So I have a small triumph to report. Ever since Nathan was born, he’s slept on his belly because of his exaggerated startle reflex. As soon as he starts falling asleep he startles, his arms flail out, which wakes him up, making him unable to sleep on his back. Well, as of this week – [...]

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Today I realized that so far this year, Nathan has learned to walk, talk, and sit. Sure, he walks with a walker. But hey, it’s walking! He can go when he wants to go, stop when he wants to stop, and go where he wants to go! Sure, he talks with a computer. But he [...]

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By the time I came to my senses and filmed this, he’d been holding himself up for about 10 minutes. I know I know I’m always full of excuses, but I’m slow like that, and only come to my senses when it’s almost too late This, my friends, is the result of 6, yes 6, [...]

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So much going on. So much more to do. So much hard work ahead of us. So much to be grateful for. We’ve ditched the wheelchair. The last few days, we’ve only taken Nathan out in his Pony Walker. Why push him around when he can get himself around???!!! It may look like we’re pulling [...]

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This video was taken at his school right when I got there. He was just getting started. It wasn’t long after that he was RUNNING in his walker! He spent 45 minutes in the walker – he ran around the room in circles, down the hall to visit his friends in other classes, and back [...]

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Nathan is doing GREAT! His teacher was almost floating with pride when she told us at the IEP meeting that Nathan can now move a Pony walker all by himself! I didn’t quite believe her so I asked her to put him in the walker and I almost passed out with joy when I saw [...]

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Today we had our monthly appointment with Dr. Kenny. Every time I go to her office, I draw a little stone tablet with a carving (a rune) from a little bag. There are 25 of them, and each one symbolizes something. There is a book that explains each of the runes. Well the last 3 [...]

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And his reward… And here he is, learning to communicate with his dynavox While we work on getting the eye gaze, he is learning 2 switch scanning. In the meantime, Belle zooms forward: I am one proud momma. Yes, the “crawling” isn’t pretty, he’s not really down on hands and knees. But he is MOVING. [...]

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He did this over and over again, showing off his newly acquired skill. He did this after the first ABM intensive in February and then stopped, so it’s nice to see him doing it again, and more consistently this time. We’re so proud of you Nathan! It was so cute, he kept turning to his [...]

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Not on purpose. It’s just that…after saying farewell…I realized, I’m not ready to give up this blog! I enjoy it too much! So a couple of people suggested – compromise! Just change your frequency, intensity and duration – blog shorter, less often, and without feeling so responsible. Have I every mentioned common sense isn’t my [...]

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I know some people think we’re crazy for doing all we do with Nathan. Some people think we’re chasing a dream and we should just accept reality and stop running around doing therapies. They think some of the stuff we do is nuts and why can’t we just follow convention. The answer is so simple: [...]

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The other day I went out and forgot to bring diapers with me. There was a kid’s bathroom at the mall with a diaper dispenser for 50 cents. So I bought a diaper for Nathan at the dispenser. Except the diaper was newborn size. When all you get is lemons, make lemonade! We’re trying out [...]

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Nathan LOVES this fountain: And some cute pics of our afternoon:

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Again, may not seem like a lot but, to me…WOW!!!!! He is sitting up! Holding The Head in mid-line (mostly)! WOW! He is indian sitting, using his arms slightly for support (not much), and holding up The Head!!! I can’t believe I just typed that! I’m so excited. Today, all day, I noticed that he [...]

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Even though I didn’t really do the whole “thanksgiving” thing, being by myself here in Chile, I’ve been feeling quite thanful lately. While I’m typing this post, Nathan is happily asleep and Lucky is going wild playing with his favorite toy, an elmo doll. I think this puppy was really meant to come to us [...]

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I took this video of Nathan prop sitting yesterday while reading a book. I filmed him for about a minute, but he sat up and read the book with me for much longer! That’s the 3rd time he does it! I filmed him while turning the pages so the angle was a bit off, but [...]

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2.5 years ago the word Inchstones entered our life. Now, today, I speak in milinchstones – the building blocks of inchstones, which are the building blocks of milestones. Today I want to share a few milinchstones: He didn’t stand on his own, but once he stood, he stayed up for a few seconds! Ramon was [...]

