It's The Little Things That Mean So Much....

Just a little note to tell you all about something that is so exciting... It may be nothing to the ordinary person, but to us, this is BIG!!

Last night while standing in the driveway talking to a neighbor, Andrew was hanging on my legs and wanted me to pick him up. Being that he should not be picked up and held to often, for one, he is getting too big, but two, he tends to hang on me for support and we're trying to break that habit.

So anyway, I held his hands as he stood in front of me and decided that he wanted to JUMP up into my arms like Matthew does. Andrew knows that when I do have to pick him up that we tell him that he needs to lift his legs up to help us get him up. This is the only way that I will pick him up. So he was trying to JUMP with BOTH legs. He was bending BOTH knees together and actually pushing off and came off the ground WITHOUT any help from me except lightly holding his hands. Even though it was helping him with balance, he otherwise, did ALL the work by HIMSELF!!! This is HUUUUGGGE!!!!

We have never seen him actually come OFF the ground with BOTH feet together before without us actually lifting him up.

I know it may seem like a little and common feat for everyone else, but this is very exciting. He even thought it was fun and kept doing it over and over again as we cheered him on and he was trying to show off for the neighbor! We'll try to get a video clip of it to share.

ok...

Hopefully you can all see the video. If not you can follow the link to Photobucket by clicking on the link

Anyway.
We had a great weekend visiting Apple Jack's Orchard this weekend on saturday and the boys had fun in the Hay Maze, watching the bees make honey, Feeding the goats, Riding the tractor ride to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin. They had a blast going out into the orchard and picking their own apples... eating most of them before we got to pay for them. They learned the correct way to pick an apple without damaging the tree stems.

After we went to the campground that their Grandma & Pop Pop were camping and even got to go swimming in the lake... This Indian summer is Great! It was a beautiful day and the water was unbelievably warm... although it was on a sandbar and the water was only about a foot or two deep for a LONG way out. they got to make smores and then zonked out in the car on the way home.

Today he had fun playing with 2 new friends in the neighborhood, both named Brady. They played all afternoon.


So we are excited about going back to St. Louis to see what dr. Park has to say about Andrew's progress and have LOTS of paperwork and tests to have done. He has to have new xrays of his hip, spine and legs before going back so that Dr. Park can review them. We're not looking forward to the expense of this trip, but it's just something that we have to do.

We're trying to get a semi-straight flight out there and trying to get a good price since airline tickets are so expensive. It is just such a long trip to have to go there for a day. He will also be having physical therapy there while out there and they will make a video of his progress again to compare the old with the new.

Lets try this

Oops

I just realized that the video's are not playing. So I will post a new video.

Long Overdue....

So sorry that we have not updated everyone on Andrew lately... We seem to have hit a plateau for a while. Things have been so hectic around here and we've been out and about just about every chance we have. We barely have time to catch our breath! So Andrew has started off the new Preschool year. We're excited and nervous that next year he will be starting Kindergarten! My how time flies! He has a new classroom, new teachers, *some previous ones too) and a few new members of the therapy team. He is now getting less speech which is great... He has a new OT and Andrew loves her~ I think it was time for a change, although we LOVED Maribeth, I think Andrew needed a new approach... He was getting too smart with Maribeth. Now he has Michelle, who he really seems to like and she will take over his service coordination also. He still has Meghan for his PT and we are hoping and praying that this will not change! Meaghan has been a TREMENDOUS source of information, advice, ideas and strength for us. Andrew listens to her and he cannot play his "games" on her! She stands her ground and makes him work really hard and we love that! He is still receiving Speech one day a week with Candy and she's commented on how his skills have improved over the summer without her seeing him. His processing is still a bit delayed with brings us to our next team member.... Added to his team is a SEIT, Jessica who will come to his classroom 3x a week for an hour to help him sharpen his skills to be prepared for Kindergarten and hopefully help him to catch up with the class. He was borderline for this service for quite a while and now they felt it necessary to help him stay on track and progress quicker. His attention skills are a bit lacking and his fine and gross motor delays are having their effect on his "reading/writing" skills. Andrew does a lot of guessing with the answers when asked to identify a letter or number, but you put him in front of the computer, and boy can he identify just fine on his own! Strange. So we're hoping that she can help him to progress to be able to keep up with the class. He still has his 1:1 aides to help him in the morning and afternoon. Problem is that he tends to lean on them a bit for comfort instead of playing with the other children. His social skills have GREATLY imporved over the last 6 months especially since his surgery. It's strange how much more comfortable he is to jump in with the rough and tumble play sometimes. Especially he & Matthew... they are constantly pushing and tumbling around... sometimes playful, most times not!! Now that he has more strength and balance he is having an easier time holding his own when fighting over something with Matthew! (It's actually quite funny to watch them tug each other around when fighting over a toy LOL) We step in when needed if things get out of hand. Otherwise he is doing quite well. He just got over a bout of sickness... strep throat again and a sinus cold. We had a bit of a scare at the ER with a misdiagnosed blood test. At the ER when he was really sick, they did some blood work to check his white count and to see if he was dehydrated enough to supplement with IV, they saw that his glucose had risen to 263 and they told us that it was VERY abnormal and that most likely and indication of diabetes! We did not sleep at all just thinking that he may not be able to eat and enjoy the things that he really loves, like Pasta, poptarts, granola bars, cereals etc. We'd literally have to clear out our pantry and cabinets of about 90% of our food! So we followed up with the pediatrician the next morning who reassured us that the test was inacurate considering that he was agitated, anxious, sick etc and that it is quite normal for children's sugar to go up at a time like that. After Andrew finishes his RIGHT antibiotics for the strep (Since they prescribed him a med that does nothing for strep) They will follow up with a urine test to see if he is spilling sugar into his urine. If not, they will consider him fine. If he does spill sugar, they will investigate further. But his ped said that considering his growth patterns and without a family history of diabetes, the chance of him having it is very slim. We'll see what happens. So we've been doing a lot of traveling and a lot of things around the house. We've finally got our fence installed in our back yard for the boys. Now they can happily play outdoors without our fear of them escaping the yard to the road or one of the neighbors houses... Once, Matthew left the yard and helped himself to the neigbor's kitchen!!! Talk about freaking out!! So now they can play in the yard while I watch them from the window in the kitchen and make dinner instead of having to drag them in the house every time I need to go to the bathroom or get the phone. We visited my brother and sister-in-law and nephews labor day weekend. It was a nice get together and we all had a great time. We did lots of fun things and the boys will be talking about it for quite some time. They had a BLAST at Six Flags, they loved visiting where uncle Jeremy works at the airport in DC. They LOVED playing with their cousin Kasey. They said they want to move there to be closer! so cute. They got to ride the Metro and we enjoyed the zoo there. It was a very tiring time, but was a lot of fun. So Andrew has his follow-up appointment at St Louis Children's with Dr. Park on October 22nd to see how he has progressed. Andrew's PT had called his office and spoke to Joan about why Andrew has started to walk on his toes a bit again. especially when he is tired. It makes sense that he is tired and will go to his toes, but from what Joan told us that it is Normal and that hopefully as he grows stronger and heavier that the weight will bear down on his ankles and help him to keep his feet flat. As long as he keeps his range of motion, that is great, which he is. We know that it will take some time for him to get flat footed more regularly, but it's so hard to see. We're glad that the SDR at least has taken care of the spasticity and the his IS able to put his feet flat. We're hoping that a growth spurt will not ruin the looseness that he has at this point. We know that he did just go through a growth spurt since none of his pants fit, but has still not gained much weight. So we will keep you all updated. In the meantime, enjoy some photos and videos of our trip to Maryland.