pic pic and park

Boy does he look TICKED~~ But he isn't. He just didn't want me to take a picture. Tyler LOVES picnics. He loves to go to the park, spread out his blanket and eat something and play until he drops. When he sees a picnic in his books he runs it over to us and says Pic pic. When he wants some one on one time with us he ask for a pic pic.

He LOVES it. He has shown an interest in a few things the last little bit. Camping, fishing, picnics, the park and kids to name a few. Whenever he hears the kids outside playing he runs over and wants to play. Our neighborhood is full of kids and they are great with him.

But his true love is picnics and slides. If you say we will go to the park you better show up at a park before you make it home. He remembers everything we promise him. So no cheating him out of time at a slide.

His first day of school I made sure a pizza was cooked and a blanket was out and me and him spent ten minutes of time talking back and forth. Reading his papers from school and asking questions.

Then the last day of the week we had a picnic outside watching all of the kids come and go. Today was a special picnic and we went to the big park.

He was filthy, dirty, and gross by the time we left but he was a happy kid. We played for around 2 hours. It is a great park.

As he gets older and the weather is cooling off, it seems that we have some work to do on our vision issues and personal space at the park. A WHOLE other post for you. But he had a blast. He loves the pic pic's that we get to go on.

I hope all things in life can be as easy as taking him to the park for a picnic. I guess it all can't be unicorns and glitter.

Pity Party

To my Pity Party!

When: When things are NOT going that great.

Lots of Gifts please!!

Chocolate is welcome~

Today has left me super high on emotions and super down. Usually I am OK and usually I can pick up the pieces and figure out what to do. Today is not that day. I wish I could easily find a remedy because I don't have time to get stuck in a funk.

A little over a week ago Dallas and I got to go out on a date. I was so excited. I even dressed up to go. As we were driving to pick up Tyler he got really sick. At first I thought it was just the dinner not sitting well. We got to his parents house and he got SICKER fast. This has happened before and we ended up in the ER. ( 2 times to be exact.. once by ambulance) It was a Friday night so I thought if we JUST got him through the weekend we could get in to our family doctor.

By Sunday he wasn't getting any better so I took him to the Instacare. They ran some blood, said he was dehydrated and basically sent him home and told him to call his family doctor for more options. So we did. D got in on Monday( or Tuesday) and they sent him to get a scan of his tummy.

So he has been sick for almost 2 weeks and they still have no answers. We are getting close and tonight he had a HIDA scan for his gal bladder ( which we are almost certain it is) and he has an appointment to see a surgeon tomorrow. But he is sick. Which means he isn't able to help much. He sleeps a lot and can barely make it through the day. He isn't able to help with Tyler and it makes me super stressed. ( Not his fault)

In the midst of him not feeling well the Air conditioner in the Jeep went out. I HATE the jeep. I want to sale it so badly but being the awesome driver that I am, it has been in a few accidents. The last accident has still not been fixed.( think deductible.. High because of my awesome driving and a bunch of other stuff we would rather spend 500 bucks on.. Like food, place to live) So we are stuck with it until all the odds and ends are fixed. We took it in to get it looked at and get an estimate. $700 bucks. Yeah, we had a small anxiety attack.

Lucky for us my dad works at a place that gave me a amazing deal. We had bought tires and needed to head to my parents anyway but I was not expecting to go alone NOR was I expecting to go when I did.

Last week after a FULL day at Thanksgiving point and visitors and Dallas being sick I left around 8 PM and took the 2 hour drive to my parents with Tyler. He has the hardest time sleeping at home but here we are 2 hours away from home 2 hours past his bedtime. He was WIDE awake. He spent the next 3 days literally crying and whining. I rarely lose my patience with him. But for 3 days I was about ready to lose it. The drive back home was HORRIBLE. He would get so mad over nothing. It was 2 hours of crying. ( No he doesn't really sleep in the car. He was and usually is up the whole way.)

When I got home not only had I left in such a hurry but I left the house in a mess. A really bad mess. I figured that Dallas would probably be feeling somewhat better and he didn't have Tyler to worry about so he might be able to get a little bit done around here. But he was still sick. So I came home to a sick hubby, a gross house and laundry up to my eyeballs. Not to mention 3 days of non stop Crabby pants.

