more progress for Butterbean

[BendyMom]

I will admit sometimes when I"m doing his physical therapy, moving his bizarrely shaped limbs in whatever ways they will go, I wonder if he is going to ever use them for anything.
Today I was watching him savage a small pillow-type bed. he was holding one end down with his front feet and had a far corner in his teeth, rending it side to side. he thinks this is the best way to play with something.
then an amazing thing happened.
that leg that sticks straight out, and doesn't really bend. that I have been encouraging to move up and down as much as it can while he stares at me like I'm an idiot...
he put that leg down and used it as a level to pick up his butt and get on the bed.
I just stared at him.
i had once, months ago, seen him deliberately move the leg a small amount to uncatch his foot when it was stuck on something but since then I have never seen him move it voluntarily.
And now he can use it as a lever.
I've been trying to teach him to scratch his ear with it, maybe one day that lesson will catch on.

[Christine]

awwww....I know if he had been with anyone but you, this progress would never had happened. Not that someone else would not have loved him, they just would not have been as determinted, patient and knowlegeable about it.

[CarolC]

That is extremely cool. Even if it isn't bending perhaps your physical therapy is making him more aware of it, proprioception. These kinds of advances are what makes it all worthwhile.