December and January

A belated update, apologies! Time seems to fly by these days.

Theodore had a wonderful Christmas. He loved seeing all of his family, especially his cousins Austin and Alex. We were in Brampton from the 17th to the 26th, then in Ottawa until January 3rd. We were lucky enough to be able to see all of our immediate families and spend time with Theodore's great-grandmother Peggy, who is 96!

Playing with his cousin Austin

He travelled well, though on the flight to Toronto he only slept one hour out of five. It's definitely getting trickier to fly with him. Unfortunately he got sick in Ottawa, an ear infection, fever, and cold. He recovered fairly quickly, but then Billy and myself got very sick as well! It was a shame, but he enjoyed being taken care of by Auntie Catherine and Grammy Eileen while his parents laid around feeling miserable.

It was Theodore's first real experience with snow, also. He hadn't seen any since he was three months old and obviously didn't remember it. He hated his snowsuit, since he was so bundled up he could hardly move, but he discovered that he could slide very fast in it, and so we had endless fun at the park. Overall I'd say he gave the snow a mixed rating!

Whee! Sliding is fun!

As always, he continues to progress in all his skills. Thanks to his wonderful physical therapist, he is now doing a lot of "proper" hands-and-knees crawling, which is very good for his core strength. He also wants to walk everywhere while holding onto our hands. With me, he demands both hands to be held, but he will go very fast with only one hand with Daddy! He's also practicing standing independently, and can do so for about 10 seconds. He thinks both standing and walking are very fun games, which is great! We feel he will be doing both independently within a month or two.

He is also babbling much more, sometimes non-stop! He does not yet have any words, however. We are going to be starting speech therapy soon, hopefully in a week or two. But the range and variety of his vocalizations is very exciting. His receptive language has also pretty much completely caught up to his age level. He follows directions well and knows the name for a huge number of objects, body parts, people, etc. While we were away he learned one sign, for lights/sun/stars (they're all bodies of light, so it works!) He also reliably throws his hands straight up in the air when he sees football...I had no idea teaching him that would be so effective. ;)

We are still monitoring his weight; unfortunately when he was sick in Ottawa he went a few days where he would only nurse and not eat any solid food, and he was still resistant after he got better, so at his weight check he had not gained any weight. Since then his appetite has picked up. He now seems to actually *have* an appetite, and an interest in food! I'm feeling confident that he will be starting to gain weight now. His favourite foods are macaroni and cheese (homemade or boxed), Annie's Bunnies (bunny-shaped cheese crackers), ice cream, and peas. He's a strange kid! The other day I put a blueberry, a piece of zucchini, and a piece of carrot on his tray. He gave me back the blueberry and ate the zucchini and carrot!

Not too much else is new in his or our world. He did get his first haircut - see the photos for a picture! We continue to go to regular appointments, to the Y (though he is experiencing intense separation anxiety again and does not enjoy that as much), and Gym Kids. For the last few weeks we were blessed with amazing weather - 65F or warmer and beautifully sunny every day. We practically lived at the park! We are battling some sleep issues again, but seem to be making progress, which is encouraging. We are also looking forward to another visit from Grandma Carole and Granddad Bill, who are coming to visit on February 12th!

Will try to update more often...in the meantime, here are rather a lot of photos and three videos.

Billy bought Theodore a synthesizer, and took this video of him playing it:


Here he is playing on a keyboard during supper (kid loves music!):


And here is a video taken on my phone at the park:


And the photos! The slideshow doesn't seem to be loading right now, so here's a direct link to the album: December and January photos

15 months already!

A few days late, but Theodore turned 15 months old this week! It's hard to believe how much he's growing up.

We have been quite busy since my last update. As I mentioned, Grandma Carole and Granddad Bill were in town for two weeks. We then had a nice Thanksgiving long weekend, and Auntie Suzie arrived! Theodore really enjoyed her company. At the end of the week, his Auntie Catherine arrived as well! We had a full house, which was lots of fun.

Celebrating Hanukkah with Auntie Suzie

We have also started with his early intervention. Once a week an "infant educator" comes to the house for an hour, where we do play therapy, focusing on speech development and cognitive skills. It's fun and informal, which is nice. Due to the time that elapsed between Theodore's assessment and the start of the intervention, he's already achieved at least half of the goals she has for him! We are also doing physical therapy once a week, in San Jose with a therapist who specializes in pediatric PT. Again, it's a lot of fun, playing and climbing. She is working to encourage him to do a hands-and-knees crawl, or at least try out the position to develop his core muscles. She also keenly noted that when he stands up and climbs (more on that in a moment) and also when he scoots, he is always pushing off from his "good" foot, rather than the one with the abnormality. She thinks it is an unconscious compensation, because while we saw the pediatric orthopedist again and she thinks everything looks fine and healthy, he does have less structure to use to balance on. So we are trying to encourage him to use that foot/leg more, to avoid it being underdeveloped, compared to the other. He's pretty game for it, though by the end of the session he gets annoyed!

