A Little Bit of Bragging

It seems as if there is something new happening at Casa Kocubinski each and every day.  I suppose that comes with the territory of having two very young kids.  I have been delighting in just about every thing they do and rejoicing in every milestone as they come along.  As of this last Wednesday, Evelyn is 10 months old!!!  I think she might end up being a little tomboy.  That girl is TOUGH.  She started crawling while we were in Montana, and now she is pulling herself up on everything and walking along the furniture (I believe it's called 'cruising').  She has even stood up independently a couple of times.  I have been predicting since before she could crawl that she would be walking by around ten and a half months.  That is only a couple weeks away, so we'll see if I'm right.  Anyway, as I mentioned, she is crawling everywhere and pulling herself up on everything.  And with pulling herself up comes falling down, which she frequently does as well.  I have watched in amazement as she falls, bumps, and bruises herself without batting an eyelash.  She rarely cries or gets upset, she just gets back and and keeps going.  She's not even a year old, but is already making me proud.  I think having a big brother has been very beneficial for her.  She has also become more independent and curious.  She is constantly on the move, checking things out.  And I'm pleased to report she isn't as fussy as she used to be and is becoming more and more comfortable being away from mommy.

"I know I can get up this slide somehow."

Peek-A-Boo!

Happy girl

On a less happy note, Evelyn is having some issues with her eyes.  She's had clogged tear ducts since she was born which makes her eyes watery and goopy.  Around the time she got her ear infection, she also got an infection that causes pink-ish circles under her eyes.  Both the infection and the clogged ducts have varied in severity over the months and have even seemed to go away at times, but they always come back.  We're most likely going to have to see a pediatric optomologist when she is a year old to try to get things fixed.  Fortunately, these issue don't seem to cause her any pain or discomfort.  I'm just looking forward to getting it all fixed up for good.

Max has been doing amazingly well with his speech.  Around the time we were in Montana, the words just started flowing.  He can now repeat just about every word we say as well as saying things without our prompting him.  He's even started stringing a few words together to make sentences.  He has been seeing his speech therapist, Margo, twice a week and actually seems to love it.   And it's obviously working.  We couldn't be more pleased with his progress.

That's his "Who, me?" look

On top of his stellar improvements in speech, Max has been blowing us away with everything he has been learning now that he can articulate what he knows.  He can count to 10, he knows all the basic colors and shapes, and he knows all the letters of the alphabet.  I can write any letter down and he tells me what it is, or I can say a letter and he'll point it out on the keyboard.  I can even make the sound the letter makes and he'll tell me what it is.  Turns out all the books we've been reading to him since birth have been taught him more than we thought (with a little help from iPhone/iPad games).  I've been kind of defensive about him for quite a while now-  I've been worried that people thought his speech delay was a reflection of his intelligence.  Now I'm just one of "those" moms bragging about how smart he is.  Ha! Ha!  What can I say?  I'm just bursting with pride.

His smile can light up the world

And finally, there is Jackson.  He's still hanging in there.  We can't take him hiking anymore and can only take him on very short walks, but he's happy enough.  He's been sunbathing in the gorgeous weather we've been having and seems pretty content.  He doesn't even seem sad any more when Matt takes Margie on runs.  The good thing is that he doesn't seem to be in any pain or even uncomfortable.  Although that might have something to do with the pain meds we're giving him twice a day.  We're just hoping for the best and trying to focus on the spurts of energy he has and how much Max loves him rather than the fact that he's slowing down so much so fast and bleeding us dry financially.  Oh, the things we do for our pets.

Max giving Jackson loves