Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

I have just returned from a 10 day business trip. I knew it was going to be a long time away from home. DH knew it was going to be a long stint as a single parent. Alex didn't know what to think. Within 48 hours he was asking, "Momma go? Momma go?" Finally, late Thursday night, long after bedtime, I came home. I scooped him out of his crib and held him close. He stayed fast asleep through the entire homecoming.

He stirred at 5 am and I was there like a shot. I scooped him up again and brought him back to our bed. He slept through it all again. At 6:55 he finally woke up. I was up but in the room when he sat up. He scowled, threw his head back so he wouldn't have to look at me, and reached, whining, for his dad. He spent the first 10 minutes refusing to look at me. But I was patient. Eventually I took him from his dad and started down the hall with him. He wasn't happy with that at first, but by the time we got down to his room, he was grinning at me and holding me tight. I dressed him and we were back to normal - his anger was gone. His welcome home wasn't the huge happy smile I had hoped for, but it was exactly all Alex and I should have known that would be the reception I would get. And it was a delight to see how quickly he was able to move beyond the initial emotion...that is HUGE progress for him. Six months ago he got stuck in his initial reaction and could not move beyond that, no matter what.

While I was away he learned to play the piano. We have an electronic piano, and he's discovered not only the on/off button, but also all the tone buttons that convert it from grand piano to organ to harpsicord and choir. I haven't had a demonstration yet, but I understand many happy moments were spent at the piano with dad while I was away.

Progress

When Alex came home from Taiwan he had just started eating solid food and only then when someone else put it in his mouth. He preferred to keep his hands clean and wasn't interested in touching anything that was put on the highchair tray. We worked hard those first few months to encourage self-feeding and finally, after three months, he would gingerly grasp a cheerio between the tips of his thumb and forefinger and put it in his mouth. For a long time he pinched his food rather than grasping it. Gradually we worked our way up to bits of bread, bits of cheese, bits of dried fruit. But anything moist had to be spooned into his mouth by someone else. Hold a spoon? Fageddaboutit.

Over time he's become more comfortable with texture and moisture and willingly feeds himself strawberries, grapes, and banana, among other things. And lately he's even been interested in holding the spoon and stabbing it into the empty yogurt container when we're finished feeding it to him. But mostly he is happy to sit in his chair, and let us spoon breakfast, lunch and dinner into him. And to be honest, I have been happy to avoid the disaster area that is toddler self-feeding. Yes, it is a challenge to simultaneously feed myself and keep the food flowing into him at the pace he demands (and he is demanding, there should be no more than 10 seconds of empty mouth between bites). But we can get through a meal without even needing a bib when we're doing the spooning.

Today, however, we seemed to have turned a corner. He sat down to dinner and grabbed the spoon out of my hand. So tonight, Alex fed himself. As you can see he eventually tired of the spoon and went straight to the hand-to-mouth technique. No matter that there was little solid to hold onto.

In addition to the progress with self-feeding, his vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds. He's caught on to imitating sounds and will try to repeat many of the words we say. This morning 'sah-ine' followed my 'sunshine'. Not too shabby. He's added 'apple' to his 'juice', so we hear 'ap juice' now, and he regularly says 'hi dada'.

He's definitely no longer the baby we brought home and is every day more and more a little boy.