Santa Visit 2011

We seem to have started a Christmas tradition of visiting Santa on Christmas Eve. Luckily, LB wasn't scared and he even cracked a smile when Santa said, "ho ho ho." The series of photos is pretty similar to last year except LB looks like a little person this year and not a baby. Sigh.

When LB woke up from his nap this afternoon, I asked him what he dreamed about and he smiled and said, "ho ho ho." He even pointed to his lap. I love that he remembers what he got to do this morning. That's the stuff parents dream of.

Merry Christmas!



Ode to Bebe

When LB and I went to Tulsa in October, he came up with a name for my sister, Abby. He calls her, "Bebe." It is just about the cutest thing. Ever. He now brings up her name at least once a day and usually several times. Luckily, we will see her next week so I can tell LB that we will see her soon. That seems to help. And when it doesn't he calls her on the phone without me knowing and says "hi" over and over again into the phone.

If LB could write this is what he would say about his Aunt Bebe.

Bebe is the best because:
Whenever I want to see her belly button she always shows me. My mom tires of this. Bebe does not.
She does hand motions to "row, row, row your boat" and that is very fun. She sings other songs with hand motions too. She also does a variation of Peek-a-Boo that is hilarious.
Bebe loves cats. I love cats. She buys me books about cats. I call them Bebe books.
She always drinks tea and I am fascinated by that little string that dangles from the cup. Every time someone drinks tea it makes me think of Bebe.
She is a very expressive reader.
Her laugh makes me laugh.
Bebe always complies with my desire to make funny faces at each other.
Some day I will enjoy all the stories she remembers about my mom.
She is kind and sweet.
I love her.

Love.

I just ordered this print. It makes me cry big, fat tears. I got the tip from one of my favorite bloggers. You can order it from Sycamore Street Press.

HO HO HO

We are getting into the Christmas spirit around here.

Nana

One day last week I woke up feeling awful. Thankfully, D was able to take the day off work and decided that he and LB would go spend the day with his parents (aka Nana and Poppy). I am pretty sure that was the most alone time I have had since LB came home. I am not going to lie. Even though I wasn't feeling well, it was divine. While they were there D took some photos of LB and his Nana. They were too cute not to share.

Feeding Clinic Graduation

The week before Thanksgiving LB graduated from feeding therapy! He has come so far since he first started seeing his OT, Monica, earlier this year. Honestly, there were times I worried he would never move past pureed foods and recently he has tried and liked meatloaf, falafel and roast chicken! We are still going to visit Monica to continue working on some other things but he is done with the feeding therapy. YAY! I took a bunch of photos at his most recent appointment so that I could document all the exercises he will do in the OT room that he used to be scared of. Also, LB asks about Monica on a daily basis so I thought it would be nice to have some photos to show him when he is incessantly asking for, "kaka."

I love that LB always holds her hand as they walk back to the OT room together. Initially he would cling to me like crazy but now he stands in the waiting room and says "kaka" over and over until she comes to get him.

They do all sorts of work with therapy balls and LB will basically try anything. He may still be skeptical but he will almost always try. She has really gotten him to expand beyond his comfort zone in terms of movement and touch.

It was just in the past month or so that LB has decided he is no longer afraid of the sensory pitt. He will crawl to reach toys that Monica throws in the pit to help entice him to move.

Enjoying some quiet bubble time.

There is almost always swinging involved.

It's safe to say that he has a great time. I never thought I would be celebrating a graduation of sorts for LB before he turned 2. We are so proud of him!

Pockets!

A few weeks ago, LB discovered that his pants have pockets. He thinks they are the coolest thing ever and utilizes them quite often. Pretty darn cute!

Goosebumps!

A pretty amazing thing happened this weekend. Here is how it began. D was craving Ethiopian food so we decided to meet our friends at one of the Ethiopian restaurants in town. I am really hoping that one of these days I will work up the courage to try and make Ethiopian food but for this occasion heading out to a restaurant was the obvious choice. I also just love watching LB eat injera. It makes my heart happy. LB wasn't very interested in sitting at the table when we first got there so rather than having a screaming child we chose to let him around the place. Most of the people there were Ethiopian and they didn't seem to mind that LB was running up and down the aisles. Some of them even spoke a little Amharic to him. LB was very generous in giving high fives and shouting "hi" to everyone he ran past. When the food arrived LB did behave and ate a lot of yellow split peas, carrots and injera. YAY!

