Sebastian's Turn

Sebastian continues to work on walking with the Physical therapists and we are seeing the fruits of our labor. On Saturday, Sept. 17th around 2pm Sebastian took 2 steps on his own from the couch to his PawPaw sitting next to him.

It's been a wonderful crazy week.

We also heard back from the Neurosurgeon. The fluid in Sebastian's brain appears to be getting smaller. He does not need surgery. They aren't even going to try and drain the fluid. We don't have to see the neurosurgeon again, unless he starts getting worse.

So it's Sebastian's turn now to make all kinds of leaps and bounds in terms of walking and talking and all the other stuff he's been learning at record speed. He's crawling around at mach speed. His trunk muscles are gaining strength as are the muscles in his legs, hips and hands. His gross motor skills are starting to catch up. He's going in so many directions that I think he tires himself out just trying to recover as fast as he can.

Sebastian is also trying to say his first words. Right now he is using words and signs to communicate. He can say Mama and Dada and Daddy(which is more like "Dah-Deeeeee") . Where did I get Southern kids. Austin's pig sounds have 2 syllables. I bet you didn't know a pig says "Ohy-Ink". Now Sebastian sounds like a spoiled debutante asking for some ridiculously expensive dress that she won't wear but has to have right now.

Anyway, back to the update. Sebastian will sign "more" when he wants more. He can also sign ball and eat. We have also been able to get him to quack like a duck, say Moo! for a cow and bark for a dog. Although he refuses to open his mouth to Moo or bark so they are very soothing and quiet moos and arfs for the cow and dog. Too bad he can't do this when he decides to scream at the top of his lungs. Let me assure you, the boy has lungs and he ain't afraid to use them. I can only hope that this means he's trainng for a career as a singer in a rock band.

We continue to get good news from the therapists. We are down to twice a month with the Speech therapist and will probably be done with Speech therapy by the middle of October. If all continues to go well with Occupational Therapy we will be done on the 4th of October. And the Physical Therapist is hoping to get Sebastian down to 2x's a month by next month. This is dependent on Sebastian's progress with walking. He still drags his left foot and needs to increase the strength in his left hip and leg. I forsee some one on one with Mommy so that he can work out that left leg.

I just can't believe how wonderful he looks and how well he is progressing. I just have to keep believing that he is going to make a full recovery and that he won't have any lasting injuries or issues other than the scar on his head. And we all have scars from our childhood. It's a miracle any of us makes it to adulthood what with the crazy things we do as kids.....and as adults.

I guess this is just part of the rites of passage in this life. Our baby is already proven he is a mighty warrior and the world had better stand up and take notice because he's going to conquer it.

Sebastian and Rachel Turn 1

Yes it seems hard to believe but Rachel and Sebastian turn 1 today. It has been one wonderful and scary year for all of us. It's seems like just yesterday I was telling Weldon that we are a family of 5 and NOT a family of 4 and I didn't care what the doctors were saying or not saying. I would not accept anything short of a full recovery and all 3 of my kids happy and at home.

What a difference a couple of months makes.

We are extremely grateful to everyone.

In lieu of all the past few month's craziness, we opted for a small party with just family. We funded a small country with the kid's birthday cakes. But like I rationalized the expense to Weldon, it's just once and next year they get a homemade cake. It's their first birthday and we all deserved to have some sinfully delicious cake from Lucy's Cakes here in Austin. If you've never had one of their cakes...You should. They are the best cakes. OMG@! good.

Lots of good BBQ and funny, silly twins and it's officially a party.

Rachel tried to grab the flame on her birthday candle. She then proceeded to eat her cake in very ladylike fashion. Small bites with hardly any frosting on her.

Sebastian dug in with gusto. He grabbed chunks of cake and then decided to take out the middle man and dove face first to eat his cake. Just like the silly boy he is turning into.

On Monday, Sept. 4th at about 9pm Rachel took her first steps. She turned from standing in front of the TV and walked 5 steps towards me when I called her.

Sebastian continues to shun the thought of walking now. I think he knows that the Physical Therapist is wanting him to walk and he's just not interested. Otherwise he's doing great and continues to recover and improve.

So we now have some of the silliest kids on the face of the earth. They love each other and are even trying to start their own wrestling federation. Life was good for a little while even if we still can't take them out for a walk or to the park by ourselves. Baby steps. We will get through this and soon it'll be a horrible nightmare that we mock and turn into theater.

Happy Birthday Sebastian!!!!
Happy Birthday Rachel!!!!!

You have no idea how much we love you and how much the world out there loves you.

Finally some good news

WE CAN SLEEP IN OUR OWN HOUSE.

The CPS case worker called this week to let us know that Weldon and I passed our Psych. Evaluation. She told us that the Psychologists were at the same place that CPS is at and that they don't have any real concerns right now. So we are now able to sleep at home and we can take Sebastian to the Doctor's offices and appointments without supervision. This is great because it means that we don't have to load up the whole family and drive over to the Children's Hospital 3 times a week so that Sebastian can do his therapy sessions. It means that Austin and Rachel don't have to entertain themselves in a waiting room for an hour everytime we go to the Hospital.
We still have to have someone with us at all times and they've asked that we not do anything else unsupervised. It's a step and hopefully we will soon be able to get back to normal.

And to add to the good news, Sebastian just continues to show these doctor's up. His Occupational Therapy has been reduced to once a month. His Speech Therapy is on schedule to be completed by the end of September. The Physical Therapist is hoping to drop his sessions to twice a month but that won't start until after we determine what is going to be done with the fluid build up in Sebastian's brain.

All in all it has been a great week and a great way to celebrate the Twins' First Birthday.

Caution up ahead

We've had some good days and Sebastian has made tremendous progress in some areas. So our visit to the neurologist and a review of Sebastian's MRI was a big reminder that we have a sick little kid.

The most recent MRI reveals that Sebastian still has a small amount of blood from his injury and more worrisome is that he also has some fluid built up on the right side of his brain. As a result, we are meeting with a neurosurgeon to discuss what steps we take from here.

The options are leave it alone and see if it resolves itself on its own or more surgery to remove the excess fluid. Neither is real comforting. We don't want to put Sebastian through more hospital time and surgeries if we can help it but at the same time we worry about the pressure the fluid is putting on Sebastian's growing brain.

I guess we wait to see what the pediatric neurosurgeon has to say.