H-Town Adventure - Part 1

So, we never got around to posting this on the blog beforehand, but we just spent three weeks in Houston for an intensive physical therapy program for the boys. October 3 to October 21, we were camped out at the Staybridge Suites, and the boys engaged in an intense 2-3 hour therapy session each weekday. 

John-Raven made a fuss sometimes, but often enjoyed his workouts. 

The purpose of the intensive therapy is to give the boys an opportunity to really push their development. Normally, they get half an hour of PT twice a week. With the intensive, their two hours of PT five days a week means they're getting more workout time in a few weeks than they'll get over the next several months. Think of it as boot camp for developmentally challenged kids.

William is obviously a little tired here...but quite a trooper!

Getting the intensive PT doesn't mean they'll suddenly jump ahead developmentally, but it does push them to get stronger and improve their sitting up, rolling over, propping, etc. William suffered a little hiccup when he got sick after the first week. We took him to a local CareNow and got him some medicine. He missed a day of therapy as a result but got back on track after that.

William works much better with some motivation. In this case, a mummy that dances and sings Thriller.

I must say, the program was fantastic. Very professional, with excellent physical therapists who got a good sense of the boys' individual personalities and what they were capable of.

When they weren't working their little butts off, the boys enjoyed the experience.

The first week, there was only Dad to look after them until Aubrey (nanny extraordinaire) arrived as reinforcements toward the end of the first week. It didn't take long for the boys to get in a groove and adapt to the routine. Dad, however, had a bit of a rougher time of it. See, William tends to have some sort of nightmares that turn him into a squirming, screaming zombie of his usual self. When this happens, he is extremely difficult to wake up. It takes noise, bright lights, and sometimes a cold wet cloth on his face to wake him up. Once he's awake, he's pretty happy. We've noticed a correlation, though. William tends to do his little night trick more when he's hitting a developmental stage or otherwise working really hard to do something new. Our guess is, he's dreaming about struggling to do the thing that he just can't quite do. We've all probably experienced this in a dream, the kind when you're trying to run but feel like you're moving through mud. Naturally, during his therapy, he had a LOT of these. Practically every night. And they were worse than normal, which meant an hour or two of middle-of-the-night issues. Regardless, he still managed to tough it out through his workouts during the day.

More to come. Stay tuned...