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A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called “To believe or not to believe – that is the question“. And today I have the answer – I BELIEVE! We saw Dr. Kenny again today. As usual, I was blown away. I started the appointment by telling her that I had issues after our [...]

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This was Mr. Nathan’s game while we waited at Dr. Kenny’s office: Perhaps some of you may wonder – what’s the big deal?  He’s pushing a button! The thing is, Nathan has never had the strength or control of his arms to push a button.  Now even though he makes it look easy in the [...]

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Not quite wordless – I AM BURSTING WITH PRIDE! (this is an inschstone!)

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…how’s Nathan doing??? I’ve sorta hijacked the blog with all my useless senseless questioning, so I figured, let me get back to the star of this party and share a little update about Mr. Nathan. I’ve gotten many calls and emails saying…Marcela, don’t give up on him! Little do you all know that giving up [...]

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This is the greatest, most awesome walker I’ve ever seen. This was the first day he tried it. I’ll take another video tommorrow to show you how much better he’s doing in it! And there are some very cute PHOTOS HERE.

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I’m thrilled to be writing this update. Last Wednesday, Nathan started saying words! I didn’t want to post until I heard him say it again, but I’ve heard him use words every day for the last 3 days. You can imagine how excited we are! First he said “agua” and looked at the cup of [...]

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Usually when we go out to dinner with Nathan we don’t worry about moving things out of his reach, like most parents of toddlers do. We leave the fork, knife, plate, cup right in front of where we’re feeding him. Last week we realized it was time to start changing our ways. As we were [...]

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Here are a couple of videos that I took tonight showing some of the improvements:

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Our latest greatest is that Nathan is learning to fall asleep on his own! Until now I had to rock him to sleep in my arms, wait until he was totally passed out, then put him in his crib. This week we decided to try and have him go to sleep on his own. The [...]

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Today was a glorious day. I saw Nate do 2 things he’s never done before. 1. He turned OFF the bathroom light! After his bath, I showed him the light, and showed him how to turn it off. He only had to see me do it once to know exactly what he needed to do. [...]

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I just wanted to say that on Sunday, Sept 9th, while we were walking to the White House, Dorje said “Mama” twice!!! It was the most exhilarating feeling to finally hear him say mama. Of course he hasnt’ said it since, but I know he can and will again. Just wanted to share.

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This Saturday was a sad and happy day. We had my uncle’s funeral. It was difficult and painful for all of us, but at the same time we saw it as a celebration of a wonderful life and peaceful passing. Dorje dressed up in his new suit that he got from his girlfriend Presley on [...]

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Nathan can now suck his thumb by himself! Before he was very very rarely able to get his hand up to his mouth. Lately, he is doing it more and more and we are so excited. Also, before, he used to suck the side of his fist, as he rarely opens his hands. Lately, he’s [...]

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We are SOO excited. Today we took Nathan to UCLA to have him evaluated for their early intervention program. Of course the therapists fell in love with him, and he loved it as he was the center of attention for all of us. I was thrilled at what I saw. They seem extremely knowledgeable and [...]

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Nate’s head control is getting better! We put him in the swing and he sat all by himself! He also practiced walking: And he played with a balloon: He also watched the sunset at the park: But most exciting is…he was able to bear weight on both arms, in crawling position, for about a minute [...]

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Yesterday we went to the park and Nathan sat by himself, with his hands on the ground, for like 2 minutes!! That’s by far the longest he’s been able to sit and support himself. Go Nathan!

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Nate’s had a good week. We’re seeing tiny bits of progress. He tries to walk (he has no stability but does try to step!!!) He has a *little* more stability sitting in his bumbo chair: He loooooooves sitting on dad’s shoulder and looking at the world from up there. He tries to hold his head [...]

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Last night was Nathan’s first time sleeping through the night. Definite inchstone! I was su surprised I kept checking on him every 30 minutes to make sure he was still breathing. We hope it will happen again

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Last night someone asked us, “What milestones has Nathan reached?” I laughed. Ours is a different world. Milestones is not in our vocabulary. “We don’t keep track of those in this house,” I answered with a smile. Owen tried to respond. But nothing came to mind. Milestones is such a big world. You think of [...]

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