Full of Thanks!

What better time to start blogging again than after a week of giving thanks and being with family?  I can't believe it's been over four months since I last wrote, but I guess that just validates the craziness that was Fall 2011 for the Arnolds.  Work has been way busier this year than past years...I keep wondering how this is my 5th year teaching 5th grade and I'm staying later after school than ever before!   Graduate school has also been a bit of a beast.  This was my last semester (three years in the works) and I only had one class, but it entailed a final big project and creating my electronic portfolio for graduation (lots of busy work)  A few weekends ago, Olin had to go out of town and my in-laws graciously took Logan for the weekend so that I could finish my work.  I literally worked the entire weekend (okay, I did sneak in a work out or two and a trip to Target), but I was able to finish all of my assignments and complete the portfolio! Hooray!

In addition to the craziness of school, Logan's schedule of therapies kept afternoons pretty occupied.  Back in August, I was talking about him getting started with occupational and speech therapy.  We are well underway with those.  His speech therapist visits him at daycare every Wednesday morning.  It's great that she is able to do that, but I feel we miss out on what she is doing with him and then don't know how to help him at home.  We have Logan's annual IFSP meeting (Individual Family Service Plan...like an IEP) next month so I am hoping we will be able to do more speech visits at home in the future.  I have to take Logan to occupational therapy on Wednesday afternoons.  We have to hustle to get there for our 4:00 appointment, but I won't complain...at least we can get an afternoon appt.!  And physical therapy rotates each week between daycare and home visits.  So, needless to say, life has been busy.  Oh yeah, I also thought it would be a good idea to throw in a little ALTA tennis on Wed. and Sundays...you know in my spare time.  Well, about midway through October when I thought I was going to have a mini-meltdown, I quit the team.  I hated to do it, but I just had to.  There was only so much time in a week to devote to school, family, my sanity, etc.

But, I see the light at the end of the tunnel now.  Ever since I finished my grad school work, I feel like a new person.  The heavy weight that has been on my shoulders for three years has finally lifted, and boy does it feel good!  I know I'm happy to be finished, but there may be one person who is even happier, and that would be....OLIN.  I've been getting this damn degree since we got married in 2008.  God bless him.  He kept encouraging me throughout the whole thing and supported me in any way he could.  If you're reading this, Olin, thank you.  You are the best!

So, let me get to the most important Arnold.  What is Logan doing now?  Well, he's still the sweetest, happiest kid on this whole planet.  His smile still brightens up any room and his laugh just melts your heart.  He is so much more aware of what is going on around him.  He is also more aware of who people are.  He definitely knows me and Olin, and now I'm pretty sure he knows both sets of grandparents.  I'm convinced that he says "MaMa" to me on occasion.  What a great feeling to hear that!  Logan's also a man on the move now.  One of his most exciting accomplishments has been to transition back to sitting when he falls or loses his balance.  We had been working on this for some time in therapy, and to finally see him reach his goal was pretty awesome.  



At the beginning of November, my sister and her boys came visit.  Logan was just in awe of those two.  He thought Jack hung the moon.  And Jack didn't mind being the apple of Logan's eye either : )   Logan watched every move those boys made, and I guess it made him want to get in on the action.  So one morning he was just sitting on the floor in the den next to these ottoman cubes that my mom was using as her temporary coffee table.  These ottoman cubes were the ones where the top cushion actually doubles as a tray.  You turn it over and it's a hard surface.  Well, Logan all of the sudden reached out for the cube, got a good grip on the ledge that the tray provided, and pulled himself to a kneeling position.  Again, we'd been working on this with Sherri, but he still needed assistance.  Not on this day, and never again.  In that one instant, it became his new trick.  Needless to say, we "borrowed" one of ZuZu's cubes and brought it to our house so that he could continue to practice pulling up.  When I showed Sherri, she was excited, but she wasn't going to let us stop there and bask in the glory for too long (she never does, which is a good thing I suppose....we have to keep moving forward!).  So, she showed me how to help him pull one leg under his bottom and support him to a standing position.  It's sort of hard to explain, but she had a really specific way that she wanted us to assist him to standing.  So, we have been practicing kneeling to standing for most of November.  Repetition, repetition, repetition.  He has to have it. 

Soooo, today while we were watching football with the Arnold clan, Logan decided to show off.  He did the whole routine.  He was sitting next to the ottoman, grabbed it and pulled to kneeling.  Then he got one leg under him (without help) and pulled up to STANDING!  It's like a dream come true.  I know it's not walking or crawling, but this is huge!  He's also starting to understand how to adjust his feet if he starts to lose balance or wants to get closer to something.  He knows he's done something awesome too because he'll stand straight up and give out a little yell and a big smile.  I will try to get a good video of him performing his new moves tomorrow.  It's been a great day though... a great few days in fact.  Lots of food and family and relaxation.  It's been a nice getaway from school for sure. 

