Walking, Talking, and Eating

Joshua is showing some more progress lately in his gross motor skills. He is now walking while holding our hands. Before, every time we grabbed hold of his hands and tried to get him to stand and walk he would let his feet go like he wanted us to pick him up. Now he is bearing weight on his legs and walking while we hold his hands. One of my friends suggested putting a hula hoop around him to hold while we guide it around the room for him to walk. I'm going to pick one up on my next trip to Wal-Mart.

Joshua is also saying new words and seems to understand a great deal. The other day Joshua was fussing after a nap. I tried all sorts of things to settle him down and nothing worked. I finally asked him if he was hungry and wanted a snack. Joshua immediately calmed down. I then asked him if he wanted a cracker and he replied, "Yeah". That was exactly what he wanted too!

This morning when I brought Joshua into our bedroom to see Darrin and Rebekah he went straight to his daddy on the bed. Darrin told him to say "Good Morning" to Rebekah, and Joshua said, "Good More". Just this evening he has also said 'tractor' and 'dog'. It's amazing to us what he is learning and saying!

Joshua has also decided to start eating with a fork by himself. Well, we stab the food with the fork and he is feeding himself.



Rebekah didn't want to be left out. She took a really big bite!

Minor Milestones

Joshua's naps are changing. He has been transitioned from two naps to one, and it generally falls right in the middle of the day. This makes PT days hard because he gets only about 30 minutes of a nap after lunch in the car on the way to PT, and once he gets frustrated it is hard to get him back to playing and working again. His limit is about 45 minutes of PT and then we have to stop.

Rebekah just started summer preschool yesterday, so we moved Joshua's PT to Tuesday mornings after I drop Rebekah off at preschool. This is working so much better! Joshua is still pretty fresh, so when he does get frustrated he will come back to playing and working again.

At one point he wanted to comfort nurse, so Mrs. Amanda took him out of the room for a little walk in the hall. She got him calmed down by taking him into the OT (Occupational Therapy) room with a large mirror. I stayed out of the room while Amanda worked with him. He did really great for her while I stayed out of sight, but fussed when he saw me, so I kept my distance and watched when he couldn't see me. I returned for the last few minutes of his session so she could show me what he can do and what to work on this week. Joshua took a couple steps while she held his waist! Also, she had him play with bubbles and got him to hold onto a bench with one hand and completely turn his body to reach for the bubbles behind him. I have been so amazed at all the little milestones and steps that a child must reach between the major milestones. I never knew there was so much involved until Joshua started PT, but with each minor milestone I celebrate. And on top of that, he spent nearly a whole hour in PT. I'm so proud of Joshua's progress! Now I just need to get his little push/ride-on car out of the basement again.

Way to go, Joshua!

Today Joshua had both Feeding/Speech and Physical Therapy. Part of me thought the feeding appointment might not be necessary, but I wanted the speech therapist to determine whether we needed to meet or not since she is the expert. Joshua ate as long as it was food he was familiar with and that which he wanted to eat. He shooed some food away, but he ate enough so that the therapist could see what was going on. Since 2 months ago when she first evaluated him he has gone from a 7-9 month level to a 12-14 month level. He has made amazing progress over the last 2-3 weeks in particular. Mary Jane gave me a list of recommended foods, servings sizes, and other tips and ideas to guide me in feeding him over the next month until we meet with her again. Joshua pushes stage 3 foods away a lot because he wants table food now. He enjoys self-feeding more, so it looks like the baby food days are nearly over.

Following the Speech Therapy we met with Amanda for Physical Therapy. Amanda had to step out of the room for a minute, so I set the larger tractor on the padded table, turned on the motor, and let it drive across the table. Joshua immediately started cruising after it. Once the tractor reached the end of the table I turned it around to go back to the other end, and Joshua continued to follow it while on his feet. He took about 4-5 steps each way, which was more than he has done at home. He spent a great deal of time on his feet playing, cruising, and even walking behind a push toy in PT. He is not confident enough to stand in mid-air yet, but he's doing really well with his cruising.

Joshua likes to play with tractors a lot in PT. In fact, he can spend an entire session playing with tractors of different sizes. Amanda surprised Joshua with a little tractor to take home. It looks very similar to the ones he plays with in PT. It was so sweet of her to think of him when she saw it and buy it for him.

Another exciting thing today is that Joshua cut tooth number six. He has now filled in the front teeth space.

Update on Joshua

With Joshua having an ear infection we decided to skip physical therapy last week. He missed the previous week as well because Amanda had a death in the family. Joshua has not been as progressive lately with his gross motor skills until yesterday. All of a sudden he decided to start pulling up quite a bit on the couch and take a step or two! Now, he has pulled up to a stand only a handful of times, but yesterday he did it with ease, then he tried to cruise, so this is huge.

I think part of the reason why he hasn't made as much effort lately is because he has just not felt like it. He's been a lot more cuddly lately. I took him to the pediatrician yesterday to see if his ear infection had cleared up. The antibiotic he has been on has given him a red bottom from diarrhea, and he was pulling on both ears and crying out of the blue Sunday evening. Come to find out the ear pain is not even an ear infection. It has cleared up completely. The pain is all teething. So that is why he was waking every 3 hours Saturday night! Well, don't you know, he's got a new tooth today! Not only is it a new tooth, but it's a fang! His teeth are coming in a weird order. Normally the front two teeth come in before the eye teeth. He has two front bottom teeth, but no top teeth, and an eye tooth on top has just started to cut today. The eye tooth on the other side is not far behind. I guess I'll have a cute little Dracula on my hands.