Stronger than you think..

I am growing stronger every day..
Here I am lifting up my arm and shaking my rattle.. a new skill, one of many. 

So this picture really captured what the last week has been all about for Sam.. working hard and showing us how strong he really is inside. He had started holding the toy with two hands last week and then it progressed to include reaching up a bit more. We are not quite at the point of grabbing at toys hanging from above but he does enjoy the toys more now instead of being somewhat uninterested. He is able to roll to the side but not yet rolling over..we will get there!

He had his occupational therapy evaluation and they found that he is making alot of progress and will be consulting with the physical therapist, developmental coach and speech therapist on tools for him. They want us discouraging this movement he does where he arches his back and grows stiffer and arches back his neck when he wants to move. It seems to keep him from using the upper body arms and chest and so..we will keep working on it. The main thing we have been working on in speech therapy is the swallowing of small amounts of water. He had started last week working towards multiple swallowing as opposed to one big delayed gulp. Today we tried a bottle instead of just the syringe and that made him a bit nervous but he overall gave it his best try. It may still be a bit early for that but we will keep working on it. It is mainly an issue of coordination between suck swallow and breathing..and not getting too upset. He has a cardiology appt next week on wednesday morning and I am eager to feel at rest that his heart is not related at all to the  bradys..but he has so few of them lately that maybe those are going to fade away over time.

I can't believe he will be 5 months old tomorrow.. He is soo beautiful and rather perfect in my eyes. He has such a bright personality and has shown us strength like we have never known ourselves. So the shirt Sam had on the other day when we shot this pic is really fitting..