Conquering the Tunnel

Standing so well

What a great first day of the school holidays. I have a husband who isn't feeling the greatest, one child vomiting and another one with a sore throat. The vomiting one has been placed in quarantine; nothing worse with a family our size than bugs spreading to everyone. I just went to the shop to stock up on rubber gloves, disinfectant and antibacterial spray. Over the years I've become an expert on limiting the vomiting to just one person, so fingers crossed it will be the same this time. Did I mention I also bought a bottle of wine? That's all for me; I figure I will deserve a glass by the time today is over!

Despite not feeling well, Nathan really wanted to take Felix to his swimming lesson this morning. It's the last one for three weeks, so he had been looking forward to it. Nathan's plan for today was to conquer the tunnel (a rolled up foam mat on top of the water the children have to crawl through). Felix usually starts backing up the second his head is inside it and it's definitely his least favourite activity at swimming lessons. When the time came today for the dreaded tunnel, Nathan made sure he put him as far as he could inside of it. He quickly went around to the other end of the tunnel and held out his arms to Felix. He was very apprehensive, but moved towards Nathan until he was out the other side.... Success!!

Felix is so good at communicating what he wants these days. As well as signing and pointing, he has discovered a new way to make sure we understand him. If he is sitting with us up on our bed, he will sometimes point to our bedside table and grunt at us. If we think we know what he wants, we will pass that item to him. If we get it wrong, he will reach up with his hand and turn our face back towards the bedside table as if to say, "Wrong thing. Try again!" This continues until we pass him the thing he has been asking for.

We try hard to be in tune with Felix's attempts at speech. We spend a lot of time with him talking and signing and reading books, so we have lots of opportunities to listen to him. I love the 'Ahhhh' sounds he makes when he puts some food into my mouth and the 'U' sound he makes when he wants 'Up'. He has a definite sound for his brother, Isaiah, and a 'Oo-oo' sound when the dog's bark. His pig sound is definitely one of my favourites!

'I'm with the bald guy!'

We've been so proud of Felix with his standing lately. The length of time he can stand on his own is getting longer and longer. He can even twist his upper body or clap his hands at the same time sometimes now. I am amazed that he can stand up on our bed and stay balanced. The bed is very spongy and would be a lot more difficult for him to stand on, but he does it regularly. It's probably good for his core strength too.

I washed his Happy Strap a few weeks ago and when it was dry I put it somewhere out of the way and completely forgot to put it on him. Initially, he retained the correct positioning with his legs really well, but just in the last few days (he's probably had it off for 4 weeks), we have noticed that when he is sitting looking at a book or playing with a toy, his legs are extending out very wide which is definitely what we don't want as it can cause hip problems in the future. I made sure I put his strap back on him today and chastised myself for being slack with it. It's definitely helped Felix with his leg positioning and I will be making absolutely sure that I put it on him every day from now on.