18 Month Dr. Appt & Some Big News!

Today Ryder had his 18 month check-up…and everything went well.  He is 31.5 inches long which is in the 25th percentile for his age.  She was happy to see that he had grown taller since he hasn’t at his last few appointments.  But his weight hasn’t gone up at all, he isn’t even on the percentile chart!  He is only 20.6 pounds!  I assured her that he eats great and has a wonderful appetite, but I guess he just burns it fast by always being on the go!  We left there with a prescription to try a new lotion for his Eczema, and a referral to a Pediatric Ophthalmologist. 

Okay…onto way more exciting stuff…I got a letter in the mail today…anddddddd….

Ryder got approved for Medicaid!!! 

Exciting, right?!  After a long wait and a hard fight, we don’t need to worry any more about insurance holding us back on Ryder’s road to recovery!  We don’t qualify for Medicaid because of our income, so it was pretty tricky to get him covered, but basically he was determined disabled so that made him eligible for the Elderly or Disabled with Consumer Direction waiver.  Last Monday we had someone from Social Services and someone from the Department of Health come out to the house and do an evaluation to see if he qualified for the waiver.  By being on this waiver, he is able to receive Long Term Medicaid which is a HUGE answered prayer for us.  So, we’re set to start therapy back tomorrow!  And if the insurance company denies it, then I can shrug it off and submit the claim to Medicaid who will cover all medical costs that our insurance does not cover. 

And now we can exhale…

Ryder = Rider

This boy sure does live true to his name!

Orthotics Fitting

Nothing like following up a nice, relaxing vacation with a not-so-fun Doctors appointment!  Not that Jelena & Dr. Hotchkiss aren’t fun!  But holding Ryder down while they cast his feet…yeah…that’s not a lot of fun.  The day started great, Ryder had everyone in the waiting room cracking up, so hard that me & Daddy were crying from laughing.  He flirted with the “ladies” at the front desk, then ran the halls of the office like he owned the place (of course he found the cleaning closet and managed to sweep with every broom in there!).  But when it was time to get down to business, the mood changed quite a bit. 

We gave him Benadryl to try to make him a little drowsy, we bribed him with a lollipop, then with cookies, but nothing worked.  When he realized that Daddy, Mommy, Jelena, and the Dr. were all holding him down, he flipped out.  He was more mad than I have ever ever ever seen him!  Even worse than when he gets his blood taken.  It’s not like it was hurting him or anything, he just hates being held down…I knew it would be rough.  They casted each foot separately and had to hold it on long enough for the mold to dry.  When it was over, he was exhausted.  It was too chaotic for me to even think about taking pictures during the whole thing, but I did get a few of the aftermath:

He was so sad and tired that he passed out and was snoring before we even left the parking lot.  But, he woke up once we got to the grocery store and had totally forgotten about his traumatic morning.  I’m sure it helped that we spoiled him with all of his favorite things: banana, donuts, and a slurpee!

 

I’m so glad that’s over with…but Jelena hit me with a dagger today that we’re going to have to do this every 6 months as his feet grow!  Maybe it will get easier…wishful thinking I’m sure, but whatever it takes to help our boy.  We’re just glad to be getting it all out of the way now so he won’t remember any of it!  We’ll be picking up his Orthotics in about 2-4 weeks when they are done being made and we’ll see what happens from there!

I have to tell you, even though it was really hard to watch him have so much anger and rage as we held him down, Daddy said in the car that he was pretty impressed with how much fight Ryder had.  He never gave up, he fought us with all of his strength, with everything he had in him.  I’m glad he doesn’t get to this point often, just like his Daddy, it takes a lot to get them angry…but once they are, you better look out!

The Rest of Our Trip…

We had even more fun, of course!  We took Ryder to Oregon Inlet to watch the “Big Boats” come in and see all the fish they caught for the day.  We were front and center as the fisherman threw out their fish and Ryder got a kick out of it.  He was shouting “Throw! Fish!” and then he wanted to touch them…so he did!

 

We spent lots of time hanging around at the house we rented.  Ryder loved it there, especially having so many people on each level, and he loved having the balcony on the back and being able to see the water!

 

Hanging with the guys, he fits right in with his camo shorts!

Ree-Ree’s doggy Jaz showed up the last night we were there, Ryder looked a bit concerned, like maybe she might take some of the attention off of him.  But not to worry, there was plenty to go around.

I have to tell you, Ryder’s favorite thing about this house…and possibly about our whole vacation, was…the BROOM!  Go figure!  (If Nana was on vacation with us, she would have been so proud!)  He would bring it to each person and say “brooma, fweep!” so we all took turns sweeping.  All day.  Every day.  Silly boy!

 

One of Mommy’s favorite parts were the sunrises we got to see each morning.  Because, even on vacation, my child rises before the sun!

 

We had such a wonderful time!  And it was a great learning experience for Ryder…I never realized how much he would learn by just taking him out of his element.  He now knows upstairs, downstairs, inside, outside, and even though he still won’t say the word “YES”, he says “mmmhmmm” now if you ask him a question and the answer is yes!   Also, he started putting 2 words together all week!  So far he has said big truck, trash can, tooth brush, school bus, mr. sun, up stairs, and down stairs.  And when we got home he said “cool bus, bring, fort”…and brought his new school bus into his fort! 

Speaking of being home…here are is a picture of Ryder will all of the treats he brought home from Nagshead:

A humungous THANK YOU!  To Pop-pop, Nana, Ree-Ree, Slick, Jig-Jig, Billy, Debbie, Chris, and Dawn for spoiling this child rotten all week and for catering to his every in, out, up, down, help, sweep, dance, sing, etc. demands.  You guys definitely made his very first vacation so memorable and fun!  And now Vicky will get to spend the next week de-spoiling him, sorry Nana!  Actually, she misses him so much that the spoiling will probably just continue!

And Happy Anniversary to CJ & Angela!  They decided last minute to come spend their anniversary weekend in Nagshead so we got to hang out with them on our last night there! 

 

Great vacation, and now it’s back to reality! 

More Vacation Fun

I’m posting in pieces because if I tried to put all this fun into one post when vacation is over, I’d go into picture overload!

Today we took a trip to the Aquarium and Ryder loved seeing all the fish and especially loved the sharks!  He started singing the Jaws music when he saw the sharks because that’s what Daddy does in the bathtub with his fish.  Everyone got a kick out of that…he has kept us laughing all week long.  Here are our family shots from the Aquarium:

 

 

Vacation has been action packed…here are some pictures of what we’ve been up to so far:

Eating candy and getting spoiled rotten with treats!

And everything else he finds in the stores that he loves….like Pup (getting spoiled by Ree-Ree, that’s for sure)!

Strollin’ Around:

Eatin’ Yummy meals:

Playing on Daddy’s bike:

 

Spending lots of time on the beach!

 

 

  

And we even had our friends come to the beach and play with us!  The boys put their Daddy’s to work building them a hole, then a mountain, then a tunnel to get them from the hole to the mountain…whatever it was, it was PERFECT and Ryder, Levi, and Wyatt had a blast playing!

This picture cracks me up, Vick took Ryder down to the water, and on the way back Ryder was looking at him like:

“Dude, where is all your hair???”  I think this is the first shiny bald head he has ever come across!

And Ryder is really enjoying having Pop-Pop & Nana at the same house as him!:

 

Ahhhh, why can’t every day be a vacation?! 

More to come…