Adam update

We took Adam to a neurogist in St. Paul a few weeks ago. She was really impressed with his progress! His left foot, which when he first got home would hardly flex at all, is now hardly noticeable, and she said it was really a "non-issue" at this point, and for us to just continue his stretches. He's been doing certain leg/foot stretches every day for a few years now, and thankfully, it seems to be doing the trick. He still walks without flexing his left foot completely, but you can hardly notice it. It was nice to hear a good report for him. She was optimistic about his left hand also... Adam can't do nearly with his left hand what he can do with his right, but he does have some use of it, and has learned to work around it well enough to call it "good enough" she said. John has given Adam "left-hand" projects to do whenever he thinks to, and one of those is that whenever he eats supper, Adam should use his left hand. He hates that, but he has made a lot of progress because of it, I think. He also does some daily exercises with 5lb. weights.

The big thing that he has against him now is his expressive language. The doctor didn't seem as concerned as maybe I would be. Thought maybe his issues with language might still be because of the switch from Russian, but my Mama Instinct says otherwise - though he has made amazing progress with that too. Everything comes harder for him, but they aren't impossible. He is doing much better in his math than he ever has before, but his speech is still tough.

It would also help if he weren't also a little on the stubborn side too at times... He sometimes gets irritated having to repeat himself, and he'll often botch what he's saying just to push our buttons. Like the other day he wanted more bacon, and instead of asking for it, he just said, "Ca I more dat?" (didn't finish the "n" in can, and didn't bother trying to say "have" or telling us what "dat" was, etc.) John and I just looked at him and said, "uh, nope. Try again."

Adam took a breath and said, "Can I have more licorice?" Ok, OBVIOUSLY he knew it wasn't licorice, but he wanted to push a button or two. It took him a rather long time to come up with the right answer, but eventually he said it... "Can I have more bacon please?" *sigh*

The biggest thing we're working on with him, though is his mumbling. He likes to only say half of his words, call everything "that/dat," or "stuff" or "thing." He will string three words together into one word quite often. John and I are CONSTANTLY telling him to try again. But, it has helped him so much. He's made a lot of progress, and is even saying his "r's" right when we ask him to try again. He doesn't say them on his own yet (without prompting, I mean), (that's a lot of effort you know), but he often he has come up with PERFECT r's when he tries, which always earns him lots of praise and high fives. Those American R's are toughies, you know.