Twins Update

Since the twins were born early, we got in on this grant for babies who spent time in the NICU to be checked periodically in the first couple of year of their lives. Today was our last visit at the developmental clinic for them in this program. Over the years, it has been helpful to go as we have learned a lot about how to help them progress in various areas. They were able to assess their strenghths and weaknesses and could give us exercises, tips, and advice on how to help them improve in certain skills, etc. This is a picture of them looking out the window down at the cars below.

Caleb was extremely grumpy during the visit due to being tired and hungry, but by tickling him here I got him to laugh, thus making him "appear" happy. I assure you, he was NOT! He in fact had one of his classic meltdown, throw himself on the floor tirades here and the occupational therapist sort of looked at me like, "Is he OK?" I assured her this was normal Caleb drama! Caleb weighed in today at 27 lbs 12.8 ounces (just above 25th percentile) and was 35 1/2 inches long (also a little above the 25th percentile). His head circumference was 20 inches around (a little below the 90th percentile). So he has a small body with a big head, can we say Charlie Brown children? Yes, well I blame it on David...he has all the brains in the family AND the biggest head to boot!

Caleb was all about exploring the area and showing off his large motor skills. He is taking after his biblical name sake in that he always wants to "conquer that hill" in most any new adventure. We are proud of his bravery and ability to adapt to new situations easily.

As for Caleb's speech, he is still a little behind and they recommend he get some help, but we will be praying and thinking about that to decide for sure if he needs that or not. We were in process of getting him some therapy, but then he started talking a lot more and we weren't sure it was necessary to go through all that afterall. We will keep a close eye on him though and I have some ideas now on how to work with him more as well.

Daniel was pretty cheery the whole time we were there though he also was tired and hungry I think (the appt. was during their normal lunch/nap time). He weighed in at 32 pounds 1.9 ounces (right on the 75th percentile) and was 37 1/2 inches long (also on the 75th percentile). His head circumference was....ahem....20.5 inches around (WELL above the 95th percentile). Ummm....yeah....super big Charlie Brown head! And let me tell you, this kid is too smart for his own good! He can count to 12 and recognizes most of those numbers on a page, sings his ABC's and is a major bookworm! He is taking after the Daniel of the Bible it seems and is training to be a "wise man."

The speech therapist had no concerns for Daniel at this time, but did tell me for both the boys to work on having them respond with plurals when asking about groups of things as well as asking more where & who questions of them about their surroundings to help them continue developing in their speech.

This picture is just classic. Daniel is seated working on the puzzles (practicing something) and Caleb is exploring his world! The ladies were thrilled to see they were doing so well and one of the nurses who had seen them all along remarked at how big they were now. It was nice to be a part of this program and I learned a lot!