Aside from our move to Colorado, Preschool has been the biggest blessing in Mr Boy's life. Very quickly, Preshcool succeeded in "curing" him of many of his fears outside of the home. But little by little, the results slipped into our home as well. Woo Hoo! Felt like a rainbow of hope and joy, which we could see outside our window... suddenly burst into our living room and illuminate our lives. :) Seriously. Mr Boy went from being nervous and vomiting when other kids approached, to being completely at ease in their presence. He used to have panic attacks on the way to toddler music class or play groups where he knew I would not even leave his side. Thus prescool looked like an insurmountable mountain between Mr Boy and a successful elementary school career. Thankfully Mr Boy qualified for therapies in school, based almost soley on his PTSD symptoms and thus had very helpful therapists by his side to help him climb to the summit of this preschool mountain.
Ahem, Ahem... we have also heard he's kind of a ladies man. Holding hands with one girl one week and another girl the next. Slow down boy!
Mr Boy has a newfound confidence and independence. I never thought I'd be able to say "Mr Boy" and "independent" in the same sentence. Before preschool I couldn't even go into another room in our home, without my sweet lil boy screaming, "Mommy! Where are you?!?!" And running to be by my side so he was not alone.
We are rejoicing and praising the Lord for moments like these. It took months and months, but he finally joined in with the daily end-of-day dancing. Until recently, he would cry on the way to school because he was afraid the kids would dance and he would not like all the motion. But here he is dancing!
We are so proud of this little man, and so blessed to have Mr Boy in this Preschool with the therapies he has. As this school year comes to an end this week, we are already looking forward to Mr Boy's second year of preschool and excited for all the Lord has is store for his life.
Mr Boy's club foot was repaired at birth, but it recurred slightly by the time we moved, so last October we embarked on another season of "fixes." We've been told to anticipate the possiblity of more of these seasons in the future, but we are resting in the hope that will not be the case.
Mr Boy had 3 casts over 6 weeks, each one turning his foot a little more outward.
After the casts, on December 16, 2014, Mr Boy had surgery to perform a tendon transfer, (drilling a hole through his foot bone and pulling one of his tendons through it to the other side so his foot will pull the other direction) and an achilles tendon lengthening to give him more range.
Prepped and ready for surgery
2 more casts after the surgery to facilitate recovery
8 weeks later, Mr Boy got his permenant orthodic which he will wear for the forseeable future to prevent his foot from turning back inward:
Superman design
Mr Boy started Physical Therapy shortly after his foot healed from surgery.
Balance beam
Climbing the ladder to get toy cars hidden in the curtain
We put a bouncy house in the basement, which has been very helpful in strengthening Mr Boy's muscles and balance.
It was purchsed strictly for theraputic reasons of course. :)
Practicing his therapy exercises at home
Here, Mr Boy is practicing his therapy exercises (using a 2x4 as a balance beam and a cutting board on top of a pillow as a balance board, on which he throws toys into the center of the boppy pillow)
Finally conquered the chain ladder!
Newfound bravery and confidence
Mr Boy on the balance beam at Gymnastics
Mr Boy also started Gymnastics, which he loves and will play soccer this summer!
All this therapy has been doing wonders for Mr Boy's confidence, physical strength and balance. It's been exciting to see him take charge of his own therapy and see his pride in his own accomplishments.
We are slowly but surely figuring this kid out. He's got some pretty interesting fears, but as he gets older and more reasonable, I can sometimes reason with him... at least when the fears are, well... somewhat reasonable. :) All his fears root back to control. When Mr Boy feels like a situation or thing is unpreictable or uncontrollable, he gets upset. This traces back to all the times he was held down in the hospital and had traumatic procedures done to him outside of his control.
Now I know we told you that when we moved to Colorado, all Mr Boy's fears melted away. Well it seemed as such. But when Skittle was born, Mr Boy lost a lil sense of control and some fears came flooding back. They were still no where near as bad as before, but nevertheless, some fears returned.
