Absence makes the heart grow.... oh whatever!!!!

Well, I should start this blog by saying sorry for not posting for such a long time, but I'm not. Honestly, the more time that passed and I hadn't posted, the more I knew it was going to take me forever to write this... so regretably I kept putting it off-- like so many other things in my life right now. So, those of you who check this blog regularly and have been wondering WHAT is taking so long to post or that I'm NOT posting anymore, relax... I'm here now.

Ok, maybe I'm a little sorry... I know you all like to hear about Nate's progress, so I'll try to be better.

Well, there is much to blog about so i'll just get going.

Nate is SUPER! He's getting really big now, he's going on 18 mos. next month, he's about 24 lbs. He's growing slowly but steadily, so that's great. He has 8 teeth now, they are not fully grow out yet, apparently the phenobarb causes slow tooth growing (I've been told). But they ARE there and they make his smile even that much better!

YES that's right-- his SMILE! Nater tot has been smiling for a while now! It's an adorable little half smile to the left side of his face, and it's a bit delayed (meaning that if you tickle his little fat foot, he smiles about 5 seconds or so after it), but it's no doubt a REAL smile! So, I feel so good that my precious little guy is actually responding and experience his world enjoyably! His favorite person is his daddy (of course), he smiles so good for him. Also, he LOVES Emi (and she adores him as well), so he smiles big for her too. I don't seem to bring out as many smiles, but occasionally he seems to enjoy my company. My favorite part of the day is when he wakes up in the morning and you walk into his room and he's laying there in his crib. You walk slowly over to it and peer over the top and without even saying anything or him even looking at you, he smiles. It's honestly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Also, here's a big one.... Nate has rolled over! Oh yeah...

He's done it numerous times. It's from his belly to his back so I'm sure gravity is involved quite a bit, and he doesn't really like to show off for anyone. But, he's definitely done it. I've SEEN him do it a few times, but usually it's one of those thing where you put him on his belly, walk into the kitchen to get something, come back out and there he is on his back! Little stud! We're very proud of him for doing this, it's a start for him to be a bit independent. Obviously he doesn't want to be on his belly, so he has figured out how to not be. I believe that him rolling from his back to his belly is the next thing he'll accomplish. He's very close to doing it, but that darn arm gets in the way. Also, when he's laying on his back he like to spin around. Somehow, he works himself around enough that his head will end up where his feet were and his feet are where his head was. I like to call it his breakdancing moves.... LOL! And he also lifts his leg (usually one at a time) in the air and points his toe. That's his version of ballet. It's very cute.

He's been putting more weight through his legs, not all the time, but occasionally you'll get a random push out of his legs. Usually, you have to stimulate it by pushing his legs up and down a few times. Next we'd like to get him to put a little weight into his arms and hands. He keeps them bent and hands to the face, or back of the hand to the face and elbow pointing straight up. So, he never really has to put any weight baring into his arms. But we're working on it, it should just take time. His PT (Mo) says she's happy that he's a lower toned kiddo because then she's not having to fight him by stretching him out although I think his does definitely have his moments of tightness through his arms. But once you stretch them out he loosens up.

We got a KidKart recently. It's a wheelchair/stroller. Basically, it's a stroller, but it has lots of customized support in it. Head support, trunk support, a butterfly harness across his chest and he sits with the bulk of his weight going through the hips (like when you sit in a chair). This is better than the reclining postion, because you don't put weight into any joint really when you lay back. Also, the base (which is the chair part) tilts back and forth, so if you want him to work on head control you sit him upright more. Then if he falls asleep, you can just tilt it back. There is also what's called an "up/down" base. This is what we keep in the house. We put the chair in it and it has hydrolics that makes him higher or lower to the ground. It's really nice. We feed him in it and then we can take it where ever when need to go and it's so much better than this huge travel system stroller I used before. I always felt weird about using the handicap placard and then whipping out a stroller. I thought maybe the little old people at Walmart were looking at me like I was faking the need for a handicap space just for rockstar parking. I often thought that maybe I should limp, just to justify it to someone who didn't know us. Because, when Nate's in his regular stroller, he just looks like a kiddo who's worn out and about to fall asleep. But with this new fancy KidKart, it looks more like a mobility device for someone with disabilities. So, anyway, we take this thing everywhere now. We took it to Worlds of Fun, the Royals game, restaurants... it's wonderful!

