My Future Lawyer

Nolan as a cartoon: How I Did It

Nolan has been giving our (wonderful) speech language pathologist a hard time when it comes to speech lately. He has the slightly disagreeable trait of always believing he is right, and nothing in the world can convince him he is in error.

The other day, he refused to put his hearing aids on. We tried to show him that he was missing sounds without his aids on. When our SLP said, "Let's put your hearing aids on first," Nolan replied, "NO, I don't want them on horse."

The stalwart SLP said, "Listen: F-IR-S-T."

Nolan, sans hearing aids, replied, "HWF-IR-S"

SLP: "You need your hearing aids: there are FOUR sounds. F-IR-S-T."

Nolan: "NO! There are THREE sounds. Listen! HWF-IR-S."

Of course, he was right: he was only hearing three sounds, so there was no way to convince him of four. After a brief struggle, the hearing aids were on, but he refused to concede the point (the elusive final /t/ showed up throughout the course of the day, though)!

He has had similar arguments over "front sounds" and "back sounds." Nolan uses a /D/ for /G/, and a /T/ for /K/. This is called fronting, and it is entirely normal for a three year old. Unfortunately, when we tell Nolan that "Car" begins with a "back" sound, he shouts, "No! Tar starts with a front sound!" It is hard to argue: "tar" does begin with a front sound! He needs the visual to get the "K" phoneme out of the word, and he can produce it correctly when watching us make the sound. If he isn't looking at us, though, he can't hear the difference (they are similar sounds).

I never imagined my child-in-hearing-aids would be so extremely verbal, and the little negotiator/lawyer of the family. Goodness gracious, every conversation in this house becomes a debate with the little guy!

I suppose the good news is that lawyers earn a good living: he might be giving us grief now, but perhaps he'll support us in our old age!

A Random Update

The snow keeps falling in Western New York, and the boys are getting a touch of cabin fever. They do play in the snow, of course, but not when the temperature hovers around 10 degrees with a fierce wind blowing.

Nolan has been blissfully doctor-free, which is a wonderful thing. Here are a few updates:

The Sleeping

He is still waking several times during the night, and we haven't noticed a change from his pre-surgery days. This could be due to a number of factors: his reflux could be acting up, he might be waking out of habit, or he might still have apnea. I certainly hope it is simply due to habit.

The Eating

Nolan is generally ravenously hungry. He is eating very well, and often asks for various snacks throughout the day.

The Breathing

We don't have anything official until the sleep study, but his breathing is quieter now. We don't hear stridor or snoring when he breathes.

The Tummy

Occasionally, Nolan complains of severe stomach pain. Sometimes this is followed by a bout of diarrhea, sometimes it isn't. This seems to be getting worse, which worries me. Last night he was lying behind the couch in a fetal position because his "tummy hurt bad." This might be due to his reflux and motility issues: as long as he's still eating, we'll just watch the situation.

School

He has happily readjusted to preschool, and loves his teacher. He is working on peer socialization, and his favorite friends are "Daycob (Jacob)" and a boy named "Daisy." It took me quite some time to decipher Daisy's true name (J.C.). I have to fill out a form for universal Pre-K in the near future, along with a form for Kindergarten- I can't believe I will have two children in school every day next year!

Potty Training

Nolan is still doing relatively well. We have frequent accidents, but we also have frequent successes. Due to his tummy trouble, there has been no success with one aspect of toileting, but hopefully that will come in time.

Language

Nolan's speech and language are doing great. He does have strange language holes (couldn't identify which bird was "over" or an object the other day, forgot the words for "belt" and "bottle") but his vocabulary is excellent despite these random word snafus. He is speaking in paragraphs now, usually along the lines of:

"Mom-mom-mommy-mom-mom-mom-mommy I want some crackers. Some crackers with cheese and I want some juice. Not crackers or juice, crackers and juice. I want to play my Mobigo, where is the Mobigo? I want my crackers and juice and Mobigo."

