Talking

Over the past few weeks, Jack's vocabulary has exploded! He says tons of new words: "Cookie" (Cookie Monster is his favorite Sesame Street character & this years Halloween costume), "Elmo" (sounds like "Mehlmo"), "Car," "Spongebob" (sorta), "More" & "Please" (he signs these as well), "Shhh," "No," "book," and so many more. But for the past week, his absolute favorite has been "Uh-Oh" which he probably says 50 times a day! Jacksen also recognizes many objects: He will say and point to his ears, nose, eyes and hair if you ask him to. In some of his favorite books, he can point to a rubber ducky, the sun, bananas and other foods, and some other objects too. He also points to and says "Stars" and "Moon" when we go for night walks. He is progressing so much with his speech and we think he will soon be starting to say full phrases. We are really proud of our little guy.

Fall 2009

Dad here, I have never posted one of these things. But it appears the Jacksen Kyle blog has been getting neglected recently, so I figured I'd try to get things going again. Jacksen has been making slow progress with his eating with the support of Mealtime Connections, a feeding therapy group in Tucson that we have been taking him to over the past few months. He will most likely be progressing to a more intensive clinic with this group within the next month as well as going through a clinic evaluation with Phoenix Children's Hospital. We hope to see some more major improvements from those in the near future. However, even with the medical support, I know that Jack would not be where he is today without his amazing mother. Jessika is the most dedicated, loving, selfless and patient mother that I have ever known. Everyday I am in awe of how committed she is to working through the difficult challenges of feeding him on top of the normal "mommy" stuff (diaper changes, teaching him new things, keeping him entertained). She never appears to give in to the stress and frustration that I do when I cannot get Jacksen to eat "normally." I regret that I take for granted sometimes how lucky I am to not only be blessed with such a wonderful little boy, but also a strong woman like Jess to devote everything to raising him and strengthening our family always. I am so grateful for what I have.