news from chicago: 8 Months!

Cillian is 8 months. Doug and I were talking about this the other day and he said, "So, like in 4 months he's going to be 1?" Yeah, that's pretty much how we both feel. Baby number two makes everything go by so quickly - the pregnancy flies by, the first months are blurs, the weeks you just finished feel like memories from years ago. I'm not sure how other parents feel, but most of the time we feel like we're in constant catch-up mode. Lately (as of yesterday), I am able to be on top of some things for most of the day and then it's like dry sand through your finger tips - you just watch all those things you have to do slip right from your grasp. It's like the day just keeps happening and before I know it, I hear keys in the door and James saying, "Daddy's home!" And then I blink and say, "WHAT time is it?"

I have been so so so forgetful lately. It's like there's just no more room in my brain for things - even important things. I totally blanked on bringing flowers to James' school despite having signed up to do so. I felt so badly about that. James didn't even know and James' teacher didn't say anything either to me - she knows everything that's been going on with Cillian - we had to tell her. James was missing so much school.

Before I go any further, I am going to apologize to Cillian - usually these monthly posts are just about the child - however, things have been so busy with you my darling that I have to lump everything together in this one post. This old girl is at her mental capacity young man :) Next month will be back to you but for now, this 8 month post will cover James' conference, St. Patrick's Day and of course, our wee Cillian and his journey through his first year. Oh yeah, James is going to be FOUR in a month. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!?!?!?!? Four.

Any other year, I would have had his invitations in the mail already. This year is different - I don't think I'm going to even have time to order them until next week. James' conference went great - the summary this time isn't going to be as intensive as the last one - it's basically the same - he is doing wonderfully. He is so smart God bless him and is just so happy. Helena, his head teacher, told me that I was doing a great job with James normalizing everything that is going on with Cillian because James is not showing any kind of stress at school. I held it together but it was hard to not just start crying. It's been a lot on us. But, Doug and I are doing our best and trying our hardest to make everything that happens as normal and as happy as possible. We answer James' questions the best way we can and as honestly as we can. Helena said she can tell because James will just go in one day and say to her, "Cillian is getting a helmet to help his head be like mine - see my head? (and he'll bend forward) My head is round like this and Cillian's is flat - the helmet is going to make it round like mine." And then she said, he'll just skip off and do a work.

With all of our doctor's appointments we get a constant update on Cillian's height and weight which is great considering how small he is - I love making sure that it's just not my imagination and that he is in fact growing. He now weighs 16.6 pounds and is 25.5 inches long. Still small but growing. Also, we had an important Dr. visit with Dr. Z and Cillian's vision is totally normal!!!! No glasses! Thank you to all of you who were praying for him! As a side note, Dr. Z tells me every appointment that I can just drop James off to the office any time. She has two assistants and one of them - Stephanie - wasn't in our room to do the intake at the most recent visit but she popped her head in anyway to *just* say hello to James. I don't have to tell you that James LOVES them. He told me he wants to be an Opomologist to help people see. Oh God, this reminds me - at Cillian's one month post-op with Dr. R (the surgeon), everything looks great which is awesome! James told Dr. R, "Thank you for helping my brother see." Dr. R had to leave the room because he teared up. Before he left he hugged James and James kissed him on the cheek. Dr. R came back in the room as we were packing up and said, "You are blessed with two wonderful children." Then I teared up and thanked him again for all he's done for our Cillian and our family.

Cillian is talking up a storm - babbling all the time. At every appointment, all the doctors and nurses just laugh and say what a talker he is - most of the time James is not with us and that's usually why he's so vocal. He's got the floor all to himself. All the doctors say what a great sign it is that he's talking so much. I mean - we've got lots of vowel sounds and now we've got the g - ga, go, gu, ge it's really cute to hear him. He's got the most adorable voice. Cillian will be very quiet one minute and then will be babbling on the top of his lungs and then end with a huge - gggggggguh. It's great.

Cillian has also been smiling so much. He has a "proud of himself" smile that is my favorite smile of all. He's been playing in the 'office' a lot lately - Cillian definitely favors the office more than the bouncer and James was the complete opposite. Cillian loves being in the office - loves it. Lately, he's been playing with a crunchy ball and one of those rattle balls and he'll hold it and play with it and then he'll knock it off the edge. Then I saw "A-boom" and pick it back up and give it to him. Then he smiles and does it again. It's great. I love it.

