See I told y'all I wouldn't be able to remember! I thought about it on Friday last week. BUT I remembered this week!
Brody had a doctors appointment Friday with Dr. Sammons, his pediatrician. He had to finish all his immunizations before his surgery this summer. Poor thing had to get both thumbs pricked too! They tested his iron levels. His levels were a little low. Mine are always low too, so I'm not too worried. We are supposed to start him on iron drops and continue them for a few weeks. He loved the band-aids on this thumbs. We didn't make it to the parking lot before he was chewing one like he had gum in his mouth! Scared me half to death!
Brody measured 28.5 inches long (50th-75th percentile). He weighs 22 pounds (75th percentile). His head is in the 98th percentile. A big ole boy! He found himself in the mirror again. This time he was trying to get the other baby's foot.
Since I had already taken the day off for his doctor's appointment, I tagged along to his first VIPS playgroup. He had so much fun and was completely worn out by the end of it! First, they played with toys in the playgroup room. Brody's new favorite toy is a Pom Pom (If you are an SEC fan, this just means he already knows how to shake a shaker!). Then, we went outside to their playground. Brody absolutely loved the swing! Good thing I got one at the consignment sale this past week. Hopefully Papa Tom will put it up this weekend when they come down!
After the playground, we headed to the sensory room. It is completely full of lights! Brody's favorite thing! He was mostly interested in the light bulb inside the projector. We are pretty sure he will be an engineer when he grows up.
Afterwards, Brody was completely worn out! However, Grandma insisted on taking some pictures outside of the building. Such a mean Grandma. :)
Today, was our first Hands & Voices meeting (well my first as a parent). They had a pretty good turn out! Brody was in the child care room with all of the kids. He bonded with one of the deaf girls helping out. When she would sign to him, he would just laugh and smile! Too cute! It's nice to have such a great group of parents to lean on. I know a lot about the deaf world, but I don't know it from the parents perspective. You wouldn't think it would be that different, but you see things in a new light!
Brody is entered in a coloring contest at Jordan's work. We used these cool toddler paint-markers. He needed some hand over hand assistance, but did pretty good!
We have a little Picasso on our hands :) Today, Mary and Kathy from VIPS came for their first home visit today. They will be coming about once a month! My mom was here with them, since we were at work (Mrs. Katie's class had Pajama Day for "P" week. All my kids actually remembered this year! Woohoo!). My mom said they did some assessment type things with Brody to see where he was. He did great! That's good and bad. We want him to get the services he needs so we don't want him to do too well! With his diagnosis though, we are able to start services even though at this point, the vision isn't the main problem. Tomorrow he will start playgroup at the center. It is a playgroup/support group for parents of kids with vision problems. It is sort of like the PipSqueaks group he attends once a month at Heuser for parents of deaf kids.
Brody had an exciting first St. Patrick's Day. We started with church, then met the Massey family for lunch at Cafe Lou Lou (the shrimp and grits are soooo good). Brody is such a big boy now. He can sit up pretty well in the high chairs although he usually starts to get tired and slumps over half way through the meal. He got to eat some veggies and one of his new favorites, hummus!
We went over to Grandma and Papa Brown's for some family time afterward. Grandma and Aunt Sara had bought Brody some St. Patrick's Day attire to try on (and the dogs too)! Brody wasn't really sure what to think about it.
We left their house to go to the Visionally Impaired Preschool Services (VIPS) building for a St. Patrick's Day Chili Cook Off. VIPS's facility is amazing! We were so impressed! When you first walk in they have a little Kids Town set up. There is a Chase Bank, grocery store, The Bakery kitchen, KFC, Highlands Dry Cleaners, UPS store, library and loft/apartment area. I think Jordan and I would have been entertained for days and we aren't the ones it's designed for! Every little building is a different texture. Everything inside is kid friendly and realistic. There is green carpet to represent grass and blue carpet to represent the water. Connecting those is a "road" for the kids to ride their bikes around. They also have rubber to stop the kids who have greater vision problems and can't see the road so that they can still ride their bikes around too. Mary, who is Brody's vision therapist, showed us around the classrooms. We saw three classrooms, a music therapy room, Braille room, sensory room, gym, and some of the offices. Brody loved the sensory room. It had lights everywhere! Even their ball pit had a light in the bottom with clear balls. Way too cool! Everything in the school is designed with the students in mind. Awesome! Brody will start this Friday at a play group. He met one friend today. She is the same age as him and apparently Brody is already in love. He just stared and stared at her (usually he isn't that interested in other babies).
Don't forget to take a look at our walk coming up. If you would like to, you can donate towards The Brody Monsters. Or you can join us in Dayton and walk with Brody! http://hlaa.convio.net/site/TR/Teamraiser/DaytonCincinnatiWalk?px=1587276&pg=personal&fr_id=2060
Also, if you are in the Louisville area, there is a great consignment sale coming up this week. Everything there is very clean and in good shape (they won't take it if it isn't). It is also very reasonable on the pricing. See the flyer below! And no they didn't pay me to advertise, it is just one of the better ones in town. :)
Another blog I read does Wordless Wednesdays. I like it and if I can remember I might try and do it too! Pretty much you are just supposed to post pictures and videos. Everyone has been telling me that want more pictures of Brody, so here you go! I added captions because I thought you would at least want to know what is going on in the picture.
Uncle Jake and Daddy ran in the Shamrock Shuffle 5K. Brody, Papa Tom, and Mommy walked it.
