Animals and More

Nathan is now officially a teenager, having celebrated his 13th birthday a few days ago. He is acting like a typical teen in many ways, and is his own “Nathan” brand of teenager in even more ways. 

He graduated from 6th grade this past Spring and started in middle school this Fall with new teachers and classmates. School has been a tremendous blessing for him over the past few years. He seems to do well with an established routine. These days, that daily weekday routine begins at 6:30am as his mother and I tag team his morning. I go wake him up, get him showered and dressed, while his mom gets him some breakfast and gathers his school supplies. Nathan is still not a morning person, but by the time he’s had his shower he’s pretty much awake and ready to go. One of Nathan’s favorite words to call people is “turkey”. He calls me that many times each morning. His bus drivers pick him up by 6:55am and we don’t see him again until they drop him back home around 2:30pm. 

There are many stories to share about Nathan, but I will catch you up on just a couple. It looks like one of my posts a few years ago showed Nathan’s room “decorating” abilities. Another room related experience is as follows.

Nathan was on the top bunk of the bunk bed and he got a little too excited up there, and kicked a hole in the wall. No one was there to witness it, but he looked through the 7 inch hole and decided to push everything he could get his hands on through it. In went stuffed animals, a shelf full of books, toys, his electronic devices, and many other random things from the floor of his bedroom.

We were less than thrilled with the hole in the wall and upset about all the stuff that went through it. As I took a flashlight to the hole, I discovered that it was not a typical 3 1/2 inch deep hole, as wide as a typical wall - No, Nathan had found an area that was about 12 feet by 8 feet above an angled set of trusses (that is situated above the vaulted ceiling of the room below). This meant that there was plenty of room in this cavity for as much stuff as Nathan could find. Ugh! How to recover the items was going to be a challenge, probably requiring an enlargement of the hole to be able to reach some of the stuff that had gone deeper in.

However, this problem sparked an idea. Maybe, we could build a little room in there. You can see the results in the pictures I'll post below. Now basically we have an extension to the room that was caused by the original hole in the wall. The new space, now built out, is one of Nathan's favorite places to be. On many occasions we would find him choosing to sleep in the new annex, until we decided to move his mattress in there. He loves it and we affectionately refer to the space as Nathan's hole in the wall. Consequently, we have now replaced the pokemon stickers with glow in the dark stickers of the solar system and stars. Nathan LOVES the planets!

Speaking of favorite places, we have to include his outdoor haven. We hung a hammock under the tree and cleared out a part of the barn out back and built a large sand box for him. Since it is a covered space, he enjoys time out there all year long. He particularly loves to sit in the sand, grab handfuls of dirt, hold the dirt to his face and slowly let it fall, watching the wind carry the dirt wherever it wants. This gives Nathan countless hours of enjoyment, and yes, leaves him literally covered in dirt almost every day.

Nathan's sand spot in the barn brings up another important milestone for him - animals!

I mentioned in a previous post that Nathan has been deathly afraid of animals. When a family member brought their dog to our house, he climbed up on the counter, table or anything else to get away from it. But we have read about the benefits of animals for special needs children. Could this be possible for our son, who is so afraid?

We decided to try it out with the addition of a very small dog for Christmas 2017. Though our sweet little Havanese (Sofie) was as non-threatening as you could hope for, Nathan was definitely afraid. During the first two weeks of a dog in our home, Nathan would run to his room and close the door whenever he saw her. Over time (several months), he gradually warmed up to her to the point where he would not avoid her, and now he is not afraid of her at all. His overcoming of that fear has helped a lot whenever we encounter dogs outside the home, which is a great blessing, since so many in our neighborhood have dogs and other animals.

Recently, we learned of an opportunity for Nathan to participate in equine therapy (horses). We really did not think he would be able to even sit on a horse because of fear and physical inability. Having heard of remarkable experiences of other special needs children with this type of therapy, we decided to give it a try, and... success! Tara and I were shocked the first time Nathan was atop a horse. He has been to just two sessions so far, but he is doing amazingly well. Another incredible obstacle he is overcoming. Somewhat ironically, the first horse Nathan rode was named "Bear". Bears are among his favorite things, as evidenced by his stuffed blue riding partner.

