Nathaniel is now 2.5 years old as of last Wednesday and I simply can't believe it! He is the most loving, sweet, energetic, independent and happy boy. He has definitely grown up a lot in the last 6 months. His cognition and vocabulary skills are remarkable. And his motor and social skills are developing and getting better each day. We had our annual review with Infants & Toddlers recently and I was very impressed with the results. For cognitive and language he scored "advanced development", Self-help was in the "high average" category, and gross motor and social emotional were in the "low average" to "mild developmental delay" categories. Overall I am thrilled with the results. Due to the mild Cerebral Palsy he is not able to run, jump, navigate stairs, etc like other typical 2.5 year olds but he tries hard and is getting close to all of these skills. The social emotional delay score was due to the observation (at preschool by both of his therapist) that he tends to watch other kids play and play beside them but doesn't usually join in with their play or try to engage with them socially. Some of this could be due to the facts that Nathaniel is an only child and his motor skills may be negatively impacting his social interaction with peers. He also sometimes has difficulty during group activities following directions and imitating the actions during songs and/or finger play. Due to his motor delay he lags behind on these activities. He does however engage in social play with us and our neighbors daughter who is 8 so it may be a comfort issue at school that over time will get better.
Nathaniel is still sleeping in his crib but it does transition to a toddler bed so I will probably remove the front rail as soon as I get a small bed rail for it. I removed the small little kid potty from the bathroom and now we just use a seat on the big potty. Nathaniel transitioned well and really I did it because I was tired of cleaning the little potty. He still needs help going to the bathroom but is still dry 24 hours a day 7 days a week - YAY!
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| I think this may be a blackmail photo! |
Some of Nathaniel's recent sayings:
"Mommy what do you want for Christmas?" - This is my favorite and he said it out of the blue - just walked up to me while I was working on the computer and said it - soooo sweet!
"I am playing with Daddy go away Mommy."
"Ooohhh look at the pretty Christmas tree"
"You look nice today."
"Santa is coming soon! YAY Jesus' birthday!"
1 comment:
Excellent update! Isn't it amazing how fast they make progress. I've always heard that kids don't really play together much until 3ish. I've seen it come earlier with Anderson and I think it's because he has a big brother and he's a more social personality. How you described Nathaniel's social level sounds a lot like how Owen was. Hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas!
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