Liar Liar Pants On Fire

That's what I wanted to yell at Sean the other day. After months of worrying about Sean's neck control and worrying because he had stopped lifting his head up, I finally went ahead & sucked up my fear & made an appointment with the neurologist because I was truly worried that he had a stroke or something. I also decided not to wait for EI to approve Sean's pt & ot. We decided to pay out of pocket to have the therapist already lined up for us come out & start working with Sean.

I worked so hard with him every single day doing exercises out of the book "Gross Motor Skills for Children with Down Syndrome". I made sure he had more than his fair share of tummy time. I used a boppy. I used nothing. I changed the softness of his mat. In other words...... I did EVERYTHING I could think of to get that kid back to his former glory.

Finally it was set. We'd meet with the physical therapist and get some exercises and make sure the things we were doing were being done correctly. We'd get assessment of where she thought Sean's problem areas were. And we'd goto the neurologist to make sure it wasn't something neurologically wrong with him.

Not 2 hours before Erin, the physical therapist, was set to come he does this.



 





























Is he not the biggest stinking liar you ever met? I couldn't believe my eyes. I was so happy & so proud, but I was shown once again what a little prankster I have on my hands. He is definitely going to be the class clown.

When Erin came we undressed Sean and just laid him down to play. She wanted to watch him and ask questions about him. She still doesn't have any paperwork on him since his PT hasn't been approved yet. But she's been in contact with Rosie, the feeding therapist. They work really well together.

Anyway...... my little rockstar pulled his legs up and then like he was waiting for that exact moment to show me a new trick.... he rolled onto his left side. I looked at Erin and asked "when did he learn how to do that?"

She then put Sean on his belly and not only did he lift his head up off the ground, but lifted it higher than he ever had before. And then like on cue..... he switched his weight from one arm to the other and then..... get this! He friggin rolled over like he'd been doing it since day 1. Get the fudge out of here.

He made a total liar out of me. Not that I'm not thrilled that he did, but still......

Erin's assessment is that Sean has good muscle tone throughout his body. His main issues are coordination and body awareness.  He doesn't realize he has a tushy. So where an average person would instinctively rotate onto their tushy or hips when sitting straight, Sean doesn't know to do that. So he has to be reminded with a gentle hand on the small of his back. Just enough to remind him to rotate his hips. He also needs to be reminded that his shoulders go higher than he thinks when he's on his belly.

Other than that... he's a rockstar!

We also celebrated the 2nd night of Hanukkah last night. It was so sweet. Meredith helped Rob to light the candles while Sean held onto the bear that Ema brought them. Sean wore his little yarmulke that we bought him for his bris. And then they each got their gift.



 























Tonight we were supposed to have dinner & celebrate with the rest of the Scott clan, but Meredith got sick and has had a fever since last night. I feel so badly for her. Yesterday she was banging her head ont he floor because her head hurt so much. She's achy all over and keeps saying things hurt. I wrestled with whether to bring her to the dr all day. In the end I decided not to. I just didn't think I had the brain power to drag myself & 2 kids there.

This weekend is filled with excitement. Tomorrow we plan on doing nothing. We have absolutely nothing planned except our usual breakfast date. Every Saturday the 4 of us goto my favorite little diner & have breakfast together. It's so nice to have that little thing to look forward to every week.

And then Sunday is a Hanukkah gathering with family. I cannot believe the amount of activity we have planned for next week. I look at my calendar & get tired. Maybe I'll have to scan it into my computer and show you all what it looks like. If I didn't know what it was I'd swear I was looking at an NFL playbook.

That's it for now.