Whew!

Sorry I've been a bit lax about updating this week. We've been busy! On Thursday, Stephen took a header coming inside the sliding glass door after swinging, and got his first shiner. The picture doesn't really do it justice - It was a little swollen over his eye, and discolored under the scrape, which has now turned to a "lovely" shade of yellow. I think he got off easy for this particular fall - the scrape WAS awfully close to his eye...

Stephen continues to improve by leaps and bounds with his speech. Erik and I, along with his physical therapist, had just figured all along that his speech would really pick up once he wasn't thinking about the walking so much, and it turns out, we were right! The speech therapy is just to help him get caught up to speed for his age level. He actually isn't that far behind, now - he is putting together some 2-3 word sentences already, and shows a good understanding of how language is supposed to be used (the therapist thinks it's great that he doesn't just babble incoherantly, and is usually at least TRYING to tell us something). The best part is that Stephen is telling us when he is hungry. I was worried about that, since he has a tendency to get caught up in playing and doesn't realize he's hungry until he is REALLY hungry, and then has a meltdown, but so far, when we don't understand that he is hungry, he lets us know that he is "ugwee." It certainly makes things slightly easier around here! He is also repeating a lot of words now as well, so we are very excited!

If my tracking number for the missing part for Stephen's toddler bed is to believed, tomorrow is the day! Stephen is still very excited about getting his "bi bo beb." I'm not sure that he realizes what exactly that entails, but I'm anticipating that Erik and I will be having to get up quite a bit these first few weeks to return Stephen to his bed once he figures out he can get out if he wants.

This last picture is of Stephen's nap yesterday. This is how he fell asleep, leaning on his stuffed lion. We moved him so that he was laying down, and he slept peacefully for another hour.

Minor setback...

Well, we had a minor setback in the big boy bed conversion. As it turns out, the rail we bought is just not compatible with our crib, so I am ordering one tonight. It should be here in less than a week, and I called to confirm that it will work. This is still preferable to spending several hundred dollars on the conversion kit that is for our crib... Stephen was sad about not getting to sleep in his big boy bed tonight. He was asking about bed in a sad voice when he saw us putting the front back on the crib. And it would have been the perfect night for it, since he decided he didn't want to take a nap, and fell asleep tonight 5 minutes after he laid down. Oh well!

Yesterday, I went to the Just Between Friends consignment pre-sale. I was a consigner, so I got in before the general public. If any of my 5 readers have not heard of this sale, you should look it up. It's a great place to sell your kids' stuff that they don't use any more, and buy stuff that they will use. I know that there is a sale in Tucson (and I think it was last weekend - sorry!), and there is one starting in the Seattle area soon. That franchise is actually owned and run by my cousin, Nina! And her sister in law does the Tucson sale.

I got Stephen this:

It normally takes Stephen a few days to warm up to a new toy, especially if it doesn't make any noise or light up, but he took to this right away! He hasn't done anything with the blocks (it has MegaBloks inside!!) yet, but I'm sure he will soon. He pushed this around quite a bit this morning.

And the other great things today were these: we went to The Home Depot, and Stephen walked all by himself while we were in the store with no hand-holding! AND when I asked him if he wanted to go outside for a walk, he said, "I go out!" YAY!!

Dinosaurs at the Zoo!

On Friday, the three of us headed to the zoo. We thought we would celebrate the last official day of spring break, and there is a dinosaur exhibit open until the end of June. Stephen was enamored with the commercials for the "Walking with Dinosaurs" show that was here in OKC a few months ago, so we thought he would enjoy it. AND, we were right! So, pictures!

Of course, we had to go and see all of our regular favorites. The Orangutan was having a ball flying all around his enclosure, but there were too many people in front of the glass for Stephen to really enjoy it. He always likes the Gorillas, though! This picture was right before Stephen let go of Daddy to walk to me!

And here are the dinosaurs! Stephen was a little scared and nervous at first, but he got over it pretty quickly.

As part of the exhibit, the kids could push buttons to move parts of different dinosaurs. And if you know Stephen, you know that he just LOVES buttons!

And lastly, we went to see the otters. All of the kids stand up on this little wall (usually with their parents right there behind them), and Stephen was waiving at the otters. It was pretty fun!

****Coming tomorrow: Adventures in a Toddler Bed! I have to finish putting latches on his dresser drawers, and install an eye-hook latch on the closet, and then we are good to go! At 29 lbs, Stephen is simply just too heavy for us to lift out of the crib on a regular basis anymore without risk of serious back injury!

Feeling better!

Stephen seems to be on the mend, more or less. He may have overdone it a bit on Sunday, because Monday was a little rough, but he is still improving. He is walking ALL OVER THE PLACE NOW!! He has still only popped himself up to standing the one time, but I know he can do it if he wants to. We go for walks every day, and his favorite thing is to let go of my hand and walk behind me, and then speed up to grab my hand again. We have also been out with his tricycle a little bit, since the weather has been nice (and it's Spring Break Week!!).

This picture was taken last week, but you get the idea...

Yesterday, Stephen demonstrated his expertise in steering his trike, and occasionally put his feet up on the pedals! He isn't quite tall enough to pedal, but I think he is starting to get the idea.

Tomorrow, we are headed to the zoo to enjoy a new dinosaur exhibit that opened up this week. Should be fun!

And wouldn't you know it?

