June 2013

With two boys, there is always a competition, even at the age of 2.  Who can talk the loudest. Who can say the first word. Who can run. Who can throw a ball the furthest. And the list goes on and on. But, I realized something this week, Baby B has done the majority of the major milestones first: rolling over, crawling, walking, talking and now, learning his alphabet. But, Baby B still isn’t talking as much as he needs to. Whereas Baby A, did everything second, but doesn’t stop talking. Ever.

Baby A can now piece together between 2 and 4 word sentences. He can ask for things. He can do simple tasks that we ask, giving things to his brother, picking up toys, etc. Baby B, well, he is getting there. But, Baby B walked up to me the other day and pointed to my St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital Hey St. Jude t-shirt and said “U”. So, I figured, why not just ask to point to other letters. I asked letter by letter, mixing up the order and each time, Baby B correctly pointed to each letter. The next night, I while wearing my University of Texas football t-shirt, I asked Baby B to point to the different letters, and each time, he got them right.

Each night, we ask the boys certain letters of the alphabet at dinner and often times they get them right. But, this was the first time that I had tried to ask specific letters of the alphabet and have him point to letters. So, even though he isn’t talking as much as he should, he is definitely pointing to the letters that are asked of him.

 

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Hearing is something that most of take for granted. Hearing sounds for the first time or a new sound, is just a fleeting thought.

But for this little boy and his family, hearing is became really important, because for the first time, their son could hear.
Take a moment and watch this YouTube video – there are a few gross scenes, so turn your head.

But seeing that moment, when the little boy heard his father for the first time is just an amazing this.

I take for granted so many things, like hearing or seeing, but through a medical break through, their lives are forever changed.

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It is very easy to bring a bad day home from work and allow frustrations to carry over. But what do you do when you get mad?

Today I was getting frustrated with work, I had to pass up a great concert and 2nd row seats.  My wife was on call, so that meant that I was going to have to go home and prepare dinner and all I could think about, was how frustrated that I was with work. I wanted to be mad. I wanted to have some downtime to clear my head. And then I came across this video clip about Mister Rodgers getting mad.

And Mister Rogers is right. Everyone makes a mistake and it is ok to be mad, but it isn’t ok to take it out on your kids. They didn’t do anything. And even if they did, it still doesn’t warrant taking your frustrations out on them.

We need more life lessons like this from Mister Rogers and less from the reality tv shows.

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I knew that it would eventually happen, I had been able to put off a business trip with work for almost a year, because I didn’t want to be away from the boys. But, it was time. So, this past Sunday night, I kissed the boys, I kissed my wife and I was on my way. It was my first business trip since the boys were born and my first time away from the boys, alone.

I was going to only be gone for 2 days, but those seemed like a long two days. While I was gone, I was able to FaceTime with the boys and see them laugh and run around the living room. I was able to hear their voices, see their faces and interact with them. Being away made me appreciate how much I love being around the boys and how much I hate not being there. But at the same time, it made me realize how I need the downtime too.

So, I returned yesterday from my business trip, to be greeted at the door by both the boys. As soon as they saw me, they both started screaming “Daddy”, nothing better in this world than hearing that word.

Being away is hard, and I am really lucky that I don’t have to travel that much, but coming home to two little boys, smiling and ready to jump all over me, is even better.

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We all struggle with it at some point in time, especially when the Dr. mentions it. But my wife and I were having a conversation two weeks ago and I’ll never forget her statement, “If you don’t lose weight and get in shape, you will not be here to watch the boys grow up.” And there it was. Some might call it a guilt trip, I call it a slap in the face with reality. Of course I want to be here for my boys. Of course I’ll do anything for them, including, getting in shape.

Now, I will be honest to say, that since moving to the East coast from Texas, I’ve put on 40 pounds. I’m not happy at all about that. In fact, it frustrates me, because, since the move here almost 7 years ago, I’ve also torn the cartilage in my knee and have had my left knee scoped twice.  So I am really limited in my exercise program, because my left knee has torn cartilage again and I am pretty sure that my right knee does as well. So, I have to do other things to help lose weight.

