Road to Wheelin'

Today was our Children's Hospital visit to meet with the doctors and select Dillon's wheelchair. We absolutely love going to Children's Colorado, and love Dr. Biffel, Dr. Terry our prosthetist, the OTs, and all of the assistants there. What an amazing group of people! The wheelchair company brought two pediatric Permobil electric wheelchairs for us to choose from: the Koala, and the K450. Big difference: the K450 goes all the way to the ground, giving D the ability to scoot in and out on his own as soon as possible. Of course that's the one we are hoping to get, and the one that is the most expensive. Pray with us for favor with insurance, please! We won't have the actual chair for about four months or so (assuming all goes well with insurance, etc), but it sure was fun getting Dillon in and watching how quickly he was figuring it out! Here's a photo showing some of our Children's Team with D sitting in the Koala chair:

And here's how happy our boy is to be driving!

And in case you want to learn a bit about the Permobil - K450, watch this great video about some of the things it can do!

We ended the day with ice cream, which was a nice treat for the kids. They did awesome today at our visits!

Yes.

Spring!

Its kindof spring here in Colorado. Kindof. It's spring, but its snowy. And today, its cold. We have these wonderful 60 degree spring days, then a few 30 degree days. So, its been inside play, outside play, inside play, outside play. I am excited for the "real" spring, if that does, in fact, arrive this year. My kids adore being outside, so its nice when its a little warmer. Here are a few things that we've been up to lately, in picture form.

Legos. Aren't we always playing Legos, dumping Legos on the table, building things on the floor, displaying them all over our rooms, and then playing with Legos again?! Yes, my three older boys love Legos, as you can see in the photo. They are played with every. single. day.

Dillon also loves Legos. He doesn't play with them really, and, surprisingly, doesn't usually put them in his mouth and try to eat them. What he prefers is to go to the side of the Lego bin, reach his arm in, grab a handful, and fling them across the floor. It's messy, but I love watching him have so much fun.

Oh yea, and Dillon likes to go to bookshelves and throw books all over the floor, too. Pretty awesome when you're at the library.

And outside time (the little of it that we've had recently) has been awesome. Dillon loves the neighbor's swing! Big brother J loves pushing him, too.

And, of course, we have boys, and they adore our next door neighbor boy, and love to play sticks, or fighting, or anything that involves "boy-ish-ness." Helmets might be necessary for all sorts of activities this summer.

We also got some cool new mats from D's Physical Therapist, and all the kids have been enjoying helping D learn to "climb." The mats also have become a new toy to vroom cars and trucks down, but that's another story.

We did some of this during the spring-time months, too, thanks to great friends!

Soccer season just started. Spring soccer in Colorado is wonderful. Sun during the game one week and snow the next. Never a dull moment. Loving it.

Thanks for checking out our spring. Catch ya when its warmer!

Instilling confidence

I got frustrated with one of my kids tonight. I guess I was frustrated because he gave up on something outright...cried before he even tried. And it frustrated me. Let's start from the beginning:
A couple of months ago I put my son in swimming lessons. They ended up being too hard for him (even though his previous instructor said he'd be ready for the next level and had been to lessons for about two years). All of the kids were a good three to four years older than him and better swimmers. He did amazing that night in lessons, but struggled enough that we decided to drop him down a level. We wanted him to be challenged and yet succeed and feel good about himself, not struggle so much that he's scared and that the instructor has to spend a lot of time helping him, ignoring the other kids. Anyway, tonight was his first lesson in the new group. We showed up, and he got in the water. He looked, and saw that it was the "hard" instructor from before. He met some of the kids...only one was his age. The rest, oh, a good two years older. Ugh! Not sure why the lessons are for an age range of five years...anyway, he started crying and got out of the water before the lessons even started. We talked, and he was simply freaked out. Freaked out because of that "hard" instructor, freaked out about the older kids. He was so scared that it would be like last time, that the older kids would be better swimmers, so he didn't even try. Didn't even try. The tough part for me is that in watching this class I know that ALL the kids are at his level of swimming...he would have kept up with them fine! He would even have been better than two of the kids (not that I'm bias or anything!).
Giving up is a tough issue. We want our kids to TRY and to try hard. Because its good for them and their character, because its good in life to try things, even if we fail or look foolish. And because it will be the best example for Dillon. Dillon will have a harder time in certain things. When you don't have legs or an arm, I can imagine that swim lessons will be tough. And I know there will be times when Dillon will want to give up. I pray for his older siblings, that they will encourage him, that they will challenge him, that they will love on him so much that he'll be excited to try anything!
So I'm trying to motivate my older kids to try everything. To be that good example for their little brother that will have a more challenging time. And it frustrated me when my boy gave up on swim lessons before trying. We had a talk, a good long talk about being strong, about trying, even if we are scared and may fail, and about being an example to those that may struggle more than us. I tried to instill confidence, and not be frustrated. He's willing to try again next week with this class. He said he'll try his hardest. I'm praying for that.
February 14th's devotion in Jesus Calling begins with this paragraph, and I'm praying this for all four of our children. "Give yourself fully to the adventure of today. Walk boldly along the path of life, relying on your ever present Companion. You have every reason to be confident, because My presence accompanies you all the days of your life - and onward into eternity. Do not give in to fear or worry, those robbers of abundant living..." p47
As Isaiah 41:13 says, "For I am the LORD, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you."