Lots of Energy

Mr. Boy has been busy these past few weeks, doing new things every day and making us laugh every second.

The changing of the tube

One of our least favorite things in life is "The Changing of the Tube." We've heard from adults who have had to have a tube inserted through their nose, that this is a horrifying experience. Watching Mr. Boy be held down by 3 nurses and scream his head off, is not much more fun. Since getting the nasal tube almost one year ago, we've been to the ER 3 times to get it put back in after being ripped out on accident (2 of these times we were out-of-town), and had a scheduled hospital change twice. In december, we got fed up with the constant worrying that at any moment, the tube could come out and we'd be back in the ER with a screaming baby. I called the Dr and asked that we be taught how to insert the tube ourselves. There was a little apprehension, but eventually they trained us and we have now inserted the tube twice all by ourselves. I hold him down while Dave inserts the tube and its over in seconds rather than hours. Many hospitals regularly train their parents to change the tube at home, but Sanford has the gold standard of requiring x-ray confirmation for tube changes and that is wonderful, but it's even more wonderful that they bent the rules for us, so Mr. Boy wouldn't have to suffer through the drawn out tube changes in the hospital, with all the anxiety and trauma that comes along with that for him. That's not to say that doing it at home is all fun and games, but its about 1 tenth of the intensity. We are very thankful Mr. Boy's doctor had faith in us!

You can see Mr. Boy's red cheek trying to heal after we changed his tube to the other side the day before. After weeks of tape on his cheeks they get pretty roughed up. 

Happy Easter

 Hanging on the porch with daddy

Daddy is too funny

making sure the easter bunny doesn't bite

 Easter Egg hunt with Cousins! 

Mr. Boy and daddy concentrating hard.

 First time Mr. Boy actually ventured out in the grass!

Kissing the Easter bunny 

(you'll just have to believe me because I just missed it with the camera) :)

reading about Jesus' love

Spring Shenanigans

Playing at the Kirby Science Discovery Center at the Washington Pavillion

Mr. Boy was not too impressed with the kids that splashed

Texting while driving. And I thought I had raised him well...

I know his feet are closer to the camera and thus appear larger, but seriously, they are really that huge! haha. Due to the space for the orthopedics and space for growth so we don't need new orthopedics too often, his shoes are quite bulky, but they do the trick.  

trying out his first stick.

yum yum?

not impressed with the bark

Walking with his cart all by himself

He could do this all day long

If you were a fly on the wall in our house at any given moment in the day, I'll bet this is what Mr. Boy would be doing... ever-so gently playing with his cars (only one at the time and only with one finger) while leaning up against the coffee table. He literally goes around the table with his cars all day long. Only trouble is having to follow him around and around, untangling the pump from the table legs! :) He's got a pretty calm and gentle way about him.

New Orthopedics

Mr. Boy's got some new orthopedics and spiffy new shoes to wear over them. The muscles around his ankles are weak, so he is quite a wibbly, wobbly kiddo. We had AFO's (ankle foot orthopedics) that went from the knee to his toes, giving him stability, but not allowing him to bend his ankle so they were really just for standing but since he is crawling all over the place and pulling himself up to things, he needed a different solution. Now he has SMO's (Supra-Malleolar Orthosis) which only go from the ankle to the toes, allowing ankle movement, but giving him ankle support. Its like wearing really high boots. We can tell a big difference in his stability while standing, and a huge rise in confidence. He may be walking around here before we know it! Lately he has been spending most of his days doing laps around the coffee table, pushing his hot wheels cars around and around. He can walk along, as long as he's holding onto something and this weekend he walked with his walker toy for the first time without our help! 

He wears the SMO's inside these new shoes