Where did those last 7 months go?! Ryder Recap :)

You know when you leave something for so long, time passes by, then you have why too much to say and have no clue where to start?... No?... Well it happens to me all the time and that's exactly where I am with Ryder's blog. Gotta start somewhere so here we go.

A Quick recap of the last 7 MONTHS... (wow, 7? yeah. crazy.)

Ryder loves Stepping Stones (his ABA therapy "school" for autism) I haven't noticed much change in him but I am still on the fence if I truly agree with the diagnosis... Regardless he loves it, they work on goals and skills linked to his CP and "labels" really don't scare me anymore. He started "group" last week and already they are bumping him up to the next stage because his social skills were far superior to those of his peers in that group. I am excited to see how he does in the next group with the older kids who have similar goals. He is such a sponge right now and is taking EVERYTHING in, it's so fun to watch him learn and grow.

We received some exciting (and scary) news on our last visit to Montreal. Ryder has been accepted as a good candidate for the Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy Surgery (SDR)! (Click the link for info) We did our research and feel that this is the best option for Ryder and although scary we cant pass up this opportunity. We are waiting on the surgery date but it will be happening in either June or July of this year!! We will be packing up and living in Montreal for 6-8 weeks, as the rehab program is very extensive. Ryder and I will be staying at the Shriners Hospital and Tyler and Jagger will be staying at the Ronald McDonald house, which thankfully is less than twenty minutes away from the hospital. The link above is from St.Louis Childrens Hospital but it has all the information about the surgery with diagrams and such. I found it very informative. When we get to come home the rehab continues and he will be receiving 3 days a week physiotherapy along with daily home therapy. It will be a lot, we know this but we are very excited for the possible outcomes.

Recently Ryder went through a growth spurt and his legs got extremely tight. That combined with the winter temperatures and snow it was almost impossible for Ryder to use his walker (and we can just forget about those canes.) Our space at home is very limited, so during these months Ryder rarely gets to "walk". The snow has finally melted away and we have been able to get back out to the parks and stretch those legs. We bumped up his physio to once a week because really there is nothing else we can do until surgery and I need to know in my heart we are doing EVERYTHING we can. I have noticed some small improvements but it really is heartbreaking to see what a growth spurt can do to a little one with CP. They work so hard to gain these skills, then *poof *gone just like that. I know he can get it back it will just take time. He had been making so much progress with his canes. He could walk from one end of our place to another and even started using them outside. Now he can only manage a few steps. Spacticity sucks.

For those of you that read about Ryder but don't know our family personally, you may be wondering who Jagger is. In November we welcomed our third baby boy to our little family, Jagger Vaughn! Ryder is such an amazing big brother and I know Wyatt is watching over him and did his part to make sure he came safely into this world. Ryder loves to give Jagger horsey back rides and cant wait until he is able to move around and "race".

Well I think that covers the main stuff and hopefully now I can stay on top of it!

I may put together and post some collages of photo's from the last 7 months too, I feel like I missed a lot...