Rolling and sitting and stuff!

So, my little ol' resolution to be better about blogging clearly hasn't worked.  So I apologize.  Especially to folks like my grandmother, who enjoy logging in to see what's going on in the world of little man.   I'll make you a deal.  I'll write more, but the pictures may be lacking.  :)

Axel is now about 7 1/2 months old, believe it or not!  He's growing like a weed, in some ways, but still on the short side.  (translation, my child is "fluffy").

I'm sitting here on the floor watching him, my friend Sheila's mother was kind enough to loan us a "Jumperoo" for the Axman.  He LOVES putting weight on his legs, and frankly I'm a weakling and can't hold him up for hours on end, so this is quite possibly the best gadget ever.  He's a shorty so we have to put a box under his feet so he can touch the ground, but this morning he figured out how to dance and to bounce... and has been squealing with joy for hours.  (and blowing raspberries)

Pretty entertaining for all parties, I must say.

January and February have been pretty good months for all parties in the Bernfeld house, nothing huge to report, but a few highlights for a number of reasons...

Like most of the US, we have the coldest winter I can remember having while in Austin... ever.  We have had countless "snow days" at Goddard, Axel's day care, which means that Axel gets to stay home with mom and work.  He especially likes the fact that all of my meetings are video conference... so he is greatly entertained by sitting on me and watching the meeting. (He's signed a confidentiality agreement, so he won't disclose what we talk about... I've made sure of it.)  On the flip side, my coworkers all get a kick out of seeing him smiling into the camera...

Taking a nap on Momma while she works... I didn't complain, he was warm!

Showing his Google pride.

Although it's been crazy cold during the weeks, we have been uber fortunate with lovely weather on the weekends.   This little dude LOVES being outside.  He just talks and talks and talks and and so it's easy to want to take him out.   We took him to the park by our house and he enjoyed basking in the sun.  This is probably one of my favorite pics of him...    

We also took the opportunity to do a Mommy/Nugget Selfie

Daddy took a fun shot with his Go Pro camera... great capture of drool and rolls.

In other adventures, the Nugget had a lovely ten day streak where he turned into the Exorcist... We had no idea when it was going to happen, why, or how voluminous it would be...  I had my first omigoodness I'm that mom moment... Ben and I took Axel with us to get a bite to eat for lunch... and were REALLY nervous, as it was a relatively nice restaurant.   Nobody wants a kid yarfing at the table next to you, no matter how cute the kid is or how nice the person is.  So we crossed our fingers and sure enough, we made it through lunch with no huge display.  Then we went shopping.   All was good.  He was in the Baby Bjorn, happily smiling at people and flirting the entire time.  Then, it happened.  First a little cough.  A few little chunks.  THEN THE EXORCIST CAME TO NORDSTROM RACK.  In the middle of the aisle, right by the men's section... massive yarf.  Huge.  Not one, not two, but three nice spews to share with the good people of Austin.    Ben tried to catch it in his hands... but yeah, that didn't work.  So we have this little person coated, and once again, smiling.

Of course, the people at Nordstrom were simply awesome.   They sent me into the bathroom with him and Ben went to get his extra clothes out of the truck... Because they don't have a family bathroom, a kind woman helped me to get him cleaned up and then all was good.  This is the aftermath.  Needless to say we went home after this.

He finally got over his funk after about ten days, but my goodness they were a long ten days.   And as for the picture, You're Welcome.

In other news, this little stinker is a little stinker.  When we went to his 6 month wellness check up, the doctor was a little concerned that he wasn't yet rolling nor sitting up unassisted.  We talked for a little while and she recommended that we do an ECI Evaluation; Early Childhood Intervention, which is a state program.   We took him for his evaluation and they measured him as a 5 month old which would have been his adjusted age had he been born on his due date.  They did find that he has a 20% delay in his Gross Motor skills due to the not rolling or sitting.  More importantly, though, they noticed through their evaluation that his torticollis, though better than it was, is still resulting in about 30 degrees that he isn't really turning his head.   With a 20% delay, a child doesn't qualify for ECI - however, he qualified for Communication - the little rebel started saying consonants (he was doing it at his 6 month appt) and then just. stopped.   So at the point of eval, he was only doing vowel sounds - this delay resulted in him qualifying for ECI, which means he qualifies for anything and everything in which there is a developmental delay.   We took advantage and he has started Occupational Therapy once a week.  

It's fascinating to watch him and to see how the littlest things can make progress. The OT comes to Goddard and works with him there so that the teachers at Goddard can hear what she's doing and do the same with him while he's in school.   The other thing that came to our attention was that since his 6 month appt, his plagiocephaly has progressed.  (Plagiocephaly is essentially Flat Head Syndrome - because he continues to lay on one spot on his soft little skull, it's resulted in his flat spot to worsen and in turn it leads to asymmetry of some of his features - specifically, if you look down at the top of his head, you'll see that his ears are not even - one is more forward than the other.)  So he has an appointment next month with a Craniofacial Doctor at Dell Children's to see if we need to put him in a helmet or if there is other treatment that may benefit him. 

Picture to make you smile:

So, the best part of the story is that my Axel is truly what we anticipated.  When born, I told Ben that the first name we were thinking of would do exactly as he was supposed to.  An Axel would do whatever he darn well pleased.   Well, he continues to follow suit. 

The night of the ECI evaluation, when we were home and relaxing... 

Homeboy rolled.  He rolled from the front to his back, and then started gleefully screaming and kicking.  Take that, ECI.

The day before he started Occupational Therapy, this happened.

This picture warms my heart for a number of reasons, if for nothing else, the contentment that just exudes from him.  We were at the park and Ben was flying his kite, so we just sat and listened to music and watched Daddy fly the kite.  Then, BOOM.  He just sat there and enjoyed it.  

Take that, OT.

I am very fortunate that my boss is extremely understanding and doesn't even flinch at my needing to head out for a bit each week to do OT with my little man.  It makes it a heckuva lot less stressful. 

What else has happened?

After ten long years, Ben sold his truck.  I still remember the day he came home with Tito the Titan.  I was home from work with a fever and feeling miserable.  He had told me that he was going to go LOOK at a Nissan Titan... and he came home in a new vehicle.  No, I wasn't irritated or anything... ;) But Tito was a really good truck and we'll miss him, but he had 180K miles on him and was going to explode at any moment.   So Ben now has a dad mobile - but don't worry, we think we can still squeeze the dogs in it! 

Ben saying goodbye to Tito

Valentine's Day was an exciting day for the Axman, as Goddard had a Valentine's Dance!  I left work early and took him.  He was all dressed up, wearing his stylish hat and bow tie.  He wasn't impressed with the dance, but darn he looked cute.

     

Other fun things we've done... we went to the Architects of Air with my sister and some friends of ours.   It was really amazing - check out the link to get an idea of what it was, but it was like you were inside a massive balloon... and the light was just radiating throughout, just painting everything with beautiful color within every inch.  The Nugget really liked it and was awesome the entire time. He particularly liked green.  

Last weekend, Axel and I had off President's Day - and so did Auntie B!  So we went and met up for lunch at the Domain and sat by an open window to enjoy the fresh air and the 70+ degree sunny day.  Axel and Auntie B had an amazing time. 

In closing, my boy is awesome and amazing and everything in between.  I always smile when I see the Mantra on his wall, I am Lovable as well as Loving... as it absolutely encompasses every little piece of him.  

End scene.