Striderling Update

(in the Peds waiting room of the hospital, getting ready for one of his blood draws. Isn’t he cuuuute?)

Big things have been happening in our little guy’s life lately… he had his annual therapy evaluation earlier this month and they determined that he no longer needs occupational therapy. His OT completely agreed with this assessment, and so we’re done with that. It is wonderful, dear readers, to have those 2-4 monthly hours of therapy gone now and it is wonderful to know that he’s made such fabulous progress. It was sad to say goodbye to his therapist, who’s been working with him since he was less than a year old.

Thankfully, she works in the same office as his physical therapist, who we are still seeing. He was getting PT once a week, but we’ve now cut it back to 2x a month. Although he’s doing everything a 26 month old ought to be doing (hurrah! and amazing for a kid who didn’t start walking ’til he was 17 months old!), he struggles mightily with balance, coordination, and core strength. Physical therapy sessions focus on obstacle courses and balance exercises. Absolutely delighted to have these go down to twice a month instead of weekly!

His speech is still considerably delayed, although we continue to make progress. We are switching from therapy at a local clinic to an in-home therapist starting this week. Tomorrow is the first day we meet our new therapist and we’ll have weekly sessions.

It is fun to hear him talk… “‘nowee!”=snowing. “tcheez!”=cheez. “Daaayyy”=daddy. We still have a considerable number of frustrating moments where he clearly wants something but cannot find the right way to express what it is, but he’s also good at figuring out alternative ways to communicate. His little sister has started to pick up on some of the signs he uses (more, please, and all done) which is too cute for words and will help her in the long run too, I’m sure.

So, there we are. As I’ve already told the family here, my biggest struggles with him these days have nothing to do with his special needs and everything to do with him being a stubborn and strong willed two year old. Normal parenting challenges are exhausting, but they mean his body is doing what it’s supposed to do. And I love that.