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!)