"Too many to count..."

Seventeen months in to this amazing adventure and I have been remiss in blogging it all. I am not sure why - many people have asked if I had ever intended on going past the first year. To be honest I had not intended on going past the NICU stay. But today when I was trying to remember details of our summer, I realized I needed to log on and share - if not for others for us - for the memories to be recorded... so here we go we are back in business.

Since my last entry so much has happened.. to many to specific events to record them all but here are some highlights:

We had a great summer - lots of swimming (which Harris loves) trips to the park, and visits from and to friends. Then, in August, we had a great trip to South Carolina with Ben and Quinn. While there Harris finally walked on his own. Itseems like keeping up with his cousins was so important that he took off! He also LOVED the ocean and could not be kept out.

Just before we left, Harris got an amazing gift in his life -- a baby cousin, Maxwell Landon. Harris LOVES Maxwell and by loves I mean screams Baby and "Maks" and then tries to throw a ball at him - we are going to say this an attempt to play.

The last four months have been a time of growth for our little man - walking was just the start. In true Harris fashion once he mastered walking he moved away from motor development and on to talking more and more. His receptive language has clicked - he understands almost everything we say and can follow a two step direction and his expressive language is exploding! A couple of days ago, I asked my mom for a professional assessment. I asked: How many words do you think Harris knows? Her response: Too many to count!

One Year and Counting

Oh what a year it has been! Monday, May 24th our little man turned one - but in keeping with family tradition we began the celebration on the Friday before, with a special birthday dinner cooked by Uncle Dan, and continued it throughout the week. All that celebration told us one thing while Harris may look exactly like his Daddy he loves birthdays just as much as his Mommy.

And what's not to love... family,



friends,


parties,


presents,


and of course cake!


With a week full of fun and excitement the only thing I have had time to do was marvel at how quickly it has all gone. Harris's one-year check up on Tuesday may have been when the reality began to hit me - it hit me when the doctor looked at Harris and said to him, wow buddy you have come a long way, then looked up at me and said he is doing amazingly!

I am sure to any mom that would be exciting to me it was magical - the fact that the pediatrician, who has always been incredibly honest, was thrilled with the progress and while he acknowledged the gaps and the potential challenges that still could be ahead he said we should celebrate all Harris can do now including:

Eat on his own
Pull to standing (not to mention rolling and sitting which were a few developmental checklists ago)
Cruise
Say Parrot (thanks Grammy) along with mom (occasionally), dada (all the time), do(dog), up, down or done (we are not quite sure which it is) and go(which he repeated over and over to the doctor).

As I drove home watching my little man sleep, I thought about all we had been through in the last year, about where we were on this day a year ago - the absolute fear I had then and the absolute delight I have now and the confidence I have that the future is full of possibilities!

Grandma Jeanne's Big Party

On April 24th the whole Rothschild clan got together to celebrate Grandma Jeanne's 85th birthday. Harris absolutely loved having Ben and Quinn here!

Our busy 11th month.

Harris started off his 11th month with his regular developmental follow-up evaluation.

Results say:
Neuro-Cognitive over 11.5 months (YEAH a half of month over actual)

Physical 9.5 months (slightly higher then corrected age and considerably better then the previous eval when he was 3 months behind actual and enough progress to warrant a PT discharge)

Speech and Language - 9 months but with some gaps worth mentioning (that is worth mentioning by the speech pathologist, not the mom).

Needless to say while we were thrilled - probably the most excited about the physical progress.

And then it happened... we figured it out... once Harris started moving - Mom and Dad got very busy! The last time I had a spare moment to post Harris had just mastered pulling to standing. Next up was climbing stairs, and then cruising, and than speed crawling. What you ask is speed crawling... well it is quite simple. First, our little man spots something that is surely meant to be off limits - a computer cord, an open gate, a unattended glass, or the most coveted - Jeb's water bowl - then he races as fast as his little legs and arms can take him. It is really a remarkable thing to watch.

In just the last week Harris has mastered what has been the most difficult early motor task for him (even more difficult that that darn rolling over which still stumps him occasionally) sitting up on his own! After months of laying propped on his side we started to see slow progress. First, it was from all crawling to sitting, then the propped position was getting higher and finally he did it, and tried it again, and again and as the saying goes practice makes perfect - Harris can officially sit up.

I have read that many babies do spurts of development - one area at at a time. This is definitely true for our little man. For most of this month Harris has been trying to physically catch up to his peers - he loves being with other kids and so there is VERY high motivation here. But over the last week Harris has done a few other amazing things:

1. He fed me. (That's right he took a cinnamon cereal teddy off his tray and pushed it towards my mouth - and I ate it - so thrilled that he did this that I hardly remembered how much I hate cinnamon.)

2. He says "bot" for bottle pretty consistently. (Except when he is super hungry and all he can remember to do is freak out when he sees the bottle)

3. He shook his head no. (Seriously why is NO easy even for kids with language delays!)

And He's Up!

Well up and holding on to everything - regardless of their sturdiness! This is officially the quickest progress we have seen to date and I am not sure that we are ready for it all. Harris has even figured out how to climb one stair.

