Today I was watching my son with the awe, pride and joy of a parent with a newborn.
I don't often get the chance to really watch Seth. I'm usually to busy 'doing'. We spent the morning with my parents and then, on a whim, we decided to all go to lunch together as the local indian restaurant was doing a buffet lunch and surprisingly it wasn't packed with families celebrating mothers day. Seth had already had a carpet picnic (what I call feeding him a sandwich while he free sits on the floor) but I gave him some of the milder food from my plate and, as expected, he wolfed it down. I gave him the food because when we sat down at the table he immediately looked up at the lights in the ceiling and then around him, taking him the noise of people eating and talking. He then began sucking on his finger. I tried offering him a drink but he was in a place of eating and he wanted a part of it!
Whilst I then anticipated his expectation for a desert, I didn't order it quite soon enough because as we sat eating and talking, Seth started banging his head back against the head rest of his wheelchair. This is the behaviour that upsets me the most; it's Seth's 'no'. He does it when his meal is over, when he's in pain, when he is frustrated, you get the idea. He will continue to bang his head onto whatever is behind him, until he starts really crying because he's hurt himself. However, today whilst he was hitting his head, it wasn't very hard and there was a glimmer of a smile on his face. It reminded me of a friend's 3 year old I saw recently who misbehaved because we were talking and she wasn't the centre of attention. My mum went to Seth, crouched down next to him to talk to him softly. He kept his head down, listening, and then when she walked back to her seat he lifted his head to track her movements. It was pretty magical to watch. Then ice cream arrived and Seth was kept amused for a while.
Tonight when I undressed Seth for his bath, he started to wee. This happens every so often and I quickly scooped him into the bath. But instead of letting me sit him down he started to get upset. Not crying but his expression whilst he stood there made me transfer him to the toilet. With his slim hips he needs a lot of support or he slips straight in so I wrapped my arms around his torso and held him and he did a little wee and laughed. We stayed for a few minutes before I returned him to the bath where he lay back and enjoyed splashing in the shallow water. He's got a cold and his ears were bothering him (presumably itching) so, in turn, he lifted his hands and rubbed his ears. I realised that I don't think I'd seen him do it with both hands before and that his control of his hands and his manual dexterity was really improving. As well as his obvious awareness that he should wee in a toilet and his desire to do so.
All that in a day! Seth has gradually been increasing the epilepsy medicine he was prescribed last month. Craig has a review with the doctor about the meds tomorrow and he'll be reporting that things are definitely improving!
I don't often get the chance to really watch Seth. I'm usually to busy 'doing'. We spent the morning with my parents and then, on a whim, we decided to all go to lunch together as the local indian restaurant was doing a buffet lunch and surprisingly it wasn't packed with families celebrating mothers day. Seth had already had a carpet picnic (what I call feeding him a sandwich while he free sits on the floor) but I gave him some of the milder food from my plate and, as expected, he wolfed it down. I gave him the food because when we sat down at the table he immediately looked up at the lights in the ceiling and then around him, taking him the noise of people eating and talking. He then began sucking on his finger. I tried offering him a drink but he was in a place of eating and he wanted a part of it!
Whilst I then anticipated his expectation for a desert, I didn't order it quite soon enough because as we sat eating and talking, Seth started banging his head back against the head rest of his wheelchair. This is the behaviour that upsets me the most; it's Seth's 'no'. He does it when his meal is over, when he's in pain, when he is frustrated, you get the idea. He will continue to bang his head onto whatever is behind him, until he starts really crying because he's hurt himself. However, today whilst he was hitting his head, it wasn't very hard and there was a glimmer of a smile on his face. It reminded me of a friend's 3 year old I saw recently who misbehaved because we were talking and she wasn't the centre of attention. My mum went to Seth, crouched down next to him to talk to him softly. He kept his head down, listening, and then when she walked back to her seat he lifted his head to track her movements. It was pretty magical to watch. Then ice cream arrived and Seth was kept amused for a while.
Tonight when I undressed Seth for his bath, he started to wee. This happens every so often and I quickly scooped him into the bath. But instead of letting me sit him down he started to get upset. Not crying but his expression whilst he stood there made me transfer him to the toilet. With his slim hips he needs a lot of support or he slips straight in so I wrapped my arms around his torso and held him and he did a little wee and laughed. We stayed for a few minutes before I returned him to the bath where he lay back and enjoyed splashing in the shallow water. He's got a cold and his ears were bothering him (presumably itching) so, in turn, he lifted his hands and rubbed his ears. I realised that I don't think I'd seen him do it with both hands before and that his control of his hands and his manual dexterity was really improving. As well as his obvious awareness that he should wee in a toilet and his desire to do so.
All that in a day! Seth has gradually been increasing the epilepsy medicine he was prescribed last month. Craig has a review with the doctor about the meds tomorrow and he'll be reporting that things are definitely improving!
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