Aiden

Hmm, where do I start with him? Aiden is my whole world. He is my miracle baby in so many ways, and I don't know what I did to deserve such an amazing child! He's my Navy brat, he lived in 3 different states in just over 2 years, and has adjusted so well! He loves his grandma and papa so much, and it is awesome that he now has the chance to see them so often, rather than every few months!

Aiden is in the process of being officially diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He has always favored his left side... we knew he was left handed by the time he was 3 months old, which I am now finding out is the first sign that there was a problem. He still learned how to walk at 10 months old, despite the fact that he has partial paralysis! We started working with an occupational therapist, Paula, on January 5th, and the improvement in his hand is incredible! She comes to our house every other week for one on one time, and he attends a playgroup with a whole group of therapists every Wednesday. One his initial evaluation, his right arm use was at about 10% of what it could be. Our goal is to be at 80% by the time he is 3, and he is well on his way to that goal. It's the little things that excite me right now, today at playgroup, he picked up a glue stick and attempted to use both hands to take the top off! That was unheard of just a few months ago! I am so proud of my little man! He gets his first home visit with a physical therapist on Tuesday to start working on his leg. He uses it pretty well, he walks, runs and climbs, but when he overuses it, his ankle twists in and his foot clubs up. The PT will be working on stretching out his hamstring which is freezing up as he gets older. I just wish one of his many pediatricians had caught all of this at some point in the last 2.5 years, because he would be doing so much better by this point! The next step is to get in to see a neurologist, who will perform an MRI so we can see if there is any permanent brain injury. He had a traumatic birth, but none of his docs ever followed up on that. We should have answers soon, but in the meantime, I am so grateful for the Early On program here!

Aiden working on putting poker chips through a little slot with his OT.



We took our first trip to the John Ball Zoo 2 weeks ago, and Aiden loved it! He is absolutely obsessed with animals, and incredibly compassionate. I don't think he would have minded if we had left him there, especially if it meant he was able to stay with the penguins forever!


Here's Aiden checking out a puma... he loves watching them on Diego, so it was amazing for him to see one in real life!