Slow and Steady

Last night, I got to rock Jordan to sleep again. It’s one of the few things that he can accept from me and I treasure it. He is doing well on so many levels. He is also struggling on so many levels. I find myself focusing on the struggles as the day nears each end, wishing for faster healing, if not immediate.

Most of the day, Jordan needs to ignore us. I phrase it that way on purpose. Last night we had 20 minutes of laughter and giggles, the helpless breathy kind. He and Brian played, “stand up and then dive into my lap” mixed up with a few games of tickle. I LOVED this. Loved to watch it. Loved to hear it. Loved to see Jordan surrendering to family for awhile. The rest of the day, he watches us cautiously out of the corners of his eyes. He tries to drown our presence out with shaking his keys or sucking his fingers. If we hold him and try to tickle or make eye contact, he turns his head away or lowers his eyes, focusing on sucking on those ever-sodden fingers.

But things are slowly changing. I noticed yesterday that I had hardly heard teeth-grinding all day. He is sleeping through the night most of the time… no longer rocking himself and grinding his teeth through the night. He is still not too fond of being carried, but we can hold him a little longer before he complains to be let down. He is eating by spoon and doing quite well at that too. He is moving around the house a little now. At first, he didn’t go ANYWHERE. This place was downright too scary to try anything! Yesterday (6th day home), he moved from his spot on the rug to the edge of the kitchen. We’re also starting to call him our puppy, because he scoots himself the other way too, to sit or lay on Razzie’s rug in front of the fire. And as I said before, I love how I can rock FOR him in the recliner. He struggles a few minutes usually, then lays his cheek down and surrenders to the effortless rocking of this person called Mama.

I think he recognizes the word “eat.” It’s the most clear, concrete word he might become interested in, so that’s what I’ve focused on teaching him first. 🙂 As he gets more confident, I hope he will experiment with signing it himself… see what it gets him! Yesterday, the girls were making a disaster beautiful bunch of frosted cookies, so I drizzled frosting all over Jordan’s tray to encourage him to eat it. He doesn’t have any hand-to-mouth going on, so I took advantage of the “teaching” opportunity. He didn’t learn hand-to-mouth (with food) yet, but he definitely loves frosting! hehe

Videos:
Maggie jumping:

Walking at the park:

Giggles:

Sometime I need to write a blog about Anna. She is so much like me. And yet, we struggle to “reach” her much of the time. Everything is as usual here, with mostly good times, but parenting Anna is definitely something that makes me pray for wisdom. 🙂