Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Therapy

I finally remembered to take my camera to Justin's physical therapy (PT) appointment last week. I have been meaning to take some pictures for Justin's baby book since you cannot really tell the story of Justin's life without including his therapists. So this is Justin working with Miss Penny:










When I first started taking Travis (I didn't at first, to make certain that Justin knew what to expect and to ensure that I wouldn't need to help a lot.) he really loved going. And he still does, but now it's more about which toy Miss Penny will get for him to play with. At first he called her Henny Penny because of the story in one of his books. He thought that was so funny that someone would be named Penny! Miss Penny has some great toys and Travis thinks she is great. We played with the game Perfection the time I was taking pictures. Do you remember that game? We never had it, but some friends did and I really liked playing it. I remember it was a lot harder to get all the shapes in before the timer popped up the board. Travis just about hit the ceiling the first time it popped up! Then he loved it and wanted it to pop all the time. And THEN he figured out how to cheat and turn it off, fit all the pieces in, and then turn it on again. It was so funny!





The bad part about going to therapy is that you find out all the bad things your children who AREN'T going to therapy are doing. Like our OT said that Travis is not forming his mouth well into a circle (like to blow) and we need to work with him having races blowing cotton balls across a table to reinforce that ability. And Travis also W-sits, according to Miss Penny. It took me a while to figure out what that is, but here's a picture:





It's bad because it can cause hip and knee weakness when a person gets older, which can lead to falls and breaks, or joint replacement. It also doesn't allow for trunk rotation or hand preference or crossing mid-line (center). They even gave me a copy of an article that describes the problem and how to solve it. Of course, the easiest way is to prevent it from becoming a habit (too late- I found a picture of Travis at 9 mo. sitting like this...) and after that just remind them to change how they are sitting. So we remind Travis about 15 times in a 10-minute span, and then we get tired and just tell him that he will have to pay for whatever problems he cause for himself later. (thumb sucking on the other hand, will be our responsibility when he needs braces, ...sigh....) No, really we are trying, so help when you see him doing this. How many more bad habits can we collect? I shouldn't ask!
And one more thing, we had a camera mishap on Sunday, so until we buy a new camera, we won't have any new pictures. Sorry about that! Any recommendations? I want small and easy, with a rechargeable battery.

3 comments:

JSue said...

Oooh, I really like the Casio Exilim - there are several models with different features and such. The best parts: 1. you can get one that is tiny (like not much bigger than a credit card - about the size of a cellular phone)I carry mine with me everywhere I go in my purse/bag 2. the one I have fits right into it's tiny little charger that sits on my counter. You might be able to hook the charger up to your computer to download pics, too, but I just take the little SD card out and plug it into the computer. 3. You can find some of the models at very inexpensive prices (around $100-$150) 4. They take awesome pictures. 5. You can get some that take 10 megapixel pics for the 150 price - to compare, mine is only 5 or 6 and I LOVE IT!!

Good luck!

Unknown said...

I didn't "w" sit - I sat criss cross applesauce (aka: indian style and taylor style) they said it was bad for the hips and stuff etc... I am 40 and still sitting that way. In fact I am sitting in my chair at my computer that way right now. I say don't focus on that one ; )

TeeKay said...

Uh oh... I was a w-sitter up until I was a teenager. I guess I have some hip issues to look forward to.

Eliana w-sits all the time, too. I thought it was cute that she sat like her mommy, but I guess I'll try to break her of it now.