table for two

I've fallen a bit behind on the blog!

update - We had a speech evaluation today for Jakob.  And the results were not surprising to us as we have become acutely aware over the last month that both Jakob and Alex are significantly speech delayed.  Sigh.  We continue to be surrounded by (mostly) very supportive individuals and so I think Kara and I have moved past the "blame" phase and we are now focused on getting the boys caught-up before "preschool".  Alex is currently receiving private speech therapy for 30 minutes every week in addition to 60 minutes of speech therapy every other week through the early intervention program through our state.  We enrolled Jakob in private speech therapy today too.  And Jakob is scheduled for his early intervention evaluation on March 27th.  We also completed the paperwork to enroll Alex in the toddler preschool program next school year.  It would be 3 days per week for 2 hours each day.  It would be completely free to us.  We have decided that assuming Jakob also qualifies for services through the early intervention program then both boys will attend the preschool program next year.  We will not send one boy to the program and leave the other one home though!  We hope a year in the program will do wonders for the boys so that by the time the boys age out of the early intervention program they can be caught up to their peers in a regular preschool program.
Now let's move on to the fun stuff ...

Our crazy 21 month old little boys!  There is never a dull moment these days.  And Kara and I thought it was difficult to juggle twin newborns?  The only good thing is the boys sleep for a solid 12 hours at night!  We didn't get that when they were newborns.

Jakob - Our wild man!  Jakob NEVER sits still.  That's actually a lie.  Jakob will sit completely still if the television is tuned to Caillou, Yo Gabba Gabba, Curious George, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood or Super Why.  But considering the boys only get about 45 minutes of screen time a day there are very few minutes when our wild man is sitting still.  Jakob is the biggest flirt in the world.  He has this smile that warms the hearts of all the ladies.  And I swear to you he already knows how to bat his eyelashes.  Kara and I already know that we are going to hear, "But she said she loved me" at least 50 times while Jakob is in high school and college.  That little boy is going to make many hearts flutter but he is also going to get his heart broken on more than one occasion.  Jakob loves with every ounce of his little heart.  His enthusiasm for everything is contagious.  Jakob can also throw quite the temper tantrum these days.  The most recent temper tantrums are revolved around the absence of sippy cups in the house.  We are on day #4 of milk/juice/water in a straw cup only and there are times where Jakob has lost his mind over the missing sippy cups.  But we now know we let the boys go way too long using the sippy cups.  It's time to move on boys.  Jakob loves to play with many different toys.  He loves matchbox cars, legos, crayons, chalk, books and any full contact sport!  Jakob's vocabulary is expanding each day.  Jakob's "regular" words include mom, hello, bye-bye (babe), mine, dog, cat, what's that, and car and Jakob signs more, eat, and please on a regular basis.  And best yet Jakob can say "J" "A" "K" over and over and over again.  I keep trying to get him to move past those 3 letters but no such luck.  There are really no favorite foods at the moment with the exception of blueberries.  Jakob can inhale some blueberries.  Otherwise food is hit or miss on any given day.  Jakob is starting to really like pretend play too.  And it is adorable.  Jakob will put on a backpack and say "bye" and give hugs and proceed to walk around the living room before doing it all over again.  Jakob also loves to march in our family marching band which seems to thrill the boys!  Kara and I always act as the drum major and the boys march behind us with their instruments.  I love it!!! And of course there is our baby doll "Pierre" who the boys love to feed.  Jakob also loves to give hugs.  The hugs have been  a work in progress though because for a short time each hug came with a big bite.  I even got an unexpected bite on the ass one night while making dinner!  Ouch.  Jakob is getting really good at doing all the motions to The Wheels on the Bus too.  And of course Jakob still has some of the best dance moves around.      

