A New Friend

Once upon a time there was a stuffed animal named Chick.

Chick lived in an Easter Basket that was filled with lots of yummy candy.

The candy was eaten, the Easter basket put away, and poor Chick just got shoved into a corner.

And there he lived a boring life, until one day…that would all change.

A certain 1 yr old spotted Chick and realized what a great friend he could be.

He insisted that Chick come out of the corner right away to play…

And then to sit in the chair with him to watch his movie…

And then come to bed…

And then join him in the car…

And escort him into Nana’s…

And so began the inseparable bond between Ryder & Chick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~Some moments are more fun when you have a friend to share them with~

Women Of Faith

This weekend I snuck away for 2 days with the “Ladies of Faith” as we were labeled by a man with a megaphone collecting change on the corner…oh how I wish I had a video to share to show you what had us laughing for the entire weekend…or better yet, next time you see Mandi in person, ask her to sing you “Mary Had a Little Lamb” DC style!

Me, Nicki, Mandi, Jen, and Sherry ventured to DC for the Women of Faith conference…it took blood, sweat, and tears (LITERALLY!) to get there, but we are SO glad we went!  I think each of us were extremely blessed by the speakers and the music, it’s an experience that is hard to put into words.  But we are most definitely going back next year, so if you need a little inspiration, join us!  You will laugh HARD, and you will cry, but most importantly you will hear about and feel the love of God so deeply that it will change you.  Thanks for an amazing weekend ladies!

Ryder got to have a little male bonding time with Daddy while I was away, in which he learned that crawling is for sissy’s, how to bob & weave & throw punches, that “ants” get “stomped”, and that his Daddy is the coolest guy on Earth.

I’ll leave you with one last thought brought to you by none other than the man with the megaphone: “Ladies get yo fingers out yo ears…what…you ain’t tryin’ to hear the Gospel?!”

Mischief

Hey Ryder, What are you doing under there???

Huh? Me? Ummm, nothing, this is not a crayon you see in my hand!

Different day, same situation!

Hey Ryder, What are you doing under there???

Nothing Mommy, being a sweet angel, like always!  And no, that is not a crayon in my hand, I would never draw on my crib after you asked me not to!  Even when I think you’re not looking!

Oh the mischief that lies ahead…

How cute is it that he has a little “fort” under his crib?  I love having a little boy, mischief and all!

It’s Video Time!

I’m sorry I haven’t had much to say this week…but in an attempt to redeem myself I always know that I can pull the magic video trick out and all will be forgiven.  I hope you enjoy these little glimpses into Ryder’s life as much as we enjoy living them :)

Learning how to eat with a spoon:

Being mischievous…

And working really hard on his walking skills:

Refreshed

I’m feeling really refreshed this evening. 

After Ryder’s first day on the medicine his fever went away, his energy came back, and he finally got a full nights sleep last night, so I’m sure he’s feeling refreshed too! 

This morning, we went to Madalynn’s Church for her dedication.  It was such a sweet event to witness, and their Pastor preached a sermon that was so…refreshing! 

When we got home, Yaya came over, and Ryder was crawling to the door telling me “bye-bye” before she even stepped inside.  He must have felt long overdue for a little retreat to his Grandma’s house, so off he went with the biggest grin on his face.  And a huge one on Yaya’s too…he refreshes her, they are good for eachother!

Want to know what I did faster than the car could get out of our driveway??  Climbed into bed!  And took a nice Sunday afternoon nap…probably the first one I’ve taken in 17 months.  And let me tell you, after caring for a sick baby all week while juggling work & life, that was soooooooooooooooooo REFRESHING!

