New Tricks

It seems both of our boys have new tricks to share...

Ian's starting to laugh- he's been a pretty reluctant smiler/laugher so far- not that he won't, but he just wants you to really work for it. He's also doing a lot more tummy time without complaint- keeping his head up really high and trying to grab for toys. He had a run of nights where he slept for 12 hours straight, uninterrupted even by feeding. Now he's back to one wake up, and then right back to sleep. No complaints on our end.

Cooper's new tricks have to do with language. One of the things we're always asked in evaluations is whether Cooper asks questions. Until recently, Cooper really only had one question, "Whazzat?" Loosely translated as either "What's that?" or "Who's that?" to help him label things. In the last two weeks, he's started this one: "Doin'?" As in, "Whatcha doin', Mom?" I love it because it's so different from anything else he says or does. He's also starting to ask Where questions- particularly at naptime and bedtime, they're a great delaying tactic. As in: "Where's dolly? Where's Red Dog? Where's bear? Where's Elmo?" And on, and on, and on...Gotta love it.

We've signed Cooper up for a 2-3 year olds gymnastics class here in town. I've struggled with Occupational Therapy for a while now because, while the therapist we see is great, there is such high demand that therapists really don't see kids more than every two weeks, which doesn't feel that effective to me. So, I figured we'd try out gymnastics and hopefully combine more socializing with typical peers, with developing his gross motor skills. He was hysterical in his first class- adapting all the activities to his own level. The teacher, Hillary, had them do pencil jumps down the trampoline ramp (?) with their hands over their heads. Cooper's barely jumping in one place these days (lots of effort for those 4" off the ground!), nevermind jumping with forward progression. So after a couple of turns of jumping and falling down, he put his hands over his head and ran down the ramp. Hey, whatever works. I think it'll be a good match for him.