On a Roll

Tucker has had several positive appointments, yay!! I have been hesitant to post about them, and my big plan that he won't miss anymore school before the Christmas holidays; I don't want to jinx him! We went to the dentist on Tuesday. This dentist is very good with special needs kids, so we drive out to BR to see him, at the same hospital where Tucker spent the first 8 1/2 months in the NICU. This is not my favorite place, but this dentist is great, so it's worth it. Every other time, they have put him in a little room, but this time there were procedures going on and he ended up in the big, multi patient area. This was not good, as Tucker needs a confined space. He tried to run around for awhile unti I gave him some very firm words and warnings. The dentist has a big covered wagon in the waiting room, so I promised him that he could play in it once the dentist was done. He was very well-behaved for the teeth cleaning and the fluoride treatment. As soon as that was done, he jumped up and said "wagon, wagon," which led to another round of warnings until the dentist checked him out. The dentist said he looks really good; his constant teeth grinding is taking its toll, but he has baby teeth, and the damage isn't too bad. Tucker was very patient while I paid our bill (there was a problem with the receipt printer, so it took a while) and then he was very happy to play on the wagon. I actually had to drag him out of there after; I told him he was making me feel pretty bad, when he would rather hang out in the dentist's office than go home with his mom! Yesterday Tucker spent the whole day at school, then he and I played outside for over an hour once he got off of the bus. He had a blast playing with Buck (our big dog), running around the yard. I was so cold, but Tucker didn't even seem to notice. We went inside, and I fed him. He fell asleep and slept for two hours. We went to see Dr. Thomas today (the lung doctor who has followed Tucker since he was 2 months old). It was a routine follow-up, we were seeing Dr T every 4 months, but now they have moved it out to every 6 months (yay!). Dr T said he looks good, he is really past the lung issues; he will continue to see Dr T for sleep and behavior issues. He was okay with us giving Tucker the melatonin, but he would like to try weaning him off in about 6 months. He asked me how Tucker's behavior has been; he asked me straight out if I can control Tucker. I told him Tucker's behavior was pretty hard to take last week, but once he got back into his routine at school he has been much better. One kind of big change is that Dr T told us to stop the twice daily Albuterol neb treatments. Tucker has had these treatments since he came home from the NICU, they are ingrained into his routine. He wakes up asking for two things: "teetment" and "ride da bus." At night, if Chris and I forget the second treatment, Tucker reminds us! Tucker's other doctors have been asking why Tucker still has so many lung meds if his lungs are better? I figured it was to be on the safe side, so I guess today Dr T decided he longer needs that. He will still have one puff of the Flovent inhaler each night before bed. He will still have the Albuterol prescription for us to use as needed. I have a feeling that Tucker will "need" his treatment as least once a day for a while. Someone suggested I just put water into his nebulizer; I may try that! They also weighed Tucker and measured him. He seems to have gained 2 pounds in 3 weeks. People have been commenting that he looks and feels bigger. I definitely can't carry him for more than a few minutes any more. The nurse tech asked, "what has he been eating? Or, maybe I should ask, what is he NOT eating?" I had to laugh at that, I told her he would love to not eat anything. He is 39 1/4 inches tall. Chris is very concerned with Tucker's height because he wants him to be tall enough for the big rides at Disney! The big roller coasters require a height of 44 inches, so I think Chris will just have to give that up, unless Tucker has some insane growth spurt this month. There are plenty of other rides Tucker is tall enough for, but we all know he is a thrill-seeker. I hope the other rides are good enough for him. Today I picked Tucker up from school before naptime so that I wouldn't have to interrupt the whole class's nap; so this left us with an hour of free time before his appointment. Sarah and I took Tucker to see Santa at the mall. Tucker doesn't show any big interest in Santa. I have a tacky dancing Santa that I put out each year (my Paw Paw Charles gave it to me, and I don't have the heart to get rid of it!). We took it out Tuesday night and Tucker loves it. But as for the real, in-person Santa...he is not too excited. He was very excited to go to the mall, though, since the carousel is there. I told him that he had to see Santa before he could ride the carousel. He waited very patiently while a group of giggling teenagers took their picture with Santa. I told Tucker to ask Santa for a firetruck and a dump truck (because that's what he's getting, lol), but he didn't say a single word to Santa. Santa didn't seem to mind, and we got a good picture of them when Sarah said, "want to ride the horse?" Tucker's face lit up, and he said "ride da tey-gah" and "ride da horse." Here is his picture:

He is so adorable:) Once we got the picture he grabbed both of our hands and we went to the elevator. Tucker was the only kid riding the carousel, and we let him ride twice (as usual). He was very good when it was time to get off (a huge improvement in behavior from last week!). He was fine until I told him we were going to the doctor's office. Then he started crying and screaming, but I really couldn't blame him. He cried the whole way there, but then he was very happy and well-behaved at Dr T's office. Of course it helped that we had his PreK video from last year's class on the laptop, he loves watching videos of himself. Hopefully the good streak continues; Tucker has an appointment with the Endocrinologist (blood sugar doctor) right before Christmas, but until then we are hoping for his normal school routine.