Thanksigiving Revisited

Thanksgiving was lovely even if I didn't host it. Chuckles decided not to nap all day but was still an amazing, adorable, well-behaved, polite angel. His first cousins once removed and he got on like peas and carrots. They are 9 and 11 years old and dragged him all over their house. He climbed up and down more stairs than I care to count. And yet, he still did not sleep through the night after that. Ugh. But I am thankful for him nonetheless.

My oat flour cookies were a bit hit as were the Christmas cookies. Many other people made many other wonderful things (bruschetta with olives and mini balls of mazzarella on tiny toast points comes to mind...oh man was it good....the bruschetta was from Costco, mozz from the local Italian imports store and anyone can make toast points, so I think I'll snatch this recipe right away). My aunt did the turkey on the back porch in a turkey roaster and she made the stuffing in the slow cooker. I will be getting recipces. The turkey was stuffed with fresh sage leaves and thyme and the whole everything smelled divine.

Did I mention we had the doors and windows open because it was absolutely gorgeous out? Well, it was and we did.

Husband's birthday was good. He got a Home Depot gift card from his parents because they know him (and supposedly we will be buying a new house here soon, so we'll need things).

We had three showings on the house this week. Two were the same people (they should be making up their minds soon). The other was this morning at 9:15 but they didn't schedule until 9:02 this morning. I asked to have it at 9:30 instead so we could get dressed, clean up and get out. The dishes were tossed (pots, pans, high chair tray) unceremoniously into the dishwasher to hide. I pulled my bras and panties off the drying line and threw them into the dryer to hide. I put our pajamas under our pillows and made our beds in a flash. The house wasn't "clean" but it appeared tidy.

My sister saw one of those "these kids need a home" things on the news and now she wants to adopt a pair of siblings. She totally fell in love with the boy. I think that is great if she's serious but adopting older kids is so emotionally risky. I hope she knows what she's doing.

I'm starting to think some things about Chuckles. I think I am going to contact our state or county early intervention services about having him assessed for various motor skill conditions and speech and language conditions. I'm not worried exactly. I'm just thinking things. And if there is something, I want to know how to help him best and reach his potential. I'm not worried he is delayed. His speech is excellent. His direction following is wonderful. He has good gross and fine motor skills. In fact, all of everything is excellent. He's performing language and counting tasks at a 24-month+ level. I'm wondering if there might be some little Asperger's thing going on with him. That's not bad, but his learning would be a little different from everyone else's and we's just need to work with him on that. OK, actually, I just read the links I put in there on Asperger's and I guess it's not that. He makes eye contact and engages socially with others. I just can't figure out why I think something is not quite perfect. (Note: I am a worrier. It is who I am.) Now I am googling speech and language development milestones. According to NIH,

By eighteen months of age, most children can say eight to ten words. By age two,
most are putting words together in crude sentences such as "more milk." During
this period, children rapidly learn that words symbolize or represent objects,
actions, and thoughts. At this age they also engage in representational or
pretend play.

What strikes me most about that paragraph is this...Chuckles uses between 100 and 200 words (mostly nouns). He uses a few verbs, makes two word sentences (Where Dada? (with the voice up at the end to show it's a question), More Milk. More Apple. Apple All Gone - More? Buh Bye Dada. Buh Bye Mama. Choo Choo on Shoe. Eat. Eat. EAT!!!!! Ball Buh Bye (when the ball is thrown or rolls into the street)). He does pretend play like dusting, swiffering, vaccuuming, and makes "vroom" noises whenever he plays with anything even remotely like a car or truck and makes choo choo noises with anything longer like a train. He understands prepositions like "in", "on", "behind", and "under". With the exception of pronoun use, he's functioning at a 3-year old level verbally. That seems weird to me. I guess I'm glad because he answers questions, follows complex directions (multi-part like "Go into the kitchen, get your train, and bring it to Grandma"), knows his colors, likes to play that Memory game with me, and counts to five or so, but I mean, that's weird, right? I guess I want him evaluated because I want to know if there is anything special we need to do to help him continue developing. Also, he does not like babies. I don't know if he seems them as competition for his cute or what, but he does not like babies. Kids are fine. Babies - no.

So, all-in-all, very thankful, all healthy, big fat worrier, Christmas lights have been hung, and we had carry-out Gyros for dinner. Good. Very good. Life is good. Oh, and the Christmas cards should bei n teh mail by mid-week. I had to pick the very adorable pictures up from Meijer yeaterday (at a store on the Firday after Thanksgiving, I know, but it was not crowded....bad economy or dinnertime is a slow time).