Trying to Catch Up

I am all over the place lately. I just can't seem to catch up on the blog. Every time I get a chance to write a post I think of 4 more posts I should write!

Before we went to Philadelphia James and Elliot and I headed to Rochester for another check-up for James' cochlear implant. Everything was good and he improved on their little questionnaire. He's around the hearing ability of a 9 month old. So it's great that we're still seeing improvement. As with all things with James we aren't completely sure where he is because he can't always tell us! We'll go back for another visit in August before school starts.

School has since ended and started again for James. The last day of school was so very bittersweet. Eagles Education Center has been pretty good to/for James. The teachers and kids all love James and they all know him! They love to help him and talk to him and give him hugs! It's even more fun to see his classmates out and about in town! They spot him right away and run right over. That sure makes a momma feel good. The staff at Eagles has been amazing over the past 2 years. Everyone from the secretary, to the principle to the therapists and paras love him. It was pretty fun to drop him off and pick him up every day and have soo many people talk to him and get excited for him to be there. The therapists and his teachers have seen the amazing potential in James. They want to see that potential reached and went above and beyond to connect with his future teachers for next year. We were very sad to say good bye to Eagles Education Center. James started summer school a couple of weeks ago at the Lodoen Center in West Fargo. I had a mini-panic attack about sending him that morning. I was worried. All new teachers. They don't know James-he doesn't know them. I was very hesitant, but of course I got a good report and James had a good week at school. Now he's off for 3 weeks and will go back for 2 more weeks.

We're gearing up for our trip to Tennessee and Florida in a couple of weeks. It actually worked out pretty fabulous. My cousing Troy is getting married in TN and the dates are perfect for us to stop by the wedding on our way to FL for our next ABR session! Andy will get his first ABR training and I'm pretty excited to have 2 of us to work on James. It gets pretty hectic when I try to do all the day time things that have to be done and ABR, especially when James is in school 1/2 days. Andy will be taking over the majority of ABR in the fall when James starts full days at school. I'm not really looking forward to Kindergarten. James will be gone all day and I'll barely get to see him. Elliot is also going to be starting PreSchool in the fall. Whatever will I do with my time?! I'm sure that there will always be something to do.

We are settling pretty nicely into our new house. We love all the space we have! Our backyard is fenced and has a playgroud, so Elliot is always wanting to go outside to swing. We've met the neighbors to our East and they have 2 little girls Elliot's age and a baby. Elliot spots the girls outside and he immediately has to go out to play with them. It's great for him to have someone close by to play with (besides mom and dad).
Unfortunately our basement has been getting wet in our family room. It's been very frustrating as no-one ha ever had moisture problems in that house before. 4 times now we've had to stay up late and vaccuum all the water up, pull the carpet back and get it all dried out. We're having someone come out to look and see what the problem sometime in th next week. Let's pray that its not too expensive.

We've been working on getting James a swing for the swingset and a ramp into the house. It's a process as always but it's going well and hopefully we'll get them before the end of summer.

ABR Progress Report

So after my mistake back in February, James and I were able to head to Philadelphia for another round of ABR training. I was pretty excited for this one since we got James's first progress report. The progress report is good! I know that we've already seen changes in his head and trunk control but it was really nice to see the changes in the pictures. I'm still amazed that I'm doing to him! The trainers stressed the importance of continuing on this path and that while he is young I need to really get some good time in to make the changes to his body.

We learned 6 new exercises again. I'm feeling more comfortable with learning new exercises because now I've gotten the basic techniques down and it's just a matter and refreshing those techniques and applying them in a new area. This go round we'll be working on his neck pit (spot at the bottom of your head that meets your neck). Most people have an indentation there and James doesn't. We'll also work on upper back again and middle back along with some shape changes in his head and working on his thighs! I'm the most excited about that. It was actually requested by our physical rehabilitation doctor. I was a little nervous to approach the subject of alternative therapies with her but she was awesome about it! She was very open and even suggested a couple! She asked to see if they had something to help with the tightness in his hamstrings. Last August we did botox to loosen them up and it helped some but of course it wears off. Going through botox injections with James is pretty difficult. They give him the gas to calm you and kinda gives you amnesia but he still fights and gets anxiety with all those doctors and nurses around. I'd rather not do botox unless we have to anymore.

We'll actually be going to another training session in Florida in July. The sessions are pretty close together but that's my fault from missing February's sessions. I'm a little nervous for that session because Andy is going to be learning and pretty much taking over ABR with James. In the fall James will be in school all day and I won't have time with him to do ABR. So Andy is gonna take over and do it in the evening.