Month 6

Yesterday, Piper turned 6 months old. We are having a really hard time believing this and can't fathom how we got from this:

to this:

Piper is just the sweetest little girl who is very quick with the smiles, unless she's got a camera in her face. She is very inquisitive about all things right now and especially likes the computer and the camera. Sound like anyone else you know? Piper is trying SO hard to sit up unassisted, but still falls to the side or forward when she sits. She is currently enamored with her feet, so if she is sitting and catches sight of them, which happens most times, she ends up folded in half with toes in her mouth, happy as a clam!

This month, we had the priviledge to have Piper's dedication at our church. This was something that we did with Caleb too, but we were very new members and knew next to no one. This time around, we were surrounded not only by our family, but also our good friends who have loved us through good and bad. Piper was very happy and just sat in her Daddy's arms and looked adorable in her expensive dress. One of the more special things that our church does, along with giving Piper her first Bible, is the pastor writes a letter to each child that we are instructed to save until they make their decision to come to Christ. I have filed Piper's away and will be very excited to give it to her during that special time in her life.

Piper's gross motor skills continued to progress this month. I think that I wrote that late last month, Piper made the harder move of rolling from her belly to her back, but this month she has really perfected it. We have to be very vigilant to watch her when she is on the floor, as she has gotten herself in some pretty sticky situations a couple of times because she just rolls into things and all around the place. She is also working SO hard at crawling. Sometimes Piper gets so upset because she gets her hiney in the air, but not up on her hands and vice versa, but never at the same time. She wants to crawl so bad, but just can't yet and honestly, I'm ok with that.

Piper's fine motor skills are coming along too, but not nearly as quick as the other. She is able to pick up small things, but still with her whole hand, and not her first finger and thumb. I know her brother way way ahead of the curve on this, doing it well by this age, so I'm not worried about her not being able to do this quite yet.

Obviously, this last month brought Christmas. Even though we had a pretty low key day, just hanging out with my mom, dad and grandmother, it was still a day full of new things for our little P. She got the hang of opening the presents because she loves to grab and pull things, so that was easy.

My parents and grandmother all went in together and bought Piper the super deluxe Exersaucer model. We never had one of these with Caleb and I really wanted her to have one. She really loves sitting in it and all the things that she can do while there. Sometimes she still gets a little overstimulated, but all in all, it is her favorite Christmas gift!

Her other favorite gift was this light up, spinning top that sings and does all manner of things. She seemed to know right away what to do with it and played with it instantly. She will probably have much more fun with it when she can sit up independently, but for now we just sit and play with it either holding her or in her Bumbo seat.

Piper still has an intense love affair for her brother. Here are the two of them right before we went home Christmas night from my parent's house. She has a tight grip on Caleb's hair and he certainly doesn't care.

Piper also made it through her first annual Lee family Christmas that involves my sister, two brothers and their families, all in my parent's house for the fun. This year, we all were cutting back, so we decided to draw names for both the adults and the kids and Piper got this cute dress/leggings set that I had been admiring for sometime, and a precious pair of pajamas. She was well loved by my brother Damon's girls and she had fun watching everyone have a great time!

Here's the annual cousin picture after the Christmas party at my parent's house. From left to right: Caleb, Madison, Tristen, P, and Dixie. Matt was missing this year because he is in the navy now (we're all so proud) and has been stationed in Maine. Piper loved the Christmas tree and all the sparkle associated, so she was easily entertained by that.

Piper has developed her definite favorites when it comes to what she likes to eat. On her list of favorites are sweet potatoes, squash, an apple/pear mixture, bananas, blueberries and oatmeal. She really does not like peas and the above picture was her first experience with green beans. She did not like them, but I managed to get it all into her by mixing it in with some sweet potatoes. I am still making all of Piper's baby food and have yet to try anything that is canned/jarred with the exception of the oatmeal/rice cereals out there. I have recipes for those, but I'm not too sure that I'm able to make those.

Here's the face I see when she gets her fruit/oatmeal mixture. Happy girl!

Now that she's 6 months old, we get to start with meats and yogurt. We tried a little yogurt this morning with her daily banana/oatmeal concoction and she seemed to like it, once she got past the initial newness of it. The meat, I'm not so sure how I'm going to do that, but once again, I have recipes and I'll figure it out.

