Just stuff..

Hello all..
It's been a little while. Sammie and I have been very very busy! Story of everyone's life!
Sammie has been doing great! We just moved..only down the street but Sammie seems to like the new place. I love it..my last place was on the third floor and while I'm sure the two fights of stairs were part of my daily workout I am NOT missing them!!
My little Sammie has been sitting up on his own for like 15 minutes at a time. I have even left him sitting unattended for a few minutes.
He still loves to be on his feet and I have him walking around (with my assistance of course) as often as possible! He takes excellent steps with help! I have noticed more frustration lately. If a toy rolls away and it's not within arms length, he will try to roll and get it and then sometimes he gets angry enough that he shimmys over to it or he gets up on his knees (not his hands) and pushes off his knees. So he is certainly trying to master the art of problem solving. While it breaks my heart to see him try so hard it also makes me feel happy that he is trying to solve/fix the problem!
He's eating pretty well! A lot of the same stuff still. I want to chat with his doc about the pediasure..there's a lot of sugar in it and he has been drinking it for a year and a half now. He LOVES chocolate chip cookies and goldfish. I think he would live on those if I let him!
We ran into his old PT and she couldn't believe how much he had grown into a little boy! He is very long and still a little bean pole! It always amazes me when people tell me he's huge. He's 28 months and only 19 pounds..that is tiny..I mean he's long but very skinny..little twig limbs =)
We are currently trying to raise money for the March of Dimes. Our goal this year is $1000. If you would like to make a donation you can find us on the March of Dimes page under team Sammie Wammies...go ahead check it out!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A New Year..

It's been just a little while since my last post about my Sammie! We've been very busy with the holidays and I'm happy to say we survived another year!

It's been a crazy...busy year to say the least!

I'm sure we had at least 40 something specialist appointments and 100's of therapy appointments! But all is well and Sammie is doing wonderfully! He did have a couple of minor surgeries this year and all went well with those! He also got hearing aides which seem to have helped him a lot!

We had a lovely holiday but I'm not sure Sammie likes Christmas all that much! He woke up, opened one toy and only wanted to play with that one so he got angry every time we tried to have him open another one! We had a big family party to go to that day and he just kinda tuned out and fell asleep for the most part! We're pretty quiet around here so the big parties can be overwhelming for him! We did go back to Grammy's house after the party though where I enjoyed a nap (I was a bit under the weather) and Sammie enjoyed a soothing rocking chair with his GG! Thank you GG! While we enjoyed visiting everyone we are happy to be home and back into our normal routine..if you can call it that!!

I just want to remind you all how very special you are to me. Sammie and I are surrounded by wonderful people! We have to best family! They are ALWAYS there for us...they have done so many things for us and supported us through all the good and bad times we've had over the last year. They helped me get to the annual 1P36 conference and some of them were even able to come with me to meet my other family =) I can't possibly express the gratitude and love I have for the people in my family.

To my 1P36 family who I check in on everyday..who answer all my questions and take the time to respond to my posts. I would be so lost without their guidance, love and support. I feel truly blessed to have them in my life..even if I haven't met some of them!

To my friends..old and new..who are there for me everyday..who bring some normalcy into my life and help make me feel as happy as I do.

When I look back on this year..I have no regrets..when I look to this new year I have hope, love and happiness! Thank you again to all of you and I hope you all have the most wonderful year.

Hugs xoxo

Hearing Aids

Just wanted to let everyone know that we are adjusting to the hearing aids pretty well! I am getting faster and placing them and he only pulls them out once a day! I do have to keep and eye on that! They don't seem to bother him much. He does yell while I put them in but that's probably because I'm holding him down!

We put our Christmas tree up on Saturday! I thought Sammie would love staring at all the lights but I think he could care less about it! Oh well! At least he's not pulling the decorations off! That's the cats job!