Here is the part where you need to prepare yourself to experience serious goosebumps! After dinner LB was running around again and while I was chasing him I ended up talking to an older Ethiopian gentleman. He asked me where LB was from and I told him that he was from Awassa. (For those of you unfamiliar with Ethiopia, that is a capital of the Southern Region of Ethiopia.) LB was born in Awassa and his home village is not far from there. I always tell people he is from Awassa because most of the Ethiopians I have met haven't heard of his home village. The man started telling me how beautiful the southern region was and asked if I had been there. I told him that unfortunately we didn't make it there while we were in Ethiopia and that we spent the majority of our time in Addis. The man was from Addis so we talked about some of the things we saw and did while we were there. I expressed to him my strong desire to travel back to Ethiopia and to go to Awassa. He then proceeded to tell me that if I do go to Awassa then I need to go to a town not far from there. He then said the name of LB's home village! I asked him to repeat it to make sure I heard him correctly. And he said it very clearly. I told him that was LB's home village and was where his Ethiopian family lived. He was as shocked as me! He said it is very lush and beautiful. I was basically in a state of shock the whole night. Of all the villages in Ethiopia this man tells me that I have to go visit the place where my extended Ethiopian family lives. The place that any time I think about I have to hold back tears. The place where my heart lives. I just couldn't believe it. D and I talk about Ethiopia all the time and often when my mind is wandering before falling asleep I will think about Ethiopia. I feel like there is something more to our story involving Ethiopia. I can't quite connect all the dots yet but I do feel like I am getting closer. I just have to be patient in figuring it all out. Several days after that conversation I still just say to myself, "Wow!"

I ordered a new shirt for LB recently and since it was a warm day I decided Ezra should wear it. Given the events of the weekend, it just seemed appropriate.

I sure do love this string cheese eating, funny face making, Ethiopian boy of mine.

New Ride

We have been very lucky in the hand-me-down department. LB's very well dressed cousin is just a few months older but significantly taller so that has worked out in our favor. Also, D's cousin, Kelli, has two boys and even though she lives in Illinois she always comes to Ohio with a car load of stuff for LB. I am sure LB could care less about the cute clothes he is receiving but on Kelli's latest trip she brought him a new ride. I wish I could have captured the look on his face the first time he took it for a spin. Priceless. The photo and video give you a pretty good idea as to how pleased LB is with his new found independence.

Fall 2011 Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago, LB and I made a quick trip to Tulsa to spend some time with my parents and sister. Tulsa is really beautiful in the fall so I decided it would be a great time for our friend, Maggie, to take some photos of LB again. Last year we got really lucky and had a 70 degree day at the end of December. I knew it was doubtful that would happen again so we met Maggie at the park one of the mornings we were in town and thankfully LB was in the mood to light it up in front of the camera. Maggie did a fantastic job capturing his personality and these photos are truly priceless. I picked my 10 favorite, which was an impossible task.

My mother-in-law made the comment that the final photo is very symbolic in showing how far LB has come. You can't really see the beginning of the winding road but it is there off in the light and he is standing tall at the end of it. When she told me that I had to hold back tears because I could totally see what she was visualizing. I am very thankful to her for pointing that out to me.

Okay, so I have to share one more. When Maggie was done taking photos, LB and my mom were sharing a little hug. Maggie pulled out her camera and captured that brief moment. It might just be the sweetest photo I have ever seen.

Thank you, Maggie.

Halloween 2011 - Our Little Elmo

At the end of the day, Halloween 2011 was a success. Around 1pm, I wasn't so sure there would be a Halloween 2011 for the Buster family. Neither D or I are the types of people that get excited about wearing costumes so it makes sense that LB wasn't so keen of costumes either. We had borrowed an elephant costume for him and it was super cute. However, I could not for the life of me get him to keep the head piece on. He would wear it for a max of 5.5 seconds and was then ripping it off his head. Without the head piece he would have been a grey blob with big feet for Halloween. To top it off, all morning LB was in teething pain and was not so fun to be around. I came close to calling our friends and telling them we were skipping Halloween. But then LB took a late nap and woke up in a pretty good mood. He agreed to wear his friend's Elmo costume from last year. (By agree, I mean he didn't kick and scream while we put it on him.) Thank goodness for Elmo. LB wasn't super thrilled with it but we got some smiles out of him and he tolerated the costume for close to an hour. Success! And he looked cute! He even went to a few houses and picked out candy for his dad.

On holidays that are so focused on kids I am reminded of what it felt like in the years when I was aching inside to be a mom. If you are one of those women then please know that I am thinking of you and sending love out into the universe for you this evening. I remember in 2009 when we were waiting for our referral I read this post as tears rolled down my face. I hoped that someday I would be the one holding my kid's hand as we went from house to house. I tried to soak all that up this evening as I watched our little Elmo clutch to his dad's hand as they trekked through the leaves. I can't tell you that I know it will happen for you someday because I don't know. But I can hope and pray for you. And I will.

