“I want McDonalds,” came Danny’s voice down the stairs.

“You can’t have McDonalds right now, Danny,” followed Eric’s voice softly. “It’s late. McDonalds is closed.”

It was over an hour past bed time, but still talking and laughter came from their room. When I put Andrew to bed and walked past their open door, Eric sat on his top bunk reaching down, and Danny stood below waving and giggling. I knew I should put an end to it and shoo them into bed…but it was hard to do.

See, when I found out I was having a second boy, I imagined late nights in bunk beds with two brothers talking, whispering jokes, teasing and laughing. Once Danny was born and we learned he was deaf, I thought I had to give that up. How could you sign while in separate bunks? We learned about cochlear implants and I worried a little – I mean, he’d sleep with them off – but maybe he’d keep them on long enough…

Then the “other” crept in, the missing social piece, the difficulty speaking, the global delays. With each little bit of the “other,” I saw those bunk bed conversations drift away.

By now, they were a distant memory, almost forgotten and well left behind…

…until I heard those voices drifting. So I let them go on a little longer than I should have, simply because it made me smile.

Andrew is getting so big, so fast! At 10 months, he pretty much has perfected cruising. Every now and then we’ll catch him letting go of what he’s holding onto, briefly, but for the most part he has no interest in independent standing. When I try to play with him with it, he refuses to put his feet down and stand! I’m in no rush, though, so he can be a crawler all he wants. For all he is not walking, though, he is climbing – he will push things around so that he can climb onto them and, from there, further up. He’s managed to get onto his brothers’ desk in their room, onto the couch, onto the kitchen table… You name it. He has, at least, had the decency to master going down though, so he is no longer stranded or prone to falling all over the place; he very neatly turns around and goes feet first off everything.

With tooth #5 being cut this month, he took a bit of a…break from eating solids. He would still munch down purees, but until the end of the month, he wanted little to do with finger food. He’d eat a little, and expand his horizons some, but it was always in small quantities. Along with the food “regression” or sorts came a sleep regression, and hooooooly cow, the kid slept terribly! Waking 3-4 times a night has been the norm around here. He uses the awake time, it seems, to figure out babbling, because he’s been a pretty vocal kid with his /d/ and /b/ sound busting out again.

The most exciting part of 10 months, though, is the communication. Now, I’m not talking speech – there’s been no first word yet – but he’s getting the back and forth of communication down. We will blow raspberries at each other with great turn taking, and he’ll pause and wait for me to blow one (or his brothers, even Danny gets in on this action) before he goes on. Danny and I play an “ah-choo” game, and Andrew has picked up on it… If I sneeze (legitimately or not), often he will gives a squeal (very high pitched “ahhhhh!!”) and then blow a raspberry, which is how Danny play-sneezes a lot of the time. It kind of cracks me up, and I hope to catch it on video soon! He’s also been experimenting with signing “milk” when he nurses, and “all done” at times as well. He’s figuring out waving and will sometimes wave when someone waves to him…though more often than not, it’s after they disappear out of sight. He’s putting his arms up/out when he wants up, as well. Receptively, he’s understanding more and more, which is exciting and says to me that a word or two will probably be coming soon!

Andrew’s favorite games this month have been the drop game (yep, we’ve hit that stage) and crawling around the house making as big a mess as possible. He is starting to experiment with putting things back in though too, and will diligently empty and then refill stuff…at least part way, before getting distracted. You can just watch him and see him trying to figure out how things go together; I love watching the gears turn in his little head!

We are onward and upward to big things around here

It’s 4:15 on a Thursday, and I’m sitting on the couch with a sleeping baby sprawled across my lap, small mountains of crumpled up Kleenex around me from blowing my nose way too many times, and a mess of baby toys on the floor in front of me – one of the many reasons I’ll never be mom of the year. It’s early release Thursday, so Eric is home already. Instead of doing something educational or crafty or athletic, like Perfect Mom would, I have a play station controller in my hand. He’s finished his homework, and when asked what he’s like to do, he insists he wants to watch me play Final Fantasy. I should say no, but hey, let’s be real – if your kid begs you to play your video game, and it’s something appropriate for them to watch, you check if he’s sure than you pop that sucker in with a silent “finally! I haven’t gotten to play in weeks!”

Andrew stirs as I get to a boss, so I offer him some milk and he gladly sucks away while I try to finish just one more battle before turning it off. Suddenly, warmth. Wet, seeping warmth all over my lap…and though I may pee a little when I sneeze, I’m not prone to relieving myself without feeling it, so I know something has gone amiss with Andrew’s diaper.

Lovely.

I pause, much to Eric’s dismay, and rush Read the rest of this entry »

Catch up time!

By 7 months, Andrew was crawling full speed, cruising along furniture, and climbing – including going up stairs. He could not go down, though; he would just crawl right off and fall if allowed to. He just barely started to babble dada. He started to eat solids, but did not like purees at all, preferring to feed himself puffs and yogurt melts.

At 8 months, he was still crawling and cruising, bridging between things if they were right beside each other. He was broadening his horizon on finger foods, loving it when I gave him half a banana or something similar that he could gnaw on. He switched to babbling baba, and started to get more vocal.

At 9 months, he was starting to eat purees too along with more finger foods. His favorites were whole steamed green beans and Cheerios. He was still babbling primarily baba, with lots of great intonation. His pincer grasp was fully developed, and he could bridge between things cruising a bit further apart, but still no independent steps. He also cut his next 2 teeth, bringing his total to 4.

“I noticed, on some games, that there are no lines. But then in Daddy’s game – you remember Daddy’s game? Where there was the guy with the green hand? Well, Daddy just kept fighting him and taking away his life, and then – kablooey! – he just took away a lot of his life, but not all of his life… He just had this much life left. But Daddy had lots more life left, until the guy kept healing himself and healing himself. Daddy should have been able to heal himself too, but he couldn’t. Well, that game had lines, but some games don’t.”

Let’s Hear it For the Boys! hop