Shriner's - Day 16 (cross-post)

Well. Here we are in Week 4 of 6. Just 18 days until we're home. Yes, that's better than the 50 we started out at...but it still seems like a long ways away.
Today was a somewhat easier day as Ben only had the 2 PT sessions and no OT. But we managed to fill the day up. There was still playroom time, stander time and bike time.
The first PT session went great. I actually look at Ben sometimes in these sessions and wonder where my child went. Who is this child that happily does everything asked of him?
His PT session consisted of:
1. Kicking bubbles - this is where he lays on his back with a rolled up towel underneath his knees. He has to extend his leg like he's kicking a soccer ball, but instead kick a bubble to pop it. When he started this exercise 3 weeks ago, he had to work hard to do it with NO added weights to his legs. NOW? Well, he has a 4 pound weight wrapped around each leg. And he does it no problem at all. He did 20 kicks for each leg.
2. Crawling and knee walking - Then he moved on to the crawling and knee walking exercise. This time, Stephanie had some magnetic dinosaur parts. He would crawl over to get a body part and then knee walk (with some assistance from Stephanie) back to the magnetic wall. And continue this for about 10 times until he had put together 2 dinosaurs.
3. Thomas hunt - Today's hunt was basically a treasure hunt to find all the missing Thomas lego pieces. He walked with ONE CANE to do this for most of the way and then also did some sideways walking.

Here's a video of him walking with one cane:




I did manage to pick Stephanie's brain a bit today to figure out what SHE THINKS Ben will be able to do because of this surgery. And, she finally told me that she expects that he'll be able to walk independently in the home. Maybe not at school (due to all the kids, it would likely be unsafe for him), but very likely at home. Now this is exactly what I was hoping. What a huge deal this will be for him (and us)! Now. I have no idea when this may actually happen. And she did caution me that the progress does slow once we go home til about the 6-month-mark. But we should see some great progress by the 1-year-point. I just want to fast-forward to next year and see what he's going to be doing!

The afternoon brought more playroom time and then, of course, the pool and then stretching.
We are actually sharing a room with a little girl this week that arrived today. It sucks to no longer have the room to ourselves, but it looks like they'll be gone by Thursday. And then maybe we won't have anyone next week. It's not a big deal during the day to have a roommate (we're hardly in the room), but it's a struggle this time of day. When I really just want to be alone. Plus, now I have to sleep on the cot again (at least it's not that horrible fold-out chair) and not the comfy bed I had gotten used to.
I think that pretty much wraps up our day. I'll leave you with a few photos from the weekend.
The boys watching some video together...I think it was "Kipper":

A very rare occurrence...2 boys sharing 1 blankie!

Saying goodbye:

And a family photo: