The little things

Having a special needs child sometimes means that the big milestones take just a little longer and require an extra dose of patience.  Therefore, the little things often become great big things, like Luke's clapping, for example.  He started trying to clap in January, right around the time he started sitting up unsupported.  He loves to clap for himself and for others.  At first, it was tough for him to get the coordination down to get his hands to actually meet.  Now, he's as precise as can be and even makes a nice clap, clap, clap sound when he gets really excited.  The novelty of it has yet to wear off on me, even 5 months later!

When he first learned how to clap

Clapping when Daddy gets home, like he does every day
when Pete walks in!

And Luke is doing some other pretty fabulous things as well...

 Getting up on all fours all by himself!  Because of his severe hypotonia (low tone), this is really difficult for him and a huge accomplishment.  He does it constantly and I know the crawling is coming soon!

He just started pointing, which makes our occupational therapist very happy, and can even point to our nose when we ask him to.

A big focus in Luke's therapies has been working on transitions, such as getting up to sitting on his own from lying down.  One night, when he should have been sleeping, I heard him on the monitor babbling over and over.  When I looked on the monitor, he was sitting up!  I laid him down to go to sleep, and 20 minutes later he was sitting up again.  I ran in to get a picture and he thought it was hysterical.  

Dancing!  No commentary needed...it's just cute.

He might not be crawling yet, but Luke certainly has figured out how to get to where he wants to go, especially with the right motivation (in this case, a pointer).  Getting up on all fours on his own is a huge step in the right direction towards crawling!

Working on bearing weight/standing.  He doesn't particularly love this part of physical therapy, but he's worked his way up to 15 minutes doing this!

And today he did this for the first time for just a couple of seconds.  Notice he is standing without anyone holding his legs!

While having a special needs child sometimes means the big milestones take a little longer and require an extra dose of patience, it also means that the little things become awesome feats to be celebrated just as much as those big milestones...and that's what we do each day with Luke!