Pitching Practice

Curveball

Knuckleball

Change-Up

Why is Ryder working so hard practicing his pitch?!  Because…he might have the opportunity to throw the First Pitch at an upcoming Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game!  We need YOUR help to make that possible.

The National Kidney Foundation is selling $6 tickets to the game on August 12th and if they sell 200 tickets, Ryder gets to go out on the field and throw the First Pitch!!

 

So…what do you say??  Email me if you’re interested in purchasing tickets and let me know how many you want! BAM126@Gmail.com

Hopefully, if he does get to go out on the field, he doesn’t do this:

This:

Or This!:

Email me!  Lets make it happen!

Ryder Got Mail!

He was so surprised when we checked the mailbox today and there was a package in there for him!  What in the world could have possibly come in this box for Ryder…

It’s a little mini version of his blankie from Sonya (our friend Nick’s mom)…the best package ever…see:

It was like he couldn’t believe it!  Right when it came out of the package he said “Blaayyy!!” (translation: blankie)  He would sit up and look at it then lay down and say “night night” with the biggest grin!

Thanks SO much Sonya!  Now Ryder has a mini blankie and I can actually let him take it with him places.  As you can see he’s already attached!

Love for Lefty

These videos might be a little painful to watch, but the only way to track our progress on this road to recovery is to see what areas we’re struggling in now and then hopefully be able to look back and see how far we’ve come.  Even now, to see him using his left hand is a huge victory considering that he never used to acknowledge that he had two hands.  So he went from completely ignoring lefty, to where we are today, and lets continue praying that the future holds a fully functioning left hand for Ryder!

This first video shows one of his major struggles which is Supination, or being able to turn his hand palm up.  I was so proud of him for voluntarily putting lefty under the water though, that’s a major improvement in itself!

 

In this second video you can see how hard it is for him to hold a round cup.  He gets really frustrated because he needs both hands to do it.  I always give him drinks out of cups with handles, so don’t worry, he’s not being tortured every time he’s thirsty, but I do realize how important it will be for him to gain this skill in the future so I try to work with him on it now.

 

And last…but certainly not least…this is what I call sticker therapy (yes that is made up).  I put stickers on his right arm which forces him to use his left hand to get them off.  I know this probably sounds like torture too, but when I first started doing it, his left hand was so uncoordinated that he couldn’t even get it to land where the sticker was.  Now, as you can see, he puts it right on the sticker but struggles because he has no pincer grasp and his fingers don’t work independently of each other.

 

You keep working hard Lefty, you have a huge team routing for you and watching you succeed!  We have lots of love for Lefty and are confident in your ability to overcome this.

It’s Video Time…

I thought I’d better post a few random videos to redeem myself from the gloomy post last night! 

 

Rough Weekend

Ryder has had a pretty rough weekend, poor guy!  After screaming his head off from the shots Thursday and the blood work Friday, he pretty much lost his voice and has been saying all his words in a raspy tone.  He has been running a low grade fever from the shots and I’m sure he’s sore from all the needles, plus sore from his teeth coming in, plus he has a little case of thrush on the inside of his cheek.  He was so sad to wake up Saturday and find out that Daddy wasn’t home.  So that started his day off bad and it didn’t make mine great either.  Alan had a side job to do and we had a wedding to go to.  Wow…let me just say this…I have so much respect for you single Mom’s out there!  I’m so used to being able to hand him off with that “YOUR TURN” look on my face, so it was pretty tiring being on double duty, and that was only for one day!  I managed to stab him with my fork as I balanced him and his plate of food while trying to squeeze through to find a place to sit.  Luckily Nana took him outside for me so that I could eat, and breathe, and remind myself to always be thankful for Daddy’s help.  When we got home, it was bed time, but that was rough because he was overly tired and couldn’t calm down.  Also because me & him took a nap together in Mommy’s bed earlier that day, so he was fighting going to sleep in his crib.  This is also the reason that he cried for 30 minutes before finally giving in and taking a nap in his crib today.  Who knew I’d have to pay such a price for a little cuddle time with my boy!  Today there have been multiple accidents.  He did a face plant off of a piece of exercise equipment, right after he looked at me and said “Danger!”  He knows when he’s being dangerous but tests his limits anyway.  Later, he was so proud of him self when he pulled up to the bed, then let go with both hands, he had the biggest grin until he lost balance and fell, hitting his eye on the box spring on the way down.  Oh, and how can I forget, someone left the toilet seat up and just as I saw Ryder crawl into the bathroom and asked “the toilet seat is down, right?” I heard it come crashing down…of course.  First hitting him in the face, then smashing his fingers. 

