Jonathan - Two to Three

This picture was taken shortly after Jon turned two. 

 This is how I could find him most nights.  After putting him to bed, he would crawl out of his crib and hide underneath it...with blanket and one paci in his mouth and one in hand. After he fell asleep, I would sneak up there and put him back in his crib.


Jon loved anything with wheels.  And he loved to line up his toys. These were some of his Christmas presents that year.

This picture is of my cousin's little boy Tommy and Jon.  They are only three weeks apart in age. It's not a great picture but it highlights the difference in their size.

Shortly after the New Year we got the report from Jon's speech therapist.  I was devastated to find out that she had diagnosed him as having an auditory processing disorder. Simply put, he didn't hear some of the finer sounds (so boy and toy might sound the same to him).  Also, he couldn't distinguish between background noise and close noise.  She said he would need special assistance in school and would most likely need to wear headphones while his teacher would wear a microphone. 

He was making small advancements in his speech but most of his sentences went something like this
"uh uh uh uh uh train" or "uh uh uh uh cookie." A lot of grunting followed by one word at the end.

In June Jon was the ring bearer in his cousin's wedding (along with C.J.)  He nearly got kicked out of the wedding though when we was a "little hyper" at the rehearsal.  It was decided to let him stay and he was a little angel on the day of the wedding.

This is my all time favorite picture of Jon.  Taken at the reception, it shows Jon intensely watching the bride and groom dance.  He stared like that through the whole dance.

Jon went to a different speech therapist that summer.  This one did more play therapy with him whereas his other therapist was more of the "sit in the chair and directly teach type."  He really seemed to respond to the play therapy and within eight weeks he went from a vocabulary of about 20 words to speaking in complete sentences!

We were so grateful.


Also, at the end of the summer we were offered an opportunity for him to go to the Day Care that was associated with his speech therapy.  The idea was that interacting with other kids would improve his vocabulary.  So, he went two days a week from 9:00-11:30.  He loved it! This is him with his teacher.

He also loved anything to do with balls.

or sports of any kind

He could swing a golf club better than some grown men and would always gather attention when we took him to the driving range.


And here is just another picture illustrating the two paci habit he had.

In September, I decided the paci needed to go.  I didn't mind him having it for nap or bed.  And as a general rule his pacis had to stay in his bed...but he would inevitably find one in the toybox, or under the couch, or God knows where else. All I know is all of a sudden he'd be walking around with one in his mouth.  So...time to go.. He did really well with the transition too.  Only refusing to nap for the first few days.  But without the nap, he was overly exhausted by bedtime.

One of the greatest injustices was done to him shortly before he turned three.  At three he had to undergo several tests to be able to transition from the early intervention speech program to the one in the public schools.  One of his evaluations came from a psychologist who spent 15 minutes with him... claimed he played with too many toys in that time frame...diagnosed him as having ADHD... and put him on one of strongest medicines there is (clonodine).  I knew he was active...and curious...but ADHD at 3?  I wasn't convinced.  My family talked me into giving it a try.  

Once my poor baby started taking this medicine he would literally cry all morning...sleep all afternoon...and then cry all evening until he went to bed.  He was like a walking zombie.  I called her three weeks later and adamantly demanded that he be taken off this medicine. 


For his third birthday cake we went with the train from the Golden Books and Carey came through with an amazing cake again.

Notice he's holding a train...couldn't even put it down for the cake.


He also was not as easy to train as C.J. so by three he was still not potty trained but we did move him into pull-ups.  Like his brother, he never made it out of a size 3 diaper.


Three year stats:
weight: 28 pounds (12%)
height: 34 inches (less than 3%)