Fun Times with Buddy

Since the last update, Buddy has had several firsts.  We took him swimming in a lake, which he loved.  Yesterday was his first time going to the beach.  We went to the Gulf, so that my sister could come, and the water was a bit calmer than the Atlantic, which helped Buddy.  He had a great time, and actually fell asleep in his float.  We love going to places with water, so I'm glad Buddy enjoys himself. 

On Thursday, we went to the Orlando Wetlands Park to look for birds.  My mom pushed Buddy in the stroller and entertained him, and after awhile he took a nap.  I do not think he could see any of the birds, but I do think he had a nice time.  After we came home, we got some lunch and then loaded up in the car to see the other grandparents.  Buddy had a fantastic time crawling, playing with the dog, and tearing up a huge pile of tissue paper that my mother-in-law had ready to pack away for future gift-giving occasions.  He likes the crinkling noise.

We have seen so much growth over the past several months.  Buddy is doing so well.  On Mother's Day, he took a few steps while holding onto the couch.  For Father's Day, he started saying "Dada" and "Mama."  He pulls up on furniture and walks around, and if something is too far for that, or there is no furniture, he lowers himself carefully to the floor and crawls to get it.  This morning we were playing, and I was amazed to see how aware he was that if he just let go of what he was holding onto, he would fall.  He doesn't let anything stop him from getting to what he wants, but he has also learned to move carefully. 

Our interventionist came again on Monday.  She says Buddy is doing really well, and lately she has been bringing books and toys for Buddy.  She has brought several things that are black and white, and Buddy loves those.  There is a group called Little Seedlings that adapts children's books with Braille.  Buddy does not really need Braille right now, and we have been told that he will be able to read regular books when he is older, but it is really cool to have them.  They are also books with bright colors, some sparkles, and raised pictures with texture, so they are very interesting for Buddy.  One of them is actually a glove with five black and white finger puppets, and a book in the palm of the glove.  That is one of the newest, and most popular. 

Now for the roller-coaster part--Buddy is doing so well, and we are so pleased, but then we have to think about the areas where he still has to work to stay on track, like inter-personal skills, and seeing small objects.  This is kind of depressing, so I try not to dwell on it.  The interventionist asked us if Buddy could see small things (like a cheerio) and pick them up.  He hadn't tried anything that small, but after she left, we tried letting him have some rice chex.  He could see them and pick them up out of my hand, but not off of the tray of his highchair.  Yesterday, he had some chex at his grandparents, and he started eating them off of the tray of their highchair with no problem.  Today, he was able to find them at home, too.  That was really encouraging.  Now if he would just eat vegetables.

One of the things that he is supposed to start doing in the next month or two is mimicking facial expressions.  He may have some trouble with this, but we are going to be working on it anyway.  He can see things that light up (like the iPad) from pretty far away, but he only sees people at about three feet, and doesn't notice faces until they are much closer.  We will be working with him on that by starting out close and then moving farther away from him and asking him to continue watching us.


Unrelated to his vision, he is also to the point of being old enough to learn about the word "no."  Since he wants to explore everything, this is important for him to learn, but so far, he is a very stubborn and persistent little boy, although yesterday he seemed to be responding.  I suppose persistence will help him with learning to do hard things, but it can make parenting a challenging task.