First Haircut

I took Andrew this afternoon to get his first haircut at Snip-Its. (BTW, very cute, very expensive place.) With his baby dedication coming up on Sunday, and the fact that he'll be plastered all over our huge hi-def screens, I figured it was time to get some work done to his hair. Unfortunately, it didn't start out so well.

He got a little nervous when we put him in the chair, he started fussing when she put the smock on, but as soon as she sprayed his hair, he lost it.

Thankfully, the manager came to save the day! With bubbles!

He still wasn't completely happy after the haircut, so I wasn't able to get a picture at the salon, but I got one in the car on the way home. The style is pretty similar to what he had, but it's shorter and more styled. She suggested not cutting it too short since it's still pretty thin underneath and very fine. Plus, I didn't want his scar to show too much. (Or his still lumpy head for that matter!)

I Have a Movie Review!

Cause I actually went to a movie!

This afternoon I went out with some moms from my moms group to go see Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. It's got Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner in it, and it was really good. It's a take-off of A Christmas Carol. Matthew McConaughey plays a player who dates girls for all of about 35 seconds before dumping them and thinks true love is for losers. During the weekend of his brother's wedding, the ghost of his uncle (who's played by Michael Douglas) tells him he'll be visited by three ghosts. I'm sure you can imagine how the story ends up, but even though you knew how the story was going to end, it was still entertaining to see it get there. Matthew McConaughey is really funny. I guess I never really imagined that he could do comedy, but there were some laugh out loud parts of this movie. I would definitely recommend it, but it's most definitely a chick flick since there's no explosions or action. (There is one car chase scene that had us in hysterics!)

The best part of the whole movie? The previews for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Only two months until it comes out! I've already pulled the book out to re-read it in anticipation of the movie.

Evaluations

Andrew had his hearing and speech evaluations this week. He showed some hearing loss in both ears during the hearing evaluation. The audiologist suspected it might be from fluid in the ears, since the tympanometer test showed his eardrums were not vibrating like they should. She suggested I call the pediatrician to see what we can do to get the fluid out. His speech evaluation went much better. The therapist said he's making all of the sounds he should when he babbles, so she doesn't think he needs any therapy now. She said that when we get the fluid out of his ears, he should really make a lot of progress. When I called the pediatrician, she wanted to put him on a course of antibiotics and then see how his ears are. She wants me to go back to Children's Healthcare for a retest, but I may see if we can just go to the pediatrician's office for another tympanometer test. If he fails that again, then I'm sure we'll have to make some more decisions.

Only twelve days left of school! The boys' summer vacation starts on May 21st. I have to work until May 26th. (Don't ask me my opinion about having to come back for one more post-planning day after Memorial Day.)

My Little Walker

Before you get all excited. . .Andrew is NOT walking yet. We're getting closer. He's started to stand on his own when he doesn't know he's doing it. He is walking all over using his little walker. He can even stop, lift it up, and turn it to go a new direction.

He is kinda cute, isn't he?

His hearing screening is tomorrow, and then the speech evaluation is Tuesday morning. Hopefully, everything will go well, and we can get the boy talking! (So I can complain in six months that I'm tired of hearing the word NO. :-) )

Andrew Update!

Don't you love these? With him, it usually means something is going on, and this time is no different.

I took Andrew to the pediatrician this week for his 15 month appointment just a week before he turns 17 months, so we're actually getting a lot closer to being on schedule again! When I took him in February for his 12 month visit (at 15 months), she was slightly concerned by the fact that he wasn't walking or talking yet. While he's made some progress toward walking (he'll hold on to just your fingers, and he did stand alone for a minute earlier this week), the fact that he's still not saying any recognizable words has her a little worried. He's still in the window of "normal" for walking, but he's really at the tail end of the normal window for talking. She suggested I call the neurosurgeon to see if this is something that can be traced back to his surgery or not. She was also a little worried that he's not hearing sounds correctly since he really won't mimic anything. His speech is actually quite fascinating. He understands the patterns of speech and how conversations work. He knows how to wait for a response, and then answer back. I also know when he's asking a question, because he'll inflect at the end of his sentence just like we do when we ask a question. The only problem is that he speaks a language that only he understands! When I talked to the surgeon's assistant, she told me that this isn't something that would be caused by his surgery, so she was going to fax an order for speech therapy to Children's Healthcare. (Yet another reason why I'm ecstatic to live where I do.) We have a hearing evaluation set up for Monday the 27th and the speech evaluation the next morning. Thankfully, I don't have to travel into Atlanta for either as they do all of their speech therapy at their clincs. We have one about 15 minutes from us, so that's where we'll go. We are also going into the neurosurgeon at the beginning of June instead of the end of July so he can take a look at Andrew to make sure everything else is OK. Hopefully, he'll be walking by then.

One Year Ago Today

I can't believe that it was a year ago that Andrew had his surgery to correct his sagittalsynostosis. It seems like it was only yesterday that we were even finding out that there was a problem, and before I knew it, we had surgery scheduled. I've had people ask me if it was difficult, and, while it was in some ways, in other ways it wasn't as hard as I imagined it would be. I think he was so little that he didn't know enough to be afraid. I didn't really have to deal with his fear, and, honestly, the months after his diagnosis were such a whirlwind that I didn't really have time to worry. But we made it through, and we've made it from here:

This is the day after surgery when his face was starting to swell up from the fluid.

To this:

This is after Matthew's birthday. We tied a couple of the balloons Matthew got to the table so Andrew could beat them around!

I Have Visited Nirvana.

I went to IKEA last night.
It was a beautiful place.
I could have spent ALOT of money, but I got away from there only $65 poorer.
I can't wait to go back. Tomorrow? (Just kidding.)