The other big news is that starting pretty much the day after I last updated, Theodore had an absolute explosion of new skills. He can climb up and safely back down the stairs, he can easily pull to stand and is very close to doing it without needing something to pull on, he's cruising very fast around the furniture, and he can push his firetruck and take several steps behind it. Due to the heroic efforts of Grandma Carole, he is now self-feeding very well, though we're still working on a cup. He actually prefers to bite into food now, especially whatever you're eating! He also clearly understands so much more of what we say - practically everything. He is pointing up a storm and has started to express very definite wants. He's developing a little toddler attitude! He also hates being told "no", but has to get used to it... It's been lots of fun, though, watching him take off - for a while, it seemed like every day he learned or did something new! He will give his baby doll a "kiss" if you ask, he initiates peek-a-boo play, he can put some of his puzzles together - so many new things. And in general, he continues to be a very happy, cheerful little boy.

Cruising around the coffee table!

Theodore also had his fifteen month pediatrician visit this week. It went well, though the doctor was concerned because he has not put on much weight and is still under nineteen pounds. He did grow in length and head circumference, however, and is burning up calories like crazy these days with all his activity. We are trying a bit of a bulking up diet, though, to see what we can do! Otherwise he was considered very healthy.

That's a long enough update for now! If I don't get to update over the holidays, hope everyone has good ones, whatever you celebrate. We are off to Canada on December 17th for just over two weeks, splitting our time between Brampton and Ottawa.

Video this time: taken by Auntie Suzie, it's Boy vs. Roomba!



And as always, the pics!

October and November to date

Apologies for the long time between updates! We've been very busy, as always.

In October we went to Austin, Texas for four days to attend my cousin Eric's wedding. We had a fabulous trip. Theodore really enjoyed spending time with his cousins Austin and Alexandra in particular. Austin is four and a half and Alex is two and a half, and Theodore found them fascinating and exciting! He was very well-behaved at the wedding, and we all had fun relaxing and sightseeing.

Family photo at the wedding

Theodore also dressed up for Halloween for the first time! Since we were able to decide his costume, we chose to dress him up as Tintin, since his hair was perfect for it! We took him over to our friends' house and took him to two houses to trick-or-treat. He wasn't really sure what was going on, but enjoyed himself nonetheless!

Tintin!

Also, right now Grandma Carole and Granddad Bill are visiting! They have been here a week and are staying for one more week. Theodore has really liked having their company, and it's been a very nice visit, including some babysitting so that Billy and I can go on dates. Next up Auntie Suzie and Auntie Catherine are both coming too!

Developmentally, Theodore continues to improve every day. He is scooting, climbing, and trying to stand. And just today he got up two stairs! He has also started to babble consonants, and now we get a steady stream of "bababa" and a few "dadada"s. He has also learned how to push buttons, point, and make a hand gesture for "more". He is also clearly understanding much more of what we say, and knows the names for many objects and people. He continues to love books, balls, and chasing the cat, and his new favourite activity is putting things in other things - so we have fun putting away his toys in the box! He eats solid foods very well now, eating a variety of things at each meal, and enjoying most of them. On the weekend we gave him fresh Valencia orange slices, and he was ecstatic!

We continue to attend gym class, which he really enjoys. We have not yet started with the early intervention program, but hopefully that will be starting up quite soon. We are also looking forward to Thanksgiving, and a four day weekend for Billy! Theodore adores his father and so will really enjoy that.

No video right now, but as always, here are photos!

Belated Updates

A little behind on updating, apologies!

Since I last updated, we've been fairly busy. We took a quick trip to Seattle at the end of September to visit our friends Anton and Catherine. Teddy enjoyed seeing the sights and going to the aquarium, and visiting another friend, Barry, and playing with his young son's toys!

At the Seattle Aquarium

When we got back, he had a rash so I took him to the doctor. We think he's allergic to strawberries, which is a shame, but what exciting is that they weighed him and he'd put on 7oz in two weeks! He's slowly but surely getting into eating more solid foods so we're happy to see him putting on more weight.

What's especially exciting is that he's gaining despite being more active every day. He has perfected his 'scoot' and roams around the house, throwing and retrieving toys, pulling things off the shelves, and chasing the cat. He's also now practicing pulling up on his hands - he does a mean downward facing dog - and climbing on things, like the Wii Fit board. He also loves to stand up and look around when up, though has to be put in the standing position - but once there, he can stay upright while only loosely holding on with one hand. He isn't yet interested in moving his legs while upright, however.