Alex - My quiet man.  Alex is super smart.  I think he will be our engineer.  If you give Alex an object he will sit for minutes upon minutes upon minutes trying to figure out how to dismantle the object.  One of Alex's favorite things to do is open all the junk mail each night.  I think I'm the only person in the word who gets thrilled when our mailbox is full of crap!  There is not a lot that phases Alex.  Our little boy is super shy around strangers but otherwise there is not an ounce of fear in his little body.  Alex will scale any object.  Alex will tumble off any object.  Alex will do a somersault off of any object.  Alex will run full force into any object (or person).  I actually think Alex would make a great wrestler.  No fear.  Alex loves, loves, loves books these days.  He cannot get enough of them.  Alex loves to open a book and find an object.  He will then run to the playroom and tear it apart until he can find the object from the book.  Alex will also point to every object in a book and wait for us to label it.  He is super smart.  I know every parent says that about their child but I'm very firm in my belief about the intelligence level of my boy.  I'm constantly surrounded by folks who are telling me where my son is lagging and then I sit back and watch my little man and I realize just how much is really going on in that little brain!  I think the number of words Alex understands is through the roof but for one reason or another he is just not speaking the words.  Alex says the following words on a "regular" basis mom, hi, bye, dog, car, and vroom and Alex signs more, please, thank you, mine, milk, eat, open, bubbles, and thank you on a regular basis.  Alex is also a typical picky toddler in the food department.  There are days he will eat next to nothing and then there are days where he eats us out of house and home.  Alex's absolute favorite food at the moment is edamame.  We are still giving Alex a combination of almond milk and whole milk.  Alex has taken to the straw cups with little issue.  Alex has been sleeping really good at night but he must have plenty of books and stuffed animals in his crib before he goes to bed.  I'm not sure how he actually fits in the bed.  Alex loves to give out hi-fives.  And he usually does it with a very serious look on his face!  It's hillarious.  Alex is not as much of a fan of television as Jakob but Alex does love Curious George.  Kara bought Alex a Curious George t-shirt today and he was beyond thrilled about it.  Alex's favorite book right now is "Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You" and "Good-Night, Good-Night Construction Site" and "If You Give a Pig a Pancake".

Our days are a blur.  But our hearts of busting at the seams with love for our little men.

Mary

that black cloud

GO AWAY!!

We had another car accident today.  We are okay.  This time we were all in the car.  Our other car.  I'm really glad we only own 2 cars.  I'd be nervous at this point if we owned any more cars.  So let's set the scene ...

It's winter.  The boys are climbing up the walls at home.  Both boys have colds again.  We are all cranky.  Again.  And we know that the boys love to go for car rides.

My exact words - "I have an idea Kara.  Let's drive over and see if I can find that insurance place.  I don't want to wreck the car looking for it on Tuesday morning." ..... HAHAHA!!!  Yes.  I was referencing the location of where I had to go to get an estimate on the car damage from accident #1.

So we all hope in the car for a Sunday afternoon drive!  We were approaching a very busy intersection headed westbound and there was a fire truck (with lights and sirens on) approaching the same intersection going northbound.  I stopped because of the fire truck and we were rear-ended from behind HARD.  Our car again somehow managed to escape with rather minor damage.  But we were in our CRV.  The car that hit us was probably going about 40 mph (although I'm sure that she slammed on her brakes) and it was a smaller Toyota.  I would easily guess that the other driver's car will be considered a total loss.  I was proud of us in this situation.  Kara and I remained extremely calm but I am almost certain that Alex's "first" word is going to be four letters long and start with an "F".  The boys were understandably very upset but not hurt at all.  We managed to calm them down rather quickly.  The cops arrived on the scene very fast.  I wonder if the fire truck called in the accident because someone had already called once I got hold of a dispatcher about 5 minutes after the crash.  The boys did not fuss at all for the 60 minutes that it took to get all the information exchanged between us.  The other driver was cited (and as a side note was already driving a car with party tags).  We were able to drive away with no problems.  We are not sure if the car seats will have to be replaced because of the accident.  The accident from our perspective is considered minor and our research shows at this point the car seats are okay.  The police officers did check both car seats out for us before we put the boys back in them.  So now we have to get another car fixed.

What If?  When we pulled out of the garage today Kara made me stop the car on our court because she looked back and Alex's harness looked loose on his car seat.  Kara got out of the car and tightened it up.  This was the first time we have ever done that.  So what if?  What if Kara hadn't tightened his seat belt?  Would Alex have gotten hurt?  Would we have avoided an accident all together.  It was such a strange series of events for us.

And there have been plenty of other "bad" things that have happened since my original blog post.  But I will spare you the boring details.  I'm not sure I want to remember them to be honest.  I'm just really ready for this black cloud to go away.

But we have each other.  We are all healthy.  That's all that matters.

Mary