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It’s been a while since I’ve been here to truly update….I haven’t had the time to sit and type! I *thought* I would be able to do some of my blogging during the boys’ therapy sessions with Dr Worth, but I’ve had other things to get done during those times. Well, that has changed a bit….
The boys’ therapies have been going well. Things started out a bit rough for Clayton…he was tiring out before they could finish and he wasn’t doing very well when he was doing it. So they decided to give him a ‘break’ in between each section, thinking that just some downtime (and being able to reconnect with me for a moment) would help him, and it did. He was able to complete all of his Interactive Metronome exercises in the hour. However, they dropped off the Brain Play game (where they *think* the play moves instead of having a controller in their hand). This has worked really well for the last couple of weeks and last week, Clayton was able to do 2 of his 3 IM exercises without a break….so PROGRESS! :-) Brent has been doing all of his each time and seems to be doing really well with all parts of it. He takes a ‘drink break’ about half way through and that seems to do it for him. He’s doing both the IM and the Brain Play stuff.
Last week, they got their Hemi-Stim glasses, which are blue-lensed glasses that have LED lights that blink/flash in a certain pattern. They are to wear these for 5 mins, 2-3 times a day…gradually working up to 20-25 minutes a day. We’re told that these are things they will do at home even after the therapy here stops…so this is something that is long-term. (And let me tell you…you do NOT want to have to pay for these glasses! They are EXPENSIVE!) We have a metronome ordered (and on its way to us) right now…that’s another part of their home-work that we’ll be doing each day. I’m not sure yet exactly what that will entail, but I will share when I know.
We had a very busy month of May….with 2 college graduations and 1 wedding. The second graduation we went to, we sorta skipped out on cuz it was SO over-crowded. Plus, Clayton simply wasn’t handling the situation very well….WAY over-stimulating for him. So, we went and walked around UMR campus (where Terry went to college). He showed the boys the different buildings and we found MANY opportunities for good photo shots! :-) It was really a good afternoon that we got to have together as a family….
AND, I learned out to parallel park! LOL I know that sounds silly to some people but I never learned when I was in driver’s ed. And so I was terrified of parallel parking…and would drive around and around blocks to find a spot that was either 2 car-lengths (those I could handle!) or that wasn’t parallel parking. A couple of times in Cape, I would be driving and we’d get in a spot where I’d have to parallel park and I couldn’t, so (rather than get out of the van and do Chinese firedrill), Terry would park for me from the passenger seat! LOL Yeah, I know…not smart, but it’s pretty amazing that he could do that! Anyway, we found a couple of different spots on campus that I could practice on and I was able to parallel park 3 different times. Now, does that mean I can do it in Cape when there are other cars driving past me making me nervous? Not sure. Haven’t tried yet. But at least now I have the idea down. :)
So here are some of the shots we got while on campus that day:
First, we took the boys to Stone Henge and let them play around and learn a bit about it:
They got to running and jumping from each of these surrounding rocks...so I decided to try to capture them mid-air. Kinda fun...
This was just a good shot of Clayton...one of his moments when he was sitting still...
Later, after me learning to parallel park, we walked around through some of the buildings and the 'courtyard' area...
The boys playing on the "Big Clover Leaf" and with their Daddy
For some reason, I was fascinated with 'air shots' that day!
The week after the gradauation, was the first of the two weddings. It was a really nice wedding….if you don’t count the lighting, thunder and rain in the middle of it all! LOL The boys had a blast running through the rain and playing with the umbrellas. But they had even more fun at the reception/dance! They danced with just about everyone….at least Brent did. I think he sought out each lady-person in the family and danced with them…including me! Clayton was happy to dance with someone, dance alone, dance in a group….he didn’t care. As long as he was dancing. But when he got tired, he was DONE. He sat down on the floor and just wouldn’t move again till we told him it was time to go. We have the last of the two weddings (and the last of our weekend running for a while!) this coming Satuday. But the boys are both looking forward to this reception too…more for the dance than anything else. LOL Brent is especially happy, cuz he learned the two-step at the last one and now he wants to practice it more.
