The Harvey Family: Blake

The flu has been the talk of the news this week and it has us even more scared that Blake will catch it. I try and be as careful as I can when taking him out of the house but at this age he still wants his fingers in his mouth constantly. We felt pressured when we got his flu shot at his 6 month well visit and since we think he had a strange reaction to it we said we didn't want him to get the booster but after hearing how bad the flu is this season we decided to schedule an appointment to get his shot. I guess we waited too long, since the doctor said they were out of shots for the season (unless we had Medicaid... um what the heck?). I decided to go ahead and get mine to help prevent us spreading it around our household. I think it might be the first time I've gotten a flu shot. I went to the grocery store to get it and Blake did very well sitting in his seat in the front of the shopping cart. =) Hopefully it helps keep Blake from getting it since he is still so young. Daddy is an OCD hand washer so that should help as well, as long as no one coughs on him at work.

This week, Blake:

has been throwing things like crazy. He'll empty his toy bins by grabbing each individual toy and tossing it over his shoulder. He also does this with his book bin which can be quite painful if you get in the way. Then he turns around and starts moving the new pile he's made by tossing the books over his shoulder again.
still has a lot of separation anxiety. He does not like me to leave him alone to run into another room for something. His naps are always super short if I'm not near him too, if I'm there he'll sleep much longer.
got to try a soy-free, oat-free cheerios substitute. I went into the Earth's Origins store, which is a big organic/natural food store locally, and read labels for a while since Mimi was in town visiting and was able to watch Blake. I found some cereal, bread, yogurt, cheese, and a few other things that we should be able to eat. The most interesting one is powdered peanut butter, and I'm really interested in trying that one.
will walk with me holding only one of his hands. Once he realizes what's going on he just drops down to his knees so he doesn't have to worry about falling. He makes the most progress when he's distracted and just walks without thinking about it. He's even taken a couple more unassisted steps while concentrating on some toys in his hands. He's even started running along the furniture which is pretty hilarious.
loves to put his letters in the little compartment on his table. After Daddy showed him how to put it in and close the lid, then open the lid and take it back out again, he does it over and over. Of course once he pulls it out he has to show it to Daddy for his approval.
finally started holding his own bottle! I started with an old water bottle that he loves to play with and showed him how to hold it and put the end "high in the sky". We repeat that line a lot to make it fun for him. He did so well with the water bottle that we decided to start with his real bottle and he did quite well as long as I put him in my lap in a reclined position.
has been waving on demand a lot more. He waves goodbye mostly. We work on it every morning when Daddy leaves for work and he's finally getting the hang of it.
has been talking up a storm. Most of what he says is in another language but he has a LOT to say. Most of the sounds start with gah, cack, dada, nana, and eeeeee.
went to John Chestnut Park when Mimi was in town and got to go to the lookout tower and the view was just beautiful. We saw lots of birds which Blake loves.
got to see airplanes closer up than normal. After we dropped Mimi off at the airport we went and hung out in the cell phone waiting lot and got to see the planes taking off. They were so big and Blake watched them for as long as he could before they went out of sight. He thought it was super cool. The downside is that we had to wait so long between takeoffs.