Bad Blogger!

Yikes, it's been a while since I last posted... that's because the grandparents were here visiting from Tucson! They called right at the beginning of October and asked if they could drive out for a week or so, and of course we said yes. It ended up being very convenient for Mommy especially, as Stephen passed on his rather nasty cold, and having the grandparents here allowed Mommy to rest and get better more quickly. Stephen's cold turned into an ear infection, but that seems to have cleared up well with antibiotics!


Now, on to the pictures!!!

It was pretty chilly a couple of weeks ago - I think the high temperatures were about 20 degrees below normal for a few days, so we bundled Stephen up pretty well to go outside!

One afternoon, when Stephen and I were both feeling ok, we all went out to Bass Pro Shops, and then out to dinner afterwards. Stephen really loved running all over the store, and driving the big boats!

I'm not sure what Stephen was applauding at the restaurant, but he was doing it! He ate a TON that night. In addition to the food we brought for him, he also ate a good bit of fried okra, some chicken finger pieces, and some garlic mashed potatoes. He must be going through a growth spurt, because he has been eating a lot more than normal lately. I'm sure it's because Grandma hemmed all of his too long pants for him while they were here...

In other news, speech is coming along, and it is becoming evident that Stephen is a very bright little boy. He can pick out some of the alphabet if you ask him, and even knows what letters some words start with! He knows that Stephen starts with "S - T," Mommy starts with "M," Daddy starts with "D," and Ghost begins with "G." We never actually discussed Ghost and it's spelling with him, so he just figured it out by himself!!

He can also now go up AND down the stairs by himself (but we will still spot him for a while). And he is just so independent about it! He just wants to do so much by himself now, but thankfully Stephen is still as much of a cuddle-bug as ever!

Hey, I'm Chuck!

This is Stephen's new favorite toy - Chuck My Talking Dumptruck. He will play with this for 10-20 minutes at a time, and comes back to it often throughout the day. His favorite thing to do is make Chuck crash into things. Chuck talks, and he will move if you talk loudly enough to him as well... Pretty cool, and TONS of fun!

"I want..."

This is Stephen's new phrase, and he is using it quite a bit lately! First, it was "I want to do it!" (not that clearly, of course). Then it became "I want to poop" (and no, it wasn't a stall tactic - his tummy was bothering him). Today, it was "I want Gary!!" (his alligator bath toy). Can I tell you all how nice it is to have him communicating with us? FINALLY!!!!

Friends

Being a small person makes it hard to make friends. Add to that, walking late, and not talking much, and it makes it even harder for Mommy to set up play dates, so small people can MAKE friends. Nevertheless, Stephen has managed to make friends with some small people who belong to some of Mommy's friends (namely, Alexander and Jarrett). Today, however, Stephen made his OWN friend. The reasons for choosing this little boy are Stephen's own, and I'm sure someday he will tell us why his likes this little guy, but he and another boy spent all day playing together at school, and much of that time was spent laughing together. He may have a different buddy next week, but for now, he has a friend that HE has chosen, with whom he enjoys spending time. And that makes us ALL very happy.

Feeling better!

Stephen finished his course of antibiotics tonight, and seems to be mostly recovered. Now, of course, his teeth are bugging him a bit, and he hasn't been sleeping well, but we'll muddle through. It's always something!

He was able to return to school this week, and showed his excitement by trying to run across the parking lot before I got the door shut. Think he likes it? It was "Pajama Day," and for snack time, they all got to sit around on blankets eating, and watching.... The Backyardigans! To say Stephen enjoyed that is an understatement. I don't have a photo of him wearing his jammies to school, because he woke up to late for me to get one in the morning, and he was filthy when we got home. So here is a photo of his NEW jammies (size 3T, thank you very much). They are Dinosaurs, of course (that's a dino on his left side, and under his right arm, it says, "Coming through!").

Today (Saturday), is obviously a college football day. ESPN GameDay was in Austin today, so we were watching a bit of it, and of course, Stephen was wearing his beloved Texas shirt.

After he finished lunch today, he kept saying something that sounded like "boo-baaaa!" After he said it a few times, I asked him if he wanted to watch football, and when he nodded yes, I flipped around until I found a game he was happy with (truly, not just any game would do - I think we ended up with Cal v. Minnesota).

As far as speech goes, Stephen has been making tons of progress. He is babbling and being more vocal outside of the home (this is a BIG deal!), and using a TON more words and phrases with us. Today, he told the cat to "move it!" when he and Erik were coming down from the garage. No prompting, but he's certainly heard US say it enough!!!

All in all, a good week for Stephen (and us). Hopefully next week will be EVEN better!!!

School = germs

Yep, Stephen is sick. He will not be going to school tomorrow, unfortunately. He wasn't feeling like himself for most of last week, but never really had any symptoms, and he was able to go to school on Friday again (and STILL LOVED it!!), but by Saturday evening, the congestion started, and by Monday, the coughing was going strong, so I took him in to see his doctor on Tuesday. She said that it was probably just a cold, but since he had been feeling poorly for a while, it could be bordering on a sinus infection (especially with his dragon breath), and gave me a prescription for antibiotics to get filled today if he wasn't feeling better. He's not. During the night, he developed a fever, and today it has been running close to 103 even WITH Motrin and Tylenol. The nurse said that the fever is good, because his body is fighting the infection, but he is just so miserable and pathetic. The ONLY good thing is that he is sleeping more, but that's about it. Hopefully he won't get sick again this semester, because this one is a doozy!!

We were in the middle of working on cards for Grandparent's day this Sunday, so for the grandparents who read this, I'm sorry that your cards will be late. Stephen wasn't done working on them yet!

Art

So apparently Stephen loves doing Arts and Crafts at School. According to Miss Jessica (his preferred teacher of the 2), he LOVED sponge painting. That's how he painted this tree:

I guess they also used some paint brushes...

And markers. Stephen doesn't like to use markers or crayons. We are working on it at home - it's not a big deal, since he likes to do other things, but I'd hate for it to delay him in pre-writing skills.

This is the piece he did on his first day. The teachers put the glue down, and the kids put the paper pieces on it.

They did these today too. He glued the paper pieces on there, and then glued the pom-poms on top.

Stephen is just loving school! We are so glad that we decided to do this for him. We were very anxious at first, as I'm sure many of you can understand, but according to his teachers, he is just like the other kids (well, except for that pesky talking thing, but he'll get there!). Well, not JUST like them... because he's STEPHEN!