Alex turned 9 months old yesterday and he also had a Ped Op visit at Duke. He is doing very well - his pressures were good (no glaucoma), no cataracts, and he does not need glasses at this time. The intake doctor and his regular doctor both commented that he has made a lot of vision progress since his last visit in February. He sees better with both eyes versus one eye at a time due to the Nystagmus, which they said is typical. Next appointment in 4 months.
We are having monthly visits from the Governor Morehead Preschool (GMP). We also have Children's Developmental Service Agency (CDSA) visiting about every 1-2 months. Both agency representatives say he is developing well and in the past month has really progressed with vision. We completely agree - the only thing we notice different than his sister at this age is distance vision, but feel he is catching up there. If I am standing a few feet away and smile, he smiles back. And Grandpa tested his distance vision with a light up toy from 15-20 feet away and Alex smiled at it. It will be interesting to find out how much he can see when he starts to talk which, by the way, was yesterday. When Rob opened the door to take big sister to school, Alex said, "bye" and waved his hand. And later on in the day while at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Grandpa came inside from outdoors and Alex said "hi" and waved. Way to go Grandma and Grandpa for teaching him these words! He does an adorable Gator Chop where he moves both arms up and down over and over super fast. He is also repeating sounds.
In terms of physical development, he is days away from crawling. He is creeping right now and cannot be left alone without moving across the room to play with big sister's toys. He especially loves maracas and books. He has four teeth - two on top and two on bottom. And he is working on 4 (yes, 4) more on top. He started solid foods at 6 months and had his first meat last week - chicken.
We are struggling a bit with the light in the car. A towel was working for a while since he had figured out how to take down the car seat cover. But he has figured out the towel now, too. Sunglasses won't work because he pulls them down to chew. So I think we are going to get the windows tinted the darkest shade allowed.
Sleeping - I am going to jinx myself on this one. He was a great sleeper and then with the teething and a lingering cold that turned into an ear infection, he was waking up at least once a night. Multiple times for a while. But since he has had the antibiotics for the ear infection, he has been sleeping all night again. Fingers crossed he sleeps through the night tonight since I just proclaimed this excellent sleeping abilities.
Alex is an extremely happy and mellow baby. He will play and study his toys for long periods at a time. He really focuses on the details of the toys - especially the tags. He smiles and smiles and smiles. His giggle just brings a smile to our faces. And he loves his sister. He will look up and smile the sweetest smile at her. He loves reading books with us and high five parties with dad.
Vision for Tomorrow Foundation has a new website and I wanted to share that link here. The website has a really good FAQ section.
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