Paul's Update - 04/03/07

Dear Friends:

Dora returned to work this morning. She still has a cough which she says is allergy but she is getting better. She and Dad got Paul up, dressed and he was eating breakfast when I got up. I returned to work today so I left the house around 8:30am. Uncle Jimmy came again today to work on the deck. It is almost done. They built a ramp that goes to the driveway so Dad can get Paul onto the deck a bit easier. There is still some work to be done but it is almost complete. Paul sat on the deck a good part of the day watching them work. When they took bathroom breaks Dad had Paul use his walker to get to the bathroom. He really does well although it is slow. The speech therapist came in the afternoon. She worked for about an hour with Paul. Brooke, the therapist, was trying to get Paul identify his eating utensils. She would start the word out ... "knnnn" and he would say "knife". He had a little trouble with "spoon" but if prompted he would eventually get it right. She noticed that he was doing better working when you prompt him. We had noticed that too. When she showed him a number flash card to identify what number it was. He didn't do well identifying numbers but when she would show him a number and ask him "is it a seven or one" he could answer right most of the time. Then she showed him shapes which he did pretty good at. If he had trouble identifying it she would show him a third card which matched one of the two and he could match the shape and get it right 100% of the time. Paul did OK but got tired and was falling asleep after about 1/2 hour. She plans to come back on Thursday and work another 1/2 hour to see if he does better working only 1/2 hour sessions. She wants us to start giving him more choices for things. We have already started doing that but she wants us to encourage him to say what he wants. Tabby came by this evening. She visited with Paul out on the deck. Carolyn had dropped Max off at our house since she was going out to dinner with a friend so Tabby was picking him up as well. Paul wasn't too sure what to do with Max when she put him in his lap. He didn't push him away or reject him but he didn't seem to know what to do. Tabby asked him if he wanted to kiss Max. He shook his head "no" so Tabby said "you want me to turn him around". She was having Paul kiss Max on the head when it was Max's bedtime. When she turned him around Paul was willing to kiss him on the head. Then Paul said "that's better!". This was unsolicited ... it was great! I went out with Brenda & Ronda tonight. We try to get together at least once a month and have a "girls night out". When I got home Paul had just gotten in bed for the night. I went in to say goodnight. I gave him a kiss and asked him if he wanted his second pillow under his head. He said "yes" and I tried to put the pillow behind him. It propped his head too much so I said "do you want me to take it back out?" He nodded "yes" so I removed it and said "sleep good". He responded by saying "good night". It was almost like having a regular conversation ... not just a prompted conversation. He is beginning to say more words. I believe he is beginning remember how to say some things ... not much but it is encouraging that he is doing so well.

Have a great day! Lynne & Carl