3 Months Home

Wow, it seems un real that we could have been home for 3 months already. And at the same time it feels like Easton's been a part of our family forever. We wouldn't trade life with him for anything. He's brought so much laughter and joy into our lives. He teaches us something new every day (mostly patience!!) and every day we see him learning. He's soaking life up like a sponge. It makes me sad to think
that if there would have been even just a tiny effort put into teaching him, how different he might be. But if he was any different we wouldn't be able to watch God's hand work in his life and grow the way that he is. He's so perfect for our family!


We've had lots of medical appointments since being home and I'll try to review the majority of what we've found out, but in a quick summary, Easton is very healthy medically.


*We've seen audiology to find out that his hearing is perfect (which we basically knew).

*We've seen Urology which told us that his kidneys were healthy even though his medical report showed one kidney might not be functioning properly. So that was a blessing.

*We've started PT OT and ST and they are wonderful. We love the group of girls that is working with Easton and his improvements are amazing. We were going to be seeing Shriners for Eastons feet and legs, because the MD felt he might need bracing due to some flat feet. Our PT offered to do the bracing for us, so we took her up on it. But his improvements in this department have blown her away. He picks his toes up when he walks now and he's built so much more muscle and coordination that he looks like a different child walking and running. Basically the braces will help get rid of the wobbling he does with his upper body when walking sometimes.
OT and ST are working together with Easton to work on his aversion to touching things and his aversion to any type of oral stimulation outside of food (i.e. brusing his teeth) and of course on his speech. His speech really has made improvements in just three months. He says "bye bye", "mama","ball" and has started to attempt other words like "go""papa""eat""stop" "shoe" and "more". He can say his vowel sounds pretty well most of the time also. The only trouble was he couldn't use his toungue to make sounds so "go" only sounded like "ooo" and "eat" only sounds like "eee".
Basically our ST said that he has no language so we will treat his language development like an infants. He will learn sounds and those sounds will eventually progress into full words. So that's what we work on. Soon he will be starting PT OT and ST through our local school system too so we are excited to see how the extra therapy each week helps him.

*All of Eastons lab work came back great except for a little anemia which we knew about. We are giving him an iron supplement and hoping it corrects itself over the next few months.

*Opthalmology said his eyes were pretty good except for being a little near-sighted but nothing that we are going to worry about correcting right now.

*Modified Barium Swallow was conducted to check and see if his tongue thrusting at certain foods was neurological or simply a response to different textures. Praise the lord his swallowing was perfect, so we've gotten much more aggressive about getting him to chew and try harder/crunchier foods.
Sometimes we have to offer him something "fun" like touching the ceiling (which he loves to do) if he'll eat something crunchy, and it seems to be working so far!

We are still scheduled to see Genetics tomorrow, so we are really anxious about this visit

So far Easton has gained 15 lbs and 1 inch in height. We've gone from 24 month clothing to 3T. The pants still have to be adjusted at the waist a little but 2t are too short and he's wearing 4T in shirts. If he hits 40lbs he will officially be on the growth chart in weight for a 7 year old!

He's learning how to be in a family. He's learning how to follow directions and picking up understanding english like crazy. We can be doing laundry (which he loves to help with) and I'll give him the dryer sheets and say "go throw them away" and he will go to the kitchen and throw them away then come back to me. It's really amazing how quickly he's picked up a new language. There's very little he doesn't understand. HE still has trouble with object recognition and unless we point at what we want him to get, typically he can't figure out what it is we are wanting. HE does know shoes, ball and door, but besides that he seems to get a little confused (but it has to be expected).

Easton is great at going with the flow and would be going somewhere all the time if he could. He loves it outside (that's an understatement) and would stay there all of the time regardless of the temperature.

We took him bowling a few weeks ago and he did so great, learning how and taking his turn. He really enjoyed it. He even attempted to be the bowling ball by running down the lane...that didn't work out so well for him haha!

We are working every day to get our little guy where he needs to be and his progress just blows us away. His behavior has made great strides. When he first came home, his first reaction to being told no or being made to do something he didn't want to, was to hit/scratch/bite. That has changed dramatically. This behavior has completely vanished and now when he's done something wrong and told no, he comes to give a hug and kiss like he's sorry! Smart kid, and learning quickly!!


Here's some picture for you to enjoy and see how our boy is growing!!