santa

mommy and daddy took me to the mall today.  daddy kept grumbling about mommy wanting to go the saturday before christmas, but mommy kept saying something about this dude named "santa."  we drove round and round and round until daddy decided to park our big, giant car in a spot with a "c" on it [compact cars].  i laughed when daddy had to climb over the middle and out on mommy's side of the car because he couldn't open his door.  we went inside the mall and i saw this wondrous sight with trees and lights and LOTS of kids.  there was a really long line and mommy said we had to wait in the line to see the "santa" dude.  after waiting a while, mommy bought some cookies and we had a yummy snack....still waiting in the line.  after what daddy said was "forever" [really an hour and a half], we made it the "santa" dude.  OH MY GOSH!  It was santa claus ~ he was in a bright red suit, with a hat and long white beard.  at first, i didn't really want to talk to him, but daddy convinced me that i should because he's the dude who is going to bring me presents on christmas morning.  mommy, daddy and the picture-taking dude were jumping around like fools trying to make me laugh, so i finally gave in and smiled.  it was pretty cool!

duke, the dude and lala

This is "Duke" our Elf on the Shelf -- he keeps an eye on the dude to make sure he's behaving!

 Spontaneous hugs to lala Lucy

A Super Baby ornament for a true Super Dude!  (one of his nurses gave him this when he was in the NICU)

riley's bubba

my mommy is away for work, so i get to talk to all of you tonight.  this is going to be all about riley's "bubba," travis, and how he needs your happy thoughts and prayers.  travis is the best big bubba anyone could ask for and i know this because riley and i shared a room in the nicu when we were at duke.  travis was there visiting riley anytime his parents would let him visit.  recently, travis's mommy and daddy [you may know them as Lindsey and Jay Souza] found out that he has something wrong with his spine.  i don't know how to spell it, so i'll let you go to their blog to read more about it.  they will be traveling to duke and putting their trust in the doctors and nurses there to fix travis just like they fixed me and riley.  my mommy said that dr. h won't be able to fix travis because that's not the kind of fix-n he does, which is sad because dr. h is the bestest surgeon in the whole world, but i know that travis's doctor will be great, too.  please think of them as they go through a very scary time.  [i hope that they will stay with us so i can play with riley!]

here's the link to more information on big "bubba" travis: http://lindseysouza.blogspot.com/2010/12/dec-7.html

xoxo,

c-a-r-t-e-r

i can spell my own name!  mommy puts my letters on post-it notes and then i line them up on the floor.  if you ask me what my name is, i tell you "ter-ter"

rudolph

nooooooooooo

Super Dude has a major toddler crush on his CDH pal, Sofie.  Although she is a Kansas Jayhawks fan, he says he can overlook that because she is so stinkin' cute.  For a very long time, the only way that Super Dude would sit long enough to eat or take his breathing treatments was if he was watching videos of Sofie.  His favorite one is of Sofie counting and saying "noooooo!" when she gets to three.  He laughs so hard at her that he loses his breath.  Click on this link for Sofie's video (and I have to admit that it's super cute):  COUNTING NO!

I took this video of Super Dude counting so you can see his awesome counting skills....that he learned from Sofie :)

go cool??

The dude LOVES school.  Every morning when he wakes up, he asks "go cool?" and if you tell him that today is not a school day, he sternly says "GO COOL!!!"  We are very fortunate to have found a fabulous school with low student to teacher ratios.  He is in a toddler class, three days a week, with only children 2 - 2 1/2 years old.  They send home a daily activity report detailing activities such as language (they teach 1-2 new signs each day), tactile experiences, music, reading, science, creative art, motor skills, life skills and manners (a CDH parent's dream--ha!).  They are also working on potty training him and his teachers say that he'll be fully potty trained very soon!  Writing that tuition check each month is painful, but it's worth it to see the payoff.

The dude's verbal skills and sign language are improving drastically.  He's become very independent, too.  They expect him to put on/take off his coat and hang it up in his cubby; help get dressed after going potty; clean up after lunch (putting his bowls and utensils away and throwing away his trash); wipe his area at the table after eating; wash and dry his own hands; remove his sheet and blanket from his mat after nap-time and put them away in his cubby; put away the toys he plays with, etc.  It's certainly made life at home much easier!

Today, Mrs. L told me that she was shocked when they were doing number puzzles and the dude started counting on his fingers!  She said she ran to the next classroom to get another teacher just so she could witness it.  Mrs. L told me that a lot of the kids can count out loud a few numbers, but they don't really know what it means and can't count on their fingers.  The dude can count to 5 consistently (with 6 and 10 thrown in there sometimes).  She said she randomly said a number and he'd show it to her on his fingers!

It's such a relief to see him prosper so well in school.  We had to have him isolated for the first 2 years and we were concerned about his social skills and learning.  There's only so much that the mommy and daddy can do at home before he gets bored with us.  I also think that the interaction with other kids is helping him learn to talk, learn that the world doesn't revolve around just him, and have certainly helped to improve his eating.

Of course, I'd love "cool" too if I got to do stuff like this: