Sign Language!

Last Friday Jack started to use his first sign! We've been working on many signs since he was about 3 months old and finally he signed "More"!! He didn't want more but he signed it! He's been doing it a lot in the past few days but we haven't been able to catch it on camera until today. The most exciting part is that while on camera he signed his second sign for the first time! He is now signing "all done"!!! We'll still have to work on the meaning but it is very exciting to see him making this progress! Now we're working on ball, kisses, play, and others. I hope the progress continues!

climbing!!!

Jack has been making great strides in therapy and working with mommy. He has been learning to climb. He wasn't very interested in it at first but once we found a spot where he was truly motivated he picked up on it fast. We started by putting his steps at the end of our bed and letting him climb up. He loves to play on the bed and was excited to try to get up there himself. Then, on Saturday, I was cooking in the kitchen and Jack climbed up the steps into our arm chair to be able to watch me. He is doing so well! In this video we are working during OT with both the steps and a wedge. We even had a little game of peek-a-boo! I couldn't get the video to turn the right way on screen but it doesn't seem too bad. Way to go Jack!!!

A New Sweater!

My wonderful, amazing friend knitted this beautiful sweater for Jack. He is so cute in it!!! Thanks to the talented Miss Ashley!!!

Glasses failure

Mommy, I really, really, really don't like my glasses!!!





But Jack, Monkey loves glasses!!

Jack's new glasses

Jack got his new glasses a few weeks ago from the NYS commission for the blind. We didn't get to pick them out. We will use this pair until Jack is wearing them consistantly and then we'll buy him the cutest pair of baby glasses ever! As of right now the 10 minute nap he was taking in the picture is the only time he's tolerated them. And he was asleep!

A trip to the ER

Today we had our first trip to the ER for a typical kid thing! Jack fell today and hit his face on the toy storage. He of course was crying and I told him he was ok. Then I saw his face and saw the blood. It seemed that his tooth had gone through his bottom lip. (The crack in his upper lip is from being really dry) I half freaked out. I called Philip and he met us at the hospital. After about 2 hours of waiting in the room for a doctor we finally got seen. This guy was a nut job! He determined the tooth did not go all the way through there was just a cut on both sides of his lip. He wanted to put a little bit of wound glue on the outside because it did look a little deep. He went out to get some of the glue and never came back. Finally we had to get our nurse to get a different doctor and after an hour of waiting she came in and said he didnt need anything. Sheesh! But, we were able to educate the saff about CHARGE syndrome. Once we told the nurse she went right to the computer and looked it up. Then she started telling all the other nurses about it! I thought it was pretty cool. So now we're home and Jack is sleeping on the living room floor. Poor baby!

Dessert

Tonight I was snuggling with Jack and he fell asleep in my lap. I looked at the clock and it was 8:30!!! Yay!! I looked at Philip and said, "8:30 is great!". Then I reached down and picked a boogie from his nose. As soon as I did, he popped his eyes open, got up and crawled across the room to his learning table. Philip was not happy with me for saying something! :-) Then, a few minutes later as Philip and I were eating some chocolate pudding with a little whipped cream, Jack came crawling over to us as fast as he could. He wanted a taste! Philip grabbed the camera and got a pretty good video of him tasting the pudding. He was sooo cute! He is so incredibly interested in food these days. He wants to have whatever Philip and I are eating. He's doing so well with his swallowing. We just need to get him to take more volume. Right now we are letting him direct the tasting and how much he wants to eat. Luckily he is wanting to eat more and more!

The incredible Jack

One of my friends Photoshopped this poster. I think it is pretty great!!!

mmmm cheesecake!

I made the most beautiful and one of the most creamy cheesecakes I've ever made! It was so delicious! As usual, I took a picture to document it as one of my best works of art. It is a Brownie Swirl Cheesecake and I got the recipe from Juniors, a restaurant in New York City. It has a brownie crust, brownie bites mixed in the cheesecake batter and a chocolate cheesecake swirl on top. It took a lot of work but it was well worth it! I can't wait to make my next one. I hope you will all come to my cheesecake bakery one day!!!

TENT!!!!

Some of you know that we bought Jack a tent for Christmas that he has HATED! He wouldn't go within 3 feet of it....until tonight! We have had it in the living room blocking his way to the kitchen in hopes that he'd learn to tolerate it. Well, tonight we found out that we just needed to tempt him with food to get him to go in. We had cut up an apple, held it up inside the tent and lured him in. It worked! He was hesitant at first but he really wanted that apple! He stayed inside while he chewed on the apple and then crawled through. We figured that would be the end of it but later he went over to it, opened the door, and crawled right through to the kitchen!! It seems our efforts tonight may have cured his fear of the tent! We'll see what happens tomorrow!

Philip has been working on a project for the American Physical society making a nano scale trophy for a contest they held. He made a series of football fields nested inside one another. The first is 12 millimeters long, which is about 1/2 inch. The second is 120 microns, which is about the width of a human hair. The third is 2.4 microns, which is the size of a single red blood cell. The local newspaper has now done 2 articles about the project. The first made the front page of the Local section but the one published today mad the front page just under the superbowl coverage!!! Here's the link to the article! http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080204/NEWS01/802040328/1002

cute, cute, cute!

I am so cute in my train engineer overalls! Thanks Grandma Sharon!!!

The best birthday present!

Today was the best day EVER! First, I got to sleep in. Then, I went with 4 of my friends to the spa and had a very relaxing afternoon. Then we went out for birthday dinner at Lucatellis, which is a local italian restaurant. Jack was crazy with the food! He kept clawing at me to get what was on my plate. I gave him a taste of the tomato sauce. He went nuts over it! He kept pulling on my sweater for another bite! He probably had 7 or 8 little bites before it started to come out his nose. He still wanted more! He loved it! It was the best birthday present I could have ever asked for!


Yummy sauce!!

This doesn't taste nearly as good as that sauce!!!

sleepy boy

Last night Jack was playing before bed and Philip and I were watching a show on tv. All of a sudden we noticed that Jack was being quiet. We looked over and Jack had grabbed Monkey and had fallen asleep knealing at his table. Poor tired baby!