Maisy – What is that grumpy face for??
Why have you had that grumpy face on all week??
Oh wait…what is that I just felt in your mouth??
Could it be?? Could it really be??? A TOOTH!!!! It finally came through!
Maisy you are 11 months old and your first tooth just cut through your gums today…HOORAY!
Now we’re happy :) This is the face I get when I say “Maisy let me see your teeth!”
Friday marked Ryder’s second full week with his cast on. Week 2 was eventful since the cast fell off and a new one had to be put back on the same day. Then Saturday he came down with a fever and was feeling pretty bad all day and night. Other than those mishaps, he has been doing so well with the constraint therapy…having the cast on is completely normal to him and he’s doing great using Lefty for most tasks.
We’ve worked a lot on stability with Lefty this week, getting him to be able to pick things up and carry them without losing his grip, and trying to strengthen his arm and shoulder. We know that once the cast comes off he will go back to using his right arm/hand for everything, but if we can get his muscles stronger and more coordinated then he’ll be more likely to atleast try things with 2 hands.
Some challenges he is having are using his pincer grasp, picking up flat or small objects and keeping a grip on something he is holding.
Last Friday during therapy we worked on eating with a fork. We had to hold his elbow, pulling it up so that the fork could point straight down to poke something, then pushing it down to get his wrist towards his mouth to take a bite. This was something I honestly didn’t think he’d get on his own…buuuttttt…Sunday morning when he was up and feeling better from being sick the day before, what do ya know, he wanted to eat his scrambled eggs (with ketchup, gross!) all by himself, and he wanted me to get it on video!
He’s working so hard, I couldn’t be more proud of him. The cast comes off this Friday, we’re taking a week break to see how he does and it might have to go back on for another 3 weeks. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there!
The Fireman Sam Theme Song – sung in Welsch (a language spoken in Wales and Argentina…I had to Google it!).
When I say that this boy can memorize any song he hears, I’m not lieing! He stumbled across this on You Tube (notice how he’s figuring out how to manipulate his tablet with Lefty!), watched it over and over a few times, then started singing along!
I couldn’t get a normal 11 Month picture in her crib because as soon as I set her in there she was thinking I was putting her to bed! This totally sums up how different she is this month, because she has figured out what is going on around her! Okay so lets move the little grumpy face and try this again…
The recliner makes her happy because she feels “older”…typical Maisy, she thinks she’s like 5! But no, she’s only 11 months and here is what she’s up to:
One more month until she’s going to be the Birthday Girl!!!! I really can’t believe it!
This weekend was jam-packed with action and fun for us! First we went to our little cousin Peyton’s first Birthday party. No pictures but the kids had fun celebrating with him. Next we headed to The Matteson’s for Jaxon’s 1st Birthday!
I really don’t know how this little guy turned a whole year old already, but it happened right before our eyes! Nicki hosted an awesome 49ers party and we all had a blast.
We were out pretty late that evening, but there was no time to rest the next day because we had even more fun things to do! We headed over to the highschool to see Daddy and all the other bikes that rode in the Frazier-Mason Memorial Ride. I love my view looking down at these two in their cool ride:
And although it made me nervous, I liked the view of watching these two of my favorite boys…my husband and my brother…riding to our next destination.
Yes I was snapping pictures in the car…I was bored because these two were trying to catch up on sleep so I had no one to talk to!
Wow, safety first, Mother of the year over here, I’m totally telling on myself with this picture. Okay moving on…
Our next stop was to Carter’s Birthday party! Of course I didn’t get any pictures of the Birthday boy, but the kids always have fun playing over there!
We had so much fun partying it up all weekend, but then it was back to the serious stuff on Monday!
