10 Times

I broke a record in therapy today. I always start off swinging, my favorite thing to do in therapy, and the therapist wants me to use the switch. The switch says 'more swinging' on one side, the other side says 'all done'. So they let me swing for awhile and then they stop me. Once they stop me I have to decide if I want to swing more or if I am all done. If I want to swing more, I have to push the 'more swinging' side of the switch; and if I am done I have to push the 'all done' side of the switch. I have been working with this switch for weeks. And the therapist usually has to show me, and take my hand and press the button a few times before I get the hang of it. But the last couple of weeks I have really started to understand the concept and she hasn't had to do hand-over-hand with me. Now I know to do it by myself. It still takes me awhile, once they stop swinging me to actually push the button. My thought process is still a little slow. But I really just take my time to annoy the therapist and mom. I didn't know, but the therapist have been counting each week on how many times I push the switch. Last week, I did it 5 times in a row all by myself. Today, I did it 10 times, yes 10 times, and then on the 11th time I finally pushed the 'all done' button. I was pooped!

Like I said before, mom has been trying to get a video of me talking. But I refuse to amuse her. Except the other night, I let one slip. Just a little one. As you can see from the video, I do not like the camera and I freeze up. If you be patient and listen carefully, I said dad in the video. Hopefully that will satisfy mom for awhile.

Ignoring

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did. I ate a lot of turkey and stuffing. A matter of fact, I am still eating it as leftovers. It's starting to get a little old. But I think mom and dad are too.
I am really starting to babble a lot more. I am working on perfecting the 'da' down. Every now and then, I get some other sound out like 'ga'. But I seem to not remember how to say them over and over.
Now the story behind the pictures. Mom is always trying to get a good picture of me. And well I give her a run for her money. She usually ends up getting one but I make her work for it. I have to amuse her sometimes. Well if you don't know my dad he doesn't like the camera either. So we decided to protest the other night and not look at the camera. She keeps trying to get a video of me talking so everyone can hear me. But I definitely do not cooperate then.

Weekend

I got to spend all weekend at my Grandma's house. My mom and dad went deer hunting and left me with grandma. It was just grandma and me all weekend, grandpa wasn't even there (he went with mom and dad). We did a lot of bonding. We had a lot of fun! But I was sure glad for mom and dad to come home. I was really excited to see them.

I am really getting the 'da' sound down. I say it all the time now. I am working on saying two in a row - like dada. I have said it a couple times, but I haven't mastered it yet. I'll get it eventually.

Mistaken

Apparently, according to dad, I really haven't said my first word. Before, I would make sounds like 'aaah', 'uh' and blowing raspberries. Finally I made the 'da' sound, which to dad that is also a sound and not really a word. He says I would have to put two 'da's' together and then I would have said a word. But I haven't quite done that yet. I'll be working on that. Mom still thinks it is close enough to a word.

Happy Halloween

Trick or treat
Smell my feet
Give me something
good to eat!

I dressed up as Batman this year. I was kind of excited about getting all dressed up, but I didn't know there was a mask involved. But I humored mom and kept it on, but I was glad to see it go after awhile. I got to go door to door with my cousins this year. All in all, it was fun!

da

Guess what? You won't believe what I did yesterday, I was even surprised. I SAID MY FIRST WORD!!!!! You probably can figure out what it is by the title, but it was da. And it wasn't just a freak occurance. I said it like five times in a row for mom and dad yesterday morning before they went to work and I haven't stopped saying it. Mom was so proud and dad was too. I even said it for Ms Brandy, my speech therapist and Ms Terri, my developmental therapist, today during therapy. They were very excited. I knew eventually I would get something out. But now mom of course wants me to say 'mama'. I'll try my best but I can't guarantee anything.
Of course, today is Halloween, and I am going to be Batman. I already started early trick-or-treating, I had to go by my grandma's work and to my friend Jenny's work and show off and then to therapy. Everyone thought I was adorable. I wasn't too fascinated getting all dressed up. Maybe I will be more in to it tonight when I go over to my other grandma house and my nephews house.

Excited

I love listening to music, especially piano music. So when the show Everybody Loves Raymond comes on I get really excited. At the end of every show there is a little song they play. I stop whatever I am doing and I listen and get all excited because I like the music. Watch the video and you will see.

Stuck

As you can see from the picture, I had a rough night the other night. I got a little stuck. It happened last weekend. My Aunt Jen came down from St Louis and I was busy entertaining her, that I didn't want to go to bed. Finally, around 11:00, mom said I had too go to bed. So I tossed and turned until I finally passed out. I wasn't fussy or anything, so mom never came in to check on me until she went to bed. And to her surprise she found me hanging half way out. Once she finds me like I am, you would think most moms would just get me unstuck and comfortable again. But not my mom, she turns the light on and grabs the camera. Which wakes me up, but lucky for her I was really tired and went back to sleep and slept the rest of the night. But I was ready to get up in the morning and play with my Aunt Jen again.

Pumpkin carving

Since Halloween is coming, mom, dad and I decided to carve pumpkins. Dad says it's a tradition that we carve pumpkins every year. I really didn't know what I was getting myself into, but I thought what the heck. I'll see what it is all about. Apparently, you take a pumpkin and cut the top off. Then there is all this stuff in the inside that you have to get out. And that was my job. I didn't care for it too much. It felt pretty gross. I didn't do the best getting anything out, so dad helped me. But then when you get all the stuff out, you can carve a face into the pumpkin. Which is the cool part.

I had a small pumpkin that was mine. Mom and dad also had one of their own that they carved also. Mine was a little small to actually carve a face out of, so I just made a face with markers on mine.

After we carved all the pumpkins, we set them on the front porch for everybody to see.

Waving

I have perfected the wave. Everytime someone is leaving and says bye-bye, I give them a wave back. I don't have the wrist action down yet, but I'll get there. All I do is lift my arm in the air and then smile and laugh because I know I did something I was supposed too. Mom and dad always tell me good job.

Today, in therapy, I got to swing for a long time. I kept telling them more by pressing the 'more swinging' button on my switch. So I got to keep going. But then I was starting to get tired, so I pressed the 'stop' button. Ms Brandi thought I hit it by accident. But she could tell by looking at my facial expression that I was done. I kept looking down and uninterested unlike before when I would smile and laugh after each time we stopped and took a break. So we stopped and did something else.

So we moved on to painting. I got to watercolor. You better watch out Picasso, I'm pretty good. But I got bored of that and was starting to get really sleepy. Ms Brandi was trying to get a another color for me and as I was waiting I fell asleep right in my chair with my paintbrush still in hand. But then when Ms Brandi and Ms Terri caught me, they thought I was faking, because 2 seconds before that I was wide awake and painting away. As soon as they said my name, I gave them a suspicious smile with my eyes still closed. So they weren't going to let me go that easy. Because they knew I was up to something. But I just didn't want to paint anymore. So we moved onto reading a book that I stayed awake for and paid attention too. After that my time was up and mom and I went home. I was so exhausted I didn't even eat lunch, I took a nap as soon as I got home.