So we end the weekend with two bruises on the leg from shots, a bruise on the arm from blood work, swollen gums with 2 teeth cutting through, a sore inside his cheek, a fork mark going up his arm, and a black eye.  It has been a rough one!

Teeth, Tape, Tears, and Treats

Well that about sums up our day!

Teeth

The teeth next to Ryder’s top two finally poked through the gum today…so my boy finally has more teeth!  I thought he might be stuck with four teeth forever, but have no fear, we have six! 

Tape

I’ve read on a lot of other “hemi” kids blogs that their therapists use Kinesio tape so I figured this would be somewhere in our future.  Last week, his new OT at Children’s Hospital put 2 test patches on Ryder’s skin to make sure he wasn’t sensitive to the tape.  Since he wasn’t, we got to try it out for the first time today and I loved it!  Today, she taped around his thumb to help pull it out since he always has it curled in, which gave him a nice open grip.  Check him out holding his Slurpee with TWO hands!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tears

Even though the taping didn’t hurt, it still brought on tears because Ryder hates to be held down or constrained in any way.  But the real tears came at our next stop when I took him to get his blood work done.  The older he gets, the harder it is to hold him down and make him suffer like that.  I hate it.  But I know it’s for his own good.  But I still hate it.  Look how pitiful he was after all that tormenting:

Treats

And lots of them!  His OT knew we were going to get bloodwork done, so she sent us with a lollipop.  This was a first for him and I don’t think he knew what to do with himself.  I hope you can see the line of drool leading to the puddle of drool on his shorts:

This was before the bloodwork, the lollipop was history by the time she stuck the needle in.  Afterwards we stopped for Treat #2; a slurpee, as you saw above, and then to Walmart to buy Treat #3; an activity table.  I’ve been wanting to buy him one of these to stand up and play at, so after his rough day today I knew he would be thrilled to go home with a new toy.

It was a good distraction from the teeth, the tape, and the tears.  The treats helped him forget all of his troubles, now Mommy’s headed to get in her treat (the BED) to forget hers too!

15 Month Dr. Appt

Today, Ryder had his 15 month check-up and had to get 2 shots.  He handled the shots pretty well, I decided to hold off on getting the Dtap shot until next month so that he could get that one by itself.  The whole vaccine mystery really bothers me, so I try to space his shots out when I can so that he’s never getting more than two at a time.  Not sure that I even have a logical explanation for doing this, but it makes me feel better, so…that’s that!

I had to fill out the Questionnaire about all the things your 15 month old “should” be doing.  For the second time now, I was able to check YES to almost all of the questions in every category besides Gross Motor.  The Gross Motor skills category went a little something like this: No, No, No, No, No, and….No.  I mean, are kids his age really climbing up onto chairs to get to something out of their reach?  And walking a few steps, squatting down to pick something up, then walking a few more steps?!  I guess so.  But, we’ll get there too!  Eventually!

I feel like we always leave these appointments with some random “we have to look more into this” news.  Ryder weighed 19 lbs 10 oz which kept him in the 3rd percentile for weight.  But when we looked at his height his Dr. was a little concerned.  He normally stays right around the 35th percentile, but he has not grown at all over his last 3 visits, making him drop down to the 10th percentile.  So…guess what that means…more blood work!  I have to take him to check his Platelet levels again anyway, so she’s going to have them check his Human Growth Hormone at the same time.  I might get the slip and go tomorrow after therapy so that I can just get it done and over with.  Please pray for good news, that everything comes back normal and that these end up just being little speed bumps and not huge hurdles for us to climb over.

Ryder said “Doctor” and “Sandra” (his favorite nurse!) while we were there, and kept crawling around the floor trying to feed me imaginary food that he was calling “Din-Din”.  Gotta love this boy!

  (Some din-din for you too!)

