Yes, we’re still alive here at Casa Farkas. I’ve just been so busy with travel, the end of the semester at both of my jobs (which means lots of paper and project grading for the class I teach) and just having fun with my two favorite guys!
Very happy birthday boy!
Reed celebrated his birthday in Chicago. We spent almost a week there, visiting with his Nonna and Poppop, his aunt Riki and his cousins Maddy and Max. Reed had a lot of fun with all of them, though the trip was marred by a nasty ear infection that made him pretty crabby most of the time. One highlight from the trip was when Reed met a dog (a Labrador retriever) up close and got licked on his face. 
Reed got an obscene number of new toys for his birthday, so he’s been in hog heaven ever since.
The week after we got home from Chicago, Reed suddenly must have gotten it into his head that he wanted walking to be his primary mode of transportation. Within the course of three days, he went from walking maybe 10 steps before falling down to walking pretty much everywhere. At this point, Reed almost never crawls anymore, and though he still falls down from time to time, he can pick himself up and start walking again. It’s really cool to watch! He’s also said some more words since “dog.” He’s said “yeah”, “no”, “up”, “apple”, “bye bye”, “uh oh”, and some other things that I’m not remembering right now (note to self: write this stuff down when he does it!). He’s also eating a huge variety of foods now. He’s doing really well with feeding himself finger foods and even eats things like smoked salmon and zucchini, which I wouldn’t have touched with a 10-foot pole at that age. His favorites right now seem to be cream cheese sandwiches, grilled cheese, bananas, applesauce, sweet potatoes, and peanut butter on Ritz crackers. It’s fun to be able to have him eat the same dinner as us many nights and to share things with him. Tonight, we ate a peach together!
Towards the end of this month, Reed is finally going to have to get surgery on his ears. He had another ear infection and has had a lot of fluid
Future President
behind his ears pretty much continuously for months on end. It’s made him uncomfortable and irritable at times and has impacted his balance and probably his hearing. It’s difficult to know how much his hearing is impacted, but it’s likely that not dealing with this now could lead to speech delays. It’s an amazingly quick procedure (it’s done in minutes) and is very routine, but I’m still nervous about it. He has to go under general anesthesia, so anything with that is a pretty big deal. I’ll be very glad when it’s over.
Other than his ears, Reed has been doing great. He laughs all the time and loves to play. He even makes up games — his favorite is this funny version of hide-and-seek involving him closing the door to a room and Adam and me hiding somewhere before he opens it again. He’s starting to have some “toddler moments” where he gets obstinate or cries when we don’t let him do something he wants to do, but we’re determined not to give in to that stuff and he usually gives up pretty quickly. He’s really grown up a lot over just the past few weeks and every day he manages to do something new that makes me even more proud of him.
Tomorrow, we’re visiting Shelburne Farm to see the sheep, cows, chickens and more. Should be fun!
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