Updates

Robin has been progressing a lot lately, so I thought I'd make an update before the chaotic holiday season.  We're looking forward to the feast tomorrow, since it'll be the first big holiday feast that Robin will be able to participate in.

I am very ready for him to talk.  It'll be nice when I have a better idea of what he wants when he starts to whine.  He will mimic a lot more hand and arm motions now--we can spread our arms wide and say "love you THIS MUCH" and he'll spread out his arms, he will sometimes blow kisses or put his hand over his mouth and off and back on in rapid succession, reminding me of the Indian war cry noises I used to make as a child.  He will wave and still says "night night" before naps and bedtime.  He'll sometimes give eskimo kisses. 

He finally cut his fifth and sixth teeth.  They took a long time to poke through, but came out last week.

He's learning to feed himself with a spoon a lot better now.  He can get several spoonfuls into his mouth over the course of a meal, although he still doesn't have the angle right, so there's usually still some food on the spoon when he takes it out of his mouth.  He mostly eats table foods now, just variations on what we're eating, cut up small.  It's really nice to not have to prepare as much.  The biggest difference is vegetables, since most of what we eat is raw, and he doesn't have the teeth for that yet.  We've even ordered him a meal in a restaurant once.  We would've just given him some of ours, except that Dean and I both wanted shrimp, and the allergist recommends waiting longer before introducing that.  He shows preferences between the foods offered him at meals, occasionally dropping those he likes least on the floor.  He still pretty much eats anything we offer him, but he often likes one much better than another.  His favorite food is cheese.

He has taken a few stumbling steps a few times without support, but still doesn't seem to realize he's done it.  He did a lot of that yesterday, so it won't surprise me if he finally realizes that he can walk in the next few days.  Wouldn't it be precious if he does it on Thanksgiving?

He loves to open drawers and empty their contents all over the floor.  He has also learned to climb things (thankfully it still needs to be on a slight slope, so he hasn't gotten out of his crib or anything, but here he is climbing up the back of the futon.  His reach gets higher with every passing day, so we keep having to move things higher up.

He will sometimes follow commands--pushing the garage door button, putting an object inside another, come here--though he obeys the last less often.  He will make choices for himself--what shirt would you like to wear, etc.

We've begun the weaning process.  We went from four nursings a day down to three on his birthday, and from three down to two a few weeks later.  We ought to drop down to one any day now, possibly even today or tomorrow, depending on how our schedule goes.  Yesterday he only ate for four minutes on each side during his second nursing, so he's obviously ready to drop it.  I'm not sure how much longer we'll continue the morning feeding, which has always been his longest, and is probably his "comfort" feeding.  It's also somewhat for my comfort right now, I'm not sure I'm ready to give it up.  I was a little disappointed at how quickly he has been reducing the length of his feedings, because it seems he's more ready to wean than I am.

He's afraid of the vacuum cleaner.  It would almost be comincal if I couldn't see how worried he gets.  One day I had the vacuum in my room and was putting items up on the bed to clear the floor, and he wouldn't even come in the room with me, he just sat in the hall and whined at me to come get him.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!  We'll post photos of our celebrations sometime after the holiday!