Milestones

Post date: Dec 1, 2009 3:14:28 AM

Coming off of Thanksgiving, it seems like a good time to review all the milestones Connor has made recently for which we are very thankful for. Considering how in March he could not even sit up on his own, he's come a long way, baby!

At 9 months of age and after having spent so much time in the hospital, he was definitely behind the curve developmentally and not even on the growth chart. "Failure to thrive" is the official term. Well, March was also the last in a long stretch of hospitalizations. When we got home from that stay, we had an extended period at home to play, grow and recover...

Motor Skills - Sitting, Crawling, Walking, that sort of stuff

By April, at 10 months, Connor could sit on his own. By the end of the month, he could push himself up to a sitting position.

In May, he started scooting.

By his 1st birthday in June, he had learned how to crawl.

By July, he was cruising around the furniture.

In August, Connor took his first steps.

By September, he was walking on his own.

Now he runs, dances and does the hurky-jerky pretty well too.

Language

Connor isn't quite talking yet - if by talking you mean in English. We think he believes he's perfectly understandable though. He's very expressive and has been babbling since he was 3-4 months. He's always been a very vocal baby, but since this spring he is a downright Chatty Cathy. He will walk around and talk and talk and talk. He'll talk to anyone and everyone in the house and all visitors, strangers in the street, furniture, walls and his toys. He tells stories and poses questions and quirks his head to one side and nods when you respond. He points, shouts and jabbers in what sounds like complete sentences and paragraphs with the frequent pauses and emphasis and exclamations that shows he really means what he's saying.

My favorite is when he's talking like he's telling a story and then pauses. Then he laughs this fake-sounding laugh, "hee hee," (that so-called "social laugh"). It's as if he's telling a joke, has come to the punchline and, in case you didn't know that was the punchline, laughs to clue us in. It's utterly hilarious so of course we laugh too. He laughs his real laugh and gets a smug look on his face like he's delivered the perfect joke.

Despite my best efforts to have him say "mama" as his first word and before he said "dada," neither Dad nor I won that competition. And his 1st word wasn't the same 1st word that Big Brother learned ("No!") either. Nope. Though we tried and tried his very 1st word was...

"Uh Oh!" (Is that officially a word? Oh well, that's what we are going to write down if I ever get around to marking up a baby book- which is moot because I'll never get around to doing that.)

If "uh-oh!" is a word, then this was his very first word that he could say with meaning and repetition. Yup. He knew what it meant when he would drop something and say, "uh oh!" or later when he would throw things and say, "uh oh!"

I think the 2nd word that's really more like a word was "bah!", which stood for "ball."

Sometime more recently he says "Da!" for "daddy." (Darn it, I lost.)

And yes, he's finally saying "Mama!"

Oh, how exciting and thrilling to finally hear it! But wait! --- he doesn't mean me when he says "mama." He means "Mamma Mia."

Yup, that ABBA song taught him to say "mama." Big Brother is a fan of the musical and we've been listening to the song over and over (and over) again. Connor LOVES to sing. He even mimics a microphone and croons and sways. He just loves "Mamma Mia." And since he sings "mama" over and over again when he hears the song, it's become one of my favorites too.

We've finally been able in the past couple of days to have him associate "mama" with a person. Never mind that he points to himself instead of me. We look like the Stooges as I'm saying, "Mama," and pointing to me. And then he says, "Mama," quite emphatically and points to himself. Then I shake my head and point to him and say, "Connor." He stares. Then I point to myself again and say, "Mama," and he points to himself and says, "mama," and I say, "No, mama," pointing to myself again. But at least he's saying, "Mama!"

Hey, I'll take what I can get. ;-)

Occasions and other stuff...

1st tooth - He had his first tooth ages and ages ago at 8 months. Since then, he's grown a mouthful of them. Just recently four more are erupting on his lower jaw and I haven't checked the uppers again this week, but he should be up to about 12-14 teeth soon. Now if only he would use them to chew food...

1st haircut - Unlike Big Brother who was bald for over two years and didn't have his first haircut until he was two-and-a-half, Connor has quite the head of hair. It started out as a fine covering at birth and only grew from there. At 11 months, he had a natural mohawk. By October, it had turned into another 80's style - the mullet. First my friend came to visit and looked at him and said, "Whoa, he's got a mullet!" Then the very next night one of our nurses came and saw him and said, "Looks like he's got a good mullet going there!" At that point, I knew it was time to get his hair cut. At some point when I actually get around to posting pictures again, we've got some of this big occasion.

Weight/height - Although Connor's only 10% in height (which is pretty good considering how tall the rest of us are), he's at 89% for his weight/height ratio. He's practically portly. We've actually had to cut his feeds down twice now, on recommendations from his nutritionist!

We like to call him "Chunk". And he's a meaty chunk too, pretty solid all around and a bit barrel-chested and beefy in the legs. Pretty good for someone who doesn't hardly eat anything by mouth. Oh, the benefits of force-feeding through his G-tube. :-)

All in all, there's been a ton of changes since spring and all for the better. He is still his super-happy, cheery self. His antics keep us constantly amused. Best of all, he's still with us, happy and as healthy as we could hope for. Yes, we're very thankful indeed.