Since our fundraising work is at a slow pace we have had the
time to really focus on Dougie. Lately we have set up a daily routine that
includes lots of fun learning, on top of his therapies he has during the week.
This past month we worked on circles and, with November, started squares. Dougie
is really picking things up quick. He seems to be able to identify a circle at
times when we are not even working with them! His favorite part about this is
we make songs up of the shape and sing it through out the month. Dougie can
also count to ten. We had not specifically worked on this; it seems he learned
it from singing different songs such as “this old man”. Goes to show how those
ears are working double to pull in information even when you don’t realize he
is taking it in! He knows and can say 25+ words without our encouragement and
repeats almost everything we say! And he is also now a full time walker! He
walks around EVERYWHERE and is now trying to figure out how to make those
walking legs running legs. It’s really cute because he tends to stomp his feet
really fast but gets no where! Dougies personality is really coming out. He loves attention
on him and will do almost anything to get a laugh out of people.
Visually we are noticing improvements on a daily basis. A
big one being the difference in the distance he is responding to things. It
seems to continue to get further and further. Pre-China he stopped paying
attention to things about a foot away from his face. Now he is going after/grabbing
at things across the room! His eyes seem to be catching a lot more bright
colored objects as well. Pre-China he mostly responded to bright blue. He acknowledges
things in every color now but is responding more to red, orange and yellow, at
the further distance. But the biggest change we have noticed (and also the most
exciting) is when we look into his face he will concentrate really hard and
focus his eyes straight to our own. He has done this several times to both of
us and it is the best feeling in the world! We don’t know how much he is really
seeing with the lack of language but we know it is getting better at this
point! We are working on getting an eye doctor appointment scheduled and will
make sure we update you with what we hear and find out!
As far as going back to China ;
we are going to go back for sure but are enjoying this miracle we get to be a
part of! We have decided to start fully fundraising again in January and will
hopefully be going back sometime around Christmas next year.
With the busy season you might not hear from us and we want
to make sure we wish everyone Happy Holidays! Enjoy your friends and family! And
eat good foods! Thanks again for following us; until next time…
Dougie stopped and turned to this pumpkin all on his own using his eyes! HOW EXCITING!
We painted the pumpkin with sand paint (mixed sand and paint together) that way he can feel it after it dries.
This is Dougie's Helping tree. Every time he helps us clean up his toys before bed he got to put a leaf on that he made himself (with sand painting again) the tree trunk is textured paper so he can also feel that! When he put his last leaf up he picked a prize from his treasure chest and then we started taking the leaves off for fall (easy 'new' helping tree concept!)
He loves the park and everything about it from the swings to the spings! He likes to go down the slide as well and walk all the way around to the steps again with no help!
For Halloween Dougie was Frankenstein. Even came with the 'arahhh'! this particular picture looks like an exact replica of a picture of big Doug!
Cutest Frankenstein EVER