Leg Braces!!

We have waited almost two months for Grant Man's leg braces and today we got them :)





Are these not the cutest little things you've ever seen?








Grant Man isn't sure yet what to think about them. He hasn't figured out that he can bend his knee with them on. Can't wait until his amazing PT comes over tomorrow so she can help us with them :) I'm pretty iffy on them. I guess once I see that he can start using them I will feel better. It's really amazing all the equipment that is out there to help special needs kiddos! I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to utilize this equipment! Here's a couple more pics of Grant Man (of course more will be coming soon):

It's Bumbo Time!

So another thing I can contribute to Feldenkrais...Bumbo Time!! We had a lesson yesterday (Monday). On Sunday night I pulled out the Bumbo (Like I have done several times over the last almost 2 years) to try to see if Grant might magically enjoy sitting in it. Well low and behold he didn't! Screamed horribly when I put him in it. I was pretty bummed. Well we had Feldenkrais and then last night I decided to try again since he had such a great day. I put him in it and LOOK...









(Sorry so blurry)...yep that's right that's a smile spread across his face!














He had a blast sitting in it! As you can see by the joy on his face!












He loved it SO much it was unbelievable. So while I should have been getting pajama's on and getting the boys in bed...Grant was enjoying Bumbo time for the first time and Matthew was eating dinner :)

Yep you've got it...here's a video of my happy little man!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW1y6TnefTk

So we are looking forward to more free hands time while Grant plays in the Bumbo!

FELDENKRAIS!!

So silly me just realized I haven't updated you all since Grant's first visit with Ms. Ruth. He had a visit last Tuesday and it went amazing! We went to her place and I was kind of nervous about how Grant would react but he didn't miss a beat! She again had him sitting, laying, rolling, crawling, playing on his knees. He had a blast and was SO worn out!

Between last Tuesday and this Monday I saw such big changes in Grant! He's becoming more and more flexible with each visit! When he's on his tummy, he would get one arm up and push and that arm would go back down then he would get the other arm up and same thing over and over. The biggest improvement I saw between the last visits was that he was getting both arms up at the same time!! This is huge for my little man so you can imagine my excitement!






See what I mean? He's got both arms up there but not pushing off of both.







We went back to see Ms. Ruth this past Monday and (for lack of better expressions) OMG!! :) He was doing things in the session I've never seen him do before. She had him stretching with no wincing or crying! And when we got him home he started not only getting both his hands up at the same time but he started pushing off both onto his forearms!!






See how now he is pushing up on both forearms as opposed to just the one? AMAZING, right?







Here is video of my amazing man and working on pushing up on his arms and pushing forward (and then playing of course! It's not all work and no play around here) :) enjoy!

http://youtu.be/2DkxWPbjXkg

So I think it's safe to say that we will definitely be sticking to visiting Ms. Ruth and getting his Feldenkrais method weekly! I don't want to jinx anything but I see a pretty mobile boy by Summer! :)

Finger and Thumb Let's Have Some Fun!

Yep it's Coban (not sure of spelling) time! :) Grant's wonderful OT gave me this great idea of cobaning his fingers so that the only ones he can work on his pincer grasp. He loves it and he's doing so good with it. Here are some photos for you to see how good he's doing...oh and of course a video!








Look at that finger and thumb!






































You can tell how hard he is concentrating by the look on his face!














Again with the finger and thumb :)













And of course big brother is always there to help Grant! We cobaned his hands too!







Enjoy the video!
http://youtu.be/TI-HPAdoMV0

As you can see it's working!

Burr Oaks on a Cold Day!

A couple weeks ago (0f course on one of the coldest days this year) we got the crazy idea to take a trip to Burr Oaks! The boys LOVE seeing all the animals! Grant Man had a blast. So here is a fun little post just to enjoy :)





Grant Man talking to the reptiles!















Looking at the snakes :)













Told you he LOVED it!














Face to face with a salamander















Dad showing Grant man what's in there

















Going through the tree tunnel with Grant Man!














Peek-a-boo














My Loves!








Hope you enjoyed!

All Done!

Yep that's right! My Grant Man is saying two words...ALL DONE! I have been saying "All Done" since he started eating. After he is done or when he starts showing he's done I say "All done?" The other day I was giving him his drink and he started showing he was done. I said it and then I hear it said back to me :) I can't explain the smile that spread across my face. Another proud Mom moment. He has continued to say it...when he's done playing, or done eating!