This month, Piper also made a new friend, our cat Gus. While she has noticed him all this time, Gus has finally found it in his heart to let her get near him. I don't know if it's that he's getting soft in his old age or just getting old, but he tolerates a little of her clumsy grabbing of him, until she pulls his whiskers or fur. Gus is a sweet cat and never retaliates, just runs off, so we don't worry about him. He is, in fact, quite protective of both our kids, especially when they are babies, watching every move we make and making sure that they are ok.

All in all, this has been a month full of changes and a lot of growing up for our Piper. We can hardly believe that she's already half way through her first year of life, but we can't wait for all the fun that we know is in store!

Well Then.

So, let's start with the easy part first. Piper's pediatrician was sick today, so we rescheduled her appointment for the 6th, so no stats today. I'll get her 6 month newsletter up in the next day or so.
Now, on to the other child. We had Caleb's ENT appointment this morning which started off with yet another hearing exam. Caleb would not cooperate for a portion of the test and even turned off one of the machines in the middle, prompting us to have to do one whole test over again from the beginning. Needless to say, we walked away from there without a completed test and a very annoyed audiologist.
What we do know from the test is this, his right ear is working perfectly but his left is a totally different story. The next step is that we have a test called an ABR done to test the nerve function to see if there is really a hearing deficit or if he's just being difficult. Our ENT does do ABRs in the office, but they do not sedate, which is not an option with our busy 3 year old. If he wouldn't sit and cooperate fully for the simple hearing exam, he wouldn't cooperate for the ABR. I never thought I would willingly ask for a test that involved sedation, but in this case to get answers, it's necessary.
There are two possible outcomes for this test:
1. his ABR will come back totally normal and we'll know that his hearing is ok and he's just difficult
2. his ABR will come back abnormal and we'll be looking at hearing aids
To be perfectly honest, this second possibility scares the living daylights out of me. I understand that there are many kids and grownups out there with hearing aids, but I also know the stigma that is attached to them. Someone told me that it is no different than wearing glasses, but in reality it is. Every other person on the planet wears glasses, so kids have someone to look to to know that they are normal, hearing impared kids, on the other hand, don't necessarily have that. I know that this is probably the most minor thing that could happen, but I'm to the point where I'm wondering when Caleb is just going to get a break. It seems like if something could go wrong for him, it has and the poor kid has been through too much, in my opinion, for his short 3 years. Ok, sorry. I'm just feeling sorry for him and us.
In the next few days we will be getting information about this office that we go to to have the test done, but I guess this means his speech evaluation for next week is off. Thanks for your prayers. I guess God has another path for our son, I just sure wished that I knew what that was.

So- Tomorrow is a Big Day.

Tomorrow, I take Caleb back to the ENT for his post surgery follow up and yet another hearing test. If he does not pass this one, I'm not sure what we do from here. The whole theory is that he's failing the hearing tests because of fluid in his ears, but the tubes should have taken care of all that. Oh, there's also that pesky speech evaluation he cannot have on the 8th if he doesn't pass the hearing test tomorrow.
Needless to say, there's quite a lot riding on this test and he HAS to have a good result or we're headed down a very unknown road.
Caleb's appointment is at 8:30 in the morning, so I'll know something well before lunch time. Piper has her 6 month appointment with the pediatrician right after, therefore it will be later in the day before I can post anything about the appointment. Hopefully we'll have good news the next time we meet!

You HAVE To Read This

So, go to the link below and read the story. It restores a little faith in our society. With all the crud going on (hello, crazy man driving down the freeway shooting innocent people?) we all need a little of that once in a while.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

Holiday Wishes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Mathis family to yours!

Love,

Jesse, Shannon, Caleb and Piper

Hm. I Wasn't Expecting That.

