Brady Boy

It's a late post tonight. I've been at my mom's working on transforming the kids' wagon into a ________? You'll just have to wait until Halloween! Let's just say my back hurts and I'm covered in paint:)

I had Brady's Annual Review meeting today to discuss his Early Intervention Services. At this point last year he was evaluated in several areas and qualified for physical therapy due to his extreme motor delays at the time. Fast forward 12 months...he has "tested out" in many areas, but his PT, service coordinator, and I all feel he still needs some sort of services. Because his delay is due to a spinal injury as a result of cancer, we need to make sure that he is continuing to make progress. After all, any signs of weakness or regression could indicate a more serious problem. So, Brady will continue physical therapy, but only 1 time a month for an hour. I'm so proud of all he has done. It's AMAZING to see how far he has come. The first time I brought him to meet his new PT Linda, I remember him standing, very wobbly, in the middle of the room. He was just learning to stand on his own and could cruise. I went back and checked the date, it was April 30th...that is only 6 month ago! Just 6 months! Now Brady walks, Brady runs, Brady climbs, Brady jumps, Brady rides a trike...Brady is considered to have most of the physical skills of a typical boy his age. For any of you out there who doubt the mighty power of prayer, the power of God...just go back and read about where Brady was and how far he has come! It is truly miraculous!!!

Another piece of the Brady puzzle is his social and emotional development. When we first had testing done last year, Brady also qualified for services in this area due to his extreme reservations about being around new people. He had pretty severe separation anxiety and took a VERY long time to warm up to new people. At the time, we didn't pursue help in this area because our plates were pretty full with the medical stuff. Fast forward 12 months...Brady has been through so much. His little world has expanded too! He has been able to bond with new people and experience many new things. However we are still seeing a lot of reluctance to participate in social situations outside of the home. A lot of this comes from Brady's very stubborn personality, and I think this is a learned mechanism for him to control his world. Matt and I are starting to see a lot of defiance at home too, not being naughty really, just VERY stubborn, digging his heels in, refusing to comply to some requests. So, if you put all of these things together, we are somewhat concerned about his ability to adjust to things like preschool, which is only 10 months away! We are going to look into these concerns and do some testing to see if Brady might benefit from help in these areas.

I hope I'm not painting an undesirable picture of who Brady is. He is a delightful, loving, silly, intelligent, energetic boy. We just need to make sure we are helping him work through some of his weaker areas so that he can be a happy participant in all areas of his life:)

Tomorrow is our last Thursday PT visit before we move to once a month:( I'm so proud of Brady, am looking forward to not driving 4 hours a week, but will miss our time with Linda. She's awesome and we will miss seeing her two times a week!