He passed

Just a quick post to let everyone know Braden passed his swallow study with NO ASPIRATION.  So extremely excited for him.  This means he can drink liquids without thickner and drink his water during meals and snacks if he wants too.  :-)

This week...

Hello everyone.... it's crazy busy as usual.  Last week we had several therapies on Wed. and our van died due to an uncharged battery.  Which is how I feel sometimes. ha ha... anyway we were stranded at the school for a while and thank goodness we had helpers.  We are also thankful it was just the battery and we had our van back quickly.  Crazy how hard it is to deal with situations when you have kids in 90 degree heat.  I was worried about breaking down in the winter but the summer is just as bad.  Nothing like a traffic jam or other situation to make you think how you need to have an emergency kit with you at all times.  Lots of water and almond milk for these two kiddos.  As well as plenty of snacks. 

I got a surprise call from Vandy over the weekend about a swallow study being scheduled for Wed. at 8 am.  I hated to cancel B's PT but I really want this swallow study.  We are hoping so badly that B is no longer aspirating so that he doesn't have to have thickener in his drinks.  He hates the thickened drinks and at present will only drink water.  He is doing SUPER with his eating. He is taking in 900 or more calories per day and if he could just drink the 2 ozs of nutritional drink per day he would be able to go tube free this summer.  I have all of his meds being taken in via mouth.  The only other concern is how he will do eating at school.  His self feeding still stinks. He just hasn't gotten very independent.  He is still perfectly happy with Mommy doing just about everything.  But we have made progress in some other areas.  He is doing much better helping with dressing and undressing.  He likes to brush his own teeth.  He is helping get his own glass of water with ice and occasionally helps prepare his own lunches and/or dinner. 

Grayson is doing great with his new TEIS teacher.  He really likes her and I cannot say enough about how shocking that is... but we are soooo thankful.  He is really talking alot.  Still lacking clarity but he is improving rapidly.  He can sing the ABC song pretty much the entire thing if you listen carefully.  Most don't so know one else notices it like I do but he can do it.  Even the last part "Now I know my ABC's"  but that's where the lack of clarity is really prevalent.  He can also count from 1 to 10.  He says several letters now and not just there sounds and the same with numbers.  He is really good at high fives and will now say "cup" when he needs a drink.  He is also trying to brush his teeth on his own.

Well I need to sneak in a nap before taekwondo, grocery shopping and dinner.  Hope you all had a great weekend and please keep B in your prayers to have a good swallow study with no aspiration on Wed... I will be sure to keep y'all posted.

Hello all....

We have been busy as usual.  We have a new schedule for the summer.  Braden has all of his therapies private and through the school system on Weds.  Poor kid but I have to say he survived his first week just fine.  He took a long nap but did great.  Grayson's TEIS teacher session will be on Friday's.  He met his teacher this past Friday.  He liked her ok enough to give her five and repeatedly told her "Bye" because he wanted her to leave.  He's so polite. ha!!!  She also offered him his favorite M&M's and he refused to eat one.  Yes he is stubborn just like his brother.  Oh boy!

We had an appt. with Dr. Wootten recently and he realized that Braden's vocal cord injection really isn't giving him the voice he needs.  We have noticed that he isn't as loud as he was the first injection but Stephen and I tend to be overly positive at times.  This is one of those times where we think because we can hear B he is making sound.  But really he is just pushing air.  We still can't hear him cry or laugh really.... just a whisper.  We are tuned into it so we feel it's progress but realize now that is not the sound Dr. W is looking for... he wants more for him.  So next Sept he is going to be more aggressive with B's injection and see if he can produce sound to hear an actual laugh or cry out of B.  Hope it works. 

I have been looking into swim lessons for the boys but haven't received any return calls. :-(  So I'm not sure if it's too late in the summer or if they just can't accommodate us for our situation.  I have to be there in the water for G and I have to have them both in the same class to do the lessons.  If anyone knows of a good program that still has availability please let me know.

Where to begin... ?

Seems like so much has been going on lately.  We went to Grayson's 2 year check up.  He weighs 23 lbs 13 ozs and is 33 inches in height.  He is in the 15th percentile which is the highest he has ever been.  So that is good.  Braden is in the 13th percentile for his age.  Grayson is doing really good and has no issues except for his lack of speech.  However, I will say he is picking up his chatter and loves counting and his abc's.  He may not say them properly but he knows his alphabet (letter sounds mostly but a few actual letters) and he can count to 10. 

We met with Braden's teacher to sign paperwork for his summer therapy services.  Which by the way are on Weds.  Which means every other week Braden will be in therapy practically all day.  I hope he can handle it.  I am going to have to put the crack down on him with the TV.  Which is awful because as of now we have reduced it considerably yet he doesn't seem to want to participate in much.  It's really hard to think what he will do if I cut him off completely let alone what it will do to me.  I won't get anything done.  He isn't like Grayson.  Grayson loves being given activities.  But Braden only wants to do big people stuff.  So I guess he is going to have to help me clean house and do laundry.  He actually loves helping swiffer the floors.  The other day he helped make his lunch.  He should do good.

This weekend we went to Steamboat bills for dinner and took the boys.  They did excellent.  They have been super when we go out and when I need to shop.  Braden does really well staying with me and loves to push Grayson's stroller.  It is great.  Anyway, they liked being at the resturaunt.  We also went fishing and I have included some pics.  Braden loved it but Grayson wanted to get into trouble so I bribed him with M&M's so he would be good.  Grayson wanted to jump off the platform and so I had to keep him away from the edge.  Braden did really well and listened to us when we told him to stay away from the water.  Until we went out to the lake and the waves were hitting the shore.  Then Braden decided it was ok to just walk out into the lake. lol  But that was ok... he never moves fast enough to get into real trouble.  Or at least not yet.  Stephen caught several small fish and enjoyed showing them to the boys.  Braden had alot of interest and we think he will enjoy going with just his Daddy sometimes.  Stephen told Braden he might get to go to Lowes sometimes with him now too. :-)  Later we had pool time and water table fun in the back yard.  Aunt Leslie has a sandbox on the way so that will be exciting and something new for outdoor fun.  We also played with some sidewalk chalk and Grayson took right to it but Braden was only semi interested.   I am sure several more times is all it will take before he likes it too.

A few other things the boy have been up to are activities I found off pinterest.  Like letter matching and the pipe cleaner color matching.  Both really like these two activities.  They have also started wrestling each other and they both seem to like doing that as well.  We have only had a few instances of them being mean with it but most of the time its just fun.   The reason B has his shirt off in all the wrestling pics is because he finally knows how to take it off himself and actually wants too.  Now that it is hot he especially likes his shirt off.  It's fun now but wait till school.  ha ha...

Hope everyone enjoys the pics...