Here is a couple of shots of the cakes that Terry's sister did...beautiful!
After the dinner, the dance began...and like I said, the boys had fun!
Clayton kept going back to dance with Maggie (the bride)
But then, he'd dance by (and spin) himself too...
They 'group danced' with their cousins and of course learned the 'Helicopter' from Nathan! LOL
They had their own moves...
But then Brent learned the two-step from ReVay. (and yes, those are droplets of water on my camera lens...leftover from the rain earlier that day.)
And, finally, Janice was able to dance with Cory...so nice. :-)
T-Ball/Baseball is going okay. We’ve had a LOT of rainouts, which has definitely put a damper on Brent’s mood. Out of the last month, he was supposed to have 3 games and 2 practices…..4 out of those 5 were canceled due to rain or muddy fields. He handled the first couple okay, but this last one really got him down. He just couldn’t understand why the rain wanted him to not play! LOL He has another game this Thursday, and we’ll see if he gets to have it or not. For the one game that he did get to play, he scored his first run and also had his first RBI for the season. So he was pretty happy with that one…plus he’s on a ‘yellow’ team, which he’s really proud of cuz he likes yellow so much. The good thing is that when they have a canceled game (or a night when a game isn’t scheduled) they can go to TKD, which is nice cuz they have a tournament coming up for that on July 11. :-)
Last week, I decided to switch our therapy appointments from Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday to Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesdays are just WAY too much for me to handle, what with teaching class. I don’t think it was so much the idea of needing to study and get ready for the class as it was the fact of running to STL (75 miles north)and back in the early afternoon, trying to get dinner, refresh for my class, and then driving down to Jackson (25 miles south) for worship. It was just too stressful for me to be able to cope with emotionally and mentally. I know, I’m weird. I was finding myself unable to concentrate or focus by the time I got to class. So I’m hoping that by switching to a different day and having all of Wednesday to be home I won’t feel that type of stress on Wednesdays. I hope. :)
We got part of our garden done this weekend. I say ‘we’…it was really mostly Terry and Brent that did it. They built a contraption to hold our upside-down-hanging tomatoes and cucumbers. It only took them about 3 ½ hours to get the whole thing built and then on Sunday Terry put the plants into the pots (minus 3 of the tomatoes, which I did cuz he said he was mutilating the plant to get it through the whole at the bottom of the pot). So now we’ll see how these work for us. Perhaps I can post pictures of his little contraption...it's really quite creative...
Last week, I decided to switch our therapy appointments from Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday to Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Wednesdays are just WAY too much for me to handle, what with teaching class. I don’t think it was so much the idea of needing to study and get ready for the class as it was the fact of running to STL (75 miles north)and back in the early afternoon, trying to get dinner, refresh for my class, and then driving down to Jackson (25 miles south) for worship. It was just too stressful for me to be able to cope with emotionally and mentally. I know, I’m weird. I was finding myself unable to concentrate or focus by the time I got to class. So I’m hoping that by switching to a different day and having all of Wednesday to be home I won’t feel that type of stress on Wednesdays. I hope. :)
We got part of our garden done this weekend. I say ‘we’…it was really mostly Terry and Brent that did it. They built a contraption to hold our upside-down-hanging tomatoes and cucumbers. It only took them about 3 ½ hours to get the whole thing built and then on Sunday Terry put the plants into the pots (minus 3 of the tomatoes, which I did cuz he said he was mutilating the plant to get it through the whole at the bottom of the pot). So now we’ll see how these work for us. Perhaps I can post pictures of his little contraption...it's really quite creative...
Well, that's it for this update....I'm tired. LOL I have more to tell, since it's now the middle of June...the second wedding and more therapy information. YAY! :) Hopefully it won't be JULY before I get that one done!