Monday afternoon we headed to Richmond for Ryder’s routine kidney check-up. They took a sonogram of his bladder before and after going potty, they showed me on the pictures how thick and muscular his bladder wall is…this is a residual affect from his blockage prior to birth. The sonogram of his kidneys came back great as he didn’t see any dilation at all! So basically his kidney’s are healing perfectly and his bladder issue is something he will live with and learn to control. He is going to have the ability to hold his pee for a long time and then not really feel the sensation of completely emptying. Right now he tells me pretty frequently that he has to go, so it’s like he only lets enough out to where he doesn’t feel it anymore, so it fills up a lot sooner and he has to go again. His kidney doctor was happy to hear that and said it’s better for him to go a little bit a lot than to hold it for a long time because that will give his kidney’s a chance to resort back to what they know and start to reflux again. He said we’re at a crossroads right now, everything looks so great and could be on a great path to no issues from here on out, but we have to pay close attention for any unexplained fevers or bad smelling urine because now that Ryder has a choice on whether he’s going to go or hold it…it could mean trouble. He said “I see he has some contrary in him, so let’s hope he doesn’t start to purposely hold his pee and not go”…haha yeah I’d say he has some contrary in him!
What’s today, Tuesday? Losing track here. Today Ryder had 2 back-to-back therapy appointments scheduled, OT and then PT. Just as I was getting ready to leave work to go get him I got a call from Nana that Ryder’s cast had fallen off!! I called Miss Abby and she rearranged her schedule so that she could put a new one on immediately. This led to the “Day 1 of casting” emotions all over again, so it has been an interesting evening. I know he’ll wake up tomorrow in good spirits though and we’ll just keep on moving…
There’s never a dull moment!
Well we made it through the first week of Constraint Therapy and we’re all still in one piece! The first day was definitely the worst, but with each day it becomes more “normal” for him to have the cast on and he doesn’t even ask us to take it off anymore. We’ve been amazed at how much function Lefty really has this time, I guess the combination of Botox plus the casting is really working!
He got a huge can of playdoh for his Birthday that I purposely hid in his closet because I knew it would be perfect to take out once he got his cast on. So each night after Maisy goes to bed we have our special playdoh time. It’s great because Lefty has to work so hard but he’s still enjoying himself.
He has gained so much strength and coordination with his left hand in just 1 year. It’s a great feeling to see all of his hard work paying off. Here he is throwing treats to Beasley out the window…it amazes me to see him grab for something and actually get his hand to land where he is aiming, this is something he used to struggle with big time!
Having Righty in a cast is most helpful during therapy, because during a normal session a lot of time is spent trying to convince him to try something with Lefty. He knows how easy he can do everything with Righty so he only wants to do things one-handed. Now that he doesn’t have that option, Abby is really getting Lefty to do some challenging things that he wouldn’t have even tried before.
Just to see him able to do a normal task like eating a popsicle with his left hand is enough confirmation for me that week 1 has been a huge success. Challenging at times but SO worth it to see our boy making progress!
I have new footage of Ryder working hard with Lefty that I’ll try to get uploaded sometime in the next few days…but first I had to share some video’s of us following Maisy around trying so hard to get her to walk on camera. Every day when I pick her up from Nana’s she’ll take about 3 steps to me, as Nana says she does throughout the day. But once we get home and I get the camera out and have Daddy there to witness it, she stands there like “Who me??? I don’t take steps!!!”
Today was Mother’s Day, which was special in itself…but what made it even more special was that we dedicated Maisy at Church. We made a promise to raise her in a Christian home and lead her to God. Even Ryder agreed, so as a family we’ll do our best to teach her about Jesus, how much He loves her and the sacrifices He made to save her.
I was showered with gifts first thing this morning AND coffee in bed! I love my little family so much, they definitely know how to make me feel so special.
We do have another child, I just have no idea where he was when we were taking these pictures. I’m determined to get a family picture of all 4 of us one of these days, hmmm maybe next Mother’s Day! After Church we went to Alan’s Grandma’s to visit with the family. We had lots of fun and lots of good food. It was a great day in so many ways.
I can hardly even put into words what it means being a Mommy to these two beautiful children. Sometimes when I look at them it takes my breath away. Their hugs, kisses, laughter, and innocence fill my heart with pure joy. It’s not always easy…in fact, we all know how hard it is to be a Mom! But it’s worth every second of the hard times, because the reward is so much greater. To have these little eyes look at me in love, their little arms reach out to me for comfort, and their little mouths call out my name in need is the most rewarding thing I’ll ever experience in my whole life. I love being a “Momma”.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of you Momma’s out there! Hope you each had a fabulous day, you deserve it!!
