Let Him Climb

Doctors orders...climbing is good. According to Joey's pediatric neurologist, it is good for building trunk strength, balance and coordination. And so...when safe (i.e. we are there to catch him so he does not get hurt), we let him climb. And climb he does!

At first it was his toys...

Onto the coffee table..

Into the Dryer...

Poor Leo is no longer safe on the couch!

Look at him go after the poor kitty!

Sorry Leo!

And thank goodness for Leo--Joey moves on to the next thing quickly..

And here he is after his haircut on Saturday-- climbing his stroller like it was nothin'

Joey In The Box

Joey is into boxes these days.

The stuffed animal box, the toy box, the laundry basket (ok that's not a box but, it is something he can climb in and tip over)

He likes to climb in.

He likes to tip them over.

When filled with stuffed animals, they make a great place to enjoy a bottle.

Most of all, however, I think he enjoys spreading the contents of boxes, laundry baskets, toy boxes all over the house.

His second favorite activity is climbing. He used a pillow I left on the floor the other day to climb up the couch and from there onto the end tables.

There is no turning your back on this little dude anymore!

Weekend at Grandma and Pa Pa's House

Here are the pics I promised from last weekend at my parents house in San Diego. We were there for Joey's 18 month birthday. What strides he has made from our trip this same time last year.

Joey going for a swim in Grandma's kiddie pool in the front yard when we got there on Thursday.

He got a big kick out of swimming in the pool. It was just the right depth of water for him and it was warm from being out in the sun in the driveway.

Things were a lot better with my Dad (Pa Pa) as well. Joey took several naps with Pa Pa in his chair and even reached for him! I was so happy that he did not push my daddy away like he did when we saw my parents in June.

Of course Joey was much more fun for his cousin Walker to play with this time.

Joey could not decide whether he wanted the drums or the remote more so he held onto both.

And he watched cartoons with Cousins Walker and Ellie...

Here Joey is taking a spin on his cousin Ellie's rocking horse.

And then there were the stairs... Joey was obsessed!

Since we could not keep him off of them...

We figured we ought to show him the safe way to get down... feet first on his belly.

But he did not like being shown that...all he wanted to do was keep climbing up!

And then Grandma pulled out the plastic drum set. It was a huge hit!
I think we have a natural on our hands... that spells big trouble for mom and dad's tranquility someday!

Joey proceeded to carry the drumsticks everywhere he went all weekend.

Here he is perfecting what I call his monkey walk or bear crawl. (still has the drumstick!) It is so dang cute!

It would not be a trip to San Diego without a visit to the buffet at Harrahs. As usual...it was a big hit with Joey. Joey would not even hit Grandpa's hand away depite Grandpa's best efforts to egg him on to show Auntie Cassie how funny it was when Joey pushed him away over Father's Day weekend.

Here he is trying Jello for the first time.

And then Grandma (much to my dismay) tried to give him cotton candy. At first he seemed interested....

But (thankfully) I think it scared him because he cried when she got too close with it.

And I had to calm him down with a chocolate chip cookie.

All is good again!

Joey also got his first go at playing the piano. His cousin Walker showed him how.

And like the natural musician that he is...he took to it on his own.

Enjoying playing on Grandpa's lap and laughing at Grandpa's silly songs and games..

We got home on Sunday. We were supposed to do Joey's sedated ABR and upper edoscopy on Tuesday but the doctors office never called so I thought they had been unable to coordinate the two (and I refused to let them put him under anesthesia twice and insisted they be scheduled together). But anyway I got a call from the hospital Tuesday afternoon reminding us that we were scheduled for both tests Wednesday. No one had called us to tell us about that... but we decided to go ahead and get it over with anyway. (we already had taken off work for Joey's 18 month wellbaby check up that morning.)

Joey's wellbaby appointment went well. The doctor said he looks great. He is weighing in at 22.7 pounds (75th percentile on the boys DS charts) and 30 inches (65th percentile on the Ds chart).

Despite my protests over an afternoon appointment and having to starve the baby all day, they scheduled Joey's ABR and endoscopy for 3:00 in the afternoon anyway. Joey was such a trooper. We checked into the hospital at around 1:00 and because the anesthesiologist was stuck in an emergency surgery they did not get started with Joey until 3:30. Joey was amazing. He did not cry once! Sure he pulled a few things off their shelf over the crib and tangled all the lead wires up and threw all the toys they gave him on the ground...but he did not get upset over being hungry and was on the whole very patient. I was so proud of him.

He did not even cry when they put in the IV. Probably was better because we insisted on being with him until he fell asleep. Unlike last time when I chickened out on asserting myself, I insisted on being there this time. Sure it caused a bit of a stir and I was warned that they do not usually allow parents to come back into the procedure area but... I stood my ground and told them they were not going to rip him from my arms crying this time!

Because Joey did so well... I stopped and got him his own set of drum sticks and a little Drum and tamborine. By 6:00 that evening he was back to normal.

Here he is showing off his newest mode of transportation...the bear walk on all fours. It is sooooo cute and he is sooooo fast. I will try and post a video soon.

I am so very proud of Joey. He is doing so well. At 18 months he is pulling to stand on everything. He cruises holding on to the furniture or whatever else he can and travels very quickly on all fours. He signs to communicate when he wants more, milk and he signs all done. He says Da Da and has been a lot more chatty with the babbling. I love this little man! Oh and I almost forgot...we finally got a second tooth! and three others about to bust through.

Beach Bum Joey

We flew to San Diego last Thursday to visit Joey's Grandma, Grandpa and aunties (my family). While there Joey turned 18 months old. I will post an update on Joey at 18 months later. But here are some pics of him at the beach while we were there.

Joey also had an ABR under sedation and an upper endoscopy and his 18 month well baby checkup done yesterday (we have been busy). More on that later as well...the short of it, however, is that his hearing as perfect and his stomach and esophogus look good... we are waiting for pathology on his small intestine and celiac testing. I am soooo proud of Joey...he did amazingly with everything (as always) I will share more later.

Helping (or Not) With the Laundry