Some Cute Things

To preface: I have misplaced my USB cords, so no pictures this time. Sorry!

CeeCee and Boo have been so cute lately. Not that they haven't always been cute, of course. They never cease to amaze me with their latest and greatest accomplishments of magnitudes great and small. Here is a list, in no particular order:

1. CeeCee's place - Lately I have noticed CeeCee's frequent appearances in a special place in our house. Right next to the sliding glass door, which is on the south end of our house, is a vent. Being that we have a little one (Boo) who, historically, has not expressed discomfort with extremes in temperature, we have our air conditioner set at a comfortable 70 degrees all summer long. Therefore, our vents have cool air blowing through them more often than not, or so it would seem. CeeCee has found one of the unique spots in our house where she can sit on a vent, having the wind blowing through her hair, and get blasted by the sun next to a window that spans the height of floor to ceiling. It is quite the spot. The only thing I can ascertain from this is that she must share my love for the sensation of being hot and cold simultaneously. One time I was standing there, inadvertently of course, and she became quite distraught until I left "her place" so she could go there.

2. Boo and ice cream - This is a long story. I will try to be brief. Boo has made extremely slow progress in feeding therapy ever since we restarted towards the end of last year. Don't get me wrong - progress is progress! But it has been very slow. Most recently (prior to the last month or so), the most progress we have made toward our final (quite distant) goal of Boo being an oral feeder, is having him play with food at the table while we eat. Not much, but more than what he has done in the past! Anyway, the therapist and I recently decided, thanks to his success in coming to enjoy horseback riding as well as dance class, that we can push a little harder. So we decided to start bringing things to his mouth. This was upsetting to him at first, but as with so many other things recently, he got over it after a few times. He still resists by fighting with his arms, but he knows he is expected to "kiss" each piece of his food after every meal and he will even do it himself sometimes. The best part is that the last few days I have been able to give him miniscule amounts of ice cream and pudding in his mouth and he didn't cry, in fact he was laughing - it has been a fun game for him! I think things are looking up, even though we still have an extremely long feeding battle ahead of us. :)

3. Climbing the stairs together - Often if Boo notices that CeeCee is following him he will wait for her so they can climb the stairs together. I love to see their little heads pop up at the same time. She is getting pretty fast at crawling, but is still no match for our speedy man Boo!

4. Monkey bars at dance class - Boo attends a little dance class on Saturdays called "Dancers with Disabilities". He is not the only boy, in case you wondered. I would never have thought of or considered putting him in a dance class, except that his personality is BEGGING for structure, which leaves me to seek diligently after any kind of class he can join which will meet his structural needs. (Did I mention that we/Boo can't wait for school to start again?) And so we have dance class, which has actually been quite fun. Except for the "Monkey Bars" part (really a ballet barre). He cries and cries when the children, all aged 3-6 years, must pretend to be monkeys and sit on the bar and fall asleep and wake up to the music. It is really horrible, I assure you. Anyway, this past Saturday I had to bring CeeCee along, which is usually not a good thing when I have to focus on Boo. But such is life, and along she came. One of the students there was willing to hold her for me and she got to somewhat participate in the class, which was so much fun for her. When we got to the Monkey Bars part, Boo started in and had already cried a few elephant tears by the time he got seated. Then CeeCee (brought by the student) came to sit by him and suddenly everything was OK! He leaned over to give CeeCee a forehead kiss (which she does now too, by the way!) and then they were both happy for the rest of the Monkey Bar part.

As a side note: I don't think anyone around me at the time could have witnessed this miracle, but I call it a miracle because that is totally how I would describe their relationship right now - miraculous. CeeCee seems to have a stabilizing effect on Boo that S and I don't necessarily have. I am so glad we decided to have her because she has been such an influence for good in Boo's life - things are happier, particularly for Boo, when she is near. All I can say is, far from being an extra burden (as I once feared another baby would be), CeeCee has HELPED Boo in ways I could not have foreseen and she is a huge blessing in all of our lives. It is a pleasure to raise her.

5. Boo and his blankets - Boo is so funny when he goes to bed. I "sneeze" his blankets onto him to make him laugh, and he proceeds to wiggle his body back and forth and use his arms to tuck his blankets underneath him on both sides. Maybe you can picture this? It is super cute, and it is a nightly occurrence.

6. CeeCee's feeding antics - My sister, H, recently put together and into words something I have long noticed about CeeCee when we give her her bottle. She LOVES to play with hair - even short hair like S's - and if you turn your head or lift it up so she cannot reach it, she will push your head, not so gently, back into her preferred position so she can play with your hair. Such a funny little girl.

7. Falling into the laundry basket - CeeCee LOVES laundry. Which is good, since it frequently appears in our family room, waiting for me to get around to it! More than once, CeeCee has fallen into the laundry basket headfirst, while trying to pick up some desirable item of clothing. It is too funny to see that little bum in the air, body folded almost completely in half, all to acquire some piece of laundry. I have not yet taken a picture of this, as my camera has always been too far away for me to justify leaving her like that long enough to go get it. One of these times though!

8. Sitting and laying on the coffee table - We recently made a trip to my parents' house and Boo quickly discovered the height of their coffee table to be optimal for scaling. He climbed right on top! Now mind you, he has never climbed on top of anything. I have always assumed he lacks the upper body strength, which I still think he does, but now I know that the height of all our furniture is also a factor in the equation. He got really fast at it too, so we would turn around for a second while he was laying on the floor and turn back to discover him sitting on top of the table "rolling a ball in his fingers". This was a particularly enjoyable aspect of the vacation for him, and he did it often while we were there.

9. Sleep training - It is, perhaps, too early to call CeeCee "sleep-trained". It has now been five days - 10 minutes of crying the first night, 3 the second, 1 the third, less than 1 the fourth, and now 3 on the fifth. Trained? I don't know. But I am really happy with how it has been going, compared with how it HAD been going! She has always slept through the night though (except on vacation...) since she was only a few weeks old. I think I am blessed. :)

10. Bathtub imitation - Recently, Boo has learned some tricks from CeeCee. Notably, crawling in the bathtub and standing up in the bathtub. Not that he couldn't have done these things before, he just hadn't considered it. Now that the idea has been introduced to him, he does it too. I enjoy seeing those two learn from each other.

11. Dishwasher and piano - would you believe that the babies come running (crawl-running) the second the dishwasher is opened or the piano is played? They do. CeeCee loves to climb into the dishwasher and Boo loves to throw things inside of it. As far as the piano goes, they both love to play (Boo plays individual keys and CeeCee bangs), and they also both want me to surrender the bench, the books, and the keyboard. So if ever I start, I soon have to stop. And, as always, they hate the flute. So we don't even go there except on extremely rare occasions during which I must be willing to tolerate my babies in hysterics.

So glad to be the Mama to such super cute and fun kids!