The Scooter

Tyler has a scooter. We bought it at the beginning of the summer. We bought it before we had a loaner bike. He would take the neighborhood kids scooters and try so hard to use it but would fall over and not move at all. They only had 2 wheels. So we found a radio flyer with 3 wheels.

This particular scooter was different than the other 3 wheel ones because the double wheels were on the front. Not a huge deal but he had to stabilize a little. So we left the scooter in the house where he could "practice" and then when the time came to go play with the kids he was able to do it.. a little bit.

After Grayson was born we started taking daily scooter trips outside. After the morning feeds and breakfast, I will send Ty out to ride his scooter and play in the front yard. He loves it. He plays hard. One thing that I noticed though, was how hard he has to work to get the scooter to go.

He has learned a great deal about starting and stopping. He tends to stop by falling wherever he is. But he isn't hurt. He just pretends.

It takes so much effort for him to stay up and then to turn around and get up to the top. But he tries. He tries so hard. We love him for trying so hard.

Look at his toes. No matter what we do we can't get them to not drag. By the end of the morning we have blood, but no tears because he is so brave. ( we get blood in the house right now, we have a lovely pressure sore from our shoes.)

What makes my heart melt more than anything is how hard he tries and how hard he works. No kid should have to work that hard at doing something so great, as riding a scooter.

A 2 milestone day

I think in real life it was more like a 3 milestone day and possibly even more( OK... I think it was 4.. we will count at the end... UPDATE: final count is 5!!!!). Despite the efforts of my migraine, Ty had a really good day and we left the CP clinic with our head held high. It is tough to not be worried or to get down at appointments like today but Ty held his own and he rocked the rest of the day.

Today was the CP clinic at Shriner's hospital. Again, I can't say enough about the Shrines and for the care they give Tyler. It is impressive and done all on donations.

At the CP clinic we see our rehab doc, her nurse practitioner and usually a developmental pediatrician. The developmental pediatrician is only there when and if we have major developmental concerns on the side of the rehab doc. For a first time in a long time I am proud to say NOPE. He is doing really well. Does that mean he is caught up.. OH NO! But he is progressing and quickly which is nice to hear.

The rehab doc we have is Dr. Gooch. She is great. She gave us a great bill of health and wonderful encouragement. She still thinks that Tyler will continue to improve with speech and was pretty positive with his phenol shots. This is the first follow up for them we have had.

So the plan for Tyler is: Increase his PT and get him to do better with hip extension and stamina. She gave us some games to play with him and is really encouraging playing soccer or kicking the ball as something he really needs. She also encouraged playing obstacle courses ( which he rocks at because he THROWS everything.)

While we were leaving Shriner's we walked past the HUGE statue and Ty wanted to go closer. He called it a tree and then he licked it. It was interesting to see that what he saw and what he associated it with was something big. Like a tree.

And he was LICKING the "tree"!

After we got home his dad played outside with him for awhile. Dallas would tell him to go to the middle and he would go right to the middle of the yard. Then when his dad asked him to use his words he would sign Dad, the sound K (The sound K was for kick. ) and then sign please. HUGE.

Ty has his dad!

After awhile his dad had to go back in to work so we went to the local park. He LOVES the park and especially likes it when there are other kids there. Since we are pretty active in our local ward lots of the kids know Tyler and know that he has extra needs and most of them are really nice about them and most can't wait to show him or take him somewhere.

We hadn't been there for all winter but Ty ran right up and went up the stairs and down the slide. He was so excited to be outside. As he got more confident in going up the stairs,I looked up to see SOMEONE standing UP and going up the stairs. YEP he was going up without crawling.

Seriously... Look at that smile!

Next up he kept going... and went down the big slide. He always says "Weee" when he goes down. The big slide takes his breathe away and he said it when he got to the bottom.

NEXT he got even more daring and climbed UP the climbing wall. He needed such a little bit of help on the bottom but he did the rest himself and up he went. ALL by himself. That is HUGE. He is on his way to being able to maneuver himself all alone at the playground.

Next up.. Learning to ride a tricycle with no help. I was thinking of getting an adaptive one from Shriner's or to see if they can help him get even better!

For those not sure WHAT milestones we hit here is the quick cap!

• Walking OUT of Shriner's with no assistance
• Getting good news on his appointment
• Standing up and walking UP the stairs
• Going down the big BIG slide
• Climbing up the climbing wall

Valentines and Oreo's

Valentines day was kind of just another day at our house. We have had some awesome packages in the mail this week and we really enjoyed watching Tyler open them.

Max and Morgan sent him chocolate and 2 valentine cards. Morgan had her name on the Thomas the train ones and Ty carried that thing around all day. And YEP I forgot a picture. My parents sent a super cute package of books. One is now in the potty room for Tyler. Though I think the authors got the bell color wrong!