Flashback Friday

I watched this video on my phone yesterday and it made me smile. I took this on August 23rd, 2010 so we had only been home for a few days. He was so tiny! Please excuse my annoying voice.

Shapes - The Africa Edition

Resume bragging.

My friend, Katie, made the above painting of Africa for LB soon after we received our referral. I love it! It hung in LB's room at our old house and is in the new house as well. (The photo is of his room in the old house. The bumbo is long gone. Tear.) When LB was around 15 months old, I started telling him that the painting was of Africa and that he was born there. After telling him that several times, he would point to the painting when I mentioned Africa. Then when he started saying more words he would point and say, "Akaka." My mom was here about a month ago and brought LB an Elmo on Safari coloring book. One of the pages had an outline of Africa. On a whim my mom pointed to the page and asked LB if he knew what it was. Without hesitation he said, "Akaka." I thought that was pretty good. It was a totally different context but he still knew the shape. To make sure it wasn't a fluke, yesterday I showed LB a new t-shirt I got for him that has Africa on it. (If you are interested in the shirt, you can order them HERE. Part of the proceeds go to Ethiopian Orphan Relief and the Mudula Water Project.) Again, LB right away said, "Akaka." It makes my heart happy that he knows that shape so well.

On our first full day in Ethiopia, we took a day trip north of Addis to a famous monastery called Debre Libanos. There were some really amazing views on the way there and so several times we got out of the car to get a better look. One of those times we were all of a sudden swarmed by children who were trying to sell us their handmade goods. We bought this little container and it lives on LB's dresser. It's right next to the lion in the photo.

LB likes to put stuff inside of it and close it and then open it again. It's a good game. One day he was looking inside the container and started pointing to the center part and then pointing to his belly button. He is a tad obsessed with his belly button or "bebo." I realized that he thought the center of the container was a belly button. It does in fact resemble a belly button. He does it every time we play with that container. I love the way his brain works!

End bragging. At least, shape related bragging.

Bragging - Shapes

I need to take a few moments to brag about my boy. When LB was around 18 months old, he started to get really interested in puzzles. It isn't surprising since he loves to find things that are the same so matching the puzzle pieces with the pictures is a great activity for him. His favorite puzzle is a numbers one. The hard thing about the numbers puzzle is that you can't match it by a photo. You have to do it by the shape of the number. I know it is pretty common to think that your kid is smarter than the average bear but I was very impressed that he figured it out so quickly. Puzzle time is awesome for me because LB will actually sit still for a while. It's also been a great way to distract him when he is getting upset about something else. I will mention something about his puzzles and he will often forget about whatever it was that was making him mad.

He always likes to save the number 1 for last. I am not sure what that is about. He's all business when it is puzzle time.

We also worked a lot on a puzzle with shapes. When we first started doing it I tried to draw associations to some of the shapes. So I would point to the star and sing, "twinkle, twinkle little star." And I would point to the heart and tell him that hearts meant love and I would do the sign for love. I had no idea that he was actually absorbing this information. Sometimes I just talk to him in a teacher like way but assume the language is above his understanding. Well, a few weeks ago we were outside playing in the leaves. He pointed to the some of the leaves and did the sign for love. I had no idea what he was talking about. I kept asking him what was love and he would point to the leaves. I thought he had lost his mind. Finally, I got right at his eye level and realized that some of the leaves were sort of shaped liked hearts. Whoa. My kid is smarter than me.

Do you see the leaves in the bottom left corner of the photo? Those are the heart shaped ones.

A few days after the leaf incident we went to Macy's to buy some new towels. As we were walking up to the store LB starts doing the hand motions for "twinkle, twinkle" and I had no idea why he wanted to sing that all of a sudden. Until I saw the star next to Macy's. He notices way more than I do.

Okay, I'll stop bragging. And for a little balance I'll tell you a not so great story. This morning we went to the library for toddler time. It started out great. Then LB noticed another kid had a stuffed animal. He kept trying to steal it and I kept giving it back. I even tried moving to the other side of the room. Nope. LB only had eyes for that animal. He kept screaming every time I gave it back to the other kid. I told him he had to stop screaming or we were going bye-bye. What does he do? He shouts, "BYE!" to the entire room and walks over to the door. Awesome.

