Little Straws: April 2012

I can't believe its been a month since my last post, time has escaped us...we have been busy! Anyone who works in the school system knows that April is just a yucky month, but that tied with Elliot battling 2 ear infections, molars coming in, Easter and Byron's mom and dad being in town we have had our hands tied.

We had a great Easter celebrating with a couple friends and my sister and the bunny even came to see Elliot! Its also safe to say after 2 rounds of antibiotics, the ear infections are gone...knock on wood. Poor little man has been getting his molars for over 2 months now and they are coming in so slow that it is breaking blood vessels, me being a freaked out first time mom thought his molars were coming in rotten, hahaha, I know laugh it up...At his doctors appointment today he also weighed in at 23.5 pounds, so really he has plateaued in weight but he continues to get taller. We also had a lovely visit with Byron's mom and dad and Elliot soaked up as much quality grandma and grandpa time he possibly could...which also meant mommy soaked up as many naps as she possible could. They spoiled Elliot rotten, just like grandparents should and now he has lots of new summer toys and outfits.

Little boy is talking up a storm and I as a speech language therapist am very pleased with his speech development, haha...but in all honesty he has a great speech sound repertoire, ha. His favorite word is "kuck" for "truck" and as far as Elliot is concerned, everything is a "kuck" and he is saying "up" when he obviously wants "up". Its fun to see him following a few commands as well and also seeing him test the limits with commands...he doesn't so much like the word "no".

Elliot had his annual meeting for his physical therapy plan to determine how he is doing and next steps (pun intended). Its crazy to remember that a year ago he was initially evaluated and we had no idea how much progress he would make and he just continues to surprise us each day. He still is eligible for PT, which is a great thing! We so love the PT coming to our home and offering tips and ideas to get Elliot movin' and a groovin'. He is considered a "low tone" kiddo, just meaning that his muscle tone especially in his legs is not typical but not detrimental. He is continuing to make gains physically and keeps working his muscles with all his crawling, cruising and stair climbing. He stands occasionally for a few seconds unattended but that's all for now. I think Byron and I would love to see him walking, but at the same time know that Elliot will do it when he is ready. He is a pretty timid little guy who is not much of a risk taker and until his little legs are strong and ready he just isn't interested in attempting new things. He is walking with us holding his fingers and just to give you a visual, it looks like a newborn baby giraffe...

Elliot is still wearing him helmet with a few "airing out" moments here and there, but boy with this warmer weather his head is quite stinky! We haven't been to Children's since his birthday in February, which is incredible! We have been every month since Elliot was born (I think we are up to 58 trips in total) and the last time we were told we had a few months off from appointments, we were back 5 weeks later with a shunt malfunction. We are thanking our lucky stars and have enjoyed our medical free months. We head back in May for an update and fingers crossed to say goodbye to the helmet...This last month has been much tougher for a few other individuals in our Hydrocephalus family in Colorado with multiple shunt revisions, major brain surgery and shunt malfunction scares. We feel very blessed that everyone is on the road to recovery and continue to have hope for a cure one day!

We are LOVING this beautiful weather in Colorado and getting out daily for walks to the park to play on the playground. Elliot crawls all over the equipment, giggles going down the slide and loves digging in the sand and well, eating the sand. He even met a little girl who also wears a helmet and shares the same cranial-facial surgeon, small world. Unfortunately Elliot's babysitter feel and broke her arm this past weekend (luckily after some pins/plates she is on the road to recovery) and so we have had to call on some great friends to help us out with watching Elliot while Byron finishes up the semester and then my sister can take over. It's been a hectic week but we can't complain! One more month and then I'm off for the summer, and I am counting down the days. I'm sooooo looking forward to being home and just enjoying summer. Ok, tons of photos now and maybe even a few videos if the upload properly. Hope all is well!