Sorry it's been a bit of time since I've posted. Seems like such a long time ago now since that last update. A lot has happened that has just kept me from sharing, but today feels like a great day to catch up.
Last week was sad for me as I found out that my great Uncle Al passed away. He was so special to me (and everyone in his life) and he will be so missed. I have so many wonderful memories of Uncle Al, including but not limited to his talking banana trick and magic that he did for us kids. Not sure if Aunt Gladys reads my blog, but I want her to know I love her, and miss her and really hope to see her when we go up North this summer.
Also my love goes out to my Uncle Scott, Aunt Bonnie and cousin Meagan (and family) as they go through a really hard time right now as Uncle Scott battles cancer here in Orlando. I love you all and am here for you with whatever you need.
On the Aiden front -- Aiden is doing REALLY well with his speech therapy. Each week he improves on things that according to the therapist usually takes children months if not years to acheive. His situation just continues to be incredibly strange. But, he's improving, so HEY we'll take it!
Aiden started his new school at UCP this past Monday. He's adjusting really well to his new environment. The teachers are wonderful and Will and I really feel he's in the wonderfully safe and theraputic environment in which he needs right now. He's definitely a bit "shy" speech wise in school, but that is to be expected on week 1. The speech therapist at the school seems great, and we are excited that both the school and private therapists are going to work together (via email/phone) to be sure they are on the same page regarding Aiden. He's such a unique case so I think they are probably thrilled to be able to discuss and strategize together! A new and exciting development came about this week that we weren't expecting. Aiden had originally qualified for "Part time" school which was 1/2 day, 4 days a week. So we thought he was going to go just Mon-Thur 8:30am - 11:30am. Well.. it seems once you are IN the program, they can adjust things a bit. We were offered FULL TIME SCHOOL for FREE for Aiden. WOW!!!!!! Now, I'm not quite ready to let Aiden go full time, especially since he's still getting private speech therapy. So we settled on a schedule that works great for all of us. Mon/Wed until 11:30pm (and then go to private speech with me). Tues/Thurs until 2:30pm, and Friday is OFF to spend with me! We are really excited about this schedule and the fact that this is an option. We are so impressed by the resources being provided to us for our little guy!
On the medical side -- we have an appt. with the pediatric neurologist on March 31st. We'll go over Aiden's latest bloodwork, and discuss what to do next (or what NOT to do). All signs really point to Aiden having a mini-stroke that night. We have been doing a bit more reading and thinking, and it's quite possible that if it was a stroke, that by the time we went in for the MRI (which was about 3 weeks after it happened) it wasn't traceable. Again, just another theory.. but who knows? All we know is Aiden is healing every day, and we are SOOOOOOO thankful for that. I honestly didn't know if I would ever have my son back to the way he was. So, this is just a miracle to me. Please keep praying that whatever it was that happened doesn't happen again, or pray that we find out what it was so we can prevent it from happening again. Thank you.
Since Aiden is doing better, and we still want to keep things as normal for the kiddos as possible, we have been doing some fun things. We took the kids to the Orlando Repatory Theatre to see the play "If you give a pig a party". They loved it. In fact, Aiden was so excited that he couldn't resist labeling everything out loud during the play. "oh my, there's a bicycle!", "oh my they are eating ice cream", etc etc. It was darn cute! Here's a couple pics from that day:
Last weekend, Will was working at a wedding, so we went over to my sister's place to hang out. We all went to a park and then back for some swimming...
We were invited to a fun birthday party of one of my Kindermusik families last weekend, and I have some fun shots from that. Thought I would share!
Also some park pictures at Lake Eola.. we took some on my phone, which I haven't quite figured out how to get to my computer, but also a couple taken with the camera for the batteries ran out...
I had the chance to get out and see my girlfriends last night.. which was VERY needed. We took a pic (of course).
Looking forward to the coming weekend and seeing Molly and Alan (will's parents), along with friends. I'm also in crunch time for releasing my Kindermusik summer schedule. I have many people ready to sign up for summer already! wowie.
Okay, now I'm off to spend time with Aiden, as it's our Friday "off". Will suggested taking him to Chuck E Cheese.. hmm.. shall I brave it? heehee..
Have a perfect day everone!
Love,
Holly
