Another week flies by....

Another week has managed to zip by and it is already the month of May. Last weekend my sister Sue from Wichita Kansas came for a three day visit. She is better known as “crazy Aunt Sue” and lives up to her name in her crazy antics with the kids. Luke loved her instantly and didn’t play the shy guy part for more than a few minutes. We took the kids to the zoo and although it was a little brisk, we all had a good time. Miss Lily did seem more “emotional” should I politely say, while Sue was here. I think she was having a hard time sharing Aunt Sue and watching her kissing and hugging her little brother. She is used to having all of Sue’s attention, but this is good for her and Aunt Sue did explain that she has enough love in her heart for both her and Luke.
Monday Luke had a consultation with Dr. Ford, a pediatric doctor in town. Luke will be having surgery May 21 to remove the fluid that has built up in one testicle and to seal off that opening so it won’t happen again. The procedure only takes 30 minutes but they do have to completely sedate him so it will pretty much take up the entire day in the outpatient area. I am not expecting any problems. We have decided to have him circumcised while he is out so he will have a little surprise when he wakes up but hopefully it won’t be too painful.
Luke went to Carol’s house three half days this week. On Tuesday when I left him he had big tears running down his face. He was very happy to see me when I returned. Of course my plan was to get big projects done during this last week home but as usual, it didn’t turn out that way. I did manage to get the garage cleaned out and sort out items for a future garage sale, but the windows did not get washed. Oh well. There will be lots more sorting to do once Yue Jia leaves and Logan moves to the downstairs bedroom so that Luke can have his own room. My goal is to someday have all three kids sleeping in their own rooms and beds without ME! Ok, it may take awhile but that is the goal.
Tuesday night Luke was evaluated by the Parents as Teachers personnel to get a baseline. Linda Sun gratuitously was our interpreter. Luke would point to pictures of things they talked about and did stack blocks but would not utter one word. We were pretty sure this would happen. When Luke is in unfamiliar surroundings he shuts down all verbal communication. He still looks around very curious about what is happening and where he is, but just stays very quiet. The evaluator said you could tell by his facial expressions that he was thinking about what she was saying and his eyes searched the pictures looking for the right one. They recommended we come back in August to have him evaluated again to see if improvements have been made.
We also found out this week that there is a spot this fall for Luke at the Childhood Development Center on the campus of Missouri State University. This is the preschool Lily attends and we have been very happy with the program. When Luke and I pick up Miss Lily from school, Luke immediately wants to start playing and I think he will do well in the classroom with a structured setting. Yesterday we picked up Lily and her group was playing outside. Luke ran right past Lily and out to the large play yard and climbed up the bars to get to the slide. He did not even look back for my help. (What a difference) I let him play with Lily and friends for about 10 minutes and he pretty much imitated everything Lily did right down to the hand jesters. At times she is flattered by this and at times it just annoys the heck out of her.
Yesterday Luke started the round of shots he must endure to get up to speed for pre-school and later kindergarten. Poor baby had three shots and he did cry but it was short lived as I handed him a sucker. He also gained 2.5# in the past two weeks which did not surprise me at all, that boy can eat! He is a healthy eater too and eats a wide variety of foods. Wish I could say the same about Miss Lily. She has gotten picky about her food and does not eat much at one time. I would say she is more of a grazer so I keep lots of fruit and cheese sticks and yogurt available for her.
An interesting development in language occurred this past week. For three days Luke’s main word was “No” and he used this word for everything and varied the pitch and tone. Sometimes it was a long drawn-out Nooooooooo that went up and down, and sometimes it was a short NO! My theory is that in some way he felt like he was speaking our language and he was trying out the musical sounds of it. Yesterday he brought me a book and said “book” and he said “airplane” and pointed to the airplane on his shirt and made hand gestures to show a plane flying in the sky. He can say all of our names and “trampoline” and “sandbox” on his own and imitates the words he hears. I play kindermusic CDs in the car at all times and sing along and yesterday was the first time I caught him singing along as well. It made me smile. I think he is progressing well and Lily has been a big help. He is still my happy go lucky kid, wakes up with a big smile on his face and goes to bed without a whimper. He does like to get in tug of wars with Lily over a toy and he hangs on for all he is worth. Lily can scream at the top of her lungs and it does not affect him in any way. I have started penalizing Lily for her screaming. She gets 5 minutes off her bedtime for each incident. Yesterday she lost 15 minutes. I’m trying to get her to handle conflict resolution in a different way although I do know some adults who act in the same way!
John left yesterday morning at 2am to drive to North Carolina. His Mom is making the move up to the mountain house for the summer and John went over to help his sister Kim get her settled in. John will then bring Kim back to Springfield. It means I am on my own with the two kids. So far, things have gone well, only two more days to go. There is a big street festival we are going to this morning. Thank goodness I have the big red wagon that seats two. (Thanks Aunt Kim for that!)
Well, the kids should be waking up soon so I better go enjoy another cup of coffee before the day begins.