As you will see in the pictures, Nathan loves his headphones and his stuffed animals. He especially loves to listen to Christmas music and to classical music. He also likes to watch videos of Pac Man, Minecraft, and Mario Brothers, especially if they are set to fun music or special sound effects. Here are two examples of Nathan mixing his unique personality and sense of humor with his headphones. Yes, those are pancakes on his ears and yes, the dirty forehead shows that he's just come from the sand pile. 😁

At this point we are overwhelmed with gratitude. When Tara and I learned about Nathan's condition when he was just three months old, we were told that he may never walk, talk, or function like a typical person, and it tore us apart. We wanted the very best life possible for him and resolved together that we would be united in providing such a life for him, just as we desired the very best for all of our children. What I didn't realize at that time is that there are human angels on this earth - individuals who have hearts the size of planets. Those who have worked with Nathan over his 13 years are among these angels. Teachers, technicians, doctors, siblings, bus drivers, families in our local congregation and neighborhood, and now specialized horsemen have cast a blanket of peace and love on Nathan and our family. I cannot be more grateful and in awe at their generosity and caring.

Finally, speaking of enlarged hearts, let's talk about Nathan's. As mentioned previously, Nathan has had numerous surgeries to try to correct many physical issues. One of the most concerning is still ahead of us - open heart surgery. He has an enlarged aortic root that will need to be replaced. As one doctor described to us, the root of his heart is much larger than that of a full grown NFL player and it keeps growing. At some point it will rupture if it is not replaced first. However, the risks of the surgery itself are not small. So we regularly see a cardiologist to monitor the growth of the aortic root and to decide the best time for the surgery, so Nathan is as strong as he can be in order to handle the surgery. The older he is at the time of the surgery, the better it will be for him. So we wait.

We love all who assist Nathan. He continues to make great strides forward. We are grateful that others have chosen to join us on this special journey. We include you when we call him "Our Nathan". Thank you!

Goofing around in water up Santaquin Canyon!

Our family: They are all amazing, but we could never be complete without the young man holding all the stuffed animals!

Update on Nathan:

He loves school, his friends and his teachers. This year, he is not the only one from our family in his elementary school. His older sister, Emma, and his younger brother, Ammon, both attend as well. Nathan enjoys seeing them at recess or at lunch time.

Nathan's best pal at home is his youngest brother, Luke, who just turned three. Since Nathan just turned nine, there is a six year gap. However, they seem to operate on the same wavelength much of the time. They play together and they make messes together. These last couple of weeks have made records in the mess department. They got into the game closet, took out all of the board games, opened them all and threw all of the little pieces all over the house.

A few days later they got into the craft closet and got into all of the craft paints and squirted them all over the walls and especially the floor. Gratefully, the paints were water soluble, so we were only up until 2AM getting those out with our newly purchased carpet cleaning machine. One of the handheld wand variety. A full-size one would come in handy but we figure we couldn't afford one of those yet.

That brings us to the latest mess. This one I remembered to video document so I could share it with you. Enjoy!

--Ben

Nathan: equal parts Inspiration and perspiration

Nathan: Equal Parts Inspiration and Perspiration

Nathan continues to grow and develop. He is 7 and a half years old now and seems to be of average physical size for his age. He does have odd bone growth patterns, which are especially noticeable on his hands and feet. He is generally quite skinny. We asked the doctor about that and he says it is just genetics, because he is healthy. He is certainly getting stronger, which is a good thing most of the time. There are times, however, when his physical strength can be a detriment. Nathan's mom, Tara, gets him up and ready for school each morning. If Nathan is not interested in going to school that day, he can put up a pretty good fight. Tara has been punched, kicked, and bit by a determined little boy. He generally likes school. I attribute his morning moods to not being a morning person.