I’ve started going to the gym 2 nights a week and get in at least 20 minutes on the treadmill of a solid walk. Then I have a routine for upper body and lower body. And then on the weekend, I try to get in the pool and either swim or try to use some resistance from the water to exercise. But to keep myself honest, my wife and I both installed the My Fitness Pal app to keep us both honest with our eating as well.   My wife purchased a fitness band for her arm and after I looked and tested it out, I figured that I too would get one, but I went with the less visible Jawbone Up.

So, two weeks into a more strict diet and exercising more and I’m already down 4 pounds. It is a start, but 4 pounds down and 36 pounds more to go.

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Cancer is a word that non of us want to hear, but all too often do. I just got word that a close family friend has been given 3 months to a year to live.

I thought that it was in remission. I thought that he was going to be ok. I hoped that he would out live us all. But the reality is, the cancer has come back.

But today, as I sit at my desk, trying to fight back the tears. I remember that my friend is still with us. He still has time left here on this earth. And if anyone can beat cancer, it is him.
Today, I pray for my friend. I pray for his family. I remember the things that I learned from this great man, this great leader, this great retired Air Force General. He treated me like a son.
He taught me so much. He trusted me to do things. He gave me the confidence to take risks and grow from my mistakes.

Today, I sit and really hate cancer and what it is doing to my friend.

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Perspective can be a noun, verb or adjective. And in my humble opinion can be best summarized as how we view things, situations, the world, etc.

There has been a lot going on lately, work, kids, Baby B and speech therapy, finances, life, family, etc. But today, I took a different look and changed my perspective on how I am viewing things. A close friend had a stroke today. There will be a long road ahead, but they are alive. Baby B has a session with the speech pathologist this week, but he is making sounds and trying to speak. Money is tight due to some unforeseen things that popped up, but we can eat and have food on the table tonight.

Perspective can make or break you, because depending on how you look at and view a situation, can determine how you react/handle a situation. So tonight, I will go home and hug my boys. I’ll play with them a little longer tonight. And before I goto bed, I’ll say another prayer for my friend, that even though she has a long road ahead, she is alive. She will be here to give me a hard time.

So how will you look at life?

What will your perspective be?

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We finally got the call from the speech pathologist and she confirmed what we suspected, that Baby B, needed speech therapy. Actually, she said that he qualified for expressive and receptive speech therapy.

I am a web developer, I don’t have the first clue what expressive and receptive speech therapy means? I did a lot of Google searches and this site, for me, helped put it more into perspective, click here.  And this summary, basically says it all:

Receptive language disorder means a child has difficulties understanding what is said to them. Other names for receptive language disorder include central auditory processing disorder and comprehension deficit. In most cases the child also has an expressive language disorder, which means they have trouble using spoken language.

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I still don’t know how Baby B scored on his test, not that it really matters. Though, I would like to see where he is on the scale, meaning how severe of a delay is he? But, he is going to start speech therapy soon and that will be the start of getting him back on track. He has already started saying more words, and as we encourage him more to speak, he seems to be saying more words everyday.

Now, we just wait. We ask more questions. We encourage him to speak more. And we the help of speech therapy, Baby B should be going strong and talking in a matter of no time.
Or, that is what I’m telling myself at least.

 

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I broke down Monday morning and made a purchase, one that I normally would not make, but I bought the Jawbone Up.

If you aren’t familiar with this little gadget, you aren’t alone, neither was I. But my wife had purchased a fitness arm band to help encourage her to get in shape and I figured, why not?

Day 1 – 550 steps in 2 hours.
Not bad. Just have to keep it up and do more. My goal is 5,000 – 8,000 steps in a day, but this will also require going to the gym more often, which may or may not happen.

This is just a transformation into becoming a healthier person and increasing my longevity of being around for my boys, which is what I need to do and be focused on.

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