Developmental Check-Up

We took the boys to a re-check visit at the Neonatal Follow-up Clinic at the hospital. They wanted us to come back to make sure that Daniel was progressing well in his motor skills. As it turns out, he was more advanced (just by a little) than his brother, so all is well for the boys. We will be taking them back there for a full check-up in August when their adjusted age will be 18 months.

The new fun thing to do around the house is to play the piano. I have the living room set up now, where I have blocked off the TV area with the gate and the piano bench holds the gate in place (since they can now figure out how to move the gate if it is just laying against a chair). This means that the piano doesn't have the bench in the way and Daniel is usually the one to open the piano cover and start playing. Oddly enough, usually the piano cover requires too hands to open because it tends to get stuck on one side, but somehow this little 15-month old finds a way to open it anyway. This picture above is a common scene now and once Daniel starts playing, Caleb comes over too and they push each other to one end of the piano and back again as they play. Our dog, Echo, howls and whines as they play. She doesn't like it when the piano is played, even during my lessons! I find it ironic that we have a dog who hates the piano, when I teach on it most everyday. Thankfully though, she is very tolerant of the boys and for that I am grateful.

Caleb loved these little flipping blocks on the wall at the clinic, and was VERY excited to get down and start playing with them. He is our very observant little one and is very aware of his surroudings at all times. If he hears or sees something interesting, he is off in a flash to find it and check it out for himself. If his plans to find that something are thwarted, (ie: Mommy or Daddy jumping in to remove the usually unsafe something) he flops on the floor in a very dramatic way and cries very loudly and pitifully hoping we will return the item to him that very minute. Needless to say, the whole scene doesn't convince Mommy or Daddy to let him have it. He isn't quite as talkative yet, but still manages to communicate things to us in his own way. Whenever he sees his Daddy, he is SO happy! Of all our babies thus far, he is the one most bonded with his Dad. It is very sweet! When Daddy comes home, he almost always falls over with delight. He is also our water baby. When I put him in the bath, he likes to lay on his belly and squirm around. He slips and slides all over the tub and I really have to watch him as he has taken a few gulps full of bathwater a few times as well.

Here is Daniel playing at the clinic before the twins appointment. He was talking to me me here. He loves to babble out words and is most definitely our most communicative baby thus far. He mimics most everything we say or do now and really tries to tell us things. He holds up a play phone to his ear for instance and says what sounds like "hello" but is more like "uh-oh" which is his favorite and most used word thus far. We know when he is done with his meal when he says, "Uh-oh" and promptly tosses his sippy cup off the side of the highchair. And when he has a poopy diaper, he crawls over to me and tugs on my shirt or pant leg and says, "UH" to get my attention. He is also our button pusher, and takes any opportunity he can to find things with buttons to push or mechanisms to figure out. He is very precise with his hand motions and carefully selects the things he wants to play with. He has been walking a few steps here and there on his own, but when he realizes what he is doing he sinks down to the floor again. The developmental specialist said that any day now he will be walking and actually said that Caleb wasn't far behind. We think that Caleb is just so anxious to walk that he isn't as careful as Daniel and so he tends to fall more frequently.