10 Months!

So February is gone, we’re looking forward to March and what happens? A foot of snow welcoming us today. We’re snowed in, no church and a little cabin fever is on the agenda for this snowy Sunday. Cal has been generous with his snotty nose, so we’re anxiously awaiting to see who falls next. The bright side? The new season of House of Cards couldn’t have been released at better time!

Snow and snot aside, our Cal-boy is 10 months old! Um, I’m pretty much going to be spending the next two months on Pinterest trying to plan his birthday. Ah! How can this be?

Cal is busier than ever. He started taking steps behind his elephant walker this month. Though, his real favorite is using the kids’ walkers at the Jackson Center. His favorite toys continue to be wheelchairs, standers, walkers and Elena’s orthotics. This has resulted in many a goose-egg on his forehead. He is definitely getting more confident on his feet but still prefers his “turbo crawl”. By this I mean, he can crawl the length of our house (which is quite a long stretch) in under a minute. Good thing he has chubby knees to give him some padding on our wood floors!

Cal still loves babbling, eating, random screaming and making his sister laugh. He has discovered clapping his hands and can wave pretty sweetly. His favorite show is Wheel of Fortune. He will sit still for the entire 30 minutes staring at the TV, though like most of us, grows impatient at the commercials. We took him sledding for the first time and found him to be quite unimpressed. He maintained the same expression from top of the hill to the bottom. Sledding and snow aren’t too exciting for him.

He is growing much too quickly. Chad and I say nearly every day that we wish he would stay this little and cute forever. It’s such an adventure to watch him change and explore. That, and watching him interact with Elena has been a joy. She LOVES him and hardly ever minds when he pulls her hair, sticks his finger up her nose, pokes her eyes or crawls on top of her. Everything he does is funny to her. It’s pretty great.

Speaking of Elena, she’s doing really well. The results of her hip surgery have been awesome. She is still gaining strength but her balance, posture and movements have all improved. The three months of surgery and recovery were certainly a challenge, but she is SO much better off. Elena also got to go sledding this month. We rigged up a sled for her to be able to go by herself, and she loved it! It’s so special when she can do things independently. I see many more years of sledding ahead of us! We also started her on a new formula, hoping it will improve her reflux. So far, we have had good results and are praying this may be the answer for her frequent vomiting. It’s required a few more less convenient steps for us, but if it saves me from cleaning up projectile barf every other day, it will be well worth it!

I’ll leave you with some pictures and a couple videos of our two crazies. Life is still proving to be a bit hectic and stressful around our house with all we’ve had going on this year. Chad’s Mom has improved, so thank you to all of you who have included her in your prayers. We just try and take things a day at a time, and relish in our little joys.