Sammie's 6 month evaluation for Early Intervention is this Friday. I'm excited to have all his therapists in the room all at once to discuss his successes and new goals. He has been doing sooooo good! Sitting up, balancing himself better, drinking from his cups on his own, bringing both hands to mid line to grab something!!!!! I'm very excited! We are going to increase his speech from 2 days to 4 days a week. We're hoping with the help of the hearing aids this will help him make more sounds! I think I will increase everything but want to see what my schedule will look like. We are always busy with something! :)

Hope you are all enjoying the holiday season! I'm very excited to go to Vermont and spend a whole 5 days with my family!!

Update..

Update
Sammie had an appointment with his Cardiologist and Neurologist yesterday at Fletcher Allen. It never fails that the days I need to drive an hour or two are the days that it decides to snow out! It wasn't bad though!

We were in Burlington the day before for Darby's appointment and while we were waiting we saw Dr. Johnston. She was the Neo-natal physician that treated Sammie in the NICU and also saw him up until about 6 months ago. She couldn't believe how big he was and how much he had changed! She was very pleased to see him! He can put a smile on anyones face! :)

So yesterday we saw Dr. Drucker, his Cardiologist, first. She also hasn't seen him in 6 months. She was so happy to see him sitting up and standing (with my assistance of course!) and playing and making noise. She couldn't believe how much energy he had. I told her she hadn't seen anything! haha! She checked him over, answered all my questions, asked me questions, changed some medication doses and told us she'd see us in 6 months! woo hoo! I love those visits..where it's more a visit then anything else!

Next he saw Dr. Kalsner, his Neurologist. He had passed out for his nap by this time so she decided not to wake him. After all, Dr. Drucker had already poked around him! Since he has now been off the seizure medication for a year and we have not seen any seizure like activity she said we don't need to see her again unless something comes up! Another huge WOO HOO! So a big Thank you shout out to Dr. Kalsner and all her nurses that took such wonderful care of my Sammie Sam! We will miss you dearly, but hope we only see you in the hallways or if you pop in to say hello at a different appointment!

So great news this week. He has his two year check-up on Friday! Busy busy week here and next week will be also because of Thanksgiving! Hope you all have a great Holiday!
Chow!

Another day in the life of...

Hello all!
We've been having some beautiful weather up here in the North Country! Hope it's the same where you are..or even nicer!
Sammie and I will be venturing to Glens Falls, NY in the morning for our first hearing aide visit. We were supposed to go a couple of weeks ago but couldn't because of a snow storm. Not where we live but South of us..where we needed to go! So we'll be off bright and early for that! Hopefully I have everything I need in order for that and if I don't then I guess they'll tell me when I get there!
On a sad note..Sammie's PT has decided to leave Early Intervention :( I certainly respect her decision but will miss her. Sammie and I have become pretty attached to her in the past two years. She is the best in Plattsburgh and I know you all think I'm a bias but everyone who know her knows how dedicated she is to the families she works with and how wonderful she is with the children. She will be deeply missed by our family.
Sammie has been doing good! I'm really trying to keep him up on his feet as much as I can. We're really trying to get him into a crawling position when we work with him. Still working on him grabbing his own bottle..he was doing it a while back but gets mad whenever you try to make him do it now. Not sure what that's about. Still hates water, juice and anything other than Pediasure. I keep trying and hope we never have a pediasure shortage!
I wanted to post some pics of him in his Halloween costume..he was a dragon, but I forgot my camera and when we got back he was sleeping. I will try to remember to put him back in it sometime this week so I can get some photos! He was soooo cute!
He has his 2 year physical next week along with a visit to the Cardiologist and Neurologist for check-ups. Still can't believe it's been 2 years but thats what his birth certificate says so I'm gonna go with it! So I will post the news from those. That will be a looooong week. We will be at Fletcher Allen all day on Monday for Darby, she has Chrones and we're meeting a couple of other people for her team and then Sammie's all day Tuesday with his team, Friday with the Pediatrician and of course Early Intervention everyday, work for me everyday and Oh..looking at my Calendar.... a very special Happy 5th Birthday coming up for Isaiah..one of my fave nephews! wheeeeww Busy!
Chow!