God Blesses Us

I'm not going to lie. I was pretty down about my post last week with Johnny needing help physically and showing more lags in his physical development. As much as I understand it, my heart still hurts for him. I'm a mother who wants the best for her child. I feel I have been patient and I feel that we work, it's hard to see a lack of progress. It can be discouraging in spite of all the wonderful and amazing things we see with Johnny in our lives. 

As I felt down on myself, we had speech on Monday. And it was a great day. Not only was Johnny engaging and very verbal (which gives them a better idea of where he is at and what his needs are), but he actively participated in a game. A full on game. Granted it was peek-a-boo, but it was no ordinary form of peek-a-boo. We all (therapists, girls, and myself) sat in a circle around him and have him a towel. After playing a few rounds with him, we modeled him giving the towel to someone else and then pulling it off their heads. Not only did he catch on but he caught on quickly. He would pick and choose who he wanted to play next and would hand them the towel. He made deliberate choices and gave us the tools to play the game. Then he laughed and giggled as we played along. I know it may seem simple to anyone else, but this is huge. Not only is he handing stuff to us (which we have been working on), but he is making choices and participating. It's wonderful and our Speech Therapist was almost as pleased as this proud mommy. 

Then today, with our developmental therapist, Johnny shined again by working really hard to put the toys correctly together to make them work AND he cleaned up the toys when we were done. He needs to work on fine motor skills, sure, but the fact that he caught on to the pattern of the toy and where the item was supposed to be placed within a few minutes is amazing. I am so pleased. 

I don't know what all of this means, but I do know that right now, he is learning and I need to foster that. Whether his cognitive abilities are shining through or he is merely in the midst of a cognitive growth spurt doesn't really matter. All that matters is that we keep working together and we celebrate those small victories, especially the ones that we have been plugging towards for weeks. I feel like I've been holding my breath for a month or more to see if any of these skills would take and now I have let it go. 

Of course new breaths remain to be taken! Onto the next batch of skills! And that darn standing and walking one too!