Baby steps

I can't believe that Colin will have his first birthday in less than a week!! He has hit some major milestones in the past few weeks. After 3 months of scooting along furniture, he finally took his first step!! He usually only gets 3-4 steps in before losing his balance, but his record is 8. We have so much fun counting every time he does it! I have realized that we don't have any pictures or camera video (we taped him on our camcorder) of him walking so I will have to get some and post them soon.

He is also talking more. His new favorite word is "dog." He says it, oh, several hundred times a day. No exaggeration. He will just keep saying "dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog, dog", especially if he is looking out a window or reading a book. He is spotting dogs everywhere and loves them. Yesterday at the pet store he just about went crazy.

Here are some other crazy things he's been into lately.

After eating some dirt from the plant

His new tanning method: eat spaghettios for lunch!

Checking out his Valentine's Day stuff

Megan had a developmental evaluation a few weeks ago and we discovered that she is at the equivalent of 22 months with her gross motor skills (she is 35 months) and so she will be starting physical therapy now as well as continuing speech. She has essentially the same problem with both speech and motor skills. Her speech problem is called apraxia and it means her brain has trouble coordinating all the muscles in her mouth to talk. Her problem with gross moter skills is called nonverbal apraxia because her brain has problems coordinating her muscles to do things like jump, kick, balance, etc. We have always known she was behind - even when she was an infant, she was several months late with all of her major milestones but we figured she was just a little late and would catch up on her own.

When she turns 3 next month, she will start an Early Childhood program through our school district. The program is like a pre-pre-school for kids who need speech or physical therapy or both. There are only 5 other kids in the class and the teacher is fantastic. It is five mornings a week for 2 1/2 hours and she'll even be riding a bus!!

I am having a really hard time because I am not ready to let her go. I thought we would have another year and a half before she started pre-school. I have cried and cried and even now just thinking about it I am getting teary. But it is an amazing opportunity for her not only to get speech and physical therapy, but to help her receptive language skills, social skills, and learning all sorts of fun things like colors, numbers, etc. She is continuing to progress with her speech and adds new words/sounds every week.

Her favorite things lately have been playing in the snow, having 'tea' parties, doing puzzles, and playing with her dollhouse.

Listening to music with Daddy's Ipod

Snuggling with Auntie Robyn

Having a "tea" party