One year ago

It is funny to think about Thanksgiving. A year ago I was getting ready to go back to work. Where has the time gone? In some ways I think, it has only been a year and in other ways I am amazed at how much Lucas has changed. We were watching a video of him taken in early March. He was so small-he still had brown hair and was content to be on his mat, just kicking his feet. It seems so long ago. Did he always crawl? Hasn't he always wanted to eat what I am eating? Lucas was on Marc's lap while we watched the video and he was mesmerized by it. At one point, Lucas on the video laughed and Marc said, he sounds the same way when he laughs now.

Today was our last day of physical therapy. I had a bit of remorse while Diane was working with Lucas. Were we really ready to end this? Can we get Lucas to walk on our own? I know we can always go back and use the services again but Marc is resigned to the fact we are done. But at one point this morning, when Lucas took off and for the first time, climbed all the way up our stairs without even stopping, and he walked with his push toy all by himself, I knew that we were ready.

Lean Mean Eating Machine

One of my fears with Lucas was that he wasn't going to like eating table food. I have seen both my siser and sister in law struggle with getting their kids to eat. I witnessed too many scenes at the dinner table with one parent getting frustrated with the lack of willingness on their child's part to eat. And as we struggled with ear infections last spring and the impact that had on Lucas wanting to eat, the dread filled me.

If only I had known then that Lucas would be one mean eating machine. He eats non stop it seems some days. Even his caregivers say that he doesn't have any issues eating-he normally is one of the last ones done. It has gotten to the point where I want to eat in secret because whatever I am eating, Lucas wants. Regardless if it is the same thing in front of him, he wants mine. At times I feel like I am going to be attacked because he is so determined to share in my food. I was amazed last week when Lucas ate my turkey meatloaf. I was prepared to give him something else but was shocked when he ate it off his tray. Yesterday he had real oatmeal for the first time and seemed to like it. He likes lime flavored torilla chips, ranch flavored Quakes, Cheese cake, hot dogs. The list seems endless.

He reminds me of my niece Amy. Even though she is 18 now, we still joke how she would eat breakfast three times some days when she still lived with my parents: once when she woke up with my sister, once when my mom ate and again when I finally got up and ate.

I can't wait for Thanksgiving-I want to see if Lucas will try cranberry sauce!

In a fog

It has been a while since I posted. It isn't for lack of things to share. I have been dealing with a cold for the past two weeks and I am just in a fog. Last weekend Marc was away for his annual pedorthist conference. This year it was in Nashville at a beautiful conference center. In two years the conference will be in Orlando again and we are thinking of taking Lucas-it would be fun mini family vacation. I was a little nervous about being a single parent for those 4 days but I am glad to say that Lucas and I both managed quite well. He has been sleeping better and that makes all the difference in the world. I didn't have to change my schedule all that much and I think Marc was amazed that the house looked at good as it did when he got home.

Lucas is starting to want to walk more. On Saturday I put him behind the walker my sister gave us and he was off. I was behind him supporting him but he was fascinated at moving in this new way. He even made motor boat sounds as he walked. With only two more weeks of PT left, I am hoping we can really help him. I would love it if he was walking more independently by Christmas.

He is an eating machine. His latest love, besides anything I am eating, is Ranch Quakes. These are the mini rice cakes. I would have thought the Ranch flavor would have been a bit much for someone so young but not him. He tried my cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory on Saturday and really like that. Lucas had quiche again last night and ate it like a champ! It is nice to not have to make a separate meal for him these days. It will be funny to see how much more he eats at Thanksgiving than his Buffalo cousins!

Eating off the floor

Lucas has a new habit-dumping whatever food we give him when he is sitting on the floor, onto the floor and eating it that way. Luckily Marc just washed the floors on Monday and I try to shark it each night but still-does it make it taste better when he eats it off the ground? It is a good thing Jeff doesn't like table food or else there would be a war, and Jeff would be more obese than he already is.

Lucas must get that from his father's side of the family. . .

Trip home, halloween and lots of happenings

Things have been a bit chaotic in our lives lately. The weekend of October 25th Lucas and I ventured home to Buffalo. I had a conference planning meeting for EACE and we turned it into a family gathering. I have been so homesick, that Saturday could not get here fast enough. The week leading up to our departure there were endless things happening-errands to run, I had to work late one evening. Life was getting in the way. But Lucas did great on the trip. We stopped at Arby's in Erie and he was too busy waving and saying hi to the other customers to eat. It was the first really cold day so I had to wrestle with Lucas to get his fleece on every time we got out of the car. I didn't want to leave it on him because I knew he would get overheated in the car. When we got to my parents', Lucas had just woken up from a nap so he was a bit confused. It didn't help that I handed him off to my mom as soon as I got in the house so I could unload the car. He wanted nothing to do with my mom-it didn't help that I was going in and out of the house and he saw me. He has this separation anxiety down pat. At one point when he was crying over the weekend, my mom said to him to stop being a bad boy. I told her he wasn't being bad; this was something new for him and he was just a bit confused. What was she thinking?

By the time Tuesday rolled around, he was better. He didn't sleep well and I ended up having him in bed with me all three nights. He just wasn't going to settle down in their crib. It was great to see the family, even got to see my aunt. Lucas loved watching his older cousins and they wanted him to play like a big boy. We told them in a few years Lucas will play with you. We will be going up again for Thanksgiving.

Lucas is standing non stop now-he loves to be next to things that he can pull himself up on. He is even starting to creep around tables. One night he actually took a few steps from a Lego table to the coffee table. He turned his body, shifted his weight, reached for the coffee table and took a few steps. It is funny to see how after they master one skill, they forget other ones. Lucas is very hesitant to go from a standing position back down to his knees again. We are working with him on that. Because we are more comfortable with his standing, we are going to end PT in 4 weeks. That will be just before Thanksgiving. We need to really work on things between the sessions but I feel good about this. We will tell Diane tomorrow-I know she will be OK with it.

And halloween. I don't like the trick or treating aspect of it but love to decorate for it. Lucas had a party the day before halloween at school. Some children were dressed, others weren't too happy about getting into costume. Lucas did OK with the Pooh costume but then got really warm so we took the top part off of him. It was mass chaos! He tried pumpkin cheesecake and really liked it. Halloween night I took him to a few houses and met two neighbors. We have been there for 4 years and we are just meeting them now. Lucas sat on my lap and as the kids came up the driveway to collect the goods, he would start waving and said Hi! My little extrovert. He got to do a second round of trick or treating when our local nephews came over. It was fun to watch the little group of boys head off for more candy. It would be a nice tradition if they came over for dinner and then the group headed out. Of course since Marc took Lucas around again, I got stuck with candy duty. At least it was starting to slow down a bit. As soon as the group came back home, we pulled everything into the garage and turned off the light.

Pictures soon I promise! And happy 14 month birthday Lucas:)