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.