We went to the eye doctor this week. He needs to wear an eye patch and glasses for about 6 months to see if his crossed eye improves. 

Drake's 3rd birthday is this week!!!!!! 

!!!! AWESOME !!!!!

This is the longest I've seen him play interactively with a toy. He was watching Elmo on Netflix and I ran and got his Elmo and showed him it was the same, he got all excited and started playing with it. Really great step for him considering he only sorted his toys when we first got him and didn't like to play with any stuffed animals at all. He would take the toys out of the bucket and then put them back, the circle stacker was the only one he really played interactively with on our pickup trip. A few days ago he finally picked up his bear and hugged it, laid down with it and talked to it. It was great because the bear was one of the first toys I bought him when we were adopting and he finally liked playing with it. So add Elmo to that and we have success !! 

We also hit another milestone today. Drake has been TERRIFIED of bath time since we got him. We are uncertain what happened but he feared the bath itself. We narrowed down the issue to some kind of trauma that must have happened from his orphanage. He did fine playing in water, from the faucet or elsewhere and playing with his hands in a buck of water but when it came to sitting or even standing in water he was TERRIFIED! We tried the bathtub, a bucket, the shower -- and it was all one terrified child!! 

BUT tonight we have success !!! Drake just got done taking a bath/shower !! This was an incredible step for him and we have been working with him from the first day. We've had to put a lot of effort, play time and gradual steps to get here. We stripped his clothes off and he walked to the bathroom(no crying!) He went in the shower, sat down on a towel. I had his plastic mixing bowl with his "bath" toys in it and his soap bottle but no water. I took the hand held shower head down, waited to make sure he was okay and warned him the water was coming on! Then I turned the water on.  He sat and played in the water, took his toys in and out of the bowl and played. I even let the water build up to about an inch and got him to splash in it!! He was still holding one hand back trying to hold onto the shower door for security but overall it was awesome to see the progress he has made. He did really well and we had very minimal fussing and no outright crying. 

~~~ One happy Mommy!

We got through the testing at Early Childhood. He was accepted and he starts when the school year does on August 13!! They have buses now and that will be exciting!! He will continue with FirstSteps through the summer. He's walking really well, he walked the High School hallway this week about 30 feet (?) on his own without ANY support!! Of course then he thought it was funny to plop down on the floor and we had a hard time keeping him focused on walking long lengths. He practiced on the stairs which was hard since they are meant for adults. He played again at the park twice this week and those stairs are much easier since they are narrow and he can use both rails to steady himself, he got comfortable enough to start playing around and started going down two feet at once on the step, that was pretty funny and he thought he was so cute doing it. LOL.... 

Before/After : from pickup to now

He is learning sign language and already knows how to sign: eat, drink, more, head/hat, and no more/done. We are going to learn MONKEY next !!!!! how fun!!

We had a therapy session this week with the physical therapist. We got some really helpful information and got Drake outside walking. He walked the cul-de-sac while holding his shirt. He's learning stability and has started walking up to 10 steps on his own without any support.

Today we went to the Early Education building to see his preschool that starts in August. He enjoyed seeing the other children and all the new toys and things to play with.

at Early Education Center

After we finished there we went to the park right next door and he loved playing. He tried to kiss another little girl playing. That was MOST hilarious !

)

Success !!! 

Alex drew a picture of Drake's brace. Fun!

by Alexander Kurzawa 03.19.2014

Drake's first time eating Girl Scout Cookies!

Another busy week for us. We picked up his braces on Wednesday and we've started to work with him standing and walking. We need to get him walking independently before the fall school year starts and he starts at Early Education. 

Drake holding his new braces for his feet

We had a meeting with FirstSteps and Early Education this week. He was evaluated in 5 areas. He will turn 3 next month. His evaluation results are: Cognition: 15 months, Communication: 10 months, Social-emotional: 16 months, Physical Development: 11 months and Adaptive Behavior: 19 months. So we have a bit to go to get him caught up to his peers. Our first therapy session is this Tuesday. 

I love pizza !!!

He loves the Xbox controller, he will sit and watch the tv screen and press buttons just like he's actually playing a game even though the controller he has isnt turned on.

The word he spoke the most since we picked him up was "ne" (meaning no). So we've been home a month now and he says various things like daddy, momma, Behla, Casey, Mindy, Num Num etc... but now he's learned NO! and it's soooo cute. check it out on the video... he drank out of a tin cup at the orphanage but they must have helped him with it because he would always spill when we tried with him. We've had him on a spill proof cup since we got him but at meal time he's been drinking a little bit at a time in a small jelly jar (perfect size for him) and he's getting good at it. We get his braces for his feet this Thursday and I can't wait to see his progress once he's able to stand correctly on his feet! :-)