Cha-Cha-Changes

Greetings... guest blogger Rus here. Since the Regional Center (which I've always honestly considered to be a well-meaning gang of total incompetents) cut us loose, we've made a tactical retreat back to Kaiser PT appointments with our old Kaiser PT, Sharron White. We always rather liked Sharron, even though - possibly because - she always gave us homework. She's now in Kaiser's new building, which we actually watched being built day by day when Wyatt was in NICU. Things change, eh?

And nothing changes faster than Wyatt.

Sharron was quite surprised to see how different he was from the baby "who always cried when I put him on his tummy." True enough. Put in a room with all manner of play-mats, benches, steps, and toys, the boy went a little nuts trying to figure out what to tackle first. Perhaps predictably, he went for the standard Wyatt choice: all of it, at the same time. All the steps and benches were lower than our coffee table, and he raced up those without even a pause.

We've been rather concerned by Wyatt's lack of balance and the fact he's not walking yet, and even though he's still in the window for walking, we've been told to be concerned by several people, from Lisa to Dr. Baker, who still may have a trip out a fourth story window in his future. Sharron watched and tested and played with Wyatt for an hour, and she saw different things.

She was very pleased with his crawling, felt no sign of his previous tonal issues, checked his reflexes, and thought his balance was actually pretty good. Certainly, he's not waving around like a field of corn in high wind every time he's on his feet these days, but she pointed out something I'd sorta-noticed, but not thought much about; when he first started cruising, Wyatt basically put himself right up against the object (couch, table, etc.) he was cruising. Now he cruises at arm's length... a natural progression, apparently, that signifies confidence and increasing comfort moving around with a much higher center of gravity.

In fact, I saw the boy do three things in that room that I'd never seen him do before.

First, once he made us get down a life-sized rag doll down, he repeatedly tried to feed it, pressing a plastic disk against its mouth-line.

Second, he made his way down from a step. Wyatt's always been willing to fling himself head-first off any elevation (due, Sharron told me, to them not really getting the whole depth perception thing yet). In this case, Sharron placed a red ramp at a small gap from the step he'd climbed up on. Instead of just diving down it, Wyatt cautiously (another first) tested it with a hand, then crawled down it. Sharron was most pleased with his checking the ramp first... a big developmental step.

Third: as another balance experiment, she stood him up with his butt against a bench, facing her... meaning he was leaning back against an object, and standing without using his hands to steady himself. Then she held out her hands and got him to take a step forward, off the bench, to grab her hands. In all likelihood, he wouldn't have gotten any further, and his step was pretty concurrent with grasping her hands, but he took the step without the promise of support, and he did not falter. Amazing.

But the fact is Wyatt's been doing a lot of new stuff lately. Maybe we've been pushing since the High Risk Clinic, certainly I'VE been pushing since Dr. Baker escaped bodily injury, but Wyatt's always had spurts where a half-dozen new skills show up all at once. He's understood a good number of words without saying them for a while. In the last two days, I think he's been trying to say a few words in response to my relentless goading: dog ("Doah"), ball ("Bah!") and my personal favorite just tonight, book ("bua!").

Sharron wasn't concerned about Wyatt going up on his tip-toes, figuring it's more to reach things, since he spent most of the time flat on his feet for her. So, our homework was to encourage more cruising - the gateway to walking - and suggested lowering his arms when we walk him, as back-breaking as that might be (I can walk him fairly comfortably holding his hands over his hands, he's so tall), and to see if he would try cruising between an almost-too-wide gap, which he's been experimenting with a bit already.

She didn't feel the need to see him again for a month, but as Stephanie couldn't make this visit, I got one for about two weeks, on November 6. Besides, who knows what might change in a month?