By Friday Dallas was so sick he ended up in the ER. They of course found NOTHING wrong with him. Since he didn't have a high white blood count he was sent home with pain medication and a script for a Hida scan. He was given a shot and sent on his way. Oh I was LIVID. They say that while it MIGHT be his gal bladder ( which I am really thinking it is) it isn't considered and emergency so call your regular doc.

I had already called a general surgeon/gastro/internal whatever you want to call him and made an appointment just in case no one could figure out what was going on with D. Luckily we are able to see him tomorrow. Dallas had the Hida scan tonight and he came home SICK SICK and pretty much in tears.

We have been doing stuff with fertility ( or Infertility) for several YEARS (boo!) and needed to start one of the medications last week. But because walmart didn't have record of a refill I had to call my doctor to get it done. He did, and added 4 more refills but I had to make an appointment. He sent in the refills after 3 times going to walmart. Which means I missed the day I had to start this stuff and therefore get to wait ANOTHER month. I LOVE my doctor but I hate having the reminder once a month that I am HORRIBLY broken. As I sat there today with him going over my charted cycles and fertility clinic info. I felt even more down. Not to mention my almost 5 year old not wanting me talk and getting mad because I couldn't pay attention to JUST him. Then leaving the appointment just as broken as when I came in with no answers.

Tyler. Oh how much we LOVE him and his new found talking. That is the best part of the whole summer. The hardest part is how he spans from a 2 year old to a 5 year old. That leaves me with 3 children in one. While I know we want another one I really don't think people get how difficult it is to have it all wrapped into one kid.

He can't walk far enough when we go to the store to not be carried. He is HEAVY. He is not "disabled" enough for a wheelchair and isn't "disabled" enough to need a walker. He isn't big enough for me not to carry him so I get to carry a 30 pound stiff muscled kid. Oh and then what do you do with a kid that is to big to fit in the cart seats ( and you can't get him OUT of them when you are ready to go cause his legs don't bend that way.) and you can't put him in the bucket of the cart cause you need groceries? Anyone have a solution to that one?

He can't do some things like other 5 year old kids so sending him out to play isn't an option. While I would love for him to go out on his own he can't make friends because he doesn't talk well enough. Plus he doesn't play like a regular 5 year old. So unless your 5 year old can play like a 2 year old then we aren't invited for a play date. And at 5 no one has play dates. They send their kid out by themselves. He does great with the 2 year old but you don't see many two year old out without their moms. I can't send him out to ride his bike because he can't pedal it. So I am having to push him (again.. a 30 pound kid that is pretty much dead weight) around on a trike that doesn't really work for a 5 year old. ( A trike for his "level" is around 700 bucks. As is a stroller. That would be 1400 bucks. Not covered by insurance and not including the 20 percent of EVERYTHING else, plus gas, plus fertility, plus a place to live. blah blah and don't forget food)

He doesn't have the maturity( or is it just imagination...either way he doesn't have it) level of a 3 year old to do imagination play so he doesn't entertain himself. So I am his source of entertainment. 24 hours a day ( or until he goes to bed) all day long. While I get that he is my "job" I am also a mom, wife, housekeeper and chef so add that to a child who can't do anything on his own but watch a movie. ( and even then I have to sit and sing with him or he gets upset) You have the recipe for a very stressed out person.

He is a good kid. I know that things are tough for him. I know he doesn't want them to be that way and neither do I. When you have the other stresses in life the patience wire just seems to be the first to go.

The bonus: at least this month I don't have the extra hormone in my body to make me even more emotional.

The downside: Dallas is still sick, Ty is always going to be this way and I am still infertile.

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

Hands

I haven't entered a photo into Iheartfaces for a really long time. This week isn't about faces though but an object. I went back through my archives and even went out today with camera in hand. I had ideas of what I wanted to take. Though my head ideas and what I get on "film" are usually VERY different I ended up not even taking a picture of what I "thought" I wanted.

Instead I did decide on one. A photo I had taken when I first got my camera. I hope this is the best photo I have of hands. But I realize that every photo has a hand. The photo in my head was one of the therapist helping Tyler, or the wheelchair guy fixing a chair for a child. But instead I got nothing.... But the past.

p.s. The same "day" and time the header picture was taken. I didn't realize it till just now. I like his face better in this one.

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)