He had his assessment with the state Early Start program this week. We will be getting a full report next week, but he does qualify for services for speech and physical therapy. Apparently much of the therapy will be conducted at our house, and it's all free, so we're pretty excited! I will definitely update with more information when I have it; after getting the report we will be talking and discussing therapy plans with a case worker.

We've also been attending a Gym Kids class, and enjoying it a lot. It's 45 minutes of free play in a large room full of mats, climbing gear, slides, and balls, and then 15 minutes of "circle time" - songs, bubbles, and a parachute. Very fun!

Other than all that, life continues as normal - trips to the park, to the store, and trying to get in the right number of naps! I've had two colds since I last updated, so that's slowed us down a little, and we suffered through two heat waves, but we keep having fun. Next week we are off to Austin, Texas for my cousin's wedding for four days. We can't wait to go explore and see all of my family!

Playing in his baby pool at 5pm in October!!

I think that's everything...so here are some photos and a video! It's an old video, actually, from August, that I just found on the camera I had misplaced. Just 20 seconds, but shows Teddy's hilarious reaction to seeing animals. :)



And photos!

Updates

As promised, here's the (slightly belated) update after Theodore's one year checkup and birthday party.

Enjoying his cake!

The birthday party was a lot of fun. Grandma Eileen was here, and Dana, Cindy, Igor, and Sasha all came by. Theodore enjoyed being the center of attention! We BBQed and then had a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing that I made from scratch. Theodore was unfortunately tired by the time we did the cake so it wasn't a huge hit, but he did find it tasty! The picture above is as messy as he got. He doesn't like to self-feed so his mess was mostly all the cake he threw on the floor!

Grandma Eileen was here for three days, which was a lovely visit. Unfortunately Theodore caught a cold - his first! - and wasn't at his best, especially at night as he would cough, and throw up, and be very stuffy, but he really enjoyed her company and after sleeping a bit better he perked up and enjoyed playing with her very much. I also caught that cold so we were a bit of a sick household for a while. Thankfully we're all feeling better now, as Theodore being sick was very hard on everyone.

His one year checkup went very well. We have a new pediatrician and I was very pleased with her and her office. Theodore weighed in at 17 lbs, 12 oz, and 28". He's definitely still on the small side but the doctor was not worried. We are working hard to get him eating, and he's been steadily improving, so that's good! He is also still nursing so thankfully gets lots of nutrition from breast milk, even when he's not very interested in solids.

We did discuss Theodore's speech and gross motor skills (she was impressed with his fine motor skills - no problems there - as he was tearing tiny pieces of paper off the table when she came in!) We decided to be proactive and have started the intake process with the state Early Start program. I'm excited for this to get started and to hopefully learn new ways to help him learn! He does seem to improve every day, however. He can now scoot very fast - especially when he tries to catch the cat! - and just in the last few days he learned and then fully mastered how to sit up from a lying down position, a milestone we'd been concerned that he'd missed. This does mean that when I put him down for a nap today he woke up fifteen minutes later and sat himself up in the crib...but we're still happy he learned! Readiness is definitely key for this kid. When he's ready, he learns fast. (I also taught him to hold his arms out when someone scores a touchdown - it's pretty cute!)

That's about all the news! I did sign us up for a Gym Kids class, and we have our first class tomorrow. Should be a fun activity that may help teach more gross motor skills, and let him interact with other kids, which he has come to love. (We go to our neighbourhood park regularly, and earlier this week he started screeching with joy when it came into view, and he saw the other kids!) We are also heading to Seattle next weekend for a short visit with our friends Catherine and Anton. We're really looking forward to that! Now, as always, some photos - no new video this time, sorry, I've misplaced the camera I normally take video on!

One Year Old!

Happy birthday, Theodore! Our little man turns one year old today. It's hard to believe - the time has flown!

Birthday Boy on the 7th!

We've been pretty busy since our last update. Lots of activities, and we took another trip to Canada! We went to Regina, Saskatchewan to visit my good friend Becky and her husband Chris, who moved there last year. It was the whole Biggs family's first time in the Prairies, and we had a lot of fun. We visited the town where the TV show Corner Gas was filmed, went to the RCMP museum, swam in the hotel pool, and spent time relaxing (and eating!) with Becky and Chris.

At the Regina airport, waiting like a big boy for his flight home!

