Tennesee?

I'm tired and the week has barely started. I think I'm still playing catch-up from staying up too late on Sunday night. But it was worth it! The movie was excellent. . Yesterday I definitely didn't accomplish all the loads of laundry I should have but I did get a lot done anyway. My motivation was gone. Now that I think about it, it's pretty hard to get motivated about laundry. I just like the satisfaction that comes when I finish it all. Of course, by the very next day, there's more, but for that one night a week, it's all done. . What I did accomplish yesterday is adult conversation. While Anthony played and the baby slept, Jen and I were able sit and talk. She brought the Papa Murphy's Pizza and I provided the oven. Good pizza and great company! Can life get any better? They leave this weekend to see their new baby and it looks like I may be going with them to Tennesee. . Right now the kids are eating breakfast and singing. Since the younger ones are close in age, they know the same songs from school. It's like my own mini choir. . Zeke lost his glasses on the St Paul trip so time after school was spent trying to find out if he can get a new pair. Our insurance will pay for a new pair only every 15 months and Medicaid doesn't pay at all for lost glasses anymore so we have to be really careful with glasses. That can be more of a challenge than you think with an active 7 year old. Fortunately, it's been over 15 months so this afternoon we have an appointment with the eye doctor and after the check-up we'll order another pair of glasses.

Zeke's Doctor

Here's Zeke happily playing in the waiting room of his doctor's office. He loves going to the doctor. Here's a medical update on Zeke: His team of doctors continue to be amazed at how well he's doing. At this visit, they monitored his gait (walking), checked his braces, fixed the broken straps and shaved off more of the plastic in the back of his braces to give him a bit more flexibility. He used to crouch while walking but is now able to stand straight so the doctors want to be able to give him flexibility to bend his ankles a bit. It will make stairs and bending over a lot easier. It's kind of trial and error with his braces since the goal is to give him flexibility of movement but still support and correct in the right places. . Zeke can now: *stand in one place without support *swing and hit a baseball while standing on his own *get off the floor by himself without using anything to pull himself up *RUN!!! *walk up and down stairs by himself *swim - he passed level 1 in swimming lessons *play and walk in the backyard without a walker - he's ditched the walker completely :) *eats whatever we eat and can do it without any help *has a great vocabulary and talks in complete sentences *go to the bathroom by himself - he can even stand like his brothers *get dressed by himself - still needs help with buttons, but can do zippers and some snaps *put on his socks, braces and shoes (I help adjust them after he's done) *make his own bed *brush his own teeth *tells anyone who'll listen how much he loves his mom :) . I'm sure that's not a complete list but you get the idea. He's come so far. When Zeke came to live with us almost 3 years ago (see his picture in a previous blog entry), he was crawling and could only take 2 lunging steps on his own. He was in diapers and being spoon fed soft foods. His vocabulary was probably less than 20 words. He would bite and scratch when he was frustrated. He hated women and wouldn't have anything to do with them, myself included. . He is blessed with a strong will and has no comprehension that there is anything he can't do. And we don't tell him otherwise! I still remember one time that I took him in for a checkup with our pediatrician and one of the routine questions she asked was if he was potty trained and continant. I responded that he was. She looked at me with suprise on her face and said that was usually very hard for kids with cerebral palsy. I said that no one had told us that, so we never told Zeke :) We're not really interested in what he can't do, just in what he can do. . I also had a heated discussion this past year with Zeke's school physical therapist. He informed me after Zeke's surgery that he had worked with lots of kids with cerebral palsy and it was unrealistic of me to expect Zeke to ever be able to walk without a walker. This was after this therapist had decided to discontinue Zeke's mandated therapy at school and hadn't let me know. Let's just say that he released the mother bear in me. I told him, in no uncertain terms, that he WOULD make up Zeke's therapy. And I also let him know that he could tell me what Zeke was doing now, or even what he might be doing next week, but DO NOT EVER TRY TO TELL ME THAT HE CANNOT DO SOMETHING IN THE FUTURE! And then I directly quoted the law to him concerning the required therapy that Zeke was entitled to! Let's just say that the therapist DID make up the therapy time with Zeke and DIDN'T last out the year. The current physical therapist is one that Zeke worked with at the Brookings Hospital when I was taking him 5 days a week post surgery and she is awesome with Zeke! .

Zeke and I (and whoever else I have to bring along) visit his team of doctors in Sioux Falls about every 6 weeks. In November, he has a scheduled checkup in St. Paul at Gillette Children's Hospital to follow up on his selective dorsal rhysotomy surgery from last September. Then we'll know for sure whether or not he needs to have orthapedic surgery.

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A lot of information, I know, but I sometimes forget how far Zeke has come. We see him every day and so we tend to take a lot for granted. I think that's part of the reason I enjoy seeing Dr. Johnson in Sioux Falls. Because she sees him every six weeks, she is so encouraged by his progress. Incidently, because she's in a bigger city in a fairly central location, Zeke actually started seeing her when he entered foster care so she's actually been with him longer than we have.

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All in all, Zeke's doing awesome!

Zeke's Glasses Again

Last Wednesday Zeke lost his good glasses again. I've gotten smarter about his glasses but apparently not smart enough. We have an old pair that's only being held together by duct tape and those are the glasses that he wears when he plays. The good pair is for school, church and out in public. We've gone through a lot of glasses, sometimes lost, sometimes broken. After all, he is a 6 year old boy. . Last Thursday morning, we looked everywhere for the good glasses. No luck. We definitely can't afford new glasses right now and he's already maxed out the replacements for the year through insurance. And of course, school pictures were coming up on Tuesday. Last year, Zeke broke his glasses right before pictures so he wasn't wearing any in that picture. I kept looking and hoped we'd find them. Again no luck. Steve was afraid to mow because last summer Zeke left his glasses outside and Steve accidently mowed over them. . Zeke went to church on Sunday without glasses. In my women's bible study class that morning, I realized I had yet to ask God to help find the glasses. It seemed like such a little thing to ask God for help with but He knows our needs already. I just have a hard time not being able to fix it myself. . I asked my friends to pray that we would find Zeke's glassses. The amazing ladies in the group prayed and asked God for wisdom in looking for Zeke's glasses and that we would be able to find them. . That afternoon, I pulled Zeke's bed out from the wall and there were the glasses!

Fun With Speech

I was reminded yesterday that I used to tease my sister when she was little because she couldn't talk very well. Not very nice, I know, but we can look back on it an laugh a little. She had an especially hard time with the 'S' sound and loved Chicken Noodle Soup. One of my favorites was asking her what she wanted for supper just so she would say, "Chicken Poop." . This morning, Zeke is standing in the kitchen surrounded by cereal boxes. He's been in there for about 15 minutes now, tapping his finger against his chin and all he keep saying is, "Coco Puffs or Yucky Charms. Hummm. What for Zeke? Coco Puffs or Yucky Charms. Hummm. What for Zeke?"