Also, we got a bath chair. It looks basically like a glorified lawn chair. It's as big as our bath tub, it reclines, the legs come up and bend. It has safety wedges on the sides and a strap to keep him in. It's all a mesh fabric with a rust proof frame, and it's fabulous! We got a detached shower head so now Nate gets showers instead of baths. We would have to fill the bath tub up all the way for Nate to "sit" in the water since the chair sits about 6 inches up off the floor. But I've always preferred showers anyway, I feel they get so much cleaner. Anyway, bathtime (or shower time) is now enjoyable. I got to the point where I HATED bathing Nate. I would avoid it like the plague! I justified not giving him a bath by just giving him a wipe down with a wipe. It was just TOO hard, he was slippery and you basically had to try to do everything one handed and since he's a growing boy, that's almost not possible anymore. This has made things soooooo much easier!
We wanted to do the hyperbaric chamber again this summer, but we just can't seem to figure out HOW. It's an hour away, an hour and a half in the chamber, then an hour home. And it's typically 40 treatments you do. Some people we met last summer would come for 4 weeks. They'd go twice a day into the chamber and then after a month they'd be done. We went once a day for 8 weeks. And the only time we could do it was at 1:00 pm. We would take Emi & Charlie with us and they'd just run around & play inside the building while either Craig or myself would be in the chamber with Nate. And since it was nearly 4 hours out of the day, that would practically negate going to the pool. So, we had the thought of going twice a day for a month and maybe our neighbor (who does daycare) could watch Emi & Charlie. But, the motivation to go do that isn't really there. I mean, we really believe that it's good for Nate to do this, it's just we're so busy and it's hard to get up the energy to do the oxygen treatments. We'd have to drop the kids off pretty early in the morning, and then after going into the chamber the first time, figure out what to do for 4 hours til the next "dive". Plus, then a whole month would be taken away from our daily fun with the kids. I don't know what to do. OH and also, Nate would have to miss school and his therapies for a whole month. What to do? I wish there was an easy answer...
We ARE planning to have a fundraiser again this October. Oct. 4, 2009 is the official date. It's going to be at the MidAmerica Motorplex again. We would like it to be even better than last year, so mark your calenders and hopefully join us for some drag racing and all around fun! Again, we plan to have a live music show after the races. Unfortunately, we couldn't snag a Saturday, so this will be on a Sunday again. I hope you all can make it and stay for the live show, it was so much fun last year and our boys from Push to Start are pinky sweared to be there!
Our big ticket item that we are planning to raffle off (drawing will be the day of the fundraiser) is a 2010 Harley Dyna Street Bob.

It's pretty SWEET! (This pic is actually a 2009, because the 2010 pics are not out yet but you get the idear!)

Raffle tickets are $100 a piece. We are keeping the sales of the tickets at 300 for better odds, so if you're interested please email us at teamnatedog@hotmail.com and reserve you're self a ticket. Winner need NOT be present to win.
Can you imagine having yourself a brand new Harley for $100? And knowing that your money actually went to a good cause also? Good luck everyone and thank you for your support!
We are hoping to have a night at Fuel again this summer to sell some tickets as well.
Also, up for raffle in a custom built BARSTOOL RACER.

It's super fun.

It's kinda like a go-kart with a barstool for the seat. Those raffle tickets are $10 a piece. Let us know if you'd like one (or ten =).
We still are selling t-shirts/tank-tops and soon we'll have some pawprint totes with TND monogrammed on them... so cute!
We will be looking for auction items for the auction at the fundraiser. We had such a great time last year with that, but I do believe we'd like to keep the item number total down a little this year. But, if you have anything that you could donate that you think would be worth auctioning off please let us know!
Okay, so I think that about covers it for now (probably not but my fingers are tired and my brain hurts and my children are feeling neglected), so I better conclude this post for now.
Hope this post found you all happy, healthy and safe! I've missed writing these, I'll try to be better about keeping you all updated!

Love,
Carolyn