When autumn leaves start to fall

My Grandma Beiting makes homemade goetta (it's a Cincinnati German thing). Anyway, I decided to see if Gabe likes it...how could he not?...it's delicious. He took 4 or 5 good bites and then I think he decided he'd rather play with it and get it in his hair. We're playing around with different textures for him. He tried meatloaf and mashed potatoes last week and did pretty well. I made more potatoes for this week. We're also working on regular oatmeal. He starts off doing really well with it, but I think he tires out quick with the thicker texture, so I'm trying not to concentrate on volume. He still doesn't want to drink from a cup. I think he's aversed to thin liquids. But I did get him to drink out of my water bottle and he did great...I don't get it. We are getting good sounds out of Gabe. He's mimicking us with b's and m's. We're also doing lots of sing-a-long songs with hand gestures. He is now consistently putting his hand on his head for "5 Little Monkeys" when they bump their head. We are also working on "Itsy Bitsy Spider". He likes grabbing for my hands when I do the motions. Gabe has recently been putting his 2 thumbs together. We thought that maybe it was "more", but his "more" sign is more obvious with all his fingers involved...this was just the thumbs. We think we figured out tonight that he wants more "itsy bitsy spider" and is signing the spider going up the web. He seemed so excited that we figured it out...at least I think that's it. I'll have to keep trying tomorrow.

Justin and I have been a little discouraged lately with Gabe's gross motor skills....or lack of I should say. He rolls on and off his belly, but not consecutive rolls and he generally hates his belly. He refuses to crawl. He can push from lying to seated and pull from sitting to standing with minimal help. He just isn't mobile at all. He screams with physical therapy to the point where PT says he's acting like we don't make him work...but we do. We work with him alot. True he is our only child and he is not in a daycare environment, but he definitely is not held all day. We let him cry till he calms a little before picking him up. I just don't know what to do. Our year eval with our early intervention team is coming up soon and I'm trying to think of a new way to approach physical therapy. Gabe has been through so much over the past year and I think he's come a long way. It's just hard when other kids his age are running all around him and he doesn't even care if he has to sit there. He doesn't even really lunge for a toy out of reach. He likes kneeling, so I thought we could work on that. He also seems to get less mad in other rooms of the house like his bedroom, the staircase, etc. Maybe we could move around the house more. Also, Gabe loves being outside, so maybe we could do some sessions in the yard. Our OT is having us work on some vestibular sensory things thinking maybe he just is fearful of falling and feeling off balance. We are also putting him in these spandex mermaid pants to help decrease his base of support while sitting and help with rotation. I know it will come, I'm just trying to think more creatively because the hour long screaming sessions are no fun.