Gabe got his monthly RSV shot today, and was less than thrilled about it. I am sure you can imagine. Since the nurse handles the shots, we don't see our pediatrician on these visits unless there are problems or we have concerns, but I saw Dr. Voyles in the hall and pointed out that Gabe was off of oxygen. He did a double take and was surprised and pleased with this latest bit of progress. Later, he popped in between other patients to chat and get caught up. We always get a weight check at these visits, so weight gain was another plus. Last month he weighed in at 17-3 and today he was 17-13! So he is continuing to gain. We have been juggling the milk and food amount, so I was relieved that we are doing ok with that. His jowels don't seem to suggest any problem, but I have noticed that the leg and body rolls don't seem so pronounced anymore. He is also so much more active that I have wondered about his caloric intake. We will be back in Indy next week to see Dev. Peds, so I imagine we will work out those issues. I have a copy of our current schedule all ready to go. Speaking of feeding - last Friday I made a beef stew and since he has been exposed to a pretty wide range of foods now, we decided to mash it up really good and let him try it. It was definitley more flavor than he is accustomed to and it had more textures too. At first he seemed a bit unsure, and we got a couple of pretty humorous full body shudders, but then he seemed to settle in and really like it. I didn't remember until later that I did put some red wind in the stew - but surely the alcohol simmered out...right? Now I'm trying to remember if he took a nap after that....

We continue to work on the "bye bye" wave and syllables. I feel confidant he has the sound down, but Josh and I are still the only real witnesses to the waving - he does it!! We swear! Grandma Maggie has him raising his arms to the "so big" game, but we haven't really witnessed that one. I guess he has his specific performances for specific audiences. It seems that his strength grows daily. Pt and OT both have us working those leg muscles for squatting and standing. It seems that we just started that less than two weeks ago and he can already stand for 8 or 9 seconds holding onto something, but with no other support. Karen (PT) hasn't seen that yet, so I think she will be very amazed when she sees him this week. I never imagined we'd have progressed so far by this point. Just to look at him, you'd never guess what he has been through. He is so happy and despite his reclusive life, when we do encounter new people, he doesn't seem to have any stranger phobias yet. He'll smile and flirt with anyone. He still loves to look at and interact with his big brothers the most and they love interacting with him. I don't think they fully realize how close Gabe is getting to being able to get into their stuff. Along those lines, we have had several discussions about keeping their big boy stuff out of Gabe's reach, especially the smaller toys. We have worked so hard on the oral aversion exercises, now EVERYTHING goes in Gabe's mouth. Keeping their little pieces (and probably lead-leadened cars) away from Gabe's mouth will be a challenge for quite some time I would imagine.