Sunday, December 19, 2010

Hurray! A New Post!

It's taken nearly two months for me to create a new post so I guess I'm going to have to make it a good one. I'll do my best.

Since I know Kaden has lots of fans who rarely get to hang out with him in person, I promise to include lots of pictures. The first shot was taken over the summer so it's not terribly recent but it's one of my absolute favorite pictures of Kaden. He just looks so grown up, you know, like he's pondering really deep philosophical questions while picking the grass.

Even though he's not yet talking, his face and eyes are incredibly expressive. He tends to get his point across without saying a word. That skill may not appear on any milestone chart but I happen to think it's pretty damn impressive. And adorable.

The big news around here these days is that Kaden is going to be a big brother. We're expecting Kaden's little sister to arrive in the first week of March. I'm 7 months pregnant and doing extremely well, though exhausted and increasingly uncomfortable in my rapidly expanding body. Kaden thinks my belly is quite funny. He giggles every time I put his hand on it to feel his sister kick. Here's a cute shot of him smiling as he reaches out for a rub.















Kaden continues to work incredibly hard every day at various therapies and is extremely close to walking on his own. He's taken a few independent steps here and there but balance is still a bit of an issue, which is not surprising given the nearly 40 degree curve in his spine. Here's a few shots of him strutting his stuff with the help of a walker during a recent physical therapy session.

About two months ago we began a preschool class on Wednesday mornings where Kaden (and I) do crafts, participate in circle time (which includes singing and the teacher reading books), and snack time. Kaden liked the singing and book reading right away but he's still warming up to craft time and snack time. So far it's been a really good experience and a great transition to preschool, which Kaden may start attending a few days a week in September.

Kaden has also been doing a fairly intensive new speech therapy program twice a week. Despite a pretty rocky start that included tantrums and a series of really clever avoidance techniques that Kaden devised to avoid participating in the sessions, he seems to be getting used to his therapist and is even (dare I say it?) trying to participate and make new sounds. It's a lot of work for him but I think he's starting to understand that it will help him so he's becoming more receptive. And that's a start, so we'll take it.


The only down side to preschool and all the new activities Kaden has been doing recently is that he's had the sniffles off and on several times already this season and had a really terrible cold that lasted the entire week of Thanksgiving. Needless to say, it wasn't the greatest holiday but Kaden bounced back and returned to his old charming ways by the following week.



So that's about it for us. We're hoping for a healthy and laid back Christmas and New Year.

Happy holidays to you!