A little piece of heaven

Today was an AMAZING day. I am absolutely in love with this method and this therapist. The more I learn/understand about ABM, the more in awe I am. It works! It really really works! Oh how I wish we’d started sooner! But everything happens when it’s supposed to happen and I am happy that we started now.

Here are a couple of videos of Nathan’s first session today:

After this session, Nathan was really tired and cranky. I think he’s coming down with something, but fortunately there is a Whole Foods nearby so we bought him a homeopathic remedy that we’ve been giving him to try and help him heal before he gets worse. He took a nap and woke up with better color and disposition.

While we waited outside the office for the 2nd session, I had Nathan on my lap and showed him the bubble popping app on my iphone. He sat up real straight, reached out for the phone, opened his hands, and started poppping the bubbles. Here’s what’s amazing:
1. his head was straight 2. his back was straight 3. i was supporting him at the hips, not under the arms like I usually have to do 4. his arms were long and extended as he reached for the phone 5. his hand was wide open and soft, and at times he even extended the pointer finger. INCREDIBLE!

And the most incredible thing – he said, loud and clear: MORE BUBBLES. Of course it wasn’t as clear as if you or I had said it, but it was intelligible and obvious what he was saying. And he put 2 words together! I filmed him saying bubbles once, but it wasn’t his best enunciation – but at least I caught it on camera 🙂

During the 2nd session, he kept asking for bubbles, over and over and over again. Bubbles. Bubbles. Bubbles. Bubbles. It’s so amazing to finally get a better sense for Nathan’s personality and see what he’s like inside his head! I would’ve never known he’d want to keep playing with him if he didn’t have the capacity to say it. Oh happy day!

He kept playing with the bubble app during the 2nd session. Then he also played with another toy that Cheryl had. He did a great job ringing the bell on the toy and doing other neat things. His arms were long and extended and his hands open. Finally my son can play!

Here are a couple of videos:

Are you as in love with this therapy as I am?

Nap time!

Today Nathan had a couple of excellent lessons with Cheryl. I really wish I could describe what she did in the lessons but it’s really hard! I don’t really understand yet what she is doing so I can’t really say what’s what. In the first session she had him on his back and worked a lot on differentiation of all the different parts of his body, from the hands to the back to the chest to the feet. Cheryl was teaching us a lot and explaining what she was doing which made Nathan upset as he likes getting all of the attention.

During the 2nd session she had him kneeling against the table and worked on some more brain mapping and differentiation. I can’t seem to get the embed code working so I’ll post a link:

Changes I’ve seen:

* I usually carry Nathan on my hip. Typically I have to hold him with the other hand with max assist as he flops everywhere. I noticed last night he was leaning forward and holding on to me better. His head didn’t fall back at all – he was keeping it in place.

* The tone in his arms and hands seems different – less “locked”, more flexible.

* He is tolerating time on his back, and using that time to explore movement a little bit – mostly he rolls to one side, then to his back, then he rolls to the side again.

After the 2nd session we had a picnic dinner at Stanford Unviersity and walked around the college. It was a fun 🙂