Great new things

Tucker has had an amazing few weeks...I have joked that he does better when Mommy is busy working, haha (the summer time is the busiest season for my job).  The last post was about our beach trip, well John Michael and Grace stayed at my grandparents' house the whole week after the beach trip. Tucker latched onto John Michael and never let go.  Chris and I had to work each day, but each night we would hang out with the kids, either at mom's or at our house. On Thursday night we took the older kids to Dixie Landin', a local theme park, and we decided to leave Tucker at Chris's parents' house. We knew it would be hard to separate him from JM, but he LOVES his Sissy and Pops, so we thought it would be fine. He screamed and cried "Jon Micah! Jon Micah!" as we left the house. It was truly pathetic. Chris and John Michael had a blast riding the big rides, and even convinced Grace to ride a few, which Tucker was too small to ride on. So it really was the right choice, and Tucker of course ended up loving being with his grandparents. Mom and Gina joined us, and Mom and I embarrassed Grace by dancing to the 80s music blaring on the speakers :)
By Friday night, Grace had gone home, but JM had one more night in LA.  We all went bowling, and we knew we couldn't let Tucker stay with anyone on JM's last night in town. So we took him galactic bowling, way past his bedtime, complete with fog, strobe lights, and rap music videos.  He loved it!!!! It was so hilarious. That night JM asked to sleep at our house, so he and Chris stayed up late playing video games while I put Tucker to sleep.  Tucker is way too smart for this, he knew he was getting the bad end of the deal. So I tried the only thing that might work-my singing.  For some reason, he loves it. So that worked, I sang "Me and my best Teddy Bear," and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star."  Tucker started ABA a few weeks ago, and I read an ABA parenting book. One of the suggestions is to sing a familiar song, then to stop at a favorite part and see if the child will pick up where you leave off. The book warned that this is a very high-level skill for kids with language delays, so don't expect it to work right away.  Well, just for the heck of it, I sang "ABCD" and paused.......and Tucker answered "eee-ep-gee", so I said "HIJK" and he said "elemenopee" I sang "QRS" and he sang "T-ooh-bee" I sang "WX" and he sang "Y in Zeeee"

So I was freaking out, I mean like hyperventilating, poor Tucker probably was so scared. So I tried again, and he sang it again. Then I tried Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Me and My Best Teddy, and then to really be silly, I tested his "Our Father" and "Guardian Angel" prayers that I pray with him at night. He knew every other word. I just sat there in shock, then I called Chris in and made him listen to his ABCs again.  Chris was freaking out, too, and so has anyone else who has seen it.  It is amazing to see all of the knowledge that has been stored up, and he is just now deciding to share it with us.

Now keep in mind that it is very hard to understand him, so he still gets frustrated when we don't understand him. But he now spontaneously comes up to me to talk, which is a huge deal.  So now JM has been gone for about two weeks, and Tucker was not upset during the first few days. I thought maybe he had forgot about him. But then last Friday, Tucker came up to me and said, "John Micah comin' back?" I told him, "sure in a long long time. One day we will get in the car and go see him in Kentucky." As a rule, that was way too long of a sentence for him to process. I should have just said "no." Later that night, I was re-telling the story to Chris, and Tucker brought me his dump truck and teddy bear, and said "get up!" I got off the couch, and he said "ride the car. go to ke-tucky." Poor baby, he misses his cousins! He keeps looking for him at mom's house, like he expects him to be hiding behind the couch or something.

The one kind of scary thing that happened is that Tucker had an outer ear infection last week after swimming in the lake all weekend. When we took him to the after hours doctor, they weighed him, and we realized he is only 34 pounds.   :( He was 39 pounds at one point, and when we re-weighed him at home, the scale read 35 pounds. The last thing we need is for him to lose weight, so hopefully at his well-check at the pediatrician's or at his mito doctors' appointments next month, someone will have some advice. He is already getting a ton of calories, Chris's suggestion is to add more feedings at night. I think I may even ask if we can run feeds continuously overnight to boost his calorie intake. We'll see what the doctors think.