Just over a year ago, we did our first round of Constraint Induced Therapy with Ryder, where his good arm is casted for a 3 week period of time to encourage him to use his arm that lost function when he had his stroke. He cleverly named that cast “Sword Fight” because to him, he had his own personal sword attached. Knowing that our next round of CIT was approaching, we have been asking Ryder if he’s ready to get Sword Fight back on. If we were smart, we would not have carried the name over, because as soon as he got it on today he was swinging it around yelling Hi-Ya with a much bigger cast and much stronger,more powerful arm than we were up against last year!
When Daddy got home, he got the marker out and asked Ryder what he should write. Ryder said “Street Glide!”. So we will no longer be referring to his cast as Sword Fight, it is now Street Glide. We’re trying to encourage him to vroooom it along like a motorcycle instead of swinging it like a sword!
Friday mornings we have therapy at 7am (soooo early!) so today that meant getting casted at 7am. Ryder was a good sport, as he always is. He sat still, watching Blue’s Clue’s, asking questions, making us laugh, even stopping for a Hi-Five after the padding was on.
Once the cast was on, he tolerated it for all of I’d say…15 minutes, before he realized how much it SUCKS not having righty! Sorry, but it does. I know it sucks for him, and it sucks for me having to watch him struggle…no other word comes to mind. All we can do is try to help him succeed to gain the strength and confidence he needs with Lefty.
On the ride home he began panicking because he couldn’t see his fingers. He was really upset so I pulled over to comfort him and the only thing I could think to do was take a picture with the camera and show him that his fingers were in there and they were okay! He was fine after that.
He’s having to use Lefty now to pick up his drinks (had to go back to cups with handles to make it easy for him) and to feed himself. You can see in the picture above that he has associated movements, he lifts righty every time he drinks because his brain just doesn’t understand that Lefty is doing it.
We couldn’t believe the size difference from his cast last year to the one this year! I don’t even remember his arm being that tiny only 1 year ago!
Day 1 has definitely been a roller coaster. We had our moment in his room where we both just had to cry. This year is a little different because he’s asking real questions and expecting real answers. He’s starting to realize that something is different about him. We’re having conversations with him we haven’t had yet, nor had we prepared what we would even say when the time came. We’re just rolling with it though, he’s a smart boy and he’s also very brave, so I know he can handle all of this.
1 day down, lots more to go. Plan on seeing a lot of Street Glide around here in the weeks to come!
I figure I better post some happy funny stuff this morning because in a few hours I don’t think the things coming out of Ryder’s mouth are going to be so pleasant :)
Lastnight as I was tucking Ryder into bed:
Me: can Mommy have a kiss?
Ryder: Nope, sorry, the kiss store is closed!
Me: ohhh mannnn, alright, well goodnight.
Ryder: Mooooommmmyyyy (as I’m walking away)
Me: Yessssss
Ryder: There’s another store over here!
Me: Really??? Do they have kisses???
Ryder: No, but they have hugs!
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Ryder has been making some pretty unrealistic requests lately, they are hilarious to me, but I don’t think he understands why I laugh, because he is serious!
We were at a friends house playing the other day, she had a huge playroom filled with all kinds of toys. I walked in the playroom to check on him and he says “Mommy can you get me one of these??” I don’t see a toy in his hand so I ask “One of what??” To which he answers “A PLAYROOM!” Duhhhh. Yeah I’ll get right on that.
Lastnight watching Special Agent Oso…”Mommy, I really need something!!” he yells, which is usually followed by a request for a drink, snack, something easy. “A Jet Pack!!!” Coming right up.
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The other day Ryder walked up to Alan carrying a blown up balloon.
Alan: Hey buddy, do you want me to draw a face on your balloon??
Ryder: Yeah!
Alan: Okay we have eyes, a nose, a mouth, some ears, some hair…
Ryder: Daddy, you’re forgetting something, he needs nose holes!
Alan: Oh yeah, you’re right he does, so he can breathe.
