A little piece of heaven

As life settles down a big priority becomes obvious to me – Nathan’s dynavox. We were a bit on hiatus during the summer but now it’s time to pick back up again, with unparalleled enthusiasm. We spent the first 5 years of Nathan’s life trying to get him physically stronger. Now we will spend most of our time and energy trying to teach him to talk with his talker and focusing on his communication skills (without neglecting his physical development of course).

We have our dream team in place.

Dr. Sharon Rogers started with Nathan today, she will be in charge of teaching him literacy and will help pave the way for Nathan to learn how to read and write. She started today by teaching him the letters N, B, and S. He seemed to catch on pretty quickly. This week we will work on practicing these letters, as well as combining words to make phrases.

The fabulous Mrs. Ronna will continue with Nathan, working her magic with him, helping him to learn his device, advancing him more and more with his ability to use it in more sophisticated ways.

At the Northridge Speech and Language Hearing Center, Nathan will have weekly appointments where he will work with a clinician in becoming more purposeful with the device. The head of the program will also be working with me every week, guiding me in what content to program into the device, guiding me in the setup and organization of the pages, guiding me in continuously challenging Nathan so he doesn’t plateau. Every week we will meet, review what he did the past week, and then they will assign me homework for the next week to introduce to Nathan.

With this dream team helping, I am confident that Nathan will become more and more skilled at using the Dynavox. We are so excited for Nathan, this will be amazing for him, he has so much to say!

Today is Gryffin’s due date. Instead he is turning 3 weeks old.

The last 3 weeks have been quite lovely. Knowing that he is my last baby has made me appreciate the experience so much more. Even the hourly wake-ups in the middle of the night to feed and change him have been quite enjoyable (I know, it’s hard to believe!!).

Gryffin seems to be a very calm, easy going, and happy soul. He sleeps well, eats well, burps well, poops well. I’m glad I’d scheduled the tubal ligation with the C-section because otherwise I would’ve had 2nd thoughts, he’s just so easy and sweet! Well, for now. People tell me to give him a bit of time for his true colors to shine.

I will say that he does seem to have a bit of a temper. I’ve noticed that if I’m not able to attend to him quickly, he will go from 0 (passed out and perfectly content) to 1000 (screaming at the top of his lungs, not breathing, turning red all over) in exactly 3 minutes (yes, I’ve timed him, he’s clockwork). So it’s possible that he may have a temper. Which wouldn’t surprise me given the fact that he is 25% Italian and 25% Colombian.

His umbilical cord stump fell off about a week ago, which means – bath time! I’ve been taking him in the bath with me and he LOVES it. Even more than the other 2 did at this age. He enjoys the water, has already started kicking and moving around. The others were a bit nervous about being in the water at first; not Gryffin, he loved it from the first moment.

He is already holding his head up, smiling, tracking, and spends quite a bit of time every day in the quiet-alert stage. He already army crawls from one end of the bed to the other, and loves to crawl up my belly to get to his milk. I think we might have another fire cracker on our hands.

Nathan and Izzy smile every time they see him. As of for me…he’s brought me so much joy already. And his journey’s just beginning.

PHOTOS BY NATHALIE SEGUIN PHOTOGRAPHY. If you are in the Santa Clarita Valley, we highly recommend her, she is wonderful.

After our trip to Colombia, summer vacation, the end of pregnancy, and Gryffin’s birth, I feel like life is settling into a routine again and we are back to life, back to reality.

Nathan seems to be enjoying school. I hear great reports from his teacher and he comes home happy every day. I am starting to get everything organized to focus on his Dynavox and communication again. We’ve assembled a Dream Team to help with Nathan’s communication and we’re thrilled to get moving on the road to literacy and to improving Nathan’s ability to communicate.

Belle will be starting a Waldorf preschool next week! She’ll be going 3 days a week for 4 hours. She seems ready as she is so hungry to learn new things and she LOVES being with other children.

And little Gryffin is doing GREAT. He is by far the easiest of the 3 so far. He is a great burper, sleeper, and eater. Although I will say today he found his voice. It took him 3 minutes to go from a squeak to a complete meltdown (with tears and everything). He is holding up his head so well, has many long periods of quiet alertness, and is generally doing fabulously for a newborn.

A couple of days ago was my first time out alone with all 3 kids. It was quite an experience! Feeding them was quite a feat, as all 3 of them require direct assistance. I still can’t believe I have 3 kids. I wonder if I’ll ever get over the shock?

I continue with my routine of self-care, journaling on a daily basis, meditating, focusing on my own state of mind. Even though this is the busiest I’ve ever been, it’s also the happiest! My heart feels so full.

And now off to change a diaper and feed the littlest one.