A little bit about James

The other day when James and I were outside playing I started reflecting on all the new things he has accomplished recently. Then it hit me that he has accomplished a lot in the past year.

A year ago: At the beginning of October he had just barely started standing on his own and walking while pushing a toy.

In November after not making any further progress with standing and walking, his pediatrician recommended a gross motor skill evaluation from a development specialist to see if he needed any extra help. After a couple of phone calls to the appropriate people at the U of U clinic, I was referred to DDI Vantage for an Early Intervention program. They came to our house for the evaluation and found that his Gross Motor skills were at a 11 month old, he was 21 months at the time. A huge gap that needed to be addressed. The rest of the things they tested him on (fine motor, cognitive, expressive language, receptive language, social/emotional and self help) were at or exceeded where he should have been. So we began physical therapy twice a month.

Not even a month into physical therapy we started seeing him do this:

Just as he turned two he started taking steps on his own:

Then he over the next couple of month he was able to do more and more, like walking while carrying various toys, throwing balls while standing and crawling up and down stairs.

In April his therapist did another development test and he was now at an 18th month level for his gross motor skill. He had progressed some for the other areas and was still at the appropriate level, except self help. Which his therapist said was normal for kids who are also behind on gross motor skills, plus the test also has potty training/toilet readiness on it. Some kids just don't potty train or aren't ready to potty train till they are 3. So I wasn't to feel worried about self help skills too much.

Through out the summer we focused on walking up and down the stairs and on to running, jumping, squatting and walking backwards and the self help skill of removing socks and shoes. Which he did master all except running and jumping prior to our move.

His Therapist did do another evaluation on him prior to our move and he was now at a 22 month level. Being able to run and jump were the only things keeping the score low.

Since we have been here he has gotten even better at walking up and downstairs. Probably because he has to in order to get to and from his room. He also can sort of jump. Meaning he jumps really well while holding onto something and gets a tiny bit off the ground when not. Just last week he mastered going up the ladder at the playground.

He still can't run but is getting closer every day. And slowly but surely we are in the process of potty training.

I just love my sweet little guy and am so proud of everything he has learned to do this past year. I also can't believe he'll be 3 in just 3 months. He definitely is not a baby any more.