So, two blog posts in the same day. I guess either I'm really interesting today or just trying to put things off, like cleaning and laundry. Let's just go with the first one.
I wrote a week or two ago about taking Caleb to the pulmonologist and how he wanted to have him testing for allergies right.then. I had a thought this weekend that I should have probably heard back from them on the results, so I placed a call to the office. We were headed to Target so I was ready with a pen and paper the whole time so I could whip it out and write down all the things that "dinged" in his test if they called while we were in the store.
I got the phone call as we were on our way home and the respiratory therapist said something I was not expecting:
"All his tests came back negative."
They tested Caleb for all the vegetation and animals in this half of the US and also indoor allergens and he was not allergic to any of them. I was told that the test he had done was accurate and that even the allergic chemicals in his blood were very low, so he's not allergic to anything.
So, why does he have the symptoms he does? Apparently, he has a condition called nonallergic rhinitis. Basically, he has all the symptoms of having allergies without actually being allergic. If you read up on it, you treat this the same way (with all the medications) and it is triggered by things like changes in weather (something that I have always said is causing him symptoms).
So, in all it is pretty good news, just news that we don't know yet what to do with.

I Guess We Should Start Taking Up Collections Now.

When I met and, shortly thereafter, married Jes, I noticed one very astounding thing about this man I loved so dearly.
He could eat.
No, really, he could put it away and never, never, never gained even an ounce. This has since caught up with him thanks to my stellar (yeah right) cooking and his entering the 4th decade of life. My grandfather used to say he had a hollow leg, and at one point in time, I started to believe it everytime I went to the grocery store and spend so much money on 2 people.
When we found out we were having a boy, one of the many discussions we had was how he would be like his daddy. We all know that teenage boys are famous for their ability to pack it away, I just didn't think that it would happen so fast in my house.
This morning, in his first hour and a half awake, Caleb has eaten a breakfast bar (Nutrigrain type thing), applesauce, and a bowl full of oatmeal with bananas. Now he's asking for a peanut butter sandwich. Normally, I'm not one to deny my chid something to eat, but seriously, I had to say enough is enough.
Maybe I should start looking for another part time job now and save up for his teenage years if this is what he's like when he's 3!

The 4th Thing

So, that was entirely too much information about the digestive goings on in our household, huh? Jes and I are on the mend, so I thought I would do this thing that has been going around the blogs that I love to read.
Basically, you go to your picture folder, go to the 4th folder within the pictures and post the 4th picture. Then you explain it. Here's mine:


This is Caleb and I at the Dallas Aquarium in front of the flamingo habitat. This was a couple of years ago when I was teaching the gymnasts and one of them needed to go to either the aquarium or the zoo for a school project. This photo was taken in mid-May, so it being in Texas, we chose the indoor spot.

Now, all of you do it too! It's so much fun to look back!

The Last Two

Jes and I have the stomach thing now. Hopefully this is where it ends. Yuck.

On the Upswing?

Dare I say it? Oh, I'm not superstitious... I think we're getting better here in the land o' germs. Caleb has only "exploded" once today and Piper actually took something by bottle this morning, other than Pedialyte. P's appetite is still not what it was, but it took Caleb a few days to get back to eating somewhat normally, so I'm thinking it will be back to normal by Monday. She is still coughing, but I've been able to start her on some medication the doctor gave me to help with the congestion in her sinuses since the puking has stopped. It does seem to be helping and hopefully, she'll be past the worst of it in a couple of days. This is not new territory for us, but we're very thankful that it took nearly 6 months for her to get her first real illness.
Currently, I'm watching Caleb play in a laundry basket (clearly we need to get out!) and I've already had to banish him to his room 3 times this morning. Apparently, he's back to his old self.
We'll be staying in today and tomorrow and will reassess tomorrow night to consider church. Thankfully, we can watch church and join in via the Internet, so at least we'll be able to hear the message, if we can't be there in person!

And Then...

The baby girl has it. Sigh.

On a positive note, I'm sitting here watching Caleb eat a grilled cheese and french fries from Sonic. He says his "tummy feels a lot better Mama", so let's hope it stays in him, right where it's supposed to be.

I ready to be done with this particular illness. So, this is what being a Mama of 2 sick kiddos is like. Well then.

