Nathaniel finally did it! He threw a ball. Until this time, he just moved his arm in a throwing motion, but then handed the ball to us. This morning for the first time, he actually let go of the ball and the energy of his arm movement propelled the ball forward.
After his nap, he had music therapy. The therapist brought a gift that was triple wrapped. It seemed strange to me until I realized why she did it. Nathaniel needed a lot of help understanding what to do to unwrap the first layer. He needed less help with the second, and by the third he had learned that he needed to put his hand into the opening to pull out what was inside. In this case, it was a ball. He still remembered how to throw it. The therapist had him squeeze the ball to the beat of the music and rotate his lower arm, a movement that the occupational therapist told us that we needed to work on. In the next activity, the therapist put two different markers on a white board. She explained that she would play music. If it was Yishi Ribo, he should pick up the thick red marker. If it was Avraham Fried, he should pick up the thin blue marker. He did it perfectly the three times we tried it. She opened the marker so that Nathaniel could draw to the music.
After music therapy, he had communication/speech therapy. The therapist asked if he wanted to play cards (War) or Taki. He very strongly responded, NO. So, she showed him pictures of other things. Adina had made a page of photos of the family. Nathaniel pointed to the photo of Moshe, Adina's husband, which is just under my photo. I was not in the room at the time. The therapist asked if he wanted me to come into the room. He indicated NO and pointed to Moshe and circled his face. He seemed to be telling her that he had seen Moshe, who had visited on Shabbat. Next, they practiced "eating". I got some lemon preserves, as he used to liked tart flavors. He put the spoon into the cup of preserves, put a pretty big piece on the spoon and put the spoon right into his mouth. He chewed and swallowed, with encouragement from the therapist. However, that must have been too much for him because a little while later, after a few more spoonfuls, he looked really uncomfortable. He even moaned. On one hand, he vocalized, on the other, it was because he was in pain. The therapist asked if something hurt him. He groaned with a noise that sounded like KK, which is the beginning sound of the Hebrew word for "kayn", which means YES in Hebrew. He seemed hot and uncomfortable. He had a bit of a fever and his pulse was high. We put him in bed and called the doctor. By the time the doctor came, his fever was fine and his pulse was lower. When the doctor asked him to take a deep breath so that he could hear his lungs, Nathaniel did so. Let's hope this is the beginning of more good things to come.