Anlon is 11 months old!!!!!!

Anlon turned 11 months on June 26th! Just about every day, either Vipul or I say to each other "Isn't he just the best thing in the world?" Even on our most challenging days, we are so thankful for our baby boy. These days Anlon is constantly exploring new things and crawling everywhere! He still mainly army crawls on his forearms, but he can move fast! To my surprise, he still absolutely loves to toss the colored rings from his Rock-a-Stack toy ahead of him and crawl after them. I thought perhaps he would get bored with this since he loved doing this 2 months ago, but he is still thoroughly entertained by this. He is also now very comfortable going from his belly to a sitting position and back to his belly - and he makes these transitions often as he plays. He also pulls himself up to his knees a lot, and many time he's in this position looking through his crib as I leave his room during nap times. He's been able to pull himself up to a standing position while sitting on the couch to look out the window and I think he's close to pulling up while sitting on the floor. He's quite steady on his feet now when he's holding onto something and enjoys standing against our storage ottoman while playing with items put on top - and recently he's been taking side steps or "cruising" while holding onto it.

In the last week, he's discovered how to scream with excitement and it's the cutest thing. He looks at us like "Did you hear me?" and smiles so big. He'll let out this high-pitched little screams over and over and thinks it's so funny. He says dada and mama a lot and we think he might now be saying them discriminately. Sometimes when he wakes up in the morning we'll hear him in the monitor saying "mama, mama", like he's asking me to come and get him! He loves playing peekaboo and often Vipul will hold him and they'll hide behind something and then sneak up on me - and he laughs and laughs. His laugh is still the greatest sound I've ever heard. He loves books more than ever. When he's not tired, he can be completely content and focused as we read up to 7 and 8 books at a time. He's been turning the pages himself since he was 8 months old and he usually does it at just the right time. Sometimes he pauses to look at the pages longer and then he's ready to go on to the next page. Some of his current favorites are The Going To Bed Book, So Big, Opposites, What's Wrong Little Pookie?, Touch and Feel Baby Animals, I Love You Through and Through, The Eye Book, and Name Me Pets. He's also starting to really enjoy his bible with lots of flaps he can lift up to find surprises. 

We began prevacid 6 weeks ago for his silent reflux and over the last 2 weeks we've seen a remarkable improvement in Anlon's interest in eating. Finally!!!! He's now eating the equivalent of 3 jars of food/day, which is easily double what he was eating before - and we're confident this will increase with more time. We recently started weekly feeding therapy with a speech pathologist since it's common to have an association between eating and pain, even after the pain has resolved with the reflux treatment. One of the greatest indications that he's feeling better is that he now shows interest in what we're eating, which he never did before. The one frustration now is that he has had some spitting up, which as our doctor explained, is a symptom of his silent reflux transitioning into classic reflux. And the medication does not stop this - it only decreases the acid production which prevents pain as the reflux occurs. He's also had a cold over the past week and the increased mucous production has increased these spit-ups. Just this morning he ate so well and then spit up a large amount of what he had just eaten. But despite this minor set-back, we are still SO, SO grateful that God led us to a diagnosis that is treatable and will hopefully soon resolve - and we know that our little man will begin to gain weight at a faster rate soon!


Every day with Anlon gets brighter and brighter. Thank you God for our wonderful little boy.