Long Time No See!

Ya’ll. I’m the worst blogger can I even call myself that? ever. There. I said it.

Phew, glad that’s off my chest.

Now that that’s out of the way how about I just give you an old-fashioned update. While things have been pretty boring in the way of Spina Bifida, Nehem is certainly anything but boring these days. I love a good wrinkly newborn baby, but Nehem is so much fun these days. I’m loving seeing his personality come out. He’s sweet, laid back, hard headed, stubborn, determined, happy, and so loving.

Since my last post, he turned 9 months.

At his 9 month appointment in May, Nehem was 20.9 lbs (70^thpercentile) and 28.5 inches (60^thpercentile).

The best part of his 9 month appointment was when our pediatrician asked Shane about different milestones he had reached. Our pediatrician is using a typically developing baby checklist instead of a Special Needs checklist. As of now, Nehem is meeting all cognitive and physical milestones, except for bearing weight on his legs duh. He is not a completely independent sitter yet either. 

Which makes buggy rids interesting.

 

He is a proficient army crawler, and can get himself anywhere he needs to be. He can go from his belly to sitting position. He still hasn’t figured out how to get around in his Bumba Wheelchair, but he is getting closer. We purposely got the Bumba early so that he would be exposed to it early and figure it out as soon as possible. I’m sure he will just catch on to that as quickly as he does everything! He has learned how to make it squeak though! 

And then he turned 10 months!

Nehem is busy, busy busy. He’s into everything. Until a few weeks ago, we just let him play in the middle of the living room. He got around great, but he wasn’t too fast. We’d occasionally have to get him off the dog’s bed or away from the couch, but he was pretty easy to manage. Recently, he’s gotten faster and much more curious. His favorite thing these days is cords. Plugged in or not, he wants all the cords. It’s terrifying.

So we finally bit the bullet and gave Nehem his own babyproof area of the house. This area allowed Shane to get some work done since he works from home during the school year.

 

Shane and I lovingly refer to this space as “baby jail.”

Sometimes he really, really loves it.

Peep the shoes that we finally found to fit around his new AFO's.

Other days, not so much. He has FOMO real bad ya’ll.

Nehem got a new car seat. That dang baby carrier was just too heavy. He looks so cute and is so much more comfy in it!

One of my favorite things these days is that Nehem has become a CHAMPION eater!

Let me rephrase that because he’s never slacked in the eating department.

Nehem loves real food. He pretty much just eats whatever we eat. It’s the best. His favorite things are: scrambled eggs, strawberries, blueberries, spaghetti, and Mexican food (he’s our kid FOR SURE). It’s so fun watching him feed himself.

Nehem has learned to clap and sign “more”, which incidentally look exactly the same, but he typically does them in the correct context. “More” is associated with food. Always. We were in the store recently and I was looking at different flavors of puffs for him and I look down and he’s signing “more” over and over. Hilarious.

We’re working on other signs too. We’ll get there!

Nehem has gone swimming. He loves it and looks pretty stinking cute in his swimming gear.

Being a stay at home mom for a couple of months has been pretty fun too! Nehem and I snuggle and laugh and sing and play and hang out with Shane. Summer is the best!

We have some fun events coming up including a trip to the beach and a FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY. That gets me a little choked up. I can’t believe an entire year has almost gone by.

Ok, I’ll save the tears for closer to his birthday.

Stay tuned for more Summer Fun!