Let your yes be 'yeah'

The past couple of days have been rather busy for John's mom and dad, but they have gone very well for John. It was an easy day Thursday for John with no appointments or therapy sessions, but it was by no means uneventful. John spent most of the morning in his gait trainer and is beginning to get around pretty well, especially backwards. He has the habit now of backing himself up as close as he can get to mom or dad and patting us on the leg, whenever we are working at one of the kitchen counters he gets behind us, it appears he wants to keep us from going anywhere. He also spent a good amount of time on his ride on airplane. He has gotten an understanding of how to make it go, but still isn't bold enough to really do much more than tap the peddle that makes it go. Thank goodness. Thursday was also Ascension Day and I (Mark) had the opportunity to preach that evening at our sister congregation in Marshall and all of us went. John sat in the front with mom and I got to sit with them for most of the service. John had a very good time and got to see a whole lot of new faces, people who had been praying for him for a long time and were glad to finally meet him.

Friday was a big adventure as we went down to Columbia and got to meet a very special lady named Lynne who made casts of John's feet and legs to fit him with his new AFO's - braces to help his feet stay in the correct position so that he can walk better and faster, etc. - watch out dogs! Twice on Friday John treated us to a 'yeah'. Both times he had his hearing aids out and we were holding them asking him if he wanted them back in and each time he looked us straight in the face and said 'yeah.' We were pretty impressed. After we got home from Columbia on Friday he spent a good part of the afternoon playing in his gait trainer. He's now gotten to where he can pretty much go where he wants, at least on the linoleum, and the dogs are giving him a wide berth. You can see the relief on their faces when he goes down for a nap or to bed at night.

Today has been delightful. He woke up with smiles and was ready to play. He can now pull spices off the spice shelf, open drawers and cabinets, although he can't get things out yet because of the way the gait trainer is made, but you should see him make a bee-line for an open dishwasher. We have to quickly pull out the sharp knives and such because before you can do much other he is there pulling things out of the utensil basket and banging them on things. Lately we've been having him show us where he wants his hearing aids. Of course you can see the budding sarcasm when he sticks his finger in his ear but tonight his left hand was full of the all-important-table-knife, which he was most definitely not putting down, and so when I asked him where he wanted me to put his left hearing aid he looked at me for a second and then reached around with his right hand and stuck that finger in his ear. There is always something to celebrate.

John didn't eat as well today as we would have liked, but he did eat some and so that is a comforting sign. He enjoyed playing with his books and toys before bed and now every time we count anything he has to tickle, tickle, tickle himself. It is too cute. He likes itsy bitsy spider, but mostly just likes to make the spider with his fingers and let us do all the rest. During prayers he's now decided that folding his little hands is good once in a while, but about half way through has decided that we all need to hold hands like we do at meal prayers. He is so cute when he is sitting there demanding your hand so that we can go on with prayers.