Eric News

As seen before Eric is doing great with his new cup. He is getting better with the technique of drinking out of it. He has started asking for his "other cup" (old cup) from the second we head to the kitchen and the whole time we work with his new cup. I feel so bad for him, but we need to do this. He still gets his old cup about 2-3 times a day to keep fluids and nutrients in him. On Friday we will be visiting the feeding clinic to assure everyone this is being done in a way that will keep him healthy. He'll miss his last day of school, but that is OK. His therapists are taking him outside during many of his sessions now. He loves that. Although once this weekend there was an incident where Eric wanted to run a different way than the therapist wanted to go. That led to some major meltdowns. Thankfully he recoverd from that today. For the last couple of weeks he's done awesome during his sessions. When it is good, it is really good. He will do what is asked of him, not much fuss. He is able to sit and focus much better now. For a while it was a real struggle to get him to stay there and work. When it is bad, it is really bad. He will melt down at anything and everything. He won't attend to the task at hand. He will wander away. He would get distracted by whatever his brothers and I were doing down here, or something he wanted to do and would not do what he was asked. The therapist can't even get a full session in when he is like this. It was near impossible to get the needed hours then. These spells have gone for 2-3 weeks at a time. I have found that if he gets enough sleep at night (no guarantee) and he eats before he works with them it goes much better. They actually added a program where he has to sit for 2 minutes. Doesn't seem like a huge thing, but with a physically active child like Eric it is really hard. He's doing very well with this. Now if we could get him to sit on the toilet...He was doing so well with that until Andy started coming in and flushing. Ever since then he will not use a bathroom in this house. He will use the potty at school with no problem. We will get out of these pullups yet. It will defiantely be worked on this summer. Hoping he will just decide on his own to go in there again. I continue to hear more words. Some days he's more talkative than others, but he's doing great. Going outside, no matter how cool it is (which is quite often around here lately) is the ultimate reward for him. He's gone on field trips to the zoo and swimming that I will post pics of when I get them. I'm glad to see him continue to make progress.