Olie APB - Come on Baby, Let's Do the Twist

The (signed) words are coming a mile a minute now. Monday night Olie signed “hot,” which also happens to be one of his few spoken words. Naturally after this discovery I asked him to sign “cold.” He did. Then later he signed “mouse” and finally “bear.” In fact while reading to him on Monday night, he made a sign for virtually every page. I read and he waved his hands along. It was very interactive.

And speaking of interactive, Olie is also following kinetic instructions now. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been reading Slap Your Hands, a book with all kinds of rhyming commands, “slap your hands, stomp your feet, shake your arms and take a seat." Olie always anticipates the next instruction, and before we even read it, he’s patting his knee, or tapping his head. Last week in dance class, for the first time Olie stopped running around on his own and actually performed the dance steps along with everyone else. He’s still trying to get the hang of kicking and rocking side to side. But he’s fully mastered the twist.

The Upside of T-T-T-Toddlerdom

Despite recent unfortunate events (i.e., scalded palms), it is beginning to feel like the parenting thing is getting easier to manage. Oliver now communicates his needs more effectively with up to 20 signs, a few spoken words, and a well-honed sense of how best to help us get the gist of what his current needs are (Arms up means time to hold me; pointed finger combined with directional grunt means I want that or let’s go that away; rumbling car sound means please push me on my beamer). And, more generally, he just needs much less hands-on parental attention. Some examples are that he just plays alone fairly often now. Also, when other kids are present he plays directly with them, rather than coincident playing as was the case in the past. There’s a kind of freedom for us in him not needing our attention and engagement all the time, but we also see that this unplugging from us is a critical part of his ever-developing mind and personality.

But even more than the relief of shifting from a 100% all-the-time nurturer (to more like 85%), the interactions we have with him now are evolving to new heights of fun and “cute-itude.” A sideways glance from dad now alerts him that he’s about to be chased. Dad lying face down on the floor means it is time to climb aboard for some push ups. He’ll emit a bear growl when it is time for dad to get down on hands and knees and play bear. He sings along to mama’s version of “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees. He’s fascinated by walking on different textures (lawn vs. pavement vs. gravel vs. sand vs. water). He throws the ball for Bella the Bulldog a dozen times a day and always shares his bread and cheese with her (finally some real upside for her). He also giggles constantly at dad’s goofy antics, clearly recognizing them as play.

To put it more succinctly, it is way cool to be a dad lately. Whatever goes wrong at work, whatever the slings and arrows that are shot into my path (or back), each evening I get to come home to a full eclipse by his toothy smile and his squealing giggles. It ain’t half bad by a long shot.

Sentimentality aside, let's get to some real news. We estimate Olie is now 31 inches and 27 pounds, still way ahead of the pack in height and weight. He’s the same height as some 2 year olds we know and he’s much bigger than nearly everyone his age. One mother in one of his classes (yes, he’s still taking dance, music and sign classes) described him as having a “big, protective presence.” Hey, what guy wouldn’t want to be a big, protective presence? He’s still struggling on the hair front, but then so am I. He’s a great fan of bears and growls out bear snarls about 30 times a day. Despite loving bears the mostest, he seems to have the greatest fun signing "crab." To be fair, the sign for "more" gets far more usage than the sign for "crab." In general, he remains a great fan of all animals as well as any large motor vehicle (fire engines still reign).

With the bandages off his hands, he’s back to climbing onto, then falling off of everything in his way. He’s quite talented with a fork and at emptying the Tupperware drawer onto the floor of the kitchen, but excels most at unraveling toilet paper rolls and plunging limbs into the dog’s water bowl. Crayon’s are also now on his radar, but he’s torn between drawing with them and eating them. Wax On, Wax In. Wax On, Wax In…

Making Lemonade from Lemons

"Sock Man" Pulling ducky w/ his teeth

I'm happy to report that Olie is now doing much better. He got his bandages off today and was able to take a bath for the first time in a week. He splashed and splashed and splashed. As Chad mentioned below (and as evidence by this pict above), despite not having the use of his hands this weekend, Olie was quite resourceful. And the fact that we were unable to go to the Cape as planned was more than made up for by a surprise visit from Uncle Oskar, whom Olie had not met before. In honor of Osk's visit, Olie also got to see Gramma Bird. He charmed them both with his antics.

