My point, and I do have one

Last week, we had IT Boy’s monthly collaborative meeting.  “Monthly” would be a stretch, because the first one was in February and we never got coordinated enough to repeat in March, so we made it in April.  The meeting itself was functional, but most of the news out of it was that Boy had not hit any major milestones in the two months between meetings.  PT was talking about going up a day, and so was Speech.  BTW, I’m fine on the first one, but think Speech 4 times a week is a bit much.  Just MHO.  Anyhow, it wasn’t exactly an upper, and I was grateful I was working from home the day after the meeting so I could decompress a bit and really think about milestones. 

There are several that we’ve wanted to see from him.  Walking, certainly, is a big one.  Pointing has been another.  12 months is the timetable for that, and he’s way past that.  They say it’s more of an OT issue, but there is some cognitive delay behind that as well.  More words would be nice, but boy does he say BALL loud and clear, and with force! 

The day after the meeting, I was in a store with him in a shopping cart, when I turned to put something in a cart, he was pointing at a flag in a display.  Pointing, clear as day.  And like that, out of no where, he’s been pointing at everything ever since. 

Today, he took 4 steps between me and the PT.  He did it twice.  She screamed she was so thrilled.  It wasn’t like he got up to make the steps - we did have to steady him a bit, but when he was in the groove, off he went.  When we tried to make it a 3rd time, he walked like I did during the vertigo episode, but it gave me hope.

I’m not saying that everyone is wrong, and now everything is ok with him.  Far from it, he still needs all the therapies he’s been given as he is anywhere from 5-6 months behind in most areas of development.  But I am saying that when you think it’s pitch dark around you, don’t miss a spark coming out of the darkness, and take it for what it is.  Hope.