No were to go but up!

Devin had an eye doctor's appointment and an appointment with the Orthopedic doctor that included x-rays of his hips.

Often kids with Hydrocephalus have some issues with eyes because of the water pressure present in their head, but today Devin was given a good report on his eyes. The eye doctor is also able to detect early problems with a shunt by looking at the optic nerve and this too looked good and indicated no problems (lets keep praying for this).

The Orthopedic doctor was very pleased with Devin's hips once again. She said "Considering how his hips started out, I am very pleased with how they look". Before this appointment we were considering cutting back on the visits from the physical therapist because Devin was doing everything any other child could do without standing and the doctors orders were "No Standing". The orders given today were wear the brace ONLY AT NIGHT (previously off only 4 hours a day), begin standing (using a piece of equipment called a stander) and working towards walking. Pretty much a green light.

I was not expecting this because last time she had indicated we could continue with the brace and no standing up until 18 months without concern, but Devin has been a very busy boy. 2 months ago when the Orthopedic saw him last, he was doing very little crawling, but he has increased that to crawling all over the house to the point that we had to start putting gates up. In the pictures he is "tall kneeling". Although he has been doing a little of this with and without the brace, after having the brace off all day he did it next to the play table many times (10+) within 15 minutes.












Finally after 14 months we can tap into that large wardrobe Cooper had at this age! We are so excited to see what he can do next!

GO HAWKS! Go Matt!

Winhawks are on their way to a winning season. Must be because of their awesome fans!

Vikings Training Camp

Just thought I would put a post about the Vikings Training Camp as several people had asked us about it (you can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger). We actually did not spend a lot of time just sitting and watching the team practice as Cooper and Allie were not too interested in that. Allie spent quite a bit of time in the Craft tent (coloring, making bead bracelets & necklaces, blowing bubbles & making things with foam stickers). Cooper did the Youth Football Clinic with the MSU football players (the amount of children present did not allow Cooper to participate in all the skills) and was fortunate enough to get a ticket that allowed him to get Jared Allen's autograph on an over priced miniture helmet.

I Like to Move it, Move it!

Devin makes progress every day! His Ilfeld Splint has broken once and is almost broken to the point that he will not be able to wear it so we plan to try and get it fix tomorrow. The video is without the Splint (part of his 4 hours of freedom a day). The AFO's (ankle, foot orthotics) have not really slowed him down at all. He goes in, in about a month to get more x-rays of his hips and see the Ortho doctor. If he is doing this with 4 hours of freedom, who knows what he could do with more non-splint time!

Goodview Days Parade 2008

A Visit to Hermann the German

On Friday, August 8, we went up to see Herman the German. Under Hermann, there is a mini-museum. I was really proud of Allie - she was scared to go all of the way to the top, but then she decided to after all! It had Hermann's shoe, and Allie and Cooper compared their feet to his! the other two pictures are of the grass mats - We are not the only yard to have them! They are expanding Hermann's Park down the hill; another expansion is across the street, they tore out the water reservoir, and they may change the entrance to Hermann in order to change the arrangement of the park.

Fun at the Park

Cooper and Allie had a fun time today at the Washington School Playground. The equipment is brand new and was purchased with money raised by the parents of students.

Zach and Taylor in New Ulm - Fun!

Zach and Taylor visited Grandma and Dar in New Ulm this weekend - We had a great time! We went out to eat, hung out, talked, laughed, shopped, and played Scattergories! The time went way too fast - but we are thankful for the time we had together!

Look!! The grass is starting to grow!!

Less than a week later and grass is appearing! You can see the "blanket" starting to break apart. I am excited to see more grass grow! If you look close, you can see the plastic framework part of the blanket; grass will grow in each of the squares, and this will prevent soil erosion when it lies on top of the soil. Very little water is needed to make the grass grow, I have only watered it a couple of times by hand just to saturate the blanket, and it has rained on it once. Very little maintenance is needed to promote the grass to grow. Yeah!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday...

While the gifts were great, Devin had a lot of fun with the Mylar balloon. By the end of the night, it no longer floated!