Paul's Update - 03/27/07

Dear Friends:

Paul is settling into a bit of a routine here. He has been at our home forthe last four days. He continues to use the walker more each day. Monday after Dora arrived she and Dad got Paul bathed and dressed he ate breakfast at the table. Later in the morning he needed to go to the bathroom, when he was done he walked down the hallway but wasn't interested in sitting in the recliner. He kept walking toward the dining room. Dad thought maybe he was hungry but he kept walking past the dining room ... into the kitchen ... then into the laundry room. He went to the garage door so see inside the garage!! He had helped Dad build that garage! He did really well with transitioning from the carpet to the laminate flooring in the kitchen and then to carpet again in the laundry room. He still tries to put the walker a bit too far ahead of himself but he is working on that. Around 11am Dad started working on the new swing for the front yard. He took Paul outside with him and Paul was able to help hold the trellis while Dad bolted it together. When they got to the overhead piece that creates a shelter from sun & rain Dad gave Paul a wrench to hold on the bolt while he tightened up the nut! Paul enjoyed being outside with Dad ... so much that when they took a break to go to the bathroom he wanted to go right back outside!! We have been working each day to remind Paul what day it is. We have a whiteboard that we write the day & date on each day. Periodically during the day we ask Paul "what day is it?". He still struggles with this but is getting somewhat better if we give him a little prompt. By evening Paul was very tired. He complained of his stomach hurting. Since there is flu going around and Max is sporting a cold it is possible he could be getting a virus. He was in bed by 9pm. This morning Paul seemed to feel better. He was talking a bit this morning. When asked what day it is he said "today is ... ow" so Dad said "tue" and he finished it ... "Tuesday". He still only gets this right about 10% of the time. Uncle Jimmy called this morning and Paul talked to him on the phone. Paul really enjoys talking on the phone. He actually TALKS to convey his answers. They are mostly "hi", "good" or "I'm good", "cool" or "yes" but at least he answers almost everything the other person is saying. Paul wasn't interested in going outside today so Dad brought the new chair set that goes with the swing into the house to put together. This time Dad gave him the bolts and had him put them in the place they go and then gave him the nut to screw on. Paul put the nut on and knew which way to screw it ... in fact if it was misthreaded he was able to take it back off and fix it!! He sat on the floor "Indian style" to work with Dad. Later this afternoon the Speech Therapist came. She started working with Paul right away. She attempted to get Paul to point to the TV and the light next to the couch. He didn't want to cooperate. She tried to get him to identify the number 8 on a flash card when it was with another numbered card. He only got about 30% of them right. Then she put two shapes on flash cards on his lap desk and held up a duplicate of one of those shapes and asked him to identify the card that had the shape in her hand. He got those right EVERY TIME!! This went so well that she decided to try it with numbers. He got ALL of those right too!! Then she tried it with three numbered flash cards and he also got them all right! Matching pictures seems to be something he excels in!! She recommended we work on object & person recognition as well as continuing the date and number recognition. She will come back next week and work some more. She was real good and I think she can make progress with Paul! Tabby called and talked to Paul on the phone. She wasn't able to come over since she is sick. He really enjoyed talking to her and he listened intently when she spoke. By 8pm tonight Paul was very tired and wanted to go to bed. It is a bit early for him but he's had a couple of busy days! Hopefully he isn't getting sick ... Bobby & Tabby have been running fevers. What a blessing these last couple days have been!!

Have a great day!! Lynne & Carl