At the same time, we are conscious of his behavior and don't want others to get hurt if he is in one of his moods. We have tried different medications to see if he can be a little more calm to those around him. So far, it has not been a successful exercise. At times the meds seemed to be working, but had side effects of not sleeping enough or at the appropriate times. He would be up in the middle of the night for hours on end talking to himself as loud as he could, completely happy. But this practice made the morning routine a bigger nightmare than usual.

A good characteristic I have found in Nathan is that he can switch his moods fairly easily in many of those instances. If I become the tickle monster during one of his fits, he can often change his behavior immediately with the added attention and lightened mood. But alas, even that does not always work. Everyone in the family has learned that we are going to take a few bumps and bruises from Nathan.

Our Nathan is not a bad boy. Far from it. He is a sweet, loving child who wants to be loved back. It is difficult to see the way others treat him. He mostly wants to be included and accepted, but not everyone understands how to connect with him. It is especially sad to hear other children say they do not want to come to our house because "that kid" lives there. That breaks our hearts but we do not judge them. We often fear those we simply do not understand.

I am grateful that Nathan is part of our family. He is a noticeable part of our family, but not the epicenter of it. We have six other children (Yep, that's right. Seven all together) and each one is so very precious to us. Each has their own set of needs that are unique to them. I will admit that it can be difficult to keep a balance between helping Nathan with his special needs and yet giving each of the other children their deserved parent time as well. That is something I still need to work on.

The other children have adapted to Nathan and his different ways, but it can be difficult. For instance, our oldest son recently took a job in assembly at home. He would bring home boxes of small parts and would put a predetermined number of each tiny part into small bags for later assembly by the end user. Nathan found his boxes of small parts one day when they were left unattended. He scattered thousands of them throughout the house before he was discovered.

Along the lines of small pieces, Nathan loves cold cereal. We buy it in large quantities to feed our army of children. He has figured out how to get at the bags of cereal in the pantry, steals away to his room and chows down. Unfortunately, part of this ritual involves making the cereal "rain" in his room. I don't want to calculate how much money I have lost to cereal hurricanes in Nathan's room.

Nathan's room does not belong only to him. He shares it with his four-year-old brother, Ammon. Theirs has been an interesting relationship. At this point, Ammon has long since surpassed him in all mental categories, but is still weaker physically. Nathan seems to pick on Ammon for no reason at all. Perhaps he is seeking attention and knows no other way to get it. Once again, we are all still learning.

The dynamic between Nathan and our other children is an important one for me and my wife. Every person in our family is important, precious, and valued. I took on a major project a few years ago that has been a blessing to our family. I wrote a book. My work of fiction is intended primarily as entertainment for teens and adults, but one of the key characters is a mentally handicapped boy inspired by Nathan. This character's role in the book has helped my own children see Nathan in a positive light. If you read it, you will see why. It can be found on Amazon. It is called Forests of Farallon.

Here are some of the other things that Nathan loves and hates these days:

Loves:

- School. He loves his teachers and they love him

- The letter N. He says his name anytime he sees this letter

- Minecraft. If we let him, he would sit for hours in front of a kindle or computer watching or playing this game.

- His Amazon Kindle. Nathan has his own Kindle, as do a few of our children. If the batteries run out on his Kindle, the others have learned that theirs may get swiped. Missing Kindles have a way of turning up on or near Nathan's bed in his room. One note about the hardiness of those devices. They can take a BEATING! We have lost a couple of them, but for the amount of abuse Nathan has put them through, none should be working. The problem is that once the battery runs out, he has no concept of charging it. He just thinks it is now useless and he throws it. I know, I know, violence and technology are not a good pair, but...he loves his kindle too much to take it away. We are still working on teaching him how to treat his device more carefully. It may be a long road.

- The baby learning videos. He loves the colors, sights and sounds on this channel as much as our 18 month old son does. They are on a similar mental wavelength right now.

- Sign language. His teachers are doing a great job using this to communicate with Nathan. He brings home new signs. I love to see him communicate with his hands. Of course that means we need to learn it too, an area where I need improvement.