Just when we are finishing up the antibiotics from the ear infection, Stephen caught a cold. Actually, Erik caught it first, then Stephen, and now they have shared with me. Yesterday, Stephen and I lounged around in our jammies (ok, they weren't the jammies we slept in, but clean ones).

This is while Stephen was happy, watching Elmo, drinking his SECOND cup of juice at 9:30 in the morning. I figured that since he was sick, a little extra juice was ok...

Never too sick to tackle Daddy, though! That tissue by his leg? He'd just wiped his nose and threw it. Ick.

He seemed like he was feeling worse as the day went on, but that was certainly to be expected after waking up with a fever over 102 (I turned the thermometer off then, because Stephen hates it). It did go down with Motrin, but we basically spent the day watching Sesame Street, The Backyardigans, and playing computer games. Before bed, we loaded Stephen up with his Motrin, Vicks Baby Rub, the humidifier, an extra blanket, and his vapor plug-in nightlight, and he slept for 13 hours straight. It was FANTASTIC!

He still felt pretty poorly today, but we managed to do some good playing. Earlier today Stephen had a pretty big accomplishment of going up the stairs without using his knees at all, and then he walked up holding my hands using alternating feet on each stair (you know, like adults walk up the stairs). Usually, he can only do that a few stairs at a time, but he seems to have mastered that now. THEN this evening, while playing with Erik, Stephen popped himself up to standing WITHOUT PULLING UP!!! FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!!!!! He didn't do it quite from the floor - Erik was laying on the floor, and Stephen did it from Erik's legs, but he still did it! We are so pleased! We've been waiting for that one!

Ok, this picture was from Monday, before the sickies! but it was just so cute!

Relief, and the potty

No, these two subjects aren't actually related, but I thought I'd write about them at the same time. Last week, Stephen said "potty" for the first time. Like a dummy, I asked him if he needed to GO to the potty, and he said no, and went off to play. Of course, no more than 5 minutes passed before he needed a new diaper (I won't go into detail...), so obviously, he DID need to potty. Suffice it to say, I won't make that mistake again! If he says it, we're going!

Today, Stephen woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He was cranky all morning, and by the time noon rolled around, I thought he might be tired, and want a nap. So I asked him if he wanted to go take a nap, and he just looked at me with such relief in his eyes, and said, "aaaap," nodding his head. I hope he starts to understand soon that if he just TELLS us what he wants, it won't take so long for us to figure it out! But, I supposed it's a learning process for all of us...

In case you didn't notice

There is a new widget over on the side of the blog. I'm selling some of my jewelry I've been making on Etsy.com, mostly to continue to support my hobby. So, if you are looking for fun, one-of-a-kind jewelry at a good price, stop on by! I'm still learning the process, so bear with me as things change... Also, if your name happens to be Janet, Deb, or Erin, your money is no good in my store. If you see something you like, just ask!

Also, if anyone is in the market for ANYTHING that is one-of-a-kind, check out Etsy. It is like a huge superstore for handmade items, and I bet you can find what you are looking for!

Happy Friday!

Hello, everyone! It's been a busy week over here... Stephen is just walking all over the place, and has been much happier now that his ear infection seems to be cleared up. He's been talking a little bit more, but still not a lot. We had a consultation with a Speech Therapist on Wednesday through Sooner Start. It is not uncommon for kids who are late walkers to also be delayed in their speech, and Stephen is no exception. However, he isn't very far behind, and probably could catch up on his own, but we've decided to go ahead and get speech services now, instead of waiting until he is even more behind, just in case. The therapist said that overall, Stephen is doing really well - he has well over 100 words in his vocabulary right now, and uses them all appropriately. The fact that he is quiet and doesn't babble all day long is actually a good sign, because it means that he UNDERSTANDS what language is for. Our goal for now is to try to get him to learn more verbs so that he can put together more sentences (he does that a little already, but not enough to effectively communicate), without putting too much pressure on him. Should be easy enough, right? (And since this is the Internet, you can't see that I am being TOTALLY sarcastic about how easy it will be. Stephen is a VERY stubborn boy.)

Today, we met Stephen's friend Alexander, and his mom Amy, at the zoo. I packed our lunches, and put the little stroller in a bag with a shoulder strap, as I was hoping Stephen might be willing to walk a bit more. Well, he walked from the car into the zoo, and then all the way to the Pachyderm exhibit (which if you are familiar with our zoo, you know is a long way). And then he staged a sit-in, because he was pooped. He also ended up doing a good amount of walking at the exhibits, and was especially excited about standing with about 5 other kiddos watching an otter swimming. He was enamored with the little girl standing next to him, and he wanted to touch her, but she said that he was "bothering" her. Her mom tried to explain that he didn't understand, but she was only 4 or 5, so I don't think she did either! Oh well. It was a lovely day, and we enjoyed our trip! Here are a few pictures (I didn't get to take too many...):

Stephen was being very goofy right then...

The boys were pretty pooped by the end of our adventure. I'm surprised Stephen didn't peace out in the car, but he's taking a super nap right now!

The down side...

The ONLY bad thing about Stephen being so much more active and walking so much more is that his sleep habits have not yet caught up with his increased activity. He is doing a lot more, but isn't sleeping any more (yet). So if everyone can just keep their fingers crossed that he starts to sleep a little more than he currently is, Erik and I would really appreciate it! I'm sure Stephen will appreciate it as well - he is SOOOOOO cranky in the afternoons because he is just exhausted! Poor kid...