Celebration!

Nate celebrated his 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago with friends and family.  He had a great time!  I remember that just two years ago, blowing out candles was a difficult thing and this year, he had no problems!

The weekend after his birthday we went and had some fun in the snow.  Nate really enjoys the snow and has been wanting to go all winter long.  He did some sledding and had a great time.  Here's a quick video of him sledding on his own for the first time.  He had so much fun that he didn't want to stop!

This past Friday we had a follow-up appointment with one of the developmental pediatricians we had seen nearly 1 1/2 years ago.  I think we spent nearly an hour with her.  She had him perform some different tasks and went through all the different questions about development, speech and coordination.  She felt that since the his speech issues are motor coordination, that speech should be covered by Kaiser.  She put in for an evaluation for speech (again) and to meet with a geneticist--to rule out any other genetic disorders Nate hasn't already been screened for.  Unfortunately at this point I think we're just at the wait and see stage.  With six sessions of speech a week, he is making small improvements with more spontaneous word attempts and signing, but with the severity of his apraxia it's going to take a lot of time and practice on his part.  Just the other day, he was wanting ice out of the dispenser and he said "ief" on his own.  Since approximations are what we want, it was very exciting to hear him say that, especially since he wasn't repeating after us!

I often like to read whatever I can find on-line about CAS and just today I found this news report on children with CAS.  It was on a local station in Pittsburg.  I really like watching videos and hearing about other kids with CAS.  It helps me feel better about the things we are doing for Nate.  It's been a while, so I will have to post some more updated video on Nate soon.