Lucas Camilo

Lucas continues to develop obsessions (sometimes fleeting) with favorite books, songs, and animals, but lately with a new twist.  Whether enjoying the “penguin book” or “monkey song” or plastic “fishies,” he prefers to have his head in the middle.  Some of you may remember there was a time we’d put these pillow head supports by each of his ears to help him hold his head midline so he could lie in bed looking up, entranced by his mobiles.  But that phase ended eons ago.  For more than a year he’s mostly refused to have his head in the middle when he’s lying down, which he indicates by grunting indignantly and pulling frantically at any pillow or towel we use to prop up his head.

His physical therapists have worked at getting him to try to balance his head on his own (without props) and look straight up, and until November his record was about 25 seconds.  In those instances, they would hold something up in the air that he definitely wanted to see, but he just didn’t have the neck strength to pull it off for very long.

And then all of a sudden, he went from a few seconds to a few minutes.  By mid-December, Lucas could hold his head in the middle — and hold toys or books overhead with both hands — for 15 minutes.  And then 20.  And now we’ve stopped timing him, as he asks us to move his head from the side to the middle for him (he can’t lift it himself) dozens of times a day.

It’s an exciting step on many levels.  It’s nice that he likes to stay in a position where he can see more in the room or yard around him when he’s lying down.  It’s fun for him to use two hands to read books to himself (and hilarious for us to watch).  And perhaps most significantly, it’s great to be reminded that growth and change often happen in astounding quantum leaps.

The other night we couldn’t help but laugh as we lay in bed forever hoping Lucas would fall back asleep, the occasional chant of “middle, middle, middle!” punctuating our quiet bedroom.   Now, we should mention that we’re often sheepish when other parents ask us if Lucas sleeps well — as if the fact that he’s a good sleeper makes our lives so much easier than theirs.  But it’s true.  Lucas regularly sleeps through the night for 10-11 hours, and he usually takes a nearly 2 hour nap in the middle of the day.  Often he’ll wake up and moan or hum a little in the middle of the night, and sometimes he wakes up more than that and makes a few half-hearted attempts at convincing his Daddy to play with him at 3 am.

But on Thursday, Lucas was up nearly two hours in the middle of the night.  Wide Awake.  We didn’t have a nurse, so he was lying in the crib that’s about 6 feet from our bed.  And he was chanting loudly, “Light on!… star lamp on!… elephant song!… penguin book!… middle… MIDDLE!”  Usually when he wakes up at around 8 he points to the two lamps near his bed and tells us to turn each of them on.  Then he asks for one of his favorite songs or books.  And then he tells us he wants his head in the middle.  Needless to say, its even more charming when you’ve had a full night of sleep…

Speaking of major leaps – we have a plane ticket for our move to Seattle!  We’ll be flying on a non-stop flight March 13.  We’re thrilled, sad, scared and anxious as we go about the mundane business of figuring out how to get us and all our stuff to Seattle.  But come March 13 we will definitely needing all your thoughts, prayers and visualizations for a quick, easy cross-country flight.