Two years ago yesterday, Kellin came home. He met his daddy, sister, and brothers for the first time, and we took our first picture as a family of six. It has been quite the experience these last two years. And since it’s been awhile since I posted an update on Kellin, I thought this was the perfect time to do it.
So . . . two years home . . . how’s Kellin doing?
Kellin continues to move forward with his development, often in teeny tiny little baby steps, but the progress is there. He is accepting expectations at home much more calmly; for example, he will now go through the morning routine of getting dressed and eating breakfast with minimal fussing most days, rather than crying the entire time. He dresses himself as long as I help him grab the clothes the right way, and then he will put them on. He’s using the potty like a champ, and I suspect that once we commit to potty-training, it won’t be too difficult to achieve. I think he’s probably capable of being trained right now, but I just can’t bring myself to commit to revolving my life around that at the moment. I think summer sounds like a good time for potty-training, right?
Kellin’s eating continues to progress very slowly. He’s now eating a variety of spoon foods, like yogurt, soup, spaghettios, creamed corn, oatmeal, baked beans, and applesauce, and he tolerates the chunks in these foods without any difficulty. He doesn’t chew them at all though. He still seems to believe that any food that comes from a spoon is meant to be swallowed whole, no matter what it is. With a lot of prompting, he will spoon-feed himself, but for the most part he has no motivation to pick up the spoon himself unless told. In terms of finger foods, he eats mini sandwich crackers, apples, and a few kinds of cereal (dry). He drinks juice from an open cup or straw independently. Although I would love to see Kellin chewing and eating a greater variety of foods, I have decided that my priority right now is to focus on self-feeding. I figure he certainly could live on soup, yogurt, and crackers for the rest of his life, but I do NOT want to be feeding him for the rest of his life.
Kellin’s weight is now around 27 pounds. This is down from his highest weight this summer of 28 ½ pounds. He has recently been put on a medication that is supposed to increase his appetite. Although we had the bad luck of him getting sick just days after starting it (so we stopped the medicine for a while), we had a couple glimpses of its potential. One evening I sat down to feed him supper (oatmeal), and even though I usually feed him his supper because we’re both tired of the struggle of making him feed himself by that time of day, he took the spoon out of my hand and proceeded to feed himself about 15 bites of oatmeal with NO prompting from me. I swear my mouth was hanging open with shock. I had never seen him eat with such enthusiasm before. We are now resuming the medication and I am excited to see what effect it might have.
Kellin’s skills in communication are moving forward oh-so-slowly. He nods his head “yes” now, and he makes a sound that I believe means “juice.” He says “mama” sometimes and tries to imitate sounds when we ask him. He still gets stuck on using the same sounds over and over, though. He still doesn’t seem to realize that he can make different sounds to communicate different things. He understands much more than he can express.
We are seeing evidence of some impressive thinking skills as well. We’ve noticed that when he plays with his cube toy (still a favorite after two years!), he always holds it a certain way - green side up, pink and purple sides facing out. We still haven’t figured out exactly how he knows which side is which. At first we thought maybe he was using the on/off switch as a cue (it’s very small but it’s on the edge of the green side) but in observing, he doesn’t seem to be touching that. Then we thought maybe it sounded louder or quieter when facing a certain direction, but we can’t hear a difference. There are a couple of tiny holes for the screws in one side, and we think maybe he is feeling for those, but we’re not sure. In any case, he is picking up on something subtle, because no matter how you hand the cube to him, he will turn it until it’s facing the “right” way. And with other toys - he knows exactly how to find the buttons he wants, even on toys that have many small buttons. I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to turn down the volume on his keyboard, only to have him immediately turn it up when I walk away.
Kellin also seems to be gaining an idea of quantity and counting. For example, if I say he needs to take three more bites, he will often open his mouth for the spoon three more times and then stop. Our stairs have 11 steps down, then a landing, and then another 3 steps. When going down the last 3 steps, he always knows when he’s reached the bottom, even though there is no banister or anything that will tell him that, so somehow he is realizing he’s stepped down 3 steps. He loves to “count” Daddy’s fingers - he will hold one hand on Daddy’s thumb, while moving his other hand to each other finger while Daddy counts. He’s very deliberate in touching each one in order.
His pre-Braille skills are really coming along. Kellin now seems very interested in Braille and moves his hands across it just like a sighted preschool child might study the letters and words on the page. He’s not reading yet (obviously) but he’s showing encouraging signs that he will be capable of reading in time.
Kellin is exploring and climbing more. He walks around daycare and even climbs up onto the table if nobody’s watching. Yesterday at the doctor, he walked around the exam room even though it was a totally unfamiliar place to him. He seems to be more confident.
I’m sure I’ve missed some things, but this is long enough, so I will end with some pictures from the last couple months.
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| Made with her new 3D pen! |
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| Fancy new shoes for Christmas! |
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| With Grandma and Grandpa |
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| Tigger LOVE LOVE LOVES wolves!! |
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| Christmas at Grandma's - wiped out! |
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| See the cube? Green side up, pink and purple facing out! |
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| Kellin with Grandma |
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| Kellin's great-grandma made this quilt for him. All the fabrics have different textures, and she created his name in Braille on it. It is truly a work of art, and so special for Kellin to have. |
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| Brothers |
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| Sleeping cutie! |
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| Yeah, he climbed up there all by himself. |
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| Kellin's Thanksgiving dinner - spaghettios! |
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| Indoor snowball fight with cousins (not real snow, of course) |