Pumpkin Picking

We took LB to a local farm this morning to do some pumpkin picking. I had never been to this particular farm before so we weren't sure what to expect. I had grand visions of this expansive field full of pumpkins and we would take photos of LB climbing and sitting on the pumpkins. That wasn't really the case. Oh well. We still had a fun time. The highlight was definitely the hay ride. Although, LB might tell you the best part was "mooing" to the baby cow or going down the slide into a pit of hay. Either way it was a wonderful fall morning spent with two of my favorite guys.

Turned A Corner

All week long LB has been asking for, "Kaka." That is Monica, his occupational therapist that we have been seeing weekly all summer. At our previous appointment she told me that LB was doing so well she thought we could move to every other week visits. Good news! But I really think LB missed seeing her last week and that is why he kept asking for her. This morning when we got in the car I told him we were going to see Monica and he started clapping! LB's love for Monica is such a perfect example as to how far he has come over the past couple of months. He was so apprehensive of her in the first several visits and would barely crack a smile as she tried to get him in the swings or bounce on the balls. It was a struggle to get him to sit in the high chair for more than 5 minutes. LB was very hesitant to even touch food he wasn't familiar with and if he did then it was just with one hand and he would keep the other hand safe. Two weeks ago I had to carry LB out of there in his diaper because he was covered head to toe in spaghetti! Monica put the spaghetti on the tray and he dived right in with both hands and put it in his mouth without thinking twice about it. I wish I had taken my camera that day! Monica said that she thinks in about a month or so LB will be a "typical" eater for a kid his age and that even a therapist wouldn't know that he had months of OT. Seriously, it brings tears to my eyes.

I would encourage anyone to seek out occupational therapy for their child if they are having feeding or any other sensory issues. It has made a huge difference for LB. The progress seemed very slow at first and there were days when I was extremely discouraged. I thought perhaps he would never move past pureed foods. I can pinpoint the exact day when LB turned a corner. We were at OT and Monica pulled some goldfish crackers out of her drawer. A lot of what she was working with LB on was getting familiar with touching the food and playing with it. She explained that touching and licking were the first steps and that eventually you work towards taking bites. So she put the goldfish on the tray and showed LB that if he pushed it with his thumb it would make a crunching sound. LB thought that was the greatest and got to work at crunching the goldfish. Then she showed him that her teeth could make the goldfish crunch too and she asked LB if he would try. We were both shocked when he put it in his mouth and chewed it and swallowed it. Monica and I were both out of our chairs, jumping up and down and praising him to the high heavens! It was like the lights switched on and ever since that day he has been eating more and more textured foods. He used to put a cheerio in his mouth and it would just sit on his tongue and you could see panic in his face. Now he shoves several in his mouth at once. LB will try just about anything I put in front of him. It has been so wonderful to see his confidence grow and to know that food is no longer something he has to fear. I couldn't be more proud of him.

I am so glad that our insurance has paid for most of LB's OT and that we have such amazing resources here. Thank you, Monica!! We are forever grateful!

Return - To Last Year

On this last day of September, I thought it would be fun to share photos of LB that were taken this time last year. A nice way to round out my September walk down memory lane. We had been home with LB for a little over a month. I remember feeling like D and I were getting much better at anticipating LB's needs. He was less anxious during bottle times and was putting himself to sleep fairly quickly. The weather was still nice and those daily walks were really therapeutic. LB was probably only about 14 pounds in these photos. So tiny!

I have to admit that I look at his baby photos with a sense of longing. I miss that little peanut. Of course, that stage had it's own set of challenges and I was smack dab in the middle of adjusting to motherhood. But this toddler stage is kicking my behind. I know this is an awkward age because they have opinions but don't have the language to fully communicate them. Some days are easier than others but I find myself wishing for him to get a little older so that we can converse more. You would think as I longingly look at these baby photos of him that I would stop such unproductive thinking. I was sitting next to a mom at the library the other day and she asked me LB's age. I told her 20 months and she said her son was 21 months and she was going crazy. I wanted to hug and kiss her! Yes, I am going a little crazy too!

I read something yesterday that was a good reminder and echoed a lot of what my mom tells me when I call her after a rough day. It's not just good advice for parents but applies to all stages of life, good and bad.

"If I had to identify one thing I'd like to say to younger parents right now, this would be it: Knowing that nothing lasts forever doesn't have to be sad and depressing. Knowing that nothing lasts forever is a source of great joy. When parenting gets rough, remind yourself that this too shall pass. When parenting is joyful, remind yourself that this too shall pass."

Yes, this too shall pass.

Hope you have a wonderful last day of September!