He's a ROCKSTAR!

Tiernan wowed his OT, Amanda again.  He also got to flirt with his new OT, Shana, a student doing her internship with Kids At Play Therapy.  The thing about having a child such as Tiernan is he usually earns the title of  "Most Interesting Client".  Translation: the one with the most issues from which to learn.  :)  I don't mind this distinction, as it means he is well known and gets more attention.  (This happened at our pharmacy as well.)
He came in and warmed up immediately to the new pretty girl in the room.  Amanda was thrilled with all his progress since our last session.  She is confident he will walk before he crawls.  At least crawls in the traditional sense.  He will likely figure out how to scoot around soon.  As an OT, she wants him to crawl on all fours to develop his motor skills, but she said she is trying to let go of that because, in the long run, the sooner he is upright, the sooner his esophagus/stomach stretches out and the sooner he stops refluxing.  Crawling just is not in his best interest, I suppose.  So our work for the week is to help him work on walking.  Crazy.  He is really quite strong, all things considered.  He pulls up on us and other things quite easily.  When walking from me to Amanda or Shana, he did fine with us only supporting him at his hips.  In many ways I am so excited for this development, but I am also nervous. Mobility means we have to figure out how to deal with that darn feeding tube.  As he tries to get scooting he is more successful in spinning in place.  This causes the tube to get wrapped around him and under him, and in turn, causes Mommy and Daddy's anxiety to increase.
Next Amanda put him in a swing to work on "Vestibular Stimulation" (VS).  I don't understand this all fully yet, but he loved the swing.  He even did well with the spins.  He smiled and chewed on his little dolphin toy the entire time. She also set up a large soft block for him to knock over with his feet as he went.  It took only one time for him to get the game and then he thought it was fabulous.  She was really excited about his preparation and anticipation.  He is one smart cookie.
Down side to VS: it causes kids to get "antsy".  He was all wound up and did not want to sit still in the high chair and show off his new eating skills.  We did not even really get to try out the new training cup.  Oh well.  Next time we will do the VS right away and then the other floor work before eating.
I have been meaning to share the following for several weeks now, but keep forgetting.  It became apparent pretty quickly that my insurance, though in all other ways great, is severely lacking in the therapy aspect.  They only cover $30 of the nearly $180 per session.  So we were expecting Medicaid to pick up the slack.  Unfortunately, it has not, and will not.  So rather than ask us to pay anything at all, Amanda and her partner at Kids At Play have decided to take Tiernan on for only the $30 from my insurance.  She said she would never knowingly put a client in that sort of financial situation and it was the only right thing to do.  I am still blown away by this generosity.  I feel so lucky to have her as Tiernan's therapist.  Not all would care so deeply.  But she does, and so Tiernan continues to thrive under her care.