Team Newman / Ferme

Yesterday we had a bad day – at least as far as falls go. Lachlan ended up with a fat lip after tripping over a toy and Daniel ended up with a bit of a black eye after falling off his walking trolley. The good news is that neither cried too much and they’re both pretty much recovered today. The other good news is that Dan was doing quite well with the trolley, until he let go.

To update their progress, Lachlan is walking unaided almost all the time. He can bend down to pick things up and can stand from sitting without any support. Daniel is crawling wherever he wants now, though he’s still pretty slow and cautious. He’s still building up his strength and working on his coordination. He’s able to crawl to the coffee table, pull himself up and surf the furniture without aid. Yesterday, I left him reading some books while I was in the kitchen, and was very surprised to look up and find him clinging, Mission Impossible style, to the back of the couch.

Dan still refuses to drink from a sippy cup, but does quite well with an open cup and some assistance. Lachlan loves drinking cow’s milk and water from a sippy cup, but tends to get more down his front than he does in his mouth, as he usually forgets to close his mouth when it’s full.

They’re both still eating mostly pureed food and have shown no interest in feeding themselves. I occassionally put a bowl of food and a spoon in front of them, but they don’t really know what to do with it, and just chuck it away. They’re starting to cope a bit better with chewy foods and eat  banana, biscuits, toast, cheese, and crackers without a fuss. They’ll also help us eat our dinner when they get a chance, but that’s not often despite my best intentions. Daniel has also learnt to cough up food without vomiting, and we haven’t had a choking spew for weeks now. In fact, he seems to have learnt to stop himself from vomiting most of the time. He used to chuck when he got really upset, but hasn’t in a while – even when he bruised his eye yesterday.

Another funny thing happened yesterday. Lachlan had followed me to the toilet and raced in after I’d finished. I’d flushed the toilet and closed the lid and I thought I’d let him explore while I washed my hands. He started making some funny noises though, and when I looked back in, he’d lifted the lid and seat and stuck his head in to look. Then he’d dropped the lid and seat and managed to get his head stuck in the toilet. He didn’t think it was as funny as I did.

And since I haven’t written for a while, I should note that we took Dan to the Occupational Therapist last week. It wasn’t too bad, I don’t think, though Daniel cried for the first 20 minutes. The therapist thinks he does need some monitoring because he’s a bit withdrawn sometimes and isn’t playing at the level that he should be. We’re going to see her again next week, and we’re also going to have a triple whammy with the Physio, OT and a speech therapist in November. That should be fun. Having spoken to her though, I don’t think Dan’s all that bad – and he’s improved even since we saw her. He’s been more engaged, is interacting with us more and talks (in his own way) quite a bit. He’s also started playing at putting balls in the ball run – it’s one of his favourite things now. However, he still reacts badly to new situations and freaks out whenever we go to a doctor or to kindergym. We’re not sure whether we’re going to sign him up for kindergym next term, which is a bit disappointing.

Anyway, here are some more pickies and videos that I’ve uploaded.

Gorgeous Boy

Lachlan in a Tunnel at Kindergym

At Least One of Them is Happy

Dan with the Ball Run

I’ve been cruising for a couple of weeks, which has been nice. There have been a couple of things that I want to write about but have been too lazy.

The other week, Richard and I took the boys for their 12 month growth and development check. We didn’t really know what to expect but I thought it was going to be a bit of a medical check to see how they were doing. I was right and wrong. They did weigh and measure the boys (Lachlan is 12.8 kg, 80.3 cm and Daniel is 10.5 kg, 77.8 cm) at the end, but before that the boys had to sit through a barrage of tests. Lachlan was first and I took him in. He was made to sit down on a chair at a little table and the doctor gave him little puzzles to solve, like getting stuff out of a box, pulling a toy by a string and putting shapes into holes. He did okay at the beginning but then he got bored and tired and wouldn’t really concentrate. He wasn’t very good at following instructions (surprise, surprise) and he didn’t do very well at things he’s never tried before – like scribbling with a crayon and putting shapes into a puzzle – but he did okay generally. The only advice we got for him was to give him more intricate puzzles and to try to associate words with objects more.

Daniel was next and Richard took him in. He was tired before he started and considering he’s been behind the whole time we didn’t hold out much hope of him getting a good result. And he didn’t do too well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything sadder than when I walked past the room with Lachlan, and saw poor little Daniel, a tiny figure, sitting at this table sobbing his eyes out. His test didn’t last long after that. In summary, we’ve now been referred to an occupational therapist for him, though the doctor wasn’t sure if he really needed it as he was too upset to test properly.

Poor Dan is really beginning to get a complex about doctors. He pretty much starts crying as soon as he goes into a room with one. He’s even started crying when we go to kindergym and he has a great time there. Hopefully, we’ll be done with doctors in a few months and he can have some time to recover. Speaking of which, we’ve suspended the weekly physio sessions for a while because he was beginning to get traumatised by them. The good news, however, is that his physical development is really coming along in leaps and bounds now. He’s crawling more often and tries to get on his hands and knees whenever he does. He’s still a bit uncoordinated but he’s getting closer every day. He’s also surfing around furniture and can pull himself up and lower himself down. His absolutely favourite thing at the moment though, is walking up and down the hallway holding onto my (or anyone’s) hands. The other day, I was changing Lachlan’s nappy and Dan decided he wanted to go down the corridor, so he cruised the couch, levered himself around the side and managed to get pretty close to the door before he fell over. Silly duffer thinks he’s better than he is.

Lachlan is building his confidence with his walking every day. He still crawls or uses his trolley when he’s got a long way to go but for short distances he’ll generally walk. Unfortunately, he’s also developing a serious case of jealousy towards Daniel, so everytime I’m helping Dan with his exercises, I end up with Lachlan wrapped around my legs whining to be picked up. It’s quite a difficult situation when Dan’s pulling on your hands and walking away from you and Lachlan’s wrapped around your legs. Lachlan is also pretty clingy at the moment and hates it when either or Richard or I have to go to work. However, he’s had a few funny moments which I want to relate. The other day, I was in the front room with Daniel and Lachlan and I turned around to find Lachlan standing in the seat of the pram. He’d managed to climb in by himself. I immediately put Daniel on the floor and raced over to rescue him, but ended up letting him extract himself from the situation. He did really well and climbed down backwards like he’d been taught. Another time, he was climbing on the couch with Richard and starting diving head first over the arm of the couch. Richard dragged him back and scolded him for being so silly – so, clever boy that he is, he deftly turned himself around and went over the arm of the couch backwards, like he’d been taught. He’s really into climbing at the moment, and will climb anything that’s pinned down (or not).

Both boys are pretty much only having one sleep a day now, at about 11am and on a good day, they’ll sleep for close to three hours. Dan is getting much better at coping when he’s tired too, though we’re still wary about him snapping at bedtime. He gets really quite manic and giggly (which we find quite funny) but we know that if we push him too far he’ll end up crying hysterically. At the moment, he’s got a penchant for burying his face in a pillow or his bedcovers and playing hide and seek. It’s really very sweet – he’s got such an infectious giggle. This afternoon he was quite grizzly, so the nanny put him down for a second sleep. He was only quiet for about 10 minutes before he started giggling to himself. We both went in and he continued to have fits of giggling, but we have no idea what was making him laugh.