Saturday, February 7, 2009

Complete madness!

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Friday, February 6, 2009

Riley's scars

Starting to disappear!

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Riley wrote some letters tonight. Pretty good!

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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Firetruck sweaters make me think too much

I was going through the laundry tonight and saw the firetruck sweater that Rye's wearing in the blog picture. Then I thought about all the other fun shirts he wears (most of which are hand-me-downs) like his Scooby-Doo (or, as he says, "Shooby-Doo) sweatshirt, his Spider Man hoodie, and so on and so forth.

I guess it's weird thinking that this little dude is growing up. His Woody (Toy Story) PJs (hand-me-downs) are getting too small too; the top is like a belly shirt.

I don't want him to grow up. I do, but I don't. He's my little buddy! What will I do when he's not so little anymore???

/sigh

Thoughts

I got home from band tonight and sat and talked to Marci for a bit. Next to me was our scattered bookshelf, where all the kids' books sit, messy and misaligned. I grabbed a cardboard book about counting and flipped through it. It came with a little dry-erase pen that the kid (in this case, Riley) used to trace and write their own numbers.

I looked at this book and felt this wave of sadness. I knew it was Rye's book and on each page, 1 through 10, there were lines where he could trace the numbers. It was a mess. His fine motor skills aren't where they should be. Without the numbers next to what he was writing, you'd think he was just scribbling. But what was cool was that you could tell he was trying. He was trying his hardest and that's what amazed me.

It's just so hard for him. He's 4.5 and he's just had such a rough go. Knowing he's got possibly years of speech and occupational therapy is pretty sad. The thing is, he has such a great attitude about it. It's all he's known, so it's not a big deal to him.

We put him in a new speech therapy this week. Pretty intensive, from what Marci says. I guess this new therapist really works on the physicality of speaking and Riley is really giving it his all. It's still tough, but that little dude really tries hard.

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So I guess after all this, we're finally going to get some reward. The last 6 months or so have probably been the toughest of my life and, possibly, my little family's life. The reward is coming in April as we finally got confirmation of Riley's Make a Wish! We'll be heading to DisneyWorld and doing all sorts of awesome things. We'll also be there for Haley's birthday, which will make it extra sweet. To even think of being able to go and JUST HAVE FUN is almost too much to bear.

Riley is super excited, of course, but it will be incredible for all of us, I'm sure. I'll keep you posted.