It's a Good Day

We had a yummy breakfast at Central Market Cafe, followed by a stroll through the Zilker Garden Festival at the Zilker Botanical Gardens. Now, with bellies full of Zilker nachos, we're on the Zilker Zephyr for a train ride through the park!

What more could we ask for? Maybe a bit of sunshine, that's it.

First Day of School

Bryce had his first day of "school" today - he began his two days per week schedule at Bright Star Academy.

As you can see, it was no big deal to Bryce. Mommy on the other hand nearly had a panic attack, despite several visits over a shortened day, spying via the lobby cameras and never being more than 5 miles away.

Barreling Into Our Lives

I believe that most of our readers are familiar with Bryce's tumultuous beginnings and most of you also know that there are a hand full of organizations that I credit with helping us to get through the hardest time in our lives. One such organization is Hand to Hold, a local Austin non-profit that works solely with the parents of preemies by providing resources, peer mentoring and community to a group that tend to otherwise feel thrust out into a world of doctors, therapists and special needs all alone.

Well, this month we are the highlight family for Hand to Hold's website. Please take a second to refresh yourself on the story that brought you to us all those months ago and consider supporting this amazing organization:

Barreling Into Our Lives

Wait a minute!

What happened to my little baby!?

New Year, New Bryce

With 2010 soundly behind us I now have the ability to look back at a full year of having Bryce home with us. We were busy, busy, busy trying to help him be all that he can be (to knock off the army).

We had 52 straight weeks of physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, dietician counseling, doctor visits and specialist check ups. We also had some real moments of panic and some very real moments of awe. We learned that just because there is a tried and true way to teach a CP preemie how to do new things there also may be an equally effective alternative. We've spend a lot of time pushing, pushing, pushing only to be left frustrated and defeated. But then a week later see the fruits of our labor come into a full bloom.

And so, as this new year begins we begin anew with our efforts to afford Bryce every opportunity we possibly can to be the best Bryce he can be. We have the support of our tireless family, some wonderful organizations (Hand to Hold, March of Dimes, Graham's Foundation) and the best therapists we could possibly ask for to help us navigate this winding road.

What on the itinerary for 2011, you ask? Well, crawling. And sitting. And words. And eventually, hopefully walking.

In 2010 we witnessed Bryce progress from essentially being a newborn on oxygen with serious feeding issues, who just so happened to actually be 6 months old, to being developmentally a 6 month old who rolls, babbles, mimics and loves to make you laugh. It's not as much change as a "normally developing" baby would make in a year but it's truly remarkable for Bryce.

Unfortunately, for Bryce we now know how much he is capable of. And so our immediate goal is to put almost, kind of sitting and rolling as a means of transportation behind us to focus on a Bryce who sits at will for extended periods of time and uses crawling as his means of getting where he wants when he wants.

And we're off to a great start already. My dad and I are working on an "anti-rolling device" that will make rolling impossible for Bryce while on the floor. He mostly hates it but as you can see from the videos from yesterday with the prototype, he's taking "baby steps" already.

Just One Good Push



Progress

We thank you all for continuing to stick by us as 2010 flew by and 2011 begins. May you all have a wonderful, productive and rewarding new year!