Dislikes:

- Nathan is scared TO DEATH of dogs. I know, you'd think he would love a dog for companionship and attention. Not so. It doesn't matter how big or small the dog is either. He is completely mortified of any dog. Over the years we have discussed the possibility of getting a dog, but with Nathan's fear, that won't happen anytime soon, if ever.

- Much to our dismay, Nathan at age seven still has no interest in potty training. Tara has spent lots of hours trying to teach him. You have heard the old adage "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink." Our experience with potty training has been similar. "You can lead Nathan to the toilet, but you can't make him pee." Potty training Nathan is on the "most desired" list in our home. At this point, our eighteen month old is showing more interest in that area.

As we have mentioned before, Nathan has a big heart...literally. His aortic root is enlarged and has been from birth. It is currently much larger than an adults full grown aortic root. We visit the cardiologist every six months to get a sonogram to measure it. Eventually, it will have to be replaced. His last visits have not shown a significant increase in size which is a great blessing. We want to put off open heart surgery as long as possible.

In summary, Nathan continues to bring lots of inspiration and perspiration. We love him and are learning more and more what that really means.

--Ben

Life with Pencils

Nathan's favorite toys aren't toys at all for the rest of us: pencils. Around our house, pencils can (and will) be found anywhere. Here are a few places they are found regularly out of doors.


- On the lawn.  Several pencils have met their doom by the lawn mower
- In the round pen.  This is also known as Nathan's 50 foot sand box.  Our horse has turned up more than a few pockets of pencils (Nathan's buried treasure) on her rides.
- In the compost bin, mixed in with grass clippings, shredded paper, horse manure, and general household scraps.
- In the chicken waterers
- In the hay stack (in the hay, on the hay, under the hay)
- In the horse pen.
  There are many more places for pencils inside the house. 


- Behind and under any furniture
- Under refrigerator and oven
- Behind the piano (there is currently a large cache of them there, which drives him nuts because he can see them but can't reach them.  Tara won't remove them out of principle, trying to help him understand that pencils don't belong there and are no longer accessible if he puts them there.)  I am not sure it is working.  We will see.  Eventually they may all be there and our problem will be solved. :)
- Inside heater vents (how far down are they?  how long are your arms?)
- But my least favorite place he has been hiding pencils of late:  Did you know that pencils will flush down the toilet?  Well, partway down, anyway.  I have ripped up the toilet three times in the last month, having to clean it out from underneath because pencils won't go down with a plunger or even with a toilet auger.  They have to come back out.  argh!  

One more thing you may not know is that pencils, when soaked in water become pliable (almost like rubber).  That only makes them harder to clear because they won't break with an auger but are still not soft enough to bend through the pipes.

Complicating the matter is the fact that we are trying to potty train Nathan, so he needs constant access to the toilet but we don't want him near it with pencils.  He always has a handful (or two) of pencils and loves them so much that we don't want to take them completely away from him either.  


Just one more Nathan joy: life with pencils.

Long overdue update

My wife, Tara has posted most of the entries to this blog, so as Nathan's dad I think it is my turn.  And since it has been so long since the last post, today is a good day for an update.  We obviously have been absent from this site.  I apologize to any of you who posted comments and we are only now seeing them.  Some of them are years old.  Ugh.  Oops.  It has been so long, in fact, that I am not sure if people are actually following this thread anymore.  I may just be completing this as a personal exercise.

Be that as it may, Nathan is doing very well.  He is now 5 and 1/2 years of age and is learning new stuff each day.  He goes to pre-school three times per week and seems to be doing well there.  The plan is to have him start kindergarten this Fall.  We will help decide which school has the program that will best suit his needs.

Mentally, Nathan operates more on a one to two-year-old level.  He is learning new words, but rarely puts words together.  Most of his communication is quite simple.  He learned to say his own name about a month ago.  That was a breakthrough day.  He has also stopped calling his little brother by the name baby.  It is now Ammon.  Yeah!

