Milestones

When we're catching up, one of my sisters will often specifically ask what new milestones Cyrus has reached. Or if he's doing anything new. And a lot of the time, I have had to tell her no. But honestly, I never found this answer discouraging or upsetting because, as I explained to her, often the changes are so subtle and then suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, he will start doing something totally new all at once! These last few weeks have been rich beyond belief in such moments. 

During Cyrus's last therapy appointment Cyrus used his eyes to follow a flashing wand. His eyes, and not his head. His therapist mentioned that this was the first time she had ever seen him demonstrate this level of ocular precision!

His head control and positioning has also improved immensely. He doesn't arch as often or as hard, and often it only takes a nudge to encourage him to bring it back up (unless he's really tired or cranky - then he wants to arch). He does not really ever drop it forward anymore. This is especially exciting as his therapist says we can now work on teaching him how to sit up. But more importantly, it means we can now play airplane! Which I definitely indulged in more than once on our vacation this last week.

Over this last week I have also noticed him bringing up his arm and wrist to his mouth. He's been gnawing on it for days the way another child would chew on his own fingers and hand. He does this mostly when he's tired or hungry and I think he's actually doing it to comfort himself! It's clearly intentional.


In addition, his social smile, laughing, and social vocal response have become incredibly consistent. On our trip we visited five grandparents, two aunts, four cousins, and three other houses filled with really good friends and tiny children. And almost every time someone spoke to him he'd respond with an "ooh" or if they were making faces, he'd start smiling back! This behavior has never been so consistent.

And lately, he's just loving tummy time. He's gotten really good at holding his head up here somewhat on his own - though he's still a bit wobbly. And in the last few days he specifically has been showing some precursors to crawling by sticking his butt up in the air getting his knees under him as well as actually pushing on the ground with his hands.

Then yesterday, he rolled over from back to front like it was the most natural thing in the world. And then he did it again. And today he just won't stop. He's already using his new found skills to make escape attempts from diaper changes and floor blankets. He does occasionally still get stuck with an arm underneath him, but this doesn't seem to discourage him - he'll just keep trying to flip his leg back over even harder with flexibility and core strength that I envy. He'll probably have some sore abs tomorrow.

Roll over! Roll over! Send Cyrus right over!

The only bad news I have to share is that we broke our 51 day seizure free streak this last Tuesday. But he immediately slept it off and was back to his smiling, laughing, oohing self. We're now into day four of attempting to establish a new record!

        

In other news: 
After three phone calls we still have not received our COBRA enrollment packet via snail mail or email. And as always, we have to refill stupidly expensive prescriptions relatively soon, so my anxiety levels are a little higher than normal, but we have a few contingency plans, so I'm sure it will all work out.

And we did just receive notification that we have been approved for Medi-Cal under the disability program, so if Cyrus gets his Medi-Cal card in the mail next week this might help with all the prescription nonsense - even the specialty pharmacy refills - and our financial sustainability near all these doctors that we love! Hopefully, one of these insurance programs will iron itself out in time.

Cyrus is starting a new class on Monday, that is a social and sensory development class. It has several other students with developmental delays. There's lots of singing (bilingual singing!!) and sensory and physical play.

On Friday I go back to work for the new school year and while part of me is sad that I won't be able to spend quite as much time with him, I'm beyond grateful that I had the privilege of seeing Cyrus make so much progress while I was at home to see it happen!

Time hop: 

Cyrus a year ago! When he was on steroids.

Note: In the tech migration from my old work gmail account to my personal one, I seem to have lost all pictures and videos on my old posts. This will be repaired! But it will be gradual.