September 2014

apple picking

Before I begin the next chapter of our story, I would like to thank those who have been reading our blog and joining us on our journey. It’s sometimes difficult to open up our lives to potential scrutiny, but it’s been nothing but a positive experience so far. It’s always nice to hear that someone has learned something new from reading our blog or that they have gained a new appreciation for the unknowns that some families go through. I consider our journey only a slightly bumpy one. It’s hard to put into words sometimes how far Nate has come, or even as far as we have come as a family. There are always days that are more difficult than others, but we are starting to enjoy many more happy days than tough ones. A day at a time; that’s all we can do!

September of 2014 was a busy month and full of changes for all of us! We finished off the month of August celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary at Tanglewood listening to Josh Groban. We took my Mom with us as a way to thank her for all of her support over the past year and a half. She absolutely LOVES Josh Groban and it was and still is a priceless memory to have. Nathan finished his time at daycare and at early intervention.  He could not have made the strides he did without these two programs in his life. Daycare allowed him to practice being away from me and lessened his anxiety levels each day. Early intervention, although a slow process for him, allowed him to play with another adult and learning some very important coping strategies when dealing with his anxiety. Although we were all sad to see this part of his life go, we were all excited to see him off to his next challenge: pre-school! It was helpful that he had already been watching Benjamin attend preschool and everyone knew him there. It was a friendly and familiar place.

First day of preschool!

We celebrated Nate’s 3rd birthday twice: once with all of our playgroup families and once with our family. Every birthday celebrated is a little more special now.

Happy 3rd birthday Nate!

Nate continued to learn new things and started taking more chances. He finally took a ride on our utility vehicle and even took some swings with a golf club. Benjamin was very happy for Nate about both of them! He began to love washing his hands (almost to obsession) and started jumping off of things (a normal thing for most 3 year old boys, but huge for Nate!). 

Let the jumping begin!

first ride on the ranger

His sleep patterns were not getting any better and we were starting to lose our minds! Toward the end of September, we had two scary events. The first was when Nate fell 5 feet backwards off of the playscape at the park. It still takes my breath away when thinking about it. It’s one of those things that, as a Mom, happens in slow motion and no matter how quickly you move, you can’t stop it from happening. He landed directly on his back and the back of his head. Thankfully, he calmed down within 15 minutes and was ok. I put in a call to his pediatrician regardless. They didn’t want to see him unless he was showing signs of a concussion or something else, which he never showed so we made it through that one unscathed. Two days later, he fell off the couch and began to complain his arm was hurting. We decided to make a quick run into the doctor, just to be sure it wasn’t broken. Thankfully, it wasn’t and they didn’t make us to an X-Ray either! We finished off the month with a successful post-surgical follow up trip to the ENT. His hearing was good and the tubes were in place.





We also decided to design gray bracelets in honor of Nate. On one side, they said, "Nate the Great," and on the other side, "Strength Courage Hope." We hope to start raising some funds for pediatric brain tumor research. We raised $600 in the first two weeks of ordering the bracelets. Simply amazing!

a beautiful picture given to us by our cousins who are all wearing Nate the Great bracelets

 
“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving; we get stronger and more resilient.” - Dr. Steve Maraboli