Sick (Again!) and Expanding Vocabualry

Jeffrey has had a tough winter. It seems like he has had one illness after another. He got his tonsils out in November and then in December had round one of pneumonia. This past week, he got strep throat and yet another round of pneumonia! The poor thing is wiped out! Hopefully with spring quickly approaching, the colds will be fewer and farther between.

Collin on the other hand has been mostly healthy. He has had an everlasting cold but it doesn't seem to bother him much. I am tired of wiping runny noses and getting coughed on but he seems happy enough. Throughout this, Collin's vocabulary has been growing - slowing but he has some definite words under his belt. His first word was "done." He hands us his cup or food from his plate and says it. (Or he'll clear his plate by throwing one piece of food off to Maggie who is always anxiously waiting for something to come her way.) Collin also now has to use a fork or at least have a utensil in his hand while he eats. He is pretty successful at stabbing his food and is getting more efficient with it everyday. He calls me "ma ma" or something that sounds very much like "Annie" - it comes out like "na nee." Weird but others have heard it and agree. He can say "da" for daddy and will say it rather emphatically when daddy comes home from work. Those are the definite three words but he is constantly babbling on - about what I am not quite sure right now.

Evolution of the "Caveman"

I have often thought that children begin life similar to that of early man. So many times I refer to Jeffrey and Collin as cavemen - they grunt and make weird noises to talk, are dirty, get around on all fours and then slowly evolve over time. Well, our little caveman Collin now really walks on two legs. After this past weekend, he is all over the place and even figured out how to climb up on an end table today! We are in trouble....

Now that he is upright, he doesn't seem so much like a baby anymore. This morning while still in his crib, all I could hear coming down the hallway was, "Ma? Ma? Maaa!" He has changed so much in such little time. Children are truly sponges and it is amazing to see them change. While getting dressed today Collin even tried to put his socks on his feet. Obviously without any sort of success but nonethless he knew they were supposed to go on his feet.

Last month I enrolled Jeffrey and Collin into a study through Mass General about autism - a subject that I am truly interested in because of my exposure to it while I was teaching. They were looking for healthy/typical children to study features of the brain and compare it to the autistic population also enrolled in the study. Anyhow, the boys both had to ge in for psychological testing - otherwise known as intelligence testing. Jeffrey did great and was so happy to help out his new friends.

I was wondering how on earth they were going to test Collin. What could you possibly ask a baby to do??? I was able to stay in the room while Collin was tested and it was amazing. I don't think anybody gives babies and small children as much credit as they deserve. Collin was able to sort plastic spoons from red wooden blocks (not just once but several times with only making one mistake) and some other things that blew my mind. The human mind is amazing!

Next up for the study is that both Collin and Jeffrey have to go and have an EEG. We will see how well our little cavemen sit still for this procedure...

Collin is Walking!

I think I can officially say now that Collin is walking. Today as I loaded the dishwasher, he stood up at the refrigerator and walked over to where I was...totally unprompted. Of course he clapped for himself - no self-esteem issues here. Crawling is still is preferred mode of transportation but he is walking more and more on his own.

Some Christmas Pictures

Christmas was a blast this year! We were lucky to have my brother, sister-in-law and nephew here from Finland. My dad also came down from Maine to spend the holiday with us.

Jeffrey was so excited about everything that had to do with Christmas. Collin, I think couldn't have cared any less about any of it. I am not sure he even opened one present for himself. It was great to have a full house for dinner that day - Jeff's parents joined us as well as my mom's cousin.

Wobbly First Steps

It's official - Collin has taken his first wobbly steps the other day. He took about four of them from me to Jeff. He knew he did something good. He turned and smiled with his big toothless grin and clapped along with us. He still prefers to crawl...it's much faster and safer for him at this point. That's fine with me!! We are in NO hurry for him to start chasing us around on two feet.

No Christmas Card This Year...Sorry!

Unfortunately I did not get my act together enough to get a Christmas card out this year. Instead, please click on the link below and consider that our card for 2007! Have a great holiday season and a happy and healthy new year!!!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1666838899

"Hello?"

I have started working with Jeffrey on answering the phone - supervised only. So if you call, be patient and just keep asking him to get mommy or daddy. If you don't, you might be talking to him for awhile. Anyone who knows him, knows he LOVES to talk!