The making of a Christmas card.....

wow, can you believe mom is letting us play with ribbons

she must really want us to cooperate with this

photo shoot thing

If we don't both smile at the same time,

or heck even look at the camera together,

maybe she'll give us some other cool stuff to play with

hmmm, this is how the hat should be worn

ooohhhhhh see, the bells are coming out.....

and some ornaments....

Momma: note to self next year,

maybe pull out the really cool stuff and hang it 

over the camera so they HAVE to look this way

only cute for a second, Alex is like

stop touching me, stop touching me,

you better stop touching me

Nicholas trying the

"aren't I so sweet" look. 

and yes, momma made me wear this too big

sweater. she kept trying to yank it back in pictures

 in hopes no one would notice. 

and the boys were right, momma did

try getting out the annoying singing Christmas tree

just to get these smiles. 

Totally worth it!!!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season

filled with your favorite people!

The scooter

Life is good. There's really not a whole lot to update. A friend and I recently went out for drinks and we spent the better part of the evening talking about our sons' options for bowel programs, bladder issues, continence, surgical interventions, etc. We laughed for any one who might be eaves dropping around us while trying to eat but if any one was listening, I imagine they quickly found something else at their table to talk about. 

We are in the beginning stages of figuring out some of the above things. The good news is that there are a lot of options. The bad news is that there are a lot of options. Some are trial and error, some take a lot of time each evening, and there are surgical options as well. I'm the type of person who over analyzes every decision, and then I'm still prone on second guessing it. I'm even worse about it when it involves my children. I've tried over the years but this is not something I can change about myself. Luckily I have an amazing support system and wealth of information and others experiences along the way. 

The other stuff we are struggling about is regarding his leg and tightness he is having. Because Alex's legs are paralyzed, we need to do range of motion for him. It sounds fancy but really its just moving his legs and stretching them out so they don't stay in a "stuck" position. When your body doesn't move, it gets tighter, tendons get shorter and its a vicious cycle. We stretch him every diaper change with a lot of time spent in the morning and at night. He also "stands" in his stander every afternoon for weight bearing and also it helps to stretch out his hips and knees--the two areas he really experiences tightness. 

He prefers to be in his wheels most of the time because lets face it, its fast. The stander even though it also has wheels is much bulkier, heavier and frankly just not as much fun. We have to have him a minimum of an hour a day but our goal is now closer to two hours. He's not a fan but we're making it work. 

We saw his orthopedic doctor recently who is concerned about how much tightness he is having in his hip and leg. Its been particularly hard lately to stretch him out, as he seems to "boomerang" right back into the bent position. This is causing posture issues, especially in his wheel chair and could down the road also affect his scoliosis further. His doctor suggested if aggressive stretching and therapy don't improve things, we'd be looking at a surgery to help release the tendon but also because of the areas involved, would also have to cut into the bone. For any one who speaks "ortho", its his IT band and sartorius as well as hamstrings that are affected. 

Well surgery on my child freaks me out. It doesn't matter that he's already had six of them. As any parent knows, that's just one thing that doesn't get easier with "practice." So we are getting him more therapy, learning new stretches and hoping we can avoid one, at least for now. 

We recently purchased a scooter for Alex. Nothing fancy, just a plastic one with wheels. His therapist over the summer let us borrow one and Alex LOVED it. The idea was to get him out of the always "sitting" position. He's usually either always in his wheels or scooting on his bottom and that contributes to his tightness.

Well trying to reason with a three year old about why he should stretch out on his belly (or anything for that matter) is pretty unsuccessful. Our therapist at the time came up with this idea to entice him to stretch out. After the first time he tried it, no enticement needed after that. He BEGGED to "play" with it. Another plus was that it works his arms/shoulders and neck in that position.

Well this video was taken over the summer. It makes us laugh out loud and hope it does for you too. We bought him his own now and he races to use it every single morning. Its become a really fast way to get around the house. Although he goes so fast I'm considering placing speed bumps around, ha,ha. 

Now the only other issue is do we get a second one? As you can imagine the scooter is not just popular with Alex, his brother loves it too....

I have another video to share of Nicholas singing his ABC's but I can't get it to load. Its audio really so not sure if I'm able to. If any one has any tips, let me know. Would love to share it. 

Halloween

Now which cutie is under that hat?

oh there he is

sorry these ones were taken by my phone

but still thought they were too cute not to share

 

Firetruck and all

Mommy was excited to find this cute little jacket

at our local goodwill for $2.99. 

Do you remember these boots Aunt Rachel?

They are still a little too big to wear 

but we worked it for this special occasion.

Here is Mr. Construction worker 

 The neighborhood we live in still has new construction going 

and the boys are fascinated with all the diggers and equipment. 

Even on the way to and from preschool 

the boys point out all the big trucks and diggers they see along the way

and are disappointed when they can't find more. 

While we did make this costume we totally stole the

whole idea from our friend Cassie who did this costume

a couple years ago.

After we saw Cassie's costume, we also found out my friend Jamie

also did something similar for her son last year and turned out

awesome so we were even more inspired to try it for Alex too. 

Cassie's putting together a whole blog of wheel chair

costume ideas which are becoming incredibly popular!

She is unbelievably talented as are many of the other

mommas you will see!

(you can check out her blog here).  

 I am not a creative person naturally but I think it turned out

great and Alex loved it.

Here's hoping we didn't raise the bar too high

for future Halloweens though. 

The digger made an awesome spot to

collect candy--which made little man

quite happy :)

Halloween Night:

Momma knows how to work the duct tape

(added it to plan black pants to match the jacket)

You wouldn't believe it but we didn't even plan the fire department theme 

with our cutie friends. Their momma found a great deal on costumes too and went with it :)

We are a well protected neighborhood!!

Even our friend Abby got into the spirit!

Getting candy is serious business

hmmm.....

what to choose, what to choose...

Ended the night on a "sweet" note 

and a surprise from their Grandma and Grandpa!!!

You can't tell it here but Nicholas was just as excited,

just starting to fade....