Working Zieg

In the little known southern dialect of LaBorde, the title of this post roughly translates to "working mom." I am happy to report that everyone made it through my first official day as a working zieg. It is definitely a relief to have it over with. I don't think it will ever be easy to leave David, but I have a new peace of mind seeing how well he did today. He and Alma had lots of fun. She took him in his wagon to the sprinkle park down the street where he splashed in the water. She told me he ran around her in circles while she held one hand, which is one of his signature moves when he's having fun. He also played in our neighbor's kiddie pool with several of the other kids from the block. When I got home, he was out front riding his toy school bus. He smiled when he saw me and then kept riding. While a more enthusiastic reception would have been nice, I'm taking the fact that he wasn't clingy after I got home as a good sign. Eventually I did get a very wet kiss, and when I told him to tell Alma bye bye, he reached for me to make sure I wasn't the one who was going.

I so appreciate everyone's kindness in the days leading up to my dreaded return to the real world. I have gotten so many calls and emails, which leads me to believe that I am either very loved or very mentally unstable. Perhaps those are not mutually exclusive. Even our neighbor across the street called to see how my day went and let me know that she saw David out and about several times today and that he looked like he was having fun.

In other news since my last post, David completed his evaluation with early intervention, and the plan is to hold off on any therapies right now and re-evaluate in 3 months. He is really doing well with his speech. After less than 3 months of exposure to English, they estimate his understanding to be at about a 14 month old level and his expression at about 12 months. He was all over the place with his motor evaluation. His trunk strength and the way he struggles to sit or stand himself up put him at about a 10 month old level, while his walking is equivalent to a 15 month old and, thanks to regular play with Snoopy and Pete, his throwing and kicking skills are as good as an average 20 month old. We're supposed to try to get him to crawl and kneel to build up his core muscles. I'm not exactly sure how, but we'll give it a try.

Once again demonstrating excellent palate function, David has learned to drink from a straw.

Once again demonstrating why we should never have adopted a border collie mix, Snoopy steals David's toys for her own.

Quiet weekend

We had very little on our calendar this weekend, and it was fantastic. Saturday we hung out at home. Kevin had been putting off installing a baby gate at the bottom of our first floor stairs for weeks, and when he finally decided it was time, I think you can guess what he did. He called his brother. As usual, Dave kindly came over to help with our latest home improvement in exchange for food, and (also as usual) he and Kevin put off starting their project as long as they possibly could. In this case, about 3 hours after Dave's arrival they actually started working. David loves figuring out how things work, and he was very interested in the tool box (totally safe for a 17 month old) and in what uncle Dave was doing. After the gate went up, we enjoyed the beautiful evening and let David run around outside with all the other kids on the block.
Today Kevin and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by attending a Thomas the train birthday party for David's friend Nick. There were sprinklers and sand and delicious cake. It was so much fun that David forgot himself and walked barefoot on the grass. I should mention that both the dogs and David gave us the gift of sleep for our anniversary. Pete didn't sit on me until 7:20, and David slept until almost 8:00.
The week ahead is a big one chez Maas. I go back to work on Thursday. Our nanny Alma will being coming for half days Monday through Wednesday to help David make this next big transition. I'm sure this is going to be much easier for him than it is for me. I anticipate he'll be happy as he can be playing with all the kids on our street all day long, sharing their fruit snacks and stealing their toys while I worry unnecessarily.

Who needs a spoon? Snoopy and Pete demonstrate why all our furniture is ruined.



Supervising Dad and uncle Dave. Playing with Fiona (and her worm). Dave attempts to read Pete a story.


We would like to give the monster hooded towel equal space on the blog.

Return of an old favorite

David has been working on more sophisticated comedy, so his fake sneezes have been MIA for the last few weeks. But after he saw Snoopy sneeze this afternoon, this is what he did...

Poop

Last night, Kevin had a business dinner, so to celebrate, David pooped in the tub. With his hair all full of shampoo. Not wanting him to sit in poo water (or use it to rinse his hair), I dumped a cup of water from the sink on his head (cold water, he was not pleased) and pulled him out of the tub. After getting him diapered, I went about the fun job of transferring the blobs of poop from tub to toilet. David took it upon himself to throw one of his sandals in the toilet while I was doing this. Fun stuff.

