Hide and seek and cobra pose

The babies are developing at a rapid pace these days. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up (both mentally and physically). 

Colin appears to have recovered pretty much completely from his surgery. He is still regenerating a lot of tissue, so his surgeon wants to see him again in three months, but the surgeon is pleased with how everything looks so far. Colin certainly has not suffered any decrease in mobility as a result of having surgery. He has mastered the army crawl and occasionally works to get his knees under him while he’s motoring around. 

Colin still is not sitting unsupported. Both his occupational therapist and his physical therapist are both working with him on this (as are John and I). We’re getting closer … but still no success. I am hoping we’ll get him sitting by his first birthday, but as that’s just around the corner, I am suspecting disappointment. 

Colin has, however, completely gotten over his dislike of being on his tummy. In fact, for a larger portion of the day, Colin looks as if he is showing off his perfect cobra pose. My little yoga master. It’s become the complete opposite of his previous habits — now if you lay him down on his back, he almost immediately flips onto his stomach. That is a nice change.

Veronica is determined to become a big girl in all aspects of life. She is losing interest in drinking from her bottle during the day (but has not quite gained an interest in taking her milk from a sippy — but we’re working on that). She also prefers finger foods over purees; wants to sleep in the big bed, not her crib; and will crawl off and amuse herself on her own. 

This last habit caused me a bit of a fright the other day. I had gone into the bathroom and left her playing with her toys in the living room. When I came out again a minute later, she was gone. I called her and looked everywhere for her, but she seemed to have vanished.

Just as I was starting to get a little worried, I finally found her in Ethan’s bedroom, where she had crawled and closed the door behind her. (More incentive for Ethan to keep his room picked up.)

The babies are much more aware of each other now, too. They have started to fight over toys, and each will get very upset when the other takes a favorite away. They also are thinking farther ahead now.

Veronica has discovered that as a sitter, all she needs to do to keep toys away from Colin is turn her back to him. She spent a good 10 minutes playing with something he wanted and every time he would crawl around to try and grab it, she would just turn a little so he was behind her again.

Colin, on the other hand, has a couple of times (that I’ve been here to witness at least) seen Veronica look at a toy, and then race over to get it before she does.

They do sometimes also play nicely together. They both love our LeapFrog music table (we had the same model for Ethan, and he also loved it). Right now we have the legs off so it sits on the floor (so Colin can reach it), and Colin and Veronica will often play at the table together.

I spent a good 15 minutes the other evening trying to capture the moment on film: Colin was on his side, pushed up high like he was getting ready to sit up, playing on one side of the table, and Veronica was standing with her butt up in the air, bent double playing on the other side.

Unfortunately, Veronica seems to have a built-in camera detector. Even though I was behind her, the minute I picked up the camera, she turned and crawled over to me to try and grab it. We repeated this scene several times before I gave up. I’m sneakier than they know, however, and I will succeed at some point.