Baby Hulk ~ Physical Therapy Becomes an Outing

     Baby Hulk has physical therapy appointments every Tuesday. His PT Annie comes to our house and we sit on the living room floor and work on all kinds of things with Baby Hulk. Pushing up with his arms, putting weight on his feet, balance, extending and flexing, and all sorts of baby work outs. This week things were different. This week we went to her! Annie works with the Olympia school district so it was because of school that she was able to make house visits. Well guess what? Schools out for summer! So now we have to go to her! During summer vacation we shall be visiting her every Tuesday!
     I wasn't sure what to expect. Was it going to be a like a big gym? Foam pits? Trampolines? Kids running around?  I had no clue! Well it was quite boring compared to what I was imagining. Just 2 separate working areas with mats and a little ramp thingy. There was already another therapist there working with a little girl somewhere around the age of Mr Grey (6) and Lumpy(4), who I think may have had cerebral palsy. Her area had hooks and ropes from the ceiling to suspend different equipment from which seemed to be the most exciting thing they had.  Well! Baby Hulk could not disagree more! They had the most fabulous, recalled, musical caterpillar with wobbly rainbow balls that he had ever seen in his entire almost 7 months of life!!!

     He may look a little terrified in that last picture but I assure you. That was his "it's-so-exciting-I-just-might-explode" face that he made whenever we got the rainbow balls wobbling again. He would sit up so straight that he had to bring everything up and back with him. His elbows and even his face. Hence the crazy expression! Go ahead now... try it. Up and back...
...You just made that same face didn't you?
     It was such an exciting hour of therapy that when I looked down at my sweet boy after stepping off the elevator not one minute after walking out of the physical therapy room, I realised my sweet boy was out cold!

I have to say, I am really looking forward to returning next week! He just had so much fun I wish we could go every day! 

Baby Hulk ~ An Update and a Poem

It's been a while! Yet again! So just a quick catching of upping. On May 17th we were taking a break from painting our new house before moving in and we got our first real laugh from Baby Hulk. We had gotten little squeaks and almost laughs but this was a great big chuckle of a baby laugh and it was wonderful. I was super happy Momma Pru was there to witness it with me. I felt it was like her payment for helping us paint. Then on May 27th Baby Hulk rolled over back to tummy! I totally missed it! It happened so fast! I was changing his diaper and looked away from him for the 2 seconds it takes to wrap up a dirty diaper and when I brought my eyes back to him he was suddenly on his tummy!!!! The next couple of times he did it he did it like that. No one saw it happen, he was just suddenly on his tummy! He only just this past Tuesday let his PT see him roll over! I don't think she believed me until she saw it for herself. He also showed her how he can do this now!

 Yup, big boy is now prop sitting too! Rolling back to tummy at five months and prop sitting at six months! After working with us this week, his PT told me, "You know, I think he is the most developmentally on target baby with down syndrome I've ever worked with." I was only a little shocked. He is Baby Hulk after all! I am still so proud of him though! She said in the next month or so she thinks he will be rolling around as transportation. Maybe! But Mr. Grey and Lumpy never did that. Sweet boy is 6 months old now and I am so glad he is mine.

And now my lovely poem! I decided to try my hand at poetry last night. This is what I came up with:

Loading kids into the SUV

My reflection in the door 

I do see

One of these things is not like the other

How you can tell

I'm a breast feeding mother

My left breast is hanging kind of low

It is wobbling

To and fro

I've forgotten that stupid clip yet again

that stupid clip

that holds my tits in

Comfort Works Kramfors Slipcover Review

I made a huge mistake a few years ago and bought a sofa from Ikea... in yellow. To be fair I was a first time mom then and Mr. Grey was only 13 months old. Shortly after purchasing my lovely Kramfors sofa it was discontinued! They stopped making it! And then they stopped making replacement covers! Then shortly after that, baby Mr. Grey vomited pureed carrots down the side of the couch. Since then it has only gotten worse. More kids, more vomit, dirty feet, sticky fingers pet, hair that manages to weave itself into the fabric so the vacuum can't even get it out! I evolved from spot cleaning, to a Bissell Little Green deep cleaning vac, to taking the whole cover off and going to Buttons' house for tea, movies, and washing of my sofa cover in her big washing machine (even though the Ikea label told me not to). Even freshly cleaned it was hideous though. My cat used it as a scratching post, it had so many stains it was just disgusting. I hated the living room. A couch is the centerpiece of the living room and when it looks bad, the whole room looks bad! No one was allowed over besides Baby Hulk's physical therapist, Buttons, and Stitches.

 

Gross stained couch in the old rental house

 Bonney Bad Cat's handy (clawy) work

 A while ago I discovered a site, Comfort Works, that makes covers for Ikea furniture and low and behold, there it was, IKEA Kramfors sofa slipcover. My sofa could be saved! Back then I was thinking maybe a faux leather sofa would be good. They look nice and I could wipe the vomit off! Well I finally had the money to get my cover and I looked and all I saw was real leather. It just felt wrong to me. A vegetarian animal lover lounging on cow carcass. So I sent them a blank email... Yup. Blank email with the subject line: "did I imagine them?"I don't know what I was doing! I sent it from my failing iPhone 3 so I will blame it. A nice man named Henry responded "what did you imagine exactly :)" And so it carried on, he helped me to decide on a heavy duty material, that my evil kitty won't try to destroy as she most certainly would have with leather, and that I can just throw in the wash when it gets bad! Then he sent me swatches! I love swatches! When they arrived I narrowed it down to 3 colours and then put them through vigorous testing. I took my children's left over lunch scraps, the crust of a PB&J and smeared it on each swatch. I smeared them in pancake syrup, ran them through the tread of my boys rain boots, threw them in the corner that collects all the pet hair, and then for good measure, I stuck them in the cushions of my couch cushions. They had to know what they would be expected to put up with!

 Look at the fun little packaging it came in!

 swa-wa-wa-watches!

 Kino Brown didn't fair so well with the peanut butter or pet hair

 

Oh Taupe, you were so pretty before I shoved you in my couch

Charcoal didn't do so well with the syrup but... I see no pet hair!!!

 I then wiped them all up with a baby wipe because that is this lazy ass housewife's quick spot cleaning method. Well the verdict was in and I was going with the Kino in charcoal! the whole part where it didn't show my white cat, OR black dogs horrible hair won my heart. I would simply have to make a new rule about sticky children not leaving the kitchen.  I ordered it and when it finally arrived it sat in the box and taunted me for weeks because Darling Husband told me I could not put it on until we were moved into our new house! Well, I made it and we have moved aaannnnd....

 

Before 

(during the move the cat vomited on a cushion and then the zipper broke!)

  

After 

(why is everyone on the floor!?)

  

I love it! The cover went on a lot easier than the yellow one but fits just as well and it doesn't have cheap plastic zippers, these babies look pretty heave duty. The colour is actually kind of a bluish grey which I was not expecting, although when I google "charcoal grey", it does come up a blueish grey, I couldn't tell that from the swatch but I still really like it. Besides, a problem with the yellow cover was dye transfer from denim jeans so the bluish undertones will probably help with that! I have already had to wipe it off a few times with my trusty baby wipes but they have done the job, and when the day comes, I have been given permission to throw it in the wash! Baby Hulk's physical therapist and my Dad both asked if I got a new couch. It looks so good! I need to get some fun new throw pillows for it now. Something to tie it in with my chair. I love my new old couch!

 Baby Hulk approved! ...although he looks a little disguntled here...

 Thank you, Henry, and everyone else at Comfort Works who took part in making my ugly sofa into a beautiful swan...sofa...swan...