Sweet little boy. This was the night before his haircut.  His hair has grown so much!  Granted it has been 6 months since they shaved it off...

I was very proud of myself.  I successfully gave a very wiggly little boy his second "first" hair cut!

My handsome little guy.

I am so proud of him. A certain little boy has learned to unpin his right arm. Proud to tears. 

 This is HUGE!!!!!!  That movement looks so slight, but it is HUGE!!!!! The fact that he can move his right arm at all, that he knows he should and is trying, (over and over) the rotation from his shoulder and that he even gets his wrist out.  This comes after months of work and we hope is just the beginning.  :)

Thank you for all of your prayers.  We are working so hard to awaken that right side so it does not fall too far behind.

One of the therapists asked me this week if Parker has cried with tears because he had been sad or upset. He has always cried very little since he was a newborn, and he cries even less now. He would only cry if he was hurt or thirsty. (He was passionate about his water). Now he won't drink... but if I hear crying, I go RUNNING because he is either in pain or throwing up.

It made me think today as I was playing with him how grateful I am. Even though the emotion section of his brain was probably injured, he is happy. He laughs. He gets that twinkle in his eye. He recognizes that "I'm going to get you" is a game. He anticipates me and giggles before I even get to him. I found that remarkable this morning. What a blessing.

Remember when I said that 3 doctors told us Parker may never talk again? He began babbling and saying some words in the hospital when he had 6 hours of speech a week, but he had really regressed since being home. This was a new sound this morning and it made my heart soar!

A few things happened this week that took my breath away and I want to record. On Friday I was working with Parker on rolling. He rolled almost a full 360 on his own. He is getting so close!

The next was a few days later. Again we were working on rolling. He is getting really good at getting his left arm out when it is pinned under him. It is amazing the coordination it takes to lift or roll your body up a bit to get your arm unpinned and then to lift your arm out and up. This week was the very first time I saw him start to unpin his RIGHT arm!!! He did not get his hand out all the way, but he unpinned his arm!!! It was momentous. Trust me!

The last was today in therapy. He was working on walking in a Gate Trainer. It is this really cool walker with lots of support. We are working on getting one for home but the process takes several months. Anyway, today he was walking with a very smooth right left right left motion. His therapist was so excited and said if she could put smiley faces in his chart she would. She said it is huge because it shows that his right and left brain are communicating through the corpus callosum- the brain matter through which interhemispheric communication happens. She said it shows that neurons are firing on the left side of his brain and that the right brain is recognizing that and communicating. That is HUGE!!!!!

My sister had the suggestion to hire a mother's helper and that was the best idea ever!!! It has helped so much with stress and worry just knowing I will have help a few hours a week. I am really grateful for her. :) I am also so grateful for all the help we have received from my parents, in laws, neighbors and church members. My mom just left this morning. This whole experience has been such a positive one in huge part because we have had soooooo much help, love and support. Thank you. Thank you.

I am really encouraged by Parker's progress. This week he seems to be making some new strides and it is exciting. He is starting to laugh and smile more, he is learning to roll, he is putting weight on his right arm regularly, his right wrist is not bending forward as much, he is interested in the world around him, he is not drooling nearly as much, the new tone medication is helping so much...

There is so much to be grateful for. And it really helps that my house is clean at the moment, dinner is leftovers and the kids are happily playing with each other. Life is good.

My husband rocks. And I am sooooooo relieved.

Neurosurgery asked for a repeat CT scan for the bone flap because the CT scan we took was not a high enough resolution.  We SPECIFIALLY did a CT while he was under anesthesia for the g tube for this exact purpose.  I followed up to make sure they were looking at the correct date since they did a 2nd quick CT the day before we left (to figure out that weird thing going on- Parker is just impatient and trying to grow his own bone.  No biggie.)

Anyway, we followed up and they said we still needed to do a high resolution scan.  This just did not feel right- so my sweet husband followed up with Neurosurgery again and explained a whole lot more... and it turns out Radiology DID do the correct scan, it was just not at full resolution in the shared system.  Radiology has all the correct data. I am SOOOOO relieved. I didn't realize how bad I did not want him to have to fast, be sedated and come out of anesthesia again, or have all that radiation until I found out I could cancel the appointment today.