One Year Therapy Report

Charlie had his one year physical therapy assessment on Wednesday.  Lori brought along a speech therapist (Michelle) to evaluate Charlie's language skills and acquisition.  We'll see Michelle again in 6 months for another check in.  She had lots of interesting information for us.  The primary focus seemed to be that the musculature of Charlie's mouth, tongue and through seems to have a right side weakness.  Michelle gave us lots of tools and excersizes to work with over the next few months.  What this means in the long term is that Charlie may have some pronunciation issues when he acquires language.  He may also have some initial trouble with swallowing some of the more solid foods, which we've already experienced. 

The therapists are required to ranked him at a certain developmental age in a series of categories.  Based on their test and Lori's past year of working with Charlie, this was their assessment.

Language was tested in three categories:

Intelligibility - 7 months

Cognitive - 7 months

Expressive - 11 months

Physical was tested in three categories:

Gross motor skills - 6 to 7 months

Fine motor skills - 8 months
Social engagement - 12 months

Michelle and Lori both reitterated that his progress has been very good.  Since Charlie was on the Phenobarbital for 7 months, they consider his first month of learning, comprehension and absorption of information to be his 8th month.  So if we count from his 8th month of life to now, that's 6 months of physical and language skill acquisition.  By this measure, Charlie has been progressing as a normal, non-brain injured baby. 

He still has to contend with his left side arm and hand weakness as well as his right side speech and swallow issues, but we are thrilled with Charlie's development.  The future looks very good for Mr. Charles Baird.  From this week on, Lori will be meeting two times a week with Charlie.  The Bbay Olympics, as we like to call them, will be in the Greenman house on Monday and Thursday mornings.

And check out Charlie's new pants!  Charlie has quite a bit of hip abduction which needs to be corrected.  The inseam on these funny little bike shorts is stitched together.  It's like a little pencil skirt from the 1980's.  Once his legs turn back in he'll be able to get them underneath his body for crawling, walking and kicking the crap out of his older brother.  Looking good, Charlie!

The Other Charlie

Now that Walker is in preschool, our family has been introduced to an entirely new and exciting group of friends.  Last weekend, Walker was invited to a birthday party for a boy in his class.  "The Other Charlie", as Walker calls him turned 4 and invited his class over for a kid sized car wash!  Brilliant!

Post Op with Dr. Fearon

Here they are - the before and after photos from Dr. Fearon and Dr. Koller (Charlie's anthropologist who will be documenting his growth over the next 16 years.)  Click on the images to enlarge them.

The post op appointment was very fast - last one of the day for the doctor.  Dr. Fearon was especially pleased with Charlie's head shape.  When before, Charlie was well below the zero percentile for head circumference, now he is scoring in the 25th percentile.  Amazing.  We'll see Dr. Fearon and Dr. Koller again next fall for Charlie's one year check up.  Then again at 5 years, 10 years and 16 years old.

Coffee Park with the Powers

One of my dear friends and doula clients had a baby on September 22nd.  While I was at the delivery, Jack met up with some other dear friends, the Power Family, for some play time at Coffee Park.  Alison took some great shots of the boys. 

Thank you, Alison, for always having your camera on hand.  

Amazing.

Walker Holding Charlie

Walker frequently asks to hold or cuddle with Charlie.  I love that he wants to participate in such an intimate way.  I also love that when Charlie is uncomfortable or I'm looking frantically around the house for something, Walker will ask if there is anything he can do to help.  Today when Jack left the house for work, Walker said, "Make sure you take your reading glasses because I know you have LOTS of books to read."  So considerate.

Today, after Charlie's morning nap, Walker wanted to check on Charlie by himself.  He said, "It's okay, Mommy, I got him."  I followed about two minutes later to find this:

Assistance Please

Charlie has, as you can imagine, a difficult time with the fine motor skills involved with feeding himself.  Most 13 month old babies can sit up strait in a high chair, pick up their food with thumb and forefinger, put food into their mouth, chew and swallow without assistance from an adult.  But Charlie isn't really there yet.  What to do, what to do?

Lori, Charlie's physical therapist, recommended a handy dandy contraption that allows Charlie to hold and eat solid food without frustration.  Check it out... he holds a plastic ring, which is attached to a mesh bag.  I fill the mesh bag with food (bananas, blueberries, sweet potatoes, apple slices, grapes, ice, etc.) and Charlie chews on the mesh bag to extract the food.  He can hold it easily, chew it easily and consume food without choking.  The best part is that prior to using this food ring, Charlie was not chewing at all.  But the bag requires that he gnaw and chew for food to come out.  Already, we've seen improvement in his hand to mouth aim.  Pretty cool, right?

Bedtime Stories

Jack reading to Walker before bed.

Earthing

This morning, we put Charlie out on the lawn in his 'sit and stand'.  We thought it would be a good idea to get his feet on the ground and connect with the electro-magnetic nature of mother earth.  At first he was wondering what in the world we were doing outside.  The heat has kept him indoors for most of August and September.

At first, he was curious about the feeling of grass on his feet.

Then, not so much.

But Walker was enjoying himself in the sandbox, so we stayed out.

Then Charlie got interested in Walker's play time.

Then he got interested in the tree.

...then a bird.

...then a helicopter.

Walker pretended that we weren't there...

...then flashed me a "hey, stop taking my photo" look.

Charlie continued to endure the imprisonment of his 'sit and stand'. 

Then, he had to admit that he kind of liked it.

... and, ooooh, what's this?

...and this?

Later, while Charlie was napping, Walker pulled out some bubbles!

Good times.