Progress Report

Speech: Well, the kiddo's vocabulary just keeps growing and growing.  His newest word is circle (said more with a "k" sound like "kakel").  His two word phrases keep popping out, mostly an adjective with a noun, such as " re ba" (red ball), "wha kakel" (white circle), "tee ca" (three cats).  He also uses phrases to express things he wants, which I am so excited about.  These include "eeee pee" (eat please), "mo dree" (more drink), and "bo pay" (go play).

He has learned to say the "ss" sound, and the "sh" sound, so I often hear him tell little brother "shhh", and when he is counting, both six and seven are said as simply "ss".  (wa, boo, tee, ma, ta, ss, ss, a, my, ta).

Something tells me I'm going to need to be his interpreter for quite some time, but I don't mind, I'm so happy to hear him expressing himself, and I know he's encouraged when I understand what he's saying.  I can see the frustration when he says something that I don't understand, but more often than not, I either know what he's saying or can quickly figure it out.

Not only are there new words, but new skills too!  Kiddo's very first smiley face!

Little brother (13 months) is beginning to talk too!  He says "go" (though it's usually "go go go!"), "mama", "dada", "da da" for all done, and I think once or twice I've heard him say "ba" for ball.  He also does the signs for "more" and "all done."


Gross Motor: Right now, kiddo goes to physical therapy (PT) once a month.  I try taking the kiddos to playgrounds often, and since the spring, kiddo seems much more eager to attempt new things on the playground, his climbing has become much more coordinated, and he now is able to run.  He still has a hard time with stairs, (even small curbs), climbing things (ladders, taller steps like they have at Chick-fil-a play places, etc) and he is unable to jump or pedal a bicycle.  It's so awesome to see such progress with his speech, but honestly discouraging to see his gross motor skills not developing as quickly. Anyone have any suggestions of things we can try?

As for little brother, I took him a few times for private PT sessions when he was around 10 months since he was getting around doing "the worm", not standing upright even if we supported him, and not able to get up into sitting by himself from his belly.  PT seemed to help him a lot, to go from doing "the worm" to sitting upright on his own, then to crawling and then pulling to standing.  Once he was pulling to standing we stopped going to PT, and now he is cruising and crawling like a champ, and occasionally even standing without support for a few seconds.  I'm hopeful he will start walking in the next month or two.  :)

Cruisin'!

Fun Happenings: Just a few fun things the kiddos do together:

1) During bath time the other day kiddo was drumming on his little brother's back, and I told him not to touch his brother, so he started throwing foam letters at him instead.  He learned that they stick to little brother, and now he loves putting them all over little brother.  Little brother doesn't mind, and when he stands up in the bathtub, kiddo quickly sticks one letter on each butt cheek before I can sit little brother back down. :)

2) Both kiddos love crawling down the hallway together, giggling nonstop.  I love watching them play together.  Here's a short video of them crawling out of a blanket fort I made them...