E-isms

E and B are picking up language at an impressive rate. They are also honing their senses of humor.

E and B on the way to Mimi's house with Dad driving while I visit friends with H and M. E and B are in their seats, when
B [casually mentions apropos of nothing] 'E! E bite cow'
subsequent laughter
Dad [nonplussed]: 'E, did you bite a cow?
E: 'YES!'
Dad [in all seriousness]: 'What did it taste like?'
E [pausing for dramatic effect]: 'Fluffy'
Then bursts into great belly laughs
E: 'That's funny!'

People often ask us if the twins have a shared, special language- a twin dialect, if you will. And while they both (mis)pronounce words in the same fashion, I would not call it their own language because we can understand most of it, usually....

Last weekend as we were driving home from the Cost-cow, in a post shopping trip hot dog induced calm, E bellows from the back seat, 'Hey! Dumb Fuck!!'
Huh? I briefly wondered if he was talking to me. I glanced back to see E pointing enthusiastically at a dump truck merging into the lane next to ours. Ah, good to see that E is carrying on the family tradition.

A Brighter Note

We took a visit to BuildABear today. While I aspire to involve the boys in community service, this was not the year I elected to under take that tradition opting instead to brave the mall. H named his bear 'Doo-dee' the inspiration is beyond me. He chose an ill-fitting spiderman costume in which to attire his bear. E debated for sometime as to his bear and the subsequent accessories (believe you me, morning get-dressed sessions around these parts is similar to a sorority before a Friday night, there is more negotiating and changing of outfits than I care to elaborate on) thus it was no small task to choose just one! outfit for the bear. Finally, a firefighter outfit was agreed upon and donned. Fortunately, B decided that his precious would go au natural- no stupid, cutesy outfit for this panda (named Honey) thankyouverymuch. M napped through the whole ordeal.

Key-R-Ee

B has something called a chiari (key-R-ee) malformation.  I imagine that most of you who read this blog are aware of this-- we found out last March.  After a long December and January with B head banging and unhappy, we began actively trying to find out what was going on with the little guy.  We saw our pediatrician who thought that 'frankly, it was weird.  But probably, normal?' It continued.  We pushed harder and bought ourselves a psych consult. At first I really resented the consult.  I kept suggesting we needed imaging done.  I wanted to make sure there was a huge tumor growing in his brain, causing bad headaches with subsequent head banging in the middle of the night.  Our pedi reasonably pointed out that we had already had an MRI done as part of a research study in which the boys were taking part.  Surely, they would have said something if there had been something to see? Right?  

As it turned out, the psych consult was helpful.  Not because they uncovered any diagnosis but rather, the principal investigator of the research study was a member of the psych department.  Our psychiatrist inquired about the previous image and lo, I received a phone call from the investigator a few days later.  'Uh, there was something on his MRI.  He has a chiari.'  There are different forms but he has a chiari I which is a herniation of the cerebellar tonsils past the foramen magnum.  This means there is a small portion of his brain that extends out of his skull into his spinal column.   This can be troublesome because it can cause the spinal fluid to get backed up, affecting the spinal cord and causing other problems.  Some people have it without any symptoms.  It is just a finding but with no clinical significance.  Others have a lot of trouble: headaches, choking sensation, decreased arm/hand function...  

We saw a pediatric neurosurgeon shortly thereafter who examined the MRI carefully.  We had another set of images of his brain and spinal cord taken to see if there was any blockage.  B has a large chiari (in terms of the length the brain extends down) and while the flow looked to be diminished in the back of his head, it wasn't enough to warrant surgery.  We were partially relieved, brain surgery is no joke.  And yet, he was obviously having troubles at night still.  Waking up, head banging, crying and no being able to go back to sleep.  It would come in bursts and then get better.  A miserable month, a couple weeks reprieve.  It sucked and still does.  But we were in a holding pattern, until there was more concrete signs that surgery was indicated, the surgeon wanted to hold off.

B had another MRI and follow up appointment last month.  Things are looking cramped back there.  His brain is growing normally (as evidenced by his language development, his social skills, and his normal progress) but his little noggin isn't keeping up.  We had another MRI the week after next.  From there, we will decide whether or not we need to surgery.  In the midst of all of this, B has started getting up again every night.  It generally takes him two hours to get comfortable and fall back asleep.  This happened most of November too.  Meh. It makes the caffeine requirement steep and the bleary eyed mornings numerous.

I suppose in the course of these types of things, one needs to go through this process to come to terms with having their child undergo a surgery.  If it weren't so rough, and he wasn't in so much distress, then it would be difficult to justify opening his skull and exposing his brain to all sorts of scary infections.  But balanced with the possibility that it might bring him relief and the chance to sleep, not to live with constant headaches and to continue to develop and grow normally, it seems less radical.  

Who's your Momma?

One of H's favorite questions of late is 'Who fed momma when momma was a baby?' The answer, 'Mimi' always prompts our budding archivist to inquire, 'Who fed Mimi when Mimi was a baby?' It is interesting to see him start to make the connections and understand relationships.

Miss M is also doing lots of developing. She started smiling around 6 weeks and 2 weeks ago, during her sink bath, she let out a bubbly giggle when the washcloth was cleaning the milk crust between her neck folds. She is easy to smile but harder to amuse to the point of laughter. I shall now proceed to bore you with a minute of her babble.

Resolution

These past few months have been admittedly lame for this little blog but hopefully not for the subjects it describes. While I feel badly that I haven't been good at maintaining it, I suspect I'll feel worse in five years when I'll be looking back and will be frustrated that I have little recorded of these busy, wondrous days. Thus I have two New Years' resolutions, one pertains to school and this other to this blog. I resolve to post here every Saturday or Sunday evening for the next year. As this is the first Saturday of the New Year, I am bringing you the first post. Presently, we are traveling down to Charleston to visit the aquarium. H woke up this morning with requests to go the beach. He's been pleading for a beach trip for a couple of months now. Usually it's accompanied with requests to go in Mimi and Poppa's car (the coveted minivan) and to wear bathing suits. Alas, we're packed into the Pilot (not the Odyssey) and there aren't a pair of swim trunks in sight, but we are nevertheless headed down to Isle of Palms beach and to the amazing South Carolina aquarium in downtown Charleston. So far the drive has been peaceful- B spent the first 45 minutes taking apart the CD holder. Deliberately, removing each CD, inspecting it and then handing it forward with a request to play 'Dat One!', he managed to removed all 56,000 CDs and we now have a large pile in the front console.

H has been admiring the large army vehicles that we overtake on the highway. 'That's a loud truck,' he appraises impressed. In other H anecdotes, I've been saving this little one for some time. Mimi went on a trip to Italy with fall with her coworkers. H repeatedly queried as to Mimi's location during her week long absence. 'She's in Italy. That's across the ocean- very far away. She's no doubt eating spaghetti [and probably drinking copious amount of wine],' we told H. Meanwhile, Kate (our lovely new au pair) arranged a playdate with the little girl down the street and her nanny, Emily. When they showed up at the house, Kate introduced them to H. 'Emme-ily' H said slowly then he took a long look at her, 'You are very far away. Across the ocean.' It took us a moment, but apparently, Emily and Italy sound a lot alike.

Update: We've returned from our Charleston trip- a whirlwind 9 hours in the car, 2.5 hours at the aquarium (90% of which was devoted to assuring H that we'd go see boats! and the beach! soon), 1 hour at the beach, and 1 hour at our favorite pizza haunt. As we drove away from the aquarium on our way to the beach (finally), H announced, 'We don't need to go back to the aquarium again... ever!' Geez, that was money well spent.

And now for a few pictures…