I know I've missed lots of other events in the last four months...like Logan being a part of Corrigan Care's Special Gallery of Children (the picture in the blue polo is from his "photo shoot"), a month of sickness in October that we finally figured out was from teething, picking out the perfect pumpkin and being Hairy Dawg for Halloween.  I promise to do better in the coming months.  It's good reflection for me and makes me realize how far we've come.  It's hard to believe it's almost time to start planning another birthday party.  How time flies!

Logan got a kick out of rolling the pumpkin off the haystack!

Logan loves his electric toothbrush!

Mowat-Wilson Meet-Up 2011

It's so fun to see Logan doing new things everyday.  The anticipation of what he's going to do next makes me so excited.  I don't want to say that any of our 19 months with him have been "boring" : )  With 5 surgeries and numerous hospital stays, I can hardly call that uneventful.  However, it seems like he's been doing the same things for so long...sitting in one place and slapping at toys.  To see him wanting to move now and realize that he can get to where he wants to go is truly exhilarating.  I shared his walking video a couple of weeks ago, but tonight he decided that "log rolling" was his preferred mode of transportation.  Logan has never rolled more than a half turn (exclusively from front to back until a few weeks ago).  Tonight, I was on the floor with him and Olin was laying on the couch.  He rolled front to back, then immediately back to front, making a complete rotation.  Simultaneously, Olin and I looked at each other with that "Did you see that?" expression on our faces.  We gave Logan lots of cheers and then set him in position to try it again.  Once he realizes he's succeeding at something, he seems to know that he should do it again.  I felt like I was watching Sparky the Dog.  He started rolling across the entire carpet in our family room.  When he'd reach a dead end, Olin would bring him back to start.  The video is long...I tried to edit, but couldn't decide what didn't make the cut.  I love him so much!



We had an incredible experience on Saturday that was hopefully just the beginning of many more meetings with our MWS family.  Technology is an amazing thing...while I have resisted aspects of it (I still have a flip phone with no internet access and my email account still ends in yahoo.com), it brought together a wonderful group of people this weekend.  Through facebook, Olin has befriended many of the MWS families in Georgia.  One of the moms organized a gathering at Perimeter Mall on Saturday so that we could all meet up.  We planned to just meet in the food court...seemed like a safe place to meet a bunch of strangers : )  Anyways, it turned out to be so awesome.  Including us, there were five families.  Our Logan was the youngest.  Then there was 4 year-old Alex, 6 year-old Andrew, 10 year-old Emily, and 13 year-old Logan.  Crazy, isn't it, to have two Logans in GA with MWS? 

  

Big Logan and Little Logan



Oh, there were all so cute...so happy.  It's a little uncanny how much they all resemble each other.  They all have the same little mouth and smile.  You can't help but smile when you see them.  It was a little crazy in the food court...we had like five tables pushed together and about 20 people altogether.  The kids did really great....thank goodness for Chick-fil-a chicken nuggets!  It was just so interesting to see what each child was accomplishing at each stage in their life.  Some of the kids were walking really well, some signing.  It was just really encouraging to see them doing so well and accomplishing so much. 



Emily, Andrew, Alex, Logan, and Logan



  



I admit I was a little apprehensive to meet these families.  Of course, I was excited to be able to speak with moms who totally understand what we've been through.  At the same time, I was a little nervous to get a peek into the future.  When we left though (after about two hours), I think Olin and I were actually a lot less scared of the road ahead.  All of the children had experienced seizures at some point...about 90% of MWS kids do.  So, while we aren't "prepared" for that scenario, we understand the liklihood of the situation and feel we'll be able to handle it if we have to.  I know it sounds cliche, but the love for these beautiful kids was palpable on Saturday.  They have changed the lives of each and every one of us for the better.   We definitely are planning some more "play-dates" in the future...most likely in the comfort of someone's house!  As much as it hurt when we received Logan's diagnosiss for MWS, it was a blessing because we now have a connection to a group of supportive and amazing people.  

Seeing Old Friends and Making New Ones

What up!

It was a fun weekend full of old friends and new ones.  On Friday night, we went to El Azteca to see some folks from out of town.  Even though it was super loud, Logan did awesome "burning the midnight oil" until at least 10:00!  He definitely takes after his daddy being able to stay up so late. 

On Saturday, we invited some "special" friends over for a BBQ : )  Last year, an assistant at my school told me about a teacher at her former school that had a little boy about Logan's age who also had special needs.  She thought that we would get along great and one morning brought in the yearbook to show me her picture. I immediately recongized the girl's picture, and said "I know her!"  Believe it or not, she is the older sister of a boy I "went out with" (isn't that what we called it?) in middle school.  She and I emailed back and forth towards the end of the school year, and it was true...we definitely had a lot in common.  Fast forward to August, and Olin and I finally invited the whole family over for hot dogs and hamburgers.  I was so looking forward to hearing more about her sweet little boy and just talking to someone who had experienced similar things in the last year!