Last Therapy & A Doctor Visit

Ryder had his very last Occupational Therapy visit at Children’s Hospital today :(  I can’t believe it has been 90 days already!  Ryder has had a pretty high fever all week so I didn’t have him participate in therapy today, we just went to say bye to his OT and tell her thank you for everything she has done for us.  She bought Ryder a balloon ball, which he was pretty excited about, and she gave him one last lollipop to remember her by.  The first time she gave him a lollipop I cringed, but once I saw how it made him sit still so she could get a good stretch of his arm, hand, and fingers, I joined Team Lollipop each week.  And today he got his last one, it was sad, I was choked up.  Mainly because we all know that Ryder is not ready to be leaving therapy.  ESPECIALLY not Occupational therapy, where they focus mainly on his left arm and hand.  I asked her to print me his evaluations and notes from each session so that I could have them for his records (secretly I wanted to read through them and see how much progress he has made, AND give them to the Pediatrician to see if she could come up with a new diagnoses to get him more OT).  Reading through the notes tonight had me a little upset again because it is extremely apparent that he needs therapy on his arm, he’s not showing major improvement in that area, hardly any at all to be truthful.  I can’t believe that the insurance company is okay with the fact that there is a 1 yr old who cannot use one of his hands but is not being allowed any further therapy.  My mind just cannot wrap around that concept.  I would say that we are still hopeful that Medicaid is going to pull through for us…but that’s not looking too good either.  Children’s is holding our appointment for 6 weeks though, so if Medicaid does come through we’ll get our same appt and same therapist back without having to start the process all over.  The people from Early Intervention did call last week though and ask if we would be interested in having his old OT come back out since our insurance benefit was ending.  As badly as I wanted to scream not-so-nice words through the phone and tell them I didn’t NEED them after they dropped Ryder’s treatment and upset me, I bit my tongue and humbly accepted.  The fact is that Ryder needs therapy, and I need people to have his best interest in mind, including ME…no pride allowed.  So hopefully starting sometime soon he will have OT once a week in our home again.  It’s better than nothing!  We still have a few weeks of PT at Children’s and Jelena is working her magic on getting us more and more and more of that!  (Please pray that it goes through…I just found out that the Podiatrist is out of our network so they are denying our claim for going to see him…of course…I just hope they will accept his script for more therapy and not give me a hard time about it.)  Sorry for rambling, I feel like when I post about Ryder’s medical stuff I go on an information overload, but I guess that’s because this is what it’s like.  Some new battle every day, we win some and lose a lot, but we’ll keep fighting, whatever it takes.

Ryder with Miss Karen on his last day of OT at Children’s

Our next stop was to the Pediatrician to get Ryder checked out.  He woke up Tuesday morning with a fever, but I wanted to wait it out because he had no other symptoms.  Each day he kept waking up with a fever and not eating a lot, so finally today I made him an appointment.  Thank God I did because by the time we got there, his fever had gone up to 104.5!!!  I tried not to panic and told the nurse to get him some tylenol ASAP.  He tested positive for Strep Throat, again!!  If you’re counting, this is the 3rd time he has had it, in fact every time he has been sick it has been strep!  I guess having that IgA deficiency in his blood is showing its true colors now, this is what it’s going to be like.  He’s going to have a hard time fighting off any germs that he comes in contact with.  Luckily he responds great to treatment, so once we get him on medicine he’s back to his old self in no time!  So, Ryder ended his week on a rough note…but it was nothing that a visit from Uncle G:

A slurpee:

And some Penicillin won’t fix!

Lets Go Team Ryder!!

 

Okay everyone, it’s that time again…time to start getting our team together and raising money for the National Kidney Foundation.  With Ryder being the Honorary person at the Kidney Walk this year, I hope we can go with a huge team and really show our support!  We get to break the ribbon and lead the walk, so this year is going to be pretty special!!

All you have to do is log on to http://walk.kidney.org/goto/teamryder and sign up to join, or make a donation towards someone on the team that is already walking!

