New Toy

It's winter here in Michigan and that means we're stuck in the house. It's not even a pretty white winter this year. The snow keeps melting and turning brown so we can't even go out and play in it. Although I'm not really complaining about that. I hate going out in the cold and I tried to take Lewis out in the snow a couple times with mildly disastrous results... let me just say he was not a fan. I said in an earlier post that we've switched up our schedule a little. We'll have a couple weeks that are busy busy busy with therapy. Then the next week we're at home. All. Day. Long. Have you ever been home all day long with a 19 month old? Then you know what I'm talking about. So I've been looking for things to do to get us out of the house. Or at least give us something new to do inside the house. There's a toddler storytime at the library that we've never been able to attend because of therapy. We've gone for two weeks now and, quite honestly, I'd much rather stay home in my little bubble. The actual storytime is nice and just involves reading a book and singing a few songs. The other moms are equally un-showered still-pajamad, so I'm in good company. The first week I straightened my hair, got dressed in real clothes and everything because, let's be honest, I don't get out much and I ended up being totally over-dressed... ha! Anyway, so I'm having a hard time figuring out how to be normal in public. Like I don't want to go out and announce to strangers that Lewis has SB and he gets around by army crawling but that he can participate just like the other kids. But if I don't say anything, people are afraid to ask and just look at us like we're hiding something or are embarrassed by something. Which we're not. And then people try to be really nice and accommodating so they are super helpful. There's nothing wrong with that. Like when all the kids go get shakers out of a bucket, the lady comes over to Lewis so he can get his shaker. That is great and very thoughtful. But Lewis is perfectly capable of going and getting his own shaker. It might take him a minute longer but I want him to have the opportunity to do it himself! Then all the kids go play at the train table. I pull up a chair and sit Lewis up to the table. I have to sit right next to him because he has to sit right on the edge of the chair and  he slides off of it easily. Also the trains have magnets in them so I'm kind of paranoid he (or another kid) will put it on his shunt and reprogram it. I'm sure I look like a helicopter mom, but I'm really not! Are you starting to see why my bubble is so alluring? Are there any wheelchair accessible islands for sale out there? Anyone want to come with me? 

Anyway, so other than storytime, I've had our Early On PT come to the house every week. She had only been coming once a month, but this year I have her come on our empty weeks to just give us something different to do. Lewis gets an hour of attention and I get an hour of adult conversation, so it's good for both of us! Lately she's been asking a lot about whether Lewis is doing any weight bearing. I explain every time that Lewis is getting weight bearing in his upper legs through kneeling and in his lower legs through sitting on something with his feet flat on the ground. I explain that we're trying to do a natural progression of gross motor development with Lewis. So, basically we want to focus on crawling, pulling to kneeling, pulling to stand, walking, etc. in that order. I don't think there's anything wrong with doing it out of order, we've just decided to commit to this plan with Lewis. I explain all of this to her and she goes on to tell me that she doesn't believe in that natural progression because she has a kid with CP who can't sit independently but who just learned to walk in a gait trainer. I don't see how that's functional, but I kept my mouth shut. I told her that was great and I'm sure his parents were excited. It is great. And I would be thrilled if that were my kid! But I never said it was impossible to do it out of order. I just have done a lot of research and I really think that this is what's best for Lewis. I realize it's different and different is sometimes uncomfortable. But I'm so freaking excited about it that I feel like I should be announcing it on street corners or something! It's frustrating that she thinks I'm crazy when I feel like I've discovered the holy grail! And I, so very badly, want others to benefit from it too! That's why it's so wonderful to have a local SB group to bounce ideas off of. I don't have to be the one to discover the next holy grail in therapy or bowel management or whatever else comes up! I don't have to try everything with Lewis because someone else will try it for us and report back! It's great because we're all trying different things and we can all share our triumphs and our struggles. Have I made it clear enough yet how much I love my SB moms?! I would be running around like a chicken with my head cut off if not for them! 

ANYWAY.... I've gotten so off-subject it's getting ridiculous. So Lewis's Early On PT brought him a new toy and I'm super excited about it because it gives us something fun to do in the house this winter! It's not really functional for mobility, it's just more of a toy. Like the Lewis equivalent of a cozy coupe. (Side note: have you ever heard the story about how Coleman "filled up" the gas tank of his cozy coupe when  he was a kid?? I'll let you use your imagination and you're probably right...) So anyway, Lewis's favorite way to play with it is to run over Gauge... of course! We tell him to sit there so Lewis can run into him. He's such a good dog! This video was after Lewis had been in it for a grand total of ten minutes. He gets really frustrated when he gets stuck somewhere (which is every ten seconds) but he's getting better at steering and backing up.

So that's what's been going on around here. Next week we start a two week session at the CLC so we'll be busy busy busy! I'll post an update about that after the session. Hope you're staying warm! And if you live in the south, please go run outside barefoot for me. I'm counting the days till spring!

P.S. People have been saying lately that Lewis looks much older than 19 months. What are they talking about? He looks like a newborn baby to me! Someone even said he looked like he was over 2. 2?!?!?! I almost cried!