Well it appears that Spring has finally opened her welcoming arms to Minnesota! Thank God! We thought it would never happen.
Roa is celebrating Spring with his usual- bubbles, gait trainer walks, playing in the birdseed/sand/dirt/water table and chasing Beast, our cat, around the front yard. It is so nice to see those sun kissed cheeks and nose of his again! Welcome back, Mr. Sun!
Along the subject of outdoors, the Thayers are planning some outdoor renovations and improvements to help out the outdoor enthusiast, King Roa. We will be replacing our front porch and step with an easier ramp for gait trainer accessibility. We are also looking at doing some altering of our backyard to make it a more CP friendly playspace for Roa and Gunnar, as well.
We count ourselves lucky to have a beautiful big backyard. There is plenty of play space for the boys to roam, along with our dogs and cat. We even have a nice portion fenced off for a sizable garden.
While doing some research about outside play for kids with physical impairments, I ran across a great resource. White-Hutchinson is a company that designs beautiful natural playscapes for childcare centers, city parks, churches, etc around the country. I went out on a limb and sent an email to Vicki Stoecklin, Education and Child Development Director for the firm and she has been very helpful in our planning for a natural backyard wonderland for the boys! She was kind enough to request photos of our backyard and then give detailed ideas of activities we could include in our landscape. She also sent me a variety of book titles, websites, and contacts to help plan our yard.
Thank you, Vicki, for all your help and guidance with our project!
Check out White-Hutchinson at
http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/playgroundexp.shtml
For those of you who are curious about Natural Playscapes, I want to include some interesting links and articles. Research is finding that, not only are playgrounds designed around natural elements more enticing for children, they also tend to be more cost efficient, AND handicapped accessible!
http://www.arborday.org/
http://www.planetearthplayscapes.com/
http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com/
Monday, April 25, 2011
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Gillette visit
Yesterday, Roa had his check up with Doctor Gormley at Gillette. Long wait time, but an overall good report!
Dr. Gormley was impressed with Roa's walking in his gait trainer. He also was happy with Roa's range of motion and the decrease tightness of his muscles in his legs. Good news!!
We are scheduled for the next round of Botox on June 6th. It is nice that we can stretch it out a bit more and that Roa's muscle development seems to be responding well to the injections paired with his vigorous therapy schedule. We seem to be on the right track!
Each day, we work hard, play hard, it is paying off.
Roa had a visit yesterday with OT and Speech therapy home-based. They completed additional speech testing for Roa's school entry report. Roa did a nice job of attempting to imitate words! He is trying so hard to say what we say. He even said "Roa" in a way we all understood! YEAH!
When asked to point to pictures in the test manual, he was not so cooperative. Man was it frustrating to just sit back and watch as he refused to "touch" pictures of things I KNOW he knows. But, it was just one test.... kids will be kids!
Dr. Gormley was impressed with Roa's walking in his gait trainer. He also was happy with Roa's range of motion and the decrease tightness of his muscles in his legs. Good news!!
We are scheduled for the next round of Botox on June 6th. It is nice that we can stretch it out a bit more and that Roa's muscle development seems to be responding well to the injections paired with his vigorous therapy schedule. We seem to be on the right track!
Each day, we work hard, play hard, it is paying off.
Roa had a visit yesterday with OT and Speech therapy home-based. They completed additional speech testing for Roa's school entry report. Roa did a nice job of attempting to imitate words! He is trying so hard to say what we say. He even said "Roa" in a way we all understood! YEAH!
When asked to point to pictures in the test manual, he was not so cooperative. Man was it frustrating to just sit back and watch as he refused to "touch" pictures of things I KNOW he knows. But, it was just one test.... kids will be kids!
Saturday, April 2, 2011
The hills are alive...and giggling!
The sun is shining, Roa and daddy went swimming, Gunnar is napping. I am sitting back drinking my coffee, watching my window bird feeder (thank you Vic and Craig) and not allowing negative thoughts to get me down! Perfect time for blogging, I would say!
Updates, updates....
Roa tried a different piece of therapy equipment called Theratogs with Andrea at Courage this week. This form of therapy entails a vest worn with elastic strappings that help the child hold or movtinis body in a corrected form. It was a good attempt, but King Roa was not having it! Cried and cried. Hard session for Momma. Luckily Andrea ended the session with rolling on the incline mat- with Mom at the bottom as a target, Roa rolled like a barrel! So exciting!
The next attempt will be a pressure vest called The Bearhug. Stay tuned...
Ors is happy with Roa's supported walking with his new afos at conductive Ed. He also is happy with his increased abilities with cup drinking and self feeding with adaptive spoon.
Brittany has been taking Roa to CE on Wed. and it has been such a blessing to have her be apart of the Thayer family! We love her!
Yesterday, Lori watched Gunnar while I took Roa to a music therapy group at Functional Kids. Lori also has become part of the family with her help and support!
Roa LOVED music time! He laughed and wiggled and tried to Jump in with a word here and there! Definitely a session we will try to add to our busy schedule!
We survived our bathroom remodel project with little injury and all managed to stay somewhat clean and sane! :)
Lessoned learned this week....
Bathroom remodels are difficult and messy, but the end result is beautiful!
Family does not always come in blood, but with actions and words of support.
Life is difficult and messy but the end result is beautiful!
Updates, updates....
Roa tried a different piece of therapy equipment called Theratogs with Andrea at Courage this week. This form of therapy entails a vest worn with elastic strappings that help the child hold or movtinis body in a corrected form. It was a good attempt, but King Roa was not having it! Cried and cried. Hard session for Momma. Luckily Andrea ended the session with rolling on the incline mat- with Mom at the bottom as a target, Roa rolled like a barrel! So exciting!
The next attempt will be a pressure vest called The Bearhug. Stay tuned...
Ors is happy with Roa's supported walking with his new afos at conductive Ed. He also is happy with his increased abilities with cup drinking and self feeding with adaptive spoon.
Brittany has been taking Roa to CE on Wed. and it has been such a blessing to have her be apart of the Thayer family! We love her!
Yesterday, Lori watched Gunnar while I took Roa to a music therapy group at Functional Kids. Lori also has become part of the family with her help and support!
Roa LOVED music time! He laughed and wiggled and tried to Jump in with a word here and there! Definitely a session we will try to add to our busy schedule!
We survived our bathroom remodel project with little injury and all managed to stay somewhat clean and sane! :)
Lessoned learned this week....
Bathroom remodels are difficult and messy, but the end result is beautiful!
Family does not always come in blood, but with actions and words of support.
Life is difficult and messy but the end result is beautiful!
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