PT, OT, ST, Oh My!

Physical therapy.  Occupational therapy.  Speech therapy.  These have been a weekly part of our lives for the past year and a half.  I should actually say that therapy has become a daily part of our lives.  Our very special therapists, who we have become quite attached to, work with the twins during their weekly sessions, but they also teach us things to practice between their visits.  So we are doing therapy daily.  Therapy has been frustrating, time-consuming, stressful, overwhelming, and at times so, so challenging.  But it has also been very rewarding.  I wanted to update how things are going with therapy and document the twins' progress.

PHYSICAL THERAPY:
Rhett started physical therapy when he was diagnosed with torticollis/plagiocephaly at 4 months.  He started out with therapy twice a week, changed to three times a week, and now works with his favorite therapist, Lauri, once a week.  He has made great progress.  When he first started, he was working on turning his head side to side and stretching his neck muscles.  Then he started working on reaching, rolling, and grabbing things.  After that, scooting, then crawling, pulling up, and walking.  Now he is almost caught up with motor skills, but we are still working on core strength, coordination, and balance.

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY:
We added occupational therapy when Rhett turned 10 months old.  Since Rhett was showing signs of being developmentally delayed, we hoped that the therapy could help with his motor skills, cognitive planning, sensory processing, and life skills.  Rhett did not like occupational therapy at first.  I think because it was really hard for him and he had to do things that were not natural to him.  He became very attached to his therapist, Kelly, and I think that made all the difference in the world.  Throughout the year, Kelly worked with Rhett on pointing, poking, holding things, transferring from hand to hand, self feeding, throwing, and more.  We were so thrilled when she told us this past month that Rhett was caught up and did not need her services any more.  Here is a picture of our sweet boy during his last session of occupational therapy.

SPEECH THERAPY:
At the twins' 15 month checkup, their pediatrician was concerned since R&R were not talking at all.  We had a speech evaluation done in early August and both of the kids qualified, so we started speech therapy at 17 months.  We love our sweet therapist, Kathleen, who comes once a week to work with us.  Around 20 months or so, we noticed a huge language explosion!  Rhett actually started signing and saying new words at the same time.  New signs right now are airplane and help.  It is so interesting to me that the twins use the same pronunciation of a word, even if it is wrong.  For example, Rhett said the word monkey first, pronounced "mun-uh," and a few days later Rhys started saying it the same way.  I wanted to note the words that we hear frequently now at 21 months:

momma
dada
baby
bye-bye
bird
bath
eye
ball
car
puppy
up (they say this for up and down)
snack (pronounced "nak")
water ("wah-wah")
sticker
cheese
cracker
apple (this is a FAVORITE word around here!)
more
uh-oh
pumpkin ("punka")
walk
rock
swing
berry ("baby")
bubble
book
moon
all done
ice
ham
bear
bee
raisin ("why-o")
bite ("bye")
night night ("nigh nigh")
chicken
noodle ("noonle")
car
ball
banana ("nana")
milk
monkey ("mun-uh")
bowl
shoes ("zooz")

Rhys ("weeee")

Mike ("Mi")

Sugar ("Guger")

Bubba

Here is Rhett practicing a few words:

And a few more words in the bath tub one evening:

They are starting to really communicate with us!  It seems like we are adding a word or two every day.  We do notice, however, that they seem to have their own language with each other.  We like to call it "twin-ese."

The twins are still currently receiving speech therapy.  Our therapist wants to stay with us through their 2nd birthday to make sure that they continue to stay on track and start using two-word phrases around that time.

Many of you have had to listen to me complain about therapy or our therapy schedule at one time or maybe many times!  Even though it has been challenging, we are so thankful for the services and thankful that we have this opportunity to receive help.  More updates coming soon!

Breakfast with Santa

The children's ministry at our church puts on an annual "Breakfast with Santa" and I have been looking forward to taking the twins for a while now.  We were excited that Bdad and Gram were also here visiting for the weekend, so they were able to join us.

We started our morning visiting with our children's minister, Ms. Tina.  She gave each child a mug with hot cocoa mix inside.  R&R adore Ms. Tina and we are so thankful for her love and service to the children at Northside.

Then we made our way to see Santa! The auditorium was dark and there was a nice fire glowing in the fireplace (or on the screen) and it was a nice touch to the ambiance.  

When we got closer to Santa, Rhys started digging her nails into my shoulder.  She was freaking out a little bit.  It was at this point that I lowered my expectations on the quality of Santa pic that we were going to get this year.  Bdad took Rhett right up to Santa to see what he would do.

Rhett was cautious, but he seemed to be okay with it all at first.  I think he would have done okay if he hadn't seen Rhys getting upset.

