2 months!

I can't believe we've been home 2 months with Maya and Tristan! It is going by so fast! In many ways it is all a bit of a blur. We had very happy news today! Maya had her second ophthalmologist appointment to check her eyes with the glasses she has been wearing for the last 6 weeks. They said that the glasses are working great and both eyes are equally working together now, so we won't have to do any patching or anything! Yeah!!! I was not looking forward to trying to convince her to keep a patch on. The doctor said that it looked like we caught it in time. :)

Maya has also come a long way behaviorally this last week or so. I think she is finally responding to our love. She is still scared/nervous in a lot of situations, but has come SO far! Tristan, on the other hand, is definitely acting up more now than ever before. I think in his case, it is more that his little emotional walls are coming crashing down and he is turning into a normal 2 year old, tantrums and all. So, really this is a good thing, although it is more difficult to take when he has not been acting that way the last 2 months. A couple weeks ago he decided he would no longer eat the Super Porridge (who could blame him!) and so he graduated to plain oatmeal with banana like Isabelle. Maya, on the other hand, is very excited when she gets her Super Porridge and continues to eat a massive bowl full in under 5 minutes. Alex as well still really loves it. Alex has really started talking these last two weeks. It is like constant speech therapy around here, so I think it is rubbing off on him.

Tristan and Isabelle have really started to bond this last little while. They love to hold hands and spin around to make each other fall down, and I often see Isabelle with an arm slung around his shoulder. Because Tristan is so little and developmentally behind Isabelle, I forget that they are only 3 months apart in age.

Both kids have started taking speech therapy once a week with Isabelle. They started this last Thursday, and it was the first time we have left them with anyone other than Mom or Dad. It was only 75 minutes, but I still worried how they would react. Tristan was worried when I left (good sign), but Maya didn't seem concerned at all (not so good sign). She is always very independent, which is, of course, characteristic of her age, but also because she has had to be to survive. Despite this, there have been many times where I have felt that she is attaching to us, so I will try to relax. :) The speech therapist did say that Maya and Tristan should really do the full early intervention program, which is Monday through Friday for 2 1/2 hours a day. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up that much time with them each day, but it would be good for them to have that much time each day devoted to working on their developmental delays.

Figuring out ways around the major conflict issues and simply letting go on the more minor ones, has done wonders for my sanity with all these little ones! I haven't had to put anyone in timeout for at least a week! The hardest part of my days right now is meeting Alex's needs while getting everything done. He is getting all 4 molars right now and is absolutely miserable and needy. He wants me to hold him constantly, often he doesn't sleep or eat well, and he loves to go up to one of the other kids and push them or hit them on the forehead with a wooden block or just throw toys everywhere. What do I do with this little guy! I've tried discipline, and it has absolutely NO effect. The best thing I've found is to tell him to be soft and he gets this cherubic little look on his face and goes up to the injured party and caresses their arm softly. Less than 5 seconds later he is smacking them again! It's a good thing this little man has my heart wholly and completely!