Evan likes...guacamole??? AND other neat tricks

I haven't posted much recently about Evan's VitalStim and oral feeding progress...mostly because we've reached a little plateau and not much had been happening. But Mr. Pooks is always full of surprises for us. Earlier this week, Jeremy worked with giving Evan some whipped cream from a can (he has liked this in the past, but more recently refusing any attempts at oral feedings). Low and behold, he started putting his hands in it, licking it off his fingers, letting dad put the spoon in his mouth, and even sticking his tongue out to lick the spoon. On Wednesday night, Jeremy and I went to the new cantina Mexican restraunt in town. Jeremy got a side of gucamole, and decided to try it with Evan. He did the same thing--opened his mouth like a baby bird for the spoon, licked it off his hands! He has also done some terrific work on his biter biscuits too. The road to oral eating is a long one--with lots of steps forward and back--but it's nice to see some little bit of progress.

Going to town on a biter biscuit!



Evan has several new tricks: 1) He can get into his rocking chair, turn himself around, and push himself with his feet, 2) He can get to a standing position using only a vertical support--the wall--and then cruise along the wall, and 3) the past couple of days Jeremy has noticed when Evan has his hearing aids in, if we call his name he will turn towards us. Huge!