The official start of the dreaded "terrible 2's"

Time flies, right?  How can our precious little girl already be 2?!  It's unbelievable how fast kids grow up!

So, we had a birthday party to celebrate Sydney.  She was super excited about her party.  She helped me pick out what kind of party she wanted to have and I told her that her friends were going to come over and bring her presents.  Of course she was excited about the presents.  Then I told her that she was going to have cake and we were going to sing Happy Birthday to her, and that just added to her excitement.

Our friend's little girl, Roslyn, had her birthday a week before Sydney's.  We went there for her party and Sydney kept saying "Happy Birthday to me!".  I had to keep telling her that her birthday was next weekend, but she's two and didn't understand, so we just giggled every time she said it. :)

We kept it small this year.  I'm starting to loathe birthday parties and I didn't want a ton of people in my house.  We only invited 5 families and it ended up that only a couple of them could make it.  Everyone was fighting off colds or other illnesses and didn't want to share anything.  Thank goodness!  So, it was us, our friends Pyper and Brad, and the little ones, Nevin and Roslyn.  Just what I wanted...small.  I think the saying "ask and you shall receive" works in this situation. :)  We did a Minnie Mouse theme and here's some of the pictures that I took...

I made cupcakes this year.  I kept it simple.

Cute little Nevin.  I love that kids smile!

Roslyn is the sweetest little girl.  She LOVES playing with Landon and Sydney.  She's such a good friend.

We set the picnic table up in the middle of the kitchen for the kids to eat.  We had Sydney's favorite:  PB&Js, fruit salad, pretzels, and I made ham & cheese pasta salad.  YUM!

This was my meager attempt to getting a picture of everyone together.  Sydney decided she didn't want to sit with everyone and started throwing a fit and crying.  At least Nevin is looking at the camera! :)

Landon thought Sydney's fit was funny, but Roslyn was not okay with it.  She was very concerned and was saying "Sydney fell on the floor" in her sweet little Roslyn voice.

Next, we did presents.  Sydney was really excited about the presents and opened them all herself.  Roslyn got her some hair bows (which she desperately needed) and Nevin got her some princess underwear and a cute towel with her name on it.

Roslyn was trying to give Sydney the scroll that had some money in it for her piggy bank.  Sydney was just interested in the cute bows.

I've never seen a little girl so excited over underwear before!  She was so excited about it and just smiled and smiled over them. :)  It's the little things people!

Sydney likes her junk food.  Her favorites right now are M&Ms, ice cream and of course, cake.  She really liked when everyone sang to her, but hadn't had enough practice with blowing out the candles.  She did pretty good, but she needed some help from dad to get them out completely.

She was too busy being cute that she didn't even notice when Dad helped her blow out the candles.

She was bummed when she looked down and they weren't lit anymore. ;)

I think Nevin just liked the icing. :)

We had fun hanging out with the kids and they had fun playing with all the toys.

On Sydney's actual birthday, we did the candle thing again and she ended up blowing the candle out herself. Over and over.  She wanted me to keep lighting it, so I humored her. :)

Trying to see into Landon's mind

Well, jeepers, I'm not the best blogger now-a-days am I?  We've had some things going on this past month, including Sydney turning 2.

We've also had some changes with Landon.  Nothing bad, just changes.  He's been doing really well without the trach and we've actually had a pretty descent winter as far as getting sick goes (KNOCK! KNOCK!).  He's been doing pretty well in school too.  He got a good report card and is actually reading above his grade level already!  His teachers always compliment me on how smart he is, but he's having trouble keeping focused on what he's doing.  I see that happening a lot at home too.  He needs constant reminders to finish what he's doing, whether it be putting toys away or just going to the bathroom.  He just can't tear himself away from what he's doing or what he's thinking to get things done sometimes.  I find it very frustrating when I'm in a hurry and he can't remember where his shoes are kept or how to put on his hat.  It's a struggle I have on a daily basis.

So, I brought it up at Sydney's 2 year check up (I'll get to that on another post) to Dr. LaCroix.  She suggested that we get him evaluated by a neurologist and psychologist to see what may be causing him to be like that.  I don't want you to think we are going to the extreme here.  It's not just the staying focused.   He wants to play the same activity all the time and he's having a hard time with coming up with words to say to finish a sentence.  He'll sit and say "um" for a good solid minute before he can think of what he was talking about.  Kim says that word retrieval is very common to people with brain injuries, so that comforted me a little to hear that it was normal for him to be doing that considering what he had been through.  I just want to make sure that I know if some of the issues he is having are from the lingering effects of the brain injury or just him being a five year old.  I also mentioned to Dr. LaCroix about it possibly being a little bit of autism, which covers his obsessive tendencies (like numbers, doors and doing the same thing over and over).  She told me not to be surprised if it wasn't a little, if not, all of the above.  Which I'm cool with.  I just want to get tools to help me understand him better.  I want to be sympathetic if my child is taking forever to complete a sentence due to the fact that he can't retrieve a word because of his brain injury.  He doesn't deserve me getting frustrated at him if he can't help some of the things he does.  I just need to learn the differences.

I find myself getting frustrated at him a lot because he can't do the things that I would like for him to be able to do.  Like putting on his shoes, or his coat, or climbing into the car.  There are so many things that other parents may take for granted that their child can do, where mine struggles.  He can put on his shoes, his coat, and get into the car on his own, but it takes him double (or sometimes triple) the time that it would take any other kid.  I can never be in a hurry with him.  If I am, it's me doing everything for him just to get it done and get out the door.  It's tiring.

I try my best to be patient.  To teach him and slow down a little.  I walk him through tasks over and over so he can learn what he needs to do.  Please don't think that I am impatient and just yell at my kid all day!  That is definitely NOT the case.  I just want to help him.  Help him to be a more independent, strong, and smart boy.  I want him to know he can do anything he puts his mind to.  As a parent, I need help to help him.  I need to know what I'm doing wrong or what I'm doing right.  It's very true that kids don't come with manuals, but sometimes I really wish I had one for him!

So, we are waiting for insurance to go through with all of that and then we'll be able to start that process.  I'm not even sure what they will be doing exactly, but we'll just go with it and see what knowledge we can gain.