Straw Cups

Both boys are drinking exclusively from their straw cups!!! This is HUGE. Nathan started drinking independently several months ago. We really just started to pursue this with Owen on Thursday. It took a while to get all his eating and drinking issues under control. He did so well with it that by Saturday he had it down!!
Medical Update:
From time to time I put up a medical update knowing that so many people pray for the boys progress.

Owen: Owen is doing really well right now. In August he received Botox in his hamstrings to help loosen his lets. They were so tight it was limiting his ability to move. He is also seeing an additional physical therapist, Katie, to help him learn to move. His GI issues continue to remain under control with the lactaid and prilosect. He is making progress in speech therapy and is saying a few words. He did well in his last hearing test, but still remains in the moderate hearing loss spectrum.

Nathan: Nathan loves running all around our house in his gait trainer. He is doing so well moving. He is such a hard worker. Today we saw our eye doctor. Nathan will have another surgery to fix his eyes. The eye muscle are weak and the eyes are drifting apart. He will have this one last surgery to help them lock together. Children with CP often have these issues with their eyes. This surgery will be scheduled soon. We also saw Nathan's ENT today who will be doing his cochlear implant. Nathan will receive one implant at this time. He will receive the second implant in 6 months +. For children with CP, or any other delay, they like to do one at a time to make sure the first one took well. Nathan has severe hearing loss but if for some reason the first one did not take well, he would still have some hearing in his other ear. Once this surgery is performed it destroys the cochlea and their would be nothing...if it did not work. Everything is done on our end and we are just waiting for insurance / medicaid at this time. The cost of the surgery is $50,000 per ear. Our Blue Cross does not cover the surgery. The boys medicaid runs out at the end of October and they usual have a 45 day pre-approval process and only pay for implants of kids who have a 90 dB loss or greater. Well, we are under our 45 days and Nathan's loss is 72 dB. We did not wait this long to get it done...running out of time. This is just how long the very meticulous process takes (as in we started the process in May 2010). However, the doctor is going to try and expedite Medicaid and try to file it under decreased functionality. Since Nathan only has one hand he can not learn sign language, thus the implant is his only hope of communication. So, there is a possibility he could have his implant in October....but their is a very real possibility that medicaid will not come through and if that is the case he will have them implant in January. That is just how far out the surgery is getting booked right now.

Both boys are having a great time with all their therapist. We greatly appreciate all the hard work them do for them.

Logan is doing well. He had soccer class today and had the best time. He is working hard at the piano and loves playing with his teacher, Miss Molly.