Actually, having a little brother has been a fantastic experience.  Ammon is three years younger than Nathan but is a good companion for him.  They hang out a lot together.  Of course, what they are best at is making messes, so their partnership is bitter sweet.  :)

Making messes...ah, yes.  Now we have come to the real talent that Nathan possesses.  I am pretty sure that if there were a Hall of Fame for mess making, Nathan would be a serious contender.  The other day we had guests over who remarked, "You know, it seems like every time we come over here, the vacuum cleaner is running."  Our only response was with a smile, "have you met Nathan?"

That has become our family's answer for a number of situations in the house.  "Why are all of the newly folded clothes now at the bottom of the stairs?"  "How did the 50 lb. bag of sugar end up spread throughout the living room?"  "Why is there flour between all of the keys on the piano?"  "Who put Chocolate Dino Bites all over the computer keyboard?"  and our personal favorite, "Who decorated the upstairs bedroom with the contents of dirty diapers.....again!"  Sorry if this comes across a bit too graphic for you, but hey, that is life with Nathan.

Each of the above (real) questions is now answered with a question of its own: Have you met Nathan?

Yes, he must be watched all the time unless you want to deal with another mess.  But that comes with the territory.  You learn to operate a little differently in order to lessen the impact of the coming mess.  For example, Nathan's room has little else in it besides his mattress, his bedding and a few toys.  What we have hanging on the walls all must be out of his five-year-old reach.  Those upper parts of the wall and the ceiling can still be sullied as Nathan has taught us.  He is actually an incredible aim and usually hits his mark on the first try.  When it comes to messes in his room, he has gotten proficient at hitting the ceiling fan and thus distributes his desired mess medium throughout the room in one fell swoop.

I mentioned that having a little brother for Nathan has been bitter sweet because of the messes the two of them can create together.  It is bitter sweet for another reason too.  While we accept and love Nathan just as he is, it can be a little disheartening to see his little brother become his "big" brother in most ways.  Ammon has now long since passed him in most aspects of development, including speech, physical ability, and mental capability.  Though not a point to dwell on, it is a steady reminder of the things Nathan will not be able to do in his life.

Nathan is healthy.  That has been our number one concern for him since his birth.  He is perhaps as healthy now as he has ever been.  In the Spring of 2012, he underwent heart surgery to repair his atrial septal defect (a hole in his heart).  The surgery was very successful and later MRIs show no complications.  That is a relief.  Unfortunately, those same MRIs show us that we are not out of the woods yet.  As mentioned in a previous post, Nathan also has an enlarged aortic root, which means that that part of his heart is disproportionately large for his age.  In fact, his aortic root is as large as an adult aortic root.  When all is said and done, Nathan will eventually need open-heart surgery to replace that part of his heart.  That makes us very nervous.  We are currently in a waiting game.  We have regular appointments to assess the growth of the aortic root.  We don't want to do the surgery before it is necessary because of the possible negative consequences of the surgery itself (including mortality).  But we also don't want to wait to long, knowing that doing so may lead to a fatal rupture.

The really good news is that the last MRI showed that the root did not grow faster than the rest of his heart.  We don't have to check it again until this Autumn.

Nathan has a few favorite things.  One of these is pencils.  He is facinated with them.  For Christmas he was given new stacks of them.  He loves to carry them around, to organize them, and to roll them down whatever slope he can find.  Without pencils, we would probably never make it through a Sunday church service without a serious meltdown.  They seem to give him comfort and a sense of something familiar.  Of course he can make a pretty good mess with those too.  You would be surprised at all the places a pencil can be found/hidden/lodged.

He also loves anything with texture that he can hold in his hands.  He can play in dirt for hours at a time and never want to leave.  The sandbox under our walnut tree is one of his favorite places, but really any dirt will do.  We took a family trip to Sequoia National Park this past summer.  He couldn't have cared less about the massive trees, but all the dirt!  He would frequently stop and drop to the dirt, lift handfuls of it and dump them on his head (or on his little brother's head).  Pretty soon, he would be so covered in dirt and loving every second of it that tourists were taking more pictures of him than they were of the thousand-year-old trees.  I can picture them telling stories of their travels, "Oh, you wouldn't believe the strange wildlife we found in California."  :)

