Catching Up

Caleb's occupational/ developmental therapist did another eval last week for fine motor skills. He tested at a 20-21 month old level. He's currently 20 month old, but remember that he's considered 17 months old (adjusted for prematurity). So, he's caught up and actually a bit "advanced" for his age!! We always knew he'd be a genius:) He's discovered coloring and putting together puzzles. And he can pick up the smallest piece of dirt off the ground. He's also a pro at pinching, something we are working on not doing:)

He hasn't qualified for physical therapy for a while, but our physical therapist should be coming to our house soon to do another eval for his gross motor skills. I know that he's behind in that area, but is steadily making strides. He's walking all the time now and even able to step over toys that are on the floor. He's discovered that he loves to climb on anything he can. He climbs up on the fire place hearth to play and I found him up in our bay window a couple weeks ago (which he had to rearrange his toys so he could use them as steps to get up) Of course he has no clue how to get down though! Ever since we took him to a sporting goods store last week and showed him how to jump on a mini trampoline, he's obsessed with jumping. He never gets his feet off the ground, but he squats really low, touches the ground and pops back up with a huge grin on his face.

The area that he's making slower progress in is his speech. He has just started to babble a little bit, but still does not say any words. However, none of his therapist are concerned at all since he clearly understands what we tell him and he's able to follow directions. He has speech therapy at our house once a week and sees the feeding speech therapist at the clinic as well. They all tell me he's so "bright." His speech delays are more than likely related to his eating issues. He almost always uses sign language when he wants something, so sometimes I think he's just being lazy since signing is probably easier than trying to say what he wants. Our pediatrician suggested reading more books to him. I am not sure if we can fit any more books in as we probably read him close to 30 books a day already. He's a little bookworm that would choose looking at books over toys any day.

We are so proud of his progress. I keep thinking about the day in the NICU they told me that he might have cerebral palsy and may never walk. His legs were so straight and stiff and he also always clenched his thumbs in his fist instead of out. They said that they rarely say anything to parents so early since diagnosis isn't usually confirmed until kids are two years old, but I think they wanted us to be aware of the possibilities. Of course we would have loved him regardless, but I knew in my heart that he'd prove everything wrong (as he did my entire pregnancy). He's truly our little miracle. It's hard to believe in four short months he's going to be two years old! Where has time gone?

(And yes, thanks to my friend Kim, I now know how to post pictures!! Yahoooo!)