Brisvegas for orthotics

We got back a few days ago from Brisbane its quite a drive from Armidale and with 2 toddlers and a teenager (squeezed into the backseat) I was prepared for it to be hellish ...but it turned out to be a great drive, we did it in 6 hours (a new record for us).

We went up to Brisbane to see a pediatric podiatrist because Cyrus has trouble with running, (he falls over when he gets speed up), he can't jump or balance on one leg. The background is that all Cys gross motor milestones have been delayed (walked at 19.5 months) and he didn't start to stringing words together until he was 33 months old but within 4 months had completely caught up to his peers, he has been alot of work this kid, lots of worry, but I should add he is so delightful and full of imagination, good humour and caring. I have been taking him to a Bowen Therapist for a couple of years now and at our last visit she thought there was something bony rather than muscular wrong with Cy which has led us to see this podiatrist in Brisvegas hoping she may have some solutions.

Before seeing the Podiatrist Cy had to have full leg xrays - this is the lead apron I had to wear, Cy said it was too heavy.

She was amazing and worked out very quickly what was wrong and how to improve things.

She explained that messages from the feet or more specifically the bones in the feet communicate to the brain where you are on the ground and the brain tells the body which muscles to use to keep balanced or move forward and if the bones of the feet are not in the right position then the information is a bit garbled and the brain engages the wrong muscles to keep balanced or move, for Cy this means he uses his hamstrings to walk ( just try it - its really hard work, and this means he has to lock his abs (his abs are rock hard), he also has kept the baby reflexes of curling over his toes if you tickle his feet - the proper reflex should be a pulling up and away motion.

I was so impressed with her that I hoped she could look at Owen too - as luck would have it someone had rung to cancel their appointment that day, and so the podiatrist saw Owen that afternoon. She said Owen is doing great, his feet are in much better organisation than Cy's, he has better tone than Cy (!!!) and he is just as hypermobile as Cy !! so there you go its not all the 47th Chromosome - its in the family genes. So Owen got a set of orthotics as well as Cy, but Cy also has night splints to wear, the splints will change those reflexes in his feet to normal (I know... I have trouble believing it too but she sayes it works).

With it being such a huge trip we decided to throw in some fun things in too after all we don't visit the big city very often.

The Museum -This dinosaur has the best name - Muttaburrasaurus, Cy sayes it "Nuttamurrasaurus"

It was sleeting at home, but in Brisbane we had warm sunshine the boys stripped off and paddled

These women from Vanuatu were doing a demo of traditional Water Drumming it sounded amazing and their voices a beautiful harmony, I love stumbling on things like this, that is what I love about going to the city.

Cy was facinated with this cement sheep out the front of a cafe

Cy loves trains he is Thomas mad, so we took a trip to the railway museum ...the things you do for your kids !

I think Owen felt a bit like I did about the Rail museum it was all a bit "ho hum"

The babbler

I have had such ups and downs the past week.

Earlier in the week I felt angry and sad that I may never have an adult conversation with Owen, its all come about because recent long and "adult like" conversations I am having with Randall (13.5yrs) it is a new level of conversation for us, he totally gets adult style humour (and is so quick witted) I am loving our conversation, but after everyone had gone to bed last night, I broke down and cried , I felt so angry, such a sense of frustration and loss. I know I am meant to be positive and have high expectations of O, but sometimes I just wonder if I am sugar-coating it, I mean REALLY what can I expect from our future conversations, will I always be talking to him like a child ? It made me feel so sad and I thumped the cushions on the couch a few times before I realised I was grieving over something that may or may not happen but why grieve over it now when he is just 2 years old. I have to put my blinkers on and just look what I have with him right now.

And what I have with Owen right now is good.

He has changed again this week, walking 95% of the time and he has started babbling again ! He hasn't babbled for over a year and it is so wonderful to hear him say Lalalalalalal, ba,ba,ba,ba Mamamamamama (first time ever saying Ma ! not to me though but so great to hear him say it) I don't know if it was due to shitty hearing or dyspraxia (thats what the SP thinking it could be) but he stopped babbling around the time he was 1 year old before that he was a prolific babbler and it sounded so musical. He got ear tubes at 18 months but babbling didn't return but then he did start saying some words so I thought the babbling was gone for good. It has been so lovely to have babbling conversations with him the past few days and now I know he can say the Maamamama sound -I knew he was holding out on me.!!

He has also changed -grown in his personality, he is more confident and is a bit of a stirrer, it has been so exciting to see these new changes, just when things seemed to be in a holding pattern, he has burst through once again and changed the game and I don't mind a bit.

lost in translation

Oh!! Kim let me know my last post - Jinx was lost in translation: a nappy is what we call a diaper but Crappy Diapers doesn't have the same ring to it as Crappy Nappies... what about Dirty Diapers instead. Owens naps are fine!! I even have Cy (3.5 years) having naps at the same time just to get 1.5 hours off a day, works out great for everyone.

Jinx

A couple of crappy nappies over the past few days :( . Knew I shouldn't have posted about it. LOL

Where's Poo?

In the early days of Googling DS I found a site that said kids with DS aren't toilet trained until 9 years of age - it was one of those shutdown the computer and have cry moments, I thought I couldn't handle it. Then after some thought I came to terms with the idea that he might not be toilet trained till then, I could handle it, my eldest didn't get night time trained until he was 6 years old and we just dealt with it in a matter of fact way and with dignity.

So ......................................to yesterday morning........................... Owen made a grunting sound and I knew number 2's were on the way, so I signed "poo" and "toilet", grabbed him by the hand and raced him the the bathroom, he sat down and signed bubble (there are bubbles printed on the potty) then did his business and signed "poo" "where??" and looked between his legs LOL. I was hooting and squealing, for him so happy:). And this morning I was sleeping in (Owen was awake at 5 am) but he signed "poo" to his Dad and gave a grunt, so Dad whisked him off the the bathroom and Success again !! (he repeated yesterdays "poo" where" signs and looked between his legs too). I dont' know the proper name for this technique ? maybe parent-led toileting ? but I have used it with my older boys and both of them mastered number 2's before 1's, then it took one of the boys 8 months to conquer number 1 and the other took just a week ! So for now I just need to get Owen telling me consistently he needs to go poo and get him there in time, I feel like its so fragile right now and I really really have to pay attention to his cues or we will miss the opportunity to knock over this (major) milestone.