Big Day

I mean HUGE!!! Today, Connor sat independently on Tiffany's lap. For almost a full minute (which for Connor is a long, long time) (and also, Tiffany is one of his two teachers at day care). He sat on her lap and was able to balance himself. We are overexcited about this - he is taking it in stride much better. :)
In any case, Happy New Year to all of you who check this site - we'll post some NYE photos as soon as possible - hopefully with some independent sitting!!!

Swing low...sweet beanbag chair

Connor's first Christmas presents have rolled in. He got a swing and stand from his grandparents and it takes up a bit more space than we'd initially anticipated inside. Lucky for us it's an indoor-outdoor piece. If only it were light enough when we got home, we could swing for a few minutes! That will have to wait for March, or so. In the meantime, we can bundle him up on weekends and let him swing for a few minutes, and then come back inside and warm him up by cuddling him in the beanbag chair which he got from his grandparents on the other side! The swing is helping him learn balance, and that carries right into the beanbag chair, where if he shifts, he changes his balance! I'm sure he never thought that sitting down would be therapy, but there you have it...

I'll take some pictures of him in both the swing and chair in the next few days once the fam's arrived for the holidays and there will be extra hands on deck!

To see the world in glorious technicolor...

Well, a week of patience paid off. The house is painted and mostly put back together, we're just waiting for the last spaces to go from 'potentially tacky' (as in dryness, not lack of taste) to 'yeah, okay, totally dry'. Our house is now full of color! In some rooms, it's more like COLOR!! Our kitchen was a dark blue before - not navy, but highly saturated, grayed-down cornflower blue. Now it's green. I mean, green! Kermit green. It's not that easy being green when you are a kitchen, apparently. Something about having to spend the days the color of the leaves and not some splashy, like stars in the sky.

In any case, if you can't come see it in person, you should be able to see some new pictures at our website, www.leeandcolleen.com. I'm pretty sure Lee is putting them up as I blog...

Hallelujah!

We did it. We fought and fought and fought...and now it's finally happened. The insurance companies have paid. THEY HAVE PAID. They have finally paid his doctor appointments. They have finally paid his therapists. Finally.

It's an early Christmas for the Wrights. :)

No more bottles!

Connor has taken a big step - he is officially OFF THE BOTTLE! Sure, it's a little late, but we've finally gotten him there. Most of the credit goes to Lee, who is meaner than me when it comes to this. He fought through Connor's reluctance, spitting, refusals, and general crankiness. I was too soft for this, but I'm glad it happened.

Of course, give him 14 years, and he'll be all about the bottle again. But then, I hope, there will be no nipples, crosscut or otherwise...

Good-bye, old paint

So in the past few months, I have been possessed of changing the inside colors of my house. This week, my latest dream will start to come true. Almost all the rooms in our house are going to be painted. Simultaneously. We'll be living in the basement, all three of us. Shadow is going to have to go live with Erin, or there'll be her lovely fur dried into the paint. They say it will only take a week! We'll see...When it's all done, I'll post photos of the "new" house up for everyone.

And, to top it off, today it SNOWED!! I love snow. It's just so much fun. It doesn't have to stick. Just look pretty. Of course, tomorrow morning I am headed south to Atlanta - no snow there. I'm glad I was here for today's pretty, quiet snowfall.

Peanuts

For an early Christmas present, Connor received a peanut ball. It looks (no surprise here) like a peanut, will bulbous ends and a narrow middle. Although the resemblance ends there, as I don't know who would want to eat a giant blue rubber peanut. In any case, we used it for the first time yesterday at therapy. He is not a fan. He has to use it to sit on - straddling the peanut at the narrow-middle point - to work on his sitting and head control. It makes him work very hard, and Connor just isn't into that kind of physical work. Then again, few people are. We also had him kneel (not his favorite thing to do) and lean on the ball with his elbows. This was slightly better received.
In addition to that particular torture, we also started using Chewy Sticks yesterday. Again, exactly as they sound. Chewy rubber tubes that we place in the sides of his mouth to help him increase his jaw strength. This went much better. Kristy, his speech therapist, was impressed that he so rapidly started gnawing on the tube. I, however, was unsurprised. If you put anything in this kiddo's mouth, he will chomp down. Heck, even on my birthday, he managed to bite me on my chin. I had a welt on my chin for almost an hour. I think his jaw strength is fine (especially after my birthday) but I'm not the professional here.
So, on to the weekend and next week!