Now with Kids (Day 1)

Sawyer gets the car, and Ayden walks with his walker.

This is my excited face.

Scott and Courtney and their 22-month-old son Sawyer came to visit us from North Carolina. Bryan and I met Scott and Courtney at Clemson and have been friends ever since. We hadn't yet met their son and were excited for the introduction, as well as the influence Sawyer would have on Ayden.

"My mommy made me do this."
"Yeah, mine too."

Now that we have children, I planned a family friendly weekend. Today, I had hoped we would go to a botanical garden complete with train and scarecrow exhibits, but local weather refused to cooperate. Instead we went to an indoor toddler playland. Bryan and I were initially wary of the excursion, but we were able to keep Ayden safe while still allowing him to feel like he was part of the fun.

Sawyer was most interested in the ride and/or push toys. He came close to duking it out with a kid in order to get the car he really wanted; lucky for the kid, he abandoned the car, and Sawyer was able to take the wheel quite contently. Sawyer also played basketball with his daddy and roamed the treehouse.

Ayden spent most of his time walking with his borrowed walker. He is now able to use the walker on his own, which allows him considerably more freedom to observe and move as he pleases. His physical therapist tells me that he will eventually walk right out of the walker... if he doesn't walk some other way first. Ayden also went down the slide several times. He sure loves a good slide!

Recent Stats

Ayden saw his pediatrician, Dr. Hood, yesterday. It was a short visit... only an hour and a half this time! He was well-behaved for the appointment; he showed off his developing personality; and he impressed Nurse Martha and Dr. Hood with all his recent accomplishments. As usual, he was weighed and measured, and the amounts were surprisingly smaller than I was expecting; however, his percentiles were the same, so Dr. Hood was fine with his past three months' growth. Of course, he is super mobile, so I know he's burning a lot of calories.

Age: 18 months

Height: 31.75 inches     Percentile: 25-50

Weight: 23 pounds     Percentile: 10-25

"Dance, Dance"

These words are all I have so I'll write them...

Ayden really likes music. He has several toys that have one or more buttons which, when pushed, will play one in a cycle of sounds. For the toys with a music clip as part of the cycle, Ayden will continue to push the button until he gets to the song. Then, he'll dance to it. Then, a series of button pushes to cycle through to the song again.

Here's an example:

Pleasure Cruise

I recently learned there is a definition of the term "cruising" that relates to child development. When a child cruises, he moves along the edge of something, such as a piece of furniture, while in the standing position. In essence, then, it's a form of assisted walking. The child takes steps, while using the furniture as support.

Ayden did this for the first time on his own last Sunday, and only about a week and half after pulling himself to standing for the first time. A week later, he's doing it all of the time, and is able to go from one piece of furniture to the next. If he keeps this pace up, our goal of him walking by Christmas just might be within reach.

(Note: In the video, you'll see he's starting to sit down again, and is very proud of himself when he does so.)

"Stand Up"

When I move you move...

As I've mentioned, Ayden's mobility has progressed a lot over the last few weeks. In addition to figuring out how to crawl up the stairs, he started using his push toys and learned to pull himself to standing.

In regards to the latter, the problem wasn't pulling himself up, it was not being able to get down once there. Because he is older than most children are at this stage, he's taller, and therefore has, in relative terms, a significantly farther distance to "fall" in order to plop back down to the sitting position. He just didn't want to do it. Thus, we got to experience the joy of him whining when he no longer wanted to stand and was "stuck." This was even more fun when he would do this in his crib after we'd put him down for the night.

With the help of a soft landing place provided by our chaise's seat cushion, I was able to convince him that sitting down wasn't that big of a deal. This lasted until he sat down awkwardly on his foot and hurt - which is to say, scared - himself. Once that happened, it was back to getting stuck and whining. With some more chaise work, he's sitting himself down again, but only from certain objects (his crib isn't one of them, unfortunately).

What follows is a video and a bunch of pictures evidencing his newfound abilities. (In the interest of page loading time, I've put some of the pictures after the break.)