Therapy Works

I intended to write a post nearly 2 months ago when Row actually became a TWO year old. Now I'm finally getting around to it, which is not really so bad because he's got even more amazing things to brag about.





Row is currently logging 4 hours of dedicated Therapy per week: 2 of Physical Therapy, 1 of Occupational Therapy, and 1 of Speech Therapy. Most of his sessions happen at our house, but occasionally we go elsewhere (a park, the library, or even his PT's house), and his performance tends to improve in the different environments. He's starting to really sass it up and go full-toddler when he's working at home: more meltdowns, less productive work. On top of all his therapy he's also just started attending SCHOOOOOOOOL! His speech therapist, along with another Speech Pathologist, runs a speech preschool a few days a week. There are 8 children total, all of whom have some degree of speech delay. Row now goes there on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:30-10:30, and is having a blast! He's enjoying the new environment, fun new toys and tools, and little friends, and most of all, from being away from me. He's hitting that age where seeing Mommy means melting into a little baby, but being with a teacher figure makes him remember that he's a big boy. So far he's doing a really great job for his teachers and he's sad to go home with me afterward.

His communication has improved so massively in the last few months. Although he still isn't saying any words that a stranger would recognize, he does have a few consistent words of his own creation and countless words that he understands form us. He's also using so many facial and gestural cues to make himself clear. He asks for Mama ("Ah-Hah") and his toy turtle ("urh-urh")---although he has started flinging "turtle" around to mean all of his little plastic animal toys....so meh. He can tell you what an Elephant says, and he knows a book when he sees one ("-uk"). He can really takes instruction from us well; the vocabulary that he understands is now too much for us to even begin to make a comprehensive list. He can basically grasp anything at this point.



When he is dissatisfied with a game we're playing or something he's being offered, he just flees. He turns tail a wriggles away. This first started with his friend Avie; as she began to get mobile and a little rough with her Rowie-love, he began just "running" away, rather than deal with her. It was funny at first, but now that he's using it against us, it's a bit more, um, un-cute. Many times he'll just wriggle off to his room and be by himself. I suppose he's practicing for the teenage years, when no on will understand him.





Remember when I was sooooooo happy about Row's adoration of my singing? Yeah, I totally created a monster. He now goes through phases where he only wants ONE song. The song itself changes from month to month, but when one song is in favor, it is the only one allowed. At the moment he has chosen The Man that Got Away...so I've got to whip that out ALL THE TIME...luckily it's an amazing song, unfortunately it wears me out. So yeah, I've instilled in him a love for great music, but I've also somehow turned myself into a Mommy Jukebox with and endless supply of nickels. Even his musical toys are getting run ragged. He'll often have up to three singing toys going at once. He'll start one, then the next and and the next and just keep cycling around until I feel I've gone thoroughly mad.

He has been doing some really great work with his standing and walking; he'd be doing even better if he could unsassify himself and stop fighting the process so much. His balance and strength are so much farther along than he likes to admit. His therapy sessions get pretty loud (he's a soprano belter at the moment), but his form and stamina are steadily improving. Motivation is absolutely the key with Rowie (an, ya know, all children). Now that he is finally interested in pulling up and reaching things (like dear old mom and dad...and their dinners), he is frequently trying to get up and when conditions are right can do so without any help at all. He still doesn't like to stand straight up and control his trunk or bear all of his weight through his legs, instead he leans on the couch, or whatever he's pulling up on, which is fair, no sense doing more work than needed, I suppose. When forced to walk sometimes he instigates each step and is really interested in getting somewhere, and other times he just melts and forgets he has legs at all. He's done really well using his Upsee with Daddy (pictured above) it's a great device that allows us to determine how much of his own weight he's responsible for while walking and it gets him up and interested in the walking progress. He likes to be in it and dictate where they walk. He loooooves the POWER!

We get so many kisses and snuggles lately that we're nearly swimming in slobber. When Row is proud of something he's done, or we praise him loudly, he grins his cheezer grin and leans up to us for a kiss, even if we're across the room. It's super adorable and hilarious. We love tickle fights and just looking at each other and laughing. For every wicked toddler meltdown we get we also get some super fun sweetness, so I guess it all evens out.

Eating has finally become more "interesting". He used to eat absolutely anything, but now we're seeing more power struggles (very age-appropriate). He'll love something one day, hate it the next. Lots of turned up noses and tossed spoons around my house. Luckily there are always cheerios. I've never seen him say no to a cheerio. So as long as long as General Mills keeps cranking out those little life saving O's then I know Row won't starve. Annoyingly, he knows from whence Cheerios come, so whenever he hears the pantry door open he lets out a whiny squeak which translates roughly to: "I know there are freakin Cheerios in there, and if you love me at all then you will get me that whole box...or else why are you even opening that door? The door to the Cheerio closet."

His right arm is still very much a limp appendage that he cannot use deliberately, but his awareness of it's presence has increased significantly. He often grabs it with his left and and fiddles with it. When forced, in therapy times, he can use his right arm to press big buttons on toys, or turn pages in board books, by shifting his weight and moving his chest forward and back while we help hold his right arm in position while restraining his sneaky, eager left arm. It's going to be a long process but he's doing well.

Row is really loving the chance to make choices. Everyday we let him pick the shirt he'll wear and then his jammies at night. We hold up two options, he considers them both, back and forth, back and forth, then he grins at me and grabs one, then joyfully helps me get it onto him. He's loving his little accesses to power. He's also becoming more aware of routines. If we get his medicine and teeth done at night then change his diaper and put his jammies on but then DON'T put him into bed, he gets upset. He knows the bedtime order of operations and doesn't care for us screwing it up.

He's a (mostly) jolly and cheerful little man lately, though he is becoming increasingly aware of the power he holds over us and his world, and he is starting to take advantage of his position. He is very much a two year old now. I often feel frustrated with myself because it always feels like we should be doing more: more exercises, more quality educational things, more cleaning the house, more snuggling, more baths, more...everything, but then another day has passed without much tangible evidence that I've done anything worthwhile. So it's important for me to periodically tally up Row's abilities and achievements to see that we are, in fact, progressing, even if it feels, at times, that we're merely spinning our wheels. We are experiencing the same things all toddler parents do, and that, in itself, is incredible. We once wondered if our son would be "normal" in any way, so when we are pulling our hair out over a food-based power struggle or a tantrum two year old meltdown, we know that he's normal, and that we're fine. Like all parents we will take each day's challenges and joys in our stride and keep on keepin' on.