One fear that has never ceased to persist, is that of water. I tried using reverse psycology on him all summer to desensitize him to his fear of water. I would take him to the fountains at the outdoor mall and say we are just going to watch... not get wet. That took the pressure off, gave him back the control and allowed him to choose when he wanted to get wet. We went somewhere with water at least once a week. I also set up a pool in the backyard "just to clean it off." Here is a video of how that went:
Although we made huge strides toward liking water this summer, Mr Boy still breaks down in tears and starts to throw up at the thought of a bath (we sponge bathe only) and sometimes even the thought of a clear cup where he can see the water moving - wont touch it. Twice in his life we successfully got him in a bath only to have him refuse and panic the next time. Last week however, he saw his sister enjoying a bath and asked if he could get into the baby tub. I said "YES!" as any mother who has never been able to actually bathe her child would… and quickly tossed Skittle from the infant tub (I laid her gently down but 'tossed' is more exciting), and got Mr Boy squeezed in before he could change his mind. He enjoyed a few baths while squished into the infant tub and now will only play in the baby tub from the side of the tub, where he is safe and dry, but even that is still a gain. "No bubbles and no water in the big tub," as Mr Boy says, but at least he is playing in water with his hands in a baby bath. Win.
But we have also gained a lot of ground in other areas:
-At some point this summer, Mr Boy was frightened while playing on his ipad, which he has loved since he was 2, at which point he decided it was evil and didn't touch it for 2 months. I had an epiphany one day and suddenly remembered the incident which brought about this new fear. He had an app open on the ipad which played music in the background. Mr Boy was ignoring it and playing with cars on the floor when he noticed the screen was black (it had gone into sleep mode) but the music was still playing. (This was unpredictable and seemingly out of his control) That freaked him out and he was never to touch the ipad again. I recounted this incident to him and told him "This is why you are scared of it" (he was never able to tell me why he was afraid of it before). I said, "Let me fix it for you," and proceeded to turn the ipad off and on again, "fixing" the problem and then explained why the ipad acted that way, and bam! He has played with it every day since.
Basement Playroom
-Also, since we moved into our home in May, Mr Boy has never played in our basement playroom. All his toys are in there, it's finished and has tons of natural light, so it's not your typical scary basement scenario. Regardless, I just couldn't get him to play with me down there or mention it with him starting to throw up or cry. However, a few weeks ago, I had another epiphany: He got scared once when we were down there for a few minutes gathering toys to bring upstairs because one of the baskets of toys got bumped and a toy started making noise. (This was again, unpredictable and seemingly out of his control). So he and I ceremoniously took the batteries out of each and every toy in the basement and bam! Now he loves it down there!
-Mr Boy also spent the summer in our living room or front yard. He very much disliked the thought of going in the back yard and would throw up (he's an axious vomitter, as kids who suffer from severe reflux can be) and cry if I mentioned it because "there were bugs." This he told me this straight up. We all know there are just as many bugs in the front yard as in the back, but some bug scared him in the backyard, so it was off limits, regardless of logic. This was very sad for me because part of the reason we bought the home was because of the large backyard. We have a tiny front yard, and I think the neighbors were starting to think we were "those weird neighbors" who were always out front. Once fall hit, I was able to honestly tell him that as it got cooler, there wouldn't be so many bugs in the backyard, and bam! Now we play back there everyday!
-And at preschool, Mr Boy never played on the playground. He would walk around on the basketball court while all the other kids played on the playset on the playground. He wouldn't tell me why. But one day last week (3 months into school) he finally walked up onto the playground and went down the slide! Slides have always been a deterrent for him, but he overcame!
So although he still has some funny fears, at least he is finally able to be reasoned with to a certain degree. He is better able to process his fears and see that they are unnessasary or at least put them to words. This is a new refreshing season. Thanking the Lord for every victory and "epiphany" and for giving us wisdom and insight into Mr Boy's heart.
