We love you, Miss Erin!

We had a wonderful, uneventful holiday.  We enjoyed time with both of our families and had lots of down time.  Luke has been continuing to grow by leaps and bounds!!  He's starting to use his fork and spoon successfully.  He's drinking from an OPEN cup pretty well with limited spillage.  He's spitting out  more and more words everyday!  He is a little monkey climbing up on everything and creating danger everywhere he can!!  We couldn't be more thrilled. 

Look at this fork action!!!  And yes, he's also ready
to pick up a handful with his hands, too, but I'll
take what I can get!!

He wasn't a huge fan of Christmas with all the noise and excitement.  He's a pretty low-key kinda guy!  He would've been much happier if we let him climb up and down the stairs everywhere we were instead of forcing him to open his brand new, fun toys.  I know, we are awful parents. His presents largely centered around OT/PT/Speech but I think they were fun enough that he didn't really notice!  He did get a really cool dog from Santa Daddy!

I do have some sad news to share regarding Luke.  As I've said before - we've been blessed with fantastic therapists.  His OT and PT have been with us since he was two weeks old-regular, solid, dependable.  I have often talked to them about how worried I was to lose them when he turns 3 and is not able to be in the First Steps program anymore.  Well, sadly, our OT is moving on to help other children at a school in the area.  She will be working mostly with autistic children - our loss is definitely their gain.  I am truly devastated which might seem silly but I am.  Erin is so sweet and patient with him at all times and with me.  She answers all of our questions patiently and has helped Luke progress in ways Dan and I never would have been able to do on our own.  She is very sweet with Ben and always takes time with him at every session to listen to his stories, let him play with her toys and allow him to climb all over her for a little while.  We will get a new OT - hopefully quickly - but there is no possible way to replace Erin.  So while we wish her all the best - we will miss her more than she can imagine. 

We will miss you, Miss Erin!!

The new year will quickly be upon us.  We've had a lot of ups and downs this year - but mostly ups.  We hope that 2012 will bring lots more ups for Luke and our family. We have some exciting things (we hope) in store for Luke.  We are looking into a different kind of therapy that specializes in people with brain injuries/abnormalities.  We meet with the only person in St. Louis who offers that therapy tomorrow and will keep you posted on what that will look like when we find out more.  We are also hoping to get Luke signed up for Equine Assisted Therapy in the spring if there are times available that work for our crazy schedule.  We are going into 2012 hoping to continue to not only do our best for Luke but do all that we can to ensure that he reaches his best potential! 

We hope that your families had a wonderful Christmas and celebrate a safe, relaxing and uneventful New Year. 

Playing on my new trampoline.  Luke's Grandma Beth takes him to a gymnastics class once a week offered by PT's from the Cerebral Palsy clinic at Children's.  It took him a little bit to warm up to the class.  He now really seems to enjoy it and she discovered he likes to bounce on the trampoline. 



Annndddd....let me try to climb off of the couch this way!  He has been caught several times by the back of his pants as he tries to launch himself off the side of back!! 



Super Ben and Super Luke gearing up for a whole new year of amazing everyone!!

Happiest of New Years to everyone!!!