Yes, I sometimes call him Tater Tot, and yes, I’m sure he will cringe and roll his eyes at me in a few years for that. But for now, he’s my little Tater Tot. And wow, what a difference a few months makes.
He seems like a different kid just since December. The level of communication and understanding is crazy. In fact, his communication has increased so much, that he was released from Speech Therapy…woo-hoo! As much as we hated to not get a chance to see our sweet friend, Kendra, every week, it is a true celebration.
I’ve heard several parents say that one day it will just explode. It seems like that is what happened the month of January. All of a sudden, we had a parrot in the room with us, and he was repeating everything we said. Exciting and scary at the same time. And then all of a sudden, he was speaking in full sentences…four, five, and maybe six words at a time. So, we’ve entered the world of ABC’s, counting to 20, and identifying everyone as a boy or a girl. He’s right 80% of the time on that. I try to run away the other 20%. :)
There is a still a lot of what he says that may need to be translated from Tateish, but I can usually figure most of it out if I think about the context and look around a little. One my favorite quotes of his recently was while we were in the car and had stopped at a stop sign. As I continued going straight, he said “Bye-bye T for Tate. Have a good day.” He was talking to the letter “T” on the stop sign. (Thank you Sesame Street and the “T” letter of the day episode.) I know I’m his Mom but things like that crack me up.
In other good news, this week will be his last week of occupational therapy. Another woo-hoo! He has been doing great lately, and it looks like he is caught up to where he should be on fine motor skills. His OT therapist, Teresa, is wonderful with him and so sweet. Again, we’ll be sad not to see her but are so thrilled the he’s doing so well. (These pictures are some of the things we do at home for OT…coloring, drawing lines, and playing with beads in putty.)
So that leaves physical therapy. I’m thinking we still have a few more months on that one. Our attitude is that we’ll continue to do as much as needed, but I’m hoping by the end of the summer, he’ll be where he needs to be.
A lot of people see him running 100 mph everywhere and wonder why he’s still in PT. Well, if you watch him for an extended period of time, you’ll see that he still falls a lot. Most of the PT work right now is dealing with coordination and balance. It’s almost like once he started walking, he went straight to running. So he’s still on the clumsy side, but it doesn’t slow him down or hold him back much at all.
This video is actually a month or so old, but a new skill that he just started was jumping. That is one of the coordination skills we’ve been working on, and you can tell that it isn’t mastered yet. But he’s trying hard, so it was pretty exciting. Since the video, he has made a lot of progress and even clears a little air. Now, he even has a jump shot with the basketball.
I continue to be so proud of all of his hard work. We’re just about at the 18-month mark of when I started taking him to Our Children’s House….sometimes 3 sessions a week! Hard to believe, but so glad that all of the help is really helping!
I definitely think Kris rocked the house. Can a 33-year-old suburban SAHM say rocked the house? Oh well, I did. And so did he. He has a great voice and picks great songs. Love him! You know that cute little wife of his is thinking, “That’s MY man!” :)
It is time for Megan to go. Yes, she’s unique, but I still don’t get it. I really haven’t understood the big deal about her from the beginning. But the last few weeks have just not been to the level of the others…and just uncomfortable.
