At 10 1/2 months, Rafi has made a lot of headway since the 8-month mark. His crawling has advanced to warp speed and he cruises furniture with ease. Rafi's latest feat is standing in place for about 20 seconds--maybe he'll even try walking soon! Some of his other "tricks" include waving bye-bye, clapping, and tossing his toys out of the tub while bathing.
Rafi has continued to grow so well physically that he was actually discharged from physical therapy, making his day-to-day schedule a lot easier to manage. He still receives feeding therapy, and his therapist will also soon incorporate speech therapy, but Rafi is making a lot of progress in his eating as well. Using a hand-held mesh "easy feeder," Rafi enjoys eating soft fruits on his own, and gets a lot of chewing practice. When I blend food for him, I can now make it a lot more textured than in previous months, and Rafi can handle it with marked improvement. He still receives his formula via feeding tube, but he's also getting better at drinking from a sippy cup, so hopefully we won't have to continue with the tube much past his first birthday. We also have an appointment with an audiologist at the New York Eye and Ear later in July, who will be fitting Rafi for a hearing aid in his right ear.
In terms of doctors' appointments, Rafi's schedule has become considerably lighter. After our "make-up" sleep study, which thankfully concluded that Rafi does not need any kind of ENT surgery at the moment, his appointments are at an all-time low. We did have a scare at the end of last month when his feeding button (port on his stomach) fell out (we were warned that could happen) and we had to take a late-night trip to the ER to get it replaced. After it fell out again the next afternoon, the doctor concluded that it was simply too small and placed a larger-sized one instead. Since then, we thankfully haven't had any trouble with it.
Since we're not spending too much quality time at doctors, Rafi has really expanded his recreational side. We've been to the weekly storytime sessions with other infants at our local library and also frequent the playgrounds. Rafi loves the swings, slides, crawling around and picking up foreign objects, and watching the older kids. Our building complex thankfully has a great playroom for rainy days and now that Rafi is a little older, he can appreciate many more toys. We also recently went to the Central Park Zoo and Rafi fearlessly pet the sheep and goats.
All in all, things are really improving for Rafi. He is just a regular baby, soon to be toddler, very inquisitive and curious, and getting his hands into anything they can reach. We are so grateful and fortunate for his progress and hope he will continue to grow and develop as well as he is now.
