Happy New Year 2008

Happy New Year, everyone! I wish you all a year filled with health, happiness and peace! The boys and I had a wonderful winter vacation, and I am so sad about going back to work tomorrow. It has been so nice to have all of this time to cuddle and play.

Riley has been doing so much better with crawling up on all fours, rather than commando style! That is great news and means that he is gaining important strength in his trunk. He has also been extremely cuddly lately. Every few minutes, he crawls or cruises over to me, smiles, and says "Mama, bup, bup" (his version of "up, up"). It's so cute! He has also perfected this move:



He does this whenever he is proud of something he has done and fully expects applause each time. He does it a zillion times a day, and of course, I applaud each time.

Ross is making slow but steady progress with learning to walk. He takes 4-5 steps on his own now, and he does it many times each day. He still prefers to crawl because he gets where he wants to go so much faster. He has been organizing and sorting his toys lately. I am not sure what system he is using, but he is quite serious about it. He gathers a huge collection of toys and picks up each toy, one at a time, tastes it, turns it over in his hands a few times, and very thoughtfully places it into one of two piles. He focuses on this intently until the entire collection is sorted into two distinct piles and then he shines this gorgeous smile:



Both boys have been working on learning to use cups instead of bottles, but it has been hard for both of them so far. They have been practicing during occupational therapy and are slowly getting better. It's especially hard for Riley because his lower tone in his trunk makes it hard for him to sit up without using one hand to support himself. He tends to fall over when he lifts both arms up to use a cup. He can use a straw cup when he is in his high chair, but otherwise its much easier for him to drink from a bottle. It's been hard for Ross, too, although I admit that I have been letting him still use a bottle because he sees Riley with one and wants the same thing. However, Ross has now learned a new "trick" and I am thinking that bottles need to be a thing of the past for him. Check out this video to see what I mean. Look closely to see what he is doing. In this clip he is drinking a bottle of water....imagine what happens when he has milk!