Christmas 2013

Michael eating his new favorite food, baked oatmeal, for post-church Christmas brunch.  Oats are fermented for a day with ground buckwheat, then rinsed off and mixed with eggs, ghee/coconut oil/pork fat, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, some fruit (blueberries and apples in this case), some dried liver (can't help myself), and baked at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

This was the first toy he opened.  Christmas was over after this.  We had to pretty much take the duck away to get him to open anything else.  (Thanks, MoMo!)

I made him a Bad Piggie/Yoda.  Not as big of a hit as the duck.

Michael got distracted.  It took about four hours to open up all the presents.

"All I want for Christmas is to DESTROY"

Our first present from Michael.  (His teacher put this ornament together at school, but apparently Michael picked out the details for us, like the wrapping paper.)  He got very upset when we hung the ornament, instead of putting it back in the box where it belonged.

South Carolina

"Wanna share!!"  -Michael in genuine tears, holding the Kindle out towards to Evan, after it got taken away because they were fighting over it

"Booku's going down!"  --Michael, echoing cousin Brennan teaching his brother Evan how to trash talk ("Michael's going down!")

side note:  Michael derived more joy in tossing the paddle across the air hockey table (seen above), scoring goals for the opponent, and watching the scoreboard, than actually playing.

"Wanna play with cousin Evan?"
"No."
"Wanna play with cousin Brennan?"
"No."
"Wanna play with cousin Aiden?"
"No.  Wanna play cousin Daddy."

Michael got very agitated by this goose and tearfully demanded that he go back in the water.

I don't have a good photo to accompany this quote, but Grammy was babysitting a very upset Michael:

Grammy: "Sssh.... calm down, Michael."
Michael (in tears):  "Don't say 'sssh!'"

Michael is basically a southern woman

Right around the time Michael and I got to Wisconsin (early this month), he adopted a new mannerism.  This saying immediately improves any sentence.  By way of example, here are two instances from today:

Scenario 1 -- we're in the car, listening to "Everywhere That We Go," which is one of those perpetual songs.  The last line of the verse is "And if they can't hear us, we sing a little louder" and it gets repeated.  But the last line of the whole song is "And if they can't hear us... they're deaf!"  Michael's commentary:  "You're deaf, mmm-hmmm, that's right!"

Scenario 2 -- Michael hurts Daddy's nose.  "No, Michael, that's not nice!"  Michael:  "not nice... mm-hmmm, that's right!"

He also like to validate his own opinions.  For example, he'll be sitting down eating some almonds and say something like "I love almonds.  Yup, mm-hmmm, that's right!"  Or he confirms a request.  "I want nummies.  Okay!  Yup, mmm-hmm, that's right."  Or if he knows that it's something that I usually say but he says it instead.  "God bless Booku.  Yup, mm-hmmm, that's right."

At the Little Gym

Teacher: "What is your name?"
Michael: "Name... Booku!"
Teacher: "And who is that?"
Michael: "Mommy!"

So clearly we can make the "M" sound, we just choose not to. And I hope he never does; he will always be my little "Booku."

Michael's latest checkup

He had a follow-up appointment on the 19th with the doctor who diagnosed him.

He's 32-33 months, but his age equivalents were 18 months for gross motor, 30 for visual reception, 26 for fine motor, 25 for receptive language, and 26 for expressive language.  Overall his "Early Learning Composite percentile rank" is 25.  There is a little note on the data sheet I asked them to copy:  "Twisting of Cap Perseverations" because he kept running over to me during the test to twist and untwist a cap off of my water bottle.

The doctor was optimistic with our more intensive therapy schedule that Michael will catch up to a great extent.  She does feel that intense therapy is critical, and also strongly encouraged me to enroll him in a Mother's Day Out program to bring a sense of structure to his days which should help him with his dysregulation, among other things.  All the MDO programs I've looked into are full, but I'm #1 on a waiting list at our church.  (Skipped to the front of the line since we're parishioners, awwww yeah.)

He's been really cute lately, singing along to his favorite music.  His hero is Mike Tompkins, a guy on YouTube who sings a capella (including all the instruments; there's around a dozen or two dozen layers of audio on each of his tracks).  Michael was beat boxing to one of his songs today.  It was ridiculous.  He also loves singing the "bump bump bump" part to Sally the Camel (who had five, then four, then three, then two, then one, then no humps) as well as chiming in at the end that she's a horse.

Conversation with a 2.5-y/o

Scene:  getting out of the shower

Michael:  "Keeno!"  ("Father, may I have the Kindle, perchance?")

Ben:  "Diaper first."

Michael: "Diaper Keeno!"

Ben:  "Vitamins after diaper."

Michael:  (sad) "Diaper Mins."  (happy) "Mins Keeno!"

Ben:  "No, then we brush your teeth."

Michael:  "Mins teef!  Teef keeno!"

Ben:  "Then it's time for num nums."

Michael:  "Num nums!  Keeno!  Num nums!"

He never got to play the Kindle before falling asleep.

We found Michael passed out with his hand down his diaper.  But before you think we're bad parents, notice the hair of the dog we placed within arm's reach for when he wakes up. 

At the Houston Zoo

The little pond at the botanical gardens

At the botanical gardens with Teresa and her kids

Riding the train at Zilker

In front of the Capital Building that we explored with Rachel 

Watching the House play solitaire on their computers

Michael LOVED the "butt heart" 

Michael being one of the big boys and riding the zip line

Visiting the O. Henry house with Popo