Attitude adjustment

"You need an attitude adjustment." Words spoken from my parents mouth often when I was younger. You know, the age where you hate your parents and never want to spend time with them and don't understand why they wont let you go to your friends house after you didn't clean your bedroom age. Yeah, that one.

Well, Karsen is apparently 16 months, going on 16 years old. *sigh* He's in serious need of an attitude adjustment. Karter never had this problem. Maybe I got lucky and Karter was a super easy kid, and still is. But my gut is telling me it has to do with his CP. I think a huge part of it is his inability to communicate with us properly. I really honestly think he is getting frustrated. He tries to hit Kuper or I out of the way, lets not forget Karter too. He throws food off of his tray, and I don't mean some food, I mean ALL of his food. If I give him food that he doesn't want, which I have to quite often since one cannot survive off of graham crackers alone, he will scream/cry and fling himself into the back of his high chair over and over and over again. I'm thankful he seems to only do this at home, in public I'm sure I would get the 'Get a handle on your child' look for many people. Oh and don't let me forget how he throws a fit EVERY time we change his diaper or clothes. Karsen hasn't spoken any words yet, and I'm not sure when he will. He understands somethings, like when we ask him to dance, or ask for a kiss, and plays peekaboo. He doesn't know how to wave goodbye, if you ask him where a body part is he has no clue what you are talking about, and the biggest thing is he doesn't know how to say or sign or shake his head yes or no. He used sign language once with us (more), but I don't believe he knew he was saying "more" rather than mimicking what I was doing and helping him do it. Maybe this could be a sign of Aphasia, I'm not sure.

We have an appointment with our neurologist next week, so I will be bringing up all of these things to her attention. I'm not even sure if there is anything that can be done that we aren't already doing, but it can't hurt to ask. Patience. Something that doesn't come easy for me. I will buy my husband a Birthday or Christmas present  and can't even wait a few days to give it to him, so I end up giving it to him right when I get home. I know, silly. But really, I have no patience, it's never been easy but it's something I'm learning to work on. Karsen is making sure of that. 

I'm so very grateful for the huge strides he has made in the last month. I am so happy he was able to eat some of the Thanksgiving food. I'm ecstatic that he can drink from a sippy on his on. I'm just having to learn as we go, that there is much more to his CP than just a motor skill problem, it's so much more complex. 

One day at a time.

Enjoying snuggles while eating a graham cracker with frosting.