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