Action Packed

Saturday was a busy day for us, probably a little too much action for Ryder, but he hung in as long as he could!  First, we went to Kamrie’s birthday party which was SO fun! 

Ryder spent lots of time playing in the rocks, his favorite thing to do lately:

He ate lots of yummy watermelon:

Then he stripped down to go play on the slip & slide.  He kept bending over to drink the puddles of water, silly boy:

 

Sonia came to join in on the fun, so you know he was all over that :)

Carter came by and we gave him his Birthday presents.

  

(By the way, this was just the party from Ryder’s eyes…there was so much to do, a piñata, watermelon eating contest, water balloon toss, presents, cake…Jamie knows how to throw a fun party!)  After all that action, we drove around so that Ryder could take a nap and rest up for the next part of the day.  We went to Nick & Lindsay’s to watch the UFC fight, and his main squeeze Mikayla was going to be there so I knew he would need a second wind.  They were excited to see each other, and be bad together, and play (or whatever you call what they do).  At one point Mikayla was cleaning Ryder with baby wipes, Ryder kept pinching her and laughing, and they always have these “special moves” they put on each other…

 

The kids were up WAY past their bedtimes and were acting completely delirious.  At one point Mikayla was crying so Nicki took her back into Madalynn’s room to try to rock her to sleep.  Ryder was so brave that he started crawling down the dark scary hallway to go check on her!  Now that is love <3

Nicki was able to get Mikayla to sleep…me, not so much!  We ended up leaving right before the main event because Ryder just wasn’t dealing with being up so late.  He kept pointing at the big screening saying “movie?? movie??” He wanted his Praise Baby on and I don’t think everyone watching the fight would have appreciated that.

So that was Ryder’s action packed day, probably a little too much, but everyone needs a little action sometimes :)

Much Better!

It didn’t take the antibiotic long to kick in and get this boy back to his normal self!  He had his first dose Wednesday night, and by Thursday afternoon he had no more fever, and was completely re-energized.  He made up for lost time by not taking an afternoon nap and terrorizing the house…yup…back to normal!  Today you can’t tell he was ever even sick.  It’s amazing how quickly children can bounce back from things.  It seems like all of the resting he did while he was sick has actually made him stronger.  I’m happy to say that all evening yesterday and all day today Ryder has been crawling up on his hands & knees almost ALL of the time! 

This is so amazing!  I was worried that he would never gain the strength to push up and crawl like this and it’s so important for the development of their bones and joints for them to crawl.  Plus, It is so good for his arm to bear weight like this. So, my baby is all better AND he’s crawling…I’m one happy Mommy :-)

Strep Throat

Wow this crept up out of completely nowhere!  Ryder was fine all day yesterday but woke up at 2am burning up!  I gave him Motrin and spent the next 2 hours trying to get him comfortable so that he could go back to sleep.  His temperature was right around 102, it has never been that high so I made an appointment first thing in the morning to take him to the doctor.  Sure enough, he tested positive for strep throat.  He has been so lethargic and has slept most of the day away.  Of course Mommy has been spoon feeding him chicken noodle soup, rocking him to sleep, and catering to his every need.  He’s soaking up all the babying and attention, but hopefully the antibiotic will kick in and he’ll start feeling better soon!

Some cell phone pics of my sleeping baby boy all cuddled up in my arms:

One Word Wednesday

**Lessons**

Therapy Eval

The evaluation went well today.  The only downfall was that they only evaluated him for Occupational Therapy, I thought they would be evaluating him for ALL types of therapy, but I was wrong.  So, they want to start him on OT twice a week, and they have set him up for a Physical Therapy evaluation in 2 weeks.  At that time I’m sure we’ll be adding PT into the formula, plus he will still see his regular therapist once a week at our house. 

The reason we are on a Therapy overload right now is that our insurance company is only approving for Ryder to get 90 days of therapy, per condition, per lifetime.  So what that means is that since he had a stroke he has 90 days starting today to receive any therapy to get better.  The Neurologist recommends therapy until he starts school, but the insurance only approves 90 days…So unfair, but absolutely nothing I can do about it!   This means that if a year from now, we start seeing new side effects from the stroke, like in his speech, we would not be approved for speech therapy because he has already used up his 90 days for this condition.  If they are only going to give us 90 days from today, we all feel strongly that we should approach his recovery aggressively and do as much as we can now.  I don’t know how effective it will be for long term results, but we’re willing to try anything to give him the best chance.  We already have a Plan B in the works, but we’ll just have that on the backburner and see where he stands with his recovery after the 90 days are over.

