Self-Feeding or Clean Carpets?
Greetings to everyone.
It's been a while since I've posted something. We've been busy, but we've actually been enjoying a few weeks of a settled life. Like the many mumbling mice in the moonlight, these past few weeks have been mighty nice (apologies to Dr. Seuss).
Rebecca tried something earlier this week which has gone a long way to revolutionizing feeding Xavier. After strapping him into his car seat, she handed over a bottle to him. She then got into the car and drove home. Xavier drank the whole bottle during the ride. No one held the bottle for him. We have put that to use quite a lot since!
He still has not learned to tilt his head back, so the car seat is the only place to date he can drink the bottle under his own strength. He has, on occasion, stood at Rebecca's or my feet as we held a bottle and drank from it like a hamster. That's always amusing.
We've had to make a decision. Do we want to work with Xavier to be a self-feeder or do we want clean carpets and flooring? It was a not as difficult a choice to make as I thought (I thought I would have to really fight my nature more). We decided carpet cleaning is cheap, so we set a budget line item for it. Xavier now roams the halls, armed sometimes with his bottle.
Xavier At 16 Months
Greetings to everyone.
Xavier turns 16 months today. I thought I would post a few recent pictures of him at 16 months.
He can self-feed an entire pudding cup (so long as it's chocolate). From a seated position, he can stand straight up and hold it for several seconds.
After mowing the carpet, Xavier jumps onto his ATV to go harass the dog.
Xavier's First Art Work
Greetings to everyone.
Today begins this month's Reserve Weekend for Rebecca, so Xavier had one of his part-time nannies looking after him. Shauna is really good, and Xavier likes her. Not even Mom and Dad can keep Xavier in his highchair for over an hour and be happy the whole time. Shauna can!
When Rebecca was in Cheyenne for the whole week at the end of August, Shauna sat for us a couple of times. During one of those times, she brought the supplies to make salt dough. She and Xavier made up the dough and then she helped Xavier press his hands into it to make impressions.
It cracked a little while drying, but this is Xavier's first hands-on (pun intended) indulgence into the arts.
Today, she introduced Xavier to painting. He really liked it. He got more excited over painting than he does smearing his "age-appropriate food texture" purees around on his tray. That's saying something.
Shauna brought over a sponge brush, which Xavier really liked. She drew the pumkin, then let Xavier have a go at it. She took a picture to memorialize the event. After a while, however, he wanted to eat the paint off the brush. Even though the paint is kid-safe, fixating on eating it brought an end to his painting session. After it dried, we found a prominent spot on the refrigerator to open Xavier's gallery.
Outstanding Therapy Session
Greetings to everyone, and Happy September!
Xavier had his speech therapy meeting today. He missed it last week; Mom was out of town all week and we decided it was easier to cancel last week's session—it was a hectic enough week even with its cancellation. Today, he demonstrated an explosion of pent-up effort!
Xavier lasted nearly the whole hour at the table before growing bored (usually he makes it :30 minutes). He spoon-fed himself (and swallowed) half a cup of vanilla pudding. He ate (and swallowed) a giant cheese puff. And, to top it all off, he drank through a straw and swallowed! Katie, his OT, had set a goal for him to be sucking through a straw within the next six months. Looks like she will have to reset some goals, PTL!
Robin, the therapist, also noted how well he works things out in his head. It appears Rebecca and I will have to up our game to rise to the challenge of our son. After the issues of the past 22 months, such a challenge is welcome.
Xavier was unusually chatty with Robin today, pointing at things and telling her all about them. Robin noted that Xavier is actively and purposefully mixing his sounds and choosing "words." This excited her perhaps more than the stellar eating demonstration Xavier gave her. He is learning language, something which surprised her a little. It's been two weeks since she last saw him, and his progress—both eating and speech—surprised her. The words he is using are definitely Xavierese, but nonetheless a definite and identifiable use of language skills.
Tonight, Xavier sat in his chair and ate with us adults. Truly, he ate with us (most of the time) instead of playing with his food and cutlery. Rebecca bought some bowls with suction cup bottoms; those suckers don't come up once they are placed—though Xavier tried relentlessly. Once he realized the bowl was not moving, he dug in his spoon and ate another half cup of vanilla pudding. After dropping his spoon for the dog to lick, he continued eating with is hands. To wash it down, he drank from a little juice box sized container. It has a straw through which he sucked down grape juice. The juice was new to him, so he spit out his first few sips while deciding if he liked it. He decided he did like it, but after staining his shirt as a reminder to his parents that we do have bibs and should use them.
