In

Spencer's newest fascination is putting small things "in" other larger things. I have caught him putting toys and other small objects in boxes, the laundry basket, shoes, the heater (don't worry, it wasn't on), the ottoman, and measuring cups to name a few. I never would have thought about him needing to learn that concept, but it makes perfect sense now. When I was teaching kids with learning difficulties, I had to break every task down to its smallest components. It's amazing how many prerequisite skills and little steps there are in doing a basic addition problem for example. Learning the concept of "in" is just one tiny step that will help Spencer comprehend countless other concepts. I wish he would like to put all of his toys back "in" his toy box, but I have a feeling that he's going to move onto "out" long before that happens. Time to start locking my cupboards! :)


"Hum, what will happen if I combine a tennis ball and a slipper?"


"Will I have to throw this block away if I put it in Daddy's shoe?"


"How many things can I get in this lid before I get too excited and throw them all over the living room?!"


"Ooh, the ottoman. What a great place to hide my sock!"

Notice that he's not smiling in any of these pictures. That's because he didn't know I was taking them. Spencer knows how to smile for the camera really well and is quite the little cheese when he knows we're taking pictures or when any one gives him attention while we're out shopping.

Where's the ...?

I've noticed a huge improvement in Spencer's comprehension this week. He has been learning a lot of new words lately (what they mean, not how to say them). He loves it when we ask him where things are around the house. I know of 10-15 objects he can identify. That doesn't sound like very many, but he picked them up so quickly. I think it just clicked for him that words identify objects and he took off. Having a teaching background, this is actually more exciting to me than the crawling. I can't say enough how much I love watching him learn.


This is a picture of Spencer's first real mess (not just scattering his toys all over the place) now that he's a little more mobile. He discovered the basket I keep his bibs in and scattered them around. This one wasn't too bad, but I have a feeling that it's just a little foreshadowing of the wonderful discoveries to come!



Spencer had a good time with this Rubbermaid lid tonight. He thought it was pretty cool that he could see through it. That was his Family Home Evening activity.

Wicked

Last Friday night, Alan's parents took us and Alan's brother and his wife to see Wicked. (Thanks Darwin and Debbie!!) I had heard lots of good things about it, so I was really excited to go. Alan isn't a fan of musicals, so he wasn't so sure. It was AWESOME! The singing was phenomenal and I loved the story. (It's the story behind the witches in The Wizard of Oz.) I have never like The Wizard of Oz, but Wicked made me feel much better about it. The plot was refreshing and new and I was surprised with the happy ending. I loved the costumes and the dancing too. The singing was so powerful and really made you feel the emotions of the story. Alan even enjoyed it! I highly recommend this show to everyone.

We went to The Cheesecake Factory for dessert afterward (thanks again Darwin and Debbie!) and holy dessert! I had never been there before, but yum! I couldn't believe how many kinds of cheesecake they had. It was great! The whole night was such a fun date! Spencer even fell asleep for the babysitter after only 45 minutes of crying!

Still No Answer

Spencer had his appointment with the pediatric ophthalmologist (Dr. Reznick) this morning. The appointment was at the medical school here in Portland (OHSU) which is in downtown Portland. That meant that we had to get up and leave our house by 7:00 to make it there in time with rush hour traffic. Getting up that early wasn't so fun, but traffic wasn't bad and we got there early.

Anyway, Dr. Reznick did a pretty thorough exam of Spencer's eyes. Spencer obviously couldn't read the wall chart adults use so she did it all just by looking at his eyes through different lenses. They used all of these wild toys to keep Spencer looking in the direction they needed him to be looking. All of the results were normal. He's tracking perfectly and seems to see about the same out of both eyes. In addition to checking his vision, Dr. Reznick was also looking for any venous malformations that would cause his veins to look abnormal. She didn't find any malformations, but was unable to see the very back of Spencer's retina. She would have to sedate Spencer to see that part of his eye. So, Dr. Reznick is going to consult a retina specialist (who knew they had those?!) and will then decide if it's necessary to take that step. She didn't see any need for an MRI right now, but wants to see Spencer in about 3 months to see if there have been any changes. If there are any venous malformations on his retina, they could affect his vision if not surgically corrected. It's a little frustrating that we still don't know why his veins on his cheek are so dark, but we're very grateful that his vision is ok right now. Spencer seems like a normal, happy, healthy little boy in every way except those marks.

Here I Come!

Spencer has been hard at work improving his crawling all week. He gets a little better every day. He can keep himself entertained by rolling/crawling for a long time now which is nice for me because he's still not fast enough to get into big messes. His favorite things to go after are shoes and the trash can. I gave up trying to keep shoes away from him (except for Alan's disgusting running shoes!) and I think we're going to have to get a smaller trash can that will fit underneath our kitchen sink. Spencer seems thrilled with his new ability and it's really funny to watch his face light up when he goes after something he really wants. He gets so excited.

I have a friend here who told me that she didn't really baby-proof her house with her little girl. She just taught her daughter what she could get into and what was off limits. (They did put poisonous and sharp things out of reach obviously.) It worked for them, but I'm skeptical that it would work for everyone. Then, I've read about other people who actually hire an expert to come to their home and baby proof it for them. I think I'd prefer to be somewhere in the middle. Any advice, other moms?



This second video is just a funny one Alan took today. Yes, those are Alan's knees that Spencer is trying to eat! I think he might be working on tooth #8 because he has been trying to bite our faces and shoulders a lot the past couple of days. I've been trying to get a good picture of his cute smile with all of his teeth showing, but he doesn't like to do it for the camera.

Favorite Things

We haven't done anything very exciting lately, so I thought I'd just tell you about some of Spencer's current favorite things. I had some fun playing with the black and white setting on my camera last week and got this cute shot of Spencer chewing on a lip balm tube. That's one of the things I give him to play with when he wakes up from his morning nap before I finish my hair and make-up. He likes to chew it because it's squishy. That tube, a little calculator and our computer screen saver can usually keep him occupied long enough for me to finish.



I ordered a singing Valentine from the Young Women's for Alan on Valentine's Day and they brought him a balloon bouquet. Three weeks later, we still have the balloons hanging around our living room. It bugs me to have balloons all over the place and I keep wanting to pop them and throw them away, but Spencer loves playing with them. He rolled around with this one for a good 15 minutes this afternoon.



Spencer's very most favorite thing right now is reading stories with Daddy. Our library has a great board book section so I've been checking out lots of fun books for him. He especially loves the ones with babies in them. He will sit and listen to eight or nine stories at a time. I think that's a long time for a 10-month-old to pay attention, but I don't have any one to compare him to. I'm wondering if his attention span will decrease when he's more mobile though.



Spencer's "crawling" is slowly improving. He actually did a lot better today when he discovered that it works better when you use both arms instead of just one. :) I'll post another video soon (after I get Alan to show me how to use the video camera!)

Crawling (kind of)

So, after over 10 months, here is one of Spencer's first attempts at crawling. He's gotten to be an excellent roller and can get almost anywhere in our apartment that way, so I guess he hasn't had a lot of motivation to crawl. His best motivation has been trying to chase a stuffed soccer ball that always gets away from him. This was on Friday night and he hasn't made any more progress since then. I know he'll be so excited when he finally figures it out, so I want him to. But at the same time, I will really miss being able to just put him down and not worry that he'll get into things while I'm working around the house. I have a feeling my freedom is going to be drastically reduced very soon. :)