Other Fall News
Gareth had surgery in mid-October. His tonsils were incredibly large and his ENT suggested that perhaps removing them would decrease Gareth’s drool and might increase his ability to swallow. So, we headed to the hospital for three procedures on one day: a tonsilectomy, an adenoidectomy, and placement of ear tubes. The surgeries went fine and Gareth was released from the hosptial the next day. He was cranky for a few days, but doses of Tylenol and gifts from family certainly improved his mood! So far we’ve seen Gareth trying to swallow a bit more, but he’s still drooling buckets. We’ll just continue to see what happens as Gareth’s muscles get stronger.
The big news from this fall is that Gareth is “talking”. He has a speech book full of 60+ pictures that he can use to communicate with us. He can choose what activity he wants to do, what toy he’d like to play with, and what song we should sing. He can also answer any ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question or tell us he wants more or is all done. It’s been so great to watch him making choices and letting us know what he wants. Through his speech assessments and activities we’ve also been able to determine that Gareth knows a lot of information and is a pretty smart cookie! 
Another great development was seeing Gareth in a walker. We borrowed a walker from some friends for a trial run and Gareth loves it! He zooms backwards and sideways (he hasn’t quite figured out forwards) all over the kitchen floor. It’s fabulous to see him moving all around!! We are in the process of ordering him one of his own; hopefully it’ll arrive soon.