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| Max, one year ago. |
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| Max, now! |
I know parents the world over have been saying this forever, but - Where has the time gone!? It’s been an exciting and eventful year. It feels like a whole lot has been happening around here lately - let's see if we can break it down.
1. Crawling, crawling everywhere.
This kid does. not. stop. moving - and he's quick! Ever since he figured out how to crawl a month ago, Max hasn't taken a rest. He gets up in the morning and it's go, go, go. As with most kids his age, he is into everything. He wants to know how everything works and he must inspect it all. Did you know that the garbage can makes a great drum? The toilet seat is a fabulous percussion instrument? The curtains are great for a game of peekaboo? Light switches are fun to turn off?
No speck of dust or fluff goes unnoticed. I could sweep and mop five times and Max would find the one lone kitty-fur tumble weed roll out from under the couch. He’ll stop crawling every now and again and sit to inspect his hands for floor crumbs. He’ll look around to make sure no one is watching and then cautiously lick at the crumb between his fingers. I’ve stopped chasing him around to brush his hands off. I figure if he’s willing to nibble on something, I’m not about to stop him. A little floor crumb never hurt anyone.
In Max’s quest for exploration he has also begun to pull up on anything he can reach. It’s usually fueled by a burning desire to reach something with buttons (remotes), or fur (cats). However in his excitement to grab at the object of his desires he often forgets that he’s not steady enough on his feet to let go. We’ve cuddled away more than a few bumps and bruises. All a part of toddlerhood, I try to tell him.
2. A sip of this, a nibble of that
As we mentioned a few posts back, we’re planning to do a hunger-based wean to get Max eating and eventually tube-free. Max has reached a great weight (nearly 18lbs now!) and is healthy enough to make this method safe. In February we will both be home for the month and are planning to begin the wean then. If all goes well we should have an eating Max before winter’s end. While we’re pretty optimistic, it’s more than a little hard to picture Max eating, considering how little experience and interest he has with food. However lately he has been showing more interest and seems to be developing rudimentary skills for eating.
There have been a few things that seem to have helped pique Max’s interest in food and eating.
As I already mentioned, Max has entered that age where he’s interested in everything. He’s especially interested in the things that other people are doing, or using. He has a particular penchant for forks and spoons. But not just any fork or spoon – the one you’re using. I’ve taken to bringing two sets of cutlery to the table when we’re eating so I have something to finish my meal with when Max steals my fork or spoon. He’s also becoming increasingly interested in what we’re eating. We offer him samples of what’s on our plate and he will smoosh it around, toss some to the floor, offer us nibbles and sometimes he gingerly rubs the food across his lips, occasionally having a taste. He’s even figured out how to chew food at the front of his mouth before swallowing so he doesn’t gag. They’re all small steps on the journey to becoming an eater.
Even more challenging than getting Max to eat, has been getting him to drink. Because he doesn’t know how to suck it’s been difficult to find a drinking vessel that he can use by himself that he can get anything out of. He was certainly interested. He plays with stacking cups in the bathtub and loves to fill them up and bring them to his mouth, dumping it back like he’s taking a drink. Most of it dribbles back out, but he is swallowing some, and more importantly he thinks it’s a lot of fun. One day Max’s buddy came over for a play date and he had a fascinating, yellow cup. Max was totally taken with it and wouldn’t leave it alone. It had a soft spout without a valve that let liquid out just by chewing on it. We rushed out that night to get Max his very own. He hasn’t stopped using it since. He doesn’t drink a lot, quantity-wise, but he loves his cup, and the look of pride and accomplishment on his face when he takes a little sip just melts my heart.
The last thing that we think is helping Max’s interest toward food is the most exciting for us. Imagine, if you will, throwing up every single day. Sometimes you feel like you’re in a scene from the Exorcist and vomit shoots from your mouth and nose, and the acid leaves your throat raw and sore. Would you be terribly interested in eating? Yeah, me neither. Max was dealing with this every day. Wait…did she say, was? When Max started crawling a month ago, something amazing happened. He stopped vomiting. Completely. Overnight. Now, I’m not sure you can fully appreciate the magnitude of this development until you’ve blown through 6 rolls of top-quality paper towels in the course of a week. Vomit ruled our lives. Our quality of life has improved substantially and we’re all pretty thrilled about it. I imagine eating has become much more appealing now that things aren’t always coming up.
We’re hoping all these things work together to make an as-smooth-as-possible weaning experience!
3. His name is Bob
If the hierarchy of importance in our home was determined by the order in which Max verbally named them, I’d be feeling pretty bummed. Of course, I know most babies utter a “dada” before they’ve developed the “m” sound required of the highly anticipated “mama” – that’s fair, I guess. But these other things?
Max’s first word was Dad. Fair enough, Dad is AWESOME! You get a bump on your head, you go to Mum for a cuddle, but you want super awesome happy play time? Dad’s your man! Max loves his Daddy.
Meet our cats. Max is nuts over the cats. Sure, miss Kenya on the left there doesn’t want much to do with him, but Nin*Dja is Max’s buddy. He patiently tolerates all of Max’s pats, and tugs, and well intentioned love.
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| Kenya and Nin*Dja |
For Max’s birthday he received this really great ‘Little People’ dump truck and driver. He went crazy for the driver. Even when most of his toys ended up on the ground, he would keep this little guy tight in his fist and take him everywhere. At the time he received this gift Max was babbling with a lot of “b” sounds. A few well timed “bob bob bob bob’s” while playing with the driver and we decided his name must be Bob. We started to refer to the toy by name and soon Max began to follow suit, asking for it when he couldn’t find him.
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| Meet Bob. |
Max loves books. He has loads of books, and would usually rather sit flipping through books than play with toys. He has a particular fondness for texture books. He especially loves the pages with soft, fuzzy textures. In fact, he loves anything soft. He will nuzzle soft objects up to his nose and make the most adorable, soft squeal of delight. So cute. He has one texture book that comes most places with us. It’s a book of words and we read all the pages, but one page gets the most read-time. This page has a picture of a dog, and the dog has a soft patch of fur. Max loves this page.
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| Dog. |
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| Soft dog! |
I waited and waited for the elusive “mama” to surface. While I waited Max learned signs in addition to his three words. All done, more, again, wash hands, ball, diaper, shoes, up, were all added to his repertoire before I heard it. And then one night I went into the bedroom to console him back to sleep, and he stretched his arms out to me and said it. The best two syllables ever!
“Mama” was Max’s fourth word.
Recently Max had an assessment with a speech language pathologist. It’s all a part of the follow-up program for babies who are born sick or premature. She assessed his expressive language (what he communicates) and receptive language (what he understands) and we were quite happy with the results. Max’s expressive language is testing at a 15 month level (his adjusted age), and his receptive language is testing at an 18 month level (his actual age). This means that he’s finally caught up with one aspect of his development, so we’re pretty thrilled and very proud of him.
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| Helping with decorating. |
