Balloons for Baby Alex

I was trying to think of something to do that would mark today as Alex's birthday, but I didn't want to bake a cake, or have a real party.

A few years back some friends of ours lost a little girl before she was born, and they released pink balloons at her memorial service. This same dear lady is helping with a local grief group for those who have experienced miscarriage, still birth or infant loss, and when Brynn, Iann and I attended one of their events, they did the same thing.  So when I told Brynn it was Alex's birthday soon, he asked if we could send him toys up to heaven on balloons. I told him that we weren't buying him toys, but we could send him letters on balloons.

I invited my parents to join us, and my mum bought both the balloons and the cards that we attached to them today while I was busy keeping myself busy.

We had 8 balloons: one from mum, dad, Jon, Brynn, my sister & her hubby, my aunt Maureen, Phyllis Marwah and her daughter Alia (who were irreplaceable to us in both his birth and his death) and myself. It was very sweet, poignant and sad, however I think it will become a annual tradition. Any who want to join us next year are welcome, or you can ask us to send Alex a balloon on your behalf.

Jon's balloon - he released it after taking the photos

Iann's hearing aids

Once again Iann has proved what an amazing little boy he is.

When I was told that he needed hearing aids my immediate thought was, "You are giving my perpetually-in-movement, change-resistant, autistic, nearly-3-yr-old boy hearing aids? And you think he'll keep them in?"

Um, right.

I harbored a secret hope that he would notice what a difference they make to his hearing and leave them in. His therapists shared their same hope, all the while warning me that we were most likely in for an almighty battle.

Sure enough, he threw a fit in the audiologists office the day we first introduced him to them. What child wouldn't though? All of a sudden he has this plastic thing being thrust into his ear and he's told not to touch it.

After pulling them out 3-4 times he tuned into me saying "Iann, no touch," whenever he raised his hands to yank them out. AND HE OBEYED!!!!!

The audiologist was blown away, telling me that he reacted better than 99% of kids she's fitted in her practice. He kept on weeping, but his hand stopped midway up to his hear when he heard me say "Iann, no touch."

His next trick was to rub his ear against his shoulder, dislodging the part that goes into his ear. (Pretty smart if you ask me!)  I stopped at least 5-6 times on the drive home from Grand Junction to put them back in correctly and he just got it. He realized that every time he dislodges them or pulls them out, an adult is going to put them straight back in.

Four days later he now doesn't even fuss when I put them on him ... apart from the fact that he has to stand still while I do it!!!!

I am so impressed with him. What a sweet, mummy-pleaser he is.

On another note, Jon, Brynn, my dad and I have all tried them on, to see what they do. Since we all have normal hearing everything was really loud!  It was sort of cool though: I was told that the type he has amplifies voices more that background noises so not everything is loud and, thus, overwhelming to him, and they really do that! Voices are louder than background noises, including my voice when I was wearing them.

As his old SLP said on facebook, "He is soooo gonna talk now!"

One day ....

Lazy Summer Afternoon

Does it get much better than this?

The thermometer on our back porch reads 90 degrees. The fan is going full speed above my head. Brynn is at a friends farm playing with rabbits, goats, ducks, chickens and, so I am told, trying to stay away from the skunk family! Iann has filled up the red wagon with the hose, and is happily splashing in the water.

Life is good.

There will always be a hole, a part of me that wonders 'What would Alex be doing right now?'  Brynn and I had a deep discussion the other day about all the fun things Alex is doing in heaven - riding a bike down heaven's Main Street, eating a bright red snow cone without worrying about the side effects of red dye #40, playing hide and seek with Jesus. That is what Alex is doing right now.

Teasing Time

Here are 2 video's that show exactly what life is like with my two boys these days. They spend a large part of their day wrestling, teasing and playing with each other. For all the refereeing I need to do, it makes me so very happy to see them starting to interact so well,

Parenting 101 - only say it if you mean it

Due to our super crazy weekend, and staying up late to see the fireworks, Brynn's behavior has been, well, lets just say, a little challenging. He never does well when he's tired, and I don't do well with a crying fit in response to anything I ask him to do, or say no to! So, things have been a  little tense around here.

In the midst of a MAJOR meltdown the other day, with Brynn yelling at Jon, Jon attempting to keep his cool, Iann crying outside the bedroom door and me wondering how we reached this point, I was so frustrated with Brynn I said "Due to this behavior there will be no friends for the next week!"

There, take that little, tired 6 year old boy! Ha!

But, wait a minute, that means I won't get to hang out with my friends, and we'll be stuck home all week by ourselves. Um, can I take that back??

Not so much.

I almost did this morning though. My good friends were going up to Kids Plex in Junction and I was all ready to go, until Jon reminded me of my wonderful 'no friends all week' statement. I talked myself into believing that it wouldn't be a big deal if I broke my word, and laid out my expectations for Brynn: 'yes Mum' and 'no Mum' were acceptable, 'but Mum' would mean we're heading home, any crying/meltdowns etc meant the same thing. He was very contrite, and gave me lots of 'yes Mum's.'

