A Milestone Morning!

This is so huge to me!!!


This morning when I started to put Daniel down on the sofa so I could get a cup of coffee and prepare his car seat to take him with me taking Jael to work, he CRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He almost always cries when I pick him up. He is so tense and his arms and legs are so stiff, especially , his right arm and left leg, noticeably more than the other combination, and picking him up, even when I speak to him and stroke him first, causes him to be scared, to tighten up even more, and to cry, even if only a tiny bit or a huge protest. If I cuddle him and repeat " That's all, that's all " to the things that scare him or startle him it seems to help , but this morning he CRIED WHEN I PUT HIM DOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so stunned and amazed that I picked him right back up again...AND HE STOPPED CRYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was wonderful!! I am used to him being irritable, it comes with the disorder, I am used to having to sooth and calm him for a while before he knows its me and that everything is OK, but after that, he is usually just "there" demonstrating little emotional presence until I do something that scares or ticks him off.
     TODAY WAS TRULY A MILESTONE !

This whole weekend he has exhibited more personality than we have seen since bringing him home . He "talked and talked " Friday night when Charlie, Daniel, and I went out to dinner and I thought he was just responding to the noise levels in the restaurant. Daniel LIKES noise, even more noise than can be heard frequently at our house, he likes noise, but even when we got home, he was still smiling and talking : "roaring" is a more apt description of what he does but he was quite animated and quite verbal all weekend.

Even this morning when I got him out of bed he didn't fuss but a tiny tad and he started to talk to me right away. That is a first as well! He seems , I believe he is HAPPY! Not just "there" or irritated, scared, crabby, complacent, but HAPPY and recognizing touches and voices that are triggering HAPPY! Yes I eventually had to put him in the car seat, and he protested, but only a little bit after which he went into complacent mode till we got home and I took him out again.

I am praising God for whatever is going on inside Daniel's brain ! His eating situation is the same, and that is miserable for us both, but this alert and animated personality with an expressed preference for me to hold him, an expressed knowledge that he has been put down and an expressed dislike for it..........

OH MY HEART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Be it the shunt taking pressure off Daniel's brain stem, or a healing in progress, or soemthing else, I know that God has ordered all of Daniel's days, and all of mine as his mamma. This day is particularly precious and one I will ponder  in my heart for a long long time!!!