10 Months - October 20

Time has flown by so fast this last year, but it really feels like just yesterday that we were talking about how exciting it was for you to be 9 months old...and now another month has already past! This month is the big one for us - you have now been home just as long as you were in the hospital!!!

You have learned and grown SO much this month, and I've tried over the last week to collect videos of everything new that's going on.

Last Wednesday you all of a sudden (and I mean, really - Tuesday was completely different!) decided that tummy time wasn't that bad! You did a 9 minute session and then a 4 minute session that day. Since then, every day you've been perfectly content for 5-10 minutes at a time and when you're done, you just roll right over!

The speech therapist has been working hard with you this month and you are responding so well!!! One of the biggest things we're still working on is moving your tongue from side to side and you're starting to do that a little more...mostly when I can't get to my camera, but we were able to catch a little bit of it here.

You also LOVE using the mesh feeder and have started grabbing at it as soon as she sits down with it to get the food in your mouth:

If you finish all of the food in the bowl, you get to play with the bowl and spoon. Lately, you've been acting like you are going to feed yourself, other times you just go crazy banging them together (another skill you've mastered this month!)

This was a pretty exciting month for traveling too - you got to go with Mama and Grandpa on a quick weekend trip for the EYL Planning Retreat and see some friends from this summer:

Shopping with Grandpa - and no vent!

You were a little cranky when we got there :)

But the rest of the weekend you were happy!

And loved being outside!

You also got to spend some time with Nanny when they came to visit. You love riding the pony with Nanny, but only Nanny. I tried to do it with you once and looked at me like I was crazy.

You are ask doing really well with your PT and OT. Your favorite thing to do is still play at your desk, usually just banging on the box but this month you learned how to bang the blocks against it with both hands, how to bang the blocks together on the desk and in the air and how to move things forward and back as well as side to side. The PT found some new toys for you to play with while we work on kneeling - you mastered those in about 5 minutes each :)

On this one, you only wanted to play with the book - 

And on this one, only the laptop part - open and close and open and close and open and close -

You've been playing more in your standing / sitting toy thing (I have no idea what it's called!) and for some reason are terrified of the little smiling lion toy. Grandpa fixed that for you by putting a sock over it's head...

Other big milestones this month: 

You are doing up to three hours a day now off of the ventilator and handling it just fine! We tried the trach collar twice and you were not thrilled each time. It doesn't connect to anything, just hangs around your neck, so it makes moving around really difficult because every time you move it pushed itself up into your face. So we stopped using it...don't tell Dr. M :)

We had an ENT check up last week and she said everything looked great! AND moved us to an every six month rotation instead of every three! She said the trach size looks good so we will plan on leaving you in this size for a while, and that you've actually grown into it some so you have less of a leak around it and shouldn't be able to get any sound out because there is no air going over your vocal chords...I just laughed and said someone must have forgotten to tell you that because you talk ALL THE TIME! She just laughed.

You got to meet one of Mama's really good friends last Friday (finally!) and were happy to have attention from some new people!

You've started really enjoying your time at Grammie's house - laughing and smiling and talking to her. As big as you have started looking in your chairs, you looked so tiny sitting in the high chair that she has! But you loved having the great big tray to bang on and roll your ball around!

You continue to be a happy, smiling baby! You make my day so much brighter. You have worked so hard this month and have grown so much - I can't wait to see what all happens before next month!