After quite an adventurous first year of life, we are thrilled to announce that Finn has made it to one! We celebrated his birthday last weekend with a small party attended by his Tutu, Grandpa, and a few close friends. We had a monkey theme (everyone had to wear ‘monkey crowns’) and a pumpkin cake (from the same recipe we used when he was born). Finn was a little hesitant at the beginning of the soirée, but then he warmed up and seemed to really enjoy himself. It was a wonderful celebration with much to be thankful for.
Our last few doctor’s appointments have gone well. The ophthalmologist was pleasantly surprised by how Finn was doing. The strabismus (eye crossing) is still apparent, and will most likely always be there, but there was no sign of the nystagmus (involuntary eye darting) and he seemed to be tracking very well. We also met with a neurosurgeon at Children’s a couple of weeks ago. He was not overly concerned about the ‘strange posturing’ we have been observing, meaning he didn’t think it was seizures, nor did he think it was related to anything else besides what has been happening with Finn’s cerebellum. Last week we saw Finn’s pediatrician too. He also thought Finn was looking relatively good. He was encouraged by the fact that even though the progress Finn has been making is slow, it is still progress.
Finn continues to babble and has added ‘da’ to his repertoire of consonant sounds as well. Unfortunately, at one year of age he does not mimic sounds when we make them and he does not yet make sounds to refer to particular people (i.e. mama or dada) or objects. This does mean that he is somewhat delayed in his language abilities. We are starting speech therapy with him in the next couple of weeks and are hoping that will help. We are also working on teaching him to wave ‘hello’ and ‘bye bye.’
Finn continues to roll across the floor and is currently working on transitioning from being in the sitting position to getting down to a laying position. Sometimes he is able to do this rather smoothly and other times he kind of lands on his face. Mostly, he takes it all with a grain of salt and keeps on trying. We are happy to report as well that his sitting continues to improve. The issues of ataxia and hypotonia in his trunk are still present, it does seem like he is sitting a little steadier and straighter than he was a month or two ago. Now, the vast majority of the time he is able to sit without falling, but sometimes he does still topple over. It is hard because sometimes he really cries when this happens (it must be so frustrating and somewhat painful too to him!) but there is nothing we can do except continue to help him and encourage him. We are also working with him to help him bend his knees when he is in a standing position so he can learn to stand and then be able to reach down to pick up something on the floor or get down on the floor from being upright. There is so much that we take for granted that we can do as humans in the way in which we move our bodies. Finn reminds of us this every day as we watch him learning new moves.
Other good news is that Finn is REALLY interacting with his environment. He constantly reaches, leans, pulls on, and grabs everything around him! This happens at home and when we go out and about. He is very curious about the world around him, and we love this! The other day we were at a restaurant with a paper napkin dispenser on the table. He had so much fun pulling out a multitude of napkins all by himself! I know the restaurateurs were probably less than pleased, but we thought it was great. He is also really enjoying dropping and retrieving objects from the floor or from containers. Again, this is wonderful, normal developmental behavior so we are so happy Finn is interested in doing these things.
As always, thank you for your continued prayers and support! Finn still has a long way to go, but little by little we still believe he’ll get there. Oh, and there are a few new pictures of the birthday boy in the Fall 2007 folder. http://amazingfinn.com/gallery/fall-2007/ Enjoy!
