general Athan health update

When I got back from Texas, Athan was sick. Upper respiratory junk, yucky cough, fever off and on for days... We went to see Dr. Coburn, got some antibiotics, and he got better. Doing great now...

Over all, he's been healthy lately. His sleep patterns... well, there is no pattern. Sometimes he'll wake up in the middle of the night every night in a week, sometimes screaming, sometimes groggy but fidgety, and sometimes alert and playful. Then he'll go a week or so sleeping through the night. We never know. He eats well, and we've been able to keep him from being constipated just by being careful with his diet. He also helps keep things moving because he's just moving more himself...

Seriously, you'll be shocked. When I can catch some good video of him walking, I'll post it. OH MY! As has been confirmed by several people (including and most importantly Laurie, the world's greatest PT), he's walking 50-75% of the time now. Closer to 75%. I'm so proud of him! It was later than with Morgan, but Athan's toddler "I-can-do-it-myself" thing finally kicked in full-force, which has helped in lots of areas, including mobility. Ok, I'll just stop trying to describe it and try to catch a video so you can see...

We've been making calls and gathering med records. I have a stack 10 inches tall of paperwork to copy, sort, and file in preparation for starting with new docs after the move.

We also had an ARC meeting with the schools, and officially have and IEP in hand to take to Abilene schools to get started with therapies for Athan after the move. Such a relief to have that done.

I think that covers it for now. The next few weeks just hold some "last visits" with some really special people who have loved and served our family and our boy so well. I'll let you know how we survive those... :)

I hope he forgives me for this...

My brother graduated! I'm so very proud of Jer (and loving the new shiny top he's sporting these days). He is now and RN. I made the trip to Clovis a couple of weeks ago for his graduation. Yeah, he's kind of a big deal...
I'm also very thankful to RYAN especially, as well as my kids, Eve Jagger, Guess-ca (that would be our neighbor, Jessica, in Athan-ish), Caroline, Ashely, and undoubtedly others who jumped through hoops to help me be gone for 4 days during the week at the end of a semester right before we move. I got to see Jer graduate, hug lots of parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles I've been missing, and spend some time with great friends. It was as much a gift to me as it was to Jer. THANKS all! :)

my ballerina...

Grammy gave Morgan some money for Christmas for ballet lessons. She LOVED it. Wilmore School of Christian Ballet was wonderful for us. We are so thankful for the experience. Here's a glimpse of her weekly sessions:

The next video is the Spring Performance for the school. They performed a ballet of The Parable of the Sower and the Seed. Morgan is a seed. :) She and her partner come out and do the seed dance, then they "go to sleep" as if planted. Then come "the thorns, which grew up with them and choked the plants" (that's the other group of girls dancing). After her part we skip ahead to the final bow...

She had fun. Can you tell? :) Truly, though, after all was said and done, her favorite part of it all came before the dress rehearsal and the performance: putting on make-up!
And I still think her favorite place to perform is in our spare room for her daddy (we have 7+ minutes of nonstop dancing on our camera - I cut it down to 3 for you):

the short version

Ok, I've been avoiding the blog. There's just SO MUCH that's been going on, and I want to tell you ALL about it. And I will. It's just going to take some time. For now, here's a list version, and I'll flesh out details in the next few posts:

- Morgan was the most lovely ballerina ever in her spring performance (video coming, promise)
- I went to Clovis for Jer's graduation from Nursing School (YEAH Brother!)
- Athan got sick (upper-respiratory junk), got meds, and got better
- Ryan won an award, spoke at graduates chapel, and graduated from seminary
- Morgan is finishing pre-school in 4 more days
- I got to go to Cincinnatti yesterday with my friend, Erin. The ache of leaving here creeps in
- ATHAN TURNS 3 TODAY (but don't tell him - he insists he wants to be 2 still)
- Ryan packed all of our books - we're really moving soon (not till end of June, but still...)

Ok, LOTS of stories to tell, videos and pictures to upload and edit, detials to fill in... I'm on it!

back to the dark ages

Flooding of the Kentucky river means our internet at the house is down until the river is down. Sorry for the lack of posts, e-mails, etc. Maybe I'll actually get some packing done...

A Spring Walk in Wilmore