One Word Wednesday

**Stuffed**

Our First Appearance

We made our first appearance as the Honorary Family for the Kidney Foundation this evening!  It was a Corporate Walk Reception, so the room was filled with lots of business professionals…and I had to give a speech!!  I was so nervous about this, but as soon as we arrived, they made us feel so special and important so it helped me to stay calm and remember that it wasn’t about me…it was about Ryder’s story and how much this Foundation means to us.  Sooo, here’s the speech:

First, I want to thank the National Kidney Foundation for asking us to be the Honorary Family this year for the 2010 Kidney Walk. They greeted me with open arms from the first second I reached out to them and have been a great group of people to work with! I feel truly honored to take part in this Foundation.

Let me tell you a little bit about what brought us to the Kidney Foundation. Our son Ryder was born with Posterior Urethral Valves, which is a urinary tract abnormality that causes excessive fluid retention. The problem was first noticed during a late term sonogram and worsened over time. His bladder, urereters, and kidneys continued swelling until the pressure was too much and caused a pin-hole sized rupture in his left kidney. I was 34 weeks pregnant and the Doctor’s knew it was time to deliver the baby and proceed with medical intervention. They were able to perform surgery and carterize the valves, allowing all of the pressure to release from his kidneys and bladder. Over time Ryder’s body started to heal itself and I’m so happy to report today that he has two healthy, functioning kidneys! (At this point the whole audience started clapping so of course my eyes filled up with tears!)

It’s safe to say that I stand here telling you a complete success story! I would like to thank the National Kidney Foundation for that. They have dedicated so many years to raising funds and to furthering research and education, without their efforts I don’t know that I would have a success story to share right now. I’m not confident that this blockage would have been found, or identified, or most importantly, corrected. I don’t know that my son would have survived.

So a huge thank you to the Kidney Foundation for all of your efforts, thank you to God for saving my son, and thank you all for being here tonight to support this wonderful cause.

Whew, that was so hard, but it was SO worth it!  The folks at the Kidney Foundation are so so so sweet to us!  And so many people came up to us afterwards saying how strong Ryder is and what a great story he has, and my personal favorite “God bless your family”.

God really has blessed our family.  When I wrote that speech on Monday (my procrastination skills did not end when I got out of college), it was hard for me to think back to what was going on with his kidneys and how he overcame all of it.  It never really dawned on me how Ryder’s kidney problems have almost erased from our memories.  Now, we are so consumed with “stroke this, and stroke that” when once upon a time it was ALL about the kidneys!  So, what does that tell you…God brought us COMPLETELY out of that situation.  In such a short time!  He is only 1 and we have come completely full circle.  Oh how I pray that in a few years we can look back and say “stroke? What stroke?!”

A few more pics from the evening:

Our Father’s Day

It started off on the wrong foot…Ryder had a meltdown when I left him in the nursery, so we left Church before the sermon even started!  But, it could only go up from there!  We waited at Grandma’s for everyone else to get out and then ate some delicious food.  After we were nice and full, we came home and Alan opened his presents from Ryder.  He got a new lunchbox, travel mug, canteen for his bike, and some sweet artwork we made while we were in NC.  OH, and lots of big kisses from Ryder!

 

{Daddy’s Best Friend!}

My Daddy

My Daddy loves me so much, I can tell by the way he looks at me, and he tells me that I’m his heart. 

My Daddy makes me laugh all the time.  He tickles me and throws me high in the air.

My Daddy knows all the fun things to do!  We play cars together, throw balls back and forth, and he lets me drive his big truck and his motorcycle!

My Daddy explains things to me.  He can fix anything and he puts all my toys together.  He always tells me what he’s doing so that one day I can do it too!

My Daddy is big & strong!  He plays rough with me and teaches me how to be a man.  He makes sure that Mommy doesn’t baby me too much so that I can learn to be tough.

My Daddy protects me, he worries about me, and always checks to make sure I’m okay.

When Mommy prays with me, she thanks God for my Daddy.  She says he’s the best and I think she’s right!

My Daddy is my best friend and my Mommy’s hero, I don’t know what we’d ever do without him.

Happy Father’s Day Alan ~ Today we want to celebrate YOU for all that you are and all that you do for this family!  You are an amazing Dad!