10 July 2026

Nathaniel is starting to be able to move his right hip. Legs are heavy, and yet he still has the strength to move it a bit. This movement in his leg will ultimately help with balance, standing, and walking!

The therapist asked Nathaniel many math questions. He asked Nathaniel to show him with his hand what the answer was. Nathaniel can only show 5 at a time, so he pulses his hand if the answer is a high number. The therapist started with simple arithmetic and continued to 100-93. Nathaniel even got that correct.

Nathaniel wants to be more independent. He was sitting in a chair, and while he was waiting for the caregiver to bring over his wheelchair, he tipped over and fell. He needed stitches above his right eyebrow but thank Gd he is okay otherwise. While he was in the hospital waiting, he was smiling and laughing the entire time. I also noticed that he had some bruising on his left hand, which means that he understood he was falling and tried to stop himself. He is getting more and more aware of where he is in space.

I asked him if he wanted to eat ice cream with his meat meal. He replied no. Of course not, Jewish ritual law doesn’t him to eat meat and milk together. I then asked him if he wanted to eat the ice cream after the meal. Our custom is to wait 3 hours to eat dairy after eating meat. When I asked him how long he would wait, he held up three fingers. He remembered something from before the attack.