So there is my update and as far as this blog post...ALL DONE!!

All In A Week's Work :)

Grant Man has had a great week! His eating has been phenomenal! He is back to eating three meals a day and not just eating a little but getting his full serving of Proteins, Grains, Veggies/Fruit and Dairy! He is getting SO heavy to carry but that's a good thing! I am so anxious for his nutritionist to come out on Friday and see how much he gained! Stay tuned later this week for the results :)

He has also been a walking machine! We've been taking the gait trainer to Ma and Pa's house (they have hardwood floors throughout their house) and he is all over the place! The other night he walked up to the oven and watched the cookies bake. Tonight he walked to the door and watched the lightening :) Now we just need him to learn to turn instead of walking into tables and walls. But I am so proud of him. This spring/summer he will be running around with all the boys outside!















He is so amazing! Each day he shows us how determined he is to prove everyone wrong! I love you my Grant Man!

Hungry Hungry Hippo!

Wow wee is my Grant Man back or what! We are (well he and Matthew are Mom not so much) finally over these colds and Grant's ear infection! He is so over it that he has become quite the eating machine!

Today he woke up and ate breakfast around 10:15 which consisted of half a french toast stick, two strawberries, and a serving of applesauce. Cleaned his plate! See...















Then he had is Feldenkrais lesson. Then at 12:30 he ate lunch (yes about 2 hours later) and he ate a toaster stick, a serving of apples and oatmeal and 3 animal crackers!! And again he cleaned his plate. Look...















Now some of you reading this may be thinking "What's the big deal. The kid is almost 2 and that's all he's eating" or "So what he finished all his food" Well for my little 18 pound 22 month old that is a HUGE deal! We are so incredibly proud of him and his ability to eat table foods (which doesn't happen all too often for children with CP). But here lately between teething and getting sick we have been lucky to get him to drink. He went about 3 days without taking a bite at all! So we are ecstatic that he is finishing this much and it's not just over the course of a day it's been two meals today and it's only 2:00pm! Now he is sound asleep with a full belly ready to work for Ms. Amelia :)

Where There Is A Will There Is A Way!

So we have been completely stressing ourselves out over how to continue to get Grant Man his ABM. With Ryan losing his day job in the beginning of December it's been so hard making it work.

When we went on January 2nd for Grant's Developmental Pediatric appointment, Dr. Hoffman gave us some great news! Not only about Grant :) but he also told us that he met the new neurologist at CMH and his wife does Feldenkrais (which is what ABM was based on). He gave me her contact info.

I was very anxious to talk to her but me being the procrastinator that I am I kept putting it off and was going to wait until after we got back from seeing Chad which was supposed to be last Thursday and Friday. Well Tuesday Ryan and I made the decision to cancel ABM this month until he has a job and we could afford it. I was completely down. I have very few days of feeling that way but that was one of them. So Wednesday I decided to push my procrastination to the side and make the call. I am SO incredibly thankful that I did!!!

Ms. Ruth Shapiro came out to see Grant Man today and I am so excited about it! She really seemed to like Grant and it only took Grant about 5 minutes to warm up to her. She had him all over the living room rolling and crawling and sitting! He had a blast. She showed us several exercises to do with him in between her sessions. She talked her way through each thing she did not only with us but with Grant. She made sure Grant knew we are going to crawl (or walk), we are rolling, she would name each body part and tap him so that he could feel each part. She was wonderful with him. And she loves to make house visits so she is willing to come to us a majority of the time. But the good news is that even if we have to go to her it's about a 30 min drive :) And she only wants to see him once a week! I know this is going to be SO great for Grant and I am so excited to start this next step in his journey!

Complete Disgust!!

Watching TV tonight at my parents my uncle came across a 60 Minutes program about a child with CP. Of course intrigued by anything having to do with CP I became glued to the TV. But what I watched had me livid!! Before I go on take a look at the article about it (warning it's lengthy!)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57354695/stem-cell-fraud-a-60-minutes-investigation/

It's times like these that I wish we could do like Matthew and I pretend and "Blue-sca-do" right into the TV! (if you've watched Blue's Clues you know what I'm talking about) I would love to punch so claimed "Dr. Ecklund" in his creepy face!! And to hear that this is not the first case of this happening just makes matter worse. How can people take advantage of others like that! Take advantage of parents wanting to do anything, ANYTHING in their power to help "cure" their child of whatever diseases he "claimed" to cure. Just pay $5,000 and you will get stem cells that will cure CP. What did they get? Dead and disintegrated stem cells that would do far more harm than good. UGH!!!!!!

