Dawson and Gabriel Update

I'm so proud of Dawson. His eagerness to learn is so awesome! He has a small magna-doodle that we keep at RMH. We often sit together and work on things. This morning he brought it to me wanted to do numbers. He wrote a 1, 2 and a 7 all by himself! Then he asked me to write certain numbers so he can see how I did it. He often asked for "2 4's", then "3 4's", so he can see it again. We are also working on his counting. He had 1-10 down for a long time. Then came 11 and 12 last month. Then I taught him all the teen numbers. He got them mixed up for a while, but he eventually got them all memorized too. This morning we started on the 20's. He now always says 20 at the end of his teens. I usually have to say 21... then he keeps going. He doesn't seem to like that the 20s are longer, 3 syllables instead of 1 or 2. So they take more effort to say and he can't say them as fast. So today when he was counting, he said 20, 21, 22, 3, 4, 5....  I had to keep reminding him to add the 20 in front of it.

I got a call the other day from Speech Therapy at Children's Hospital. Dawson was put on a list for outpatient services and it's finally his turn! He has a speech evaluation to see if he qualifies on Thursday afternoon. It will be nice to get him back in therapy to work on things. He really loves speech too. He is still having trouble with that first letter sound on many words. I was feeling so bad that we had to stop all his services when Tyler relapsed. Seems like the siblings always get put on the back burner and I've been trying to make sure that doesn't happen, but it's so hard to keep things the same when they obviously aren't. Sometimes we have to make sacrifices. Dawson got offered preschool in Minneapolis, but I had to turn it down. He would've loved it, but bringing back all those germs is potentially life threatening for Tyler. I'm very satisfied with how much he's still been learning. The main thing they were working on in school with him is social skills, which he's getting lots of at the hospital too. He has learned how to take turns and share. I told him he needs to wait for his turn and he actually listened. He never did before. So I have seen a lot of social progress while we're at the hospital.

He's still having a lot of trouble with transitions though. He loves playing in playrooms, but when it's time to go, he takes a while to accept that we need to go somewhere else. Unless it's a place he wants to go. It usually takes bribes. To get him back into Tyler's room, I offer him bubbles. To get him out of the Billard room at RMH, I offer him a popsicle. Otherwise it's a huge tantrum and lots of screaming, which isn't appreciated at that time of night! Tonight there were no more popsicles left. I was bracing myself for a huge tantrum. Instead I found a can of Spaghetti O's in the pantry and he decided he wanted those. So he happily carried the can up to our room. He even tucked himself in bed tonight without any screaming or crying. I was impressed! He must've gotten tired out, all that running and playing he did with Tyler today.

Dawson playing with the pool balls. He lines them up and rolls them from net to net. First the colored balls, then the striped ones. Sometimes he has them all lined up, but he usually just does 3-4 at once.

 Dawson saw me take a pic, so he picked up the balls, came over to my side of the table, stood there and said "cheese!". He's so cute! Looking so much older now too!

 He took his own picture (I was holding it up). He's looking to the side because my picture viewer can swivel off to the side for taking self pics and stuff. So he's looking at himself.

 After a bath in his room at RMH

 He looks so tall! When did that happen?! I remember when his little chin would rest on the bed when he stood!

 Playing cars with Tyler

Gabriel is doing great! He's such an adorable baby. He wakes up and smiles at me right away. I give him a kiss and it turns into a huge grin and he often starts cooing at me. Makes me want to stay in bed and look at his cute face all day! Then he makes a scowly face and starts kicking his legs, which is my warning that he needs a diaper change. He's such an easy baby. He only cries when he's hungry, needs a diaper or is bored. Even then, he sometimes lets out these short little whines, like he's letting me know he needs something and he's gonna start crying if it doesn't get fixed very soon. He's starting to play with his voice too, so it's often hard to tell if he's squawking for fun or because he needs something. He also coos and growls. I've never heard a 3 month old growl before, he must be getting it from his brothers already! He loves sitting up and laying under his toy bar or crib mobile. We still have that little hospital bassinet crib for him in Tyler's room, but he is quickly outgrowing that! I put him diagnally in it and he almost touches both sides. Since Tyler doesn't have infections anymore, I often put Gabriel in Tyler's crib since he doesn't use it during the day. He seems to appreciate having more room to spread out and sleep.

I took these 3 month pics in Tyler's crib. They all turned out so cute! I had 69 pics and all but a few were so cute! It's hard to refrain from posting them all! Here are a few of my favorites.

 He's been wanting to sit up so bad these days! He has a ways to go yet though. He was holding onto my hand and trying to pull himself up, so I sat him up and just held 1 hand. He was so excited.

 His hands are so interesting! He looks at them a lot, trying to figure out how they work and trying to get them to do things.

I took pics of our long term room at RMH. It's pretty much a 1 bedroom apartment, only the living room and kitchen are combined into 1 room also. Here's the right side of the bedroom.

 Left side of the bedroom

 Bedroom closet. There is no dresser, so all our clothes go on the shelves.

 Main room. The couch folds out to a bed. It's not a comfy couch at all, but it's better than nothing.

 Kitchen area. No stove, we get cupboards, microwave and mini fridge. I brought our toaster oven from home. :)

 Nice big vanity for all our stuff

 Entry area. I usually use a wagon to get everything up to our room. I always take the diaper bag, laptop, camera and often a bag of other stuff back and forth. Plus the baby in his carseat. The wagons are very useful!

 Gabriel in his bassinet at RMH. Not going to fit in there much longer!

 Sleeping in the Bjorn carrier. I was out walking with Tyler and his IV pole, so I needed both arms free.

 Gabriel's little crib. He's getting pretty big for that too! He loves the toys though, keeps him entertained for quite a while.