Birthday Presents

It's birthday season around here. There are multiple people in Jacob's circle that celebrate birthdays in the spring, including Jacob himself and his parents. There are a cluster of celebrations as April turns to May and another cluster in early June.

And so we celebrate. Lots of things we celebrate.

Little hands that work so hard at fine motor movements and command over his fingers that can now help grandma put candles in a birthday brownie.

Bright eyes watching the magic of candles and learning how to blow them out.

The improved and hard fought for core strength, stability, and balance along with newfound confidence to sit on Dad's shoulders hands free... to feel the sensation of running down a hill at a family picnic with the boys.

There are some birthday presents you might never think to ask for, but trust us ....they are all joy to unwrap.

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Therapy Check-in

Time flies and flies and flies. Jacob is almost 3 (3!). In our world that means we are at a point where his therapy may change. The local programs can provide in home services until children are 5 but at 3 there is the option to move to a school based program. This would be our entry into the world of IEPs. We have a meeting this week with Jacob's 'team' to discuss which option we will take - extend home services another year (called an extended IFSP) or chose the IEP route.

I would be lying if I conveyed that this meeting was well planned and coordinated and that we feel prepared. Not exactly. It is coming together -well- mostly due to a lot of phone calls last week figuring it out and due to the good graces of Jacob's therapists who are providing their updates to the 'team' on short notice (so that we won't be having the mtg with assessments that are six months old) as well as giving us a lot of good advice, as are other parents and friends.

In either scenario, Jacob's therapy continues and he does such a great job - working so hard all the time. Sometimes there are tears and sometimes there are giggles but the progress is clear and when reading reports from just six months ago compared to the updates today it is all the more obvious.

Six months ago stacking three blocks was a goal that we we're working toward and hadn't yet met. Last week he stacked six by himself. And not the big ones, the little ones!

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(stacking the colored cups is a little more fun)

Six months ago we were working on pulling to stand *with* assistance. Now he can pull to stand on his own. Six months ago we were working on standing vertically at a support without leaning. Now not only can he stand without leaning but he can stand vertically with very minimal support while also doing a task!

Like drawing...

Or reaching (up high!) and pulling sticky strings off the wall and throwing them into a bucket...

 

(Elmo helps)

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I'd love to post a video of that last one but it's way too long. That end of the counter was covered and he picked those suckers off one by one like a pro and got every single one in the bucket.

Good good stuff.

 

 

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Therapy. Jacob style.

In the course of your day, if you or someone you know reaches way outside their comfort zone to accomplish something hard.

Jacob would like to demonstrate the appropriate response...

Followed by applause, of course.

And repeat...

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Brilliant Glimpses of an Ornery Toddler

If you plop Jacob somewhere, you can be sure he will be pretty much in the same spot until you move him again.

You may remember the saga of Jacob learning to sit unassisted. He is now a master at sitting unassisted but it requires a big person putting him in a sitting position first. Getting into sitting position? ...well.... that's another story. As is crawling (oh the horror), scooting, rolling or any other lateral movement. He has taken to being vertical but only when someone much bigger than him is holding both hands. So our toddler that doesn't toddle... or can't even sit up by himself, is limited in how much trouble he can get into.

All in his own time, we know.

One day recently, Grandma figured out how to turn Jacob's sitting up practice (we practice a lot) into a game by having him fall into a big fluffy pillow in the right position to then be able to push himself back up correctly only to fall into the pillow again. Over and over. Fun. We have been continuing that game with pillows, then a thickly folded blanket, then a thinly folded blanket.... Oh we are getting so close to pushing off the floor by ourself with this game! But still to date, never without big people around physically prompting or cheering.

Then this morning...

I left our stationary toddler laying down on the living room floor playing with a toy - a living room with an unsuspecting stack of catalogs neatly stacked on an ottoman (well out of reach of his horizontal spot on the floor) while I went down to the basement to deal with laundry.

I came back upstairs to this...

It is no exaggeration to say I almost cried.

Oh baby boy! Bring on the ornery toddler, we are so ready.

 

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Chatting it up....with me, myself and I

Jacob refused to make any noise for his speech therapist today. This is not unusual, unfortunately. He tends to torture her that way.

We're not sure why. She is wonderful and fun and he is enthralled with her when she is here. He watches everything she does intently, pays very close attention - and gives her big smiles and even hugs.... albeit mostly silently. It's really not fair. What she is doing with him is great and is helping him learn how to communicate and to make all kinds of noises. He just seems to save it all up and excercise it when she's not around... and often when no one else is either. I suppose one can't be faulted for chosing a practice audience carefully...

