As we speak, we have a new baby in process and Ben couldn't be more excited. In six months, Ben will be the proud papa of his very own wine! Oh, you thought I meant Joshua was going to be a big brother?! HAHAHA...sorry, no. I can barely handle all the curveballs Josh is throwing us. There's no way we're ready for another one yet. Ok, so back to our new "baby". :) For Ben's birthday, Joshua and nana and I got together and pooled our resources (Joshua paid for most of it) and bought Ben an experience. A make your own wine experience. 
He started out by measuring & heating the water, soaking some clay & stuff into the water and putting it all in a bucket: 
Then he added the grape juice. He chose to make an Australian Shiraz. The juice was super concentrated and very sweet, but still yummy. 
Joshua watched the whole process from his car seat and seemed to approve! 
The next step for Ben was to measure the specific gravity and then add some oak chips to simulate aging in an oak barrel. 
Finally, he added the magic ingredient to bring the wine to life - yeast. As soon as he sprinkled it on, the wine started to bubble & you could see it react. It was really neat! 
Finally, Ben put the lid on the bucket, labeled it and trusted it to the care of Casa Vin'Arte. 
We go back in a few weeks to do the next step. All in all, Ben will go back four times to complete all the steps necessary and then he'll bottle it. He'll end up with between 24-27 bottles of wine and it will age in the bottle for between 6 -24 months. It's really exciting to watch the whole process and be able to taste the wine as it ages. How fun! :)
Joshua is still trying to adjust his sleeping schedule, which is miserable for everyone. Today, his schedule looked like this:
He started out by measuring & heating the water, soaking some clay & stuff into the water and putting it all in a bucket: Then he added the grape juice. He chose to make an Australian Shiraz. The juice was super concentrated and very sweet, but still yummy. Joshua watched the whole process from his car seat and seemed to approve! The next step for Ben was to measure the specific gravity and then add some oak chips to simulate aging in an oak barrel. Finally, he added the magic ingredient to bring the wine to life - yeast. As soon as he sprinkled it on, the wine started to bubble & you could see it react. It was really neat! Finally, Ben put the lid on the bucket, labeled it and trusted it to the care of Casa Vin'Arte. We go back in a few weeks to do the next step. All in all, Ben will go back four times to complete all the steps necessary and then he'll bottle it. He'll end up with between 24-27 bottles of wine and it will age in the bottle for between 6 -24 months. It's really exciting to watch the whole process and be able to taste the wine as it ages. How fun! :)Joshua is still trying to adjust his sleeping schedule, which is miserable for everyone. Today, his schedule looked like this:
8pm last night: fall asleep
12:30am: eat, play, cry, fall asleep
4am: wake up, fuss, cry, eat, laugh, try to play, refuse to burp
5am: fuss, cry, refuse to sleep
5am - 6:30am: cry. cry a little more. fake mom & dad out by falling asleep but waking up as soon as laid down. mom & dad finally give up and just get up.
7am: fuss, cry, fall asleep while eating
7:30am-10:30am: sleep.
10:30am-6pm: eat, play, cry, fuss, refuse to sleep, repeat
6pm-6:45pm: cat nap on daddy
I don't have a whole lot of hope that tonight will be much better, but a girl can dream, can't she? I'm not sure if not sleeping is due to starting to teethe, or if it's because he's trying to cut out a nap, or if he just wants to mess with us, but if anyone has any advice on what to do to help my son figure out his sleeping schedule, we're open to ideas! Even without sleeping that much though, he's a happy boy. All this not sleeping is leading to an abundance of cuddles, which makes mommy, daddy & nana very happy. We're so blessed to have such an easy going little one. And when we're at the end of our rope and can't take one more minute of crying, he smiles or giggles or gives kisses or brings his little hand up to stroke my cheek and it's all better. Amazing how something so little can hold so much sway over your heart, huh? :)
We are still waiting to begin Joshua's therapy. I'm hoping it starts to happen soon. He seems to know that he is "severely delayed" (that's the term they used on the report that they sent us after his evaluation), and is working hard to correct it. He has started to try to roll over, and works hard on it every chance he gets. 
He's so strong! He hates being on his back and tries to sit up whenever we put him on his back. 