For now, we’ll be putting our faith and trust in God to work this situation out according to His will.  Oh, and making lots of trips to Richmond!

14 Months!

…and 5 days…oops

I can’t believe it has been 2 months since Ryder’s first Birthday…but as always, the months are flying by!  This month has been HUGE for Ryder in developing his motor skills.  He is moving around so fast now, pulling up on everything, and has even started crawling on his hands and knees.  Another area he continues to really develop in is his speech and communication!  He says something new every day and always keeps us laughing.

Here’s what’s going on at 14 months:

• Ryder weighs just over 19 pounds and is in 12 month clothes.
• He is a great eater and we haven’t found many foods that he doesn’t like.  The only foods we don’t allow him to eat yet are strawberries, honey, peanut butter, and fish.  His favorite food right now is pineapples, green beans, and freeze pops!
• His vocabulary continues to grow.  Some new words he is saying now are pop, dirt, sky, grass, girl, go, bath, towel, done, mouth, baby, and no.
• We have broken him of a horrible habit of throwing his food when he’s done eating, he now says DONE and we immediately let him get down to avoid flying leftovers.
• Ryder had to be disciplined for the first time this month and we are quickly realizing that it won’t be the last!  He’s a very good boy, but he has a mischievous streak to him that needs to be kept under control.
• He is cruising around furniture like a pro now, and can be found crawling on his hands and knees more frequently.
• He has some quirky little fears going on right now, like a fear of the playground, hallways, and vacuums.  Hopefully this is just a phase.
• He is very into anatomy and can point out his teeth, hair, belly button, and toes.  He touches his whole face when you ask about eyes, nose, and mouth, atleast he has the location right!
• His favorite things right now are watching his Praise Baby movie before bedtime, reading books, and playing in his pool outside.

We’re going to Children’s Hospital tomorrow for Ryder’s evaluation.  We’re very anxious to see how he does and how much therapy they feel that he’s going to need moving forward. 

Here’s to another month of fun :-)

Road Trip

Ryder went on his very first road trip this weekend!  We went to NC to visit Emily, Bradley & Gavin.  We rode down with Nicki & Mikayla who were visiting Liz, Sophia & Chase.  I was a nervous wreck (imagine that) that Ryder would be miserable in the car for 5 hours…but to my surprise, he did exceptionally well!  On the way there he only got fussy one time and it was very brief, and on the way back he slept for 4 out of the 5 hours!  One of these days I will start to give this little guy some credit.  I guess it helps me to always prepare for the worst and then end up being pleasantly surprised. 

 

Anyway, about the trip, we had such a great time!  Emily is a long-time friend of mine, we went to Elementary & Middle school together, and our husbands went to high school together, so there is a lot of history there.  It was fun reminiscing and going through old pictures.  The best part was being able to see how much we’ve grown, and how God has blessed each one of our lives.  It was really neat to see our children bond and play together too!

 

 

Saturday we did fun things like go to the park and to the cutest little pottery place to make something for Daddy for Father’s Day (shhh don’t tell him!) and we had lunch at an ice cream parlor.  Then, Saturday night we all went over to Liz’s house to have dinner together, 4 Moms & 6 Kids! 

 

A split second after this picture was taken, Ryder fell off the couch…OOPS!  Ryder had so much fun playing with all the kids.  He was amazing me with how well he was keeping up, and the fact that he was crawling on his hands & knees probably 40% of the time this weekend…WOW! 

We had a great time!  Thanks to Emily & Liz both for your hospitality.  You guys are both so sweet and have beautiful families, I admire your strength as you hold things together while your husbands are deployed. 

One last thing I must mention, I have a very special place in my heart for a certain red head with dimples:

He makes this world a much sillier place, I miss you already Bradley!

Oh How I Missed You

Your sweet little feet

And your sweet little cheeks

Both sets

Your adorable curls

and your tough black eye…wait…what?!  Oh, you got in a fight with your mailbox toy while I was away?  And the mailbox won?  You’ll get him next time buddy!

It feels so good to be back home with my boys!  I feel like Ryder looks a year older, has hair that is 3 inches longer, and is atleast 3 inches taller…all in 4 days!

Tomorrow Me & Ryder are heading on a road trip with Nicki & Mikayla down to NC to visit Emily & Liz and their little ones, can’t wait!!