SUPER SKILLS

SITTING!!

4/30/13:

Oliver woke up at 1:30 am and was able to fall back to sleep in our bed, but woke up at 4 am raring to go...Somehow I was able to get him to sleep until 6...I think he ended up between us with his head toward the foot of the bed.  (We could really use a king size bed, but at least the dog doesn't get in bed with us anymore!)  He has been pretty consistent with his 6 am wake-up time since then...some days (few and far between) he will sleep until 6:30 or 7.  

Oliver used to help unload the dishwasher every morning...and today he wanted to help again!  Nana put him the in sling she made and he told her where everything went. (BTW, the sling is totally awesome! I need to set up an etsy shop for her...) He helped stack cups and dishes where possible.  

The biggest milestone of the day was Oliver SITTING by himself and putting shapes into the shape sorter.  He was reaching for pieces and steadying his hands to turn and push the pieces into the lid.  We played in the basement for awhile and picked out a bunch of toys (most were from his early toddler days) that had fine motor skills actions involved and took them upstairs.  Then, I thought he was trying to get a snack (he points everywhere he wants to go...fairly bossy little dude these days:) however, he really wanted to go in the garage.  Apparently he wanted to go for a drive in mommy's car.  Since I didn't have a carseat installed, we just went to go sit in the back seat.  He was pretty happy with himself for sitting alone and was laughing a bit.  We had a good time, until I realized the CHILD LOCKS were engaged and we couldn't get out.  Oliver thought it was really funny when I started honking the horn...thankfully my mom finally realized we weren't just playing around and came to rescue us.  oops:)

At about 7:50pm Oliver asked to go to bed (rather, he pointed to the stairs and kissed everyone good night).  We rocked, read 3 books, prayed then sang...then he pointed to his bed and was asleep by 8pm.    Such a good boy!

May 2013:

The first couple days of May were pretty consistent.  Oliver had injections am and pm and several oral meds with each.  He is getting pretty good at just sucking them straight out of the syringe.  (He has always been good at that with tylenol...but these meds are a little less tasty).  

Some of the potential fun side effects of high-dose steroid treatments are cushingoid syndrome (puffy face and neck) and high blood pressure.  As a result, Oliver's new reality is a diet limited to 1 gram of sodium a day.  This is fairly extreme- the American Heart Association and the Kidney Foundation recommend a 2 gram sodium diet.  In addition, the nutritionist we saw during our 2nd inpatient stay said it was impossible (after all a bowl of soup has over 700 mg....really?  My kid doesn't even like soup in the winter, let alone the summer!  Though Auntie Sarah did point out that a sausage egg McMuffin has over 1g of sodium by itself, darn.  And, now the nutritionist is a running joke in our family).  Anyway, we have a friend who literally ate ZERO sodium for an entire year (he was fighting cancer cells naturally), so we knew it was most definitely possible.  What we didn't anticipate was yet another side effect...Oliver is constantly hungry.  Since at any given time, as many as 5 adults could participate in Oliver's care during the day we decided it was necessary to write down what he was eating.  Quite the task when he wanted to eat every 5 minutes.  As he has gotten more mobile, he is more easily distracted and doesn't need to eat without ceasing, but it was tough at first.  

On the 2nd, Oliver was very fussy near bed time, pointing insistently.  I thought he wanted MORE food, and I put my foot down.  The child could not possibly NEED more food to meet his nutritional requirements.  Eventually, we got up anyway so I could see more specifically what I was saying "no" to.  He lead me through the kitchen, past the fridge, past the pantry, through the dining room and to the staircase.  He just wanted to go to bed!  

We went through our normal routine: rocking, reading, praying...and this time when we sang, he tried to sing "Jesus Loves me" for the first time since he stopped talking.  It was an awesome "mom"ent.  One I will never forget. 

The last several days he has been playing in the basement more.  Nana took him down there and they found a Sesame Street Memory Game that Mimi and Papa got for Oliver at Easter.  Oliver loves organizing the cards and putting the matches out.  He is still struggling with patience.  If the cards aren't lined up perfectly, he gets frustrated.  But what really surprised me was that some characters have two different pairs...one is a close up of their face, the other a full shot (Grover's face and Super Grover for example)...and he would make sure to group both pairs.  I might be partial, but that seems pretty advanced:)  Below is a picture of him playing with his cards, note his mad sitting skills:)