Balunar Festival

On October 25th we braved the crowds at the yearly Balunar Festival at NASA. Making it to the festival grounds was quite a feat. We also had to wait in long lines for food. However, when we saw the enthralled expression on Matthew's face we were glad we went. Matthew enjoyed watching the balloons and skydivers and especially the "balloon glow" after dark where the fires used to lanch the balloons were lit up on the field. This combined two of Matthew's favorite things.. balloons and "la las" (lights).

Pumpkin Patch and the Unhappy Alligator

A nearby church has a pumpkin patch every year. I passed by one day before taking Matthew to daycare for some photos.

My friend Barb has two sons and they are several years older than Matthew. I have been lucky to receive a lot of hand-me-downs from her. In last batch of clothes I got a Halloween costume. I thought we would be able to dress Matthew up in this for a Gymboree party and Trick or Treating but he had different ideas.

We had to come up with another costume on the fly. Look at later posts to see what we decided on.

Pumpkin Carving with Cousins and Zoo Boo

In early October Matthew's Deda had him and his two cousins, Bodie and Cooper carve pumpkins. Here are a few of the many photos.

The next day we went to the Houston Zoo's Halloween event, the Zoo Boo.

Snot Walrus

Matthew is usually very even tempered but sometimes he has full-blown 2 year old temper tantrums. We got some photos for proof. I told Matthew that he looked like a snot walrus.

Matthew's First Haircut

Matthew got his first haircut on September 19th. His hair was getting a little long and curly and even though he was very cute, a few people told me what a cute daughter I had. I knew it was time to get his hair cut. We went to Fantastic Sam's close by and we had a stylist who was very happy to give Matthew his first haircut, especially since he was so well behaved... no crying or squirming. Tony took the opportunity to get his hair cut during the same visit.

My handsome boys:

Mischievous Matthew

Sometimes when I tell people that I work from home their response is, "That is great! You get to save a lot of money on daycare." I usually let them know that this is not the case I still need to send Matthew to daycare in order to get work done. One day I had about 30 minutes of work to do after I picked up Matthew. After turning away from him for a couple of minutes this is what he was up to:

Yes, he is on top of the dining room table swatting at and grabbing our antique crystal chandelier.

Matthew Our Bionic Toddler

We can rebuild his hearing, we have the technology....

Matthew had a very exciting couple of months.. stressful for his mommy and daddy though. After Matthew had ear tube surgery we discovered that Matthew still had a hearing loss based on the hearing tests during his surgery follow-up. We then scheduled a different hearing test that was more objective, an ABR (Automatic Brainstem Response) hearing test, that involved Matthew being sedated. Unfortunately, this test confirmed that he does have a mild to moderate hearing loss. He needs hearing aids to hear normally. This is essential at his age as he is learning to talk. My biggest fear was that he would fight it every time we tried to put his hearing aids in. He struggled and fought every time Tony and/or I tried to put ear drops in his ears. So when the Audiologist fitted the hearing aids by forming the molds in his ears he was surprisingly still and well behaved. (Remember he is 2 years old so this is not usual for him). The next week Matthew had a C-T scan--yet another procedure that would require him to be sedated or so I thought. We went to Texas Children's Hospital anticipating a 3 hour appointment to allow time for him to be sedated and afterwards come out of it. When it was time for our appointment the wonderfully child-friendly radiologist said, "Well, let's try doing the C-T scan without sedation first-it couldn't hurt". Despite my certainty that he would not stay still we gave it a try. The radiologist showed Matthew the machine that he would go into and then gave Matthew's Monkey Jude a C-T scan. She gave his toy monkey a sticker and then told Matthew to climb in. He did.. and then he followed the instructions to stay very still while they took his X-ray. Matthew finished the C-T scan in 5 minutes instead of 3 hours!! The even better news was that he did not have the abnormality in his temporal bone structure that could cause complete deafness. We were relieved obviously.

Well the happy ending to the story is that a couple of days ago Matthew's hearing aids came in. We went to the ENT's office and the audiologist gave me some instructions on how to use the hearing aids, change the batteries, etc. Matthew immediately accepted the hearing aids. He didn't fuss at all. He wore them all the way home and all day the next day. Josie at daycare said he didn't try to take out his hearing aids all day and that the only time he fussed was when she took them out for his nap. She also said that he seemed to be listening and responding a lot better. I am SO proud of him. When I see him with his hearing aids he is the same happy active kiddo but he seems to be enjoying the new sounds around him. What a relief that he instantly understood that this new device will help him hear better.

In this photo he is giving a cheer for his new hearing aids.