Ilan is doing great! He has gotten back to his jovial, sociable self. He enjoys company and loves to go outdoors. During the past few months, he:
- now walks about 150ft with the aid of a walker
- stands for an hour in a new special stander that we built for him that allows him to kick a soccer ball with his legs (that he does very well), balance on one leg, and also to balance by himself (without support) for about a minute
- eats 95% of his meals orally, but so far only 20-25% of his liquid requirements
- stands up and walks 2-3 steps by himself without support
- spends more time on AIM and Facebook chatting with his friends
- takes speech therapy which is helping him along to begin speaking a few words quite clearly and attempt to pronounce more words
- will begin pool/swim therapy next week at Northridge hospital
- hopefully will get vision therapy soon that he really needs in order to help him read more than 2-3 words
- visited Milken, where he was kindly invited to throw the 1st ball for dodge-ball in color wars, and thoroughly enjoyed himself; his senior classmates kindly invited him to join them for a party this coming Thursday.
- spent shabbat dinner at a family friend's house
- **went go-carting in Palm Springs (as a passenger with Dad) and at the 1st turn almost fell out of the cart till he learned how to hold on to his steering wheel!
- **rode an ATV by himself for about 100 meters!
**he absolutely loved these rides
Ilan is also beginning to assert himself by informing us if he does not like or does not want to do something; previously, he was quite passive and acquiesced to everything we asked him to do!
Family-wise, David is working hard in Century City, Jarone completed his mid-Junior year semester at USC, and Michal recently interviewed with Milken for high school.
Thank you for your patience and coming back to read Ilan's blog site.
We wish everyone a Happy, Healthy, Safe, Peaceful and Fruitful New Year!!
