9.14.12 - Still here!

At his first "beach" on a beautiful day here in Texas...it was at a nearby lake!

Wow, my posts are getting further and further apart lately...and there are a lot of posts I've been meaning to pull together but just haven't had time - so just going to update what we've been up to lately...finally!

First off, Liam is now in school!  It's only once a week right now, but it's a start and he loves it.  He is actually in the 2 year old class, Mother's Day Out program at my parents church.  Last week was his first week and he did great....These are the first 2 week sheets we got in his folder:

"Talking with friends a lot today" The talking!  He is such a little chatterbox, it's quite funny and cute, but boy does his teacher probably get an earful!  The first day she said he literally talked himself to sleep at nap time!  When I picked him up, he was telling me about nap time, and he said "The teacher told me "Shhh....Go to sleep"" Ha!  At least he naps!

I think this has been really good for him.  There were no tears, on either of us, his first day, as I think we were both ready for this new venture.  And although it's a younger class, about half of the class turns three either this month or within a few months, so it's perfect.  I am enjoying having a day to really get down to my work from home jobs and have uninterrupted time to make phone calls and other work.  Makes the rest of the week a lot less stressful on me. 

Ready to swim!

Liam is also surviving his swimming lessons....I can't say he really loves it, yet.  But, it's quite a lot of work for him!  He has developed some fears about the water, so it's been challenging for him, but I think he enjoys it most of the lesson.  We are only 3 lessons in and have already started going under water...which I think freaked me out more than him!  He hasn't seemed to take on hardly any water with it, which is great because that was a concern with me giving his aspiration issues.  In fact, today he was acting pretty fearful (or totally playing us because he didn't want to do it, is what his teacher thought) of going under, but we kept pushing him to go under and everytime he closed his mouth and did great.  Later the teacher told me she noticed he would do what he needed to do once submerged, so that's why she kept pushing him, she knew he was just trying to get out of it.  I told her he had been doing that a lot lately...in a lot of different areas...maybe because he's almost 3?? Ha!  I'm glad our instructor, Ms. Paige is tough, as this momma is not so much!   

Swim lessons!

And to mention our current struggles - Eating!  Ugh, seems like this has always been a struggle, but it's getting hard.  Liam is definitely expressing his independence and really giving us a hard time with it.  Plus, the digestive issues he's been having (he's been on Miralax for about 5 weeks now because he's developed holding issues) have been better, but not where I thought he'd be at this point.  I am contemplating a follow up with the GI soon to discuss all of this, although part of me is thinking this may be normal...but I don't think I'd know normal if it hit me with a 10 foot pole, so I think I'm gonna go for a follow-up....better safe than anything in my book!  As far as weight gain, I think he is at least maintaining - it was really good to hear from the cardiologist that Liam's growth looked great, so that eased my worries a little. 

We've recently started a reward chart where he earns Mickey Money each day for accomplishing goals (like eating his meals!).  He also has two "chores" a day, feeding the kitties and setting the table.  I think this has helped keep a good schedule "flow" for us and for him to learn more responsibilities and also consequences for not being obedient (i.e. no reward!).  It's working for us right now, so we shall see how long this sticks!  And the Mickey Money he saves up to "buy" things he wants - based on a fee set by mommy and daddy =)

As far as things coming up for us, a little someone turns 3 at the end of the month - Can you believe it?  THREE!