Matty's Blog

That’s how fast Matthew is achieving some of his toughest milestones at the moment – it’s like a gun firing off. For starters Matty has just started to crawl. He is still learning so he currently looks like a soldier as he can only do a commando style crawl. With time and more physiotherapy we should be ‘properly’ crawling within a few months. We have had to double the size of his playpen so that he can get around a lot more and isn’t confined to such a small shape. It isn’t uncommon for me to hear a particular toy on one side of the playpen make a sound, and then hear a completely different sound on the other side within the same minute. He seems to have learnt rather quickly that this is a way to get what you want. His physiotherapist is very happy with the range of movement that Matthew is starting to build. He is able to sit up and balance very well, even when she attempts to tip him over (she looks at reaction times and technique). He is also beginning to stand in a special standing frame that the physiotherapy department had built for him. It allows Matthew to stand straight, with his feet facing forward and ensures that there are no ‘boo-boos’ from falling down as he does not have the stamina to stand for too long. In the frame however, Matthew is able to stand for over half an hour and play with toys on a desk in front of him. We know he is progressing with this frame as there are no marks under his armpits when we take him out, proving that he is holding his own weight for most of the time. You little champion!

Peeking through the bars of his cot

Matthew has also begun to speak. I am not talking about babble because he has been doing that for quite some time. I am actually referring to copying us and repeating the word we say. He loves to say ‘Dad’ all day long when Dad is at work, but chooses to say ‘Mum’ only as I come into view or if he is calling me to him. He is also stringing together some beautiful sounds that I am sure is bound to make speech therapy very happy. The other day he even tried to mimic me doing an ‘air kiss’, puckering his lips a little. Unfortunately, by the time the camera was on hand, he was far more interested in the camera rather than looking at and copying me. He is still a very shy boy and does not really say anything when we are not at home.  If he has something really important to say, even though I cannot understand it yet, he does sometimes yell it out no matter where we are.

With regards to Matthew’s feeding issues, we always knew that time would be the best cure. Sure enough we had a fantastic glimpse of what the future will look like. On one particular day, Matthew drank 3 full feeds (each one is 125mls) from his sippy cup. I am unsure if he would have drank any more as his other 2 feeds were scheduled while he was asleep so he never got another chance. Since then his numbers have gone back to his ‘normal’ range (about 30mls), but it was nice to see that it is possible and maybe he will let us have another one of those days very soon. He is doing much better with solid food eating. He can now consume about 60mls to 120mls of puree per meal and these can now range from milkshake thickness all the way to including rice and chopped pasta. He still struggles sometimes and vomits (this may be related to the cyst below his voicebox tricking him into thinking he is choking), but he keeps trying to taste everything. He has also started finger foods and already has favorites. He takes tiny little bites from his rice crackers and enjoys crunching them between his teeth or softening them by pressing them against the roof of his mouth. His all time favorite finger food is…. french fries. He watches me eat them and cries out for the one I am holding, even if he has already got one in his hand. He greedily consumes them and his current record is 3 chips in one sitting (7 chips sacrificed to dog). He likes them so much that he other day he confused my drinking straw with a chip and began to cry because I didn’t offer him any. Greedy little munchkin!

My little monster!

I guess you are wondering why we have taken so long to write all these milestones in seeing as it was a long time between mentioning Matthew’s progress. Funny thing is that all of these milestones have occurred in the last 2 weeks. Some we have been waiting for him to repeat the action so we know it wasn’t a fluke (crawling) and some we have been arguing about (I still think ‘Mum’ was his first word but Dad believes otherwise – for the record ‘Dad’ was said first, but I think he understands that saying  ’Mum’ calls me over to him). I think a little light bulb must have gone off in his head because I cannot explain how he has acquired so many new skills in such a short amount of time. I am so proud of my little boy, who everyday makes me believe in miracles and allows me to be witness to them.

February 7th, 2010 | Category: Uncategorized | Subscribe to comments | Both comments and pings are currently closed