05/27/2011

Alexa is telling everyone that she got beetlebug bites- that's why she has a band-aide on her arm. I don't know where she came up with beetlebugs, she actually just has a mosquito bite.

Gavin loves his rocketship shirt.

05/26/2011

Gavin loves to stick his strawberries on his fingertips to eat them! He thinks it is hilarious.

Gavin loves to hold Baby Tysen and it obviously makes Tysen happy, too!

Proud Big Brother

When I come to daycare to pickup the kids after work, Gavin likes to come with me to the infant room to get Tysen. He always looks around the room quickly, and then runs to Tysen yelling, "There he is! There he is!" It always amazes me that he can pick out Tysen from all those infants.

05/24/2011 Gavin Speech Update

Gavin's speech therapy is still going great and he's making lots of progress. He loves therapy because he gets tons of attention and gets to play with new toys every session. This afternoon during therapy, he completely shocked me by suddenly saying, "I got to go pee-pee!" I was so excited because not only did he say a whole sentence, but this was the first time during potty-training that he's communicated the need to go to the bathroom. I took him to the bathroom and he was so proud of himself when he went. His therapist and I were very proud of him, too!

About 2 weeks ago, Gavin had a bridge therapy 2 hour session with an early education interventionist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, and 2 speech pathologists. This bridge therapy was an opportunity for us to get some help while we are on the waiting list for home-based therapy. I really felt special when I realized that all those specialists were there just for Gavin. At first, Gavin was a little shy and wasn't sure why all these strangers were trying to talk and play with him. It only took about 2 minutes before he had completely warmed up and was playing with all of them like they were old friends! I really enjoyed the bridge therapy and left with lots of helpful tips and suggestions. The most interesting thing that happened was they recognized that Gavin would be a really good match for a different type of speech therapy. We ended up taking him off the waiting list for the home-based therapy and instead enrolled him in a community playgroup class led by speech pathologists. Not only will that help with Gavin's speech, but he'll also get more attention and help with some other issues that he's having at daycare such as aggressive behavior (hitting/biting/pushing). They will also work on playing with others nicely, sharing, and using words to express needs. I thought that sounded like a great idea. Although he's gotten much better in recent months, Gavin occasionally has bad days where he is overly aggressive at daycare. It always happens when he's tired, hungry, or sick. Unfortunately because of his speech difficulties, he's still unable to communicate his basic needs so he gets really upset and frustrated and he starts hurting his friends. It's really frustrating for us as parents because we don't know how to help him. They have a routine schedule at daycare so they always eat at the same time everyday and they always have nap at a certain time. There's not much flexibility to their schedule so I don't know how to improve the situation. I am really hoping that this playgroup will help.

Last Wednesday, I took the kids to the dentist for a cleaning/check-up. This was Alexa's 3rd visit to the dentist, so she's a pro! She was a perfect angel in the chair and she listened intently and followed all their directions. Gavin sat on my lap and watched with lots of interest. When Alexa was done, she climbed off the chair and Gavin hopped right up! I was so surprised. He actually wanted a turn! Although he didn't follow directions as perfectly as Alexa, they were able to clean all of his teeth. He did not throw one fit or even try to get away! I was so shocked. I had been so worried about how Gavin would react in the dentist chair because most times we struggle to brush his teeth. He usually puts up a fight and sometimes even seems to be in pain although we aren't brushing hard at all. I mentioned this to the dentist and he took a good look in Gavin's mouth. He noticed the lingual frenum (under tongue) appeared restricted. My first question was, "Could that affect his speech?" I got a definite "Yes!" for an answer. I shared this information with Gavin's speech therapist today. She seems to think it makes total sense. She's been a little puzzled as to why Gavin's speech intelligibility is so poor. He has so many words, we just can't understand the majority of them. Her first theory was that he had a hearing deficit, but Gavin has passed all hearing tests. If Gavin has a restricted tongue (sometimes called tongue-tied), he will struggle to say words because his tongue cannot touch the correct places inside his mouth. I will be calling our ENT tomorrow to see if Gavin can be seen after Tysen's appointment next week. If Gavin does have this condition, it will require a minor surgery to snip the tissue under his tongue so that he can have more movement, followed by more speech therapy. I finally feel like we are getting closer to getting some answers as to why Gavin is not talking yet.

