Eating and a few other things...

Well I am happy to say Grayson is eating some new foods.  He is willing to eat Eggo mini cinnamon toast, loves Grits (our little southern boy), puffs, yogurt melts and a few other things.  Not the variety I'd hoped for but it is progress.  I'm sure it will all come in time.  I have noticed he is acting the same as Braden at times with food.  I am certain the behaviours are crossing over to baby brother from big brother.  But as long as we can work away from them we should be ok. 

Braden has lost about a pound.  He is eating but he is on a Gerber lil crunchies kick and we all know the calorie intake on those is minimal.  :-(  So I have put him back on 4 cans of nutrition a day.  His nutritionist is out of town right now so I can't ask her what she thinks until she returns.

Preschool starts on Aug 8th.  I am so excited and nervous for Braden.  My fear is obviously illness.  But my excitement is his developmental growth.  He has excelled so much since just 6 weeks of school last spring.  We are anxious to see what the fall term will do for him. 

Braden's latest procedure for his vocal cord injections went well.  We are hoping to see some additional progress in his signing and maybe some letter sounds coming out of his mouth once school starts.  I am working on some poster boards for language that I should have completed this weekend.  I am hoping this will help with his communication skills.  I am also working towards helping him to communicate without pulling on people or pushing him towards what he wants... this will take alot of effort on Braden's part.  He will have to learn another form of communication either additional signing, word card use, or actual speech.

Our trip to Erwin....

Before I start about us I just want to say Dax (Braden's friend) is now home.  He is on the mend and hopefully will be fully recovered soon.  :-) 

Our trip to Erwin was great.  The only thing that wasn't so great was the drainage Braden had due to allergies.  We don't know what he is allergic to up there but every time we go he suffers tremendously.  It's so sad that we have to stay for such a short time because of it.  :-(  Other than that we couldn't have asked for a better visit.  Here are some pics... :-)

Need a little help for a friend....

Braden's taekwondo buddy Dax is in the hospital.  He has been running a temp off and on and has been having seizures.  They have him on a seizure med that has stopped his seizures but they are still running test on him.  He has two new suspicious areas on his brain that the Dr.'s are investigating.  Please keep this precious family in your prayers.  If you'd like to send them an ecard please do so at the link provided.  Thank you soooo much. 

http://www.childrenshospital.vanderbilt.org/interior.php?mid=1985

We are going on our out of town Erwin trip tomorrow.  But I will post when I return to give an update on our sweet friend Dax.  Praying he will be all better and back home before we return. 

more updates

Ok so I have a minute... both boys are happy at the moment. lol  Grayson is finally eating.  He loves yogurt melts and puffs.  So that is a huge step for him.  I actually had to use feeding therapy on him to get him to finally eat.  Up till now it was all baby food and nutrigrain bars.   Grayson is also now using a sippy cup.  I had to meet him in the middle because he insist on drinking laying down which wouldn't work with a regular cup.  I will give him a few months and then try again for a regular cup.  

I am getting ready for the next big garage sale.  I will have alot to get rid of and hoping it goes as well as last time.  I would love to buy some new stuff for the boys.   We want to see if Braden can ride a big wheel or if he is interested in a bike.  Hoping he can try one out this weekend at his cousins.  That will give us an idea of his interest level.

July

Braden is in my lap playing with the Dwight bobble head as I type this post. lol  We are doing really well except for not getting out due to the heat.  We are really wanting to go to the Zoo with some friends but we haven't seen a break in the heat.  Not sure if we will have a plan B if this playdate doesn't happen.  Also, Braden has been doing really well in therapy.  This week is super busy.  We have therapy three days in a row and we are all going for haircuts.  We are also planning to be in Erwin this weekend. :-)  We are so excited.  Floy will be down Tuesday evening and she will help us take our trip.  Darn their went Dwight and he no longer has his head.  I will have to cut this short because Braden is not happy now and Dwight has bit the dust. :-(  Anyway, we should have a very nice and fun weekend. 

What have we been up too... :-)

Well we have ventured out a little now that Braden is doing so well.  He is now 29 lbs + and we think he may have grown in height but not certain.  The boys are displaying some independance and other times they are needy.  We have been playing alot outside in the pool to keep them happy.  But we also take a drive occassionally.  We started Braden up for summer school therapy.  He goes Tues and Thurs. at 9 am.  We have also let him go back to taekwondo.  He did so great last week I was amazed at how focused he was... he and his friend Dax were very happy to see each other.  Grayson enjoyed playing and was really good and kept himself busy while I worked with Braden and his instructor.  It was really nice to get out but especially great to see Braden really enjoying his taekwondo.  What great therapy and it's fun for him.

Braden in half of his uniform.  Next week he will be in full attire.

Grayson playing with the belts. lol

Grayson is teething really bad right now.  He was doing really well with self feeding and trying new foods but we are now back on baby food.  He has gone to Stage 3, he will eat his yogurt cold and now different varieties, and he will eat applesauce cold too.  So those are new for him.  He still doesn't like a sippy cup.  I keep hearing on the TV and seeing on the internet how sippys ruin their teeth.  I also saw on the news that they are trying to get warning labels on sippys for this very reason.  Sooo I am going to brave regular little cups and see how Grayson does... during transition it is suggested that they have a drink with their meals and a bottle other times.  They also say not to let them carry their bottle around because they get attached to it.  However, I have never let Grayson carry around his bottle.  He drinks it and then we take it away.  So I don't think it's an attachment issue.  I think he just doesn't like the spouts on the sippy.  Grayson has also grown although I don't really know how much.  I just know that he is wearing 12-18 month clothing now.  He is so fun to watch.  He is changing so much and Braden and Grayson are both interacting a lot more than before... they are actually starting to play and take things from each other. :-) 

Braden will be scoped on July 27th right before school starts and will have his vocal cord injected again so that he can make louder sounds. :-)  It will be nice to know too if his airway looks good after having been intubated.  Also, Braden's friend Levi will be having his trach reversal surgery on Aug 18th.  Please keep the Ray family in your prayers as Levi will be away from his twin brother Jesse for the first time ever.  As well as this being a very big surgery for Levi and the first he has had since the NICU. 

Thanks again all for your continued support.  We are very thankful to all our friends and family as well as those who only know us through our blog.

New pics... :-)

We did these late afternoon so the boys were already tired and almost ready for bed.  I wanted pics since Braden had been in the hospital and Grayson is now a year old.  We plan on doing some additional family photos with Stephen but that will take a little more planning. :-)  Hope you enjoy and things are going well.  Busy busy ... and tired but loving every minute of it.