Jakob's Journal

Panic is over. Everybody's fine. If Jakob's having seizures, they're small. We'll figure it out and do whatever we gotta do.

Panic is unavoidable...how long the panic lasts is up to me...and it's over, for now.

Jakob has been on a roll for awhile. There's no doubt that he's understanding almost everything that he's hearing. He's following directions (when he wants to) and really making his feelings known when he doesn't agree...

Still not any words consistently (except for "up"), but he knows what he wants to say. He just can't get it out...but he's trying so hard. Especially when he's upset. I can just see it coming...he gets frustarted over something, he tries to communicate what he wants, he can't, that makes him more frustrated...it can go bad fast. Luckily, I have very few epidodes with him. It's so nice to feel like I have a handle on him...there are so many memories from when it wasn't so easy. Jakob's team of doctors and therapists believe Jakob has a case of "true apraxia".

He's been a happy little booger...showing off every chance he gets. My parents bought him a piano for Christmas...a real piano. It's a fabulous addition to the Moose Room. He generally practices in the morning and again in the evening. "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and chopsticks are his favorites. He also enjoys playing along with videos....when there's music in the video, he plays along. When the music stops and they start talking, he stops. It's quite amusing. He loves playing piano with Grandma the most. He'll sit in there with her for a long time. She shows him a song and he can play it...sort of. He's less enthusiastic about my playing...apparently, I'm not as good as Grandma. I'm definitely regretting not practicing more when I was kid. 6 years of lessons...I haven't reatined a lot. It's coming back to me slowly, but it won't take long for Jakob to catch up.

Over the holidays, Jakob was perfect. I really enjoyed being here when he got up in the morning. He's a pretty sweet kid in the morning. He's so much like me...he wakes up kinda slow. He needs a little bit of time to ease into his day. He'll come around when he's darn good and ready and when he does, it'll be cute and sweet.

He opened presents with a lot more interest this year. I've got it figured out...he will like 2 out of every 7 gifts. That's about right...for every 7 toys I buy, he likes 2 of them. Huge improvement from 2 years ago when it was about 1 in 20...I love forward progress!!

Jakob even went to church on Christmas Eve with Grandma, Aunt Sandy and me. He was funny...he was a little hesitant getting out of the car but once he saw other kids, he grabbed Sandy's hand and practically dragged her in. He sat through the whole service and he was taking it all in. He especially liked watching the guy play the piano. We went to a children's service and they brought in live animals. I tried to get him to feed the goat, he wasn't overly thrilled about it but he didn't get mad when I put food in his hand and held it up to the goat's mouth. He did make a pretty funny face though...