05/24/2011

This evening I introduced Tysen to the sippy cup for the first time. I put about 2 ounces of cold breast milk in it. At first, he just thought that it was a toy and went to town chewing on it. Then he realized that milk came out and he figured it out in no time! The only thing he wasn't crazy about was the cold milk. That may take some getting used to. He finished all the milk so I'd say the sippy trial was a success!

Still chewing on it and watching big brother, Gavin

Now he's drinking! He's such a big boy!

05/22/2011

We had a warm weekend so today after we finished the yard work, we filled the kiddie pool with water. Alexa and Gavin had a blast in it, even though the water was pretty chilly!

Mean Daddy! They didn't like that so much.

Gavin is teaching Tysen all the fun things he can play with on the jumper.

It was a good day for a bike ride. Unfortunately, we only have a bike trailer for 2 children. (We are currently doing our research and plan to buy another one in the near future so we can go for family bike rides.) Matthew pulled Alexa and Gavin behind the bike and I took Tysen for a jog. We felt like bad parents because we forgot the kids' bike helmets. We decided that it would be okay since we were biking on the Olentangy bike trail which is pedestrian only- no motorized vehicles. Also our trailer has lots of safety features including an anti-roll mechanism so that if the biker wrecks or tips over, the trailer stays level. We buckled them in tight and they stayed safe. Our friends Travis and Emme joined us, too. The guys even stopped and let the kids play at a park. We had to leave the park quickly because it suddenly got dark and was looking like rain or a storm was coming. I ran back to the trail head as quickly as I could, but it started raining on me. Tysen stayed dry because he had an umbrella on his jogging stroller. I ended up getting in a 6 mile run. Not too bad!

Tysen loves the fresh air.

He thinks that the shoulder strap pads are chew toys!

This is the rainbow that Alexa noticed after the rain on our way home.

05/18/2011 Tysen- 5 months old

Tysen Zachary Briggs ~ 5 months

We had a hard time keeping Tysen's hands out of his mouth! Every time that I would pull his fist down, he'd put it right back in. He was drooling everywhere, but luckily it didn't show in the portraits. He thought it was really funny when I would pull his fist down. He was laughing at me.

He smiles with such a big toothless mouth!

05/17/2011

Alexa and Gavin both love popcorn so Daddy surprised them by bringing home popcorn balls from the grocery store. They were very excited at first, but then they only ate a couple of bites. Apparently popcorn balls aren't as tasty as plain popcorn.

Daddy thought he could take a little snooze on the floor, but the kids have other plans!

It's been so rainy recently! I let the kids draw all over the concrete on our front porch with sidewalk chalk. They are so ready for summer to get here!

Alexa is so artistic. She loves drawing, painting, and coloring.

Gavin was really impressed with the sun that I drew.

Daddy is taking a little study break to cuddle Tysen. He had been studying for his candidacy exam. He just took the exam on Tuesday and he passed! Yay! We are so proud of him!

Tysen is usually only a thumb sucker, but here he was sucking 2 fingers and had another finger up his nose! He's so silly!

05/14/2011 Weekend Fun

I love this picture of Gavin. His cheeks are red because it was hot and he was running around the park picking weeds.

We've been eating supper outside now that it's so warm out. The kids love running around our backyard. I brought out our bubble machine and they chased bubbles for about an hour. They slept really well that night!

We've been checking out several new parks recently. Today we met up with our friends, Kara and Emme.

They had more fun rolling rocks down the slide than they did actually sliding down themselves.

There was all kinds of fun things for the kids to explore. We are definitely going back to this park this summer!

Alexa watched Gavin climb this wall before she tried it. I love it when Gavin teaches her stuff!

Alexa's in the lion's mouth!

Alexa, Emme, and Gavin all swinging

She kept yelling, "I'm flying!"

Tysen hanging out in the shade