Visitors

These beauties stopped by to visit this week. I was really excited because I've never seen these birds before - EVER. There really are advantages to having bird feeders. These are called Evening Grosbeaks. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, the bird feeder was swinging, but I'm glad I actually took it myself this time. You can't tell in the picture, but these guys are as big as parrots! I had to call my neighbor to ask him what they were since I noticed them out the window. And this one is a Varied Thrush. Orange! They are about the size of a robin. I've seen hummingbirds and robins back this week, too. They must have been faked out by the warm weather last week, 'cause it's freezing and snowing this week!

Q pulled his 'baby gym' out from under the crib this week so I decided to set it back up for him. We had put it away because we thought he was done with it. He's loving it! His occupational therapist keeps bringing over this tunnel to try to get him to crawl through it and he won't have anything to do with it, I think it scares him. But give him the gym and he's crawling figure 8's around the sides. It's rather amusing to watch him.

It's hard to describe how liberating it is now that Q can crawl (he actually stopped walking for about a week, I think he was listening to the therapists admonitions). He used to fuss after just a few minutes when I'd set him down because he got bored. Now when he's bored he moves to what he wants. I just have to watch that he doesn't get into anything dangerous. I can even have him in primary with me again without major difficulty. What a blessing.

He's starting to wave bye-bye more regularly now, that's fun. He likes patty-cake because he can roll his arms and clap his hands. We discovered he loves cantaloupe and kiwi, but only tolerates papaya and mango. I'm thinking he's mildly allergic to dairy because he's gotten rashes ever since we started feeding it to him. I'm not sure what we're going to do about it yet.

By the way, I posted some hilarious videos of him, but since I started the post in January it's back a ways. So, if you want to see them scroll down. I think his belly laugh is one of the best sounds in the world.

February

Q started crawling at the end of January and has started walking like crazy this week. He gets more adventurous each day. He'll now walk about 8 feet across a room! He's also started climbing attempts; like over the gate guarding the fireplace! He's loving his new found freedom, he can follow Mom and Dad anywhere in the house, and he can get into all the cupboards. He's also refusing to sit down very long in the bathtub anymore. He immediately gets up and plays with the faucet. I just hope he doesn't fall and knock teeth out or something. This week he discovered splashing with his hands. Oh man was I drenched as he giggled and laughed. It is so much fun to see him learn and discover new things. Lately he's been using his hands a lot. Turning pages, etc. Books are now lots of fun...that is if he lets you read the page before he turns it.

The other day it was warm and sunny so I let him go through the sliding door onto the porch. oooo, that was fun! Today we stopped to watch deer pass through our yard as we were loading into the car, too cool.Ian and I went to the stake Valentine's dance with his parents. That was fun, there aren't nearly enough dancing opportunities for married people as there were for us when we were single. Q had his 3rd youth babysitter and miraculously didn't get injured! What a relief. Last time he fell and split his lip open. The time before that he got bit by a dog.

We spent the last week trying to recover from a family cold. I can't tell if Q's problem is the cold or incoming teeth. He's been a mite fussy. We've been brainstorming things we could get him to eat besides milk, water and crackers. He liked mac & cheese but did not like our crab dinner last night! I am so happy he was willing to eat baby food again last night...maybe we can use it up now and clear cupboard space! He's decided he likes juice and will almost drain the cup in one sitting. Pretty soon he'll be stuck with whatever we're eating. I wonder how that will go over. I'm in the process of trying to get him off the bottle. I can tell this will be a long process, he won't even drink milk from a sippy cup.

I had a feeling the other day that someone was missing. When I've heard other people say that they talk about having another kid. I've been wondering if that's it or if it's because Andrew's not here with us. I'll probably never know. I'm SO grateful for Q, our little miracle boy. He is so precious!