Alex Update

So last any of you heard, Alex was heading to his Early Intervention appointment to assess his speech.  I was right, that I had nothing to worry about.  He is slightly delayed in speech (they assessed him at 7-9 months), but there is nothing to indicate that it is anything more serious than being a quiet baby.  He was right on level with every other cognitive and physical skill, and so everyone is assured that he will catch up in the speech department in due time.  Even from the time we made the appointment until we had it, he was making a lot more sounds.  Still, it was kinda interesting to see what they do and look for.  It would be an interesting field to study.  The speech therapist was very excited to see the sippy cups that I use.  She hadn't even ever seen them, and said they are exactly the perfect cup for speech development - and you didn't even know that cups had anything to do with speech!

I was very impressed with the attention that they paid Alex and I, and I felt slightly guilty for even taking their time, when I am sure other kids need this service so much more than we do.  The report they wrote up was very extensive.  To give you a taste of it, one excerpt said, "Vocalization noted today included: ete, ju, sss, meh, mmmm, ehdeh, tuhduhs.  It is reported that he consistently says, "dah", after he is allowed to select his diaper, fist thing in the morning.  This may be his first work approximation."

They gave me lots of literature on speech development and some helpful games to play.  I do have to admit, some of this might be that we are just not paying as much attention to him as we would have if he was our first child.  There is just so much to do, that I do not have much time to "say good morning" to every item in our house every morning.  However, I do think I did that with Mason.  I will try harder, but honestly I think he will still grasp it all, maybe just a couple months later.

He is climbing up (and down) the stairs now fairly frequently.  I did break out the dreaded baby gate today.  I am not really afraid of him falling, but just that he still needs to be watched, so I don't want him upstairs when I am downstairs.  He puts everything in his mouth, so I have to watch him fairly closely.

Silly monkey boy.  Why head first?

He makes it so hard on himself

Finally realized how to go backward.

His allergies are still pretty bad.  He always has puffy eyes and a runny nose.  Hopefully the summer weather will clear things up a bit.  He seems pretty miserable and very sleepy a lot of the time.

I can't wait until he can walk.  I am hesitant to take him to the gym quite yet.  Partly because he is still crawling around and seems so much like a baby to me.  I think he will get run over in the child care center.  When he is walking, he can play in the backyard with Mason so much easier too.  I will let him go out there now, but it definitely hurts his knees to crawl around on that cool-decking.  He does like being outside though.  He seems to really like when the breeze hits his face.  He gets real peaceful and day-dream like.

That is all I can really think of.  Bye!