"Hear's" to you!

I've been meaning to blog for 2 weeks now and I just haven't had time. One good excuse is that my computer was broken for a while and my brother took it with him to fix it. Now I'm up and running. ALOT has happened in the last 2 weeks. Where do I begin? Well first of all, Jessica had a baby. That was over 3 weeks ago I just never got to mention it. We are so happy to have another little friend, Gabriel Holden and he's right our neighborhood too. Yay for Gabe!


And yay for crazy Jessica who was showing houses 2 weeks after giving birth!!

So Carrie was in the next weekend after he was born to meet him and to see everyone. Both of my kids took to her right away so I guess they could just sense that we are close. Max met her at Starbucks and couldn't stop talking about her for the rest of the weekend. We had a girls night on Saturday night which was fun as always and nice to have Carrie here


And what would a girls night be without stopping for ice cream...

Carrie came over to hang out with the kids again the next day, but Max was sleeping. Mallory LOVED her, came right up to her and said "hi" and wanted to be near her and play(and she doesn't warm up to just anyone which is another topic that will be coming up later). I knew Max would be so mad when he woke up that he didn't get to see Carrie and he was! so we went over to Jessica's house to see her just for a few minutes. Here is their car conversation in the car which Max has seriously watched 100 times and has memorized.

Next topic...I've had some concerns about Mallory over the last few months. She isn't doing as much as I'd like her to as far as her language. I know I was worried about Max at this age too because he wasn't talking alot. But with Mallory, it's not just that shes not talking that much, she also isn't responding as much as I'd like her to at this point-answering questions, listening, following directions, etc. So there were a few things that had me thinking her hearing might not be perfect. She has had several ear infections, she always seems to be sick and I know that affects hearing and language and really, alot of things that would explain my concerns. Her language development has just seemed kind of inconsistent to me. One day she'll be saying alot and doing alot and then the next day she won't even turn her head when I call her name. So I made an appt to have her hearing assessed and sure enough, she has a mild hearing loss in both ears due to fluid behind her ear drum. This is a pretty common thing with kids and one of the reasons kids end up getting tubes inserted. Mallory isn't having alot of infections and she's not in pain, but that fluid is just sitting in there and it is affecting her. They put her on an antibiotic to see if that would get rid of the fluid and we're going back next week to see if anything has changed. If not, I'm sure they will recommend tubes or something else and we'll make a decision then. I'm not one for elective surgery on a young child but I know so many people who have gotten the tubes and it's no big deal. And if it's something that is going to help her development, then I want to do it. Even in the last week since she was on the antibiotic I've noticed a little difference in how interactive and vocal she has been. She's not talking in sentences or anything but she tries to sing more songs, I can make out more words and she started shaking her head no more often (not sure if that is a good thing or not!). For all I know, there could still be fluid in them and nothing has changed and she is just acting a little different because now she is 2!! She also has been doing things like putting her blanky in her ear and I'm wondering if maybe her ears just feel different to her now that there isn't fluid in them? Or maybe I'm just paying too much attention to every move she makes! It's funny because a few days after I found out about her hearing I had what felt like ear congestion for a few days after I had a cold. It was so uncomfortable and I couldn't wait for it to feel better. I can totally understand how if her ears feel like that all the time or almost all the time, she wouldn't feel like always responding!


We'll see if there is a change when we go back next week. I actually really liked being in the audiologists office and seeing all the assessments in action. I hadn't seen that dancing bear since grad school (we had to do some hearing assessments too and I never really thought about doing it with my own kid). Would I have gone through with the hearing assessment and even be concerned about anything if I weren't in this field? I don't know and I'll never know. I just know that I'll do what it takes for both of my kids to do their best. Wouldn't every mom?


Speaking of Moms...we had a relaxing Mother's day at Gigi and Poppop's house




I got a few nice presents including this from my hubby :)



My nice watch broke recently and rather than getting it fixed I decided on something fun and trendy for the summer.

And finally...Happy Birthday to my girl. We had a nice time with our very small party. I felt bad in the weeks leading up to it because we didn't plan anything big for her but on that day, I knew it was the right thing to do. My kids love being surrounded by people they love and are comfortable with and that was just how it was. Elmo, pizza, cake, and family. What more could a 2 year old ask for?





Happy Birthday to you...