Update on Stuff

Yo. Pardon if you're reading this and not yet aware of our last few months....

Ria just had her post-surgery (ear tubes/grommets) hearing test today: Excepting the measurement at 500 Hz (which is suspect due to the weight of the ear plug headphone thingies she was wearing during the hearing test), she improved 5-10 dB in her right ear, and 15-30 dB in her left ear, bringing both ears into the expected normal range for young children. Desperate levels of relief were felt by both parents realizing that no permanent damage had occurred.

She is speaking more clearly every day, with longer and more gramatically correct sentences and sharper consonants. We're still doing the intense speech evaluation next week, since those take SO LONG to schedule, but we expect that the round of summer speech therapy that we have already scheduled is probably all she'll need. WHEEE!

We also had a physical therapy appointment today for the 1st time since the surgery, and the PT was VERY IMPRESSED with her improvements in muscle strength and her general initiative in performing the activities/exercises. She is still likely to fall when running, and terrified if she doesn't have strong contact with a stable surface, but its only been 3 weeks....we'll be hitting the park a lot this summer, and doing our PT exercises, and she's going to be moving (and speaking) like a different child by the end of the summer.

Iain is doing fabulously. He faced his 1st swim lesson this week with aplomb, though now he is retroactively freaking out and not wanting to ever take a swim lesson again. He was happy during the lesson, so I'm sure we'll get him back in the pool. Tomorrow he has his 1st social skills group for the summer and on Friday he has his 1st Occupational Therapy appt.

(For those out of the loop, Iain has been diagnosed with mild Aspergers, and Ria's eustachian tubes have probably not ever been particularly open so that her ear drums were always sucked inwards causing thick fluid in her middle ear, hence the ear tubes/grommets.)

Life is starting to feel much more calm around here. Life is good, children are happy, parents are sleeping better now that Ria doesn't have constant ear pain waking her up for 1.5 hours every night, and the tomato plants are growing nicely.

for the fun bits: here's a video of Iain reading to Ria:

And here's Ria singing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" after her surgery. Now we know she's been singing "Baa baa fall asleep, a-ni-mal" all this time! What a revelation!

Post-dated posts alert!

I got you a few more post dated posts!

late January: http://aker-ruck.blogspot.com/2009/01/plumpus-and-umpus.html
and
early February: http://aker-ruck.blogspot.com/2009/02/early-february.html

enjoy!

Early February

Last October we got Iain a proper twin sized bed, and rearranged his room. This is the bed he keeps until he moves out of the house ;-). You can't see the trundle pulled out, but under is another twin mattress, for the pleasure of our guests (and his future sleep-overs). AND, when you pull the trundle out, there's a space under/behind the bed to play "mousie" in....ah, the joy!


We've actually massively re-done Ria's room too, she's out of the crib now, but the pictures I took are already out of date, as we had to move her bed AWAY from the bookshelf, as she was waking herself up 3 times a night to get some "reading" in. Here is the first of MANY photos of Ria falling asleep with a book on her face. Yep, she's OUR kid!

Here's a gang (with stars on their bellies) putting in some new solar powered LED walkway lights.

Not the best photo technically, but they're so cute holding hands!

And, some videos ;-). First we have children cackling while rolling massive therapy balls up and down the stairs. Iain can really make that girl laugh!

And, finally, Ria doing her "funny walk".

Post-dated post notice!

Not VERY post-dated, but check out the 2 posts I just stuck in behind the last one, dated in January.

http://aker-ruck.blogspot.com/2009/01/sleeping-hiking-dancing.html
and
http://aker-ruck.blogspot.com/2009/01/some-new-year-sibling-fun.html

mona

Ugh.

(There's a little voice in my head saying i shouldn't post anything until i get those January pictures up, but i'm ignoring it!)

Ugh. We've had the stomach flu. The one with the 24 hour vomit-fest. Rather, Ria and then Iain have had it. Somehow, in the effluvia-crazed celebration I have managed to avoid it (though i got a cold sore). Right now, however, William is camping out by the toilet. I guess someone had to skip it so that she could clean what feels like every single surface in the house, in some cases 3 times (that was the upstairs bathroom....I only had to scrub Ria's wall and crib rails once, don't know what i'm complaining about!). I was getting all excited this evening, after disassembling both toilets to clean the last vestiges out, about how it was all over, when William informed me that he was feeling kinda queasy.

