Big Boy Bed

We made the transition to the toddler bed this weekend and it couldn't have gone any better! We are so lucky that Anthony loves to sleep. Sometimes we can hear him walking around for a couple of minutes, and every once in awhile he'll bang on the door, but he always ends up asleep in his bed within 10 minutes of us putting him down (tonight he only lasted two minutes before putting himself to sleep). I wish we had a video monitor in there. Last night I wanted to see where he had fallen asleep and opened the door about an hour into bedtime, only to see him stand up and stare at me! I quickly shut the door, but ended up having to go in and console a screaming baby, as he was not happy about the disruption in his sleep. Lesson learned. Do not open the door, ever.

Jesus is Not Anti-Gay

Great article written here by a friend of mine....

More Progress

Over the past week or so I've noticed an increase in the control of my lower abs and hips. In fact, I think I have complete control of my abs now (hard to tell when you can't fully feel something) and quite a bit more control of my hips. Still don't have control of my back muscles, so I can't do a sit up, but we are getting there!

Park

Anthony and I drove down to Olympia on Monday to meet Kari, Laura & Jim, and all the kids (Ella, Preston, Sean and Marin) for a fun play day! We missed you Erinn and Steph!!

Time Out!

Well our little guy made it to 17-months before needing his first time out. As I don't have any other kids, I don't know if this is early or late...Now that he's a climber he decided to climb on the dining room table over and over again this evening. I let it go with a no the first time, but when he immediately went back up on the table I knew more extreme consequences were necessary. Three times in a row, three timeouts in a row. What a fun time. The fourth time he tried to climb up there he fell, and the 5th time he knocked Jared's laptop off the table (yikes!). He didn't try again after that. What a fun Saturday night!

Disturbing

Did you see this article about a Saudi judge asking hospitals if they can paralyze a man as his punishment? You've got to be kidding me. It's things like this that remind us how lucky we are to live in this country (no matter all the flaws) where the crazy Old Testament laws no longer apply. When I read these the Old Testament it's hard to believe anyone ever lived according to all these laws, but then here are people in modern days actually doing it. There was a reason Jesus came to break the curse of the law. Oh man - this is a horrible idea. I wouldn't wish paralyzation on anyone.

the pool

sitting in his new float toy

Climbing on the chairs...his new favorite thing to do is climb everything

Uncle Steve playing with Anthony

Aunt Kendra keeping him safe from the water

This sums up his feelings toward the big pool

The pasty white family

We took Anthony over to Aunt Kendra and Uncle Steve's house to go swimming; he'd never been in a big pool before. He did okay for his first time, but he didn't really enjoy it. Maybe next time! He did really enjoy the milk, pizza, and blueberry cobbler he had for dinner though. He gets so excited when he sees pizza (he's only had it twice now) and he scarfs it right down.

Backyard Play

Drinking from the hose

Seattle Children's Museum

We took Anthony to the Seattle Children's Museum this week. It was pretty fun, but not nearly as cool as the one in Bellevue. And it's also pretty inaccessible, which I was really surprised by. In fact, the whole Seattle Center area is really a pain to get around. All the walkways are sloped to one side or the other which makes it incredibly hard for me to get any momentum going. The building is old, and like typical older buildings wasn't built to be wheelchair accessible, so the ramp getting in and out of the building was pretty steep. Glad Jared was with me to push me around! A lot of the interior exhibits also had very, very steep ramps. I don't think I would have been able to make it up them without someone pushing me. Quite surprised by this as I assumed the Seattle Center would be one of the easier places for me to get around....

After the museum I had this great idea to take Anthony over to play in the fountain...what was I thinking? We got him all sunscreened up and got over there only to realize that the fountain is pretty intense! I think he'd have to be around 10 before he could go play in that fountain! The water goes along with the music, and it shoots out strong streams of water. If you were a kid (not a toddler) it would really be a blast.

the ride home

Sprinkler!

Jared has had most of the week off so we've been doing a lot of playing with daddy! Anthony loves water (his wading pool or his sprinkler, not the bath tub unfortunately) and gets soaked any time he's outside.

Bellevue Children's Museum

Whew! Where has the summer gone?! We have been so busy the last few weeks enjoying life that I haven't posted much. Colby and I took the boys to the KidsQuest museum in Bellevue today and had a great time checking out all the fun exhibits. They have a fun selection of waterways for the kids to play with, along with tons of other cool things. Anthony loved this place and I did too. It was so easy for me to get around and keep an eye on him. I think we will be looking forward to spending lots of time there this fall when the weather is rainy and we can't go outside any more.Leaf slide

playing chicken with the stools

checking out the semi-truck

Not sure what to think about the sand

Giant size litebrite

Attack of the killer baby

Oh how we love this boy....

The Book of Eli

Jared and I watched The Book of Eli last night, and I was inspired by the movie. It was definitely one of the better movies we have seen in a long time.

What I took from the movie (without revealing too much, in case you are like us and don't watch movies until long after they are released) was how the main character (Denzel Washington) continued on in his journey of faith no matter how discouraging the circumstances around him were. He was determined to do what his God had told him to do. And in every single situation, his God delivered him though it seemed hopeless. This is the kind of faith I aspire to have. That no matter how bleak the present looks, I will be delivered and there are better days ahead.

Here goes nothin'.....

Well I've decided to give the anti-spasticity meds (Baclofen) a shot. It was shipped yesterday so I'll start on it early next week. My spasms are really getting to the point where they are interfering with my daily activities and just driving me bonkers. It's harder to sleep at night as my legs are constantly moving. The spasticity really affects things like transferring in and out of the wheelchair and getting dressed. Hopefully I'm able to tolerate the baclofen and it will help enough before reaching the maximum dosage. I'm starting at 10mg/day and then my doctor has given me the go ahead to up it every couple days until I hit 80 mg/day. I'm hoping a smaller dose will be effective, but my spasticity is quite severe compared to others I know with SCI.

It's not being in a wheelchair that's the hardest part of all this - the other crap that comes along with it is definitely more of a pain than my legs not working. The main side effect I'm worried about is severe drowsiness. My doctor said that only lasts for a month or two and then dissipates, but I hope it's something I can tolerate while waiting for that side effect to subside. I'm on one other med (I'll spare you the details) that also causes drowsiness, so the two together should be interesting. I might be napping a lot.