This is it!

Today is our last day at CIMT! Tonight we will see everyone. Tomorrow we leave for Disney early in the morning. The therapist said she doesn't think we will need to come in tomorrow morning, so we will head on to Orlando. :) 

Jonah has continued to work hard last night and today to use righty. 

This morning we took him to play for an hour at the McWayne Science Center.

Doesn't Jonah have a great Daddy? We are so happy he could be with us this time. 

Check out righty getting chips without any reminders! 

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We've just finished therapy and Jonah did a great job. We've seen a lot of process in a week. He turned a knob about 30 degrees. Mrs. J is super proud of him and like always, we are a little sad to leave her. 

I took another pic of Jonah at therapy. He was swinging in a basket and so happy. :) He really does love it here. 

But you know what else he's gonna love? Seeing Elijah, Caroline, Caleb, Papaw and Mamaw tonight. We can't wait to see them! :-)  

I am trying to get him to tak a nap right now and I hear, "help! I stuck!" This is what I walk in to see.

He has also started telling us "I escaped!"   And he is correct. 

Love you all! Thanks for following Jonah's progress. I'm so proud of our stroke survivor. He really is a hero. 

** As always, blogging from my phone. Please forgive the typos. 

Music to my ears.

Tomorrow we get to see Jah and Mamaw, Papaw, Caroline, and Caleb! That sentence is music to my ears. 

You know what else is music to my ears?

Music, harp music, that is.

Mrs. J. Invited us in for a special music therapy session where Jonah got to meet a harpist, listen to music while doing fine motor tasks, swing with new friends and actually play the harp! We will post a video to Facebook.

We had time to kill, so we went to a bookstore to do a little homework. Puzzles and putty pulls. 

 

We are all pretty tired today. So what do you do when you are exhausted and waiting for a second round of therapy to begin? Apparently, we take selfies. 

Whatever it takes to smile folks, whatever it takes. :) 

Jonah was very, very tired in therapy which is to be expected by the Third day. He hit this large yellow ball 30 times that was pretty heavy and hanging from the ceiling. The last time we were here he could only do it 6-7 times. By the 30th time he did well but he was tired. So we had another snack and a rest. Jonah enjoyed pouring water for all of us and playing a fishing game. He caught a fish without any help using righty. 

CIMT is tiring on us, I can't imagine how he feels. But he handles it all so well.  We took the cast off at the end of therapy and will now work on bilateral skills. 

Well, we are headed back to the room for some r&r! :) 

Sending love to you all!!

Three more days til Friday...

Today has been busy. We did a lot of Jonah's homework this morning because he was pretty tired last night. 

Mrs. J told us about a pretty good breakfast joint and we even did a little homework after we ate.

These pics show how hard he works just to eat a meal and how well he is doing.  But honestly,  sometimes the best place to check for improvement is the floor. 

This is progress. This is something I'm proud of him for. This photo was taken after breakfast and as you can see most of the food made it into his belly!! It's a habit I started after our first trip to New Jersey. What started as clean up turned into an assessment of progress. 

(Yes, Daniel and I almost have the exact same shoes. No, it wasn't on purpose we are just getting old and forget what the other has.) 

Then we went downtown to the art museum. The BART has a fabulous childrens area. We relaxed, read books, ate, made guitars, and took silly photos. 

We also did a little pronation supination practice with the magnet wand. 

Take a look at my big boy drinking with righty at the art museum.

At therapy today they decided to make a night splint to give Jonah an extra stretch  to help him with supination. I both love and hate this. I love that he has such great therapists and they are so talented they can just on the spot make what he needs. But it's like everything else, I hate that he needs it. 

He worked hard at therapy and we took both him and Cookie Monster for a treat at Edgar's bakery. For dinner we rushed and ate quickly at another Mrs. J suggestion. It was in an old Dr. Pepper bottling plant. Have you noticed a pattern on these trips? We eat, therapy, treat, homework, eat, homework, sleep and repeat. 

Anyway, this is the reason rushed home!! 

Our big boy had a talent show and I wanted to be back in the hotel in time to see all of the pics and videos we'd be getting. I am so proud of you and your friends, Elijah. Mommy, daddy and Jonah watched your video and all of your pics 100 times. Mommy even cried! I know showing off your science kid skills in front of a live audience is hard but you did it!! You are gonna move mountains, Jah. "Ya did good, kid." Love you bunches!! 

And so it begins...

One person in this picture decided to get up for the day at 3:30. The other two people were forced to stay awake by being climbed on, alternatively hit and loved on, and sang to. For four hours we tried to get him to rest to no avail. We've given up and come down to breakfast. Oh, I love these two.

We got an email this morning asking us to come in early to get Jonah's cast made. Since we were all up (see above paragraph) we decided to head out early. We drove around the highlands. If we ever move to AL (and have millions of dollars), this is for sure where we will live. Seriously though, we may never live here but one of my book characters will. I've already got a few ideas. 

Of course we stopped in O'Henry's for a cup of coffee, because how could we not?

We can't take pics during therapy or the cast making because it's against the hospital rules but Jonah worked so, so hard. He now has a red and an orange cast that seem to fit him pretty well. (It takes a few days to really break them in.) He was so tired he actually fell asleep when she was making the Orange cast. 

At therapy he got to swing, stretch, do an eval, play pegs, a matching game, eat snacks, and choose stickers. Mrs. J is simply amazing with our family and him. We feel so blessed to have her work with jonah. I've already learned a better way to stretch Joe's wrist for supination. That's why we are here... To learn how to better help our boy. Jonah is talking much more now than he was the last time we were here. He did just fine with the cast at OT but the second we got to the car he said "mommy, mommy, take it off, please, mommy." I almost took it off. But I know that's not what he needs yet. I reassured him we would take it off but just not yet. Every since then he has handled it really well. This pic was taken just a couple of minutes later. I think he was just seeing if I would give in. You can see we were still in the hospital parking lot when I snapped this pic. 

 He's attempted new things. He even opened the hotel door with righty tonight.  He also asked for help when he needs it which is something we didn't see last time. Daniel and I are very proud of him. This therapy isn't easy, even for adults. Our little guy is a hero. 

Note to Jah, we talk about you all the time! We miss you terribly and count down the days until we will see you!! We are so proud to hear of the cars you built and how hard you've been practicing for your talent show. We love you!! 

*Blogging from my phone, please forgive the typos! 

Sweet Home Alabama

We are on our way back to AL for CIMT at UAB. Could I put anymore letters into that sentence? We are excited to take Joe back to work with Mrs.J but also super sad to leave Elijah at home! 

We know he's having a great time with his grandparents and cousins today but that doesn't take away the fact we'll miss him. 

Here are a few pics of us on the road again! 

Happy in Nashville! 

Taking in the view.

This was his face when he saw the rocket in AL. :) He said, "Oh, A Rocket!" 

First order of business upon arrival... Jim & Nicks BBQ!!

We will start therapy at noon tomorrow. Look for more pics then! 

**As always, I'm blogging from my phone so forgive the typos! :)

Big brother at therapy

We aren't really supposed to take pictures at therapy but they let me snap these today. I'm not sure if anyone is looking at the blog but I thought I'd share just in case. :)