What's New?

I went back through the last few months of blog posts (which took about 5 minutes) and it made me realize that my first order of business during my month of daily blogging should be to update you on the progress that's been made.

In some pretty significant ways, we are no farther down the milestone road than we were two or three years ago. At nearly four years old, Malachi still has trouble rolling from back to front, almost never does his commando crawling, can only stand when aided, doesn't entirely self-feed, still takes 2-3 bottles per day, isn't potty trained and just generally needs someone else to help him with just about everything. 

In so many other ways, we have accomplished so much. 

My absolute favorite is that about three months ago, Malachi started making rapid progress in conversational language. For really the first time, he and his twin started playing, laughing and wrestling together.

Falling and laughing from Shasta Kearns Moore on Vimeo.

Wrasslin' from Shasta Kearns Moore on Vimeo.

I have no idea what sparked Malachi's sudden interest in conversation and storytelling. It could just be that he's always been a few months behind his twin in speech, but everyone has remarked on how suddenly he has acquired this ability. Whatever the reason, it is an enormous source of pleasure for us.

I'm hoping I have a few more months
before they realize these things need money to actually work.

The boys are even are starting to have conversations. The other day, Malachi asked me to make popcorn but he doesn't like the sound of the popcorn maker. JJ said: "It's OK, Malachi, I will hold your hand." And walked over to do just that. While they were waiting, JJ asked: "Malachi, what did you do at preschool?" "I hung out with K---," he replied. So sweet. 

Preschool has been another big leap forward. Malachi goes to a special needs preschool two mornings a week but they both go to a mainstream co-op preschool two other mornings a week. Canby Community Preschool has been my lifeline, due in large part to our amazing Teacher Andy. She has gone out of her way every week to accommodate Malachi's difference and fully integrate him into the classroom. The preschool has even gone so far as to hire a one-to-one aide (the "K---" Malachi mentioned above) for Malachi so that I get a couple of mornings off! We are just so grateful to that school. 

So far I've used those couple of mornings off to sleep, pay bills and work on our ill-fated GiveForward fundraiser. We made our $5,000 goal, which was totally amazing considering that disaster struck our planned bake sale! I'll talk more about that later. 

Otherwise, we've continued to do Anat Baniel Method lessons at a rate of one week-long series every two months. My plan for this year is that in between each of those series I'll experiment with one other therapy. So far, we did hippotherapy and that went OK. That'll be another post this month. 

At the beginning of the year, we also were very worried about Malachi's weight. At his developmental pediatrician appointment, he had only gained a fraction of a pound since the last time she had seen him in April 2013. We began to seriously consider getting him a gastrointestinal tube in order to keep him growing. 

Fortunately, the moms on the Internet came to the rescue! One of them — and I totally forget who, sorry!! — told me about Pediakid Appetite and Weight Gain Stimulant. Wow! This stuff really works. I haven't weighed him in a couple weeks, but he went from 25.8 pounds to more than 29 pounds in three months.

There's lots more progress — from reading, to improved sitting, to pulling to stand, to (finally!) getting functional use of his power chair — to update you guys on, but you'll just have to keep reading all this month to find out!

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Looking for a meaningful gift? Dark & Light: A Love Story in Black and White is a beautiful and insightful board book available here. All profits go towards my son's medical needs.