progress

Hi! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the last few gorgeous days of summer. The boys are doing very well! We had a great weekend! On Saturday, we went to the Museum with Aunt Lys, Reid, and another friend and her two daughters. Then, Saturday night, we went out to dinner to celebrate Uncle Seth's birthday. Today, we went grocery shopping and then hung out at home, playing with every single toy we own. Our living room looked like a Toys R Us explosion by bedtime! Ross had a very exciting week! He took his first few steps forward holding onto my hands! I am so proud of him! Up until now, he has only been cruising sideways while holding onto furniture. He is still having some trouble with high muscle tone in his legs, and is walking very high up on his toes, so he is going to be wearing DAFO's (ankle/foot braces) for a while to help him get the balance he needs to walk on his own. He should have the braces in a few weeks. However, this was the first time he tried to take steps forward and is a huge accomplishment! On Friday, he had his yearly re-evaluation for his early intervention services and he ROCKED! He has made great progress in PT and OT for his fine and gross motor skills and he is catching up in both areas. In fact, he has made such great progress with the torticollis (the problem he had with his neck muscles) that he now only needs PT once a week instead of twice! The most exciting news, though, is that for cognitive and social skills, he is right on target for his real (not adjusted for prematurity) age! Yeah, Ross! Riley is also doing beautifully! He is cruising much more quickly now and has a lot more confidence with his movements. He has been using some special therapy shorts that have straps to help hold his legs together while he is standing. His low muscle tone makes it hard for him to keep his legs together and he tends to slide into a split and fall down after a few minutes. However, with these shorts, he is standing for over 30 minutes at a time! It's really amazing to see how quickly he is gaining strength from using them. His re-evaluation is next week, so I will post all the good news for him after the meeting. Please take a look at the new pics I posted. Some of them are from a few weeks ago when we went swimming at Reid's house and some are from the past couple of weeks. Thanks for checking in!