Friday, September 9, 2011

My Blossoming Boy!

This summer seems like it has flew bye....oh wait, it did! But regardless of how fast or busy it has been it has also been a great one! Christian has gained  5 pounds since around May , no exaggeration! Thanks to all the bolonga, hot dogs, cheese cake and milkshakes he has out grown his 12-24 months clothes (which he has worn for the last 2 years) and can now wear 3t and some 4t's. His failure to gain weight has always been a concern with all his Doc's, but not anymore.

His vocabulary has improved dramatically. His new words consist of;
"Sissy" to compare "ti-ti"
"Sam" one of our cats name's
"sou-side" for outside
"yes"--even though he rarely says it and with a lisp
"ow"
"hat"
"woah"
 *he can now say about 30 words, consistently*

He is still signing a lot. He is putting two or three words together on his own! I am not having to prompt him to make a phrase/short sentence. I haven't been using a lot of signing at home because I want him to SPEAK but we do use it in loud places still, so we don't have to repeat ourselves over and over or yell to communicate with him (we can't all be on his good side). Some of his combines words include;
-color-book
-read book
-more-drink-please
-please-mama
-finished-mama
-jump more please, mama (with jumping ball)

Anyone who really knows him, knows he loves books and could care less about toys. But he stumbled across his first Mr. Potato Head back in May and is now obsessed with it. Anytime he sees one out somewhere he thinks he has to have one, even if he already has one exactly like it. I must say though Mr. Potato Head has been a great tool to use for identifying and saying body parts.  Every time I put it together for him I label the body part-he repeats back what I say (hat and eyes are the only two he repeats perfect)-then he has to show me where his "eyes, nose, mouth, etc parts are. He can identify 7/7 of them correctly to compare just 2/7 a couple of months ago!

He went for his routine hearing test back in July. It was a typical visit-screaming, kicking, crying during the whole evaluation. The Audiologists didn't get enough information from the part of the test that measures his middle-ear function, for the second time in a roll. If they don't get it on his appointment this December they want him to have a sedated ABR to get all the information they need. However, he did give enough feed back in the booth during the actual hearing test and his left ear is still in the normal range.

He can identify all the characters on Spongebob and Toy Story. This amazes me...not because I think he isn't capable of learning. But because he is constantly jumping,bouncing, humming or just simply on the move the whole time he watches either one of these and it just shows he pays more attention to what is going on then what I realize.

He is only drinking from a bottle at nap time and bed time. Using cups with straws are most successful. We are in the process of potty training. This issue is no different than any other...he is being as stubborn as possible about it. But he knows when he has an "eww" (as he calls it) or is wet.

He did well with speech therapy during the summer with a different therapist in a different school. He even did well when my grandmother took him on the days I couldn't because of my own schooling. He didn't do any occupation therapy over the summer because there wasn't enough room to place him. But he kept me busy at home bouncing on his ball and swinging which are his two favorite things.

Lastly, he started back to preschool a few weeks ago. Although he was happy to be back, he was upset the first few days when I left him. He is now back into the swing of things and doing really well. He is following the routine's really well and doing as the other kids do. He is even riding the bus from school 3 days a week and he loves it! I still take him and his sister every morning because of bus schedule conflicts. He loves to play  on the computer at school. Even wearing the headphones on his ears to listen to the sounds, something that he will not typically do at home or for his hearing evaluations. We are continuing to work hard with him so his development and speech will continue to improve. I really hope to hit some big milestone's by his 4th birthday, which is less than 3 months away.

Thanks to everyone who has been asking how things are going with him. As you can read and see he is doing great.

First bus ride home.