One year later

You know that thing people say to fat, tired, exhausted moms....."Be in the pictures with your family, one day you will wish you had, it doesn't matter what you look like!" Well hot freaking dog! I wish I had more pictures of me and this kid! We had our family pictures taken just a few months before Michaels accident. The whole reason we had someone else do our pictures is because I am NEVER in the pictures. I look at this picture and I realize how true that "motto" or whatever you want to call it, really is.

I look at this picture and I can't help but smile. I can feel his sweetness, I can see his quirkiness, his personality seriously gleams through this picture, really every picture he is in. His lavender hair, his spiky black earrings, his edgy dress shirt with skinny tie, with his black beaded necklace wrapped around his wrist as a bracelet. I miss him so much, I see a picture from before the accident and I look at him now and it is so hard to see that they are one in the same. This sweet smile is in there, somewhere. We just have to wait a little longer to see it again! But when it happens, I swear to you, it will be the sweetest moment of my life. Its one thing to look at your newborn and have your heart melt because of the love you have for them, a love you didn't even know was possible. But I imagine that when you learn that love, and then are forced to know how close you were, to never see that smile again, it grows a much much stronger love inside of you. And so when I get my smile again, My heart will be full <3

On to Michael and his recovery. :-) As many of you know, we were extended at rehab for one more week due to medical reasons. So while it wasn't for the reasons that I wanted another week, I will take what I can get. Thats another week of hard core therapy. :-) So that is one more week for him to start making progress. So now we are set to go home on the 14th.

So in therapy, they are trying to get him to respond to different things, one of the things they do is small commands. In the hopes that he will start following them. So the other day she told me to tell him to open his hands, because he always has them in the fist position. So I said "Michael, open your hand" ....you have to wait ten seconds to give him a chance to respond...."Michael, open your hand" And he tried. He moved the bottom three fingers out. We were excited but if it was a one time thing then it isnt really impressive. So she watched his hand the rest of the session to make sure that it wasn't a movement that he was doing all the time, and it wasn't. So at the end of the session she told him to open his hand and he did! Then she went on a mini vacation, today she was back and he did it AGAIN, then we were meeting with a different therapist and I told her about it and she said "Michael, open your hand" annnnnnnnnnd, you guessed it....he opened his hand! So while he isn't doing it ALL the time and he doesn't follow any other commands, it is a start and I am super stoked!

He also got his first set of botox injections, yes that is right, I said botox. They have upped his muscle relaxers to the max and his muscles are still very stiff, so botox is the next treatment. I have only heard great things about this treatment, so I am excited to see the results. On Friday they removed all three of his casts because it was upsetting him too much (scary high blood pressures) so now they are going to let the botox kick in and then recast him on Friday and Monday.
Why are they using botox? 
Botulinum toxin A is a protein produced by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum, the same bacteria that causes botulismfood poisoning. When injected into muscle in tiny amounts, botulinum A (Botox) can stop or reduce muscle spasm by blocking nerve signals to the muscle. This treatment has been used since the early 1990s to relieve severe muscle spasms around the eyesand in the neck, arms, legs, hands, and feet. Some people with cerebral palsy have gained significant relief from severe muscle contraction with botulinum toxin injections.

He looks scared, must have heard us talking about him getting shots :-) Opps. Hopefully within the next two days we will see some relief from this treatment. 

Michael also got his first real shower in 7 and a half weeks. This was a big thing for me because I have been aching to give him a shower since about day four. I am going to say that he enjoyed it. I let him lounge around in his towel ;-) Then I dried him and rubbed lotion all over him. 

Now he can tell his uncle Mike that he got a shower by two exotic women :-) One is from Morocco and I think the other from the Philippines :-) 

Now he is nice and clean! 

Also a lot of people have been asking about his head surgery. They called today and set an appointment for his CT scan and then an immediate follow up appointment with the surgeon, I assume they will set a surgery date after they read the scan and give him an exam. So that will be set for the 20th. Which leads into the next question everyone is asking. What are we doing for thanksgiving? We arent sure. We normally stay home for thanksgiving and cook our dinner with the kids. But Im not sure that cooking is going to happen, maybe, I might surprise myself :-) But we will be brand new to the new life that we are getting to live, so with the transition and the holidays....not sure what is going to be going on. All I know is we should be home and we should be together. So I am sure we will figure something cool with the kids. 

I will leave you guys with one of my new fav pictures of Michael. Obviously I am the one that has to position him and re position him in bed, because he can't do it himself, but man, this picture looks just like him sleeping in his own bed, I feel like I should wake him up for school or something. <3

Oh and I almost forgot to show you guys our new sidewalk at home. We are getting the house ready for our new life. Wheelchair ready! 

Love you guys!