Ryder Videos!

This child has never ceased to amaze me, but since he’s been in school he has been soaking in every bit of information they are willing to teach him.  I love when he brings things home and can’t wait to show them to me, like this book he made for his “One True Valentine” (lucky me!!!):

 

He obviously memorized the whole book but I think it’s so cute how he’s starting to move his finger along like he’s reading!  Reading is definitely something that he’s interested in, so I don’t think it’s too far off for him.  After therapy the other day when I brought him to school his teacher was doing letter, number, and shape testing with each kid, so I got to sit in on Ryder’s.

 

They have been working hard at school on recognizing letters in uppercase & lowercase form, and what sounds they make.  It’s obviously working because he completely surprised me the other day when he could recognize every single letter on his Spider Man couch!  He read them each to me and then said “what did that spell Mommy??”  I had to get the camera and make him do it again!

Love watching this child learn and grow!!

Reflections

I started writing this Blog 4 years ago today!  March 25th, 2009 I sat down at my computer and typed out my very first blog post.  My baby was in the NICU and I was at home trying to find things to fill those lonely days, so I jumped on the bandwagon of blogging about my child’s life!  I had been reading a few friends’ blogs and thought it was neat that they were documenting the beginning years so I thought I’d do the same.  And so it began!  Four years, 737 Posts, 59,841 Page View’s later, I am SO glad I decided to start blogging. 

Before I became a Mom, I had such a great memory, I could remember anything.  Something happened in those 18 months that I carried 2 children and now my memory barely allows me to remember what I wore a week ago, what I ate a day ago, much less the ages that my Children cut their first teeth, slept through the night, and ate their first foods.  These are all memories that I hold so dear to me, I’d hate to lose them.  One of my best decisions as a Mom has been to start blogging about their lives.  I love to click back through my Archive and see what was going on at any given age/season/year past.

So I started blogging about Ryder being in the hospital and I suddenly didn’t feel so alone.  I knew people were reading my words and were praying for us so specifically and I KNOW that God heard everyone’s prayers.  Then when we finally got to bring him home I could feel people rejoicing with us through the computer.  There have been so many times that I have felt like “Oh I can’t wait to get home and blog about this!”.  His Kidney’s started healing themselves after his surgery and I loved sharing every second of this miracle with people that cared about us.

Of course there have also been times that I really didn’t want to blog because I didn’t want to face the reality of things that were happening.  But getting it out has been so therapeutic for me.  Exactly one year after I started blogging, March 25th, 2010 we had to take Ryder for an MRI of his brain to see why he wasn’t using his left side.  Two days later we received the news that he had a Stroke.  This started a whole new reality for our family, raising a child with special needs.  A rollercoaster filled with therapy, medical procedures, insurance battles, and uncertainties for the future.  We’ve come so far that I often forget all the challenges so being able to go back and read is like seeing God’s work unfold one phase at a time.

When I was pregnant with Ryder and the Doctor was telling us about the issues he was having with his kidneys, I was so afraid.  This is when my love/hate relationship with Google began.  I would spend countless hours at night researching, trying to ignore every bad thing I read but holding on to every glimpse of hope I would find.  They normally came in the form of other people’s blogs.  I would find a family going through something similar and start reading all about their journey.  I would cry for the ones whose baby didn’t make it, praying so hard that we wouldn’t have to face that same fate.  Thank God we didn’t.  So when we started noticing Ryder not using his left arm & leg, back to Google I went.  I would see the term “Cerebral Palsy” pop up every time I searched no matter how many times I tried to word my search differently and I would just click off of it really quick to trick myself into thinking I didn’t see it.  When we got the Left Hemiparesis diagnosis and found out it was a form of Cerebral Palsy I went blog searching.  I needed all the information I could find, I wanted to find children similar to Ryder and see what the future had in store for us.  Some gave me hope and some brought me to tears.  But I will forever be thankful for those families who shared their stories.  In those vulnerable moments I did not want to hear statistics or possible outcomes in medical terms, I needed real stories with real emotions from real people.  With those people in mind I’ve tried to do the same with this blog in hopes that if someone happens to be up Googling they might stumble across it and realize that there are really good outcomes to not so good situations!  Ryder’s disability does not define him so I only mention it as necessary, but we live life as normal and happy as anyone else!

Four years of blogging has given me the best baby book to pass down to my children if they ever want to know a detail about their childhood.  It has allowed our family and friends to keep up with us in ways they never would have been able to.  They have been able to be a part of every milestone our children have reached, that is so special to me!  It has also brought me so close to a group of people as we experience parenthood at the exact same time, we’ve become a support group for each other and I don’t know what I would do without those friendships!

So to my faithful followers, thank you for caring about us and for supporting us in our lives through this blog, for praying us through trying times and for cheering with us when we’ve overcome an obstacle.  I can’t believe it has been 4 years! 

A Letter to my Son on His 4th Birthday

Ryder ~

4 years old??  Really?!  I would rewind these last 4 years with you and relive them over and over if I could, even with all of the ups and downs!  I sure do miss those baby days of yours where I could just hold you and rock you and sing to you.  Watching you work so hard to learn how to push your arms up and crawl, then eventually take your very first wobbly steps.  Hearing you give me my most favorite name “Mommy” and knowing exactly what you needed just by the tone of your little baby voice.  4 years of amazing memories you have given to me and I would not trade them for the world. 