I'm pretty sure he talks more than our five year old son!

Gaining Independence

We are very nearly members of the diaper-free club, which is a wonderful place to be. Potty training suddenly clicked with Nolan, and we have had several days in underwear. He is nearly totally toilet trained, at least with liquids during the day!

The little guy has also been trying to do things for himself. He tried to put on his own pants today, after having a little accident. He did a great job, though they were completely inside-out!

His eagerness to leave the baby world behind gives me confidence, since I will be filling out an application for Universal Pre-Kindergarten in a few days. Sometimes, they just grow up too fast!

On the Potty Train (Again)

Things have settled down, and we are enjoying the complete and utter lack of doctor appointments. Nolan has readjusted to school, is eating like crazy, and is even accepting his medications again.

With life so stable, we hopped back on board the Potty Train: Destination Nopuddles. The first four days were fruitless, so to speak, but yesterday it seemed to "click." I am taking him to preschool this morning in underwear: wish us luck!

In my spare time, I've been writing articles for hubpages. They don't pay for the articles, but revenue can be generated through Adsense and Amazon. Of course, Adsense won't send out a check until you earn $100, so it might be a long, long time before I see any money from it. I figure it is a little experiment: I'll write articles and see what comes my way in terms of income. Hey, maybe we'll be able to get a new set of hearing aids by the time Nolan starts Kindergarten!

In the meantime, we're having a blissfully unexciting January. Not having to drive to Buffalo every other day is quite liberating!

Back to the Routine

At the Jamestown Children's Museum

I am very glad that our weekly routine has been restored. Both boys wanted to get back to preschool, and Nolan was desperate to see Mrs. B., his preschool teacher, again.

Of course, as soon as we reached the bottom of the staircase at the preschool, he balked.

"I'm too tired."

He often claims this, after walking for a little way, and we have to carry him for a while. Fortunately, his speech therapist met us at the door and helped motivate him to walk a little farther.

He went into his lock-kneed stance at the door of the classroom, and froze in place. Our most wonderful and beloved Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) came to the rescue again, marching behind him to see if he would copy her march. He didn't, really, but he was sort of pushed into the classroom and she began to engage him with an activity. I could slip away, letting him re-acquaint himself with the classroom routine.

Have I ever mentioned how grateful I am that we decided to pursue push-in services? Honestly, our SLP is truly a superwoman- helping him on the social front as well as with speech/language issues.

Hopefully he'll re-adjust to school very quickly, and pick up where he left off with the socialization situation. With Superwoman the SLP, I have a feeling it won't take him long!

Recovered

At first, I thought the supraglottoplasty/lingual tonsillectomy was going to be easier than the regular tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy surgery. Nolan wasn't as swollen, and the pain wasn't quite as acute in the early days.

What I didn't count on was the pain increasing on day 8 and then lingering for A Very Long Time. I think we finally managed to ditch the Tylenol with Codeine on Day 15. Even now, almost three weeks from the surgery date, Nolan occasionally will hold saliva in his mouth and complain, "My throat hurts!"

Those moments are rare, though, and he is generally recovered. He was supposed to take his antibiotic until Tuesday, but extreme stomach pain and diarrhea made us discontinue it a few days early. His doctor is out of the office over the holiday, so I'll have to let them know about the problems with the antibiotic on Monday. I really hate stopping antibiotics early, but bleeding diaper rash and severe diarrhea are enough to make me stop giving him the medication.

We've been busy over Christmas break- playing in the snow, visiting a new Children's Museum in our city, and generally enjoying the slower pace of life. My Kindle (Christmas present) arrived just before New Years Day, and I have been sucked into reading the many free e-books available online (as well as a few purchased books).

Tomorrow, we get back to the rat race that is therapy, preschool, and ice hockey. Though Nolan is quite happy to get back to School on Tuesday, I am sad that our little break is over!