were willing to eat -- a condition which still persists.

December 2011

Bigger, more social, occasionally better behaved, but still not fully potty trained, M&M enjoy hanging out with their friend Chris who live a few doors down. Maddy especially loves Chris (who is also 3) and asks after him all the time. The kids are finally big enough to stand on a regular scale too, which is nice. If it's to be believed, Maddy now weighs in at nearly 34 pounds, and Milo still trails her at 30 pounds. Still, that'd be a big weight gain for Milo, who up till a couple months ago was tipping the scale at just over 27 pounds.
Two great pictures from this past Saturday at the play ground. Amazing how much bigger they are now. Notice too that Milo was finally willing to sit for a much needed haircut.

While I'm thinking about it, thank you very much to all of you who have contributed to the Alta Bates NICU Family Advocacy Counsel. The FAC has managed to raise over $3000 this year, and Mustache-A-Thon 2011 donors have contributed about $600 of that. Contributions are still greatly needed. If you have a few bucks to spare -- and no amount is too small -- please consider making a donation to help out a family with a child in the NICU. Very easy and tax deductible - just visit this link to learn more or donate: http://www.altabatessummit.org/nicuedu/fac.html

Thanks very much and happy holidays!