29.2 Pounds!

This Fructose Malabsorption road is SO frustrating, I had a post all ready to go talking about how we’ve been “two steps forward, two steps back” non-stop since we learned Mr. Charm’s diagnosis.

But then…Sunday’s weigh-in came.

He weighed 29.2 pounds!!!

To give you an idea of how monumental this is, here is his weight from October on (we missed November because we were out of town) in pounds:

Even worse, I have his weight from August and September, and it constantly hovered around 25 pounds back then!

So this weight gain has me walking on a cloud!

Granted, yesterday we weighed him at night, and I normally weigh him first thing in the morning before breakfast, but that can’t have skewed it by too  much.

In other words, I really think he gained at least 2 pounds this last week and I am thrilled!

Also, his diapers are looking a LOT better and he’s eating well again.  Maybe it took time to get him ‘off’ the sugar and straighten his body out, and now that he feels better he wants to eat again?

I don’t know.  But I know I’m feeling SO GOOD about this trajectory for Mr. Charm and I really hope it keeps going.

Oh, and for further evidence that Fructose really messes with my son, I mentioned trying to get him evaluated for Early Intervention Speech Therapy last week.  He hadn’t been talking as much as we thought he should, and he never showed interest in any of the sign language we had tried to teach him over the last 18 months or so.

Over the weekend?  He used more words and TRIED to communicate more than he ever has before, and taught himself  (from the Baby Einstein video) SIX sign-language words.  Yesterday morning he used sign language to ask for more cereal and (almond) milk when he finished his bowl.  THAT is HUGE.  

He even had more patience for learning other things, like how to use the camera on his LeapPad tablet.  We’ve tried to show him since Christmas, but he just never seemed to ‘get it’.  Yesterday, he was very specifically taking pictures of the cats, his brother, the Geek, his toys, me, anything that caught his eye.

He also got out a “Look and Find” book that he had never shown any interest in, brought it to me and insisted we read it.  He pointed out almost everything we asked him to show us.  We asked him to point out the items they had in the “find these items” column, of course, but we also asked him to point out things that there was no pictoral reference for – and he got almost all of them!  I had no idea he knew all of those things – he had never shown me before!!

Mr. Charm making TEA

He’s not really smiling in the picture above, but that’s because we basically were forcing him to look at the camera to show “Grandma and PopPop what you did”.  He wanted to show off his awesomeness – he decided to make a pitcher of iced tea!  All by himself, he got out a pan, drug a chair over to the sink, climbed up, filled the pan with water, and was trying to go to the stove when the Geek stepped in to help.  Then he pulled his chair over to the stove and got out two tea bags and was anxiously waiting for the water to get hot enough to put them in to steep.  (Yes, I was there the whole time, supervising.)  He’s wanted to help in the kitchen before, true, but this was the first time he actually did something without making a huge mess and while actually accomplishing the intended goal!  

I’m high as a kite, y’all.  If I can keep him off the Fructose, I think Mr. Charm is going to take off like a rocket.  

29.2 pounds!!  New words!!  Sign language!!  Kitchen helper!!  Go, baby!!

Anyone else had a good news weekend?