This guy has settled into such a great guy who I really enjoy having around the house. It's so interesting to watch him every day - he's got plans in his head, and he goes about accomplishing them! They're very different from the plans a typical 16 year old boy may have, but they're his, and he takes ownership of them and lives them out to their fullest.
Today Owen and I took him to his PT session, without any other helpers, so we were able to take Owen's truck. (Less than two weeks until Owen takes his driving test!!! Oh, how I hope hope hope he'll pass on the first try! I am SO ready to have another driver in the house!!!)
We've had the swing up in the basement again lately, and Krassi, with his increased strength, is able to climb onto it if there's someone else on it to steady it for him as he pushes up. These two were having a blast last week when I popped down to check on things!
There are many exciting things on the horizon for Krassimir, too. He's started taking a more active role on a more regular basis in feeding himself. Currently we load up his spoon for him, modified with a special adaptive handle, and he's responsible for 3-5 of his own bites at each meal. As he's growing, a new chair for him to sit in while he eats is really going to be necessary - he's still using the one a family at our therapy center gave us when he first came home, and he's pushing the limit on size - and we're hoping to be able to get something with an eating surface so he could possibly even learn to do the scooping up of the food himself as well. I'm really excited about this. As I've written about before, when Krassi first came home, he seemed to channel all of his angst and negative emotions about his life into the single act of eating. We're hopeful that being able to take ownership of this necessary daily task with help him to view it in a different light!
While the above photo doesn't demonstrate self-feeding, it does capture a funny moment from lunch today! The thick gray handle is the one Krassi uses, but this time REUBEN wanted to help feed Krassi. Oh my! Much giggling, as Reuben accidentally bumped into Krassi's front teeth at one point, and Krassi laughed, so Reuben tried to do it again, and Krassi was laughing so hard he couldn't close his mouth to get the pudding off the spoon! Had to work hard to convince Reuben that this was NOT a good idea...and missed getting a photo of where Rose is supporting the spoon that Reuben is holding while I'm holding Reuben's elbow to help minimize the chance of bumping and Krassi is holding Reuben's wrist as a tool to self-feed. :P Quite the production! It works better when Krassi does it on his own!
Something else we're considering, though not quite sure what it looks like yet, is moving toward some degree of toilet training for Krassimir. He has much more of an awareness of his bodily functions than Reuben does, and will frequently bring us the wet wipes when his diaper is dirty, showing us that he doesn't really like it, and that's a great motivator to use other means! With the new bathroom, there's room to get him and an adult and perhaps even some sort of *thing* to help (not sure yet what that would be), and it's also possible that with our shorter toilet bowl, he may be able to use the grab bar on the side to pull up to standing, and sit sideways on the bowl where's he's got a good double grip on the bar. The logistics of all this remain to be seen - the bathroom is still a "no-no" room for him after his days of hugging Grandma's toilet so he could lick it from when she still lived in her own home when Krassi first came home. I think "Don't go in the bathroom" was one of the first rules we had for him!!! But that, too, may be a devious sort of motivator for him as well...who knows...but we'll still draw the line at licking. Bleh!
We are also increasingly seeing him using picture cards to make choices of a field of two or three with very consistently meaningful answers. We are cautiously optimistic that we may be able to reach a new level of communication with him at some point in the foreseeable future. When he first came home he demonstrated an amazing capacity for learning to understand spoken English, and that first summer, gained rather quickly the use of two ASL signs (my turn and please) which he kind of morphed into one and the same sign...and that's it. It's been surprisingly useful, but I *know* there's more in that guy! He has opinions about stuff! And we'd love to be able to hear from him proactively, and not just reactively.
It's amazing how much he grows and learns between each of our visits! His strength and mobility has always been the most obvious (that swing looks AMAZING), but I see it even in the conversations we get to have. So exciting for everyone involved that you might have more verbal/symbolic communication on the horizon!
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