The walk will be held November 7th in Richmond, VA.  If you have any other questions, email me at BAM126@gmail.com

17 Months Old!!

This month was such a big month for Ryder because he hit one of his major milestones: he took his first steps!!  Lets see what else the 17th month has brought about:

• He finally reached 20 pounds!!  He’s still wearing 12 month clothes and size 4 diapers.
• He got 3 more teeth this month!  1 is actually called a Bifid tooth…ever heard of it?  Probably not, because only Ryder gets these “special” situations, but basically it is 2 teeth that only have 1 root.  That brings him to a total of 9 teeth!
• He knows his name and loves to say it.  If he sees himself in the mirror or in a picture he says “Ry-Duh” or if he’s scribbling on paper he says “Ry-Duh” as if he’s writing his name.  In the bathtub I use his letters to spell his name and as soon as I say “R” he says “Ryduh!”  Same with his numbers, as soon as I say “One” he says “Twoooo Treeee”
• I weaned him off of the Zantac he has been taking for reflux, so far so good!  Finally he doesn’t have to take any medicine at all!
• He’s starting to learn his colors, Green is his favorite.  He says Brown, Pink, Purple, and Orange too but not necessarily when something is that color, he just pretends.  And Red is not a color to him, that would be called Tomato.  So in Ryder’s language everything red is “maymee”.
• When he told me that his blanket was “soft” I couldn’t believe that he is using descriptive words already.  And he gets it!  He tells me that Bubba is soft when he pets him, and he pets me too and says “mama, soft!”  When we walk outside he tells me if its “hot” or if the water in the bath isn’t warm enough he says “cold, brrrrr”.
• He’s saying so many words, he basically has a word for everything.  He amazes me when we go to the store and as we go down the aisles he just starts naming stuff.  Some new words this month are: lady, guy, baby doll, chair, stool, itch, bug bite, wiggle, bear, clean up, and cook.  One word that he refuses to say is LOVE!  Go figure!
• I still can’t believe that he’s learning how to walk!  He takes on average 4-5 steps each time that he gets up and does it pretty frequently throughout the day now.  He still crawls to get wherever he needs to go, but is realizing that sometimes its easier just to walk to get there! 

I can’t wait to see how much more progress he has made by next month!  Sorry I don’t have any 17 month pictures to share, but our boy is a little under the weather today :(  Apparently him & Mikayla must have been giving eachother too many kisses!  They both have fevers, raspy voices, swollen glands in their throats…and Doctor appointments in their near future!

Safe & Sound

Well, me & Alan both made it to where we were going safe & sound, and thankfully we made it home safe & sound, and Ryder was with Nicki…safe & sound!  He had such a great time and I love Nicki for constantly sending me pictures and texts.  After I got the very first one, I knew that he was going to be fine and all of my anxiety went away. 

In every picture she sent he had the biggest smile on his face and looked like he was having so much fun!

 

This was my favorite one she sent me right when he woke up that said Good Morning Mommy!  I woke up happy!

And look at this, he even had fun in their Church nursery! (I just noticed that him & Ryan look like twins in their collared shirts!)

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OF course I couldn’t wait to come home and check Nicki’s blog because I knew she’d get some cute pictures:

Ryder playing during Mikayla’s gymnastics class:

Shopping at Target:

  

This is what happens to Ryder’s eyes when he looks at Mikayla!  It’s true love, I’m telling you!

 

 

 

They are just too cute together!  And from what I hear, Ryder got to see all kinds of friends while he was in MD!  Bailey, Madalynn, Owen, Lance & Ryan…what a lucky guy! 

Since we have been home, Ryder definitely misses his weekend Mama!  He says “Nick” all the time now.  He was asking for Nicki over and over so I pulled up her blog and said “okay Ryder, let me find you a picture of Nicki”, so I showed him and he got the biggest smile.  Later he was saying “nick, nick, nick” and I must have been toning him out, so he grabbed the mouse off the computer desk, started shaking it and said “FIND!”…lol…so I found him another picture.  There must have been some serious bonding going on when he conned her into rocking him to sleep!

I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to know that my boy was safe & sound! Thanks again Nicki, Matteson, and Mikayla!!!

