Looking for Answers

We've had a busy week. Both of Joe's therapists were impressed with his improvement. He's been using signs ("more" regularly, "drink" sometimes), he's paid more attention to people and toys, physically he's improved his control. Its been so good to see improvement.
Thursday I took Joe to the Indiana School for the Deaf for his hearing test. They did a couple of different tests. They put little sensors inside his ears and tested his ear drums' movement/response to sound. Another test they did was to have sounds of varying volumes on the right or left to see if he'd respond my turning in the correct direction. He did not really respond to this test but its probably due to his poor motor stills. They found that he has some fluid built up behind the ear drums (which is actually pretty common among toddlers, especially when teething) which may be muffling incoming sound. The overall result was that his hearing organ seems to be functioning within the normal range. They did recommend that he see an Ear Nose and Throat specialist about the fluid build up. We are probably going to play that by ear for now.
We've been thankful to have had some really nice weather off and on over the last week (Sunny and 60-70s). We've really enjoyed going to the park a few times. Nate is fearless! He doesn't hesitate going on the "big kid" playground and going down the big slide! Both boys were worn out from the extra activity and fell asleep in the car on the way home! We'll have to get used to the summer stuff: play grounds, upcoming swimming lessons, taking walks around the neighborhood...
Friday in the wee hours of the morning we felt an earthquake! Can you believe it?!? Us... here in the good old Midwest! Isaac and I both woke up for the tail end of it. We watched a few minutes of news and went back to sleep. It was pretty exciting. We're very thankful that no one was hurt (that I've heard).
This morning Isaac and I took Joe downtown to IU Optical Clinic for his vision test. We had a very nice young intern who performed several exams. He did some of the usual stuff that we're used to from our vision tests in the past. He looked in his eyes with the light, checked the light reflection to see what his prescription was, etc. Obviously Joe couldn't read a normal chart so he used some flash cards with black grading on them to see if his eyes were drawn to the grading. They also dilated his eyes to further check his prescription. He wasn't a big fan of the eye drops they used but the Doc said that he did better taking the drops than some Marines. Yep, thats our boy, tough as nails at one year old! He got to wear these awesome shades to protect his dilated eyes from the sunlight. He was awfully cute! Ultimately the result was the same as with the hearing test: within the normal range. No reason to believe that he has any issues with his eyes.
First of all I want to say Praise God that he has good hearing and vision. However Isaac and I are both full of mixed emotions right now. We still do not know what is the cause or reason behind his delays. We've ruled a few things out but now we're kind of feeling like deductive reasoning says that its even more likely than ever that he has a neurological problem. Which quite frankly frightens the heck out of me. I felt a little less scared of dealing with a vision or hearing problem than I do about a neurological issue. There is still the possibility that he's just delayed and will eventually catch up. But its hard to know what to think right now. We still have an appointment in June with a Riley Developmental Specialist and an appointment in August with the Riley Pediatric Neurologist. All we can do for now is to continue doing what we've been doing with therapy and supplements and pray that God will continue to watch over our Little Joe.