BRAN-DEEEEE

It's been a while but big news. Yesterday Brandon said his name for the first time with the therapist. If you ask him what's his name, he replies bran-deeee. It is so cute. So of course we have asked him about 1000 times between today and yesterday. Also today was their last day of school until September. Boo-hoo!
Speaking of school, they are going to get evaluated by the state to see if they qualify for the disabled program within the school district over the summer. If they qualify, they can start school the day after their 3rd birthday. They would go 5 days a week, 1/2 days, and they would also take the bus. Sounds like a dream come true lol. Brandon is pretty much a no-brainer that he will qualify, but I was concerned about David b/c he is really only delayed with his speech. But, he just had his annual review with EI and my service coordinator said that as long as he still qualifies for EI (which he does), he will most likely qualify for school. They only have to be delayed 33% in one area or 25% in 2 areas. Until their birthday, they will go to Little Footprints in September 2 days a week.
At the end of April, we went to Ft Lauderdale for a 6 days. We had a blast. It was just the 5 of us. Our room was amazing and huge. The kids had their own bedroom, which was a first for us on vacation. The weather was perfect. The babies loved the beach and playing in the sand. The only hard part was when they would wander off and we would have to chase them up the beach. But while we were there David had a word explosion and just started saying words out of the blue. He says up, down, ball, on, off, cup, baba, duck, yes, apple, hug, no, mamma, daddy, dog, cat, and I know there are some I am forgetting. Now the speech therapist is working on putting words together. Brandon has starting putting 2 and 3 words together, He will say me up ball, which means he wants to throw the ball up. It has gotten so much easier now that they can communicate a little more. They get less frustrated.
We had their NICU follow-up in the beginning of May. They were so pleased with their progess. We don't go back now until 6 weeks after their 3rd birthday.
We went to Pt Pleasant, NJ over Memorial Weekend. Again we had a great time. They loved the beach which was cold and windy, but it didn't seem to bother them. The water was freezing but that didn't stop Brandon from his favorite game of throwing the ball into the waves and then Daddy mostly had to get the ball so he could throw it back in. He did this for hours. David stuck to the sand more and followed Nico like his little shadow (as we call him). David loves hanging out with older kids. At night we went on the rides which they loved almost a little too much. When David was on the ride, he was the happiest baby you have ever seen. When we took him off to go wait for another ride he went psyco - kicking, screaming, and crying until we got on another ride and then it was like his tantrum never happened. It is funny to think about now but very annoying while it was happening. Brandon held onto every ride with 2 hands. We were so happy.
David had his check-up with the pulminologist yesterday and it went very well. He is stopping his Flovent the end of June and resuming it Sept 1st, but hopefully it means that he is trying to wean him off of it.
Brandon is still doing his OT camp twice a week and the PT is working on jumping, walking backwards and side-stepping with both of them. David is almost jumping off 2 feet without holding onto anything.