Then we just decided to hand the babies to Santa and snap a picture as quick as we could.  This was what happened:

Well, that went better than expected.

After Santa pics were complete, we rescued the twins and took them to have a nice pancake breakfast.  Once they saw the red and green pancakes, all the tears disappeared and we were having fun again!

 Rhett making sure we get plenty of marshmallows to eat with our pancakes

enjoying a yummy breakfast (Rhett wanted strawberries/Rhys wanted bananas/I got the pancakes!)

We were so thrilled that our friends Nathan and Ryland were also there for the fun. 

Ryland showing Rhys a video...he is so sweet with her!

 Rhett hanging out with Gram

SO fun to see a very dear friend Allison and her daughter Bethany who were in town visiting

Rhett exploring with Bdad

After a yummy breakfast, we made ornaments.  Rhys made a candy cane and Rhett made a gingerbread man.  They smell so good and are hanging proudly on our tree!

We had a wonderful time!  Thank you Northside!

Twin Love

Rhys woke up very cranky from her nap one day, and was insistent that she have her "nak" (snack) right away. I put her down so that I could get the snack ready, and she started crying.  Rhett was trying to kiss her and comfort her....too bad she was not interested in any twin love on this day!

"Punka" Patch

Halloween morning we headed out to the pumpkin patch.  Yep, that's right, we procrastinated going to the patch until the last possible day.  The kids were both tired, and not feeling well,  but we did make it after all, and when we pulled into the parking lot, Rhys started clapping and shouting "Punka! Punka! Punka!"  Here is what we did in the 10 minutes we stayed at the pumpkin patch...

When we first arrived, the kids were pointing at all the pumpkins and just running in circles.  Rhys continued to yell "punka" every few seconds, and Rhett kept calling the pumpkins "balls."  Almost like  a ball, buddy, almost.

We found a cute little set up of pumpkins and Rhys was all about it since they had a little chair for her to sit in.  (by the way, this is my favorite pic of the day!)

Rhett was so cute and kept trying to pick up all the "balls."  

Here Rhett is trying to pick one up while Rhys was looking for acorns.

Rhys was not in the mood to take pictures, because every time I tried to get her to smile, this is look she gave me.

She was beginning to melt down, and then they found the tractor...

Rhett was a little disappointed when he couldn't actually sit on the tractor and that the wheels didn't actually move.  Our pumpkin patch visit was quickly going downhill.

Then we came across the wagon that was there for people to transport their pumpkins to their cars.  Rhys decided she needed to go for a ride in that wagon, and of course she needed her "punka" to go with her.  I started pulling her around and Rhett thought he was pushing her.

What a sweet big brother to push his baby sister around!

We found another cute place for a picture and were thankful we had the wagon to contain them for a couple of seconds.

Before we left, I really wanted to get a picture of the twins sitting in the pumpkins, together, and both smiling.  Is that really too much to ask?  Apparently it is.

Started off not so bad, at least they were sitting still.

Then Rhys started asking for a snack.

Rhett was getting tired...

Rhys was DONE.

Check out Rhett's face in this one!  Not having anything to do with us anymore.

Oh well, maybe next year, right?

Just for fun....here are a couple of pumpkin patch pictures from last year.

Children's Museum

One weekend this fall we decided to try out the San Antonio Children's Museum.  It did not disappoint!  

We started out in the toddler play area.

We played with bubbles...

glow sticks...

fun ball tables...

slides...

drove cars...

 loved on horses...

 made music...

 and made faces at ourselves in the crazy mirrors.

Then we went to the HEB Market.  This was by far the twins' favorite part of the museum!  It was so neat....they had little shopping carts and aisles of food.  It was real HEB boxes and packages (with the food removed).  There was a produce section, a bakery section, seafood/meat section, canned foods, paper goods, snacks, etc.  Once you finish your shopping, there is a real checkout lane with a real scanner that beeps and displays the item on a little computer screen.  Super cute!  Rhys would have stayed in there all day if we would have let her.  That girl was serious about her grocery shopping!  

big kids shopping

getting some tuna and pasta 

 a long shopping list today...

After shopping, Rhys milked a cow.

Then Rhett played chess on the giant board.

R&R played in the kitchen.  I think Rhys "washed" her hands in the sink 25 times.  There was a pretend container of soap and she liked that, I think.

Rhys tried out the piano.

And on our way out, Rhett found the most amazing ball contraption he had ever seen.  We had to carry him out when it was time to go!

The twins had a blast, and we did too!  We were close to the Riverwalk, so we took a little stroll and had our snack on a bench by the river.  A little duck decided to join us and enjoyed all the crumbs that R&R dropped.

Can't wait to go back again!