The title of today's post has nothing to do with this post besides the fact that it is a rainy day today and we're staying inside instead of going to the zoo.
We've spent a lot of time these last few weeks going to the zoo. We've discovered that playing and running around there really wears Alex out and helps him take longer naps, which we love! This past Friday, Shannon & Chris stopped on their way to Michigan and went to the zoo with us. It was fun to have Claire with us as we went to all of our typical zoo stops. So, we have a lot of pictures of our zoo days. We've discovered that Alex now loves riding the merry-go-round, which is so much fun!
Looking at the Lizard with Daddy
Alex LOVES the Merry-Go-Round now! (Apparently so do I)
Kent and I travelled to Ohio to visit his family. His brother and sister-in-law were up from Tennessee with their four kids. We haven't seen them in about 2 years, so we wanted to make sure we were able to see them while they were only 4 hours away. We packed Alex up in the car again and made the trek back to Ohio. He actually did great in the car, which is not like him. Unfortunately, he has started to scream at bedtime and naps, which makes for very frustrating travel. We ended up having to sit in the room with him until he fell asleep. Other than that, he had a great time getting to know his cousins and another aunt and uncle.
It was quite entertaining to watch Alex observe the kids as they played. Katherine was jumping rope on the porch outside and he just sat there and really observed what she was doing. He did the same thing with David as he was riding the scooter around. Sure enough, after about 2 hours, Alex came back outside, picked up the jump rope and attempted to jump. It was so funny! He then put that down, walked over the the scooter, grabbed the handle bars and then with my help to balance the scooter, put his one foot on the bottom and his other foot he held up, and we took off. I guess we know he takes in what goes on around him.
Taking a look at the wagon
Slide
Katherine playing at the park
Swinging with Grace
Video of the kids playing outside
Video of "the scooter" and homemade ice cream
The Thompson kids
Playing some baseball together
Kent was trying to beat Jeffrey to home plate
Alex has also really started to use his signs to communicate. He still hasn't said any words, but through sign he says: more, eat, dog, banana, baby, signing, time, water, bird, drink, milk, train, car, and sometimes bike and thank you. He actually starts Speech Therapy tomorrow (9/2), so we'll see if the speech therapist (Emily) can work her magic. He will be meeting with her at our house once a week for an hour. I'm not sure what they'll do with a 17 month old, but I trust they know what they're doing.
In other news, our bathroom is finished and looks great! Alex is loving his new bathtub, and so are we as it is much easier to give him a bath now.
We also took Alex to the beach again today. Probably for the last time of the season. He took off when we arrived and LOVED the sand and water. It's funny how in just a few months, he has really changed in how he reacts to things. Unfortunately due to this bedtime routine of screaming and waking up a lot at night, he was tired and only lasted about an hour before he started to get really crabby. We decided to just pack him up and take a walk on the waterfront. We were walking and realized that Alex has drifted off to sleep. About 2 minutes later, there was an ambulance that was leaving the waterfront area (literally RIGHT NEXT to where we were walking) that put his siren on and woke Alex up. He was terrified!!! We calmed him down and kept walking. He seemed to be fine in just a short time.
Play of course! We've finally been able to redo our bathroom after our ceiling collapsed in at the end of May. Kent has been working hard to do all the other stuff that wasn't covered by insurance (i.e. the floor, painting, and installing the vanity/sink). So, Alex has had a lot of fun playing with all of the new "toys" that have been all over our house. I think most of the pictures speak for themselves. (Seems like I'm always saying that!)
They had to cut a hole in our hallway wall in order to get the new shower into the bathroom.
Playing in the new vanity
"This is Fun!!!"
I think he likes his new bathtub
Admiring his new bathtub
Playing in his new bathtub!
"This is great, why didn't I have one earlier?"
Believe it or not, he is smiling in this one. He was splashing all over
Wednesday we had Early Intervention come and did an evaluation for Alex. We had an Occupational Therapist, Developmental Therapist, and Speech & Language Therapist come. They basically came and played with Alex while asking us a trajillion questions. After watching him interact and play with them for an hour, they decided that he does need Speech Therapy. That didn't come as a surprise to us as he is not babbling a lot (really only started babbling a few weeks ago). He never says "mama" or "dada." He has been starting to do more sign language which is VERY encouraging to us. Mostly he makes grunting noises when he is trying to communicate with us. It's a little frustrating as most people who don't know him very well tend to think that he is whining when he's really just trying to talk. He's also been pointing a lot, which the S&L therapist said was encouraged to see. Anyway, he'll be getting speech therapy 1 time a week for an hour at a time.
In other news, we've also retested Alex for his tooth and nail syndrome. We found out about a month ago that there is testing available for Witkop Tooth & Nail Syndrome, so we went ahead and had blood drawn for the 4th time in Alex short little life. Hopefully we'll hear something soon about that. Basically this will just help us with insurance stuff and we'll also know if it is a dominant or recessive gene.
A few weeks ago we took Alex to the County Fair where I grew up. I don't think Alex was quite old enough to understand the fair. He wasn't a huge fan of the Merry-go-round. He seemed to enjoy looking at the animals, but didn't really want to touch them. He was a little tired from the heat and not a great nap. His most favorite part of the day was definitely running around in the open area by the tractors. He just ran and laughed. He also loved pretending to drive the tractors! He thought it was a blast. Who knows, maybe he'll be a farmer afterall. :)
We've also been spending a few weekends with Claire (my niece) as well. It seems like they've really had fun playing lately. At a wedding rehearsal last weekend, they were chasing each other outside and laughing, or should I say screaming. Here are a few pictures to enjoy.
Goats!!!
Playing in the Water
Driving on the Tractor
What a Smile!
Playing with Claire
From my last work-out with Rachel before she moved. :(
This first video shows Alex's love of climbing.....
This is from the 4th of July. We were just playing in the HUGE field of grass by our condo. I think you can tell (if you have the sound on) how much fun Alex was having.
We have been having a blast with Alex this last week. Last weekend he spent time with Grandma and Grandpa while Kent and I headed to Wisconsin for a friend's wedding. It was nice to us to spend a little time by ourselves, but by Sunday we were ready to go and pick Alex up. He has been so happy this last week just laughing at everything and really starting to play games with us. His new favorite game would be to chase us or be chased around the house. We also discovered a huge open field of grass by our place that is perfect for putting Alex down and just telling him to go anywhere. He really can't go anywhere to get in trouble there, so it works out perfectly.
His head is healing and the scab is looking better everyday. It hasn't seemed to bother him too badly, which is great! Every once in awhile he'll touch it, but more than often he just leaves it alone. Hopefully his scar won't be too bad.