He is also working hard to use his hands to grab, push & hold toys. It's frustrating as his mother to watch him struggle. I can see what he wants to do and then I have to watch helplessly as he tries again and again and again to work it out. I want to make it easy for him and help him, but I know that he has to figure it out on his own and learn his own way of making things work. When he finally gets it though, I'm the proudest mama ever. :) 
We have a book called "That's Not My Bear..." that has different bears with different textured body parts. "That's not my bear...it's nose is too rough.", "That's not my bear...his tounge is too scratchy." You get the picture. We read this book often with Joshua and he loves all the textures. The other day as I was reading the book to him, I noticed that I didn't really even have to put his hands on the textures. He knew what to touch! The last page says, "That's my bear! His ears are so fluffy!" and Joshua went right for the ears. The second time we read it, I took a video of him doing it. You can see how he struggles to get his right hand to where he wants it...that's what we're working to correct.
(This is Ben at 6 months old. Does that smile look familiar? :) If you can't quite place it, head down to the end of the post...you'll see what I'm talking about.)
and then we went to the Highland Park Diner for breakfast. It was really, really, really good. I had the most delicious strawberry covered waffle, & Ben had Nantucket Benedict (crab cakes, english muffin, poached eggs & hollandaise sauce!). It was definitely worth getting up and out before 9am. 
We finished the day by taking a walk along the canal in Fairport, followed closely by enjoying some gelato & cake at a cafe. It was a great birthday.
and here he is yesterday:
My, my, my how fast he's growing up!
He talks to himself in the mirror and has a grand old time! 
Although sometimes he just stops and stares at himself. And who could blame him?! 
Seriously, I didn't put him in this position...he did it himself. We've been doing some compression and massage on his right arm to begin teaching his right hand to release from a fist and we've also been working on his posture. 
His core muscles are hypotonic (low tone = weak), so he has a hard time controlling his core and stabilizing himself. By stretching out his arms and rotating them back, it forces his shoulders to go back and makes his back & core muscles work. The best part about all this work is that he's really getting it. And so quickly too! Over the weekend Auntie Jodi was here for a wedding. She was working with him and he saw his rattle (from Ben's Aunt Mary & girls...you guys rock! The rattle is so perfect for him!!), reached for it, picked it up and smacked himself in the face with it. Then he tried again. And again. And again. Finally, he brought it straight to his mouth and started sucking on it. I was so excited I forgot to video it. But I gathered my senses and took a video a little later on while he was still practicing. You can see his right arm posturing in the video. We're working on that still. :)
Hahaha! Needless to say he wouldn't wear it out in public, but he did admit that it's much more comfortable than the babyBjorn! Anyway, we had a great time walking around and being outside at the festival, Joshua especially loved all the music. 
When someone started singing, so did he. We got a few dirty looks from a drunk guy because Josh was singing so loudly during a show, but it didn't phase Joshua! He just sang his little heart out and talked the whole time we were there. Of course, singing is tough work and it really took a toll on Josh. 
So we headed home. It was a good weekend. :)
Aunt Carly made a delicious boston cream pie for gramma's birthday. The candles were having a hard time staying lit in the breeze, but Aunt Carly was determined to keep even a few lit so gramma could blow them out. 
We got to visit with most of Ben's relatives while we were out in Red Creek. We especially enjoyed seeing the newly built Duvall mansion (they have 13 kids now & the house is really really big), and visiting with Ben's cousin, Melissa, and her boys. 
Koby, Melissa's youngest, was the perfect host (thanks again for the brownies, Koby!) and loved playing with Joshua. 
Josh also really enjoyed watching the fish in their tank!
We really enjoyed our time with gramma, grandpa and the rest of the Nodine's. It's so nice to be able to visit whenever we want to. I'm glad we're close enough to see these two grow up together!
His right hand is much more stiff than his left and he has a hard time getting all his fingers to open up. 
He also has really low core strength so he has a hard time sitting and lifting his head to proper position. That being said, these are all things that we can work on and hopefully find ways to do things that work for Joshua so we're not that worried. I mean, being really, really, ridiculously good looking and having great motor skills would just be too much to handle I guess! So the motor skills had to go. :) 
