15 Month Recap

Weight: 18lb, 14oz

Length: 27.5"

Clothing size: Mostly 12 month, but he does wear a few 12-18 month and 18 month clothes. He still wears size 3 infant shoes.

Diaper size: size 3

Eating: Caleb has definitely found his appetite. It's hard to believe he had a feeding tube this time last year! Caleb loves turkey, cheese, guacamole, Greek yogurt, sweet potatoes, butternut squash and most other fruits and veggies. He hasn't seemed too interested in pasta, but he did gobble up some chicken spaghetti the other day. It was the Pioneer Woman's recipe... who doesn't love it?! Caleb drinks all of his milk and water from his Honey Bear straw cups now! 

Sleeping: Caleb goes to sleep around 7:30-8:00pm and wakes up around 6:30-7:00am. Taking two naps is starting to become rare. When he does, he usually naps 30-60 minutes each time. If he only naps in the afternoon, that nap is usually 1-2 hours. 

His days: Caleb is a busy little guy. He goes to Mother's Day Out three times each week. When he's not there, he stays busy with speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, story time at the library, play dates, and lots of play time at home.  

Highlights of the last three months: Caleb's speech is getting more clear and intentional. His favorite thing to say is still "Dada"... even when Daddy isn't home. He says "Mama" every now and then. The ladies in the nursery last Sunday evening told me that Caleb said "Bye bye" when his friend left. 

He's starting to sign a few words. He sometimes signs "eat" and "more" before and during meals/snacks. He was signing "celebrate" a lot, but he has switched to clapping lately. 

If we ask him "where's tummy?", he will usually pat his tummy and smile! 

Caleb is trying so hard to figure out how to crawl. He will sometimes rock from side to side and sort of propel himself forward a little bit. By doing this, he can usually move a couple feet. His biggest motivators are toys and Daddy's pizza. Rolling is still his primary mode of independent mobility.

Tripp Trapp

One of the recommendations from the speech-language pathologist in the oral placement therapy program that we do with Caleb is for him to have really good posture when he eats. The chair should be adjustable (to grow with the child) and "should encourage a 90 degree angle in his pelvis, knees, ankles, and chin". The high chair we've been using doesn't really meet any of the criteria dictated by the SLP. And of course, the high chairs that do seem to encourage the best posture are super EXPENSIVE!

Considering that he had a feeding tube this time last year, I'm beyond thrilled that we've packed away the bottles and fully made the transition to straw cups! But there's always room for improvement. After talking with Caleb's two SLPs and some other parents of kids with Down syndrome, I decided a couple weeks ago that it was time to get a new chair. I did a lot of research online, and the ones I thought would work best for Caleb were priced between $200 and $400. I didn't want to spend that much, and my CPA husband really didn't want to spend that much. One afternoon, I decided to check Craigslist and found one of my top choices for sale here in OKC! The Stokke Tripp Trapp! The seller had the chair, the baby set and the cushion for $100. They were about a year old and barely used. If I bought all of that new, it would be $365 plus tax! After a little negotiating and then the seller dropping the price after she had to reschedule the delivery/pick-up, I ended up paying $70!

I haven't noticed a huge difference yet on how Caleb is eating, but I do think he seems a little more focused. I also like that we're able to push the chair right up to our table, so he really can "join" us at the table for dinner. And of course, he looks super cute sitting in the new chair!

iPhone pics... sorry for the poor quality!

Christmas

Brad and I celebrated our own little family Christmas with Caleb the morning of Christmas Eve. We didn't go overboard with gifts for him, since he just had a birthday a couple months ago. He got a couple new toys, some clothes, books, and few other necessities.  I usually don't put Christmas gifts in bags, but I did a couple for him because he loves pulling out the tissue paper so much. Rather than Christmas gifts for each other, Brad and I ordered some new furniture for our living room. It'll hopefully be in sometime in February.

We celebrated with Brad's immediate family on Christmas Eve night and with some of Brad's extended family on Christmas Day.

We got together with my family during the New Year's holiday to celebrate our belated Christmas. Caleb did wear something besides pajamas while he was at my parents' house, but you wouldn't know it from looking at the photos below!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! 

Glory to God in the Highest

Caleb made an appearance in a recent video for the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma. The video was for their recent board meeting, and I got permission to share it with all of you! Caleb's part starts at 1:28.

Santa

We took Caleb to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop on Friday evening. He wasn't so sure about Santa but he did enjoy watching the toy cars with Daddy and carrying around a packet of chili mix that he grabbed while we were doing a little Christmas shopping.

And just because I've been having fun comparing Caleb's photos from last year and this year, here's his Santa photo from 2012. Sweet, little baby!

No Bandages!

Per doctor's orders, I removed Caleb's bandages this morning. Aside from a few brief glimpses during bandage changes at the surgeon's office, today was my first time to see Caleb's hand since surgery three and a half weeks ago. It looks pretty gross right now, but the swelling will go down soon. The scabs will flake off little by little over the next few days and weeks. I didn't ask the surgeon about the stitches, but I'm guessing they'll dissolve or fall out. At least one stitch already fell out today. Caleb returns to the surgeon in early January.

Happy to have his bandages off

Trying to figure out what's different

Before surgery

3.5 weeks after surgery