The first day or two, he seemed mellow but happy and re-discovered all the toys he had forgotten when he was too busy running around.
Next, he got more confident crawling and loved chasing a ball around. I got a video of what his crawling looked like the day after he got his cast on. Even though it is hard to see, he is wearing a Mr. Bump shirt which we thought was appropriate, given the circumstances (18 months, 13 days old):
Finally, he learned how to walk (after a long play date with his friend Penelope – I think he was showing off) and then there was no slowing him down. I got a video of our fast little walker and some pictures of all his mischief and activities (18 months, 18 days old):
After the visit to the park, I called the doctor to make sure all the activity was OK and the doctor gave the thumbs up to let Graham do anything he is able to do.
Graham continues to sleep well with the cast and our biggest challenge is still bath time. Graham puts on a waterproof shield and gets a sponge bath every other day. Beyond that, he misses his swim lessons and outdoor play dates but loves exploring around the house, going on walks in the stroller, and playing on the springy playground surface. Graham may have a different opinion but Mommy thinks it has been a pretty painless experience overall.
Our broken (and now on the mend) boy even managed to accumulate some cute antics and noteworthy tidbits to share:
- Words, words, words. Graham’s new favorite word is “eyes.” He points at eyes in pictures and points at his own eyes and even picks out certain books to read, based on how many eyes he can identify. Along those same lines, he now knows the word “glasses.” He also says “sleepy” when he puts his head down and pretends to sleep, but I’m not sure he understands what sleepy actually means quite yet. He identifies his leg as “boo boo,” he calls Mommy and Daddy’s bags “backpacks,” he is certain that toothpaste is pronounced “too-pea” (and impressed us when he identified a new tube of his toothpaste in a box without seeing the tube), he clearly knows the word “phone” and loves the toy phones we have given him, and I just recently discovered that he thinks a banana is a pancake. We sing the “pancakes and banana” song with breakfast each morning, so he must have gotten confused. He requests pancakes when he wants bananas, he identifies the bananas on his plate as pancakes, and he points to bananas in books and calls them pancakes. He picks up the remote control and says “TV,” I have no idea how he learned that one ;) and he calls out “Mark Man, Mark Man, Mark Man” whenever he sees or is reminded of our friend Mark. He now uses the word “story” as another way to identify books and says "toot, toot" when he wants us to read Little Toot and "tick tock or pop" when he wants us to read The Ear Book full of sounds.
- He has a cute new game where he sticks his hand out of the stroller side flap and waits for it to be tickled. The cute part is seeing those little fingers sticking through the side of the stroller, so eagerly reaching for the surprise tickle.
- Before his accident, he had a fun morning with a new game (getting pulled across the floor on a blanket) and then he had a great play date with a bunch of his friends and we got a picture of all the little kiddos on the couch (18 months, 6 days old):
- Graham has started singing and signing songs from his babyhood. Even though we haven’t practiced the signs, or songs for a long time, he appears to know them! It proves to me that all that time when he was lying around like a lump, he really was listening and taking everything in :)
- Graham went on a date and got a kiss! Graham and I met my friend Talina and her daughter Laurel for breakfast. We planned on going to our friend's fish and chip shop because there was a rumor that the royal couple were planning to stop by (news crews were on hand and everything) but we got downtown before the shop opened (oops). At breakfast, Laurel took care of Graham like he was her baby doll. She took food out of his snack trap and fed him and then after breakfast, when we were taking pictures, she went in for the kiss. Graham loved it and spent the next two days saying “Laurel, Laurel, Laurel!” (18 months, 15 days old):
- Graham has started flashing the biggest, goofiest, smile. I think he has started to understand that you smile to show someone else you are happy, so I’ll turn around and see that big goofy grin while he waits for me to acknowledge that I see he is smiling. He will also smile when he knows he has done something wrong and is trying to charm me after getting caught. I got a video of him doing the smile for just a second, but usually he smiles for much longer (18 months, 20 days old):
- Graham urgently signs and says “more, more, more” when we are doing something he enjoys and he wants it to keep going.
- We had a pacifier experiment. Graham still uses a pacifier when he sleeps, when he is in his car seat, and about half the time when he is in his stroller. Nick decided (out of the blue) to take away Graham’s pacifiers when he slept and our boy was a total champ and didn’t seem to mind at all. He slept through the night without any problems but a couple days into the experiment, we noticed that Graham was taking longer to go down for his naps, so we thought we would see if the pacifiers helped. We gave back the pacifiers and he had a 4.5 hour nap. We joked that it was probably his first good rest in days, so the experiment is on the back burner, but it is good to know that it probably won’t be challenging when we decide we are ready for Graham to permanently give up the pacifiers.
- When Graham wakes up, he stand up in his crib and calls for us, but when we come into the room to get him, he flops back down in full sleep position. We think he just needs a little extra time to wake up in the morning (just like Mommy and Daddy)!
- I’ve mentioned before that Graham takes keys and tries to open the front door by pointing the keys at the doorknob, but this time, I got a video. The attempt at opening the door is usually accompanied by lots of “outside, outside, go, go” but not in this particular video (18 months, 20 days old):
- Graham has started climbing on chairs and tables (and anything high), which terrifies Mommy, but we haven’t really started any kind of discipline so we are still figuring out how to handle this new activity.
- Graham still isn’t really into stuffed animals, probably because we don’t have him sleep with anything in his crib (no pillows, blankets, toys, or stuffed animals). He always snuggles stuffed animals the same way. We hand him an animal and he gives it a huge hug and holds it close to his face. With his monkey, he loves to lie on top of it as he hugs it, then after one final squeeze, he throws his stuffed animal away. I got a few pictures of the entire process, but sadly, a little fuzzy (18 months, 20 days old):
- We packed up Graham’s exersaucer. He had been too big for it for a while, but we were still using it to keep him contained during showers. He is such a mischievous little soul, it is hard to imagine leaving him uncontained even for a short shower. We brought in one of our outdoor gates and created a large playpen as the next showering option. It appears that our boy has been trained well. If the shower is running, he happily plays in the pen but if the shower is off, he screams and cries to be freed.
- As a final noteworthy tidbit, I have decided that Graham has ESP (extrasensory perception – an ability to receive information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind). When I pick up the phone to call my friend Alethea, he says “Ale” with no indication from me that Alethea is who I am calling. He also says “Dada” when I am calling Nick. He doesn’t identify who I am calling every time, but when he does do it, he is always right. Also, the other day, I was typing an email to my friend Talina and he said “Laurel” (her daughter’s name). Weird! My son is psychic!
No comments:
Post a Comment