Fall! If you don't know already, Fall is my (and John's!) favorite time of year. It clearly marks a season of change. And for so many reasons, that always is so refreshing to me. The weather starts to change, the daylight starts to change, schedules change with new activities and school, scenery starts to change (depending on where you live!), and this all affects my outlook and mentality. Our family has experienced change in all of these areas and more so far this Fall.
Upon much stress and deliberation, Grady started a 3's preschool program. I just couldn't decide if now was the right time for him to start school. Part of it was that I just wanted to hold on to my baby for one more year, but the other part was worrying about how it could affect our family, in particular Henry's health. Preschool = Germs. And with Henry finally starting to show some improvement and strength, I just didn't want to jeopardize it by bringing extra germs into our house on a regular basis. It also is expensive and I went through the battle of me being a stay at home mom right now, and should "preschool" be something that I can be teaching him at home and through other organized activities. He will have 2 years of preschool before starting Kindergarten and personally, I think that is plenty. But in the end, we decided that Grady starting preschool would be best for our family. He needs a little structure, a little time away from Mommy and Henry, and most importantly, he needs his own special thing this year. Not once has he shown any jealousy or resentment to Henry getting most of the "attention" this past year, but I can only imagine that with time, this can be very wearing to a person. He needed his own place to go, his own place to talk about, and something exciting for him. We have all been very pleased with our decision so far. The program is super close to our house, one stop light and 4 minutes away, which was high priority in deciding. Two mornings per week. And it seems to be a really sweet program; teachers have been there for a long time, good families, and good substance that they are teaching my baby. Oh, and he loves it! I realize it's only preschool, but the fact that he started "school" makes him seem like such a big boy:) I know, time will only continue to go faster and I will wake up one morning and he will be starting his senior year in high school!!! AAAHHHH!!! Cousin Malin goes to the same school, but thankfully for the teachers sake, they are in different classes ;)
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| Orientation Morning |
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| First Day of School! |
Another change for our lives...we got the clearance from Henry's doctors to travel! We got to spend a week in Colorado with John's parents, Nana and Papa. It was perfect. Truly felt like a vacation and we haven't had that in while. We were gone for a week and had a great time. The weather was wonderful, coolish, with some sun and some thunderstorms. They even got the first (I think) dusting of snow on the top of the highest mountains. We swam everyday in a great pool heated to the perfect temperature :), went on walks, played putt-putt, took some day adventures, went on a bike ride, celebrated my birthday, had a date night, and even played golf (John and I). And for the record, I did really well! The aspen trees were just barely staring to change. We saw hints of yellow, but I think we were about 10 days too early to see them in full spectrum. We took a "fancy car" (a limo) to the airport, which Grady loved. I think he asked about it nearly everyday, where it was and how it was going to pick us up. Both boys traveled pretty well. Grady slept great, Henry not so much. We have decided that he just doesn't sleep well in pack and plays in our room...kinda high maintenance, I know, but his record is pretty consistently bad. He seemed a bit more fussy, but I don't think he felt great. The altitude really affects me, so if it does anything to him, I understand his fussiness. But breathing and heart function seemed to be normal. We already can't wait to go back!
Something about our trip and this season has made me super thankful for where we are in life. I have been able to take my eyes off of us, and realize that we are really in a pretty good place. Still not the place I envisioned or hoped for, but it could be so, so much worse. And that is very real to me. It was freeing to get away (or even just to know that we could), and do well while we were gone. I explained it recently like this: For the last year and half I have felt like we were on the verge of drowning, hovering just at the surface long enough to come up for a quick breath, and then back down again, paddling and paddling so hard the whole time. Now I feel a little more controlled; we are still swimming and paddling, but we are breathing. Not floating yet, but this feels so much better.
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| birthday morning hike up the Ute |
If you haven't noticed, this is Grady's favorite camera face right now.
Henry got a good report again this month...heart function is steady where is has been since June. His weight was good enough to consider backing off of his overnight tube feeds, but after 6 weeks of trying, he was losing weight. So, it is clear that he still needs the extra support. This brings us to a point of thinking about getting a G-tube instead. This would go directly to his stomach, meaning no tube hanging off of his face. But it is a surgery, and that makes us nervous. We will discuss this in more detail at his cardiology appointment in November. I feel like this month has been a little turning point for Henry...he is sleeping better at night, which is huge. We have spent the past year and a half running on next to nothing in sleep (for various reasons) and we are finally getting some consistent good nights. That alone makes a huge difference in the day to day living. He is also showing some good progress physically...he took a couple of little steps! Unfortunately, he has gotten pretty anxious about it now, and hasn't really done it since. But, we know that it is coming. We are really working on his balance, coordination and strength to pick a leg up, and core strength. He can walk with a walker and is great at cruising. We still have various therapies 2-3 times per week...they are all evaluating and testing him now because it has been 6 months since starting therapy, and we are praying that the evaluations would be true to how he is really doing and that he would get the help that he really still needs. If you think about it, we would really love your prayers for this. Of course, we don't want him to need any of the therapies, but my fear is that he will be on the lowest end of normal on some things and that the case manager may look at that like he doesn't really need the assistance. And that would be really sad.
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| Grady calls this hairdo a "One Hair" |
We are really excited to dress up for Halloween next week...I will try to get an October post up much sooner that I did this one. My goal right now is to post once a month, unless something deems it necessary to do more. Don't forget you can sign up to receive an email notice when a new post is up, that way you don't have to check all the time, which I know you all are ;) And I don't have any idea who receives an email, it's all confidential, I think.
Till next time :)