Still Not Good

So, what a night/day we've had. Last night, Caleb spiked a fever. Higher than normal, but not yet high enough to call the surgeon. What's a mom to do? So, I called the pediatrician's on call nurse service. She told us exactly what we thought, push fluids, give a lukewarm bath, dress in light clothes, rest. We did it and he decided to eat a little before going to bed (with me, again.). We'd been lying in bed for just a few minutes and I heard the unmistakeable sound that no mom wants to hear come from your child who is lying in your bed - puke, on its way up. That's right, he puked. In my bed. All over himself. And me. Yuck.
Jes and I got him and the bed cleaned up and we tried it again. Eventually, he passed out and slept all night without hardly a whimper (hardly). Meanwhile, Jes tried to convince Piper to sleep in the other room.
This morning, bright and early brought on a mom's second worst nightmare, the d word. I called the ENT to see what exactly we should do and they were afraid that he might be having some type of allergic reaction to the antibiotic ear drops. Off the the doctor we went this afternoon only to be told that he has a stomach virus, probably "the one" that has been going around.
Are they serious? We've had this twice before! Anyway, Caleb will miss his last day of school tomorrow and we'll be hunkering down here in the house praying that Piper doesn't succumb to it. I'll be on the hunt for this little bug and spraying it into oblivion with my trusty can of Lysol tonight. Have a good evening all!

Recovery

The last 36 or so hours have been pretty difficult around here with Caleb's recovery. He has the normal aches and pains that come with the procedure he had early yesterday morning, but added to that he has his normal issues from his asthma that seem to rear its ugly head each time he has a surgery. (Boy, that was some sentence.)
Caleb was diagnosed with asthma when he was 9 months old and is highly medicated. In fact, he is on the highest dosage of all the medications that he is on that would be safe for his age group. The only times that he has difficulties or you even know that he has asthma is when he is either sick (including allergies) or has had surgery. With his first and this last surgery, he was not intubated as the surgery was very short and it was not needed, but he still had/has symptoms. Needless to say, we are doing breathing treatments every 4 hours and following the same protocol that we have for each of these incidents.
The other issue we are having with Caleb right now is that he will not eat. Last night he was complaining of a tummy ache, but did manage to eat a container of apple sauce. In the time since his surgery, he has had the following to eat:
- 2 popscicles (directly after surgery, at the hospital)
- 1 cheese stick
- 1 breakfast bar (Nutrigrain type thing)
- 1 container of apple sauce
- 1 cracker
We have tried offering him everything that we have and nothing is what he wants. He seems like he does not feel bad, but just won't eat! We are falling back on an old standby, a Happy Meal. Even at his most sick, he has always eaten at least part of one, so Jes is going to stop and get one on the way home. He is drinking lots, so we'll see what happens. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow he'll be eating us out of house and home again!

Home

This morning was Caleb's surgery. I was up bright and early at 4:45 am (!) and he was up around 5. We got ourselves together, he took his asthma meds and we were out the door. When we had his tonsil and adenoids out, we left about the same time of morning and hit a good bit of traffic, so I decided that we would do the same this morning and probably wouldn't arrive too early. I guess with this cold front that blew in (um, hello? could it be colder in that 30mph wind? yikes!), many people weren't out yet. We made it to the hospital with about 20 minutes to spare, so Caleb and I drove around and looked at Christmas lights. We quickly discovered that not many people still have their lights on at 5:45 in the morining, but we did manage to find a few and get a giggle out of others.
We were able to get into the surgery center around 6ish and checked in. There was another little boy before us, so we had to wait for a little while. I could totally tell that his mom and dad had not done this before and that he was new to the surgery thing too. Because of their freshman status, the staff and the doctor (ours too) took a little extra time with their family.
Caleb was taken back, given the liquid medication to make him loopy and was wheeled back into the OR around 7:30. I managed to get a cup of coffee and address 1 Christmas card, looked up and the doctor was walking toward me. He said that the placement of the tubes was very easy, but he did see fluid in each ear and that it drained right out. We will go back for a follow up appointment in a couple weeks and will do another hearing test then to determine if the tubes are successful.
We left the hospital at 8:25 and Caleb has been home for 2 hours now and is playing his computer and is acting like nothing happened (except for the fact that he is still slightly drunk from the medication. It's pretty funny watching him try to walk and stand in one place!). We are hoping Caleb will be able to go to school tomorrow for at least the morning as they are doing a project that I really don't want him to miss. Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!

