Splash Park at the Tillotsons!

We have a great splash park in town, but we've got a pretty fun set up in our own backyard too! Yesterday my friend Miranda brought over the pool for us (we couldnt fit it in our little car!) In the early evening time we took the boys out...we had filled it with water a few hours earlier, so it was warm--Ollie watched from his swing. He makes these groany/relaxing sighs when he swings in that thing, its like its his hammock and hes totally relaxed and zoned out. It was funny to see how wild and crazy Briggy is, and how calm and relaxed Ollie was--just having a nice time watching big brother! I have a feeling there will be a lot of water adventures in our near future! Summer is in FULL SWING here in Texas at the Tillotsons!

Big Boy Fun!

Friday night, Mr. Oliver had his very first BIG BOY BATH with Briggy! It started out a little rough--he clenched his fists and sort of grumbled and whined for the first 5 or so minutes, but then he eased into it with all the fun toys we had in there for him. Because of Ollie's pretty bad eczema [he is pretty much all clear right now..and has been for awhile!] I limit his bath time to like....every 5-6 days. I know that sounds crazy, but actually it made a big difference in the quality of his skin and the frequency of his breakouts. Of course he gets spot cleaned if he's dirty---but full on bath, is not as frequent. I might start doing it every 3 days now that he is getting into more *trouble* crawling around, eating, drinking sticky juice...
Briggy loved having Ollie with him in the bath, just as long as he didn't take any of his toys..."NINE" is how Briggy says "mine!" and hes been saying that a little more frequenty lately...We've been having to explain to him pretty often that everything that is "nine" is also "awh-eee's" :)
In these pictures more and more I am noticing such a difference in their skin tones. Briggy is SOOOOO Casper-y white like his momma, and Oliver has more of the Tillotson olive-tone.








Here is a few of them toting around in their "car" the other day. So cute. I love that I can get these interactive pictures of them together now. They are both growing up so fast!! I can't believe my little Ollie is going to be 1 year old in just 2 monthhhhhs. Craziness.





I started to give Oliver a new snack other than cheerios and rice krispies [I havent given him much finger food, because I fear he has some allergies--and right now with no insurance, I don't want to risk him getting sick...so, no yogi, cheese, bread...These are called "Baby Mum Mums" there "Rice Rusks" whatever that means. Organic, Gluten-free....seemed safe enough--he loves them!






We hosted playgroup for this week at our house. It was Potty Party themed---normally playgroup is on a monday, but for scheduling purposes, we had it today--and only 2 families of kids came--when usually there is about 5-6 different moms. Needless to say it was kind of a bust. I overplanned [as usual] oh well. I had fun making my toliet paper cake!
I also showed the moms my potty system I was working on, that I will be starting *soon* with Briggy. Im hoping by August I'll feel like hes more ready.


This potty chart will hang up above the potty, and the sheets will get filled with stickers with each successful trip to the potty---once the spots get filled up then Brigs gets to pick a "potty prize" I hotglued closepins to the board, so I can interchange the sheets as they get filled up. I plan on having a chore/behavior chart similar to this for the boys in the near future.

Little Helper

Briggy has become quite the helper lately! He likes handing us the clean dishes from the dishwasher, when I come home with bags of groceries, he'll take a few things out of the bags and bring them into the kitchen [of course lining them up..its his favorite thing to do!] If he finds something that's yours [ie-my bra that he found in our bedroom, or toms belt] he'll run up to you with and say "here daddy" "here nahmmeeee" he is seriously too cute. even with his screaming outburts that have been more frequent than we like...he is definitely trying to use better words and actions to communicate his feelings--which is major progress for him! From the beginning of his speech and developmental evaluations he has been 6 months behind with the "average" communication standard. He is still proportionally behind, but having him be able to say a handful of words now and mimicking verbally has been so amazing to see and really helpful.
let me try to list some of his words:

nana-banana
daddy-daddy
awh-eee-ollie
nahhhmeee-mommy
ball-ball
buhh-ble-bubble
dye-bye [he cant say his bs, but for ball and bubble he can...weird]
eeeeeeeeeee!-briggy
oooose-shoes
ide-outside
heyyyylll-help
uhhhhh-up
noun-down
gooo!-go
oooooze-juice
dir-eeee!-dirty [thats the newest]
yea! (major filler word)
uh-ohh!
oh-no!
dawh-eee!-doggie


