Total Serious Happy Thread

[Ghoulish Delight]

Mazel Tov K&S!



We spent the past 4+ days in one of the* smallest cities I've ever spent time in, Alamogordo, NM. Population 35,000 (about 60% of the capacity of Dodger Stadium, to give some perspective), 20 sq. miles. 80 miles from the closest anything.

Fortunately we were there for the sole purpose of spending time with family, CP's brother who is stationed there with the Airforce. And it was a really wonderful few days. Particularly for Theo, who got his first opportunity to spend time playing with older kids that 1) know how to play and 2) were interested in playing with him. We've got a niece, 9, and a newphew, 5. We weren't at their house for more than 30 minutes before Theo had already picked up from them how to play with cars, graduating from picking them up and tossing them to rolling them around on surfaces, crashing them together, rolling them off edges of tables.

The few days of interaction were either incredibly powerful, incredibly well timed, or both, but we've come back from NM with a whole new baby. A short list of Theo upgrades since this time last week:

* touches his head when asked
* can point at exactly what he wants instead of just whining
* a growing set of consistent "words" (not necessarily recognizable to the uninitiated, but consistent repeated sounds for a set of objects like cat, bird, car, head)
* imitation of playing behavior (e.g. cousins stands on bed, then jumps landing on his knees, Theo stands on bed then falls to his knees)
* spontaneously plays hide-and-go-seek (effing ADORABLE!)
* dances to music

Some of these things he was starting to show signs of just before we left, so maybe he would have gotten there without the child interaction. But being there, seeing how rapidly the light turned on for him when he would watch those kids, in a way that he's never done when we've tried playing with him - it was enthralling and exhilarating. This has been a really special week that I won't soon forget.



* I think Big Bear is the only smaller city I've spent time in, which means I can't technically say that Alamogordo is the smallest. But I believe if I expand the concept to county population/density instead of city, Alamogordo's Otero County takes the cake at 64K population, 10 people/sq. mile