With Uncle Oskar

Reading w/ Gramma

Olie continues to progress with his communication. Gramma Bird was on hand when he first signed "worm" on Monday. And then last night, O asked Chad for "more cheese." (Again in sign.) I believe this is his first sentence. And finally this morning, I asked Olie who the people in our wedding photos were. "Dada" he said. And then he tapped his hand against his chin to sign, "Mama" for the first time! Made my day for sure.

Practicing w/ fork

Riding around w/ Bella

PS I always forget to mention some of Oliver's accomplishments when I post. Here's an update:

• For 2 weeks now, Olie has been able to build increasingly tall buildings as his fine motor skills increase. Before, he's only make it to 2 or 3 stories.
  
• Olie can now blow. For several weeks now he has been able to "play" his flute. Last week while I was blowing bubbles for Olie, he started blowing them around the room.
  
• O's hemangioma (the red dot on his head) is also almost all gone.

Sock Man

Remember the song "Spoon Man" by Soundgarden from the early 90's? With Olie's unfortunate spill into the heater recently, he now has both hands completely bandaged up covering the one inch blisters on his palms. In order to keep him from shredding those bandages, he gets to wear one of daddy's gym socks on each arm and, on him, they go all the way up to his shoulders. To help him see that wearing socks on your arms is way cool, I've now trained him to throw both arms up in the air whenever I call out, "Sock Man." He's a totally new kind of superhero, able to soak up spills with a single swipe of his arm.



Since he now has no use of his hands, his reduced forms of play are twofold. Either constantly sweep all toys and other objects away with broad strokes of his sockhands, or pick things up with his teeth. He divides his time equally between the two. Lately, one of his favorite pastimes has been to snatch Justine's glasses from her face. No matter how prepared she is, he nearly always succeeds at this. He's quite fast. But now, with no hands available, he's taken to lunging at her face trying to snatch away the glasses with his teeth. Luckily for her, so far he has missed. He'll certainly feel guilty later on when his mama tells the story of how those permanent teeth marks appeared on her nose.

Burn Update

(If you don't understand the title of this post, see post below before reading.)

I took Olie in to the Dr.'s to change his bandages this morning. His hand was really badly blistered, but the Dr. assures us that there's no permanant damage. Over the night blisters had developed on the fingers of his other hand as well. So now both hands are dressed and covered with white athletic socks. He looks like a little mummy.

His spirit seems OK though, as the Dr. has him on 6x the normal dosage of Motrin. Yesterday we sat him down to watch a Discovery HD car show (a rare treat, but given the circumstances). He kept signing "car" and making revving engine noises. So cute. Also, in order to encourage water drinking, Chad and I have adopted the habit of saying "Ahhhh" after a refreshing drink. Last night we woke Olie at 10PM to give him a dose of Motrin. He was barely awake and his head kept lolling to the side, but when we finished, he said, "Ahhhhh." We laughed in spite of ourselves.

Finally, I forgot to mention 2 new developments in yesterday's post. Olie has been attempting to use a spoon more and more these days, and this weekend he took a stab at using a fork. Did pretty well. In addition, in honor of our AZ trip where we saw a few lizards, I made up a sign for them - mimicking the rapid movement of their tongues in and out of their mouths. It took about a day for Oliver to adopt this. It's now my favorite sign to coax out of him.

Hot Stuff on Valentine's Day

Oh Dear. I'm sorry to report our first toddler injury in the form of a second degree burn on Olie's hand. It happened when he fell against a heater at Bella's house today. I got a frantic call from Anita that took about 10 years off my life. His hand is pretty blistered, but there will not be any permanant damage (except perhaps to Anita's and my nerves). Of course he screamed until the motrin the Dr gave him kicked in, and the whole thing was pretty tramatic. He's now sleeping with one of Chad's athletic socks over his whole arm to keep him from undressing the wound. Poor thing! Not the best Valentine's.