Look at what he is doing now!

This was a very big week. At almost any given moment you can here one of the adults around him yell with excitement "look at him!" First, Harris starts the week of crawling. Then he started pulling up on to his knees... and yesterday he pulled to standing! Unlike most things we have seen Harris do once and then not again for weeks he seems to be working hard to perfect standing and so he has tried and succeeded quite a few more times since then. It is only a matter of time now before our little man, who has been walking holding onto our hands for a bit now, takes off running on his own!

But maybe more exciting to mom and dad was something I saw tonight....


That's right Harris is holding his own bottle!

Aunt Hayley's lessons have paid off

I would like to say it is because we have practiced a ton, or because we have diligently taken Harris to PT, or even because Martina has worked on it all day long (which I am sure has something to do with it); but in the end I think Harris crawled for one person -- his Aunt Hayley. For weeks she has been the one who was willing to get down on her hands and knees and crawl around just to show him how it is done. So its either Aunt Hayley's work, or Jeb's - who is always on all fours, that has gotten our little man to crawl.

He started off slow, taking one or two at a time before falling to his stomach, but this weekend in the midst of mom and dad fighting off head colds - Harris took off and has not stopped since!

Spring Break 2010

It's official we have survived the worst winter NJ has seen in any of our lifetimes (not to mention a very rainy start to the spring). Something close to 75 inches of snow and what has felt like an equal amount of rain. So when we came out of the freeze we decided to get out of the house! Our little man had a few play dates - one with a new friend from music class Marisa and one with Olivia and Caroline - the beautiful twin daughters of friends of Lindsey and Dan!




Then just as it started to get cold again we escaped on Harris's first official Spring Break... Spring Break is a big deal - for years (actually only since we graduated from college) Marteena (Harris's Aunt Marteena) and I have dedicate one week each spring to the celebration of the warmer weather. In the recent years Uncle Josh and "Dad" have joined the fun - this year Harris got to join in on Spring Break 2010; which was only made even more special because Uncle Alex and Aunt Megan joined in!

We had a great week at Grammy and Pop's place on Siesta Key.



Mornings were spent relaxing and waiting for the sun to get warm enough to hit the beach. Harris wasted no time and found lots of things to do in the condo... including figuring out how to open the coffee table - or as we now call it the baby apartment.





and using the laundry basket as a kayak... (quite different then the kayak Dad took out to see the scary alligators... but you will have to visit Uncle Alex's website to get a look at those -
http://www.stateofdesign.net/worldtour/-sarasota/)



Then in the afternoons we hit the beach and the pool. The little man still loves the sand; he loves the water even more. The ocean was way to cold for a swim, but we spent time digging in the sand, got our feet wet in the freezing water and then went back to the condo where Harris took full advantage of the heated pool - he even put his face in the water!



While away Harris turned 10 months - can't wait to see what this month will bring!

Action

Uncle Dan and Harris break it down...


Dad offered Harris a ball if he would just try to crawl a little closer... Harris had a better idea!



Mmmm Mmmm Good!

Sleeping and Rolling Over

This weekend Harris had his first sleepover - at Grammy and Pop's. It was a trial... not the little man, but for mom and we both passed with flying colors. I came way below the family's average bet that I would call 300 times and Harris was a star. He visited with his great aunts, napped, laughed, slept through the night, played, and learned this "fun" screaming game from his Pop. Here is how the game goes... Harris screeches at the top of his lungs smiles and then looks at whoever he is "playing" with, waiting for them to repeat the sound. Three days later the game still brings him much delight!

Then after weeks of PT and urging from Mommy, Daddy, Martina, Grammy, Pop, Grandee, Grampa, Hayley, Dan, and just about anyone else who spends extended time with him... Harris started rolling from his stomach to his back - for real this time. It's not just the push up and throw himself over that he did when he was much smaller, instead it is an actual role. It's purposeful, he tucks his arm (something that has been amazingly challenging for him), and roles - one way at least, maybe next week he will go the other.

Snowdays

Despite the fact that last night after Harris went to bed we diligently cleaned our cars and our spots so that we could go to work in the morning, the roads were to bad to get to work this morning - so we had another chance to play in the snow.

The Blizzard of 2010 (well one of them)

Today Harris experienced his first official snow day. Mom and Dad were home, the snow was falling and we spent the day keeping warm, playing with every musical instrument we could find, looking out the windows and making food (as is a snow day tradition I learned from my mother, only instead of baking today I was steaming up what felt like pounds of baby food).


Then around 5:30 Dad took Harris to the door and opened it up to show him the snow. He peered his little head out and looked around, intently he examined the trees and the ground, leaning over Dad's arm to get a better view and then he tried to dive in the snow! Luckily Dad had a good grip. So we got Harris dressed and out we ventured Harris, Mom, Dad and Jeb - oh what fun we had!




Around the corner Uncle Dan was busy building Harris his very own igloo... we hope tomorrow the sidewalks are cleared enough that we can go play!