Long overdue

Wow, nearly a year since I updated this thing. I really suck at this.

Ok, Harry is 15 months old, walking forwards and backwards, running, climbing, and otherwise doing all things toddlerish. He is babbling, but not talking yet. However, I'm in NO hurry. :) I think he's got the capability, and he can definitely "communicate his wants and needs" (a pediatrician's phrase). He's just taking it easy.

Part of the "delay" is probably because he sucks on a pacifier a lot. But he's had a horrible time teething for quite a while now. For instance, we took him to the doctor a couple of days before Christmas because he was running a fever and I wanted him to start medicine (if needed) in time to be healthy and happy on Christmas Day. The pediatrician said his fever was due to teething - he was working on 3 teeth! However, those teeth didn't actually break through for almost 3 more months!!! Right now he's working on two eye teeth and two more molars, and if a pacifier makes him feel better, then he can damn well have one!

We're slowly working on breaking the paci habit. The pediatrician wants him to be off of it in the next few months, but I think if he's cutting back bit by bit he'll be off by his second birthday, and that's fine. We've stopped offering it unless he's otherwise inconsolable. He finds them on his own, sucks for a little while, then drops it again.

CAELAN! Caelan will be eleven years old next month. He's moving to the middle school for sixth grade, which is a HUGE childhood step. We went to 6th Grade Orientation last week, and I was more nervous there than when he started Kindergarten! I'm really hoping his maturity will catch up to his age soon, before his mouth gets him into trouble he can't get out of.

He's got a summer full of activities this year. I put too much in the "dependant care" Flex account, so had to come up with various was to spend it. He's currently at 3-H Stables, riding horses and learning to take care of them (to some extent). He enjoyed his first day so much that he insisted he wants to spend every spare moment there. Also, he wants a horse for his birthday. *sigh*

Week 2 of summer vacation will be spent at the US Space & Rocket Center for Aviation Challenge day camp. Week 3 will be at Burritt on the Mountain, at their "Can We Dig It?" camp. Week 4 will be back at 3-H Stables. Week 5 will be back at the Burritt for "Hands on the Farm", to learn about how boys used to spend their days - and he currently thinks taking the trash out is hard! Week 6 will be back at USS&RC for the Expedition day camp - survival training! Then weeks 7-11 will be at Pine Ridge Day Camp (formerly Camp CDD, which was purchased from Pine Hill Day Camp) for hiking, caving, canoeing, and other campish activities.

Harry went with me to pick Caelan up from the stables yesterday. He was nervous around the horses at first, probably because he'd never seen an animal that big before. But when I took him up to Oreo, the horse Caelan was riding, and got him to pet the horse, he became comfortable almost immediately. I tried to take him out of the arena training area so I could set him down (I carried him the whole time we were around the horses), but he tried running back in as soon as I let go of him. So I stood him on a barrel, and he started calling to the horses! He's got this grunt/yell thing he started using around Nana's dogs last Friday, and he was making the same noise at the horse, trying to get it to come closer!

Sorry about the long post. Silence for almost a year, then you can't get me to shut up! (This is the hypothetical "you", since I don't think anyone reads this.) Anyway, I'm also on twitter and facebook, and they get updated much more frequently. Maybe I can figure out how to get this to publish to facebook, too.

Now, we're off to buy a school supply gift certificate and pick up Caelan's grades from school.