Yesterday afternoon, David had the first part of his developmental evaluation through Illinois' early intervention program. We'll meet with a speech and physical therapist next week. This part of the evaluation was a broad assessment of his development--motor, language, social and cognitive. Her concerns were minor and the same as ours. David needs toddler pilates. He has a weak trunk, probably from many long days on his back or in a walker which will make more advanced motor skills like jumping difficult for him. He's made major improvements since he's been with us, though, and I'm sure he'll catch up. His social skills and cognitive development are great. She said he has wonderful problem solving skills, and she was impressed with his receptive language. He really does understand a lot of what we say now. He knows mommy, daddy, Pete, Snoopy and even the little girl from down the street. He will splash if you ask him to splash. He knows ball and cup and which cup has milk and which has water. He pretends to talk on the phone and says some version of hello (usually "woh!") followed by "mama." And just this morning, I told him we had to put on his shoes before we went outside. He looked at me, ran from the living room to his room and opened up the dresser door where we keep his shoes. One interesting (at least to me) thing that I got from the visit was that the therapist said that Chinese children are often great squatters even when they have other motor delays because they squat so often and so early with their split pants. I'd never thought about that before, but David has always been able to squat and pick up objects with the best of them even when his walking ability was virtually nonexistent.

Soaking wet after a dip in the dog bowl.

Cute pictures, not a lot to say

For my parents who have gone 4 long days sans David...

Warming up to the hooded towels


Why he will be seven before we practice using a spoon again

Video from SC

Can't you just see the sunshine

This weekend we finally took David to visit family and friends in South Carolina. It's a good thing he loves people and chaos because we had a very busy trip. We left Thursday morning. David absolutely loved O'Hare. (There's a phrase you won't read or hear very often.) He was wide eyed and leaning forward in his stroller from the second we walked in the door, just taking in all the activity. Once we were at our gate, he put on a show for his fellow passengers running up and down the concourse with his little head bobbing from side to side. David fell asleep right before we landed in Columbia. He snoozed while we waited for our bags and was ready to entertain for the rest of the afternoon. Highlights from Thursday included his first Chick-fil-a sandwich, lots of quality time playing with his bubble blowing lawn mower from great aunt Judy and great uncle Bruce as well as visits from a couple of my friends from childhood--Alexa and Jana--and their families.

David asleep at the Columbia airport. First Chick-fil-a sandwich! His new favorite toy.

Friday we visited my friend Jennifer and her family. We were especially excited to meet baby Kendall, who was born while we were in China, and to spend some time with Jennifer's parents. We had lots of visitors from both sides of my family that afternoon. Aunt Leslie and uncle Stanley finally got to see David, too.

Fashion forward: showing his leash necklace to uncle Adams.

Kevin with baby Kendall. Playing ball with Haley and Jennifer. The Starnes and Maas families.

Staring contest with aunt Judy. Lots of family stopped by to meet David.

Enjoying central SC's mustard based BBQ. Bette worries about David when he cries.

My parents thought it very important that David not miss out on his usual Saturday morning donuts, so we hit KKD for some hot donuts now. We also thoroughly enjoyed visits from my friends Rebecca and Leila and from 3/5 of the Burke family. I babysat for the Burkes from the time their oldest daughter was 9 months old. She is starting college in the fall, which makes me feel much older than being someone's mom. It was wonderful to see Denise, Leacy and Katie!

The Krispy Kremes were a little sweet for David's refined palate, but he definitely enjoyed his (or really anyone's) carrot cake.

David plays with Leila. Rebecca and Leila with me and David.

This morning we went to church at St. Martin's (or as it will soon be renamed, the southern headquarters of the David Maas fan club). Aside from attempting to climb over the pew to sit with the people in front of us, David was on his best behavior.

The 3 of us with uncle Stanley and aunt Leslie. Posing with my parents.

David was a very independent boy this weekend. He was really walking on his own much more than he has in the past. He also seemed much more comfortable playing with other people without having to have me or Kevin right by his side all the time. It was really fun to see.

There are many many more pictures. My mom sent a really cute one of David playing the piano with my dad, but I can't seem to get it onto the blog. Look for an album of SC pictures and some video in the days to come.

Thank you to all our visitors this weekend. It was a treat to see everyone, and we look forward to our next trip down there.

Update: I've added an album of pictures from our trip to Picasa. Just click on the link to our pictures in the right column.