Hello again to the best support system we could ever ask for! We often think of the marathon analogy Mike used in the song he wrote recently called, 'Winding Trail' - and the visual of the crowd cheering James (and us!) along! We so appreciate your support and encouragement.
James has been doing really well and working so incredibly hard in therapy - with less tears and resistance we're happy to say. It is very inspiring and humbling to see him work so hard every day to do something that many of us take for granted. The success we're having in the last couple weeks has been in his ability to army crawl. James' strength and coordination in his upper body in particular has really increased and is helping him find success in inching his way around on his stomach independently. His therapists are really happy about this even though at the moment he is not really using his legs much to propel him forward - we'll get there! His core is also getting much stronger, helping him in many of the exercises his therapists get him to do. James' frequent saying these days is "I go". He gets a lot of joy from moving around. It's awesome to see.
Army crawling his way to Shae:
Here he is at Medek:
We've also started seeing an osteopath who specializes in DNS (Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization) for paediatrics. She is working on helping James use his stabilizing muscles in his upper body to properly support him in crawling and transitioning from sitting to crawling movements.
This week we're ending our spring session of Conductive Education at the March of Dimes that we've been doing twice a week since April. We'll be doing 3 weeks of morning program there this summer. They have been excellent in not only developing James' movement skills such as sitting, crawling, kneeling and walking but also speech and fine motor development. Their preschool like environment has been so good for James.
Sitting, balancing and reaching:
Deep sea fishing (he wouldn't be a Wilson unless there is some fishing):
James also still has a massage with Shannon and physiotherapy with Kate from Grandview every other week.
James has a busy schedule! We're so pleased with his team of therapists - they are awesome! All of these therapy sessions are essentially training for the real world. It is because of all the hard work that he was able to use the shopping cart while grocery shopping. A seemingly ordinary occurrence for most children but one that uses all of the skills he has been training for in therapy- sitting, balancing, reaching, bracing, gripping etc. We're so proud of this little guy.
There are more difficult skills to master next like climbing stairs. Let the training begin!
Summer Fun: