Day Fifteen

Yesterday's therapy went well. Elijah seemed very contemplative – like he was thinking about everything and taking it all in.

I really feel like Elijah is using his hands more efficiently, which is really exciting. Yesterday he took a puzzle piece out of a puzzle all by himself. He's done that before, but with me guiding his hand to the knob on the puzzle piece. (And that's his LEFT hand in the photo by the way!)

It was hilarious during lunch yesterday because Elijah was trying so hard to throw his spoon across the room. The little stinker! We all thought it was funny and actually a good thing. That's the thing about parenting a child with a brain injury – you rejoice over anything that a child would typically do…even if it's a bad thing. The great thing about throwing a spoon is that it takes a lot of work to do so. For one thing, he has to hold onto the spoon, which is a feat in and of itself. Then comes the hard part…he has to let go of the spoon at exactly the right time. Letting go when he wants to is harder for Elijah because his hands are so tight, but he would let go and drop it – just as you'd expect any toddler to react when they don't want to do something. Hilarious. We haven't gotten very far with spoon feeding because he doesn't want to do it. He wants me to feed him – it's so much easier that way, right? I keep telling him I won't be going on dates with him when he gets older, so he'd better learn how to feed himself!

Yesterday we also worked on Elijah's balance in the "Spider." He does really well. I'm sometimes amazed by Elijah's balance. So often it looks like he's going to topple over and he doesn't. Lately he's been walking sideways a lot. Usually when kids learn to walk, they walk along furniture for awhile before they brave the world of independent steps. Elijah skipped that step completely and went straight to walking. I'm thinking that he's just trying to figure out how to sidestep. That's my theory anyway.

Yesterday was also the last day we will work with one of his speech therapists, Jenny. Look how well Elijah was grabbing a light-up toy yesterday with BOTH of his hands...
"Bye Jenny!"
I'm able to write this entry because Grandpa Dennis is in the chamber with Elijah. He's done all of the dives with Elijah so far this week, which means I've been able to have a bit of a break. It's been really nice.

After yesterday, we're 3/4 done with this adventure. I'm getting excited about going home and having our family reunited, but I'm even more excited about the changes I am witnessing in Elijah.

(I hope no one was worried that I didn't write last night. :) My good friends Jen and Beth came by for a visit last night and I went to bed after they went home. SO good to see you guys! Jen said she's an avid "Elijah fan" so, shout out to Jen! I wrote this this morning, but didn't have a chance to post it until now). Stay tuned for Day Sixteen later tonight...

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