Lauren got her cast put on Thursday June 14th. Since a giant cast is old hat for her, she's doing really well! She's even walking on it, which terrified me but her orthopedic surgeon said it's totally ok. Greg's going to buy a cast shoe tomorrow so she doesn't completely damage the cast by walking.
We went up north as a family (extended family! Almost 40 of us gather yearly for a week long vacation known as Wancha Week (my maiden name is Wancha). It's pretty much amazing. It's Saturday-Saturday. We had Lauren stay until Monday and then Greg's parents took her through Friday. We left Friday night to go back home so we could wake up in our own beds. I missed Lauren so much! We had planned to stay 2 nights in our camper, but went home after just one so we could go to church in the morning.
Lauren usually doesn't stay the whole time because she gets people'd out pretty quickly and doesn't really tolerate it, and she's really freaking hard sometimes. Generally we worry about elopement but we didn't have to this time (silver lining to a broken leg) Generally that means Greg and I also leave and my parents and my twin sister are watching Ryan for the rest of the trip. This year, Greg's parents offered to take Lauren so we could spend some time with Ryan and my extended family. It was so great! Ryan chose to spend time with us, even going grocery shopping with us to spend time together. He swam for hours at a time in the lake. He even went tubing behind the boat!!! This is something he would've never been able to due last year due to his anxiety. We are so proud of him
Ryan had his usually funny Ryan-isms
My aunt: Ryan, are you digging to China?
Ryan: I'm pretty sure that's a myth (totally deadpan)
My other aunt: Ryan, come help me with this (shining a flashlight on a raccoon)
Ryan: I'm not sure I'm comfortable with this!
(Ryan's half birthday was while we were on the trip)
Ryan: Ahhh, now this is how you spend a half birthday!
We were really just reminded of what a completely amazing kid we have. He was polite, he played really well with all of the other kids (my niece, nephews, and cousins' kids). He played a domino game with extended family members and I wasn't even present. He later played with one of my aunts just the two of them. He swam a ton, was really fearless. He is basically the best kid ever and I'm guilty of forgetting that a lot. He's been pretty hyperactive and wild in the evenings sometimes since we started PANDAS treatment. We'd waaayyyy rather have that than his anxiety and resulting behavior issues he had before! It's always a reminder to us of how far he's come. Even my sister noticed (she takes him a lot of places along with her boys when it's something Lauren can't do right now) a significant decrease in his social anxiety. He has been introducing himself to other kids on the playground!!!
Lauren has been a blast. She is so sweet. Since Sunday she keeps telling me "Mommy, you're so kind". It leads me to believe they must've talked about kindness at church this week. She's been super lick-y and now licks faces when she's happy. It's so gross and we're trying to break her of it! But of course it's also totally adorable. Tonight she tried to out-stubborn me by refusing to put on pajamas and demanding to watch YouTube. So instead she didn't get rocked at bedtime, nobody laid with her, and daddy did bed time. She's obsessed with me so this is the ultimate punishment for her. She told me at bedtime when I got a hug, "I promise tomorrow I will listen". And you know what? She will! This only happens once in a great while, but she remembers and really does correct her behavior. She needs tons of positive reinforcement for things to sink in, so tomorrow I will thank her for being so sweet and listening. She had a speech therapy evaluation today to get some therapy over the summer. We usually do a comprehensive program over the summer but she aged out. So she will be getting speech and OT. Our speech goals for her are articulation (though a friend we saw in the lobby today said she understood everything Lauren said, which made me so happy) and reciprocal conversation skills. Truly I never expected her to speak so well and especially not at this age. It's truly nothing we did, it's just the luck of the draw and we came out pretty dang good. The trade-off is her fine motor skills, which are really poor and why we'll do some occupational therapy. And her gross motor skills weren't great before surgery due to her foot and resulting gait issue. And they weren't great after surgery because she only walked for like 2 weeks before breaking her leg. So we'll probably try for some physical therapy once her cast comes off (She was actually supposed to start PT this week, too but the broken leg stopped that).
I've been having some weird health issues that are a little bit GI, a little bit neurological, and some significant unintended weight loss. Greg has been so amazing with all of this and not getting frustrated (at least outwardly) when I'm unable to do normal things an adult has to do. I'm so thankful he's my other half. I'm having bloodwork done tomorrow to get started on the right track for a plan to get healthy! I'd appreciate prayers if you can spare them.
I don't currently have a Facebook as I've deactivated it for the forseeable future. I still have Facebook Messanger on my phone and am always available by email (jackieweldon.jw@gmail.com).
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