Cheat Sheet

Alan’s out of town this weekend at some biker thing…and Mommy & Kristen are heading to a wedding today.  I’ve had a babysitter lined up for Ryder for months, but it fell through at the last minute yesterday.  I was panicking a little, thinking maybe I should just stay home, when my blog friend Nicki (except this is the last time I’m going to call her that because she’s my real friend now, like in real life, imagine that!) saved me and offered to keep Ryder.  Well actually she insisted that I cannot miss my cousins wedding and her, Matteson, & Mikayla would love to have Ryder’s company for the rest of the weekend.  Thank you Nicki!  I think you guys are going to have so much fun!

Of course, in all of my paranoia, I can’t stop thinking about some of the most important things that I should tell her, incase she can’t understand him or doesn’t know what he wants, so I thought I would make this cheat sheet.  Not only for her reference, but so that I can have it to look back on when he doesn’t need a translator.

• He has 2 bug bites on his leg, so if he holds his leg up and says “iiiit” he’s asking you to itch his bug bites!
• If he randomly starts saying “freeeeee” he’s singing my ring tone Free by Zac Brown Band.  He has good taste in music, or maybe my phone just rings too much!
• He says “baby dump” a lot…but we’re pretty sure that translates to Baby Doll, he’ll probably call Mikayla that, he hears Nana saying it every day.
• He will probably cry when you lay him down to go to sleep, just tell him it’s night-night time.  He’s a con-artist so if he asks “rock” or “meek” tell him no, it’s not time for rocking or music, go to sleep!
• He has a great memory, so every time Mikayla calls you Mommy, he’s probably going to remember that Mommy left him. He can be distracted easily with crayons or bubbles!
• He’ll eat anything you feed him, and if he acts like he doesn’t want it, let him dip it in ketchup!
• If he gets a red ring around his eye, rub some vaseline on it, he’s fighting some dry skin around his left eye that will not budge!
• Feel free to put his hair up, he’s pretty secure with his masculinity, so if his hair is in his face and driving you crazy, bring out the hair ties!
• If he’s mean to Mikayla, you better punish him!  No pinching allowed!  Just pick him up and move him to a spot all by himself, it hurts his feelings and he’ll get the point!

Okay, I won’t go overboard, everything else he says you should be able to understand.  Good luck, he’s a stubborn little guy, but I know you’ve got plenty of experience with that!  Have fun!!!!  I’m sure the love birds are going to enjoy their romantic weekend together!

First Pitch!

The BIG game was lastnight where Ryder got to go out on the field for the Richmond Flying Squirrels and throw the first pitch! 

He did such a good job, but before I get to those details, let me just tell you…we brought a storm to Richmond.  Literally.  We (as in all the people who bought tickets) drove in the exact path of a huge storm the entire 1.5 hour drive at about 20 mph.  As soon as we pulled into Richmond we were in front of the storm, but about 5 minutes later it caught back up with us and showered us with even more rain, as if we needed or wanted to see one more drop. 

The game had a rain delay and as soon as the storm passed they worked very hard to get the field cleaned up and ready.  It was supposed to start at 7:05 but Ryder didn’t end up going out on the field until about 8:15.  He did get to go into the guys locker room though and meet all the players!  He was such a trooper, it was past his bedtime, he had SUCH a busy day with the Podiatrist appointment and his therapy session, then hung out at the baseball game for 2.5 hours waiting to throw his baseball. 

He was VERY excited and was totally prepared, he kept saying “Beee-Ballll!  THROW!” and would swing his arm, he knew what he had to do…and he did a great job!  He loves being the center of attention, so being out on the field with all those people cheering for him didn’t intimidate him one bit, it only made him want to show his stuff even more, he actually stood up all by himself and threw the ball!  I wish that I could have somehow captured the smile on his face, it was priceless.  I did get a video, I apologize for the quality, the only way I could get it onto the computer was to play it on my TV and then re-record it with my digital camera (creative, right?!).  So here it is:

Right after we ran off the field, the sky let loose again and there was ANOTHER down pour!  They finally decided to cancel the game.  So basically, everyone drove all that way to watch Ryder throw a ball, which took all of 10 seconds…but it was SO worth it!

