Autumn is beautiful....

We had a wonderful vacation and some much needed time away from our little dude. Nana and Poppy were amazing. I swear little man wasn't really sure he wanted to come over to me and let Nana go when we got home. He is obsessed with Nana. What I mean obsessed, he still looks around for her when we say her name. It is pure love and adorability! (Is that a word?!) They were both wonderful and gave J man the best.  Most hilarious thing ever was when Nana said that wow, he really is a picky eater. Okay, it isn't just for us. Good to know!

I gave him some turkey and rice baby food (we are trying so hard to get his protein and veggies in him daily) and he literally gagged with every bite. Every.single.bite. It was kind of hilarious. I had to "chase" it with some yogurt. I am running out of good ideas-quickly. He eats mac and cheese, grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, yogurt, cottage cheese, anything with carbs and especially chocolate. I made the huge mistake of giving him the leftover bowl of Halloween chocolate to pick his own the other night-because he is leaning how to make choices-yeah right, that kid picked out HANDFULS of candy and laughed like a little chocolate freak...then I took it away because he had to much and he had bitten into a wrapper...yadda yadda. Then the freaking fireworks started. He has thrown a fit before but not like this. It was epic. Don't take a candy bowl away from a toddler or better yet, don't offer a toddler a bowl of candy to "pick" his own. Lesson learned.

We went to an orthopedist appointment on Tuesday. I was expecting them to tell me he either had or didn't have scoliosis. Nope. Not even close. It started with an x-ray. Jake is not a good x-ray patient. He wiggles, squirms, and doesn't like to be restrained. Yikes! Here I am acting like a complete fool to get him to look straight at me. Yes, I acted like a penguin, a freaking penguin. What the hell was I thinking? I had nothing else-literally. I'm sure you can imagine it. And the best part? He didn't even give a crap. Here I am flapping and making up some noise that I think a penguin makes and he is screaming at the other people. I am SO cool. So we go back to the room where I have to entertain him further-20 minutes or so with only 3 books and a granola bar. His favorite thing is to throw things so I spent the 20 minutes fake-laughing with him so he would be entertained while I picked up each and every thing he threw every 30 seconds or so off of the exam table. At this point I was thinking what the heck did I do not bringing someone else for my own personal entertainment. Sadly, my mom (Hi Gammy!) just has surgery on her shoulder the week before and is recovering for a few months. Jakey misses you, Gammy! Anywho, three doctors came in shortly and I thought, "Oh shit." This is never good. Well, I will spare you the boring details but they think he has a tethered spine. The only way to tell if he has one is to do an MRI. Normal parents I'm sure are way freaked out by this but being the abnormal family we are, we are thrilled!! This means he can have another brain MRI (I asked his pedi to order this-and because he is amazing and trusts me, he agreed!) and a spinal MRI at the same time. Why not kill two birds with one stone, huh? I am so excited to see his brain growth and see what is up with his spinal cord at the same time. Not normal, I know. :) So, if it is a tethered spine, they fix it with surgery-spinal surgery----EEEKKKKK!!! But, it will be the end of the spinal problems after the surgery. He can live a normal life in terms of his spine. This is amazing news for us. Sounds bizarre to hope for something like this but I hope with my whole heart that one thing that is going on with Jake has  a "cure" and an end. I am so frustrated that I would like for one thing to be fixed. They x-rayed his hips too with some concerns in this area as well-luckily I know what I am talking about and doctors seemed to trust my instincts. His hips are fine-in the sockets but very over extended, as a result of the hypotonia (low tone).  So now he has two procedures planned in the next couple of months. Poor boo boo.

He started speech therapy on Tuesday. If I wasn't already overwhelmed as is! He now gets 9 visits a month which is one more than the "max" visits allowed for any child. Not sure if I should celebrate or cry.

Life moves on and there is always something to celebrate. Jake has learned how to throw a ball. He always puts it in his right hand so we have a righty. Bobby is happy. I'll post a video in the next couple of days. It is so wonderful. He totally understands this game and it's an awesome accomplishment. I must say that while he chucks everything at us, he is quite the pitcher. I'll take a block in the head any day if it means that Jaker is throwing it with purpose at me. HUM, is this weird?!

Walking is going well. He still needs TONS of support but is taking initiative with steps. Small progress but we celebrate what we can. And we have a lot to celebrate with this little man.