Dougs Journey to Sight

It's amazing to us how fast time goes by. Feels like it hasn't been that long since we've updated but here we are 6 months later! Boy has Dougie grown in these last 6 months. He keeps mom on her toes at all times and is learning so many new and exciting things from stacking blocks to naming colors!

I'll start with how his vision is growing and getting stronger because, lets face it, that's what we all want to hear about! Since our trip to China we continue to notice changes every day. He not only gets around the house even better than before he is visually pointing things out with his favorite saying 'Do you see that?' He says this a thousand times a day to everything! Do you see that orange painting? Do you see the light? I see that fan, do you see the fan? ... Not impressed yet? Maybe him naming colors will. Check out this video of him naming the colors of his blocks. You can even hear the surprise in mom and dads voice when he is able to tell orange from yellow or red.

This may seem like such a little detail to some but it's amazing to know he sees enough to know that the orange is not the same as the yellow!

He is also a little book worm and can pick up any book we read regularly and know the name of it by looking at its cover. This is a big thing too! It all is and it wouldn't be here with out all the help we got! He can also open those book and 'read' that page according to what image he sees.

We have finally gotten to the eye doctor for Dougie. For a while we were having insurance issues and because of those issues we weren't able to see the same opthomologist we saw previously. But his new doctor was impressed with the skills Doug has and was able to tell how much he has improved according to the notes from his previous appointments. They did a quick flash card test and he was able to find the striped lines on every card. After covering an eye each he showed us his right eye is still much stronger than his left eye and we left happily with a script for a pair of glasses. From what they can tell Doug's actual eye is near sighted. That basically means that if his optic nerves didn't have any problems he would have still needed glasses to help him as any other child who needs glasses would.

See that face? Who would have thought he could get any cuter... Throw some glasses on this boy and he goes from handsome cutie to sophisticated handsome cutie!

I feel like I'm missing a thousand things about his vision. He amazing us daily and it's hard to keep track of the new and exciting things when it quickly becomes 'old' and there is something else to be overly excited about.

Since our last update we have been working just as hard if not more to help Dougie be the best Dougie he could ever be. We had been noticing he seemed a little more weak in his shoulders and other big muscle groups which can also effect his fine motor skills such as pinching, stacking, control to use a fork and other areas. We decided it was best to bring on a physical therapist(pt) and have been seeing one weekly now, since January. He is now hanging on the monkey bars, play catch, and wheel barrel walk all over! We've also noticed since he is getting better in those areas he is now getting better with those fine motor skills like we were hoping would happen. He is stacking blocks up taller than himself, growls like Godzilla, stomps his feet and knocks the city over! He is starting to use spoons and forks more often, although he still needs help with it, and he uses those pinching fingers when it's absolutely necessary (like a zipper or to pick up a small coin).

We have also added speech to his therapy and his vocabulary has tripled since. He loves to label things and uses that as a way to communicate (ex: 'Tunnel? Tunnel?' Means 'open the tunnel please?'). We now make him use even more words to get his point across (such as 'want tunnel open?').

Early intervention follows children up to 3 yrs. old and then help transition them to school. Sadly, with Dougie turning 3 shortly, we have now also started this whole process. He will be starting school September 5th of this year! This makes mom sad but we know we have to do what's best for Dougie even if a big yellow bus seems to scary! To help him be prepared for his new 5 days a week school year he has been going to an Enrichment class at Little Sports and seems to enjoy himself!

He is such a big boy now!

We also just started working with a mobility specialist who is helping teach Dougie to move more confidently around the house, neighborhood and anywhere else we seem necessary. She brought over his very first cane and He started using it the right way almost immediately (should We have expected any thing less?). He likes to explore its his cane and with that he is leaning his ways to use it. When we go out the front door he asks for his cane immediately!

All in all Dougie is doing really good! He is molding into the man he will become and he is such a ham. He loves to laugh and to make people laugh and loves being the center of attention.

As of fundraising, we are fully loaded with life as of right now and even though we want to be full time fundraising we just aren't able to give it the time we need. Obviously as this update was well overdue! We know we will get back one day again to help him even more! Thanks for supporting us and our decision! We are so happy with the results we have seen and can only hope for more to come and to get back to China as soon as we can!

Here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what we've been up to: