Just two things to add to the blog today:

1. Ben's hosting a  guessing contest on his blog! Read more about that at the end of this post.

2. Update on Linc-o:  He had tubes put in last Monday! 

Talking to the ENT more about this at our consultation put my mind at ease with the procedure and I really was so excited to see the results and know for sure that the fluid isn't there, lurking behind those tiny eardrums anymore. 

Lincoln did great - better than I thought he would given he had to fast from bedtime the night before. I think he finally got into surgery at about 10:30 am.  Ben and I had to sneak breakfast and snacks without him seeing us or surely a total melt down would have been in cue.

After he came out of the OR, Dr. Muntz filled us in with all the details and said the fluid looked somewhat like rubber cement and that it wouldn't have cleared out on its own. That was oddly comforting information, confirming that we had made a good choice.

 I know this is most likely the same fluid that was there on Feb 24th when his ears were checked last... the question we'll never know the answer to is just how long that fluid has been there. I'm not sure that it matters, but I am curious.  We know there was fluid in his ears mid-August last year. And an infection there at the end of September, and  in October and finally cleared up beginning of November (assuming that was all the same infection... maybe all the same fluid? Not sure.)  The ENT thought there were enough red flags to warrant putting tubes in and in the end it was completely our decision.

Dr. Muntz is the ENT we've been seeing and has been wonderful to work with (thanks for the referral Dave!). He was so personable and very matter of fact and worked so well with Lincoln. We felt no rush at all and felt like we had plenty of time with the Dr. to get all our questions answered. If you're in the market for an ENT I highly recommend Harlan Muntz.

 

Playing with electric trains waiting for intake.

Waiting for the anesthesiologist to come take him back to the OR. This was the longest part of the wait, but lucky for us Primary Children's has no shortage of fun toys around.

 

Post op, just waiting for him to fully wake up and keep down his fluids.

 

Easy peasy. The procedure took about 10 minutes, but from the time we left to the time we got back was about 5 hours. Nevertheless, we're so glad the tubes are in!

 And just an update... since his ears have been drained, we've seen him respond to a few environmental noises that I'm pretty sure he hasn't been hearing this whole time (like loud trucks driving by on the road, etc).  

Ok, now back to Ben's guessing contest. According to his post it has already ended... but he hasn't posted the winner... so hurry and enter! :)

Fly tying is one thing he keeps himself busy with throughout the winter so he's all stocked for the summer months. He showed me his box tonight, full of flies and I couldn't believe how full it was!  I took a guess at how many there were and that piqued his curiosity,  so he counted and thought he'd turn it into a contest for everyone else.

So go take a stab at it and whoever comes closest wins a dozen flies! I know... some of you wouldn't have the slightest idea what to do with 12 flies... but they make a good gift for a fly fisherman... if you know one. :)  Anyway, mosey on over to his blog and make a guess. You might just be surprised at how quickly those nimble little fingers of his have been moving. 

Parker Fine Print

I typically only blog about the fun, eventful things happening in our Parker world. But there's a lot more happening around here than gets posted, so I thought I'd list some of the fine print;

1. Car repairs and us are getting to be way too close of friends. Between both cars we've spent almost $3k in the past 3 months... talk about eating into our savings. The silver lining? We have our savings to fall back on so I don't have to tote 2 kids in and out of public transportation. :)


2. I'm going to get braces... someday. Long story short, we have a large-ish sum of cash on a health card that we didn't realize was there. But it can only go towards vision and dental until our deductible is met... haha. Well we have an even higher deductible this year... so we decided to put it towards braces for me. And I am SO EXCITED.  Yes, I am going to be brace face as mom. Hot. But who cares? I don't have to worry about dating drama any more. Not sure when this will happen... some of that car repair money was supposed to fund the rest of the braces.
*edit.... I started this post a while ago and due to #5, we will meet our deductible this year so braces may not come to pass. We'll see.


3. Star Wars. We love Star Wars around here lately, myself included. I've only seen bits and pieces of some of the movies, so Ben and I finally borrowed the first three from a friend and next we're going to watch the last (original) three. Episode III is by far my favorite so far... so sad.



4. Logan is a Sunshine Student this month at preschool. I was explaining to Logan that he was spotlighted in the newsletter for the month and he keeps saying he was "donated" (instead of "spotlighted" - ha).

Here's his spotlight (created from questions he answered):
Logan loves to watch Star Wars, ride bikes with his family, play with legos, go ice skating and fly kites. He likes to eat mac n' cheese, sauerkraut, pizza and cutie oranges. He loves to do crafting in preschool.

And it's true... the boy LOVES sauerkraut. Especially on his pizza. Trust me, that is something he discovered all on his own.


5. We had Linc's hearing test done for the third time in the past 6 months and once again, it referred because of fluid in his ears. Since being in the PEIP program, I've come to suspect that ear infections and/or fluid in his ears could be the culprit behind his low speech scores.

Thanks to a referral from Ben's cousin, we have an appointment with an ENT tomorrow. I'm guessing Lincoln will most likely get tubes put in. I'm not totally thrilled that it's come to this, but I'm more than anxious to see if it helps his speech.

This past week we focused on the words "open" and "no", trying to set up situations and interactions that would incorporate those words so he's not only learn how to say them but also understand their context.  What toddler needs help learning the word "no"? Odd right? Anyway, he's done great this week... his "open" is pretty close and his "no" comes out as "meh".  And if I prompt him and pause, he'll usually say both. Wohoo.

They just tested Lincoln for his 6-month mark in the program and the good news is that he has improved in all areas of development, although the least amount of improvement was in expressive communication (was at 1-2% and now at 9%).  But Shae did warn that if he doesn't continue improvement, he could slip down again just because in only a couple months the expectations and standards of testing change at age 2.

Now setting numbers aside, the biggest amount of improvement we've seen is he is more intent in his communication (ex: he'll come get my attention, and point to something he wants even if it's in a different room, instead of just wandering around whining and moaning.). Also, we can engage him in back-and-forth play so much easier and he will stay engaged for much longer. We've learned this is foundational for learning language so we're thrilled about this. Plus, he and Logan play SO much better together. It's not always peachy, but it's much better than before.

I'm hoping that the combination of ear tubes and the language explosion that typically occurs around age two will just allow his expressive language to take off. 


6. Nothing is official at all, but we're working on moving.  We just need more space. We're constantly tripping over each other and I'm tired of being ultra creative to find storage solutions that work in this quaint little house of ours. And after meeting with a realtor, I think we've lit a candle under us and feel the need to really get the house ready to sell. But like I said, this is all still in the works.


7. Ben has a goal of fishing the Provo river year round, at least once per month. He's kept up with it so far. Plus he's almost done with his Trihex bamboo rod. This is his blog, but he hasn't posted a pic of his latest rod yet... why Ben? 


8. After struggling through 3 different sewing machines, my duvet cover is finally finished! I have yet to take a picture, though, because the room is not in the pristine condition that it was in 3 weeks ago. :) 


9. I've been going to the gym lately and because I did something to my knee while running, I've turned to swimming instead for a while and LOVE it.  I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever love swimming, but it's true. I'm hooked.



Ok, so this turned out to be more of a Lincoln update, but oh well. This is pretty much the nitty gritty of what's been happening around here. High five to you if you made it through.