*sigh*

The Plumpus and the Umpus

A few videos and a picture.....

First we have Iain (with a slightly stuffed nose), demonstrating the use of and describing his new hot glue gun instrument.

Next we have Ria playing the piano, one of those low-brow non-hot glue gun project instruments.

Finally, and most cutely, here is Iain as an Autumn leaf at his class's tree show. There's an overly long video too, and if you visit us here at our house i'll play it for you!

Sleeping, Hiking, Dancing

A few more cute pictures from January:

Ria falling asleep on the couch after a bath:

A family hike:
And Ria mid-twirl with her flashing slippers:

Some New Year Sibling Fun

Ria got a cool playdough octopus set, that both kids adore:

Iain built the full menagerie from the set:

Ria also enjoyed the box, of course:

And here they play with gifts from Christmases past.....Iain showing Ria how to color in the shapes.

Playing with Christmas gifts in the New Year

For Christmas, some of the special gifts Ria received from family and friends were a new dolly (this one is "Baby Dolly", to differentiate it from "Dolly"), and a stroller to push the dollies in. Oh, my, but she's a girl! (By the way, she refuses to wear a jacket outside unless it has a hood to pull up over her head. I don't know why. Our little red riding hood!)


Iain's big gift from William and I was a new bike, as he has outgrown his 12" frame bike. This one is a 16" frame, and we had it delivered with the chain/cranks/pedals removed so that he is starting with it as a balance bike. At first he was quite disturbed, but on his 2nd day trying, after a few adjustments to seat height, he started getting the hang of it.

At this point he's figured out the balancing bit, but he doesn't quite get the bit where you run along the ground, so he needs to start from a slight rise or hill. Have a look at our balancing boy!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year from the Aker-Ruck clan!


I have a single New Years Resolution: erm, instead of holding off on new posts until i finish up all my back dated posts....I will instead continue on in the present, and when i do a back-dated post i'll let you all know about it with a currently dated post. Eventually I'll get the half done post from Vancouver done, and the 2 birthday posts, and the 2 or 3 posts with really cute pictures and videos from Kindergarten, and the halloweeen posts done! ARGH!

On New Years Eve, I asked Iain what he liked best about 2008, and he said that he liked school best! (So far, so good ;-). He is very excited to be going back to school tomorrow.

Have a lovely 2009!

late night thoughts

W is in bed, sick, asleep, and the munchkins are following suit, just not quite so sick, merely a nagging cough here and there.

Sometimes it almost feels overwhelming to watch Iain and Ria, asleep. I try to imagine the dreams in their heads. Ria is running away, wherever she is, exploring the far reaches of wherever she can get to before I catch up with her. I'm sure she's saying "No, Mamma. No!" Iain is building something, possibly with white PVC sprinkler system pipe (3/4", to be precise, $9 can buy you alot of joy at the hardware store. The extra $10 for the pipe cutter is worth it, by the way.) Possibly a cast iron bridge, or a dome....or maybe he's dreaming that Rachel has built up that stack of newspapers she's promised him so that we can build the newspaper geodesic dome he is hankering to try after watching a PBS Building Big show. (I'm actually dreading the weekend when the stack comes home, shamefully. Its going to take HOURS.)

Their beautiful little child bodies sleep peacefully, their minds exploding and their bodies growing. I wonder who they will be in 1 year, 10 years, 30 years. I wonder who *I* will be, when I grow up. I do know, however, that tomorrow morning they will wake bright and early, and explode with more energy than any 32 or 43 pound being has a right to own. ...and my poor 40 year old body will cry for more caffeine, while watching them, alternately exasperated and amazed.

I'd best get to bed ;-). Just finished Terry Pratchett's "Nation". Wonderful!

(i'll undoubtedly re-classify this as a draft tomorrow night, when i plan to do a little more catch-up on the back dated blog photos, and give it back to y'all once i've caught up....)

