A Week Off

Daniel during ABR Evaluation with Leonid a little ticked off.

Hello there! Well we have been home for less than a week and we are following the instructions from ABR. They started when we left, to take a couple days off, review the DVD's that were made of Daniel's evaluation by both Gavin and Leonid, and the DVD of the exercises. We are chompin' at the bit to get started. Lonnie started off with doing a 1/2 hour of the anterior throat exercise one night, then yesterday I did it for 1/2 hour. Tonight is Halloween so I am not sure that we'll get that in tonight but I will attempt it today. Daniel is doing really well with it. The only one I am dreading doing is the accordion exercise (both hands) for the jaw/larynx. This one he doesn't seem to like too much but it is suppose to help with the swallowing and define his jawline. We don't have the bench yet, but as soon as it is delivered, we will be going strong on the anterior chest. For the people who know Daniel, his trunk is his main problem. because we are going to our Chicago location in February, we want to be able to see a notable difference when we go. It would be nice if we heard "Hey, cut back on the anterior chest, he's responding too well!" Many of the children that were in our group were smaller than Daniel and the parents were taught the exercise for the chest to be done in their laps. Because Daniel is the jolly green giant and all legs, this is too hard to do. Plus his towel set up that is used on his chest while we are doing the compressions is too large (little kids only have 1 or 2 small towels) Daniel has six. Daniel while mom is doing anterior chest exercise

This week Daniel only attended school on Monday, and I knew that day would be rough because he'd missed a week of school to go to ABR. But even his teacher said he was different. He was just acting like he wasn't feeling all that well. He must have caught a cold this past week, his nose if stuffy and he was throwing up a little one day. UUGH, talk about exorcist vomiting!! Anyways, it has been kind of nice to stay at home and just relax. Let me rephrase that, its not really relaxing because we are still doing things at home, but we don't have to do all the running around and we can move at our own pace, not get up and rush right off the bat.

Yesterday was kinda cool, for the first time ever I was doing this "game" with Daniel and was very proud of how well he did. I would use sign language (ex. the sign for bird) then I would hold up two cards, one with a bird and another with a different picture. When I would do the sign I would just say "Daniel look" and do the sign, then hold up the card and say "what sign did I do?" and he'd scan both pictures and lock his eyes on the one I had done and kick his legs (when he is excited). He got all of them right (with the exception of the frog, but it could be because I held the picture of the frog up with the picture of a piece of cake, and he likes cake!) I was very impressed. Now mind you we don't' really do to much signing with him because he doesn't have the small motor skills to do it with his fingers. BUT we will start to do more. AND it is very cool, considering he watches "Signing Times" a couple times a week! See I told ya all he was a smart cookie!!!

It is nice to have a slight reprieve from Daniel's busy schedule. I don't know of many three year olds that go to preschool 5 days a week for 3 hours, then rush to 6 scheduled therapies through the week, along with 3 hours each day additional of ABR therapy. It is all very overwhelming for me (mom) I can't imagine what it is like for Daniel and he has to go through it all. I am thinking something has to give here soon. I would just like to be able to spend more time one on one with Daniel and "play" and work on the games that we were doing yesterday. I met a mom while at ABR who does homeschooling with her daughter.......homeschooling? uuum maybe I'll research that. But I do love his teacher at school, and I love that he gets the social interaction. But I still feel all of this is too much. Some things to consider....another dilema