It took nearly 8 months, endless medical history request forms, 100s of pages of New Patient documents, and countless hours on the phone with our insurance, hospital appointment schedulers and home medical suppliers, but we finally got acquainted with all Mr Boy's new doctors here in Colorado. Here is a list of all those doctors and their thoughts on the future:
1. Pediatrician- Partners in Pediatrics
2. Gastroenterology - Jason Soden, Children's Hospital Colorado
3. General Surgery- Rebecca Jacobsen, Children's Hospital Colorado
8. Bowel Management - John Bealer Children's Hospital Colorado 9. Pediatric Oral Feeding Clinic at Children's Hospital Colorado
Medically, Mr Boy is doing AMAZINGLY WELL. All his new doctors said the same thing…"He is just doing so well for a child with his condition." They were all blown away by his health. Praise the Lord!!
As you already know, Mr Boy was born with a club foot:
A few weeks after birth, his Orthopedic surgeon began casting his foot with a new cast every week for 6 weeks:
After the 6 weeks, the foot looked like this:
After the casting, he was supposed to wear this Ponseti Boots and Brace set for 3 months 24/7, to keep the foot in place.
But… Mr Boy had a separate surgery at the same time and since he looked so pitiful, we didn't make him wear the boots and brace for the full week of recovery.
Unfortunately, our decision to forgo the brace for one week, caused his foot to bend back enough to make the Doctor re-cast his foot again. :(
After this second set of casts, Mr Boy wore the boots and brace faithfully 3 months straight and then nightly for years while wearing a brace during the day. He still wears his shoe orthodic today.
When we met our Orthodepic Doctor here in Denver in June, she told us the foot was still not fully corrected and that Mr Boy would need another series of casts (a new cast every 2 weeks for 6 weeks total). She offered to start casting that day, but I chose to let Mr Boy finish out his summer and start preschool before she began. Plus, it's always nice to prepare your child for something so big. We watched lots of youtube videos to prepare him.
On his final day with both legs, we went to the circus!
Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey: Legends
Mr Boy loved it!! With all his sensory issues and fears, this was such an accomplishment! A few months ago this would not have been possible.
One last bike ride to the park!
And finally today arrived:
Mr Boy was sooooo calm and excited for his cast becasue he picked out "bright green."
We are so incredibly proud of our brave boy! Mr Boy is blowing us away more and more every day with his newfound confidence and bravery. Praise the Lord for all His glorious mercies!!
I uninentionally took a break from the blog because I kind of forgot about it! So many great changes were happening in our family, that I was more consumed with experiencing life than writing about it. When I did think about it, it overwhelmed me because sooo much was happening! So I will give a condensed recap of the past half year here. I will elaborate in the next few weeks on a few of these topics, but wanted to get this lil summary out before Monday, when Mr Boy will be getting a cast on his right foot and leg. Details on the reasons for this cast coming Monday.
After leaving South Dakota, we spent 3 months in David's parent's home before purchasing a new house of our own in Aurora, Colorado.
View from our backyard
One month after closing on our house, Mr Boy became a big brother when I birthed this amazing lil thing:
"Skittle" - Born June 14, 2014 - 4lbs 13oz
Can you tell Mr Boy loves her? :) He is an amazing big brother!
And after a summer filled with exciting adventures...
Getting into a pool for the first time!!!
Learning to ride his tricicle for the first time!
Annual Family Camping Trip
lots and lots of this
Library visits and about 1 millions books
Parks almost every day
And meeting 8 new doctors...
Brave and happy at all his Doctor appointments, even when he was apprehensive. SO proud of him!!
He collects hospital bands. I had to remove some that were giving him a rash after a few weeks. Ew.
This awesome ball contraption in the lobby helped foster his love for the Children's hopsital of Colorado or as Mr Boy calls it "The Hospital with the Balls."
...Then Mr. Boy started Preschool!!
Official school picture
Preschool Portable
Working on homework.
I will definitely elaborate soon on all the incredible developments since Mr Boy started Preschool. Just know that he loves it, begs for it everyday and is thriving!!