Yesterday we dropped off valentines to all his cousins ( Well Aunt Nicky said she would drop off the Gales cause they were gone) and Aunt Nicky really liked the yummy Krispie treats. They have PB in them and they are YUMMY! I don't think Nicky thought they would be so Nummy!

We dropped of Cousin Lilly's and Noah's and had a good time at their house. Lilly's doggie isn't a big Tyler fan and kept Nipping at his feet. Aunt Crystal has had a rough week so we were glad to go and visit and chat and Tyler didn't seem to care that Aunt Crystal had a owie and kept trying to sit on her lap. She was a good sport and read him a few books and Cute little Noah traded places and sat by me to watch Ty's movie.

Dallas was off getting a massage that he got for his birthday so today he is nice and sore. He deserved it and had a 2 hour rub down of muscles that generally don't feel so hot! We brought him home some of The pie for our Valentine Eve Dinner.

Today Dallas had to work so we decided to stay home with him and enjoy the day together. PLUS the rough week Aunt Crystal she also had pneumonia so we opted to save our germs. Though we are sure she isn't contagious ( we hope :) ) We like to keep them to ourself. We were also asked by granny to bring dessert. So we made Oreo Cookies from Aunt Ruanne's reciepie. We added some red dye to make them valentine like yummies.

This year we didn't exchange gifts. But honestly the best gift in the world is the 2 people that I got to share it with. But mostly because of how much I love Dallas. He is the only person in the whole world that gets me. That honestly knows me. That knows the crazy part and the real part and the nice part.

I am so happy to be married to him and even more happy that we were all home. It was a JOYOUS time that we were home and not any place else!

A long time coming

I am so proud of Tyler. There are so many things that he has been doing that have made me smile. He is working SO hard to get to where he is. So many things have had to come together to get him to do what he was doing today.

Tyler loves outside. After him and his dad got back from a dad outing he wanted his shoes and socks off. As soon as they were off he was ready to play.... OUTSIDE! in 46* weather.

I of course thinks it is great that he will pull himself away from Mickey Mouse or the Little Einsteins enough to enjoy something else, but even more ecstatic when he is all BOY!

I could hear sounds while I was in the kitchen and heard an " oh no" come out of Tyler's mouth and came to the door to see he had found his Heffalump elephant ( that has been IN the dirt since summer) and he was saying "oh no" because he was dirty. So I made Heffalump a bath with a bowl and we got him all clean. Just in time to go out and throw dirty with Leo and Barney.

Ty climbed through the dirt to get the hose and he was just jabbering away. So I went to get Dallas. Dallas came out and played with Tyler. Ty figured out how to get ALL of his animals in his arms at one time from point A to point B and then ring around the Rosie's were all set!

Ring around the Rosie's with Tyler, Heffalump, Leo and Barney and Dad. What a better combination. Tyler was in HEAVEN.

After a ring around the Rosie party Dad and Tyler decided to play soccer but our best friend Barney had to participate. Tyler is teaching Barney how to kick. We even got the "ki" Sound out of Tyler when his dad asked him to say Kick. We heard a lot of Go, signed a lot of Dad and please but had a KI word with a dad sign and please. THREE WORDS!!

Tyler even got in on the kicking action with a little Pooh Kicks and soccer. He would "kick" and run after and give it to dad for dad to kick in the air. They would go back and forth and then the giggles.

OH!! The giggles. He giggles so hard he falls over.

And really who doesn't want this cute kid on their team. He is a awesome cheerleader and awesome kid overall. He is so great.

Look at that form. Look at that SHOT! He would be any persons pick for their team.

And what would the day be like unless we can sit down with our friends and clap and smile and play!

Ty and Barney, Leo and Heffalump. The best of friends.

The best part is that he is pretend playing with these "friends"

(PS. Barney and Tyler are potty training. Hence the Thomas on Barney)

He is acting weird

Tyler has never asked to take anything to bed but we couldn't get Eyeore away from him. So he covered Eyeore up and slept with him all night. Seriously loving this pretend play stuff~!

So after the Tyler is sick post a few things have kept up that we REALLY have enjoyed. Like sleep! Knock on wood. Tyler has been sleeping in past 7 and sometimes I have to wake him up at 8! YES REALLY!

~Rewind to his doc appointment: you know the initial complaint list ours was Tyler is sleeping to much. HAHA~

It seems upping his meds at night has helped tremendously and the kid is doing much better. The ENT says yes they are still coming out but waiting till school is out is a good option for us. ( IE hopefully some extra hands on deck)

The weird part is the random times he will just bust out in a huge full on giggle and belly laugh. He will be sitting in his chair or doing something and just start laughing. Sometimes that laugh results in falling over. He is laughing so hard.

2 weeks ago in primary he got kicked out because he was not sitting down and would go to the door and try to open it. ( hooray for God not having lever doors) He can't turn regular knobs so instead of disrupting they brought him to me. Well this week when I went to get him he was just hanging out and his teacher said he was so funny. They would be doing their activity and lesson and he would jabber and then LAUGH hysterically and then the whole class would be laughing. They LOVE this kid. ( so do we!)

