11 Months

Our little cruiser has become our little climber in the past few weeks. Good bye floor, Hello stairs! Levi is now racing upstairs like he's on a mission... but in 11 month old fashion. So we have to keep the toy room doors closed or the gate put up to keep him from escaping.

He only has 4 teeth but has really broadened his meal time options. Snacks can include bread, cheerios, bananas cut up, cooked peas, hard boiled eggs, tiny bits of chicken or apple and his favorite... graham crackers! It's so fun to feed him, and so effortless. He's practically a bottomless pit!

He is saying "Ma ma" more consistently now and also signing "eat" and "more" as before. Diaper changes have become more challenging and he really prefers to be naked!

This is such a fun and interactive stage, and Levi continues to amaze us with his many skills!! Today he enjoyed pushing a ball back and forth. His favorite thing is to follow Josiah to his bed room and play with what ever he is playing with: cooking utensils, magnet tiles or pirate ship stuff. For the most part J is happy to share, but now that L is more independent playtime can be more like destruction time.

(taken just after the first, but before the 2nd was pulled)

Abby's wiggly loose bottom teeth finally came out last weekend! I don't think she was too thrilled with the process but it has to feel better now that they are out.

When Abby was in the NICU we received a sweet gift from Patrick's Aunt Mary Lou. It was a soft pink bunny with her name embroidered on one of his ears. The bunny has on pajama's and sports a small pocket on it's hiney. When I first noticed the pocket I wasn't sure what it was for. Aunt Mary Lou told us it was for the tooth fairy! At the time it was hard to imagine the joy of loose teeth, we didn't know if we would ever get to that point.

To celebrate Abby's first lost teeth (except for the one knocked out 3 yrs ago during an intubation... that one didn't count) we put her pink bunny to work. In the morning Josiah was very excited to find two lollipops in place of the teeth. He brought the bunny (and candy) to us early the next morning, eager to share in Abby's reward.

Abby seems to be doing well this week. She has had 1 or 2 seizures so far which is great! Her incisions look sore and are still healing after 3 weeks. She has been such a trooper keeping up with therapies and her usual appointments. Next week is the last week of the school semester and we are all looking forward to a break.

During the summer she will benefit from 3 weeks of summer home-bound services including PT, OT and our teacher for the hearing impaired. This will be good for her since Abby has taken several steps backward due to illnesses and surgery.

Next month she will also get to go to camp! UCP is offering summer camps ("I Can Camp") for children with physical challenges and Autism. Abby will go from 9-12 am for 5 days. The kids will have fun playing with water, petting animals and other carnival themed activities, all the while working with therapists on their individual challenges. We hope she will have fun.