Ben's crooked head

Well we went to see the baby-helmet people (otherwise known as Cranial technologies) and had the shortest doctor visit of all time. My appointment was at 9:30 and I was walking out at 9:35! The therapist I saw there thinks we need to consult with a crano-facial specialist before we make any decisions on how to straighten out Ben's head. He doesn't have a typical head-flattening because of his sleeping position, so she wants an expert to look at him before we go forward. So she basically looked at Ben, gave me the cranio-facial guy's card, and we were out the door. We go to see him in July.


We had a really nice weekend here. It's been raining a lot so we've been hanging out at the house watching movies and playing with the kids. Yesterday they slept for 2 hours at the same time in the middle of the day - it was like a mini-vacation! :) Will and Ben played together so well yesterday! Ben sits in his exersaucer and watches Will as he jumps and runs around the room. If Will stops Ben starts yelling and Will comes over and says "Whattsamatta Benny?" and sometimes brings him a toy. It's very sweet.

Will's turn

Well I've told you all about how Ben's doing, but nothing about Will! Will is doing great. He can count to 13 now! He's using sentences like "That's a big ol' truck right there!" and he sang happy birthday to his Papa this week. It's amazing how much he's learning. We're starting to learn how to count to ten in Spanich (thanks sesamestreet.com!). Here's a pic of him before his last haircut and one of him and his friend Cayly taking a bath.

He's really obsessed with sharks right now - he watched a nature show on them and saw them eating things and now he keeps talking about how sharks bite and will eat birdies. I was afraid it would scare him, but he doesn't seem bothered by it - more like really obsessed. :) He insists on sleeping with his toy sharks and they have to take baths with him too. He's also discovered Blues Clues - somehow we ended up with a Blues Clues Christmas DVD and he's watching it nonstop right now. We got him a Blues Clues flap book and we've read it about 100 times already.

Will is getting much better about Ben. He doesn't shriek every time Ben cries, and he tried to "play" with him now. Which is just as bad as him trying to hit him sometimes, but at least the intent is better. We pulled his old baby toys out of the attic for Ben recently and he's having a lot of fun playing with the baby things. He tries to sit in the exersaucer and everything - it's really funny.

Welcome to my blog!

Well, instead of trying to e-mail out updates to everyone I thought it would be easier to just start a blog! That way I'm not cluttering up people's e-mail boxes with tons of cute but big pictures of the kids. And this way I'll feel like part of the 21st century! :)

I hope everyone is able to see the page ok, and if you want copies of pictures e-mailed to you so you can save them just let me know and I'll send them to you. Thanks for looking everyone!

We had appointments on T, W, and Tr for Ben on top of his regular PT and OT this! week - it was crazy! Tuesday we went down to the Watkins center ( a county agency that works with disabled and delayed kids) and Ben passed his vision test except his left eye is alightly askew from his right. Thinking that has to do with the misshapen skull, but as long as he can see out of it I'm good!

Wednesday we had our genetics appointment, which was great. We see Dr. Wagstaff - I love everything about him and his office. The lady who drew Ben's blood was the best I've ever seen - she didn't even have me restrain him, which saved a lot of screaming. The news is there's no news - typical Ben! He doesn't have all of the signs of any particular syndrome. They're testing him for Noonan's Syndrome but odds are he doesn't have it.

Thursday we saw Dr. Perez (his urologist)- stupid undescended testicle!! We're going to have to have surgery to go and get it. I hate for him to go through two surgeries in one year - he's so little. I wonder if it's somehow harmful to him? Maybe I should wait until he's bigger. Of course then he'll know what's going on and will freak out in the hospital. Arghh!!

So anyway things are overall really really good right now. Ben's up to 12 pounds and is developing quite well. He's still behind physically in his arms, but his legs are doing great and he's doing well cognitively. Keep your fingers crossed for us!