This blog has been created to help others keep up to date and follow our journey. I will post as often as I feel there is new news in his condition or our family be it good or bad.
I'm so happy to report that Landen has once again made a little achievement which we should all celebrate!! Landen is now a very confident larger finger-food eater!!! What do I mean? Landen will now feed himself a bite of a larger food such as a gram cracker and hold on to it and take another bite!! I know it seems silly to celebrate such a minor thing but this mommy is proud. Feeding has always been hard for my little Landen and at first I felt like a failure because he was falling so far behind. I have many big goals for Landen such as complete self feeding, being able to communicate basic needs and walking... but all these goals at one point or another have seemed almost impossible so I have learned to break them into smaller goals one step at a time and as long as he is always working towards a goal he is progressing!! I've always been one to celebrate and enjoy the "simple things" but really now I celebrate every inch forward! Let me tell you what work has gone into such a simple achievement. This "little achievement" has been the result of many little achievements Landen has struggled with eating since the day he was born. So we have worked on achievements like learning to have things in his mouth, teaching him to pick up small crackers, teaching him to feed himself small crackers (that goal took us almost 15 months) you
should have seen the celebration I cried and called everyone to tell them how excited I was. Then teaching him to take bits of food that mommy offers him instead of wanting to put the whole thing in his mouth!! Then there was the trowing thing... my little Landen likes to throw EVERYTHING! I finally got got him to take a bite but then he would promptly throw it on the ground... but now he is doing really good at taking a bite holding on and taking another bite and if you realize how much time and effort has gone into this one little achievement towards our ultimate goal of self feeding you would realize that it is in fact a GREAT BIG ENORMOUS ACHIEVEMENT! Our next goal? We have two we are currently working on eating sandwiches with no help (he doesn't like the texture of dry bread) and picking up wet/sticky foods like tater tots with ketchup or noodles (Landen doesn't like to touch anything wet or sticky).
Happy Valentines Day 2011!
So today was Landen's occupational therapy evaluation. Next time I won't schedule it for so early in the morning! It was at 8:30 but I had to run Brayden to my mother-in-laws and drive to Kingman which meant getting up at 6:30AM!!! Since I get up at 7 usually you'd think 6:30 wouldn't be to bad but for some reason IT WAS!!! Maybe it was just a bad night's sleep? Anyway first thing I LOVED THE OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST!!! She was so good with Landen he didn't even have to warm up to her he just loved her right away. I take Landen to a lot of doctors and specialists and for the most part they have been wonderful but there is a few that have been EXCEPTIONAL and this lady is one of them! For those of you who don't know what occupational therapy is let me explain... I had some one ask me why Landen needed OT if he doesn't have a job. He does his job is to play, learn and grow. For him OT will deal with some of the more fine motor skills, skills that are needed every day in life. For a kid like Landen that is things like feeding, playing, dressing and other self help skills. Anyway as I said Landen loved her and had so much fun playing with her... that's usually how and evaluation goes they play with them and watch for skills or areas of concern.... she was very well informed and helpful. Her and Landen will be working on fine motor skills focusing on building strength and play skills (the best kind of skills to have :D ) Later we will tackle some of the harder fine motor skills like using a spoon.
So today was our trip to Kingman for Physical Therapy (PT) evaluation so that Landen can start PT next week. Tomorrow will be Occupational Therapy (OT) next week will be Speech Therapy (ST). So my obstinate little boy (he gets that from his Aunt Susie by the way, yes these things are passed from Roommate to Roommate's child genetically :D Guess what Becka got from me ;) Anyway my obstinate Little Landen decided he didn't want to be evaluated today and when the therapist came in he got off my lap and sort of "fell" into her lap then laid limp as a wash cloth on the ground... why??? I don't know!!! He just sat there rubbing his arms up and down the mat not even lifting them and humming like he does when he is happy. He wouldn't even lift his head for her... THE LITTLE TURKEY!!! He was just trying to make his mommy look silly for bragging about how well he crawled and how much he tried to walk. It was fifteen or twenty minutes he just laid there... she started asking me things like can he lift his head, can he roll over, can he sit on his own... All thing he can do really well. Luckily he finally decided to get up off the floor and play... She did a good job Landen was a little shy around her but eventually decided to like her. She helped him try to walk with a walker (a skill they will be working on together) and assessed his muscle strength and range of motion. I would have loved to have someone here in town available for him but I think they will be able to help him lots! By the end of the apointment he was having so much fun crawling all over the big room and exploring the many neat things they keep in there to help other kids. Now that he is familiar with the place lets hope he will do better tomorrow!!!
Landen and Brayden
January 2011
I'm so happy to report that Landen has once again made a little achievement which we should all celebrate!! Landen is now a very confident larger finger-food eater!!! What do I mean? Landen will now feed himself a bite of a larger food such as a gram cracker and hold on to it and take another bite!! I know it seems silly to celebrate such a minor thing but this mommy is proud. Feeding has always been hard for my little Landen and at first I felt like a failure because he was falling so far behind. I have many big goals for Landen such as complete self feeding, being able to communicate basic needs and walking... but all these goals at one point or another have seemed almost impossible so I have learned to break them into smaller goals one step at a time and as long as he is always working towards a goal he is progressing!! I've always been one to celebrate and enjoy the "simple things" but really now I celebrate every inch forward! Let me tell you what work has gone into such a simple achievement. This "little achievement" has been the result of many little achievements Landen has struggled with eating since the day he was born. So we have worked on achievements like learning to have things in his mouth, teaching him to pick up small crackers, teaching him to feed himself small crackers (that goal took us almost 15 months) you
should have seen the celebration I cried and called everyone to tell them how excited I was. Then teaching him to take bits of food that mommy offers him instead of wanting to put the whole thing in his mouth!! Then there was the trowing thing... my little Landen likes to throw EVERYTHING! I finally got got him to take a bite but then he would promptly throw it on the ground... but now he is doing really good at taking a bite holding on and taking another bite and if you realize how much time and effort has gone into this one little achievement towards our ultimate goal of self feeding you would realize that it is in fact a GREAT BIG ENORMOUS ACHIEVEMENT! Our next goal? We have two we are currently working on eating sandwiches with no help (he doesn't like the texture of dry bread) and picking up wet/sticky foods like tater tots with ketchup or noodles (Landen doesn't like to touch anything wet or sticky).
