8 month birthday update.

Today we went to the library for the first time. You were standing stiff-legged (with my help) to play with a toy with a moveable yellow plastic train track circle in its center. To make it spin, you had to pull a blue lever, but it also unleashed this awful grinding motor noise that made your eyes bug and your stomach stiffen and your arms fly outwards. This didn’t deter you from your fascination, however – and as Grandpa Bolin would say (he often says that this is his favorite word) – you were Un De Turd.

Okay, I swear. This is the last day I don’t do your brushing or compression or syringe tastes. This time I promise to do them every day (as long as I’m not completely incapacitated with some mother bug flu beam). You need as much preventative care as you can get, so we don’t have to learn new and intrusive techniques later. I promise from this point on to show more perseverance – you deserve it, and although you may not enjoy it, you’ll benefit from it later. Just wait and see.

Nine days left with your as-it-was-born beautiful soft belly. I wonder how you’ll broadcast your scars. One little girl I heard tell of calls her g-tube scar her moon. Another little boy with a port scar shows it proudly to other kids. I’ll make sure to get you a megaphone when the time comes.

You stared at our shadows today, on the porch in the rocking chair, and on the grass. My shadow waved to you. If it would have been a picture someone would have picked it up and brought it closer to you, but you had to be content looking from my lap.

And stats: 28 ounces fortified. 5 retches. 1 large spit-up. Many smiles. 1 hour PT (straightening to mid-thoracic spine by reaching, rolling from back to side to front, reaching airplane in air supported under chest and hips, trunk control on ball). And 4-10 space cadet sessions (1-5 seconds apiece). 1 2 hour nap. 1 30 minute nap. Fell asleep for the night after holding a basket up to your face to look through the slats at the light (or chew on it, rather) during an outdated video about the Brain as The Enlightened Machine (can’t say I blame you).