baby steps...literally!

Wow, I've been a major blogging slacker lately. Trust me, I've wanted to write, but every time I sit down all I can think about is the fact that life with Isaac is so incredibly different from what I expected it would be, and for the past few weeks, that's been a little hard to handle. Hence, no blog posts. They would have been too depressing anyway, and the last thing I want to do is scare away all of my (many, many) readers with my depressing thoughts.

But I know that all of my fans (Grandma H. and Grandma C.) are eagerly waiting for an update and pictures, so here's a funny story for you:

On Tuesday Walter joined some our friends for a newly formed "Man Night". I know, I'm a pretty amazing wife. No, actually, I've been making fun of Sarah for quite some time since she allows Michael to have a "Man Night", so she's the amazing wife, not me. Well anyway, Walter came home late and I was putting Isabella to bed when he walked into her room and said,

"Do you know what the pile of green and yellow stuff is that Stella is eating off of our bed?"

First of all, WHY WOULD I KNOW WHAT THIS "STUFF" IS???

"No, she probably threw up, so you should make her get off of our bed and put her outside."
(For the record, I wasn't actually that calm)

"Well, do you think I should just let her finish eating it?"

WHAT??!! NO!!!! That's disgusting!!! WHY ON EARTH WOULD SOMEONE EVEN CONSIDER THAT???

Obviously at this point I reiterated that she needed to be removed from our room and put outside immediately. I mean really, sometimes I wonder if men are literally missing a part of their brain.

Well, Stella did throw up. Walter then asked me if I knew why she threw up. Yes, I asked her and she explained that she ate one too many diapers, add to that a stick of butter, and her stomach just couldn't handle the excess of diaper gel beads. 


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You wouldn't believe the progress Isaac is making in physical therapy. I can official say that he can "side-step" in both directions (as of a few days ago he could only go to the right), take forward steps when he pushes his music table, and occasionally pull himself to stand. When we began physical therapy, I thought we were months from seeing Isaac take steps. And now, I strongly believe that by Christmas Isaac will be walking with a little help from hand-holding. 


Isaac's physical therapist opened my eyes to things that I was missing. Even the first time we met with her, she seemed to understand Isaac in a way that I didn't, and I was amazed at how much he'd been telling me that I was missing out on. I realized that he was communicating things to Kate and she was affirming what he was "saying" and she also taught me to cheer him on and make him feel supported in a way that I had no idea was possible. After our first few appointments, I learned that he just needed to know that he could do it. And he also needed to know that I understood some of what he was telling me with very few words. It's sounds confusing, but trust me, it's been an eye opener and Isaac and I have made so much progress with Kate's help. 

I thought that getting to see Isabella and Isaac standing and playing together, was a long way off...

Now that Isabella is in preschool, Isaac and I have some time to ourselves. Usually our time with each other is spent appointment hopping, so it was a nice change of pace to go to the baby story time at the library. Isaac loves reading books, and will even sign book. We stayed to play with some of the other babies and after watching another little boy, I asked the mom how old he was. After she said he was seventeen months, I tried to hold back the tears, but couldn't do it, so we had to leave. I know that Isaac is behind in certain areas and this was a very hard reminder that my seventeen month old doesn't look like a seventeen month old and in many ways does not act like a seventeen month old. We try really hard to see Isaac, for Isaac and not see a syndrome in his place. I must admit though, at times, that is challenging. And as the months go by it only gets harder because people start to wonder what's up with our little man.

Do you know, he has the best sense of humor? Really, he does. He creates these little games that are all his own and tries his best to engage whomever is around him. He thinks everything is funny, and has the cutest little laugh. When I took him to his speech language evaluation, the speech therapist was trying to get Isaac to make different sounds and perform different tasks, and every single time, Isaac just laughed at her. That meant that he didn't do very well at his evaluation, but that's okay.

Tired of standing...

Isabella and Maya started ballet a couple weeks ago. Here's Maya showing off her signature move...

Charlotte and Isaac wanted to join in. Maybe in a few years.

 

Ew, grass!

This is a very typical side-ways glance...

My mom and dad got this shirt for him...it's quite fitting...

Dr. Gosain, Isaac's plastic surgeon, had a get together so that all of the families in his care could mingle and get to know each other and hopefully form a support group. It was a very nice evening and we had a chance to see some of the other amazing work he has done to help children with abnormalities go on to be accepted by their peers.

It was a very good opportunity for Isabella to see other children who are in need of surgery and medical care. There was one girl in particular, who after horrible burns to her face, was having new skin grown on her neck  (this results in a balloon of skin). We were able to share with Isabella that in the same way that Dr. Gosain fixed Isaac's head, he would also fix this little girl's face so that in his words, "she would be more beautiful that she already was." Isn't that wonderful?

And here is the ever protective Stella, by her little boy's side. Her protection has been a little extreme lately. We've come to the conclusion that because Isaac has stayed small for so long, she thinks he is her puppy. And tries to treat him like her puppy. We usually have to tell her to back off and stop pacing around him. This week she also scared off the FedEx man, which meant that he ran for his life back to his truck. And she's made friends with the deer who have been living off of our garden and doesn't even bark at them when they stand next to the fence. Way to go, Stella.

She takes her job seriously, no smiles this time.