Everett Therapy Update – Walking with Upsee

February 13, 2015February 13, 2015 / thepantrybook / Leave a comment

Everett has been working on walking with his ABM physical therapist (using the Upsee). They have been trying it out without the shoe attachment (which would lift his foot when she lifts her foot). Everett has been lifting his own legs and feet really nicely — the Upsee supports his body at the pelvis so it’s not like he’s bearing much weight on his legs, but he’s getting the concept of the stepping motion.

The shocking thing is that he can count up to eighteen or nineteen now. Once Carla gets him started he will say the next number all the way up. He’s supposed to correlate one number with each step, but he just gets so excited he jumps ahead a few numbers to one step. Eight seems to be his favorite number – he shouts it with gusto!

My life is about to get a whole lot more complicated – DEPLOYMENT NEWS

February 7, 2015February 7, 2015 / thepantrybook / 3 Comments

Eleanor is cruising now – she went all the way around the table. She will pull up on anything and everything. The problem is when she pulls up on a moving object – like a person’s leg and the person doesn’t realize she’s there.

Adelie-wellie takes very good care of her babies

Everett got glasses. He actually got glasses about two years ago, but he never wore them. When a second eye exam yielded a drastically stronger prescription, we decided to try again. So far he is doing really well with keeping them on – as long as he is supervised. As soon as we turn our backs, however, they disappear. We are hoping that they will help him brain process what his eyes bring in and maybe even motivate Everett to be more mobile (i.e. be motivated to go over to something that he could never see before). Everett’s speech continues to improve each day. We are continuing to optimize his supplement regime (now we are starting glandulars!) and we are planning to start hyperbaric oxygen chamber sessions in a few weeks.

So, my big news is that Kent might be deploying for six months on a humanitarian mission – leaving in less than six weeks. It’s complicated, but we don’t know for sure – with the military nothing is really certain anyway. Kent and I have never been separated for more than two weeks in the eight years we’ve been married. And, our part-time nanny stopped working for us last week! Nothing bad happened — she was asked to work full-time for the other family she works for and they need her more than we do (we originally hired her to help me – and Everett – right after the baby was born, but it just worked so well for her to take Everett to therapy that we kept it up). It is tempting to try to feel bad for myself, but there are many things to be grateful for. One, that we haven’t had a deployment up to this point, which has allowed us to invest in our marriage while it was in its infancy. Two, that it is a relatively short deployment – many people we know have deployments of one year or more, not counting many months of out-of-town training before-hand. Third, the work should be interesting and enjoyable for Kent – Kent took a class on tropical medicine and he expects to see a lot of that on the deployment. Also, if God wants to use us on the mission field (and we hope He does) after Kent’s time in the Navy, this would be useful preparatory work. Finally, God has always been faithful, sufficient, and good in the past, so I know He will continue to be exactly what He is – even while Kent is away.

We’ll see how long I can keep up with Everett’s therapy intensives every week (2-4 days every week) – our nanny had been driving him since we had Eleanor. It is challenging for me to get all four of us out of the house by 7am with breakfast and snacks for everyone, diapers for two, changes of clothes for two, Everett’s therapy stuff (braces for ankles and elbow, restraint for left arm, etc.), books and baby dolls to keep Adele occupied, toys for Eleanor, etc., and then being out of the house for four to five hours each day (which sacrifices Eleanor’s morning nap). . . . I know other moms do even more than this regularly, but I really prefer to not leave the house during the day at all.

I’m looking forward to knowing and loving God more during this upcoming challenge!

Everett videos

October 2, 2014October 2, 2014 / thepantrybook / 2 Comments

This first video is of part of a session with E’s physical therapist Carla Reed. She is using the Upsee to work toward walking. It allows Everett to have the sensation of some weight-bearing, but she is bearing most of the weight, which prevents him from “compensating” – or having to contort his body in such a way that he learns an awkward posture (which would be problematic because compensatory postures are nearly impossible to “unlearn” down the road).

In the next video, I say that Everett is feeding himself because before I started filming Everett was holding the cup of yogurt and bringing it to his mouth by himself. But, I didn’t actually get that on the video. You’ll just have to take my word for it =)

The kids lately Summer 2014

August 12, 2014 / thepantrybook / Leave a comment

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OK, these top pics were of the kids in Maine before I got there (I was in Minnesota with Eleanor at the CM conference), which is why Adele is wearing a long-sleeved neon shirt underneath a lacy top paired with pajama bottoms. Oh, to be five!

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At the Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.

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At the National Cathedral in DC – we took Everett to an intensive Anat Baniel therapy bootcamp right down the street.

Everett is THREE!

June 28, 2014 / thepantrybook / 2 Comments

My sweet boy is three. As promised, here’s a photo of him in the birthday crown.

Everett is the sweetest boy that I know and I wouldn’t wish for any other. It’s hard to explain it but I pray for him to be healed (and pursue healing with lots of therapy) and at the same time I am really ok with him just as he is even if he never gets any better. He is such a lovey boy – he’s always giving kisses and telling me that he loves me (he says “lll” for “I love you”), both in response to me telling him that I love him and he also initiates. He knows to bow his head when we pray as a family. His speech is really exploding – new sounds and “words” every day. He is getting to be a real pro at getting into sitting (and getting back down again) with great posture. He chews his fingers when he’s scared, overwhelmed, or tired. He speaks French (he says “vwah” when he hears “au revoir”) AND Spanish (he says “la” or “la la” when he hears “hola”) in addition to English. He smiles and laughs all day long and he always has a good attitude. I love you, my little Everito!

Everett is working on learning to sit and crawl! Therapy UPDATE Oct 2013

October 24, 2013 / thepantrybook / 1 Comment

We still have a long way to go before we achieve the “unassisted sitting” or the “crawling” (which is actually creeping) milestones, but we are making some serious progress!!!

Everett can’t get into this position by himself, but he can hold it for a few seconds (which he couldn’t do before) and rock back and forth a bit before he shoots his legs straight. He IS bringing his left knee up bent (to the side, not under his pelvis) when he’s on his tummy, but not yet with the right knee.

He’s really trying to get into the crawling position, as you can see with the picture below. He’s getting into this kind-of-side/kind-of-trying-to-crawl position more and more these days.

I just added this one in because I think his cap is so cute =)

a few more CA therapy pics and videos

August 4, 2013September 15, 2013 / thepantrybook / 3 Comments

These marks on Everett’s tummy are part of Belly Talk – we skyped with Elinor Silverstein during one of our ABM sessions with Andrea Bowers. It’s supposed to help with constipation. It seemed to help for a few days, but we’re back to using prunes and still struggling.

While we were in CA to have therapy at the Anat Baniel Center in San Rafael, we added a week of sessions with Andrea Bowers in San Jose. We can’t wait to go back! She was so great!!