Times have definitely changed, you no longer let me hold you and rock you (well…not that you would admit!), and you surely don’t ever sit in one place or use just one word when you need something from me!  But one thing that hasn’t changed is when I look at you, I still see my baby boy.  You will always be my baby, I don’t care how many more Birthday’s you have!

One thing that I really want you to know is how much your life has strengthened Mommy & Daddy’s faith in God.  From all of the desperate plea’s we have made, to our tears of joy and appreciation, and even praising Him for perfectly unanswered prayers…and now, to all of our Bible time together, all of the tough questions you love to ask, and our deep conversations about Jesus, you have brought a whole new layer of growth in our lives with Christ.  So thank you for that!

When you were about to turn 3 years old Mommy told you that 3 year olds don’t wear pull-ups, so since the day you turned 3 you have never worn one again.  Just like that you were potty trained.  So boyyyy has Mommy been giving you the list of things that 4 year olds do not do.  4 year olds do NOT disobey their Mommy’s, they do NOT have accidents between trips to the bathroom, and they most definitely do NOT be mean to their sisters!  Being 4 is going to be rough kid, but we all have to grow up some time! ;-)

Looking forward to another year of growth and learning and most importantly LAUGHTER!

I love you my sweet boy,

~ Mommy

4th Birthday Celebration!

Sound the Alarm, Hurry to the Station…….YUP We had Ryder’s 4th Birthday Celebration at a firehouse!!  He was beyond thrilled when we told him that his cousin Jamie was going to let us have his party at the firehouse he volunteers at (and so was Mommy, of course!).  I immediately called Aunt B and we started collaborating on good ideas for the firefighter theme.  The party turned out great, we had lots of help pulling the whole thing off and I think everyone (kids and adults!) had a great time.

Food:

Friends:

       

Presents:

Cake & Goodies:

 

Make a Wish!

    

I hope all of his 4 year old wishes come true!  One already did, he really wanted a Ninja Turtle Costume…

   

But I especially hope that he starts feeling better!  He wasn’t feeling so good during his party and ended up running a fever Saturday & Sunday.  I kept getting this look from him:

He was trying so hard to have fun and enjoy his party but Momma knew he wasn’t 100%.

But if there were ever a time to be stuck inside, having a bunch of brand new toys that need to be played with is a great time!

(for the whole family!)

Can’t believe my fire chief/ninja turtle/sick baby boy is turning 4 tomorrow!  Ahhhhh!

February…Where Did You Go?

Is February really over already??  And I only managed to get 3 posts in?  I’m a little disappointed in myself!  Time is just flying by so fast I can barely catch my breath.  So let’s see, what happened in February?

We had one really nice day with Spring-Like weather so we picked up our cousin Cameron and headed straight to the playground!

Of course we celebrated Valentine’s Day and everything that went along with that!  Like Valentine themed lunch:

Goodies from Mommy & Daddy:

McDonalds gift cards from Grammy!

We did Valentine’s for all the kids in his Awana class & his class at school.  I don’t know how I managed to miss getting a picture of those cute little firetruck cookies Aunt B made for him to hand out.  Oh wait, probably because he was SO obsessive over them that I was like a psychiatrist trying to talk him through the fact that they would be FINE, they would NOT break on the bus, and that he needed to chill! (instead of being a picture taking Mommy). He woke up at midnight panicking because we forgot to make one for his School Bus driver!  Then the next morning he was not satisfied until the valentines were in individual baggies, wrapped inside a bigger baggie, wrapped inside a blanket, inside of his bookbag.  He STILL felt like I needed to tell the bus driver to “drive slow!”.

Insert cute picture of my little man on his big school bus…even if he is a little OCD, lets face it, the reason I get so frustrated is because it’s like looking in a mirror!  He is ME, YIKES!

 

Ryder got to dress up as his favorite book character one day at school!  He chose…A shark!

If you recall, this was his Halloween costume when he was 1 year old…and it still fits him! 

 

He had it hanging in his closet and insisted on wearing it, to my amazement it still fit (size 18 months)! So my next challenge was going on a hunt for a book about a shark.  Of course Dr. Seuss came through, my man!

We visited Ryder’s school for our first ever Parent/Teacher conference!  That was fun!

We played puppets while we waited for the teacher to finish another meeting.  I don’t even know if we’re mature enough to be attending Parent/Teacher conferences yet!

We had another meeting at Ryder’s school to discuss his eligibility for Therapy services through the school system.  I thought we were going in for a battle when I heard they were not going to recommend therapy, but we were happy with the outcome overall.  He won’t be getting Physical Therapy through the school but he will get Occupational Therapy once a week.

Any time we face big decisions or changes that affect Ryder in any way I instantly go into panic mode, worrying about the outcome and its effect on the rest of his life.  It’s been quite the journey with this little guy!  But things always work out then I snap back into day to day reality.  Which is…

Dress Up!

Ninja Turtles!

Jumping on the bed!

Being Cute!

 

  

And loving each other!!  That’s what we do best :)

So February flew by and March is going to be more of the same! We’ve already been to the Monster Truck Show, we’re celebrating an anniversary and SOMEONE is about to turn 4 years old!  Get ready for all that fun!