Tears of Joy Today

Today was Bryce's second day of summer camp and I honestly didn't expect a thing. 

I most certainly didn't expect to peak around the corner to his classroom at pick up and see him WALKING!!

The look of pride and joy on his face was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. 

He was holding a loose piece of rope in both hands, I'm not clear on that method yet, and his conductor was walking backwards in front of him. She counted two steps and then gently touched his chest, reminding him to stop and find his balance. They did this for at least 6 steps before he got to me. It was amazing and I balled like a baby. 

Another mom put her arm around me, totally understanding the significance of the moment. She said it's hard to put into words the amazing things they do here and I said we could go home today and this would all be a success in my mind!

I can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store for our Bryce!!

We Made It!

What a trip?!

We are officially in Grand Rapids and more or less settled in. Caleb is right now flying back to Austin, the boys are sound asleep in their "cribs" and I have a boat load of work to catch up on.

Just wanted to take a second to let everyone know we arrived safely and Bryce's first day of camp was great. He had a huge grin on his face when we picked him up this afternoon and the first thing he did was show off how well he can stand on his own for the entire classroom's parents.

I'll post more later but so far so good!

Goodnight Bryce

As I lay you down to sleep
You hold me tight -
And I remember when

As I tuck you in tonight
I remember when I had to leave

You are so big and brave today
But wasn't it just yesterday?

Yesterday you lie so still
Always awaiting my return
I'd wipe your brow, say a silent prayer
That tomorrow you might lay with me

Now you're three, almost four, years old
But always my sweet boy you'll be

No matter how much you grow
Or how old we are
My baby I will always see

Fighting so, for your life
Now you'd never know

But mommies can't forget
Don't want to

I relish every hug and kiss
Awaiting your sweet words to me

Thank you for teaching me so patiently
What life really is to be.

We're IN!!!!!

It's official.  After much too much anticipation and excruciating waiting, waiting and more waiting...I just received Bryce's letter of acceptance from the Conductive Learning Center in Grand Rapids, MI. 

He'll be attending their 2013 Summer Camp in the Early Childhood Group.

Can I just say, "YAY YAY YAY YAY...."!  We are beyond thrilled!

And then can I further say thank you again to each one of you who has supported us in the endeavor, reached into your pockets and donated for Bryce or even simply helped spread the word.  I feel immensely blessed to be able to pay the $800 deposit by March 29th and the remaining $2000 tuition balance by April 15th without stress.

I know I've said this before, but I just have to say it again.  I honestly never dreamed that we would raise all of the funds necessary for this adventure.  I just assumed we'd raise as much as we could and then start selling kidneys, or whichever organs fetch the highest dollar, to pay the remainder.

My kidneys thank you.  As does my heart.

With a heart full of gratitude and excitement,

Communicating with a Non Verbal Three Year Old

We still don't know anything about Bryce's acceptance into the Conductive Learning Center's summer camp in Grand Rapids. So I'm going to do a little distracting with tonight's post.

You've heard it a bajillion times before: communication is key. And it's so true. Though many of us struggle with it for one reason or another.  Bryce struggles with it daily, hourly maybe even from minute to minute.  Thankfully, it doesn't seem to bother him nearly as much as you would imagine.  And no where near as much as it would bother me!

But I digress.

What I'm getting at is there are some exciting things on the horizon.  Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to attend a communication workshop for children with visual impairments along with Bryce's teacher, vision instructor and school speech pathologist.

I think they all already knew everything Phillip Sweagert had to say that day.  But I learned a LOT.  And even better, I got the chance to spend an entire day talking about Bryce with some very special ladies.  I have to say as well, amongst the 5 districts with children in the workshop that day none of the others had parents in attendance.  Leander was there with two children, Bryce and a middle-schooler, both of whom had entire teams on hand that included moms. 

Now I could assume that Leander has some pretty special moms, and while I don't doubt that, I fully believe Leander has some pretty amazing special needs teams.  As a matter of fact, the lead speech pathologist for Region XIII, who hosted the workshop, took video of Bryce's teachers materials to share with the other 59 districts in the region as an example!

Now if I could just get that amazing system together at home and actually use it we might be getting somewhere.  But it just ain't ever that simple.  I've got a lot of work to do and very little extra time to do it in.  I'm excited though and can't wait to get it going and share the process with any other special needs moms out there that might be struggling through these same challenges.

Anywho.  I said there were exciting things and that wasn't even it.  So here are the top 3 reasons I'm excited about Bryce's communication right now:

1. While at hippotherapy this week, Bryce's PT reported that he used 3 signs together without prompting.  He signed, "Go horse, please."  Not only is he using more signs but he's bossy and polite about it.  I knew that kid was mine.
2. Bryce's teacher reports that yesterday he was trying to get her to do something with her.  She didn't understand what he wanted so he used his walker to walk to her, grab her hand and proceed to pull her in the direction he wanted her to go.  That doesn't seem like a big thing but it's a whole box on the communication matrix, y'all!  And going that extra step to really try to get his point across, well, well that takes me to 3...
3. Today I earned the mommy of the year award when I bribed Bryce with a package of 2 Oreo cookies in order to get him to take a nap.  He came home from school wound up like a top and I knew if he didn't get a nap soon it would bad.  Really, really bad.  So I used my tools of persuasion, what can I say?  Of course, I had to deliver after he napped.  But you wouldn't believe how quickly that skin and bones kid can take down to Oreos.  And when they were gone he was using his "B" sound to get my attention and furiously signing more.  I kept explaining to him that there weren't any more cookies (it's no accident we don't keep cookies in the house).  I'm not sure if he didn't understand or just didn't want to hear what I was saying but he began to cry.  Again I explained and again he signed more.  Then out of frustration he picked up the tiniest little crumb of a cookie, held it out for me to see and then signed more in the most assertive way I have ever seen him sign anything.  We still didn't have cookies but I promptly got him some organic chocolate graham bunnies.  

All three of these things seems small and inconsequential but I'm telling you, my mommy intuition is working in over drive and I have a good feeling that these are building blocks.

I'm so excited I could go buy some Oreos right now.

Well, that's all for today.  Sorry there isn't more to say about summer camp.  But I'll be in touch.