We had a great time with our new friends.  Logan and the other little guy will likely be in the same class at Alpharetta Elementary in a year and a half.  While they have very different medical backgrounds, it was so neat to see them facing each other on the floor just like any other normal kids.  I so enjoyed sharing mommy stories with someone I knew passed no judgement on me.  I also loved her and her husband's positive attitude and outlook about what God has given them.  They are the type of "glass half-full" people you want to surround yourself with...they just roll with the punches.  I really hope this was the first of many more get togethers with them...they are big Georgia fans so maybe some tailgating is in the future : )

Finally, we helped host a baby shower on Sunday afternoon for one of Olin's co-workers.  While I don't have a desire to be pregnant any time soon, I still love "mommies to be" and baby showers!  What is cuter than little pink or blue baby clothes, booties, and blankets?  I can get stuck walking up and down the aisles of Babies R Us for hours just picking things up and saying "How cute is that!!!"  Unfortunately, Logan missed his morning nap and wasn't 100% happy to be partying again, but he still made some new friends.  In particular, the eight-year old son of the family also hosting, took a liking to Logan.  He was so curious to learn more about Logan and be near him throughout the entire afternoon.  While Logan drank his bottle and watched the Braves game, this little boy laid right next to him and just touched his arms and face.  It was the sweetest thing to see this "rough and tough" boy be so kind and gentle with Logan.  Those moments make me so happy.  To that boy, Logan is just a sweet baby...not a baby with special needs.  It was awesome.

Future Best Legs???

On a totally different note, Logan has his first speech therapy visit tomorrow morning followed by physical therapy at his daycare.  We are going to show his teachers how to put on his ankle braces and what exercises they can do to work with him during the day.  So far, they have been very receptive to the idea of the therapist visiting.  

Tonight was sort of ground breaking though.  I won't shout it from the roof yet, but Logan actually got on all fours and into crawling position all by himself tonight.  He's been starting to get his butt up off of the ground more, but this was the first time he's gotten his butt up and pushed up on his arms at the same time.  It was amazing to see.  He also rolled from his back to his stomach which I know he can do, but usually chooses not to.  Maybe he'll start using rolling as a way of moving from place to place.  I would be fine with that!  Moving is moving...whatever the means!  I am so excited to see what comes next.  He seems so close to doing so many new things!  Stay tuned : )

Jack is such a good cousin to Logan...can't believe he's already 4 years old!

Very unusual for Eddie to let mommy hold Logan...I had to get it on film!

Back on the wagon!

                I can't believe it's been three weeks since I last blogged...I feel like I fell off my diet and I'm trying to get back on track. It's not that I haven't thought about blogging.  I just couldn't put the right words together.  I guess all I can do is forge ahead from here...

This little guy makes going to Walmart a little more fun!

              Anyone who has met Logan knows that he's just about the happiest kid alive (one of the blessings of his syndrome), but lately his smiles seem just a little bit wider, his laugh a little bit louder, and his hugs a little bit tighter.  It is so incredibly wonderful to see him feeling so well and healthy.  Even though we've had our share of summer doctors' appointments, most of them are just me trying to be proactive (eye doctor, speech, OT, etc. )

Working hard in his new ankle braces (with a huge smile on his face)!

            I'm really excited about the progress we're making towards getting Logan more resources to help him.  I just wasn't feeling like physical therapy visits once a week were enough.  He's 18 months old now...we need to pick it up! So...on Monday, we received Logan's new orthotics.  They are called SMOs and fit behind the foot and right over the ankle.  When you see them, they look so tiny...you wonder how could that piece of plastic could really help him!  But at PT yesterday, you could see how it made his knees turn more inward and it gave him so much more stability doing different exercises (it also helps to have some friction from his shoes).  We are gradually going to increase the amount of time he wears them.  The doctor said to start with 20-30 minutes/3-4 times a day.  Thank goodness for velcro!

            On Tuesday, we went Children's Healthcare of Atlanta (Sandy Plains rehab) to have an cccupational therapy evaluation.  It was basically playtime while the therapist observed how he manipulated objects with his hands.  He still does a lot of banging and hitting at objects.  He can pick toys up, but not using a pincer grasp.  One of the activities on the "test" was to try to get him to pick up beans with his fingers (like a dry kidney bean).  He obviously could not do it, but the therapist KEPT insisting that he try.  She must have tried to get him to pick up the damn bean on five different occasions.  Logan was getting frustrated and I was getting annoyed...but other than that, things went well : )

            

 This morning, we had a speech evaluation at CHOA.  I am probably most excited to get this therapy underway.  Logan is defnitely learning to express himself more, whether it's spitting/spraying when he doesn't like something or pushing your arm away to say he's finished eating.  This test was kind of the same as OT in the sense that I had to answer a lot of the questions based on his actions at home.  Some of the items he did while the speech therapist was sitting there...like babbling, making/breaking eye contact with people and objects throughout the room.  The woman was quite animated and had a loud voice which scared Logan a little bit at first.  He was very clingy and wanted me to hold him most of the time.  I told her it must be the scrubs...he's skeptical of anyone in scrubs!!!

So...more therapy sessions will definitely fill our afternoons this Fall, but I am excited to get the ball rolling.  He's ready to learn new things!  There is much more recap from the last three weeks..like a fun visit from Cousin Jack and Cousin Eddie, but for now, this will have to do...remember, I'm just getting back on the wagon.