Leaps and Bounds

Many of you know my concerns with Spencer's developments, as well as my feelings of inadequacy at understanding what he needs as his mother. (See this post.) I've relaxed a bit on worrying whether or not he has developed as much as all the other children we've come in contact with and just try to develop and praise the small accomplishments he makes.

However, it seems like in the last month he has been making such huge progresses that each one makes my heart swell. Yes, he may be behind in these things that I'm going to post about compared to other kids, but to me I'm just happy he's doing them.

The first thing that has made me so proud is that he is communicating so much more with me (which is the doctor was concerned about in the first place). He didn't ever point to things, or hold his arms up to be held...things like that. Brian and I started analyzing what he does, and realized that he is just his own person who just doesn't ask for things because he either a) gets/does it himself, b) or decides he doesn't need it. He's a pretty easy going child which I have become very thankful for.

But just in the last few weeks, he's been not only climbing up on top of my lap, handing me books to read, and holding his arms up to be held, but a few days ago when I came home from being out with Randi, the minute he saw me he ran as fast as he could (well...toddled as fast as he could) and gave me the first open-mouthed kiss (teeth and all) that I've ever received from him. I about cried. Since then, he has continued to give them to me at the most random times...like when I'm singing him to sleep. I'm sure he does it cuz he's realized that it makes me giggle and it prolongs me from putting him down in his bed...but I don't care. I'll let him stay up to all hours of the night giving me open mouth teeth kisses and giggling afterward. It melts me.

Another thing he's been doing is he's been meticulously stacking and lining up anything he can get his hands on. It first started at his Aunt Lori's house when for 45 minutes he lined up and re-lined up the wooden alphabet blocks. He'd move them apart and then line them up in a row again. He's been doing it with the big legos, books, figurines, food, etc. He's so meticulous about it that if something gets moved out of the way, he notices and moves it back. One time he was lining up Matchbox Cars from nose to trunk making a huge line of cars. I took one of them and turned it perpendicular to the other cars. He crawled over to it and promptly put it back in line. To me, that's amazing.

I love that he analyzes things and figures out how they work. (see picture above.) He doesn't just watch a car that shoots balls out, he looks inside and figures out where the balls are going to and coming from so he can mess with the contraption his own way. Things like that.

Many of the friends I've been visiting have told me how cool it is to sit and watch him. He's very patient with the toys he has and they love to watch him make patterns. They say he's very smart, and one of my friends even said he could even be gifted. Wow. How happy was I to hear that! Way happy.

So, there really are some pictures that go along with this post. Spencer's new thing is he loves coloring with his crayons. I got these in the Target dollar bin (bless the dollar bin) and he has been making so many pictures. In true Spencer fashion, though, whenever learning something new, he always puts his hands on MY hands to see how it's done. Like in these pictures where I was teaching him to draw. He put his hands on top of mine to watch me swirling the crayon around. So, of course, I had to get a picture of our hands together. I love them. Just don't look too closely at the Doritos (his favorite is Nacho Cheese, so sue me) powder on his hands. hehe. I love how pudgy his hands are. Can you tell the difference between mine and his? Mine are pretty pudgy too. Nice.

Way to go Spencer. Love you much!