Here are a few other pics from the night:

 

 

 

 

He has some souvenirs from the game!  Here is his Team Ryder shirt which has some of the players signatures on it, and the Nutsy bobble head that the Coach gave him in the locker room!  Aunt Brenda also bought him a baseball that he practiced with before he got the real deal on the field…and as you can see in the video the catcher gave the ball he threw back to him and let him keep it!  Plus, Auntie Ressa bought him his 1st Flying Squirrels t-shirt.  It was definitely a fun night and a great memory that I can’t wait to share with Ryder one day!

Foot Doctor

Let me just start by saying that this blog has been a blessing to me once again!  In one of my rambling posts I mentioned that Ryder would need to see a Doctor to get fitted for Orthotics, my friend and fellow blogger Jelena read that and immediately reached out to me.  The Podiatrist that she works for makes custom orthotics and she was able to get us in right away to get this process started!  She has made everything SO easy, and what a relief that has been to finally have someone who wants to help and has taken the stress completely out of the situation!  So thank you Jelena, seriously “seeyyusy”, from me & Ryder both for giving us this special VIP treatment, you really don’t know how much this means to us!

Okay, now onto the appointment…Dr. Hotchkiss is amazing!  He’s such a nice person and I can tell he’s a great Doctor (and i’m not just saying that because I know that Jelena shows him Ryder’s blog, ha!).  He spent a lot of time with us, he explained everything thoroughly, in language that was easy for us to understand…this was definitely a much different, BETTER, experience than we have had with many of the Doctors we’ve come across in Ryder’s short life time.

So basically, he thinks Ryder is doing great considering everything he has been through.  His feet are definitely pronated so he feels that he would absolutely benefit from orthotics, but he wants us to wait until he is walking more than he’s crawling to do the actual fitting.  He watched Ryder get around for a while and said that the Physical Therapy is the best thing for him right now and he can see how much it is helping, soooo guess what….I told him about our insurance dilemma and this man-sent-from-Heaven is writing us a prescription for 90 more days of therapy that will be listed under a different condition than the first 90 days!!  And after that is over, he said he’ll write another one and another one, lol.  How awesome is that??!!

It was so nice to leave an appointment finally feeling like people cared and had Ryder’s best interest in mind.  That was so refreshing!  I can’t wait to go back and get Ryder fitted for his orthotics…well wait, maybe I can.  They are going to have to do X-rays and make a mold of his feet, he’s going to hate this, but I’ll stress about that when the time comes.  For now I’m just going to pray that the insurance company accepts this script for PT and then enjoy our victory :)

Watch Him Go!

I have a very special video to share!!  Not only does it show Ryder standing up by himself, but it shows him walking, and if you listen to the music in the background you can see him singing & dancing along to the songs on his movie.  Wow, that was a total spoiler, but I’m just so excited I couldn’t keep it in…

I can’t believe that I’ve been witnessing him walking!  The past few days he has stood up and took a few steps here and there, just like that, and every time my heart beats so fast and I am just overcome with excitement…I don’t know if the shock will ever wear off.  At his last therapy evaluation they didn’t think he’d be walking until around the age of 2, so this is a HUGE milestone and is a great sign that all of this new therapy is really working!

Sunday Snapshots

 

  

 

A Visit from Uncle Tim!

My oldest brother Tim is a Chief in the Navy and is currently stationed in Hawaii…so we were all so surprised when we found out that they were sending him to VA Beach for training and he was going to be able to come visit for the weekend!  I’m sad that we didn’t get to see Ashley & Trinity too (his wife and daughter) but was still super excited to get to spend a little time with my big bro.  And it was nice for him to get to know Ryder, he hasn’t seen him since he was a newborn.  Here are some pictures from our day with my family:

 

Ryder entertained us with his new move – he figured out how to stand up without holding onto anything!  Too bad I didn’t think to record it instead of just snapping pictures.  It was pretty amusing, especially since the whole reason he wanted to stand was so that he could dance!