Dealing With Uncertainty...

Brian has been home from school the past two days - he has a cough and the sniffles.  It's hard to say if it's a cold or allergies but either way it was a great excuse to stay home and hang out with his favorite Mommy!  Each day we watched Gavin and Miss Sara head to school on the bus...

...and then we'd get down to business.  We conquered important projects like Pirate Ship steering, fort building, train track management and fending off dinosaurs.  Although, judging from what snuck into my back pocket - unnoticed until the next morning - I'm not so good at the "fending off" part.

On Monday, when we pulled into Gavin's school parking lot, we were surprised by two huge fire trucks!  The whole school was treated to a presentation about fire safety.  Gavin learned all about the trucks and equipment - and even got to climb in and explore the inside!  

He even got a shiny new fire hat from the nice fire man.

Gavin is still doing so well in school - and loving his new therapy team.  Sara tells me he really enjoys working with paint - loving when it gets all over his hands!  The boys often bring art projects home from school.  I have memory boxes for each of them (Gavin's is nearly full!) and save some of the art projects - but it's really impossible to continue to save all of them.

I recently discovered the most adorable app to help me with my dilemma!  It's called ArtKive - a place where you can safely "archive" your kids art!  When I got it, it was free.  I have no idea if it's still free - but I highly recommend it either way!  Whenever the boys come home with some artwork - like when Gavin came home with his apple tree...

...or Brian came home with handprints and extra love for his Daddy...

...I take a picture of it with my phone.  Each of them have their own file of artwork and as it comes in it automatically gets shared with Ed.  Ed gets it in his email and is prepared to gush over their masterpieces when he walks in the door from work.  Seeing the boys faces light up with pride is the best feeling ever.

Last Friday the boys had a dentist appointment and, thank God, had good check ups.  I don't ever want to project my dental phobias onto the boys.  So far they have NO fear and get lots of compliments from the dentists on their behavior.  And I get compliments on their hygiene.  Whew.

 They give the dumbest, cheapest toys after their dentist appointments...but Brian, especially, treats them like gold bars.  I'm thinking of shopping at the dentist for Christmas.  They are on to something.

 This Thursday I'll be taking Gavin out of school again to head to DuPont.  We'll be meeting with his genetic team and getting some blood drawn for testing.  We've been dealing with some uncertainty since Gavin's genetic testing came back and it's a little stressful.  If you could send lots of positive thoughts his way and ours, we'd appreciate it.  I apologize for being cryptic, but it's not worth stressing multitudes of people if it turns out they are wrong.  We'll just have to wait and see.

They say when you're dealing with uncertainty - you should focus on things you can control.  So I choose to control my attitude and keep it positive.  And I keep focused on Gavin who continues to amaze and inspire...

Thank you for loving my family.

Breakthrough...

How was my day, you ask?

Well...it was busy. I woke up with terrible arthritis pain. I got both kids up and dressed. I greeted Miss Sara and we fed the boys breakfast. I drove Brian to pre-school. I got home in time to greet Miss Janna for Gavin's therapy. When that was over, Gavin, Miss Sara and I ran to Jo-Ann Fabric to find foam-like felt to cover the edges of Gavin's walker so our walls could possibly be saved from more dents and bruises as he learns to steer. (Tip: I picked up remnants of car ceiling interior - which is both padded AND felty - AND moldable - AND cheap!!) We ran back home to put Gavin in his walker for a few laps before I went to pick Brian up from pre-school. Whew. Then! I had a report from Brian's teacher that he is such a happy boy, participates in every activity they ask him to and catches on quick. I met Brian's friend, Mackenzie's Mom in the parking lot and we both agreed that there is a mutual love fest going on between our children and need to arrange a playdate. I came home to open Brian's backpack and found his very first piece of art from school and I nearly cried. (Don't you think he has great technique??)

We had some lunch and I started clearing out Darcy's shrine...er, I meant the empty bedroom that would have been her nursery...to start dreaming about Brian's new room (more on that later). I blinked and Miss Carol was here - Gavin's hearing teacher - for her monthly visit. We both agreed that Gavin is a rock star and I unloaded a lot of "old" hearing aid paraphernalia and equipment of his that she could donate to needy families she works with. After she left, with an hour on the clock before Miss Sara left for the day - I quickly ran to Fed Ex to ship a birthday present to a Mr. Sam Burney who's Mommy is a long time reader and friend of this online journey of mine - then the post office to mail a very important letter. I was home in time to say goodbye and THANK YOU to the wonderful Miss Sara (she really is)...put dinner on (corned beef and cabbage)...and say hello to Miss Katja and her boyfriend! Franco was here to give me an estimate on painting the boys' bedrooms (more on that tomorrow) and helping me cover the corners of our walls downstairs with plastic shields from Gavin's walker practice!

That was my day - what did you do?

You know what? None of it matters. With all due respect to everyone - you, me, Brian, Sara, Sam, the nice Fed-Ex lady...everyone. It all pales in comparison to this:

Gavin...he had a breakthrough.

I recently told you that he was pulling individual blocks out a bucket in OT...something that we have been working on for years - but has been a serious mission in OT for the past year. And he is doing it.

Well, another goal is color matching. It has been his teacher, Miss Janna's, mission for this whole first year. Twice a week she is here - and twice a week she would attempt to get him to color match. I am ashamed to admit there were a few times here and there that I actually (internally) rolled my eyes and thought it was hopeless. ME!! His MOM!! Shameful, I know. But Janna persisted and each week she brought her calm, cool demeanor to therapy. Each week Gavin would gaze at her with stars in his eyes. Little did we know he was taking it all in...because today - he did it.

HE DID IT!!

Take a look after grabbing your tissues.

He would start off touching the block and it would fall anywhere. But we waited...and saw that each time he would correct himself! He would pick up the block that fell - and sweetly place it in the matching color square. We were all a bit speechless. If you're new to this blog...you'll have to just trust me and all of Gavin's fans. This is big stuff.

And if that weren't enough to upstage anything that you or I did today - he was also a rock star in his walker! I know that doesn't seem like "new news"...but it is! You see, I un-attached the sling seat that was holding him from falling to the ground. The sling seat gave him some extra security. It kept him "halfway" in the walker instead of on the ground if he got tired - which meant he only had "halfway" to pull himself back up to keep on truckin'! So we unhooked the sling seat yesterday and today - and he is doing SO GREAT!!!

We struggle a bit with his wanting to give up if he falls - it's hard to convince him to stand up again. This is the time I'm grateful for physical help - Gavin is dead weight and trying to lift him under his shoulders when he refuses to put his feet on the ground is rough on this ol' lady! Check him out...

Each day he is improving in this walker. And, as Miss Sara says, one day he's going to just walk right out of it and show us all. That Miss Sara is pretty smart.

So, like I said...whatever anyone else did today is small potatoes. No hard feelings, right?