Set in a routine

Things are starting to become a lot easier in the Williamson house. I have no adapted to Karsen's PT, OT, ST, group thereapy and Home visits schedule, combined with Karter's preschool and Karate schedule. Things must be to easy for me now, I thought now was a good time to start training for another marathon. Yesterdays run made me regret my decision, it wasn't even past the 80's and I was HOT! Karsen has been such a trooper on my runs, I think he is usually too tired to complain. We shoot straight over to the trail after OT, and group therapy before we pick Karter up. I think it's a nice break for him and for me. I'm just going to have to adjust to this "heat". ;-) 

Today, we are picking up Karsen's walker. I'm excited to have something to give him that last bit of push so we can eventually be doing it with out the walker. I think we are getting it in perfect time. Karsen has still taken a few steps here and there when I push him to do it but he is no where stable enough to be walking full time, and to be honest I don't want him to be walking yet then. I know if he were to fall to his left or forward he wouldn't be able to catch his fall. I want him to really have it down before he starts truly walking. So, for now, I will be dealing with a few more months of butt scooting. 

We had our second speech therapy appointment on Monday. It went really well, especially since he woke up early that morning (thank you Karter....) and had a really good (in other words hard working) PT session right before. He only was able to make it 45 minutes in his ST session and was pretty much begging me to put him down for a nap. Right now we are working on him mimicking our actions so we can then get him to mimic our mouths to make different noises. I was a tough first 10 minutes, Colleen was trying to get him to tap a box before she would give him a ball to put it in. So each time he tapped the box he would get a ball. We'd show him, Karter was a HUGE help for this part since Karsen loves doing was brother is doing, and then wait for him to do the same. For the first 10 minutes he was mad, he just wanted all the balls (which he loves playing with balls, especially ones he can grab with one hand. these were ping pong balls, just his size.). But after repetition, and persistent on colleen's part and mine, he started getting! I honestly didn't think he was going to start mimicking anytime soon, I was thrilled.

Tomorrow, Karsen and I head down to Palo Alto for another appointment. This time it is with his ophthalmologist to check on his glasses and to see if they are doing their job. To be honest, I don't think they are. It doesn't help that Karsen is tilting his head down so he can look past the top of his glasses. I'm curious what she is going to say to this. One of my dear friends is taking Karter home after preschool so I wont have to take him with me (and have him miss a day of preschool). It will be a long lonely drive by myself for a day, and I never do good sitting still so we'll see how this goes.

Karsen has remained seizure free for 10 months. 10 MONTHS, PEOPLE!!!! I can't believe we are coming up on a year! He's still off all medication too. Doesn't mean that I don't watch him like a hawk, in fact at church yesterday  I was a paranoid mess and half way through the study I wanted to run back and make sure that all three people with him knew what to look for as far as seizures go. *sigh* Don't know if that will ever go away.

We've had to cut dairy out of his diet.... :-( Poor guy, can't have cup cakes at a birthday party.  We are hoping that we only have to switch his milk to almond milk and that will be enough. He LOVES mac n cheese. If we have to cut cheese out I might loose my mind. We've been told when switching to almond milk the transition can be really hard, thankfully Karsen will drink just about anything. Sucked the stuff down on the first try. We have still been juicing a lot, he has yet to refuse any of my sweet juices in the morning (this mornings: carrots, celery, kale, honey dew, apples, and oranges.).

That's about it for the update. Karsen has really been doing fabulous. The last two weeks, his motor skills have taken off! I'm so proud of my little man. Looking forward to updating you on more fabulous things later.

My Spaghetti eating boy.

 

Out of no where

Today Karsen 100% caught me off guard. While Karter was in karate, Karsen and I got to play with Karter's preschool teachers. I was standing him up like I always do, trying to see if he would stand independently. Apparently he thought that would be too little. He decided to take THREE INDEPENDENT STEPS! I could have cried! We atempted a few more time, because you know mom knows how to push it to far, and he took two steps independently. I was in total shock. I still am. Didn't expect to see that for a while. At group therapy today, I kept telling them he's so close to walking, didn't think I was saying that for today. I'm one serious proud mama over here. It is still going to be a while before he's truly independently walking, but it's a huge start. What's funny about it? His walker was just approved my insurance and should be here in less than a month. I'm thrilled he might only use it for a month or so.

Signing yes and independent steps in one week? He's pretty much amazing.

All done

We have communication!!!! Karsen has now started signing "all done". He's used it four times since yesterday. I'm thrilled, and so is he. I know this is just the start of it all. It came in perfect timing, yesterday was Karsen's first session with his speech therapist. He took to her right away, and I also like her, it's win-win. ;-)

We had a neuro appointment last week. It was very routine. We went over what to expect if (huge if) Karsen's seizures return. What the might look like and what to do. The best part? Ur next appointment is in December! It will be nice to have a break from the drive. Although his eye doctor is don there as ell. We actually have an appointment with her this month as well. Lets hope we can cut that one day as well, although I'm fearful we won't be able to. Karsen is too smart and is cheating. He has started to tilt his head down so he can look out past his glasses. Little stinker.

The diet change is starting to get easier. Karsen has adjusted very easily. It's me that's having a hard time. More than anything it's the mess of a kitchen I can't keep up with.

Other than that, things have really been movie along. Karsen has been free standing more and more and seems so close to taking his first independent steps. I know it's going to be a while before he's fully, confidently walking, but it will come in his own perfect timing.