Cillian is trying really hard to push the sound buttons on the office - there's a cow, a lion, a cat, dog and duck in the middle. You hit them four times and the fourth time plays a snippet of a song. He will leave his hand on a button and make a noise like a chirp or a grunt to let us know he wants the sound - then we'll do it with him and say "Yea" afterwards and then he smiles my favorite smile. The first couple of times we did this with him James got upset because to quote James, "Mommy pressed the buttons not Cillian - we should tell Mommy great job and clap." But then Doug told him, "Mommy did the same thing for you when you were first learning." I couldn't believe Doug said that - it made me smile. Now James will take Cillian's hand and "help" him do it - sometimes we have to say GENTLE! GENTLE! because James really pulls Cillian to do it but then he says, "Yea Great Job Cillian!" And then I mean, it's really just a beautiful moment.

Cillian's hands are constantly in his mouth. Constantly. He is a drooling machine. Cillian loves to gnaw on a thumb - his, mine, Doug's - he will just gnaw away happily. Lately we've been feeling something but we can't see it - it may be an upper tooth first - mine came in that way - odd I know. My Mom said that it looked like I was in a bar fight - just the one upper tooth.

We also think Cillian is a lefty - he grabs for things with the left hand and he also uses his left leg more when he kicks. When I feed him, he'll grab for the spoon with his left. Cillian also loves grabbing the spoon and then putting it into his mouth all by himself. Oh my goodness are feedings messy. I also think he likes it when he's holding onto the spoon and I put the spoon back in the container for more food and then let him put it in his mouth ... or you know spread it all over his face. It's also tricky feeding him because of his fingers - again, they are forever in his mouth. He'll keep his fingers in there and then when the spoon gets close to his mouth, he'll move them but just long enough for the spoon to get in there - oftentimes, you'll have the spoon and like three fingers in his mouth all at the same time. Just in case you were wondering, we keep baby wipes next to the high chair.

And the helmet. Uh. I have mixed feelings about the helmet. I was told that it wouldn't be a bother, that Cillian wouldn't notice it, that I would be able to feed him, play with him etc without it being a bother to him. But, sadly not for us. I have even read other blogs about children and their helmets and they have the best most wonderful experiences. Cillian's head is so flat in the back that it is ALWAYS moving forward and when the helmet is fitting correctly it squishes his eyes down. The biggest concern obviously is that the helmet pushing on the forehead is going to damage what the surgery did for Cillian. Now, making this situation worse is that the helmet has to press on the forehead because that's where Cillian's head needs to be molded. It's like - which one do we do? Which one is the priority? Right now, it's his eyes. So, when I notice that he is having trouble seeing, or his eye is getting really squished, I take the helmet off. I do. I know I shouldn't but Dr. R even told me to do that and he is the eye surgeon - so there. And sleeping. Oh Lord. We thought Cillian's sleeping was bad without the helmet - holy moles. When Cillian wakes up for the second time screaming when he has his helmet on, we take it off. We give it two wake ups. Sometimes the second time is at 9pm, sometimes it's at 3am. Just depends.

However, we will get through it. We will all adapt.

Now, during March we had a wonderful fantastic holiday - some of you may be familiar with it - St. Patrick's Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James and I decorated the house for St. Patty's and I got the boys each a little book for the day to you know make it a little special. I also got necklaces and hats for the River. The book for Cillian was a little touch and feel board book with pictures of shamrocks and leprechauns and actually a photo of the Chicago River dyed Green! For James I got a book on St. Patrick's Day and St. Patrick. James is always asking questions and usually pretty good ones too and having this book was great. When we were decorating, James asked me why the shamrocks had three leaves and I told him that St. Patrick would teach the Irish children about the Holy Trinity with shamrocks - three in one - one God in three beings - the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then when we were reading the book, it was in there and James said, "Mom look you were right!"

On Saturday morning, James was so so so excited. When can we go to the river? When can we go to the river? It was like a constant refrain over and over and over again. But you know what? It was so awesome - none of us could wait! However, last year it was 75 - this year it was snowing! Totally different experience. It was kind of nice though because the river wasn't at all crowded. We could get right up next to the river.

Then, when we got home, Doug had to run some errands and I cooked two corned beefs while the boys napped. They were not going to be finished by dinner that night but we'd have them for St. Patrick's Day on Sunday so it worked out just perfectly. And yes, two. And yes, everything was eaten. James ate so much I thought for sure he was going to get sick. He had three helpings. It was more than I ate. While Doug was slicing it, He kept going into the kitchen and scratching Doug's back and giving him back rubs and then asking for pieces. He even snuck some out to me :)

Here are some photos from the last month! There are a lot - next month I promise I'll separate the posts again!