Our HLHS Journey: Little Climber and Pre-K

Jasiu barely started walking at 12 months and now two months later he is running, not only is he running, he is climbing, riding and getting into lots of trouble. It is so good that his heart and all that he has been through has not affected him as much as we were afraid it would. He truly is right where he should be developmentally and cognitively. He knows that he has to go down the stairs on his belly and knees and sometimes starts off in the middle of the kitchen and ends up scooting back all the way under the table instead of the stairs which makes him pretty mad because he didn't get to where he wanted, so he goes forward again and looks behind him and scoots down the stairs. We still walk behind him, just in case that he would forget and turn around or stand up on the stair and possibly get hurt but this doesn't happen often at all. He also figured out how to move forward on his ride on toys and now loves them. He can put blocks together and says "bye bye" and waves his hands when I go to work or anyone leaves. He also gives kisses to Mommy and daddy and grandparents and blows kisses to us and everyone else. (We try not to get in too close contact with non family members) Just this week he learned that he can use other objects to get to what he wants, ie. he will use his play golf clubs to get toys he can't reach on the couch, he will bring his sister's little chairs and place them next to the couch so that he can get on it. Yesterday as I was fixing dinner I found him with that same chair next to the coffee table and I'm sure his ultimate goal was to get on top of it. Joe was holding the chair and "supervising" while I just had to get picture of this. We have baby proofed a lot of cabinets now and have a blockade around the TV. He has already tried to fit his little foot between the slits to see if he can get higher and used the same plastic golf clubs to see if he can "touch" the TV. I tell you he is a handful, a typical boy and though it's tough always having one eye on him, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ohh ohh mom caught me :0

We have a climber

He is an awesome eater now and we are so thankful. I don't even mind having to distract him to eat because he is eating and that is what matters. He could have just finished his meal and Joe or I get home from work and he has to have some of what we are eating. Also he still likes his bottles, though they haven't gotten any larger he takes them on my lap while cuddling. I.LOVE. IT. I like to think he's making up for the lost time when he was fed through the NG and we never got to feed him in our arms for the first 5 months because feedings were so difficult.

I really hope that Jasiu continues to be as smart as his big sister. Emily is going to start her first year in English school this fall. She will be in Pre Kindergarten for 4 year olds and she will not even turn 4 by the first day of school since her birthday is August 30th and school now starts middle of August, but she still meets the age requirement of 4 by September 1. She will be the youngest in her class and she has not attended the PK-3 because of Jasiu and us wanting to prevent her from bringing germs and sickies home. She knows all her colors, numbers and singing the alphabet with recognizing a lot of letters in Polish AND English. She also started speaking English over the last four months. We really didn't have much of an approach to teaching her English, just turned on Nick Jr. and let it go from there. We now also translate to her most of what we say so that she is better prepared for school. Speaking to me and Joe and grandparents in Polish is still a requirement because we don't want her to forget Polish. She barely started English and is already choosing it over Polish, but I think it's because is something new that she likes. She is like a sponge and can already carry on a decent conversation in English (after only 4 months !!!) Just amazing to me. When I came here from Poland when I was 9 years old and didn't speak a word of English, it took me a full year of school to learn and another full year to be fluent. It was quite emotional to sign her up to school but she is so excited. She got to meet her teacher and see the classroom the day we went. She is pretty social, not shy at all and loves doing project so i think she will do just fine. She will go 3 days a week for 3 hours. I'm sure the only adjustment we will have to make is an earlier bed time. Since her time flew by so quickly I'm sure Jasiu's is just around the corner.

These two love each other so much and I had so much fun spending all day today with them just playing, nothing else...