Ryder: No, so he has somewhere to stick his finger!
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Okay so everything went fine today…another case of Momma freaking out unnecessarily, SURPRISE!
Our day started early, we had to be at Children’s by 7:30. We told Ryder he was going to Richmond to see Dr. Dillard’s office at the hospital and get his arm and leg checked. One question leads the next these days so we decided to just be vague and not give him anything to worry about. Since we didn’t give him much to work off of he asked funny questions, like if we were going there to get another baby like Maisy, or to bring Maisy back, and would he get to lay in a hospital bed.
The nurses were so sweet and took great care of our boy. We got him changed into his hospital gown, met with his Doctor and the Anesthesiologist, then they wheeled out this cool car and let him drive it to his operating room. Cue parents losing it. Ugh. Luckily the procedure didn’t take long at all. They found the muscle group they wanted to inject and did the injections in his left arm, and his left calf. Within 30 minutes they got us and took us to recovery where he was still asleep. When he finally opened his eyes he sat straight up and wanted to know where that car was so he could drive it out of the hospital! AND he wanted to make sure we stopped at the playground. The nurse told him the playground probably wasn’t a good idea because he’d be wobbly. He assured her “I’m not wobbly! I can walk! Watch!” Sure enough, by the time we got to the playground he was walking. Climbing. Sliding. Sliding on his tummy! He never ceases to amaze me.
Usually people get amnesia from the anesthesia and can’t really remember what led up to them getting put to sleep, but not Ryder. He told us everything that happened from the time he left us until he fell asleep. He said they took him out of the car and he got to lay in the hospital bed then they put a mask on him and told him to blow up a green balloon but he didn’t want that stinking mask on his face so he was trying hard to get it off but nope. LOL long sentence that abruptly ended, guess that’s when he fell asleep!
He played on the playground afterward then said he was starving, so we headed to Cracker Barrel. Of course he wanted to go to Bass Pro Shop, so that was our next stop. He hopped from boat to boat and four-wheeler to four-wheeler, he probably sat on every single one. He almost has Daddy convinced to get a boat (I’m sure his arm doesn’t need too much twisting on that). Every boat he got in he’d say “My life really needs this boat!” He also got to feed the fish at Bass Pro. Fun times!
We got the oil changed in our truck and shopped at Kohl’s too…it was a long day, what a trooper he was! The only time I got a little worried was when we were in Kohl’s and he said “Mommy I hurt”, I asked him where he hurt and he said EVERYWHERE! So I asked him to point and he reached around and grabbed his spine. I rubbed it for a second and he said it was better and hasn’t mentioned it since…so hopefully that was nothing. He has also gotten tired from walking a lot easier today so we’ve carried him a lot. They said to expect some weakness, plus he’s had a really long day. We’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on him in the weeks to come to make sure his body doesn’t have a bad reaction to the Botox.
I can’t tell you how happy I am to have that done with. I got myself into a huge panic Monday evening that even had Alan second guessing our decision. We called our Pastor and heard exactly what we needed to “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.” God was working in this situation, He would not have allowed it to happen if it wasn’t in His will. We had to let go and trust Him, a hard lesson to learn but always comes with the best outcomes.
Thanks for all the prayers! It’s just another bump in this crazy road to recovery that lies ahead for Ryder, but he handled it like a champ, as always! He gets his cast on Friday. We’re hoping, praying, and TRUSTING GOD for the same smooth results with that!
Our day in cell phone pics:
On our way.
Cute little hospital gown and his cool ride to the OR.
Mommy & Daddy’s stress relief. Yes, we played Mario Kart while we waited.
Visiting the playground right after the procedure…he wasn’t even phased!
Cracker Barrel french toast makes everything better! Oh and so do bubbles! Ryder sings this song “Bubbles make me happy, bubbles put a smile on my face” every time we blow bubbles, lol.
Talking this boat decision over with Daddy, even buttering him up with a sweet kiss!
Taking Mommy for a ride on a 4-wheeler.
Boys & their toys!
Yes, he got spoiled today. Yes, he got a special treat every where we went. Because yes, he deserves it.
