Rex - Twenty-Five Weeks Home

Today marks twenty-seven weeks out of the orphanage and twenty-five weeks home for Rex. Considering that I have been updating on his progress throughout the month, I think I can keep this post short-ish.

Rex is doing well and learning new things all the time. We have recently introduced puzzles and he is great at taking the pieces out and sure tries hard to put them back in. He can stand on one leg now, too, and has figured out how to push mega lego blocks together to build towers. His receptive language seems to be growing quickly. Just the other night Craig asked Rex if he wanted to go in the water, meaning take a bath, and Rex immediately grabbed his hands, walked him over to the kitchen sink, and reached his arms toward the faucet. He heard water and he knew what/where it was. He also frequently responds properly to our requests of “go get…” now. We keep encouraging signing and vocalizations and may try out PECS soon to help his ability to express himself. Lastly, I should report that we had our first tearless toenail clipping. I could only do two toes at a time and then needed to give Rex a tiny break, but we got through it well. Considering how great he does now with cutting his fingernails, I think we will soon have no issues left with the toenails either.

He is usually very kind to his sometimes pesky sister.

In nutritional news, lately Rex has been willing to touch fresh fruits to his tongue. He’s experimented with apples and grapes and he actually ate a bowl of fresh strawberries with yogurt on them. I call that a victory. He also had his first experience with lasagna and after some initial hesitation, ended up loving it. I am looking into more supplements for him to help his brain and his digestion (he struggles with constipation – tmi, I know), but I have to find some that are easy to take/give. Rex is not going to swallow a pill or anything that tastes bad to him, including artificial flavors. Suggestions are welcome.

Parallel Play?

He still loves to play on the stairs.

We also learned last week that Rex has been accepted into a private preschool for children with developmental disabilities. He will start there in the fall. It already breaks my heart to think that he will be away from me all day on weekdays, but it is about what’s best for him, not me. This preschool offers 1:1 and 1:2 instruction, OT, PT, ST, aqua therapy, ABA, sensory integration, etc. on site, and meets Ohio academic standards/requirements, so in many ways they can do so much more than I am able to do at home. The program is also very small and there is daily opportunity for inclusion with children in an equally small neuro-typical preschool class. They only had four openings for the next school year and we are so thankful that Rex was chosen to fill one of them.

Getting more handsome by the day.