Accomplishments and Updates

This past Thursday Annabel was fitted with another cast for her constraint therapy, this time her thumb will be cut out so it'll be easier for getting her clothes on and off, we will get the new cast on Tuesday. She has been doing so well with pulling up to a tall kneel to play and many times pulling almost all the way to a standing position. When we do get her up standing she can hold it for quite awhile now, we see her getting stronger and more confident daily, it is such an awesome thing to see! She had a great hippotherapy session today - sitting well, talking, focusing on the activies, her therapist was very proud of her! For Christmas she gave her a snow globe with pictures on the inside of the two horses she rides, Tess and Bobby, it is so cute!

Johnathan had speech on Thursday and made me his first real craft project, a Christmas ornamented with different foam objects. The therapist had him pick one of two items each time to put on and said either the word or at least the sound for it, I was so excited to receive it! Johnathan's fine motor skills continue to amaze me, especially given his hearing and vision losses. He can examine the finest details of things and figure out how things work. That and he has a great memory, sometimes I can't believe the things he picks up on! He is a stubborn little dude and is constantly testing us these days but he can be so lovable too, he is such a little charmer! He is starting to tell us when he's gone poo-poo too so I think it's time to get him going on the potty with Mady. How exciting that will be to have 2 potty-trained!

Madelyn's PT session went great on Thursday, she is almost accomplishing all of her goals (running and jumping) so when her current sessions run out the end of January we are planning on discharging her until summer when she will be re-evaluated and just let her continue developing in the meantime, only receiving extra therapy from Early On. Mady has really been accelling lately in so many areas. With assistance she can count to ten, is saying almost all of the A,B,C's, and she can now say her first and last name, her age, and where she lives. She tries to repeat almost every word we say and she is consistently using 3-4 word sentences. Both her and Johnathan are finally asking for help when they need it, which is SO much nicer than whining!

Johnathan had his low vision doctor appointment Friday morning and the appointment was very encouraging! The do not believe he has much peripheral vision loss at all, which is great news! Given how he is currently responding it appears that his vision loss shouldn't be too detrimental and that he should be able to do drive someday. He may or may not be limited with participating in contact sports due to the fragility of his retina but only time will tell. The doctor did show me some of equipment that is available if he were to need it in the future for magnifying objects, etc. but at this time it does not appear he will need it. She did say that he should be an excellent candidate for contacts, we could fit him at any time but at this point will probably wait until he can put them in and out himself. Although there currently isn't a laser correction available for him, the contacts were enable him to have better accuity than glasses will.

After the low vision appointment Johnathan had his follow-up with pulmonary. I am always stressed about this appointment because they have been on my case many times about his weight gain, to my pleasant surprise this was actually a positive appointment! They informed me that he is gaining in the average range for grams/day and is now following his own growth curve so at this time we are doing a great job and nothing needs to change! Music to my ears! They even commented on him having a belly, woo-hoo! Follow-up plan is to do one more lung function test in 3-4 months before he turns 3 and then they won't be able to "test" his lung function again until he's around the age of 5 when he can follow the commands to use the other equipment. So overall it was a great day for Johnathan regarding appointments!