Paul's Update - 01/07/07

Dear Friends:

It seems that everyday we get something really good and almost weekly something really spectacular happens. Paul continues to progress at almost lightening speed compared to what he's done for most of the last year. Today started out like most days. Dad went over early with Paul & Tabby's Starbucks. The lady at Starbucks also endowed Dad with a box of brownies. I think that is appropriate since he buys coffee there EVERY DAY!! Anyway, after Dad got them started he came for breakfast and then went back over to Paul's. It was another beautiful day in the 50's so Dad & Tabby took Paul outside around 10:30am. He was able to enjoy the backyard which now has a small Gazebo that Tabby bought with some of her Christmas money. While they were out there Dad & Tabby decided to have Paul walk around a bit. He was able to walk with Dad on one side and Tabby on the other side holding his arms. He walked the circumference of about half of the back yard. He had pretty good balance and tried very hard. It was quite a lot of walking all at once. They tried to get him to get on his hands and knees on the ground (on a piece of cardboard box) but he wouldn't have anything to do with that!! We will keep working on that. Tabby worked with Paul later in the day to say his alphabet which he can almost say without missing any letters. He was actually able to say W which is amazing since he hasn't been able to say that letter at all. Think of it ... it is the only multiple syllable letter in our alphabet!! Tabby sorta tricked him into saying it last night by telling him to say "double" and then "you" but today he said "W" without having to prompt him. This afternoon he said "I love you" all together after I said it. It is a short sentence but he can put the words together at times! They also worked on numbers again today and Paul was able to count past 10. When they got to thirteen, Dad asked Paul "what comes next?" and Paul said (without prompting) ... "Fourteen". It was amazing ... he KNEW what came next!!! She also can hold up fingers and he will count by himself to five. Sometimes she has to prompt him but he CAN do it by himself ... he can even do it with his own fingers!! He cannot pick out random numbers yet ... I mean to say you cannot hold up three fingers and have him know what they are yet, but he can count from one to five in order. Every once in a while he will say random things when Tabby is working with him. We are amazed when he does this (not to mention pleased!!). Tonight he was watching the movie Batman and one of the characters was talking about the art in the gallery and he said "art". This really took us by surprise since we weren't trying to get him to do anything at the time! It is amazing how much work Paul does lately. I think the doctors will be amazed when he goes back for follow-up visits!!

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl