13 Months (and 1 week) Old!

On a river cruise in Belize on the day Ian turned 13 months old

Ian turned 13 months old while we were on vacation, and since I didn't want to pay 75 cents a minute to be on the Internet while on the cruise, I didn't write a post on January 12th. Here's a brief update regarding how he's changed over the last month (plus a week):

1. He's crawling REALLY fast these days. When he was tested yesterday by Early Intervention (EI), they were amazed that he only started crawling a month ago.
2. He lost one pound, unfortunately. Thankfully in the past 10 days or so his weight has plateaued.
3. He is very observant when it comes to animals, and he is thrilled to see them whether it's clapping at the lions at the Philadelphia zoo, chasing Paul's mom's dog (Fergie) on Christmas Day, or putting his hand in the monkey's mouth on Roatan.
4. Yesterday he started crawling up the stairs for the first time ever. He's been crawling up and down the one step into our sunken family room for a few weeks, but yesterday was the first time he attempted going up the stairs. He was half-way up the flight before I realized where he was. The gates are going back up today since we have a boy who knows how to crawl up stairs (but not how to get down them safely yet although I did work with him a bit on that today).
5. He has recently started standing for a few seconds without holding on to anything. I think in the next month he'll be walking!
6. He loves to wave "hi" to people and will sometimes initiate it, even with strangers.
7. He had made progress with eating solid foods. By January 7th he was up to an average of 4 ounces of baby food a day by spoon. He was even opening his mouth voluntarily for the first time since I started trying to feed him solid foods in May. Unfortunately we are seemingly back to square one as it's been 12 days since he's eaten more than 1-2 bites by spoon in a day. Since he scored at 55% in the adaptive area (which includes eating skills), he qualifies for 1 hour of occupational therapy (in our home) each week. I am so grateful for this free service, which will be starting in the next 2 weeks. He hasn't responded well to the suggestions the feeding team gave me (licorice, the Nuk brush, etc.). I'm hopeful that we'll start seeing progress after the OT starts helping us out.
8. He started on reflux medication. It does seem to help. I also have been only making 4 ounces at a time, and that has helped a lot. He doesn't cry when it's over (even though he wants more) if I allow him to suck on an empty bottle. This has also decreased the amount of chucking. Lastly, I have a theory that he's allergic to yogurt. I have noticed on the days that he eats yogurt his vomiting is really out of control. I hope I'm right. It's discouraging to eliminate the one table food he could eat from his diet, but if it helps cut down on the number of times he throws up every day, I'll be thrilled!
9. In all other categories he scored between 80-85 percent when tested yesterday. They provide services if a child is at 75% or lower. 80% was his most common score in the categories they tested him such as social skills, expresssive vocabulary, cognitive skills, receptive vocabulary, gross motor, fine motor, etc.
10. He's grown VERY attached to Nadia's favorite Christmas gift - Sweetpea. I need to try to find him a stuffed animal that has a tail that hopefully he'll like just as much so that he won't keep carrying Nadia's Sweetpea around by her braid. He's learned to crawl, cruise, etc. while holding on tight to her!
11. He definitely understands the concept of "no" now, but of course he doesn't always obey.
12. He's sleeping an average of 11 hours straight at night. His naps are still averaging 30 minutes each. He usually sleeps when in a moving vehicle (car, bus, boat, airplane, taxi, etc.).
13. He doesn't like to have his diaper changed, his fingernails clipped, or to get dressed.