About Jes

I've seen this on several blogs and I just love these things. I've done these before, but this one is slightly different and we can look back on this in 10 years and see how things have change.
1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? As long as he has the remote, it's usually something about motorcycles, guns, old westerns or, lately, the military channel.
2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? if they have it, honey mustard
3. What's one food he doesn't like? cooked carrots
4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? we don't go to bars, but he will get Dr. Pepper or Coke with lime when we go out to dinner
5. Where did he go to high school? North Valley High in Grant's Pass, Oregon
6. What size shoe does he wear? 13
7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? motorcycles
8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? ham and cheese with ranch dressing on one side and mustard on the other. I know, I don't get it either.
9. What would he eat every day if he could? hot dogs. (yuck)
10. What is his favorite cereal? Raisin Bran or anything sugary. When I shop for cereal, I either look like I'm buying for a house full of kids or senior citizens.
11. What would he never wear? Anything pink or purple or with the Dallas Cowboy's logo on it.
12. What is his favorite sports team? SF 49ers and the Dallas Mavericks. He's a study in contradication.
13. Who did he vote for? McCain. He's very opinionated on many issues, so he was the logical choice.
14. Who is his best friend? Me. He has guy friends, but they don't know him like I do. I guess that would be a question for him.
15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Slam doors. I'm a recovering door slammer when I get mad. I relapse from time to time and it drives him nuts!
16. How many states has he lived in? Let's see, Oregon, California, Texas. That's 3.
17. What is his heritage? Rural Oregon.
18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be? Well, he doesn't like cake all that much, so I would be taking myself to the bakery and buying a pie. His favorite is strawberry rhubarb, but I've yet to find a place that makes one.
19. Did he play sports in high school? He was great at track and field. Cross Country, high jump, etc.
20. What could he spend hours doing? Riding his motorcycle, or for as long as his body would allow.
21. What's something cool about him? He LOVES his kiddos and is very passionate about what happens to them. I could never have imagined that I would be so luck to end up with a guy who loves his kids like his does.

Small Victories

So, what a downer the past few posts have been, huh? Sorry about all that. We're just up to our eyeballs in 3 year old-ness.
The past week or so have been super busy with MOPS, me finishing up the semester at work, and all the Christmas stuff that has been going on. With all that, Caleb, Piper and I have been spending more time than usual out and about doing what needs to be done. I have to say that Caleb has been so great through all this. His behavior is getting so much better.
Yesterday, Caleb had a pulmonologist's appointment at the hospital. The boy that was right before us was a Down Syndrome child and was particularly difficult for the doctor to examine. (We knew this because our exam room was right next door to his.) We waited for over an hour to see our doctor and Caleb behaved very well. He watched the movie that the nurse chose for us and only tried to get to the tv and another DVD once or twice. Each time, I was able to tell him no and he immediately complied.
The doctor then decided that we needed to do allergy testing in Caleb, right then. That day. In the hospital. I don't know if y'all have all done a simple blood draw in an outpatient lab in a hospital before, but it involves the same check in procedure as surgery. Caleb was great through all of this. The only time he had a moment was when he saw the needle that they were to draw his blood with. He vividly remembers all the IV pokes from last year when he was in the hospital, so he did whimper a little bit, but was a trooper the whole time.
We left the hospital around 5.5 hours after we arrived and all of us were in one piece and still happy with each other. It was a small victory!
Today, he decided that he HAD to go to the bathroom before we went to his classroom before school. After he did his business and washed his hands, he decided that he was not. going. to. ride. on. the. stroller. I thought for sure it would be a fight to get him to his classroom without his running off or us getting into it. No, he walked calmly beside the stroller all the way to his room.
Like my title says, it's the small victories in life that encourage me that this whole situation might be turning around.
Coming up soon, pictures of Piper at her baby dedication on Sunday in a ridiculously expensive outfit. In fact, you may see her in this dress until she's 2! Monday is Caleb's surgery, so there will be a post about that too.
Thanks for all the patience with all the doom and gloom around here. I promise it will get better, it has to!

"The" Meeting and a Surgery Date

So, Thursday I had the meeting with Caleb's Mother's Day Out director. Let me just preface this by saying that while I talk a good game, I am one to avoid confrontation at all costs. Just the thought of having to have this discussion with her made me break out into a cold sweat, but I knew that I had to be the grown up and do it. I got some much needed advice and a fabulous pep talk from my good friend Courtney. She never fails to boost my confidence!

The director and I sat in her office and had a rather nice conversation. We talked for around an hour about all the ins and outs of what she has seen in Caleb over the past nearly 3 years that he has been at the school. Come to find out, she has a son who has severe ADD and had a terrible time in school over the years. He turned out to be a great boy and is about to graduate from college, so most of her experiences with teachers have been far and away worse than what we have gone through in the past couple of years. The conversation just really cemented in my mind that we know Caleb best and that most of the time, the teachers really don't know the child, and frankly don't care to.

