The Holiday Season

This Holiday season was filled with all things perfect... IT started off with what might be Harris's favorite holiday... Halloween. It is not because of the costumes (which by the way Harris picked on his own at a random trip to Old Navy) BUT because of the Pumpkins -- Throughout October and November Harris squealed with Delight every time we saw a pumpkin.



Then the world wind of family events came in...From Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Harriet's and Uncle Bills...


...To Channukah filled with the whole family a ton of wonderful things.


...To tree decorating at Hayley, Dan and Max's


...and then onto Christmas with Harris's favorite buddy Max.

"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!