Caught in the act of chatting with the best audience one could find.... (himself!).

VIDEO LINK

 

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One tired pup....

The last post may have mentioned Jacob's therapists were on spring break last week. Spring break lasted through Tuesday this week (don't ask - I can't explain this) and it resulted in the attempt to squeeze in all his therapy yesterday and today. This morning he had OT, PT, *and* Speech. Whew!

Most of which he was very excited about and had a fun time.

Still. Lots of work for a little man all in one morning. And before Em was able to finish feeding him.... well...

 

 

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We are losing our signature look

I was walking down the street wearing glasses when the prescription ran out. - Steven Wright

Jacob had an eye appointment today. After crying through the eye drops that dilate the eyes, and then quickly recovering to be all wound up in the waiting room and entertaining everyone with his antics while we waited for said dilation.... we then ventured in to see the doctor for all the magic measurements that would tell us if his prescription needed any adjustments.

And lo and behold, he doesn't need a prescription at all! The glasses are going in a drawer. The doc even had to do the measurements twice. Eyes do change in little people as they develop but not often that much in ten months. He needed to double check. But yep, no glasses!

This is joyful news for Jacob although it hasn't really sunk in yet. You know, since he has no idea what the doctor said. But he will be *very* happy about not having to pull them off tomorrow.

We did get a caveat from the doc. Eyes still developing. May change again. So this might not be the final answer. But that's ok, we will enjoy having one less thing to worry about for now.

The sad news is he will be losing his signature look. He will have to up his game to pull off the same charm without the specs.

He might be up to the challenge.

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More big news for the day. BIG news. Mr. I-refuse-to-crawl-or-do-anything-that-might-resemble-progress-toward-crawling.... stayed on all fours for two whole minutes with the OT today!

Go Jacob Go!

 

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Cheers to Brutal Honesty

Jacob had an evaluation last week. One of those evaluations that helps determine what services he qualifies for. Maryland has a great home support program and so far we've had good experiences with his PT and OT. Now that he's getting older we are all venturing into speech/language territory (and yes, it's looking like Jacob's parents are going to have to learn sign so Jacob can learn sign but that's another blog post).

Anyway. On the surface these evaluations are quite simple. Government forms... lots of questions. Friendly special educators acknowledging answers with the appropriate Mm-hm. Occasionally asking Jacob to perform some task, etc. Under the surface they are a little painful. Parents aren't often put in the position of needing to be brutally honest about what their child can, or more importantly - cannot - do. See....the optimistic-parent-who-thinks-this-child's-skills-are-amazing spin on his capabilities does not score another therapist coming to your house. Being brutally honest about said capabilities, or lack thereof, does. So honest, Mom was. And score a home speech therapist, we did. So there.


The list of questions also was a reminder (for me) of some things we are supposed to be practicing. Stacking blocks is on that list and we haven't worked on that for awhile. So we tried some practice this weekend.

Jacob loved it. Not exactly.

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Lucky for Jacob, just about the time the block stacking became really intolerable.... the mailman came! And even luckier... she had a package for Jacob!

On initial inspection, that box contained a note on a piece of paper (PAPER!) which Jacob *thought* was the best part of the package.

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Little did he know what other treasures were inside....

W.O.W.

So many thanks to our friend who sent the treasures! Jacob loves them and will surely share with cousin Jonah... they are both going to have a great time with all the pop ups!

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Baby in a Box

Jacob's physical therapist is always coming up with fun things to do during therapy that Jacob loves and most of the time doesn't even realize she is making him work at the same time. Brilliant therapist (she's done this a few times before).

The latest bit of therapy work/play is Jacob in a box. How is this therapy? Well... in addition to giving him some confidence about sitting up by himself and reinforcing spacial/sensory what-not (the hard boundary of the box).... when the therapist (or mom or dad) zoom him all over the house (riding in said box) or tip the box way over side to side, he has to constantly adjust his balance and work to keep himself upright...which he does pretty well. Lots of work. He thinks it's a blast.

Also. The flaps on the box are pretty fun too.

 

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ps... apologies for the lack of action (zooming around the house) shots, it's a lot of action and hard to catch.

 

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Head's Up!

This week Jacob suddenly (seemingly overnight) is starting to see things from a whole new perspective. 

Getting that noggin off the floor is big stuff.... and a long time coming...  go baby go!

And the view of those old familiar toys from a vertical position...  crazy cool. 

Happy Friday !