Crazy, Wonderful, Stressful Months

Well hello, blog reading friends.  It’s been a while.  Life has felt like a whirlwind since the fall, so I will try to catch you up!

Getting on the bus for the first time!

September
Brent starts his new job, so Connor gets to start riding the bus to school!  He loves it and his bus driver, Mr. Randy, is so kind and awesome.  In order to comply with the district’s safety rules, Connor must be in a wheelchair in order to ride the bus.  Luckily, we find this great organization not too far away that gives away second hand wheelchairs.  We are so thankful as getting a new one probably would have taken months and cost hundreds of dollars!

Connor starts day care and does splendidly.  He really enjoys being around “typical” kids and his presence doesn’t seem to be too much of an extra hassle for the teachers.

We put an offer on a great home in Bartlett, IL.  The offer is accepted and we start thinking about the final stage of our move.

October
Connor loves preschool in Mrs. C’s class.

We meet the new orthotist who adjusts Connor’s DAFOs (ankle braces).  Everything looks great and he encourages us to keep Connor standing and walking every day.

We sign Connor up for additional therapies through Easter Seals because his service times were cut when we moved to Illinois.  He now gets a hour of OT and a hour of feeding therapy there every week.

Connor turns four!

Selfie with mommy

November

Work takes me on the road a lot this month.

Connor has his first ophthalmology appointment in Illinois.  Time for a new glasses prescription.

Brent is laid off from his job and starts another stint as stay at home dad.

November 30^th we close on our new home.  Yippee!

December

Clara turns 10!

Connor starts using a gate trainer a little bit each day at school.

Both kids participate in St. Paul’s Christmas program.  They are behind adorable.  Clara loved playing bells and singing in the choir. 

The kids say goodbye to beloved teachers and friends. Three days before Christmas and we do the move from Villa Park to Bartlett.

January

Clara and Connor start new schools to mixed reviews.

Feeding Connor has been rough the last few months.  He often refuses food and we end up reading a book, singing or telling a story to get him to eat.  We’re right back to where we were before all this transition started.  I’ve reached out to therapists and doctors for some tips on how to curb this behavior issue and I’m hoping that we can get it figured out in the next month or so.  The good news with feeding is that Connor is now eating almost 100% “regular” food – no more purees!

Connor changes classrooms three weeks into his time at the new school and things are going great.  His therapists are really challenging him.  Most notably, they have found a communication system that seems to be working.  We have been asking speech therapists to help him communicate for 15 months and no one has been able to find a system that works.  Now Connor has a board with 20 buttons that he can use to communicate what he wants and needs.  He got the hang of it really quickly and we are hoping to add more words soon!  I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to see him point to the pictures to make a sentence.  He is so proud of himself and we are filled with hope that this just might be the answer.

So it’s been a crazy few months. Wonderful, busy, hard, joyful, stressful months.  We are so thankful to finally have this move behind us and look forward to all that 2016 will bring!