A little note about our busy week

Hi everyone!!

Just wanted to write a little note and let everyone know how well Landon is doing. We've had a long week of therapy so far and it's only Wednesday! We saw Penny on Monday and Tuesday (as Braydon showed in the video below) where we worked on walking and cruising along on a flat surface. Landon isn't really doing it by himself, but we're showing him the motions of how to do them and he will eventually pick up the movements himself. It will just be a lot of reminding him how to do things.

Even though he can't walk himself, he gets aggravated that he can't and whines until we help him get to different places or get what he wants. He's very good at letting us know when he isn't happy. :)

We went to see Chelli today (Landon's occupational therapist). She worked with him on grabbing things and dropping them into containers and also on putting large pegs onto a board. He did well with both, but got pretty tired toward the end. She was impressed with the way Landon was moving his right hand and arm. He's getting better about opening and closing his hand and moving his arm around. She did say that she was kind of concerned about his right hand being in a fist when it's in a relaxed state. She wanted to see him being able to open it more, so she gave us a band that wraps around his wrist and has a piece that sticks up to wrap around his thumb to hold it back. Pulling his thumb back slightly helps tell his body to open his hand. We're supposed to have him wear it for an hour or two and then take if off for a little while. Hopefully he will get to where he doesn't need it and his hand will relax more without it on.

As Chelli was working with Landon, I was talking to a speech therapist about Landon in hopes of overlapping the sessions so both of them will be working with him at the same time. That way Landon won't be going from one therapy to the next for hours on end. We should be getting started with her sometime next week. She will be helping him to find ways to communicate with us when we get past the whining stage. We'll probably be working on getting the sign language back and then move from there. All of the therapists tell us to just keep showing him the things that he did before so that his brain can find a way to make a connection. The speech therapist told me that the way she puts it to parents is that his brain is made up of files, and before he was able to find those files quickly, but now all the files are mixed up and so his brain has to have the extra time to try and find the files again. I thought that was a good way to put it. So his brain still has everything there, he just needs more time to get them organized again.

So that's where we are as of today...tomorrow we have a day off to do something fun. I think we might try and have a picnic tomorrow. The weather has been beautiful, and Landon will probably appreciate the outside time. :) Friday we are back to OT before the July 4th weekend...I can't believe Landon will be 2 on Sunday!!!!! Where does time go?!?!

Also, I wanted to throw out there for everyone to keep my grandfather (Landon's great-Grandpop) in your thoughts and prayers. He had to have surgery on Monday to remove an aneurism after a month of waiting for his kidney function to level out. He had a hard time on the operating table, but after a 7 or 8 hour surgery is doing well. He just has a long road to recovery. I just wanted to ask everyone to keep him in your thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery. Whatever everyone is doing for Landon is working so I wanted to share some of it with him. :)

Love you all and will keep updating. Have a wonderful July 4th if I don't send another update before then!!!!