Nathan’s 51st bday

…well…not really….but if you’d asked him, he would’ve SWORN it was his birthday yesterday 🙂

It was grandma’s birthday yesterday but of course he was the center of attention. I think you can see that here:

He had a blast and so did grandma. There are more photos here: Grandma’s Birthday

Looking at him yesterday, I am convinvced that all of our efforts this week were so worth it. In just one week we saw improvements. I could really tell from looking at the photos. He has more moments of holding his head and trunk better. You can see how well he’s sitting in this photo:

It almost looks like the pillow behind him is holding him up, but it isn’t. It’s just there in case he fell back. He was basically holding up his head and using partially his trunk and partially his arms to keep himself sitting up.

That’s not something he would’ve been able to do a week ago.

We’re excited! If he can improve in just a week, imagine how he’ll improve over weeks, months, years! It’s so encouraging to know that we made the right call about pushing him with his therapies.

We also noticed that the crying and screaming wasn’t as much physical pain as it was a tantrum. It must be such a big change for him, to go from sitting around most of the day without having to make much of an effort, to having 3-4 hours of intense therapy every day. I think he was emotionally and physically exhausted! But of course anyone would be.

The key for us is to understand that and to give him the space to be tired, while still pushing him to work hard and improve.

On friday, we put him on the incline plane, and he basically just laid there and refused to move. He was DONE. I told him I wouldn’t pick him up until he reached the bottom. He screamed for 10 minutes, turned beet red in anger, but eventually figured out I wasnt’ going to give in, so he scooted himself down! I celebrated after I picked him up and made a big party, and he was happy as can be right after.

Thanks to everyone that’s been cheering us on, we really appreciate it!

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