Leaps and Bounds

My dearest Wesley,

I want to take a moment and pause my series of posts on your birth story to tell you how very proud I am of you!  This month you have surprised us all with the leaps and bounds you have taken.

After working SO HARD to learn your first few signs ("all done", "more", "help please"), you picked up the sign for ball after watching your speech therapist do it twice!  You LOVE the sign for ball, and you delight in showing us how well you can sign it.  If we ask you, "Wesley, do you want to play with a ball?", you will break out in a huge grin and start signing "ball" exuberantly.  (Of course, most of the time you are not the least bit interested in actually playing with a ball; you just want to show off your new skills!)  In fact, you like this sign so much that you are attempting to use it for "help please" as well.  For now we're letting it slide, but eventually you will need to start using the correct sign for "help please" again.



Your balance has improved as well, and you are pushing your newly found balance to the utter limit as usual.  Now, instead of watching you walk steadily, we watch you recklessly RUN everywhere.  I love to listen to your laugh as you run from place to place throughout the day. Your source of energy is endless.  And when you do get tired, you are happy to sacrifice your safety.  You would much prefer to keep going (even if it means you will fall over again and again) rather than rest for a while.

Since starting your sensory diet, we have been introduced to a whole new Wesley.  You can be so calm at times now, and your attention span is greatly improving.  Now that you are able to sit quietly for longer than ten seconds, I decided to introduce you to "blanket time" where you sit on your blanket and play quietly for ten to fifteen minutes.  We have tried this unsuccessfully several times before, but now you have picked it up with no problem!  As soon as I lay out your blanket with your favorite toys, you run over, sit down, and start playing.  I am amazed at how quickly you picked up this new routine.  I go around your blanket, touching your blanket and saying "yes" and then touching the carpet and saying "no" to explain to you to stay on the blanket.  Of course, you think this is such a funny game.  You smile at me and start hitting the carpet over and over again until I remind you that it's time to stay on the blanket.  Then you STAY there until the timer goes off.

You have also turned a corner with feeding, which is a huge answer to prayer.  In addition to the foods you started eating last month, you now eat freeze dried apples and pears, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, lunchables, canned green beans, peas and carrots, cream of wheat, soy yogurt, and you have even eaten one of Mommy's pasta dishes for dinner. Wesley, do you realize the importance of this?  You're now eating foods from all four food groups!  Last week you also started drinking out of a straw cup!  We have been working on this for a year now, which makes this a monumental milestone for you.  I hope you know how proud your Daddy and I are.  Those cheers and dances we do when you learn something new aren't just to make you smile.  They are because we are so very excited that God has helped you to learn something new.  I must confess that two months ago I was feeling pretty hopeless when it came to helping you transition to eating real foods.  It is amazing to look back and realize just how far you've come.  God is doing an amazing work in you Wesley.  When I look at you, I can't help but rejoice and sing praises to Him.

This brings me to the thing I am most excited about.  My favorite part of our day is when your Daddy and I bring you and Zach upstairs to get you ready for bed.  Daddy reads Zach a story from the Bible and then we sing and pray together.  We started this tradition before Zach was one year old, and I have longed for the day that you would join in.  Up until this month, you have spent this time playing with Zach's Legos and Matchbox cars until we start singing.  Then you are excited to join us by dancing around.  But this month you started sitting still and not fighting Mommy when we read books for therapy.  So Mommy and Daddy decided to pull out Zach's baby Bible story book and start reading it to you.  You LOVE it!  Some nights you ask us to read it to you over and over again until we eventually have to tell you that we are all done.  What a joy it is for us to watch you delighting in hearing about Jesus.  Our hearts' desire is that you will trust in Jesus as your Savior and grow to love Him with all of your heart.

I love you so much, my little peanut.  You bring such joy to my life and to our family.

Love,
Mama