Jaxson had an appointment this morning with his OT from Help Me Grow, whom we absolutely love. Today was her last visit because she's moving to Arizona, and I think Jaxson knew something was up because he showed off big time!
Two weeks ago when Mary Helen was here, she had written down that Jaxson was scooting backwards and only crawling about 6 steps when motivated. He was sitting on his own and able to play with his keys while sitting. He wasn't making any words or trying that hard, he wasn't eating well from the spoon and he still wasn't sleeping well. Mind you, Jaxson had spine surgery on March 29 and was restricted on what activity he was allowed to do, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. But he was able to do the signs for mommy and daddy and he could wave. He was not able to catch himself if he fell over while sitting, and when he leaned to one side while on his belly, his arm was almost fully extended.
Fast forward to today. Jaxson is up to a half-jar of baby food per day, mixed with rice. He crawls all over the place without hesitation. He has some issues with his legs getting stuck under him when he leans to the side, but most of the time he can work it out on his own. When he does lean to the side, he's almost in a sitting position and he can hold a toy and chew on it while he's leaned over. He not only does the sign for mommy, but says "mama" quite clearly. Sometimes you can understand him saying hi or yay, but there are no consonant sounds, just the vowels. But he's doing very well with his language and now we're working on the signs for more and milk. He now sleeps much better than he ever has. He still wakes up most nights, but it's pretty easy to get him to go back down so it's much more tolerable. He catches himself if he loses his balance while sitting. He can pick up a toy (heavier than his keys) and hold it with one hand while playing with it with the other. He can stand holding onto his exersaucer for a few seconds. He can't pull himself up, but he will stand there and hang on while playing if we sit behind him. The biggest development actually occurred while Mary Helen was here: Jaxson went from crawling to sitting five times! Prior to today, he was unable to do that, and he would get mad when he wanted to sit and couldn't do it alone.
It was such a joy to see how excited Mary Helen was over Jaxson's progress. He has improved leaps and bounds over the last two weeks alone, and he's only getting better. I know it won't be long before he's caught up to his cousin and running all over the place! The next step is to get a ball for him to lay on and work on catching himself in all directions. Also we are to work on clapping and tapping toys together. He's so close as it is, it won't take much work to get him there. He just needs to get that core strengthened so he can balance comfortably without thinking he needs a free hand. That means more time on the floor playing with Jeffrey and Buckeye, harassing them both to no end. They both love it though! Now if we could just get him to keep his hearing aids in his ears and out of his mouth...
--"Life is not the way it's supposed to be, it is the way it is. It's how you cope with it that makes the difference."
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