Start with the bad news. Beckett and Eloise went to Children's on Wednesday for a speech evaluation. Eloise refused to talk or even look at the pathologist and sat on my lap the entire time sucking on a lovie. When she finally started to get interested in the toys she was pointing at a picture saying, "Da, da, da" and trying to get me to name the object and I couldn't figure out what she wanted me to say. She eventually got so flustered she burst into tears sobbing against my chest and then Beckett pooped his pants- for good measure. I felt so bad for both of them.
Eloise was evaluated to have the expressive language equivalent to a 12 month old and Beckett tested a little higher at 12-15 months. That was really hard to hear. I knew they were behind but I didn't know it was to such an extent. The interesting part is that they tested at the appropriate age for receptive language so they are understanding but not able to communicate back which totally breeds frustration for all of us.
The other thing that came from the visit was that some of Eloise's behavior of favoring routine, stranger danger and not letting me out of her sight probably has to do with her communication difficultly. I'm the person that understands her wants and needs so she knows that when I'm not around she is unable to communicate- therefore the total panic. I was concerned because she is so into routine and gets freaked out when the routine of a book or her expectations are thrown off. They said that has to do with communication difficulty as well. Routine is comforting to her and less frustrating. I thought that whining and crying was normal this age but they said that it is elevated with her because it is her only form of communication. Unless you are around here 13 hours a day 7 days a week, it is hard to understand the level of whining and crying that I hear constantly. It is unimaginably exhausting. But at least now we can have a method in which to work on the frequency- speech therapy.
That was until our insurance denied coverage and to pay out of pocket is $150 per 45 minutes per child. Seriously? There is a state program called Birth to 3 that I've talked about before and Beckett and Eloise qualified for back in January. But we were told that they bill our insurance and we pay a fee and since it is was out of network we would be paying out of network costs throught our insurance plus the monthly fee for the program and that it would be cheaper for me to go to Children's (in-network) and just do the co-pay and fore go the state program. That's what the insurance company told me. That was back in January and it has taken me this long to get the two of them into the Children's program with the hearing tests and screens and now my insurance is telling me they won't pay and I got misinformation at the time. So I have to go back to the Birth to 3 program and start over in the county system which took 3 months in the first place. Needless to say, I am furious. I feel bad for Eloise and Beckett because they are frustrated and I'm mad that all the frustration on their part and on mine could potentially have been diminished if we had started therapy back in January.
Okay, enough of that. The good news is that they both will get the therapy they need and I have a little more patience for the whining. The other good news is that I did what I thought was impossible. I scheduled all of the immediate work to be done on our house prior to moving in AND on budget. I have two weeks from the time of closing to the move to get the floors redone, kitchen remodeled, appliances delivered and the entire interior painted (except for the areas with the super awesome gold wallpaper). It's scheduled and scheduled on budget. We'll see how it all ends up but I can't tell you how excited I am to close on this house. We will still have tons of work to be done after we move and for a few more years but at least the really messy and toxic stuff will be out of the way.
The other big thing this week is that Addy is starting to potty train herself. She never wants to wear a diaper, or clothes for that matter, and will ALWAYS go on the potty when I put her on. She will even tell me when she has to go. Just today I started to transition her to pull-ups and bought a couple of packs of mini M & M's as a treat for after she goes but I haven't really concocted a plan yet of how this is all going to go down. I need to do that pretty quickly before I lose my window of interest and opportunity. Beckett wants to sit on the potty when she does but refuses to let me take off his pants or diaper. He sits fully clothed. Any suggestions would be welcome as to how to tackle this...
The other thing going on is that Beckett can now routinely escape from his crib. Before he was just crib hopping. Now he somehow lowers himself to the floor. I never know he's escaped because I don't hear a big thud of hitting the floor. I know because he is inevitably lured to the nosiest toys and all of the sudden I'll hear a tractor or fire truck going and I know he has escaped. When I walk in and catch him he drops to the floor and lays there very still like I won't recognize that his crib is empty. He does the same thing when I walk into the room and he is in the crib of one of the girls. He lays down and is really quiet so I don't notice. This has been incredibly disruptive to going to sleep at night and naps. The other day I had to put him back in his crib 5 times and the sixth time I caught him flipping into Eloise's crib and landing on her while she was sleeping waking her up. So that day for an hour I was fighting with Beckett to stay in his crib then he woke Eloise up, I sat in the room for 30 minutes staring him down so he wouldn't get out of his crib while Eloise was sitting up staring at me. When Beckett finally fell asleep Eloise would not and when I tried to rock her back to sleep she just kept putting her fingers up my nose. So that was the end of nap for her.
The other night they did not go to sleep until 10 pm- 2 1/2 hours after I put them down because they were playing so much.
The party animals...
Playing and torturing each other. At one point when I went in Beckett and Addy were in Addy's crib with ALL of the stuffed animals and Eloise was sitting her crib by herself sobbing because they took all of her animals.
Perps...
Mug Shot
Victim
That night I resorted to pulling the pack n' play into their bedroom and putting Beckett in it thinking that was the only way to keep him from disrupting the others. Nope, he was able to get out of that as well. I have no idea how but 5 minutes later I could hear that tractor and fire truck going again so I knew he was out. The only thing that worked was to put Addy in the pack n' play because he can't get IN it and that way his play buddy was out of commission. It's not as fun to stir up trouble by yourself so I think he gave up and went to sleep.
So that is how the first week with 3 two year olds went. Exhausting and frustrating but pretty funny at the same time. I'll leave you with a last story about what these little monkeys are up to.
The other night before I went to bed I went in to check on the kids and I noticed Beckett was curled up into a ball and totally under his blanket, head and all. So I lifted up the blanket to prevent suffocation and it wasn't Beckett under there, it was a decoy. It was his stuffed gorilla that he used as a decoy to throw the prison guard off his jail break trail. Truly at first glance I thought it was him and I was totally confused. I looked around and he was in Addy's crib curled up snuggled with her under her blanket. Oh, the sweet joy and innocence of multiples.
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