Parker's Promise

Parker is doing awesome! He is sitting really well now.  My favorite way to sit and play with him is I sit with my legs out in front of me, bent and feet touching each other.  Then I place him at my feet facing me.  This gives him a tiny bit of support at his hips, and if needed I can barely touch his knee to stablilize him.  If he tips a bit, my legs are there and he can catch himself and correct.  I like him facing me for several reasons.  I can actually see him and make eye contact while we play. So many times in therapy I hold him while the therapist works and plays with him and I miss all of his facial expressions.  It is amazing to be able to play facing him.  I also like it because he likes to throw himself back into us over and over if he is facing out- just to say hi and make sure we are still there.  I love the hugs and all, but throwing yourself back is not a great skill to encourage.  This way if he goes back he just finds my feet.  It is amazing at how good you get at using your body to hold, support and catch him.

We also just got his awesome corner chair from Hope yesterday, a company through CA Regional Center that provides some therapies and equipment to borrow at home.  It is amazing to have so many wonderful people and resources on your team.  The chair is on the floor, super easy to get him in and out and offers just the right amount of support. You can strap him if needed, but he is sitting here without.  The chair the shape of a corner with a 3 in padded post between his legs. It is heavy enough and high enough to be difficult to tip over.  The tray is not attached, but again heavy enough to not tip over easily. It is pretty cool.  I am excited. :) They will also provide him with one at preschool next year- more on that later.

We got his new gate trainer (walker) a few weeks ago and we readjusted it yesterday.  I am in awe of this thing.  EVERY single part of it is adaptable.  We tweak this, move that, change that angle, or take everything off and turn everything the other direction. It is pretty cool.  I purposely helped the therapist as she changed everything so I could figure it out.  It is pretty cool.

So something HUGE that is new this week is that yesterday he started mimicking.  I shook a maraca, then he shook a maraca.  I shook it, he shook it.  This is HUGE!  Yes, he tried to eat it, but he also shook it- he played with it!!! He also mimicked clapping, hitting a tamborine, and he tried to mimic shaking his head.  It was so funny. He watched me shake my head, turned his head to one side... looked at me again...

In speech, he is beginning to vocalize more sounds and occasionally mimic.  He is particularly good if we pin his left arm so he has to talk instead of sign.  With that- he will consistently sign "more" by either hitting the table or. with prompting, his right hand.  He will also sign "Go!" by lifting and dropping his left arm, and a couple of times he has waved bye bye on que.

He is getting better at drinking. At therapy last week he had six good swallows of water with the "honey bear" cup and straw.  He has lip closure around a straw that we squeeze with minimal leakage.  He also used his lips to pull food off a spoon. He likes to get lefty involved with eating- using his finger to push the food around his mouth instead of using his tongue, or remove half eaten food to drop in the high chair for snacks later, or push food in if it comes out.... which is great and all.... but when we pin his arm or hold it, he uses his tongue, lips and keeps the food in his mouth!

Sweet kid.