Thanksgiving and 8 months

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Had good ol' Blogger been working right, I would've posted sooner. There were about 60 people at my parents' house for the big day! It was so fun as it always is with the Cagle crew. It was fun being together, but that many people crowds up a house and it really doesn't lend itself to being a great day for really visiting with people or taking lots of pictures. Its like Disney world...crowded people moving around like cattle and little kids running at your feet. All that to say...i didn't take many pictures of actual Thanksgiving.

It is his first Thanksgiving, that's why he looks a little confused
Looking at that turkey made him hungry!
I did get a picture of this...me and cousin Paige stirring the dressing. YUMMY! Of course Parker, one of Kanyon's most faithful prayer warriors, was right there with us. I was so glad Parker and Kanyon got to meet!
Kanyon received his first "official" Christmas present! Thanks GREAT Aunt Gwenny!
These are completely me being obsessed with him when I think he's cute. Sorry.

Talk about POUTY!!!!!!!!

Here is the 8 month old man! I'm a little mad at myself for not thinking through this whole basketball thing a little better. No matter how hard I try , the angle and depth is always different which distorts the picture. It really annoys me.

With the risk of writing way too much, I'll take a minute to tell you 8 things about Kanyon at the 8 month mark. (disclaimer: his development is NOTHING like a "normal" 8 month old or even a 4 1/2 month old...we preemies go at our own pace...which is SLOW, but that's OK)

1. He loves eating his hands..it started out as trying to find his thumb, he gave up on that and will now just suck on his hands...hungry or not.

2. His favorite possession is his bouncy seat (mine too!). He will sit in it FOREVER just kicking and talking or sleeping. It was pretty cheap, but its worth big $$$$$$$! When we first brought him home, he wasn't even big or strong enough to bounce it with his own movement, now he about bounces out of it!

3. He still hates eating...chalk that up to an oral aversion (thanks to the tubes and junk) and reflux, but he's getting a little better. He's hard to feed, but now instead of 1 1/2 hours per feeding we're down to an hour...sometimes 45 minutes!! That helps since I'm still pumping and he's still eating every 3 hours during the day.

4. We're still working on the cereal thing. He's not very good at it. He can't figure out how to open his mouth. Once it gets in there, he does good, its just hard to get him to open his mouth. We're almost ready to try baby food.

5. While I'm on the eating thing, He LOVES LOVES LOVES his vitamins. If any of you have kids you've probably given them those poly-vitamins. I accidentally got a little bit in my mouth from my finger the other day and I almost gagged. He sucks those things down like it is candy. His eyes water and then when they're gone, he smacks his lips....maybe he doesn't have taste buds.

6. He has really started interacting more with us. He talks and squeals and makes his cute noises so much. (though my mother in-law probably thinks I'm crying wolf. Everytime he's on a roll i call her so she can hear him and he stops!)He smiles a lot more and even if he won't look at us, he reacts to us with the rest of his body.

7. He works very very had during his therapy. We have PT and OT 3 times a week. His physical therapy is pretty intense. He usually ends up screaming, but he does good work even when he's screaming. We are still working on head control (he can't quite lift it off the ground when on his tummy). He is getting so much better with his head and trunk control from the sitting position . He is using both hands and bringing them both to mid line, his legs are out of control active, and he's making improvements. Baby steps....make that Preemie steps. We know in a lot of ways, the odds are against him as far as this developmental stuff goes, but we are very very hopeful and encouraged by his progress be it ever so slight and slow. We really believe he's gonna walk and run and jump like other boys!

8. I'll save the coolest one for last. Kanyon is growing a mean spike on his head. He is almost COMPLETELY bald all over his head (though I've noticed a tiny bit of fuzz in the last couple of days) except for his scar from his shunt. Right along that c-shaped scar he is growing a long dark patch of hair. Mohawk-side spike dude. Pretty cool. He's a trend setter.

Thanks for reading all of this mommy stuff!