Please note...by writing this post I'm not by any means belittling or taking away from stem cell research! In fact I truly believe that stem cells can help fix people with disabilities. I have a friend who is trying to raise money for her son to be in a stem cell research study and I am so excited for her and her son, Paz! I hope they can get in and I hope that it does amazing things for him!! (If you would like to take a look at Paz's journey and help him reach his goal please visit his website http://pazfelix.com/)

Finally...After 3 Months!!

We finally got Grant's Kid Kart!! :) We/He LOVES it! It's red and black and the carry all underneath and the umbrella on top has red, white and black racing stripes! It's got the stroller part and the hi/low base for in the house. Grant is in heaven!! Well here just see for yourself...















SEE! The smile on his face says it all! It was so beautiful the day we got it we immediately took him for a walk! He had this smile on his face the whole time!!

Go Speed Racer Go!

You should see this little boy go in his gait trainer!! Finally got smart and took it over to Ma and Pa's on New Year's Eve. They have hardwood floors throughout their house so what better place to take it! Well we put Grant Man in it and...just watch for yourself :)

http://youtu.be/8rskGypGw2E

This is just a small portion of what this little man did. He walked from in the kitchen to the computer room where Dad and Matthew were playing PlayStation then went down the hall to the living room then back down the hall into the computer room then back to the living room. I don't know how he wasn't wore out but he managed to make it to midnight! We rang in the New Year banging our pots and pans with Ma, Pa, Dad, Matthew, Me, Grant, Austin, Brandon, Adam, Kyle, Alora and Kayden! Whew!! Matthew passed out about 5 minutes after midnight!! I know I'm a little late but Happy New Year!

Oops I Did It Again!

Okay cheesy I know but I did do it again. I took entirely WAY too long to update! :( Shame on me! So much has been going on since my last update...so much that I will just have to make a long store short and try to update you on as much as I can! Here goes:

Grant has had 2 trips to St. Louis for ABM. His November lessons were the first back since the end of August. I was a little nervous about how he would do since it had been so long. The first and second session went amazing! It was like he hadn't missed a beat. When we went back for sessions 3 and 4 the next day it was like a light bulb went off for Grant and he realized "Wait a second while I am in here doing all the work Matthew and Dad are out there having fun." He started getting extremely fussy so I suggested bringing Matthew in the room. Him and dad came in and Grant was all smiles! I guess he figured if he can't go have fun then we all have to stay in the room :) We left STL very happy with how it had gone!

Beginning of December we got Grant's new handsplints! His "Joe Cool's"! He loves them. They are so much easier for him to play with toys and they help tremendously. His hand is wide open when he's wearing them!

The middle of December we got Grant fitted for leg braces! I was leary about how this would go too but I was somewhat pleasantly surprised. If this had been a couple months ago Grant would've cried as soon as the guy who fitted him looked Grant's way. But he didn't! He smiled?! Yes that's right...he SMILED!! He was perfectly fine until the guy started touching him then he was all screams until the second the guy stopped then he was all smiles again! We should get the leg braces in 3-4 weeks so we are anxious and excited to see how they will turn out!

Middle of December Grant Man also had another trip to STL! This trip went just as good if not better than in November! Chad said both times were his best ones yet! Grant worked on sitting, going from sitting to laying, rolling over, and crawling!

Christmas was great!! Couldn't have asked for a better Christmas!!! Spent it with family and the boys got so much but not too much. Grant was in heaven and was ready to rip open every gift :)

As far as what Grant has been doing...the question is what hasn't he been doing? He has been sitting for anywhere from 1-3 minutes on his own. He does amazing at scooting (but he has to be naked). He can drink from a straw!!! He rolled from back to tummy (just once but he has been trying so hard to do it again). He has been talking and babbling up a storm! He says so many words!! I think that almost gets us up to date!! :)

I pledge that with the new year will bring new updates at least once a week if not more!! No more going 1-2 months without hearing anything about my amazing Grant Man!