February 2012

Molly continues to grow and has learned to do so many new things in the past month!

She is now pulling herself up to stand, trying to cruise along the furniture, feeding herself finger foods (freeze-dried yogurt bites and fruit, cereal, goldfish), taking a bath in the big bathtub, signing "all done," dancing and clapping along when the Ellen talk show comes on, turning pages in books on her own and getting into EVERYTHING!

She seems to be much more adventurous and curious than Bo was when he was her age. Although he didn't crawl until he was 10 months old, he was always much more cautious about what he did and he didn't pay attention to any of the things that we have to child proof the house for. He didn't mess with cabinets or outlets, but Molly wants to explore anything and everything that she can get to.

She is also understanding a lot more of what we say which is exciting. She enjoys being outside, and she smiles and laughs when she sees dogs and cats. We've learned that it's really not necessary to buy expensive toys. Everyday household objects work just as well for toys. Her bottles are one of her favorite things to play with.

She'll flip quickly through books and she will play with some toys, but more than anything she just likes being held and carried around. She's a joy! We tell her everyday how special she is, but she usually just laughs at us. (If you've seen the movie The Help, you'll really appreciate this video.)

Her nine month well-visit went well. She measured 21 lbs., 9 oz. ( 90th percentile) and 28 inches (75th percentile) and was meeting most expected milestones. Her head size continues to measure off the growth chart, and because her head is still somewhat flat on the back, her pediatrician wants us to pursue a CT scan and re-evaluation with the pediatric neurosurgeon to discuss potential reshaping of her head. His concern is that her skull won't harden the way that it needs to which could cause potential problems later on. We go for the scan and doctor's visit at the end of this month so we'll just pray for good news when we go.

Bo says or does something everyday that makes us laugh or reminds us just how bright he is. When he was very young, he loved listening to classical music and he has shown an interest in it again. He likes listening to Ode to Joy, and he surprised Tyler this week when he tried to sing the entire German part the choir sings during the song. He also loves going to Chuck E Cheese to play Mario Kart--so much so that he recently decided that it wasn't too early to start writing Santa for Christmas presents and handed me this letter to mail to the North Pole.

(Dear Santa, Please bring me a Mario Game. Love Bo.)

His favorite thing to play with right now is Lincoln Logs. He can make some pretty cool things. They definitely put my creations to shame...:)
He has been going through a phase of being more sensitive to certain things. He's been a little more emotional lately, and he has also had a harder time dealing with some sensory things. For example, Bo has never liked the Happy Birthday song or other songs and chants that people around him are saying or singing together. In January and February, Tyler took him to basketball practice once each week, and Bo would do great during the practice but become upset when the group did the group cheer "Go Team!" at the end of the practice. Bo told me that the cheer was too loud and made him "anxious." Bo doesn't usually get upset when he hear the Happy Birthday song now, so hopefully he will get used to the team cheers too (because he is starting tee ball this spring!). The other things that are going on are related to his clothes. He'll wear a long sleeve shirt, but he prefers to push the sleeves up to his elbows. He usually only likes to wear "soft pants" (fleece pants), but he will wear khaki pants to church. He just really does not like to wear jeans. He has become concerned with the amount of lint between his toes and a couple of times during the day he will take off his socks, look at his toes and say, 'look at all of this lint!" He'll take it out and go about the rest of his day with no problems, but we do wonder if he has some mild sensory issues. Of course we are not too stressed because the issues don't affect him too much, but we don't want to overlook them either in case they do start to develop into something more.

Other than that, he's doing great and he continues to be the best big brother for Molly. I bragged on him today for being such a good big brother, and I asked him if he wanted to have kids of his own. (He was concentrating on coloring so he wasn't very willing to elaborate with his answers, but what he did say was pretty funny.) This is how the conversation went.
Me: Would you like to be a daddy and have kids when you grow up?
Bo: Yes.
Me: How many kids do you want to have?
Bo: Two.
Me: Do you wants boys or girls?
Bo: I want boys and girls.
Me: So you want a boy and a girl. What will you name them?
Bo: Little Miss Muffet and Jack Horner.
Me: And who are you going to marry?
Bo: Miss Mary with the lamb. And I'm going to be a fireman!

Needless to say, he's got his future all planned out! With the dance moves that he'll show you in the video below, the nursery rhyme ladies are going to line up to marry him!