Eyes and Ears and Mouth and Nose

Part I:  Medical Update

Connor has been sick this past week with a cold and what Mom thought could possibly be conjunctivitis.  Most mornings this week Connor woke up with his eyes crusted together.  Gross.  Several minutes with a warm washcloth solved the problem, and he had no other symptoms of pink eye, but that's a pretty major one, so off to the doctor we went.  Shockingly he did NOT have conjunctivitis, but (not-so-shockingly) he did have an ear infection.  Such is life for us.  I think this is ear infection #6 since November of 2008.  Not completely unheard of in the toddler world, but not what I wish for my little man.  He has his antibiotics, and this morning he not only woke up with his eyes crust-free (for the first time since Monday) but he seems to be feeling much better. 

In other news, the neurologist called with the EEG results.  Turns out they were slightly abnormal, but nothing to be alarmed about.  The same part of the brain that controls seizure activity showed some abnormal results.  Fortunately, he does not have a seizure disorder (although he may be prone to them in the future, but the neurologist was not concerned with this as he's never shown signs of a seizure).  This is the same part of the brain that also controls language development.  BINGO!  We've found a correlation!  Normally the course of action is to have Connor meet with a speech pathologist, then go on anti-seizure meds for 4-5 months (these same meds also "calm" that part of the brain down so that language can develop), and then have him re-evaluated in 6 months.  FORTUNATELY, after speaking with me about all of the improvements Connor has made lately, he just simply recommended the appointment with the speech pathologist.  Mommy was very happy.  She wasn't too keen on putting Connor on meds if he didn't need them.  If we see any regression or if he stops improving, then we'll talk again about meds, but for now Connor seems to be speaking more and more everyday.  Which brings me to Part II of my post:  Look what I can do!

Part II:  Look What I Can Do!
It seems like just as everyone kept telling Connor what he couldn't do, he felt it was time to prove them all wrong.  He has been talking up a storm lately, and every day I'm hearing new words.  I would have liked to have typed that sentence when he was a year or so old, but I'll take what I can get.  Some words he's been saying lately:  red, blue, yellow, purple, cracker, juice, sprout, hi, hello, bye-bye, more, M (as in M & Ms), Mommy (but he says it like he's up to something... it's very funny), more, shoes,  ready, set, go, please, fish.  There are more, but I can't remember them all (that's a good thing - it means he's saying more than Mommy can remember!).  He also has numbers 1-10 down (which he's had for a while, but now he acknowledges the number 2!), and he has most of his alphabet down.  He also recognized two words without them being said to him.  "HI" and "Sprout".  I bought him the "Learn to Read" DVDs and one of the first words put up on the screen is "HI".  Connor looked at it, and before the DVD said anything, said "HI!".  I was amazed.  Joey wrote it on a piece of paper and showed it to him, and he did it again.  Ok, so it's only two letters, but STILL.  I was impressed!  As for "Sprout", when he watches Thomas & Friends On Demand, the intro is a bunch of kids saying "Sprout, please" and they show the logo for sprout about 20 times.  On Mommy's phone, there's a game Connor plays that is a "Sprout" game, and the logo pops up before the game starts.  Everytime the logo pops up, Connor says "Sprout".  Yes, I know he's not really reading the word, just recognizing the logo, but I can still be proud of him.  He's come such a long way in such a short amount of time. 

One of the best parts of his learning is that he actually helps Mommy clean up!  He tends to make quite the mess when he plays with his toys, and Mommy is tired of cleaning them up, so she says "Connor, help pick up!", and he DOES!  He'll put his cars back in the bin, his bathtub letters back in the container, and today he even started picking up crumbs he decided to spill all over the coffee table.  Now if I can only get a mop in his hands....

Thanks for checking in with us.  I don't really have any new pics, so I'll just post this latest one of him trying to get something under the couch.  He doesn't quite understand you can't get to it feet first, but we'll get to that.  One thing at a time!