Two and a Half

Two and a Half Years Old. 30 months. Jeepers. Our boy is growing up.  And oh, what a gem he is! Here are some of the things that come to mind when I think about Gulliver at 2 1/2 years old…

His vocabulary increases more and more everyday. I've lost count of how many words he knows... maybe 100 or so? He astonishes Mark and I daily with new words. He gets very frustrated when we don't understand him. We're still working on putting two words together.

He knows black and white. He names primary colors correctly 75% of the time. Red, blue, yellow, orange, green, pink, and purple. Otherwise known as rojo, boo, ye-ow, orge, geen, pink and pur-ple. He stacked up these blocks all on his own and named every color...

He is learning to ride his Strider bike and tricycle.

Over the winter, I would hold Gulliver's hand when we walked through snow and tell him to be careful because it was icy. The snow is all gone now, but every time Gulliver loses his footing or falls down -- indoors or out -- he says "icy" and points to the spot where he fell. Yeah, blame it on the ice.

He gives us big hugs (on both sides) and a kiss before going down for nap or night night. Then he makes sure we know that the music and humidifier need to be on, the lights need to be off, and the tent zipped up. He's got everything under control.

He can open and close doors.

Gulliver is very fond of music. He listens to his CD's before naptime and bedtime. He often tells me the next song before it comes on. He twirls and jumps and marches along with the songs. He sings "E-I-E-I" to get the Old MacDonald song started. Then he fills in the blank after "…and on that farm he had a…" with pig, tractor, dog or duck. I sing "Row, row, row your…" and says "boat." He turns his hands in circles when we sing "Wheels on the Bus." His favorite dance involves bobbing his head back and forth and grinning from ear to ear.

He jumps on our indoor trampoline all by himself. It's amazing how much air he gets on that thing! He loves jumping on friends' big outdoor trampolines even more. He is the king of "butt bounces."

He knows letters A, B, G, T, O, and Y. He knows 1, 2, and 3.

He is very sweet with other kids. He shares toys, waits his turn, and studies their moves to learn new moves of his own.

He loves to watch us blow bubbles. He specifically requests BIG bubbles.

He blows the whistle. Over and over and over again.

He loves playing in his sandbox. We usually have to drag him inside.

We're working on manners. Sometimes he gets a little bossy and needs to be reminded to say "Please." He is very good about signing Thank You after he gets what he wants.

He says his own name. "Gull-i-guh"

He loves to lay in his crib in the morning before getting up to start the day. I often sit in the chair across from his crib and we just chit chat for 20 minutes or so before he finally decides he is ready to get out and start the day.

Favorite TV Show: Dora the Explorer. Hands-down. When we go the the library, the first thing he does is jump up on the kids' computer chair and request the game, "Dora, Dora, Dora".

Love, love, LOVE this little boy!!!

Happy Half Birthday, Gulliver!

Physical Therapy

As part of Colorado's Early Intervention program, we started receiving a variety  of services when Gulliver was only 3 months old. Looking back over the blog, I realize I have not spent much time discussing these services, even though they have played a significant role in Gulliver's development. So I want to include an update on the various services we have been receiving, starting with Physical Therapy.

Gulliver started Physical Therapy in June, 2010 to address low muscle tone. We had weekly visits for the first six months then switched to two 1-hour visits per month. We have been fortunate to work with the same PT during that time. We just love Kaylynne!

Most of the time, Kaylynne comes to our house. But sometimes we venture out to other locations to mix things up a bit and get Gulliver away from his comfortable home environment. We have gone to the playground, the gym in town, Kaylynne's house, her office PT facility, and the Trailhead Museum. Gulliver does a variety of different activities with Kaylynne, all of which involve play and fun.

Gulliver's history includes reaching all of his gross and fine motor developmental milestones, although he usually reaches them later than average (even for his adjusted age). It's great that he does not skip over things, as that could cause problems later (the ol' "crawl before you walk" saying).

I've learned so much more in this area than I ever would have without PT services. There are many subtle things that indicate low muscle tone. For instance, the sway in his back when he crawled, or holding one hand up in the air while learning to walk, or grasping objects with just his thumb and index finger instead of his whole hand.

When Gulliver was learning to crawl, Kaylynne would hold a towel under his hips to help him along. When he was learning to walk, she would have him hold on to a bar to help keep him balanced and centered. We worked on throwing for a long time. When he mastered that, we worked on throwing at an object to develop aim and intent. We spent a lot of time going up and down stairs and throwing objects up and down the stairway. She likes to have him jump off things. They read books that involve different actions (rub your head, kick up your heels...). She focuses on building core muscle strength through activities like wheelbarrows, riding Rody, and leaning him over an object so he has to pull himself up using abs and back.

A favorite activity of late is the tunnel. You have no idea how many ways you can play with a tunnel! Climb through it, stand in it, step over it, put a 180 degree turn and crawl through it, roll balls from one end to the other, hold one end up so the ball rolls down, roll over in the tunnel, rub the tunnel to make funny sounds... the list goes on and on.

Watching them play with the tunnel reminded me of when we were in St. Louis last fall and Harper and I came up with a list of "101 games to play with a superball."

I could tell Kaylynne was excited about how engaged Gulliver was with the tunnel and how many different things they were doing. She commented several times, "This is good in so many ways!"  I asked her to explain that to me. Aside from the physical acts of crawling and moving around, she talked about how it is such a good sensory activity and great to be able to play with a toy in unconventional ways. Being able to get past the intended use and find other ways to use it. There is also the problem-solving aspect of indirectly using an object (lifting one end of the tunnel) to manipulate another object (the ball rolling down).

PT has been such a positive experience. I used to focus on when we would be "done" with PT. I thought that would mean everything was OK.

Now I realize that everything is OK with Gulliver. PT just provides extra attention to ensure that everything remains fine. It's more of a journey than a destination. We all have things we can improve upon, and PT helps us identify specific areas for focus. And for Gulliver, it's lots of fun!

Love. Spring.

What a lovely spring it has been so far! We've been going to the park on a regular basis. Boy, how I've missed the park these past few months. We grill out on the deck and enjoy the mild evenings. And it just seems like the spring weather puts everyone in a delightful mood.

Playing mailbox with dad….

Goodbye, boots -- hello, shoes! Size 8 already, my goodness how this boy grows!

CB South playground…

Deck entertainment…

The shell and spool game…

Peek-a-boo!

Getting artsy with dad...

Jorgensen Park in Gunnison

Happy Easter!

It's a beautiful, warm and sunny Easter in Crested Butte this year. It's also the last day of the ski season -- and not a day too soon. The snow is melting fast. We saw lots of skiers and boarders dressed in costume and shorts.

We had fun dying Easter eggs yesterday. It didn't take very long at all to color the dozen hard-boiled eggs. Gulliver zoomed right through them.

This morning we headed up to the mountain to enjoy the Easter festivities. Gulliver was not too fond of the Easter Bunny, but he really enjoyed the other activities.

In the car getting ready to go…

Painting an egg…

Waiting for the egg hunt to begin (Gulliver was pretty eager to get hunting, along with all the other kiddos)…

The hunt is on!

Riding the bus back to town…