Park date with David and Lisa

My old high school buddy, David Bailey, and I shamefully almost never see eachother, even though he lives nearby. We claim young children as our excuse. We did manage it this year, however! The pod on the left is us, and on the right is Dave, his wife Lisa, their son Kelton, and the daughter of a friend of theirs. Their new little twins, Weston and Brennan, were sleeping in their stroller ;-)

1st Day of Kindergarten

My baby boy is in Kindergarten! Check out his nifty lunchbox ;-).

His backpack makes him look so little!

(Hey, look! only 2 months behind!)

Calm before the storm of Kindergarten

Following Tor's visit, we had a few calm weeks before the the leap into our crazy autumn. In just a few short weeks Iain will start Kindergarten and we'll enter the whirling storms of Elementary School.

For now, though, Ria naps:

Ria learns to build...UP. as Iain cheers her on:


Finally, Ria gets a new bed decoration, and the kids celebrate.

Cousin Tor visits!

Iain and Ria's oldest cousin, Tor, visisted in August. He flew on the airplane all by himself, and we all had a wonderful time.

Iain and Tor at the Jungle

Tor and Ria
At the playground:
Thinking big thoughts:
At the Childrens discovery museum

Iain and Tor hiking at Castle Rock State Park


And a family visit portrait!

Home again!

Back home, and the kids enjoy playing on their own turf.

Bubba Iain makes a comfy chair!

And below, you can see how Ria has finally taken to the joy of playdough!
Note the mixed color chunk of playdough she started with on the left, and the resulting new color she made from it. She spent a good 30 minutes saying "ISH" (for "squish"), as she melded the colors quite evenly. Iain named the new color "sink".

England IVb - London with Uncle Tom and Sarah

Finally, on our last day in London (and England), we met up with Uncle Tom and Sarah.

William and Sarah help Ria along as we walk along a London canal looking for an interesting place to eat.

The shot with me in it didn't turn out well, but this one was lovely! Unfortunately, Ria had just hit meltdown, and couldn't be included in the photo. Luckily we'd already got that cute one above with her walking with Sarah and William.

Outside the cafe was the end of one of London's canals..... heh.

England IVa - London w/ David and Delphine

Next we visited David, Delphine, and their little guy Adrien (~ 6 months older than Ria) in London. We blew it and didn't get any photos with David and Delphine, but we got the kids!

Here's the 3 of them building a fort of some type.

Just a cute photo of the 2 boys. Iain really enjoyed playing with Adrien.....just by being a boy, he interacted the way that, I think, Iain wishes Ria would play. You know, the usual run around screaming in circles that boys do. The boys had fun together.

Ria with Bert stuck to her chin

We visited Highgate cemetary, and not too far in we paid homage to this particular resident.

David took this cute video of Iain and Ria walking through the cemetary. 1st Iain takes Ria's hand to help her walk along, then he makes silly noises with his fingers & lips, and if you can see it, Ria copies him and starts doing bub-bub-bub with her fingers and lips too. Then the minute Iain sees that there's a video being taken, he becomes the big guy, too cool to hold his sister's hand. Heh!

Finally, while Ria and Adrien napped, Iain and Daddy built this masterpiece!

England IIIb - Winchcombe still

As for the visit to Guiseley, there are many lovely pictures on Adeline's blog. See her 4 posts from our visit at:
http://martoomanypictures.blogspot.com/2008/07/blog-post_25.html
http://martoomanypictures.blogspot.com/2008/07/winchcombe-visit.html
http://martoomanypictures.blogspot.com/2008/07/visit-to-cotswolds-july-2008.html
and
http://martoomanypictures.blogspot.com/2008/07/last-day.html

The joy of the BALL PIT!

Ria strikes an acrobatic ball pit pose.

Iain winks!
And we're on our way to London.

England IIIa - Winchcombe with Grandmother

Of course, I SAY I'll do fewer picture, but I'm not really capable of that! Between me, and Adeline, and the arrival of lovely SUNSHINE, many photos were taken. This will span 2 posts!

Hanging in the back yard with Grandmother:


At the miniature village at Bourton-on-the-Water:

(this is Iain and Ria in the periscope mirror....its supposed to be turned around so you can see them as monsters in the little village ;-)


A pint and a tea...
and then back to Winchcombe, where Ria indulges in her tendancy to channel Imelda Marcos. Even better when the shoes are BIG and PINK!