Thank you for all your thoughts on constipation! (never thought I'd say that, did you?) Iliya and I took a trip to the grocery store, yesterday, in search of some plum juice and/or prunes. We found both. I haven't tried getting him to eat a prune yet, because - frankly, I can't touch the things. I'm not a fan of dried fruit - it's a texture issue - so we did the next best thing and broke open the plum juice (which, by the way, touted its wonder in digestive health right on the label!).

I watered it down a little bit...and Iliya drank it like a champ!

Ten minutes later? A wonderful,easy poop! (never thought I'd say that either)

They're not kidding when they say that plums/prunes are good for the digestive tract! Fast acting, too!

Same thing happened today. We ran a ton of errands this morning, and I (wisely) waited to give him his plum juice until we were about 8 minutes from home. Notice I said "wisely." Yep, I will shout it from the mountaintops. Plum juice worked for us!!

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In other news, Iliya has finally mastered the sign for "more." We've been working on it, albeit not very consistently...and he's used it a time or two on his own. This morning, though, at breakfast, I asked for the sign...and he produced it! Not once or twice, but over & over! In between bites, he would try whining/grunting and then screeching...when neither of those produced food in his mouth, he would revert to the sign. And then he just used the sign without being preceeded by the whining or screeching.

Ahhhh....it's such a small accomplishment. But a big one at the same time!

Our morning errands fell right in the middle of snacktime, so I had brought along some crackers. Iliya was in his stroller, and I pulled a few crackers out of his bag (he didn't see me do this) and handed him one. When he was done with it, he looked up at me and signed "more." Yep, he knows what it means.

In the car, on the way home, he threw previously-said plum juice down. There was no way for me to get it for him (and I wouldn't have, immediately, anyway). I happened to look in the rear-view mirror, to catch him looking down, signing "more." Isn't that called accomodation? He's accomodating the "more" sign for more than just his oatmeal in the morning.

Cool.

Here's a video to show you. It's not great quality, but it's a video nonetheless. And please, pretty please, ignore my talking. I hate the way I sound on video!

(by the way: The best way to view this video is to let it start playing, and then hit pause. You will notice a red line beginning to form beside the play button. This red line means that the video is loading. Once the line is complete, then play the video. That way, you can watch it without it being too choppy)



Now, in case you're wondering. Yes, Iliya usually feeds himself. And we are always the ones to give him the food (no one else provides food for him yet); we want him to learn a certain level of independence while still depending on us. But we use breakfast as the "bonding" meal where we feed him. We may stop this soon, but for now...it's really a nice bonding time for us.

So there you have it. Plum juice and the sign for "more." It just doesn't get any better than that!