Today, I had a really bad day and I am lucky to have gotten out of bed and in clothes. He must have sensed something because he has made me laugh all day.

I love that I have a good kid. I love that I love him. I love that he is mine.

* PS. Apparently he can read because he was up at 4am. I put him back in our bed and I left for my make shift air matress bed and he was laughing hysterically till I had him come lay with me and watch a movie..... I wish he couldn't read.*

When it is good

Have you noticed that when things are good they are GOOD. It seems that sometimes there is no in between. We have had such a great few months. He has had some great strides and some great advancements. Hit some bumpy stuff but not massive brain surgery bumps. It seems that it is getting " different" for sure.

When we were in Arizona we were having a lot of testing done in speech. We hadn't had a firm diagnosis ( and we still don't) but there was no "reason" for it. Still isn't. Because this new speech lady approaches things VERY different. It doesn't fix the problem and we are seeing HUGE strides.

One of the things that people or the " doctor" people see as the problem is that he seems to get the first part of a word but can't really connect the LAST part of the word. For now we are THRILLED to get ANY part of the word but something doesn't connect.

Another funny thing is the sound that he makes for some of the letters. He can identify them GREAT. But he doesn't get that the F sound doesn't come out his nose but comes from placement of his mouth. He does the same thing for the V sound. It is done through his nose not his mouth. When we put his hand on our throat so he can feel it and so he can see up close the way our mouth is he can mimic the sound but it isn't "right"

One of the first "doctor" people we saw said that his lack of imagination or pretend play played a big role in him not talking . Well since moving we have seen more pretend play with promptings. For example, during a show if someone is eating food he has to have that food and then he spends 5 minutes getting his Barney to eat it. He jumps with Barney and does so many things by taking that doll with him. It isn't playing dolls or kitchen but it is something that he wasn't doing before.

His play is not so boring right now and he spends his day jumping, and playing on the piano. Going outside is another HUGE for him. He loves to eat the snow. Its a huge part of his day and I can't wait for him to get outside with warm weather.

Tell then we work work work and get those words coming.

A whitty post about Therapy

Ty attends therapy in Salt Lake City at the Shriner's Hospital EVERY single Monday. We usually get 3 therapies but today was just 2. But today we made excellent strides in BOTH! Our incredibly expensive health insurance won't give us but 12 visits a YEAR for therapy so we need the other "options" given at Shriner's.

The bad part of that, I don't LOVE his speech. But will take it because, well, we don't SPEAK! He struggles with participating with her and he doesn't like her to touch him.

He did really well with his transition. So I really felt that today was going to be a good session with her. I went in with him initially to show her the Alphabet song he sings and so that she can hear the vowel sounds we are working really really hard on. I always walk away with her saying " That's nice but he is is missing some key points here." Like I don't realize he is not getting "THE WHOLE WORD"

Tyler wanted to play the games she had set out and he really likes the Barney match game. He still won't let her touch him to have her show him how the word sounds so he will whine as he plays but overall he is doing really well.

OT transition was the best we have had. Chris really plays into his sensory issues. So he gets LOTS of swing time, jumping and that makes it easier for him to sit down at the desk to do his fine motor skills. He did great today.

Today was a good therapy day. They don't always go that way. Savoring the days that DO go that way!

Tractors, Rockets and lawn mowers

*I have some pictures I will have to add a little later. They were taken on my Iphone so not the best photos but we had to take them just for Grandpa.*

Now that we have grass we had to venture out and purchase a lawn mower. Dallas was told about a lawn mower place in Murray so we decided to venture out after Ty got home from School the other day.

We didn't each lunch because we have been having some food issues ( like Ty won't eat a thing unless he is starving) so we waited till he asked for some. We headed into the "city" and found the lawn mower place.

It seems that we have had quite a bit of a adventurer because normally a place like that would make him stay in moms arms and whine and cry but nope. He was OFF! And all over the place. He would push the lawn mowers, pull the strings and climb all over.

As Dallas was figuring out the best of whatever cuts grass, Tyler and I ventured over to the riding lawn mowers/ tractors. I really thought I would have a hard time convincing our little dude to get on one but NOPE!

We *think* his timidness and being afraid of loud noises or some sensory things is because of his vision. But he seems to be outgrowing a little bit of it. He was all over the tractor. He would make vroom noises and touch all the gears and then he decided it was Rocket.

Rocket is his favorite ( next to Leo... or Quincy....) and he is always * counting* to 3 and blasting off and signing fly. He was thinking the mowers were pretty cool.

Soon after our wild adventure of the rocket ship Ty decided he was Hungry, signed food and off we went to the mall so we could all have our "own" thing and run our last errand and home we went.