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.
I just love his face in the shots where he is looking at the camera. "What? Me? I didn't do anything!"