Im sure im forgetting some, but thats what I can think of off the top of my head
The developmental therapist has told me from the get go he is a "sensory seeking" child. its an off-shoot of a sensory processing disorder {SPD}
In the beginning, the occupational therapist didn't think it was nessecery for her to come out as long as we incorporated some of the texture and other sensory activities in his daily routine. but, we just had his 6 month review, and they are feeling like there needs to be more intervention in that department. There is an informative book I've been reading "The Out-of-Sync Child" by Carol Stock Kranowitz that really describes all different sensory disorders. I guess we should count our blessings because some of the other sensory disorders seem really problematic and really get in the way of the childs day by day activities. Briggy's little body and brain just crave an excessive about of sensory. He needs sensory OVERLOAD to feel fulfilled. I have been able to find a lot of activities that really help him, but the first official visit with the OT will be in a couple weeks and Im hoping she can shed more light on ways to help him focus and calm down--I know he's only 2, but I worry about him as a school age child. It is very difficult for younger children with that sensory seeking need to be confined in a school setting...If he doesnt mellow out a bit by kindergarten age, I might have to homeschool until he understands better how to cope with the hyperactivity. Im sure the OT will have lots of ways to get us on the right track.






[ps--she is the same OT that will be working with Oliver for his Hypotonia.]
[pps-which by the way, oliver has made majorrrrr progress in the sitting, crawling, drinking from his sippy cup...within the last 2 weeks. He has very mild hypotonia, and with a little physical therapy and excersize, he should be on track too--he also just cut his first tooth, just shy of his 10 month birthday!!]

Mothers Day gift...to me!

I made myself another Mothers day gift! Walgreens has a photo freebie going on right now....and 8x10 photo collage for FREE! with the code: GOODTHOUGHTS
I also had a collage made with our anniversay date and a picture of Tom and I, but I haven't made that one yet...still have a couple weeks until the big 1, 2, THREE! Third anniversary!! :)
I thought it would be fun to find their birthday numbers. An homage [is that spelled right?] to the day I gave birth to my two sweet boys.
They still need another coat of paint, but that will have to wait til morning. Thought I'd get the post up tonight since you only have til Saturday to get that photo freebie! [they are regularly $4] I made my mom/tina some that spell out JOYS and a picture of the boys. Cute and fun! These red/yellow polka dot frames will be up in my craft room. Love the fun colors! What do you think?




My little monkeys [in their cute matching monkey pajamas!] were playing with blocks before bedtime. They play SO WELL together. It is the sweetest thing. Briggy is the only one who can really get Ollie giggling good! Oliver has really blossomed this past week with sitting up LOTS better, mimicing some sounds and even WAVING when I wave to him and say HIIIII! So cute! We had an occupational therapist come out the other day to do an evaluation on him because he really has been behind on a few motor skills and we were a little worried....{when setting up the appointment a week earlier, he was still not sitting up without help...thats been a new thing the past few days) She said he has MILD hypotonia, which basically means he has low muscle tone. I had my freak out, but then really prayed about it and feel SOOO confident that its going to work itsself out with some exercises and practice. I really dont think its going to get worse, and I'm hoping that its not a symptom of an underlying problem that we havent figured out....those are worse-case scenarios that I had initially freaked out over after researching hypotonia, but we are staying POSITIVE and PRAYERFUL that it will just not be the case with our Ollie-pop. We will find out more hopefully next week when she comes out for her first scheduled visit. Briggy as been continuing to do well with new vocabulary...we are so proud of our boys!

Binder cover

Im re-doing my home management binder, and was trying to come up with a pretty cover, can't decide if this is the right one. Im picky picky.
The colors are happy...thats what I'm going for :)