First Day back to school

Nathan had a great first day back at school. He was very excited to be there. His teachers all said he did a wonderful job and enjoyed being back with his friends. He is cleared for school, OT and speech, and some minor PT as tolerated. Our follow-up appointment is April 30th. We will receive more details on follow-up PT.

Nathan on the mend

Nathan is definitely starting to feel better. He no longer cries while he is getting his diaper changed. He played a lot in his bean bag chair this morning with the iPad, coloring, toy drum, puzzles and more. I also let him do tummy time 3x today and start to hope some other stretching this weekend. Preston and I gave him a bath together tonight and I know that helped him feel much better.

We had a follow-up for Owen's tonsil surgery. He is doing well and everything looked good. I was so glad CiCi was able to join me because having one in a stroller, one in a wagon and one on foot was just a bit too much to do alone. N

Field Day at Westminster

Thursday our family attended the Westminster field day to cheer on Logan. He had a blast. It was so fun to see Logan and his friends play the different games. Lots of parents were there cheering on their kids so it was also a nice time to catch up. The hour sitting in the wagon really wore out Nathan and he fell asleep during Owen's therapy and slept for several hours.

Nathan is home

A little after 5:00 tonight Nathan was discharged from Children's Hospital. He did well during the day with the pain medication regiment. He had a great day watching movies, playing several iPad games, connect 4 and coloringpictures. He is still in a good bit if pain to be moved, but we just try not to do it much right now. On our way home we stopped and bought a Mickey Mouse bean bag. It is great for him to sit and relax.

This morning

Nathan is feeling a bit better this morning. We are going to try an at home pain regiment today, until about 3. If he tolerates it then we will go home this afternoon!

Resting Nathan

Nathan seems to be getting back to his old self. He has smiled at many people this afternoon. He drank a cup of milk and ate some apple sauce and ice cream. He has had very little pain medication. A big thanks to my parents for watching Owen and Logan, to CiCi for going on Logan's school field trip with him today and for coming to the hospital to visit Nathan with Paw Paw Bill, to Bill Johnston for stopping by to check in on him and for Misty for visiting with us this evening. We appreciate everyone's prayers.

Nathan's surgery

Nathan went through surgery well. We have not seen him yet but will try to post on his recovery. He has a couple of painful days ahead of him. Here are a few pre surgery pictures.

Fun day

Since April is the month of surgeries we decided to have an extra fun Saturday this weekend.  We gave Logan several options and he choose LegoLand in Atlanta.  Owen loves to say Georgia Tech (which to him means any sport, any team) so we decided to go to Georgia Tech while we were in Atlanta.

Owen was so excited when he said bye-bye to Georgia Tech and we said yes we are going there.

The only sport occurring yesterday afternoon was women's tennis.  We all really enjoyed watching them and would definitely go again.

For lunch we met our friends, Rob and Katie at Centennial Olympic Park.  We had a wonderful time visiting and the kids all played together so well.  Nathan loved walking around the park.  He kept walking towards the fountains, but since I did not have extra clothes, we did not let him go in.

Nathan walking around the park

After lunch Nathan enjoyed playing on the blanket.

The men with all the kids

The women with all the kids.

Later in the afternoon we made it to LegoLand.  It was a fun experience.  Logan enjoyed everything.  Nathan really loved watching the wheel racing and the movie.  Owen enjoyed the movie and crashing Preston's lego creations.

The city of Atlanta in Miniature Land.

Building with Legos helps any line go by quickly.

Logan and I rode this fun ride.

Lots of stuff

I am sorry I have not updated the blog in a long time.  We have been extra busy.  I have spent the last several nights working on an article for the EMI magazine regarding our trip to Lebanon on top of our regular fun family filled busy times.  I was very excited to write the article, but I am now glad to have some extra time to do a few things, like blogging.

Tonight we had a wonderful time watching Raegan play baseball.  Raegan is the daughter of our friends Misty.  We have known Raegan for a several years and just absolutely love her.  Logan and Preston were a great cheering crowd and Logan also really enjoyed playing with Lily Kate.

Misty, me and Lily Kate

Nathan is doing very well feeding himself!  He ate his entire lunch on his own.  I have ordered a scoop bowl for him to assist with not scooping it right off the plate.  I am so proud of his progress.

Nathan feeding himself

On Thursday I dropped off Nathan's 2 extra cochlear implant processors to the HEAR Center.  They will be shipped back to Med-el and they will send us 2 rondos.  I am so excited for Nathan to get the rondo.  If you remember it is an implant completely contained in the disk that sits on the head and no longer has an ear piece.  I think it will be more comfortable for him.

The med-el opus 2 processors that were dropped off at the HEAR Center for the new rondos.

Logan loves playing angry birds.  As a fun alternative to playing the electronic game we made our own angry birds set.  We had the best time creating and crashing with our angry birds.

Angry birds

My friend Sarah and I ran the Rumpshaker 5k a few weeks ago.  Sarah is friends with the girl who started the Rumpshaker so she runs it every year.  I was glad to be able to join her this year.  We had a lot of fun together.

Rumpshaker race morning

Owen is doing well with his recovery from having his tonsils removed.  He did extremely well from days 1-3 and then days 4-8 were pretty rough.  I think he is back to himself now.  He missed a few days of school and was pretty cranky during therapy but all in all he has been a trooper.

Nathan is having leg surgery on Monday.  The surgery will straighten his legs and allow him better mobility.  For a while we were on the fence about having this surgery.  We decided to put it on the back burner and move ahead with the second cochlear implant.  We began noticing Nathan loosing mobility and decided we needed to revisit the surgery possibility.  We have a friend whose daughter had this surgery and she went from completely wheelchair bound to being able to walk on cretches.  We are looking forward to seeing where God brings Nathan regarding his mobility in the future.

Logan is very interested in tennis.  I have signed him up for a 4 week even at West Homewood Park.  I am looking forward to seeing him play and seeing if he is still really interested in it.  If he loves it, we will find a place for him to continue with lessons.

No more tonsils for Owen

Tuesday morning Owen had his tonsils out and while they had him in surgery they decided to put in a new set of ear tubes too.  He is doing really well.  They brought us back to recovery and he was talking to us as soon as we got there.  Due to Owen's history, all procedures are done at the main Children's Hospital and all include a one night stay.  That day for lunch he drank milk and ate apple sauce and mashed potatoes...same for dinner.  We enjoyed watching Tangled and Cars 2 together.  We were able to leave his room for about one hour and we walked all over the hospital and stopped by Children's Harbor and read some books in the library (not sure why we never stopped in their while Nathan was there in the NICU.  It would have been a great place to entertain Logan.)  He did well yesterday.  Today he is mostly back to his old self.  We played gait trainer basketball, read books, played with toys and he told me multiple times when he wanted to eat.  (He is really enjoying eating yogurt now...just small amounts at a time.) Thanks for all of your prayers.

Next up Nathan...April 15th leg surgery.  He is having his hip flexers, adductors and hamstrings lengthened.  He is also having his calf muscles botoxed.