Theodore continues to develop and learn. He is now fully mobile! He decided to bypass "traditional" crawling and instead does a cute bum scoot with arm pull. I've included video at the end of this post. He's extremely pleased with himself and is content to move around the house for long periods of time. He will go to a toy, throw it, and go get it again - like playing fetch! Since throwing things is his other favourite pastime, this is very entertaining to him. He is practicing his standing as well, though is not yet ready to stand unassisted or walk.

He continues to enjoy imitative play. I will balance one of his small stacking cups on the post for his rings, and he will repeat it happily. But he has to get it just right - if it's crooked, he will try again until he gets it right! When he does get it right, he's very pleased and we clap and smile. He is also becoming more accustomed to playing with other children, and loves going to the park and watching older children play while being pushed in the swing. He will kick his legs on cue in the swing as well, which is very sweet!

As you can see, he also still loves books!

We see his new pediatrician on Monday the 13th, so I don't have updated stats to share yet. I will update again next week when I have that information. Also, his first birthday party is next Saturday, the 11th, so I will share photos from that! We're having a small gathering at our house, with a special guest of honour - Grammy Eileen is coming down from Ottawa! Teddy will be thrilled to see her.

Here's video and photos, as always!

Teddy's version of crawling:


Photos:

Trip Report and Updates!

As the title suggests, the biggest thing that has happened lately was our wonderful 12-day trip to Canada. We all had a terrific time on this trip!

Daddy and Baby at the ceremony!

Our first stop was Halifax, Nova Scotia, to attend Billy's cousin Laura's wedding. We had a great time at the wedding, got to see a lot of family, and also stayed with our good friends Marc and Colleen, who we hadn't seen in several years. It was great to spend time with them. We also drove up to Antigonish, where Billy's grandparents used to live (they are both now deceased). Some family was there and we took Theodore down to the beach, though we didn't swim. Overall it was a great few days.

Cute faces at Grammy Eileen's house

After Halifax we flew to Ottawa, where we visited with more family and friends, and stayed with Billy's mom. Unfortunately it was during the week so it wasn't as easy to see everyone, but we did end up seeing a lot of people! It also rained while we were here - which Teddy found fascinating! He didn't remember rain, as it only rains in the winter in our part of California, and he was so little then, of course.

Three cousins on the couch!

Then to finish the trip, we flew to Toronto, where we stayed with my parents in Brampton. We got to spend time with my sisters, my grandmother who now lives in Brampton, and also drove to Waterloo to see Billy's brother Michael. In particular, Theodore really enjoyed spending time with his cousins Austin and Alex. He was fascinated by them and loved playing with them at their house one day.

Teddy was wonderful on all the flights. He took good naps and was generally able to be entertained, and almost barely cried - and that's over five flights! He also did quite well with adjusting to the different time zones. What he had some trouble with was stranger anxiety - the poor boy got a bit overwhelmed by all the new people at times. He cried and cried at the ceremony and wasn't that much happier at the reception, though it would come and go. He seemed to need a bit of time to warm up to people, and also preferred to meet people on his own terms, rather than be held and have people come up to him and be in his face. This was a problem on and off during the whole trip, but overall he was pretty happy with all the new things he saw and did. He especially enjoyed seeing relatives he remembered, like Grandma Carole and Granddad Bill, and Auntie Debbie. He also continues to teethe, having a hard time with the two up top he's cutting right now in particular, but thankfully this mostly only bothered him at night - though he had his fingers in his mouth for most of the photos!

He had his eleven-month birthday while he was away, and we're rapidly approaching the one year mark! We will be having a small party at home to celebrate.

Not too many new milestones to mark. We did leave him with my parents for an evening, the first time anyone else but us tried to put him to bed. It went pretty well for a first attempt! Billy and I were lucky enough to get tickets to see Paul McCartney in Toronto, so we couldn't pass up the opportunity. Teddy is getting stronger every day, though he is still not yet crawling or walking. He is very content to sit and play and does not seem motivated to move around! We are working hard on providing opportunities to strengthen his upper body and crawl, and he will move in circles, so it's a start. He's also very interested in standing, and loves to climb on me. He also likes a new game of sitting on the bed and flopping himself backwards on the pillows, then pulling himself back to sitting, over and over again. So he's getting there, just a little bit behind.

He is now firmly in love with books, especially ones where he can touch different textures. He loves to turn the pages himself. He is definitely starting to understand a lot of what we say; at night Billy reads him Goodnight Moon and when he gets to the page saying "goodnight kittens" Teddy stops and pats the page! He also will clap on cue. He loves to clap and loves to be praised for his abilities. His fine motor skills are excellent and so it's all a matter of different development in different areas, it seems.

I guess that's enough for now! As always, here are a few photos (most of which were already on Facebook, apologies) and a video.

Photos:


Hanging out in his baby pool this week: