Outside, leaves are falling and cold winds blowing. Inside, we are enjoying days of continued growth and the warmth of little boy laughter.
Toby had a return visit to the U of M which included both pulmonary and nutrition. His growth was good enough to earn him a slight reduction in the daily tube feedings. He has also made progress with the variety of foods he will eat. He now eats a selection of crackers, cereal, and chips, peanuts, cashews, freeze-dried yogurt, and candy: chocolate chips, m & m's, Hershey bars, candy corn, fruit snacks, Kit Kats, Pez, candy canes, etc. (He has not eaten any more cookies.) If you're thinking this doesn't sound like a healthy diet, you agree with his nutritionist. We are awaiting a referral to a feeding program in Grand Rapids. But we are encouraged by the developing openness he has to trying new tastes and textures (albeit within limits). He is also interacting more with other foods and learning to touch and handle them, a necessary step before he will put them in his mouth.
Toby has grown in so many ways besides the physical. He speaks in sentences now and has effectively put to rest any continued concerns about delayed language development. He fills his days with books, toys (trucks!), and inserting himself into whatever any one else is trying to do. And he is a force not easily ignored.
I have wanted to share more recent photos with you, but getting them has been a challenge. When I try to take his picture, he puts his little hands up and clicks an imaginary camera back at me. Like so:
And thus:
As is often the case, though, his sisters have had success where I did not. Here he is helping clean up the leaves in the yard
and visiting the playground.
Yes, he graduated this week to the "big boy swing".
And we are enjoying him as much as it looks like he is enjoying that swing.
Wheeee!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Speech Assessment Results
Toby's language skills were assessed in a series of visits during July to Western Michigan's clinic in Kalamazoo. His score for expressive language was 1 year 11 months- or just slightly below his adjusted age at that point of 2 years. They felt this was appropriate considering his medical history. His receptive, or comprehension, was higher at 2 years, 3 months and he was not tested to his "ceiling" on this portion. So the overall good news is that his language skills ARE developing appropriately. It was suggested that he might benefit from therapy or that we could just allow him to keep chugging down this track since he is moving so well in the proper direction.
We chose the latter option. And in the past couple months, Toby has continued the forward progress in his expressive language. That's a fancy way of saying he talks more and more. He is not shy about telling us what he wants. He also has been using complete sentences and referring to himself in the third person. Some of his favorite things to say? "Toby did it", and also, unfortunately, "Toby broke it."
There continues to be evidence of low muscle tone in his face. That's a fancy way of saying he drools quite a bit for a gentleman of his age. But it is a definite plus in the praise column that it is not a major concern at this point. Yay!
We chose the latter option. And in the past couple months, Toby has continued the forward progress in his expressive language. That's a fancy way of saying he talks more and more. He is not shy about telling us what he wants. He also has been using complete sentences and referring to himself in the third person. Some of his favorite things to say? "Toby did it", and also, unfortunately, "Toby broke it."
There continues to be evidence of low muscle tone in his face. That's a fancy way of saying he drools quite a bit for a gentleman of his age. But it is a definite plus in the praise column that it is not a major concern at this point. Yay!
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