trains and things

this has been a pretty eventful week. on tuesday, erik had his 6 month evaluation with his developmental therapist keli. i can't believe that she's been working with him for that long, and he's really made an amazing amount of progress. for those who don't know, at erik's 15 month well baby appointment, his doctor was concerned because he wasn't using much expressive language and recommended that we contact the alliance for infants and toddlers to have him evaluated. i found it rather alarming because i never even thought that he could be behind at such a young age. most people we spoke to seemed to think that it was pretty early to be worried about such things, but i didn't want to take any chances so we called early intervention and set up an appointment for him. it's a really great program that is provided at no cost to parents of children up to the age of 3 that have special needs or developmental delays. all of the therapy is done at your home (or they can go to the child's daycare if desired). anyhow, his initial evaluation indicated that he had mild delays in his gross motor skills and expressive language, and they recommended that he work with a developmentalist on a weekly basis. keli's been really great and just an awesome resource for us as well as an excellent teacher for erik. his 6 month evaluation revealed that he's come a long way and that he's at or above average for his age in all of the areas they tested. we haven't gotten the full report yet, but his receptive communication skills are at something like 33 months and his expressive communication is well over 24 months now. we're so proud of him. his service coordinator jessica said she'd never seen a child make so much progress in such a short period of time. she complimented peter and i as well as keli saying that we're doing a great job with him. it feels good to know that we're doing something right! keli has been saying for awhile that she's running out of things to teach him that aren't too far beyond his age level, and we all decided to discontinue his therapy. it's kind of a bittersweet moment. it's awesome that erik is doing so well now, but at the same time he's become really fond of keli and i don't know how to explain to him that she won't be coming anymore. it's especially hard right now because one of his teachers just moved and he's really missing her and still talks about her every day. he doesn't seem sad about it though. he also talks about opa and anna just about every day too even though he hasn't seen them since september. they really made an impression on him!

later that afternoon, i finally went to the dentist to have my broken crown removed and impressions made for my new crown. i was really dreading that appointment and had even postponed it a week, but figured i better get this taken care of before the holidays. well, my apprehension was well founded - it was an absolutely awful experience! i was pretty sure before this appointment that i didn't like my dentist, but with my insurance i have to choose someone when i sign up in september and have to go to the person i chose. now i am thinking i really need to figure out a way to find someone else. first of all, he banged on the broken crown for about 25 minutes and it wouldn't budge. at one point the tool slipped off my tooth and left a nasty gash in the roof of my mouth. he ended up having to drill (for another 15 minutes) around the crown, and when it finally came off it tore a piece of my gum tissue. ack! then he had to "re-prep" the underlying tooth and needed to remove more of my gums to make it ready for my eventual crown. he didn't even provide me with a temporary crown so now i am stuck with a little stub of a tooth and nasty chewed up gums for two weeks. as if all that wasn't enough, there is somehow almost no space left for the new crown to go in so he's going have to "reduce" the opposing tooth, which i am sure will not be fun. boo!

the rest of the week wasn't so bad, i guess. i don't think i have mentioned here yet that my oral comprehensive exam will be on tuesday december 9 at 1pm. ahhh ... less than 3 days from now!!! so i have been doing a lot (but not nearly enough) reading and reviewing (and hoping and praying) this week to prepare. the final for my stem cell class is a take home exam (yay!) but it's due on tuesday at 5pm (boo!). i decided to get that over with and finished it last night, so that's one less thing to worry about.

this morning i took erik to phipps conservatory to see the toy trains. as a pitt student, i get in for free, and since erik is still under 2 (for 1 more month), he gets in for free as well. every time i have been to phipps, the trains have been set up outside, and since it was so cold today, i dressed erik in his nice warm brobee sweatshirt. it turns out that they had moved the trains inside and had tons of holiday decorations and gorgeous red and white flowers. i was so bummed out that i didn't dress him in something nicer when i saw dozens of parents taking pictures of their children in their christmas outfits. santa was even there! what a perfect opportunity for a beautiful christmas card photo! i think maybe it's just not meant to be this year. we had tried setting up a makeshift studio earlier in the week to get some nice shots of erik, but he wanted nothing to do with the camera and we didn't get a single decent shot. but i digress! erik LOVED the trains and was SO excited. here's a cute little movie of him when we first got there:



he doesn't look too happy in most of the photos i took, but it turns out he probably wasn't feeling well and i just hadn't realized yet (more on that later). here are a few:







we had a really nice time there and left for home around lunchtime. i made erik something to eat at home, and that's when i started to figure out he wasn't feeling well. he was starting to get really lethargic, but at first i thought it was maybe because he tuckered himself out with all the excitement over the trains. but then he got really upset and cried and cried and then wanted me to hold and snuggle him which he never lets me do anymore. then he did something he's never done before - he asked to take his nap. usually he fights going to sleep tooth and nail, but he just wanted to lay down, be tucked in, and go to sleep. when he woke up, he was really tearful and clingy again. i usually let him watch yo gabba gabba while i make dinner, but tonight he laid down on the couch, which he almost never does. he wasn't really interested in eating, and just wanted me to hold him and rest his head on my shoulder. i loved the snuggles, but i feel bad that he's not well. he has a bit of a fever and willingly went to bed again. he's been sleeping peacefully, so hopefully he'll feel better in the morning. i hate when he's sick. it makes me feel just awful! all i want is to help him feel better!