An Eventful Family Vacation

This past weekend we attempted our first family vacation since Kellin came home. We drove several hours, stayed away from home three nights, and did not follow our familiar routine. And guess what? Kellin did just fine! He decided he liked his car seat (thank goodness - at first he HATED it) and slept just fine in his stroller, car seat, playpen, and once in a high chair at a restaurant.

Too cute!

He was even willing to eat even when he wasn't in his usual chair! He didn't eat as much as he usually does, but at least he ate something! Up until recently, he would refuse to eat anything at all if he was out in public or out of routine.

Now of course, all was not perfect. We stayed at a large hotel that had an indoor waterpark, thinking that it would be great to have something right in the hotel for us to do, especially if the weather wasn't nice enough for outside activities. So the first evening we all went down to the waterpark. It turns out that this particular waterpark is VERY loud, not only with the noises you'd expect like kids shouting and water splashing, but also from a huge bucket of water that dumped every few minutes in the LITTLE KIDS' SECTION (what were they thinking?) and from the music that was blaring at full volume. You couldn't speak to anyone, even right next to you, without screaming. As much as Kellin loves water, he couldn't handle the noise and cried for about half an hour before I gave up and left. Pooh also decided it was too loud and spent most of his time sitting with his hands over his ears. And THEN, Rabbit slipped at the end of a waterslide and hurt her foot. So I took three kids back to the room, while Tigger stayed to enjoy the fun with Daddy.

Rabbit continued to complain about her foot hurting all evening and it started to swell up. She and I spent the next morning at Urgent Care and were informed that she had fractured a bone in her foot. The doctor splinted the foot and gave her a pair of crutches. So much for the biking and walking we had wanted to do. (Follow up - Rabbit saw the orthopedic doctor this morning and she will need to stay off her foot for about a month - and has to wait probably 8 weeks before going back to gymnastics. So she is not happy.) But we managed to find things to do. Rabbit is very fast on her crutches and in general she is strong and active, so she kept up for short walks. We went on a Pizza Cruise (a boat ride around the lake with pizza served) and checked out a museum and a few stores. Overall, a memorable and (mostly) enjoyable trip. I am relieved to know that Kellin is becoming more able to tolerate new experiences and places without becoming completely stressed out.

And . . . we took some pretty good pictures!

I know I have not done a thorough Kellin update in a while. Part of the reason is that I feel that Kellin's progress is slowing down. He is still making progress but it's no longer the "something new every day" kind of progress. Some of his newest skills:

Continuing to make slow progress toward self-feeding. He will pick up puffs with his finger and thumb (sometimes) and put them in his mouth. He is also tolerating it (sometimes) when I wrap his fingers around the spoon have him help me move it to his mouth. He's doing a nice job drinking from a cup on his own. However, I have also seen recently that he is chewing less than he used to - instead, he is storing up food in his cheeks, sometimes for long periods of time. And I have also been trying to get him to learn to take a bite off of food - he has NO idea how to do this.

Helping to dress/undress himself - he is really getting this! He helps pull shirts over his head (both on and off), puts his arms through, stands up for snapping onesies, and helps to pull up his pants.

"Communication" - he is using more sounds and a lot more combinations of sounds that sound like words (but aren't really - or at least we don't know what they mean).

Showing SLIGHTLY more motivation to move around and explore things. This has been a long-standing issue for Kellin - he is generally very content to stay in one place, and if he isn't, he will just fuss and wait for someone to come, rather than trying to move himself (although he is perfectly capable of crawling and/or taking a few steps). I say slightly though, because there is plenty of room for improvement. Not quite sure how to teach this kind of a skill.

Increasing tolerance for textures - he now likes to play with squishy, gooey stuff like yogurt and baby food. And of course he LOVES water! He's not as sure about things like grass, sand, popcorn kernels, and rocks, but he is getting better at tolerating them for short periods of time.

Back-and-forth games like playing catch - he now LOVES this and will giggle and giggle. He still needs someone to help him throw and catch the ball, but he really seems to get the idea. He tries to throw but just can't quite figure out how to let go. And he is just delighted when it comes sailing back to him.

Awareness of his brothers - for a long time, I felt that Rabbit was the only sibling Kellin really noticed, probably because she is old enough to relate to him more as an adult, rather than as another child. But lately, I feel like Kellin is really starting to notice and enjoy his brothers. :-)

That's probably enough for now - I will try to do a more organized update soon!