Tag Archives: Development

Identifying Jordy’s Speech Delays (and Videos that Helped)

The first photo I took during the pandemic

As Jordy and I were driving home from speech therapy today, I was playing my favorite preschool videos on my phone so he could listen to something enriching. Then I thought that it would be nice to write a post about how we identified his speech delay, similar to how we identified when Jia had a soy and milk protein intolerance back in the day (Jordy had the same when he was an infant).

The 2-year checkup

So right at Jordy’s 2nd bday January 2020, he had his well-child exam, the 2-year checkup. I filled out the questionnaire they make you do about food insecurity, if your child can perform certain tasks, and then of course, how many words they use. It was a tough one. Over the previous few months, he’d say a couple key phrases, like “I see sky” and “I see tree” which I thought was great. His verbal skills didn’t really expand beyond that, and I was not entirely sure if Jordy was speech delayed or if he was just “a boy.” As a young parent, it’s pretty common to hear how verbal and mature girls are, compared to boys being more physically capable. Jia was extremely verbal as a young child, and today I even glanced back at my last WSDW post from March 2016 when Jia was 2, and I was loving how she said her first 6-word sentence, which was “No Mei Mei, go in kitchen!” (However, yknow I really think that counts as a four- maybe five- word sentence at best).

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#SummerofDad Week 9: Food & Fun Games

IMG_20150721_081455We’re now wrapping up our last week at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, or as I’ve come to know it: our seaside mansion escape. Our stay has been wonderful and I’m somewhat concerned that Gabe will go into withdrawal, as the energetic, gregarious extrovert won’t have dozens of people to wave and smile at or have rolling lawns to frolic upon. But considering we—as in only Gabe and dad—are going up to visit the Grandparents in Maine, I’m sure we’ll get by. (I will now try to stop ending my sentences with prepositions.)

Next week we begin the next big travel phase, where Jenny flies to Chicago for a week and we go to Maine. This marks the first time ever that Gabe and Jenny will be apart for more than 24 hours. As I said before, it will be a learning experience for all of us. Gabe will learn to get by without Jenny, Jenny without Gabe, me without Jenny—lots of learning! But I think it will be overall beneficial. I’m glad she’s getting to go take advantage of her professional opportunities, but we will definitely miss her when she’s gone and we look forward to picking her up at the airport!

In any case, that’s for next week. This week, nothing “exciting” happened, unlike last week. (Update from last week: The dermabond has finally fallen off and the cut is healing well. I forgot how small the actual cut is.) Other than trying to keep his cut covered and out of the sun, there were some fun and interesting moments:

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What’s She Doing Wednesday: Summer Lovin’

Blog Post WSDW 6.3.15

Wow, two weeks went by without a WSDW post! It was kind of nice to take a little bit of a break from the blog, but it’s really crazy how fast the days go by even without “working”! With my days completely off, I was still pretty tired running errands, filling my little toddler’s days jam-packed with fun summer activities, sending out my resume and taking calls to get feelers out there for prospective jobs. It’s really surprising how even without my deadlines for blog writing, I was still very busy. Being a stay at home mom is really tiring! It’s one of those things where you can appreciate the exhaustion the other type of mom goes through – either Mom A works all day and is tired from work, cooks dinner, puts baby down to bed, packs up baby bag and meals for day care/babysitter, then passes out. On the other hand, Mom B at home gets up when baby wakes up (or earlier) and from start to finish it’s: meals, cleaning the kitchen/house, picking up after toddler, running errands to the grocery store and Target of course, meal planning, activities, driving in traffic, bedtime routine, laundry. Both are a lot of work and mom doesn’t get much time to herself. Yeesh, that was tiring just thinking about it.

With my little break from blogging and after I wrote last Saturday’s post about high-risk pregnancies, I realized how much I missed having a “purpose” after Jia went to bed. I guess it made me appreciate the work I put into my own posts. I feel like I’m doing something good, aside from raising my little girl. Doing the research and writing up informative posts is kinda energizing – as long as I’m not entirely pooped, that is. 

Anyway, continuing on…  Continue reading “What’s She Doing Wednesday: Summer Lovin’” »

Intro to #SummerofDad & Week One

Blog Post SoDW1

Hello!

So, Jeni did a great job introducing me, how we met, and how we came about the #SummerofDad idea. In the last (nearly) 10 years (!) since Jeni and parted ways after graduating from Purdue, I’ve done a lot of things.

I’ve traveled to Costa Rica, Greece, and throughout the US. I worked as a pharmaceutical research coordinator for a couple of years. I applied to grad school a bunch of times (three, to be exact) and even moved to New York City to attend a physical therapy doctoral program. But I dropped out after a few weeks. Luckily, a girl I knew (and liked) moved up from Austin that summer, too. So instead of heading back home, I decided to stay and hang tough in the city and see about a girl. Also, I decided that, since I didn’t know what I wanted to do for graduate school, I needed to try something different: so I got into publishing.

During my four years in New York, two amazing dreams came true: I got to work in publishing for a couple of years at Penguin/Viking (as well as some other very cool places); that girl (Jenny-with-a-y) became my best friend, partner-in-crime, the love of my life, and then my wife. We got married in Austin in 2012 and in 2013 we did an amazing 6-week backpacking trip through Turkey and Greece for our belated honeymoon. About the time we got married I was realizing that publishing wasn’t working for me. Though I love writing, I wanted to get back into science. I learned about genetic counseling and applied — 3rd time’s a charm — for grad school. I ended up getting into my top program at Johns Hopkins and the NIH.

The big life changes kept coming, because almost exactly a year after being accepted, in June 2014, my son Gabriel was born. This past year has been quite a challenge, balancing grad school, family, and my wife’s writing career. I also write, and have published fiction pieces in various places, but most recently I’ve been writing for the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Genome Advance of the Month, where we try to explain interesting developments in genetics research! 

So onto the post for this week…

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Weaning from Breastfeeding

Blog Post 5.3.15 Weaning from BF recenteredSo, I was going to delay this topic for an unknown length of time because I wanted to write about other things – like, the nutritional changes breastmilk goes through after your baby is 12 months old, the physiological changes that toddlers undergo to indicate readiness to start potty training, etc. because I planned on nursing Jia until she was 18 months old. 

But, since I’m getting a bit anxious to get my body back to myself I figured – hey – as long as I was reading up on it, may as well write about it!  (And besides, we clocked in an entire 14.5 months of 4 nursing sessions a day.)

First Things First – What’s Recommended? Continue reading “Weaning from Breastfeeding” »

Age-Appropriate Toys for Your Infant Sprout

Blog Post 4.25.15 Toys Cover PhotoThis topic is a highly requested one among my readers, and for one reason or another, I’ve always put it off. I think it’s because I’ve either been inspired by a more pressing health topic or because part of me wanted to write a post – something along the lines of – My Must/Wish/Ditch List – A post that featured things I couldn’t survive without, toys or gadgets I didn’t know existed until it was a little too late (but want to make sure to order for baby #2), and things that ended up being over-marketed, overrated, and/or a waste of money that could’ve been much better spent on a better, cooler item (like, why didn’t we get a stroller that could CONVERT to a double stroller? Hindsight is 20/20). Kinda like a Baby Buyer’s Guide, helpful for grandparents, mamas prepping to register for gifts, baby shower guests, etc.

So maybe that’ll come in the next few weeks. For now, I’ll stick to what my readers have requested – toys that correspond to your baby’s developmental age.

Onto the TOYS! … Continue reading “Age-Appropriate Toys for Your Infant Sprout” »