Until I told him to go to the bathroom so I could clip his nails.

Another huge meltdown, screaming fit. My poor friend was able to hear it all when I called to say we weren't coming. It only took Brynn about 15 minutes to calm down and accept that we weren't going, and then peace returned.

But, was I really going to stay home all day? Me, the girl who loves going places???

Last August I bought our annual pass for the Children's Museum, but was only able to use it a few times before it grew clear that Iann did NOT like going there. He would cling to me, stand at the door crying, etc. I really thought I had wasted the $ and considered asking for it back.

Due to my procrastinating personality, I have many great ideas with very little follow through and so, never having returned it, a few months ago we tried the museum again and he liked it. Yay for procrastination :) Although we were usually the first ones to leave when we met our friends there for play dates and lunch, it became another place to go.

In my need to get out and about, I took the boys there this morning. Usually we go with our friends so Brynn is off with the big kids and Iann either keeps tabs on his group or plays by himself. With no other kids to play with today, my boys (almost) played together! Iann spent much of the morning following Brynn around, and seemed to want to be just where Brynn was, even though he didn't understand everything Brynn was doing. It was great to see them interacting, and Brynn was (mostly) very patient with his little brother. Here are a few highlights:

    Take 1: Brynn is looking

                                  Take 2: No one is looking

    Take 3: Iann is off ...















Brynn at the Lego table

                          Iann watching Brynn play with the Lego's

       Both boys playing with Lego's
















The moral of the story? Only tell your kids things that you can, and will, follow through with ... and then find creative ways to continue life while honoring your outbursts :)

A month in the life of Brynn

Wow, has it really been a month since I last posted??? Sometimes it gets to be so long, that I feel there is too much to catch up on, so I wait even longer! Isn't that the life of a procrastinator? Well, that's certainly my way!

So, Brynn's last month in a nutshell. Most of what's been going on is summer fun. Brynn has been well behaved for the most part, however it does get rough for him to make himself scarce when Iann has therapists in the house. However, his friend loaned him the Lego batman Wii game, and that has helped, during the hour a day he's allowed to play!!

Brynn has also had loads of fun too. Jon's dad, Papa Bear, drove up for the weekend, for their annual camping trip to Buckhorn Lake, the weekend before July 4th. Here are a few pic's Jon sent me from his phone:

 Slingshot practice

 Cuddling with Papa Bear

Brynn caught his first fish on that camping trip - he baited, cast and reeled it in all by himself :) Unfortunately I have no picture of this pivotal moment in my son's life ;)

Our 4th of July weekend was super busy. Since Jon now works in the mail room, he has weekend and holiday's off - our first, real 3 day holiday weekend! On Saturday morning we drove up to Ridgeway Resivor to have breakfast with our good friends L & K, who had camped their the previous night. They cooked a great 'camp' breakfast - eggs, sausage and pancakes! Yummy.

Jon and I then took our boys and their daughter to the beach area and watched them paddle for a few hours. Such a wonderful summer outing. We did things around the house the rest of the day, then Jon and I went to a 60's themed party in the evening. See my facebook page for pictures! Was very fun!

Sunday was a busy day too. Iann has had a runny nose for about a week now, so we didn't want to expose other kids to his germs at church. Instead we biked down to Buckley park, about 16 blocks downhill from our house. A friend has loaned us their bike trailer, and Iann loves going for rides in it. The kids played for a while, then we went to visit our old neighbors, 2 doors down from our old house. He is our mailman, so sees the kids often, but his wife hasn't seen Brynn in at least a year. Boy was she impressed at how much he's grown. Shot up is more like it! The ride back uphill to our house went well, with Brynn only starting to complain when we were within sight of home :)

After nap time we went over to a friends house to swim. Jon had not yet made it over there with us and he loved seeing Brynn swimming all over the place, even doing flips off the diving board. 

After swimming, we went to my parents for a horse ride and BBQ:

After that ... we went home and straight to bed!!!

On the actual 4th itself, we went to our small town parade:

 Hot, patriotic Iann :)

We then went up to Cimaron with my parents, and their 2 four wheelers. For those of you who know the area, we parked the trailer at the bottom of Middle Fork, and rode all the way up to the river. Brynn sat in between my parents on one ATV, while Iann sat in front of Jon and I on the other. Both boys LOVED being up there, and it since it threatened to rain the whole time, it was nice and cool!

Lastly, Mum and I took Brynn to see the fireworks. After waiting in the field for an hour, and trying to keep Brynn occupied and content, the fireworks finally began. This was the first time Brynn has seen fireworks that go up into the sky, but after 5 minutes he was ready for the next thing. Mum and I spent the next 20 mins trying to keep him still, and then finally decided to leave early. In actual fact, 30 mins of very similar fireworks was a little too much for me too. 

And now you are caught up on Brynn's last month. A report on Iann will come soon :)