On a lighter note..

Last week, Olie and family enjoyed a nice trip to AZ to visit Uncle Cory and Aunt Michele. While the East Coast was freezing, we enjoyed hiking in the desert and hanging by the pool in 80 degree weather. Olie also got his first glimpse of loose, alive jack rabbits on the hotel grounds.

Uncle Cory, I want to go there!

While Chad was at a conference, Olie and I headed to the zoo for his first look at real, live elephants. (Heretofore he'd only seen the stuffed ones at the AMNH.) Besides the elephants we saw a mom orangutan and her new baby, who though only a month old, was quite adept at swinging thru the branches. We also saw zebras, baboons, rhinos and tall giraffes. Olie nearly became part of the giraffe exhibit when he managed to climb close to the top of their lattice work fence. Whose bright idea was it to essentially give kids a ladder! The best part for me was afterwards. As Olie and I were enjoying a snack, I asked him if he liked the animals at the zoo. He kept nodding his head "yes" and signing elephant and orangutan (same as gorilla) with great enthusiasm. I think it was our first extended conversation.

Each night in AZ a bagpiper serenaded the hotel guests and Olie in particular as the sun set. In fact, as he roamed the grounds, Olie became quite popular with the whole staff, many of whom quickly knew him by name. His favorite haunt was right by the front door where the hotel had two large stone bear sculptures. Olie ran from one to the next making bear sounds and greeting all the new arrivals.

By the pool

Back home Olie continues to make strides. Turns out he's already grown an inch since his first birthday, and he has four mollars coming in! 2 top, 2 bottom. He is continuing to sign, adding train, whale, and baby to his rep. We now have to be very careful about what we do cause he repeats it. Last night after watching me replace the batteries in a toy, he took the screwdriver, turned the toy over and proceeded to insert it into the screw and turn! He also continues to read avidly. It's now the first thing he does in the morning and when Chad and I come home at night we're each greeted with a book. Do not pass go, read!

More Hand Jiven'

Our yuppy

Oliver is a communicating fool lately, with new signs and sounds coming every day. Last weekend he mastered our new favorite: the bear growl (which also serves as the lion or tiger's roar). Once again at the Museum of Natural History, we had just visited our friends the elephants (Olie can also now sign "elephant" as well as mimic their distinctive trumpet.). We decided to test what we thought was a bear growl from the morning reading session. Therefore, we move from African to North American mammals, where bears were more prevalent. In fact they have three bear exhibits: grizzly, Alaskan brown and black bears. O kept running from window to window and sure enough there it was: "Grrrrrrr!"

Up from a nap with extreme bed head

Yes, Olie's communication is definitely motivated by things that make noise. Last week, while listening to NPR, O signed "music." Besides signing music, Olie "sings," often chiming in with his own "Ahhhhhh," whenever Chad or I hum a chord. Oh, and O has been "playing" the flute for at least a month now. By "playing" I mean to say he understands the concept of blowing out.

Olie also signs car (done by mimicing two hands steering the wheel), but O only uses one hand. (Going to have to rectify that before he actually drives!) Then two nights ago, true to his Cape Cod roots, Olie surprised me with the sign for "crab." Other new signs: "ball," "butterfly," "monkey" and "seal."

In terms of actual speech, Oliver's still holding on to one-consonant-plus-one-vowel-only sounds, "ba (ball), bu (bus)", etc. But he has added a few new monosylabic "words" to his rep: "hot" which comes out "ha," and "ah da" - "right there."

Finally, I'm not too worried about Oliver's ability to concentrate. His reading sessions are now sometimes so long that I get restless. And Olie can sit still for more narrative stories now, though he also still likes a good interective reading experience. "Goodnight Moon" is a new favorite. Olie can even find the tiny white mouse. And getting back to the bears, he loves any book with sleeping bears in it (we have two). He loves to mimic their snoring, which he does by blowing in and out of his nostrils. Where does he get this stuff?