Progress Report

It's been two weeks since we started the Intensive Treatment Program with Joaquin and things are going great. We have a checklist every day with all activities that we need to accomplish and this is the only way to keep track of it all. It's a challenge to fit it all in, between frequent naps that the baby takes, driving the older boys to their activities, preparing and eating meals, potty training Mateo, etc. etc. Time really flies by.

Joaquin is thriving! It's almost as if you can see the synapsis' in his brain firing off. When we are in the middle of doing a bunch of activities, you can see the light in his eyes. He gets really excited and chatty and it's so much fun to see. He is holding his head up so much better already and he loves to shake his bells and rattles and absolutely LOVES to play pat-a-cake. He is also much more tired at the end of the day. When he's done, he's done and ready for sleep. And, actually so am I.

Hector and I try to get a few patterns in before he goes to work in the morning and Hector is really great about coming home from work and doing a bunch of exercises with the baby. He also manages to fit in some quality time with Diego and Mateo. It definitely takes a team effort.

It is amazing to see the transformation in such a short time. Joaquin has to go down his crawling track up to 20 times a day now for about 1 or 2 minutes each session, and in the last couple of days, you can see how he is starting to push with his feet and he has figured out that the movement of arms and legs transfers to forward movement. It is hard to explain the joy that we feel with every small progress that happens. It is all the motivation we need.

Joaquin is loving his flash cards or "Bits". One thing that they tell you at the Institutes is that babies love to learn and that they would rather learn than eat. We show him three different flash cards every day more than 10 times a day. He loves it so much that we try to do it as much as possible. When you put the cards in front of his face, his expression changes and he almost holds his breath. It is such a joy to see.

Diego and Mateo love to get in the action too. They'll cheer the baby on from the bottom of the crawling track and they also love to be "patterned" after Joaquin gets patterned. It's adorable.

So, in a nutshell, we are ALL having so much fun with the program.



Two weeks ago when we first started with the track, sometimes he will slide right down, but mostly he will go down slowly with any movement of his arms and legs, and that is how his brain learns that movement like that transfers to moving forward.



Joaquin's progress after only less than two weeks is remarkable, he is favoring his right leg but as you can see he is getting really good at making his way down the track. It is like a light switch went on in his brain.



Baby taking a nap, he is so tired after a couple of hours of work, you can see his bits that he loves so much in the background.