He amazes us everyday

It just keeps getting better. In the course of two months, Truman has gone from barely any words at all to naming things all around to speaking in two-word phrases on a regular basis. He has even popped out with a few even longer phrases, including:

"Help hit ball, OK."

"Chair sit here, Baba."

"Cool air on" (a demand he makes every time he gets in a hot car)

"Dagum home. Ba-pah home. E-o home." (meaning Grandmommy, Papa Perry, and cousin Leo are at their house. I think he thinks his cousin, Leo, lives with my parents because that's where he always sees him. We have no idea why "Dagum" means grandmother, but it has for some time now)

His articulation is still very hard to understand on most words unless you are around him all the time. We're even confused on some of it. We think he'll probably still need lots of help for years to come, but he's finally making progress. It feels so good to finally believe he will get there someday.

Eating is also improving. He still hasn't made much progress on what he can eat, but is definitely vomiting less often. And every once in a while, he'll eat like a regular toddler. In fact, two nights ago, he had 3/4 of a slice of cheese pizza and drank a couple of ounces of milk out of a straw for the first time with any success. The improvements are enough that we are lot more willing to give him things to try because not only does he take the occassional bite and keep it down, he is still willing to eat some purees afterward to get the actual food volume he needs into him. I guess part of it is that when he vomited multiple times a day and just keeping enough calories in him to sustain him was a huge struggle, we weren't willing to risk as many difficult foods for fear he lost the hard-fought meals we did get into him. Now, even if we think he might vomit from a particular texture, we're more willing to risk it because we know more of the other meals will stay down.

The photos above are from our trip in June to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, including one where the pilot gave him free rein in the cock pit during a layover.

Life is good.