Life with Luke (and his doctors!)

It has been so long since I last updated about Luke.  So much has transpired since.  First an update on all of his medical "stuff":

After Luke's appointment with his eye Dr. in January we decreased the patching of the right eye down to one hour a week.  At that appointment it was also noticed that he was in need of a new prescription.  Thankfully, our vision insurance has been wonderful through all of this, and they expedited our eligibility for new lenses, so Luke got those right away.  More recently we re-visited the eye doctor in April and received the good news that with his new glasses, Luke's vision is now 20/20 in both eyes!  She also decreased the patching even further, to just a few times a month for one hour and pushed out his next check-up to 10 weeks.

I found a new ENT specialist who will now handle all of his ear care (if needed).  She came highly recommended from Dr. Dugoni and is also at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital.  We met with her back in January and she had a good look at Luke's ears.  She thought that the ear drums looked healthy and as though they were healing well after the tube removal.  She also did not note any fluid behind the ear drums at that time, so suggested that we handle ear infections normally through Dr. Dugoni and come to see her only if they start to become recurrent again.  VERY good news!  A huge relief.  That being said, Luke had a great winter and managed to escape ear infections almost entirely.  The day after we returned from NJ, he did start to run a fever and complain of ear pain, but when I took him in his right ear was completely full of fluid, but did not appear to be infected.  He started on Claritin in the hopes that it would allow the ear canal to drain and would dry up any fluid.  Since then I have noticed Luke asking me to repeat what I say quite often, so I am concerned that that ear continues to be filled with fluid.  Although thankful that it isn't infected, I am concerned about his compromised hearing, so we may need to pay another visit to Dr. Dugoni and/or the ENT Dr. in the near future.

Now for the most exciting news:  Since the end of January, Luke has been participating in twice-weekly, one-on-one speech therapy with a wonderful (really, wonderful) speech therapist out of Lucile Packard, Miss Amy.  After Luke's initial assessment, she noted quite a few two-letter blends that he was substituting other sounds for that she determined necessary to work on.  So, Luke and I made the trek up to Menlo Park (NOT fun in rush hour traffic) twice a week to visit Miss Amy.  Despite the drive, I have to say that it was really worth our time and effort.  I can't imagine Luke loving his sessions or his therapist any more, and we were able to start seeing (hearing) results relatively quickly.  We practiced at home and Luke worked very hard ... and I am thrilled to say that after about 10 weeks of therapy, Luke was released on April 19th!   After taking a few weeks off, we went back for one last appointment to be sure that what he had worked on was being retained and generalized throughout his speech ... it was, and so we said goodbye and a very heartfelt thank you to Miss Amy (Luke was actually very sad to part with her ... I was not sad to part with the hours in the car two mornings a week).  We are incredibly proud of Luke and the progress he has made.
With all that aside, here's a bit about Luke and what he's like at 4 years, 9 months old:

He has gained some weight in recent months and is weighing in at almost exactly 40lbs.  Not sure on his height, but believe it is nearing 43".  He is now wearing mostly size 5 in clothing and size 11 shoe.  His food intake has increased drastically over the past few months - I suppose he was feeding that growth spurt.  However, he continues to be be the pickiest eater EVER. :(

Luke is very full of energy these days.  His brain is going about a bazillion miles a minute and he has a TON of information to share and questions to ask.  All. The. Time.  If he isn't talking, he can often be found singing, humming, or making other random sounds (whistling, squeaking, drumming, etc.)  Basically, unless he's involved with a task, he is not quiet!

He loves, loves, LOVES school (yay!).  He is always happy to go and gets excited when it's a school day.  He spends much of his time there playing with his best friend, Christopher (who he now refers to as "Chris").  Apparently they spend a good portion of their choice time at school in the sandbox, judging from the amount of sand that comes home in his shoes and pockets each day.  Luke has had the pleasure of being in Miss Sharada's small group this year and she was such a wonderful match for Luke.  She has worked quite a lot with him on his social skills, as well as really encouraging him to explore things that interest him.  As a result, we've seen his mathematical skills skyrocket (he's a whiz at addition, is starting subtraction, and has an amazing start at understanding the concept of multiplication - we can now see very clearly that he is very mathematical minded), and his reading skills begin to blossom (he is reading very simple rhyming words and sentences made up of such words).  Luke's end of year report card was very, very impressive - we were so happy to see the progress he has made throughout his years at Mandala (more on that in the coming weeks as our preschool boy "graduates!")

Luke continues to take weekly swimming lessons.  He is a "Sea Turtle" and is working on arm strokes while maintaining strong kicks (a bit difficult still to coordinate those for Luke), as well as roll-overs.  Luke is taking a break from soccer for a few months while we are neck-deep in tball, which he seems to really enjoy also.

Favorite things right now:
-swinging on the swings in the backyard (he's become an excellent "pumper" and is content to be out there and swing for 20 or 30 minutes alone).
-playing educational apps on the ipad
-Care Bears (that *might* be Mommy's fault)
-Building with legos or Daddy's old Construx (he can often be found doing this early in the morning before the rest of the house is awake)
-Helping cook in the kitchen or water plants in the yard
-Playing board or card games

Luke is still such a sweet, loving, affectionate little boy.  We are so, so lucky.  Aside from the difficulties he occasionally has with his sister, he is a very easy kid.  We love him to the moon ... and back.