Sorry to fall back on bullets, but that is the best way for me to organize what we discussed. Here goes:



- We both agreed that we did not feel there was anything wrong with Caleb. She has seen the gamut of issues with kids through the years, not to mention living with one with a learning issue and one without, and I trust her judgement when she says that what was implied by Caleb's teachers is just not the case. So let's do a quick count here, 2 parents, 3 doctors, 1 speech pathologist and 1 diagnostician all say he's got nothing wrong. 2 Mother's Day Out teachers who don't really know my kid (coming later) say that he's ill. Hm. You do the math.



- The director totally supported our decision to take Caleb out and homeschool him on the days he would normally be in school. She even told me that she still lives with massive amounts of guilt over not doing that for her son, as he apparently needed it. To be perfectly honest, when I talk with friends and family who are educators themselves about our decision to homeschool, they become particularly silent. Not the silent where they are listening, but I can see them biting their tongues. This used to bother me, but I've learned to have confidence in our choices as parents. We know that Caleb is just excelling in this setting right now and he's not a bad kid, he just needs me and one on one time, so he'll get it.



- She was very open to listen to me about Caleb's health issues from the past and actually took into account the fact that those same health issues could be part of the problems here. One such example, Caleb was quite a severe aspirator until he was nearly 2. The muscles that are used for swallowing are also somewhat used for other things, um like speech (!). He also has issues with severe allergies and asthma and this time of the year is very difficult, healthwise, for him as he is on at least 6 medications daily. No one, and I mean no one, else at that school would listen to me when I tried to explain that to them. They just wanted to write him off as "that" kid. He's gotten somewhat of a label through all this and I'm working on ways to remedy that situation, or at least get him away from those teachers. In fact, one day I went to pick him up and they mentioned that he was coughing a lot while running around. I asked if they had given him his inhaler and, I kid you not, they asked if his had asthma. Um, what is that mountain of health information paperwork we filled out for? Did you even listen to me when I told you his inhaler is in the bag? Do you not talk to the other teacher, whom I told this to as well that morning? Needless to say, I medicate him BEFORE he goes now.



- We both feel like some of this is also coming from the fact that our Caleb is still having quite a difficult time acclimating to life with his sister. He seems to be doing better, but Jes and I are trying to make more of an effort to make sure he feel included and gets enough one on one attention. It is getting easier, as Piper is getting older and is a little less needy. When Piper was born, Caleb essentially lost his father, as he is just in love with her, and I was so caught up in the feeding/pumping/diapering/recovering from surgery game that it was almost impossible to give him the attention he had before she came along. I am not blaming Jes for any of this, he does blame himself though (one of his first comments after this all started happening was that he felt like he did this to him and that he caused this. We are working through this.), which is one of the worst things about parenting, thinking you did this to your kid. We have had to really talk our way through all this and are finally coming out on the other side.



The last part of this is that the teachers had to fill out a very abbreviated set of paperwork, similar to what we had to fill out on the skills that Caleb may or may not have. I didn't look at my copy until today, and I was furious after I read it. I had Jes read it too and he felt the same way. It is very apparent to me that these teachers, who have been with him for months now, don't even know our son. I'm not sure how they came to the conclusions that they did when they filled out the paperwork, but most of what they said he could not do, he in fact does do well with us. I know it's a very short time period of the week and I know that he's not cooperating, but my fear is that the diagnostician and speech therapist will put more stock into what they say than what we say. I'll be calling on Monday.



I think that's all about that meeting that was decided/talked about. Caleb will be having his tubes put in on the 15th of this month. The one issue that we are coming up against is that he HAS to pass a hearing test before they can do his complete speech evaluation on the 8th of January. We are hoping and praying that these tubes will help him do just that. After he has his tubes put in, we go back just about 2 weeks after the procedure and have another hearing test done. That's the one he needs to pass. If he doesn't, we reschedule the speech evaluation and try to figure out what our next step is. I hate the unknown!

We Won't Be Pursuing a Musical Career for Him.

Overheard coming from Caleb's room this afternoon:

We Wish You a Merry Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
And a Happy Thanksgiving.