Brian decided there might be something to this walking thing today. I think we counted 2o steps at most, but we are definitely on the verge. He is doing quite well with obstacles and even changing direction! For some reason he also decided to become a little climber today as well. All I can say is, HELP ME!!!
I just love his face in the shots where he is looking at the camera. "What? Me? I didn't do anything!"
Ruben has been tolerating Brian much better since Brian started table food. More specifically since Brian started refusing to eat most table foods by throwing them on the floor. Recently he actually hangs over his high chair food in hand and waits for Ruben to appear before tossing the tasty treat. Due to this new found friendship, Brian has a new favorite game. He has figured out that he and Ruben can actually PLAY together. Here are some cute pictures of them doing so.
We saw Dr. Arjmand the ENT today. He was excited about Brian's latest hearing test. He said that Brian has the type of loss that would not have been noticed until he was in 3rd grade probably-IF AT ALL. He really didn't have much else to say today, but he certainly reassured me that we have made the right decision in waiting to decide about hearing aides. Another good day at Children's :)
Shannon, when you read this, I know you will appreciate the title :) You will also appreciate the event which prompted said title. Today, my child nearly ended the life of a zoo creature. The zoologists were out in full force today because there was some type of art festival going on at the zoo. We got to pet several different snakes, view a scorpion up close, and touch a hissing cockroach. My child, however, GRABBED the hissing cockroach. If I had not been watching so closely, I am fairly certain he would have SMASHED the hissing cockroach with his BARE hands. So gross! The zookeeper was not keeping all that close of a watch on the situation. Apparently she felt that a baby as young as Brian Thomas would be afraid of such a creature. She clearly does not know MY child.
Later, we got caught in a downpour at the zoo and had to make a run for it. We found a bit of shelter under a tree, and waiting our the majority of the storm. We were pretty soaking though, and Brian started to shiver, so we decided we would have to make our escape to the car. Poor Lauren fell on the way into the elevator. Stupid slippery floors :( We made it out in fairly good shape (and spirits).
Finally, a fun picture for Matt. Tonight Brian really "got" the whole looking for airplanes thing while playing out back. Many times he would point and say, "look," or, "see!" I love the look of wonder and awe on his face in this picture :) Oh and if you are wondering what the child is wearing in the picture, here's your answer. Alex, one of the girls I "watch" during the school year, went to Guatemala on a mission trip in June. This outfit was her gift to Brian. A funny story actually. She said that she told the nice Guatemalan lady that Brian was going to be 1 year old, and the lady insisted she needed to buy a pequeno, or small version of the outfit. Alex kept trying to explain that Brian is not small, but grande (large). It fits, so Alex clearly won the debate!
On Monday we went to Children's for yet another hearing test. We were thrilled to be working with Katherine, our original Audiologist this time. We also got lucky and Shana was our booth Audiologist. She was great with Brian and really kept his attention well!
The results weren't all we had hoped for, but they did prove that the mono definitely affected his test when he was 9 months old. Monday's test showed that he does not have a moderate loss as the 9 month test indicated. However, his loss is a worse mild than it was originally. Based on the audiogram, Katherine said she would suggest a hearing aid trial. However, given his (more than) normal speech and language development to date, we all agreed to continue to monitor him closely and retest at 15 months. Katherine said that most kids testing in this range would not be developing normally as far as speech and language, so we're kind of in uncharted territory here. But the bottom line overall for now is that we are not going to do a hearing aid trial between now and October unless we see a decline in his development. We will revisit the idea in October when we retest and reevaluate his language abilites.
This week has been a busy one! Yesterday we went to see Dr. Wiley, the Developmental Pediatrician. When she first walked in I was struck immediately by her resemblance to my aunt Sarah (who is also a pediatrician). If Dr. Wiley were taller, they would have been twins! I was instantly impressed with Dr. Wiley. She sat down on the floor with Brian and started playing with him from the start. She has an obvious love for children and I loved seeing her interact with him. Unfortunately (fortunately, really), we won't get to spend a lot of time with her as she felt Brian has NO developmental delays at this time!! She was very pleased with the way he is developing and saw no cause for concern. She shared Dr. Price's opinion on Brian's eating habits. She gave us several ideas on how we can make eating table food Brian's idea.
Then today we went to see the eye doctor, Dr. North. I found it hysterical that Children's has a Dr. North and a Dr. West in their Ophthalmology department :) Anyway, more good news...Brian's eyes are normal. Yay! We will go back every two years to make sure his eyes continue to develop normally. They did have to dilate his eyes, which he was not thrilled about. He was quite the wiggle worm, but who could blame him? The poor kid has been poked and prodded enough.
Our battle to be more strong-willed than Brian seems to be working for now. Today he ate a bite of Shawn's toast at breakfast (too bad it was his last bite, Brian probably would have eaten more :) Then he ate some of my pizza crust at lunch. He also snacked on an apple with me after our nap. Then at dinner, he ate a little bit of what we were eating (stuffed crescent rolls) and I believe he even ate a little bit of ground beef! Yay, Brian!!
First Steps of Northern Kentucky is an agency that offers services to children when they have some sort of medical need (PT, OT, Speech Therapy, etc.) At the request of Children's, an evaluator came yesterday to screen Brian to see if he qualifies. The woman who did the evaluation is an audiologist from Louisville. She spent about an hour and a half gathering data from me and observing Brian.
She found him to be functioning above age level! He fell into the 13 month range overall (cognitive, feeding, speech, hearing, etc.). The spectrum used to evaluate him is a range between 12 and 17 months. The most exciting result is that he is in the 50th percentile for speech. This means that even if he were 17 months old he would be speaking more than 50% of all 17 month olds! Pretty exciting :) She even commented that if he has a moderate hearing loss she will be very surprised. This was nice to hear from an audiologist who has seen him in real life action (not just in a booth). We are going to attempt to retest his hearing this coming Monday. If he were to test moderate and that was found to a conclusive result, he would automatically qualify for First Steps. It seems to be a great program, but we are obviously not hoping this is the case!
The area where he scored lowest was feeding. He is still refusing most table food and prefers Gerber 2nd foods. However, even though he was in the 9th percentile, this still means he is eating better than 9% of all 17 month olds. Brian's eating habits were an area of concern at the pediatrician's office last week as well. Dr. Price really feels Brian is making a choice, and it's not a medical issue, but he cautioned us to keep trying and monitor him for improvements. So we have been trying like crazy. It's really a matter of being more stubborn than he is according to Dr. Price.
In other news from his 12 month visit, Brian weighed in a 24 lbs 14 oz. He was still 31 1/2 inches long. His percentiles were 90 for height and head circumference and 80 for weight. Yes, that's right! Our little butterball is slimming down now that he is so much more mobile. Brian also got two shots at the doctor's visit. He cried for the first time :( I don't blame him though. The nurse missed and scratched his leg with the needle. OUCH!
Tomorrow we see a developmentalpediatrician at Children's, and Thursday we see the eye doctor. Please pray for no curve balls.
It's been a long wait, but she's finally home from Oz! We missed her so much, but we were so happy that she was able to have the wonderful experience of studying abroad. Brian slept through her arrival at CVG, but was happy to spend time with her once he woke up. We love you, Whit!
I just love his face in the shots where he is looking at the camera. "What? Me? I didn't do anything!"