The list of Nathan stories is endless.  I can't pick which ones to share.  Okay, just one more.  Nathan loves cups.  Next to pencils, our brightly colored tumblers are his favorite toys.  He can also drag a chair to the kitchen and get in the cupboard, which explains why we frequently have a shortage of anything to drink from.  He can often be seen with a large stack of tumblers all organized by color.  Sometimes he uses them to make kitchen concoctions.  That is one of the risks you run when leaving ANYTHING within Nathan's reach.  He will mix all sorts of stuff in his cups and will pour them back and forth between cups.  He has actually gotten rather proficient in the dumping process, so we don't have as many messes with these liquid creations as we used to.  We have discovered that watching Nathan making a new cullinary creation serves as an effective appetite suppressant.  He will mix different liquids together, add in something to get real soggy, then partially drink it, swish it around in his mouth and then spit it back into one of the cups.  It may be something like a fancy wine tasting, where discriminating taste testers swish and spit.  I guess Nathan is like them, though his "palate" does not appear to be all that discriminating.  (I personally don't drink wine, but have watched too many Frasier reruns).

Now, you may judge me for my next admission, but it must be said.  Living with Nathan adds a great deal of stress to life.  Everything we do has to be altered so it can be accomplished with Nathan.  Every room in the house is frequently "Nathanized" which can be taken either to mean Nathan proofed or Nathan terrorized.

So here are answers to some frequently asked questions:

Is living with Nathan difficult?  Yes, absolutely.  It can be especially so for our other children (ther are six all together, including Nathan).  The children are learning responsibility and patience on a daily basis.  Not all days are triumphs in that respect.

Would we choose to have Nathan any other way?  No.  We want the best for him and recognize that he is a precious gift for our family.  We also know that this is only a temporary state for him.  After this life, we will have lots of good laughs with a completely whole Nathan.  We look forward to that day, but don't want it to come for a very long time.

Does Nathan's health worry us?  Yes.  Though his health is currently good, our worst fear is to find him with a spirit departed.  That fear exists in us every day.  Each time I open his bedroom door and see his little chest move up and down I breathe a sigh of relief.

Is our life changed because of Nathan?  Unquestionably.  All of us are different because of our association with this special spirit.  I believe it has made us better parents, better sibings, and a stronger family.  Know though, that while life is altered to help accommodate Nathan, life moves on.  He is one of six beautiful children in our home and each deserves and gets our attention.  We still plan and take family get-aways.  Sure people stare at us sometimes but let them.

I am out of time today, but had to share a little glimpse into the latest developments of a wonderful little boy:  Our Nathan.

First steps!

Almost 22 months

Nathan took his first real steps tonight! He was standing near my son Benj by a rocking chair and took two steps to me on the bed. So, of course, I shouted for Ben and the rest of kids to come watch. We proceeded to take the next 20 minutes making him walk from person to person. Each of the kids wanted to be a part of this great moment. So he kept walking and falling from one person to the next. We are so excited to see how much he wants to walk. From my experience, once Nathan wants to do something, then we really see progress.

This morning I was discussing how to help him learn to walk with one of his therapists. We are currently trying to figure out why he loses his balance. There are times when he falls over really hard on his head or just decides to lay down from the standing position by falling straight forward or straight backward. He often loses his footing. As you can imagine, this causes all types of bumps and bruises. He seems to have a high tolerance for this type of pain. (We are currently contemplating some type of helmet for him.) So I spent all morning discussing little things we can do to help him learn to walk. Then tonight, he just takes off and walks 2-3 steps at a time. What fun!

Nathan favorite activity is stacking. He will stack DVDs, magazines, his toys rings and blocks. He is so funny as he goes about it. He likes to stand with his feet flat on the ground and balance with his forehead on the ground in a V position. (Test your flexibility and try it.) Then he can use both hands to gather toys and stack them underneath him. It is quite funny to watch him as he moves around the room gathering toys in this position. As I told you before, he crawls all the time now. Lately he has been really gaining speed as he moves in the bear crawl, with straight legs and arms.

