If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. ~Robert Fulg

We spent last week going to the Ymca play group which was really good because event though it is spring, the weather is not cooperating! Henry thoroughly enjoys his jumping time in the bouncy house and of course seeing his friends. Eliot as well loves his practice dribbling and throwing and catching balls - this "ball" thing is his latest love. Looking forward to going to Toronto to visit the Motherland in a couple of weeks:)

We spent last week at the genetics department of Children's having Eliot measured. Dr. J was thorough. The first discovery was that Eliot has a forked uvula, a split or heart shape instead of the usual droplet shape at the backs of our throats. Apparently this is a form of a cleft pallet, genetically that it. We have an appointment with an ear/nose/throat Doctor to see about that and the impact it may be having on his ears. Interestingly, this uvula thing can also have an impact on his speech. Hmmmmm....

As well, we have to double check Eliot's heart as he was born with a PDA - a duct that should close after birth to allow blood flow to the heart etc. We will see a cardiologist to determine if everything healed up the right way. All of these things are to basically rule things out.

Dr. J assured us that this is how they do it, rule things out etc. He was quite interested in Eliot's eyes and how they did not look like Matt or I. We shall see... All of these Genetic things are scary, Fragile X syndrome, Noonan Syndrome and the list goes on...

We are often told with Eliot that has this or has that beginning in utero: Downs, CF and that list goes on. He was born and he was okay, we will hope for the same now.

In other news, I got a chance to do some free lance writing now, I am excited about that. Matt is thrilled about more photography shoots to showcase his talents.

As the quote says, " ...everything else is inconvenience". We just have to be hopeful and be grateful.

"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars" - Oscar Wilde

Ah yes, the stomach flu - how awful that vomit and diarrhea can actually be permitted to coexist together. Tuesday afternoon both boys began the horrendous journey into the "stomach flu zone" which began with a few rather benign watery poos and devolved into something much, much worse; Projectile vomiting, screaming, diarrhea and long intense 'bouts of whining and whimpering.

Both Matt and I feel so badly for our kids and also, conversely have the urge to quietly leave them at Target for an hour in a paper box to fend for themselves:) So far we haven't left them anywhere, it is probably in part due to the fact that they are feeling a little bit better today.

This is day 5 of this monstrous bug, it had better get its meaty claws out of my family soon, or ELSE!

Spring is here, or at least approaching at a fairly leisurely rate, I will take it. Nice to have a little sun on our bleached and drawn faces. My double stroller can actually fit down the sidewalk and I am feeling a little lighter, a little happier.

Matt and I have been up to all kinds of brave things these days, no not just marriage and parenting twins:) But also getting our little Eliot assessed at the Developmental Medicine Center of Boston Children's Hospital. It would take a long time to fully articulate everything leading up to this, suffice it to say that both Matt and I saw behavior in Eliot that we felt on a very gut level was "something".

The good news is that he is not on the Autism Spectrum for which we are truly grateful, and that he has a "Communication Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified, he will be getting help from a speech pathologist to help with this as well as some other services down the road. We will also be getting him down to the Genetic Testing Center as well just to rule out some issues there. The even better news is that Eliot scored above average in cognition and problem solving in his evaluation, this as our Doc said points to above average intelligence ( I knew that anyway:). He scored lower in expressive language ( We also knew about that:). All good news, we are happy that Eliot will be getting any and all help that he needs.

Henry is doing well and speaking in sentences now, "Mama, want chocolate milk, like it, peeease" for example. We are blown away with his language ability - he is not even two yet! Eliot's frustrations over communicating are probably exacerbated because of Henry's ease at communicating.

Matt has some hopeful employment opportunities coming down the pipe and it looks like I will be staring back up with my freelance writing, yeah! Then on to EMT school, goody, goody.

I feel like we are finally starting to surface from the lower levels... yeah!

Those who are Awake
live in a state of constant amazement ...

~ Jack Kornfield ~

Poo-poo trucks and chicken

So Eliot pood in the bathtub tonight, he really, really did. Not since he was a little minute old has he done that. I had just taken Henry out of the tub and had him wrapped in a towel when I saw my little man crouching in the tub. Eli looked up at me with red rimmed eyes and suddenly there was a whole bunch of "chicken" as Henry called it in the water! OMG!

So, yep, not quite at the potty training stage yet:) Henry is talking up a storm right now. It is as though our whole lives are being narrated by a toddler.

"Car, beep, beep" , "want it", "have it" etc. Eliot is really practicing his blinking:)

Just to end on a little poo-poo note, our day began as a sewage truck parked in front of our house to suck up overflowing plumbing. The boys were quick to watch said poo-poo truck until it pulled away waving, "bye, bye, poo - poo truck".