August 31st, 2011

Time is really flying now. It won't be long until it's a whole year since our beautiful babies made their ridiculously early arrival into the world.

Things are going as they were. Willow continues to be developing at an amazing rate - she's rolling about all over the place, grabbing anything which comes into view and rarely showing any signs of tiredness. She's extremely near to crawling, and can sit quite confidently.

Stanley's still some way behind in terms of physical development. It's much more noticeable now that Willow is so mobile. Their corrected age is now 8 months, so they'd be expected to be at least sitting up by now. Stanley is not really near that milestone yet; he lacks the core strength and balance to do so. It's all down to the CP. At times, it makes us so sad to watch him struggle to do what he wants to do. Coming to terms with anything like this is difficult; just knowing that the perfect life that one dreams about for their family is just not going to happen. But most of the time, we're so encouraged by Stanley's attitude, and the fact that he really is struggling shows us that he's not going to give up. We're hoping that he's inherited my positive mental attitude and Leela's determination. The other way round wouldn't be so good.....

What we do know, is that it could still have been so much worse. He can use both of his hands, both legs, he can smile, he can eat, he can make very cute noises when trying to talk. The most difficult thing to come to terms with is the fact that we just have no idea how severe this affliction will be. We've been told that if he can't sit up by 2 years of age, then he probably won't be able to walk unaided. It could be a long road ahead.

Anyway, since Stanley's first few physio appointments, he seems to have really improved. Until the first week in August, he hadn't rolled from his back to his front. Since then he's doing it all the time, hopefully motivated by a good deal of encouragement from both parents. It's amazing how something as small as rolling over can bring tears to your eyes; something you can only really understand once you've had children. I can't imagine what state we'll be in when Willow and Stanley go to school for the first time or appear in their first play.

In terms of eating, they're both doing really well. For their corrected age, Stanley is on the 98th percentile and Willow is on the 94th, so no worries there at all. It must be down to Mummy's concoctions of fabulous fresh fruit and and vegetables that I'd never even heard of.

So, we're eleven months in, and each month is getting better; despite the obvious issues which are loitering. Hopefully we'll get some more answers soon, but generally it's still a waiting game. The most important thing, though, is that our two not-so-little bundles of joy are happy.