He has also been able to do so many thing with toys that he has never done before. Nathan would never let go of any toy that he enjoyed. Just this month, he learned to drop a ball at the top of a ramp to watch it roll down and then get the ball to do it again. He has another toy where he drops blocks down the hole and then finds the blocks on the tray underneath. Nathan seems to enjoy more complex toys now. A couple of his therapists starting to call him their "Little Einstein" because he is refusing to have anything to do with toys that are too easy. Always makes a mother proud.

There are many toys that are hard for Nathan to work because he has poor fine motor skills. He still has difficulty picking up things in a pincher grab using his pointer finger and thumb. He also has difficulty with anything where he needs his hand to be flat. When he runs into trouble getting a toy to work for him, he comes up with a new solution. He was having a tough time getting a lever to make Elmo pop up in a jack-in-the-box type of toy. He just couldn't push hard enough with his fingers. So he picked up a stacking ring and began hitting and pushing on the lever until Elmo popped up. Then he grinned, so very pleased with himself.

Nathan can eat most foods now except for really hard foods like carrots. This makes life so much easier. He still drinks mostly from a bottle. We have been trying to help him learn to drink from sipper cups. He likes to throw them against the wall and watch the juice run down. I don't like this nearly as much as he does. So we taught him how to drink from a straw last week. He actually picked it up in one night. We were using one of the cups with a straw that doesn't drip. It is awesome. I need to find some more of those.

For the last 8 months, his vision therapist has been trying to get Nathan to pick things up and put things in a bowl. He just refused to do it. Since his stacking mania began, he has really improved this talent. In fact, now he is just plain trouble. He loves stacking things in his dump truck. However, the bowl that he likes to put things in the most is the toilet bowl. He likes to play in the water. He goes and gets the kids toys and books to throw them into the toilet. So we taught the kids to make sure that the toilet seat was always closed. This only took him a day or two to figure out. Soon he had that lid resting on his head while he was playing in the water again! Ugh. I swear he can hear the bathroom door open from anywhere in the house. Closing the bathroom doors at all times is a must in my house. Wait until he discovers that the toilet paper unrolls. Good for development but not so good for my sanity.

Today, he finally figured out how to start down the stairs. For the last few months I have been turning him around and getting him onto the top step. Once there, he could go down the stairs with ease. He just couldn't seem to start. Now he is no longer stranded when he crawls upstairs.

Nathan has been practicing standing all the time. Today, I caught him standing near the tub without holding on for about 20 seconds. He is getting really strong.

It is so fun to see him actually on the growth charts. We are on a vacation from doctors. I do need to take him into the pediatrician soon. He was supposed to go in for an sedated echo cardiogram to check on his heart last week. He was really congested from a bad cold, so we ended up cancelling it. We couldn't reschedule until the end of October. We are fine with this postponement since we hate to see him sedated. Breathing becomes so difficulty for him after anesthesia. So we will put that off for a while.

I just had to share all of his great achievements.

Tara

Glasses

18 months

We just got back from our appointment with Dr. L, our ophthalmologist. I have been looking forward to this appointment for a long time because his eye contact and object tracking have improved so much. Dr. L said that Nathan is just about caught up to his age.

His farsightedness is a little worse, so Nathan is going to need glasses. He has +8 in his left eye and +9 in his right, I think. This should help him as most activities are close up at this age. It will be interesting to see if glasses alter some of Nathan’s behaviors. I am hoping that with glasses he might pick up on some ASL signs that we have been doing, or some communication cards that we are going to start. So far, we don’t have any real way of communicating yet.

Nathan also might not have Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI). It may be that he was just developmentally delayed and now is getting more on track. The doctor will give us more of a diagnosis after our next visit. By that time, we should be able to assess how he is doing with glasses and any behavioral changes that might have occurred.

So next week, the battle of the glasses will begin. Rachel also started wearing glasses around 18 months. She was terribly stubborn about not wearing them and we had quite the battle. Now we battle to get her to take them off when she goes to sleep. We will have to see how Nathan likes being able to see. The good thing is that this time around, I have many hands to help me continually put the glasses back in place.