Fall Fun

Outside, leaves are falling and cold winds blowing.  Inside, we are enjoying days of continued growth and the warmth of little boy laughter.

Toby had a return visit to the U of M which included both pulmonary and nutrition.  His growth was good enough to earn him a slight reduction in the daily tube feedings.  He has also made progress with the variety of foods he will eat.  He now eats a selection of crackers, cereal, and chips, peanuts, cashews,  freeze-dried yogurt, and candy: chocolate chips, m & m's, Hershey bars, candy corn, fruit snacks, Kit Kats,  Pez, candy canes, etc.  (He has not eaten any more cookies.)    If you're thinking this doesn't sound like a healthy diet, you agree with his nutritionist.  We are awaiting a referral to a feeding program in Grand Rapids.  But we are encouraged by the developing openness he has to trying new tastes and textures (albeit within limits).  He is also interacting more with other foods and learning to touch and handle them, a necessary step before he will put them in his mouth. 

Toby has grown in so many ways besides the physical.  He speaks in sentences now and has effectively put to rest any continued concerns about delayed language development.  He fills his days with books, toys (trucks!), and inserting himself into whatever any one else is trying to do.  And he is a force not easily ignored.

I have wanted to share more recent photos with you, but getting them has been a challenge.  When I try to take his picture, he puts his little hands up and clicks an imaginary camera back at me.  Like so:

And thus:

As is often the case, though, his sisters have had success where I did not.  Here he is helping clean up the leaves in the yard

and visiting the playground.

Yes, he graduated this week to the "big boy swing".
And we are enjoying him as much as it looks like he is enjoying that swing.
Wheeee!