Sitting Tall

Henry has had a great couple of days. I didn't get to spend much time with him yesterday (Wednesday). I was at school. I had planned to come home right after class, but a bizarre set of events resulted in me locked in my office with two of graduate students, while we waited for the campus police to arrive after a strange man had stalked one of the graduate students (who ran into my office for cover). I called the police. Long story. Everything is fine now. But it was disturbing situation. Michelle, the gal being stalked, handled the situation admirably. Thanks to Steve, my next door neighbor, for doing reconnaissance while we waited in my office. I was glad to get home.

Spent a little time with Henry when I got home. Jeff and I decided to go out for the evening to celebrate the anniversary of our first date 15 years ago. Before we went out, we took the dogs for a walk. We ran into Annie, our neighbor's dog, who had gotten loose. She is getting more bold and ignoring her name. We ended up chasing her down, which resulted in us leaving the house later than expected. We had to change our plans a bit. We dropped off Henry at my parents' house. Then, we went to the movies and saw "Jumper." It was OK. As usual, Jeff goes into movies with higher expectations than me and is often disappointed. I'm pretty entertained with two start movies, so I'm usually not that disappointed. Afterward, we went to an Italian restaurant where we had appetizers and dessert. Got back to my parents. Henry had an active night. He slept well, though, when we brought him home.

Today was a great day. Henry was rather active in the morning, so I gave him a massage around 8AM. He hadn't had one in a while. I'm hoping that Veronica will start doing them with him. She has a degree in massage therapy. At some point, Jeff weighed Henry at 16 lbs 12.5 ozs. Veronica took Henry out for a walk around lunch time. Dorsett called around noon, apologizing for running late. She said that she'd be over within a half hour. I said OK. I decided not to tell her that the appointment was actually scheduled for 2PM. I figured that it would be good for Veronica to sit in on one of Henry's PT appointments, which was made possible by Dorsett coming early.

The appointment was fabulous. Henry likes to show off new skills when Dorsett is around. He rolled onto his tummy and stayed in the prone position for a longer amount of time than usual. Then, he pivoted a 180 while on his tummy. Dorsett was impressed. She put him in a sitting position. He was doing an excellent job catching himself when he tipped to one side or the other. She timed him sitting by himself. 50 seconds went by before he tipped to the point where she had to catch him. A few minutes later, he sat a minute or two by himself. Then, he sat at least 3 minutes by himself. He sat tall and truly had great posture. Dorsett did some work with him on a ball and showed Veronica how Henry's balancing and counterbalancing abilities. Later, she put him on the cylinder beach ball safari toy. He managed to balance himself while reaching up for a string she was holding. Just like her last visit, he reached up high while holding himself upright. Princess, my kitty, enjoyed the PT visit. She and Henry took turns playing with Dorsett's string with beads.

During the visit, she described him as "phenomenal," "confident," "communicative," and "trusting." She said that he was doing things developmentally in the exact order that they should be learned. She said that one could teach a whole class around him since he exhibited classic stages of development, textbook perfect. She said that it would be fun to videotape him. I think that he'd like that. I think that he has figured out what the camera does. I don't know how he learned it. But recently, he has become quite a ham in front of the camera. It wasn't that long ago that he would suddenly become inexpressive when he saw the camera. Now, he smiles and laughs.






















Henry had a LOT to eat after Dorsett left. He drank nearly 6 ozs. Grammy came over and gave him some food. He took a long nap on her. We had a pleasant walk in the evening. Henry came back and ate and played. Aunt Carolyn called and spoke to Henry on the telephone. He looked a bit puzzled by the voice and tried to eat the telephone. While I was on the phone, Jeff and Henry played airplane, which involved Jeff throwing him up in the air and catching him. I wasn't exactly thrilled by Jeff's hands leaving Henry's body (even if it was only an inch away), but Henry seemed to think that the new game was ingenious. Henry fell asleep in his daddy's arms not long after. It was a very busy day, and Henry had worked hard.