On the 17th we went to Niah and Larkins b-day party, with the theme Fancy Nancy. Due to their being mostly girls there and my son being very curious about what everyone else was doing, I was able to snap a picture of him dressing up too! I am sure there will be many moments like this given that he has 2 sisters and is one of a few boys in our neighborhood. The party was fun, it was great to see how much our kids have developed since a year ago, Mady and Johnathan were able to keep right up with all of the other kids and Annabel held her own cruising around on her bottom and pulling up to stand/cruise along furniture.
Last week Annabel had PM&R. Dr. Hornyak is very happy with her development and said to keep up the great work! He wrote her a script to participate in the CHAMPs program (will be either August or September) that she did a couple years ago. She has been doing so well with her left hand when we wrap her right, purposefully swatting at toys to make them go! Overall her left hand has been much looser and open more often. I can’t wait to see what the program does for her this time! I have always had Botox in the back of mind as an option for Annabel if needed (but didn’t want to do unless we weren’t getting results thru conventional methods) and asked Dr. Hornyak about it. He said that she definitely does not need it at this time, that he wouldn’t consider her spastic, what a relief!! We also discussed her episodes that were questionable seizures and he agreed that at this time there is no need to put her on seizure methods as the episodes are not frequent and we’re not even sure that they are seizures.
Last Tuesday Dr. Madison called me that Annabel’s bloodwork came back normal except that her pocketed, or stored, iron was low. If this was not built back up she could eventually become anemic. I asked her if this might help with some of her oral issues and she said it very well could. I am happy to say that we started her on the iron and it appears that it may have helped, yeah! Now we just need to get her going #2 again as it apparently has constipated her a bit which I think is now leading to her gagging/spitting up, without even sticking anything in her mouth. Aggh!!! It’s always something around here. I have noticed that she is chewing on her fingers quite a bit so maybe her back molars are finally coming thru as well, causing discomfort and she has grown in height again, she ‘s starting to tower over the other 2 which generally causes her to gag some too.
Last Thursday the kids’ had their usual therapies at DMC and then Johnathan had OT (next Tuesday we’ll be starting him in a weekly PT session for awhile to work on a few core strength things that will then help with his OT), followed by swim lessons for Mady and Johnathan. After the previous week’s session when Mady (for the 3rd week) wouldn’t do anything in the pool with the instructor except call out for mommy, I decided that I would get in too and that we’d do both kids at once. So, in I went and it worked great! Both kids did all of the swimming requirements (kicking, reach and pull, blastoffs, floating, and attempts at blowing bubbles) and were quite the little fishies! By the end Mady was fine being with the instructor and I was with Johnathan so hopefully it won’t be too long before we can go back to individual sessions and I won’t have to get in anymore.
The kids have done some amazing developing again. Johnathan and Mady amaze us with their speech development - Johnathan is now saying more 3 word and some 4 word sentences and Mady sounds like a little grown-up quite often, it is amazing the things she picks up on and repeats, and in appropriate situations. Mady officially started counting to 10 this week (ok, she gets caught up on 5 sometimes but overall is counting correctly)!! Both kids have also gotten a lot stronger physically, climbing up and down the stairs holding the railing and Mady’s jumping is getting more on par with her peers. Johnathan is behind her in jumping but is starting to pick up on it. The two have started to take off with imaginative play, I love just sitting back and watching them!
Annabel’s speech also continues to take off. She has added “ugh for up, more, all done, mm for milk and hi xxx such as hi dada” to her vocabulary. She clearly understands up and down and she can now tap her head when we ask her where her head is. She is starting to play more with toys now that she is in a good upright position. I love watching her explore and learn new things, a whole new world is opening up for her again! She continues to do a great job working on her walking, once she realizes that she can walk halfway across the room on her own with minimal support from either us or a Kaye walker she will be motivated to really go! This afternoon she walked a good 5 feet alongside one of our cabinets, holding on with her right hand and stepping “normally” with BOTH feet! After dinner she went to the tv stand and started walking again, back and forth, making it look so EASY!! She has been much better at walking with us holding her, she used to resist this but now is proud of herself and loves it! I am so proud of her and all of her accomplishments, she is so much further developmentally right now than the doctors ever thought she’d be, just wait another year or two!!
These are some random pics of the kids. The girls are in a Children’s Place outfit (my fav store for them) that Iove, Johnathan napping on couch (napped with mommy for a long time until girls woke up – love holding them like that!), Mady’s 1st major owie, and Mady loving chippies.
We took the kids to get new tennis shoes over the weekend, I can’t believe how fast their feet have grown! Annabel and Johnathan are now size 7’s and Mady is a 7.5. Yikes!
As an update, this is our current usual therapies every week (yes, we are busy!):
Sunday – freeMonday – free (other than when they participate in SMILE, they just started their last 4 week session)Tuesday – Annabel has aqua therapy & Johnathan has PTWednesday – Annabel has speechThursday – Annabel has OT while Mady has PT while Johnathan has speech, Johnathan then has OT, then Mady and Johnathan have swim lessonsFriday – Early On Saturday – Annabel has PTJohnathan has his speech consultant occasionally and once a month Johnathan and Annabel have the low vision consultant.
This past Tuesday (4/20) B.J. and I had a much needed date night. GM has a place called the Heritage House where they house past models/concept cars and it is only open to employees and families periodically. I had never been but had always wanted to go so we went and it was definitely worth it. There were some legend vehicles there, some of them quite sharp.
This Sunday is our March for Babies walk. Thank you so much to all who donated to such a great cause! It means so much to us!! Now pray for good weather!
1 comment:
Not sure if this will work for your little one, but I put a half container of "prunes and apples" baby food in my sons oatmeal each morning. It helps sweeten the oatmeal and keeps him very regular. Hope this helps.
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