The 20-pound baby

January has been a big month. The biggest news is about Silas's weight gain. We finally did it--Silas is officially over 20 pounds! He weighed in at 20 lbs, 7 oz at his pediatrician's office two weeks ago. When he goes back again this Wednesday to get his 15-month shots, we're pretty sure that he'll be comfortably above 21 lbs, somewhere between the 5th and 10th percentile for his age--which means we're back on the charts. We're so happy to see him doing so well. We celebrated by retiring his infant car seat. He now has a new big-boy car seat that lets him sit facing forward, which he's really excited about.

Silas has also been making some wonderful progress in physical and occupational therapy this month. He is now bearing weight on his legs and pushing up from sitting into a standing position. Daddy made a little wood shop project modeled on the padded bench and table he uses in physical therapy, and Silas gets lots of exercise on it. He likes sitting (with some help) to play with trains and tractors and likes to stand up and reach for the keys on his keyboard.

He's also been wearing his Passey-Muir valve a lot more this month and making lots of progress with vocalizing. The Passey-Muir valve is a one-way valve that caps the end of his trach and allows him to breathe in, but when he breathes out, forces air to go through his vocal cords and out his mouth so he can make noise. He just started making babbling sounds this month and even a few syllables. He hasn't made any actual words yet, but his syllables are getting closer and closer to making sense. In the meantime, he's picked up the habit of pointing to what he wants, which is pretty cute. Twice a month a speech therapist comes to the house to work with Silas.



Silas has also made some big progress with his fine motor skills. One of the big steps he's made this month is learning to feed himself...sort of. Here's a little video to give you an idea:




We've had some fun visits from family and friends this month. Lindsay and David came back from Sierra Leone and came over to visit. They hadn't seen him since last January, so it was fun for Silas to show off all of his new tricks.


Carrie and Eleanor came over and had a fun day at the park with Silas. It's been a beautiful January on the central coast. After a few weeks of rain in December, we've had lots of bright, sunny days. Silas especially likes going to the park to feed the ducks, walk around the lake, watch kids on the playground, and, most of all, swing.

All aboard the wagon o' cuteness.

Fun times swinging.

Grandpa came up from San Diego earlier this month and brought Great-Grandma Thelma all the way from Detroit. They took Silas up the coast to San Simeon to see the elephant seals, who just had their pups. The beach is full of enormous seals and their tiny babies. Silas loved it.

Look everyone! Elephant seals!