Outside

Aaron loves going outside. I took these pictures of him yesterday playing on the grass and I just love them. My sister Amber (the artistic genius in our family, next to Dallin of course) is going to play with them in photoshop a bit, but I just couldn't wait to post a few of them for your enjoyment. I sure enjoy Aaron.
One of Aaron's latest accomplishments is shaking his head back and forth really quickly. I say accomplishment because he will sometimes copy you when you do it to him. I had no idea before I had Aaron, but mimicking is a language skill, even if it isn't accompanied by sound. So, lately we've been trying to get him to copy all sorts of things we do, especially the "ba ba ba" sounds. It's normal for him not to make the actual "b" sounds, because he probably can't hear the "b" in the "ba ba," so his sounds for now just come out as "ah ah ah." When I talk to him and encourage him to take a turn at saying "ba ba" most of the time he just looks at me with a cute grin (probably wondering why his mom is so strange). But the other night when Jonny and I were playing with him he opened and closed his mouth in a "ba ba" action without making any sound. We were so excited, cheering and clapping our hands in approval. Aaron just smiled and shook his head at us. We look forward to those little moments.

Aaron is also much more agile and balanced lately. It's amazing to watch. He sits strait up without falling over for long periods of time (about 1 to 2 minutes) and when he does fall over most of the time it is quite controlled. Usually he is reaching for his feet with his mouth or leaning over to get a toy. Aaron does a great job of controlling himself while standing in his exersaucer. He can spin in circles while searching for just the right toy to chew on (or at least taste testing all of them before choosing a favorite) and he can place one foot in front of the other, spinning it in a merry-go-round fashion.
Perhaps the funniest new developments are his tendency to chew, and attempt to "gum" through everything he can get his hands on. He will scrunch his whole face and sometimes his whole body up while chewing on the unfortunate object.
Once or twice the unfortunate object was his hearing aid. Fortunately, it hasn't been the electrical part of his aids that made it into his mouth before I was able to stop the little chewing monster. While I was driving to his appointment at Primary Childrens' hospital the other day I heard his aid squeeling more than normal and looked back to find that Aaron had plucked it from his hear, disconnected the electrical portion from the ear mold and was chewing on the mold. Luckily, (and much to Aaron's disapproval) I rescued the hearing aid in time.One of the most heart-warming developments Aaron has reached is reaching up to me. Whether in his crib, carseat, or on the floor, he will reach to me if he wants to be picked up. If he isn't reaching for me immediately I will ask him if he wants me to pick him up and reach my hands to him. He bursts out with loud chirps of excitement and grabs onto my outstreached hands. It makes my heart melt.Aaron has been threatening a crawl stance for some time now. I am both excited and nervous about our little guy crawling. A few times he perches himself on his hands and knees, rocks back and forth and then launches his body forward. He is so determined to get at whatever is in front of him that it doesn't matter how he gets there. He rolls back and forth, sometimes without a particular object in sight, but once he reaches a destination it doesn't take long for him to find something of interest. This pose is the one we love, the flying swimmer. His legs kick and kick while his upper half flaps like a bird. This is one of my favorite pictures.
Just in case any of you were wondering, the CT scans were very promising. He still needs to get an MRI, but from the scan, it looks like he will be a great cochlear implant candidate. He has large vestibular aqueducts and a mildly malformed cochlea. They don't think the mild changes will hurt his ability to be implanted, so we have high hopes. Whether signing or hearing, we feel so lucky to have Aaron in our lives.