Will makes three...

It's week three.  Our last week here in Kansas City.  A place I really have started to accept as our second home.  I really do like it here...but I think Will and I are both ready to get back home! A lot of focus on walking today, which was good.  I would love to see Will ditch Alfie one day and take off on his own.  I believe he will.  As I was watching him today and listening to Tiffany talk to him I realized something.  There are so many movements that I just take for granted.  Especially walking.  Think about it.  If you're sitting on the couch reading a book (yeah right!) and the room starts to get dark, what do you do...get up and turn on a light.  You don't have to tell your body how to accomplish that task.  You just get up and do it!  You want a drink or a snack...get up and get one.  Easy right, simple. Like she said, Will has to think about what he's doing.  He also needs to get lots of practic...

Will and I very much enjoyed spending the weekend with the rest of our family!  We picked Phil, Ben and Isabel up at Union Station Friday afternoon. After stopping at a cupcakery on the way home (it's got nothing on my Mom's cakes!), it was on to the hotel.  The kids were excited to go to the pool so Phil took them while I did laundry...by myself...sad, but I enjoyed that!  After dinner at Minsky's Pizza (yum!) we called it a night. Saturday was a gloomy, rainy day.  We decided to head to Kansas City's Aquarium.   The kids liked it. We walked around Crown Center after the aquarium.  The highlight was the ice cream the kids enjoyed while Phil and I had some afternoon coffee.  Delicious!   After mass at St. Therese we headed to a little Mexican restaurant just down from our hotel.  Phil taught Ben how to balance a salt shaker.   Steady... Steady... Got it! Will's turn...keep trying Mr. Will. ...

It's hard to believe two weeks have past.  I think it has gone by fast...I'm not sure if Will believes that though. I think he's ready for the weekend.  We're having visitors this weekend!  Phil, Ben and Isabel are on coming up on the train.  Yay! Therapy went well today.  Will wanted to do the stairs and make Buzz fly.  He started out throwing the basketball in the basket (or at the basket).  His next choice...the stairs!  He did pretty well.  It still takes him a long time to get the job done, but he is making definite progress! The interesting thing about Will is that when he's at home, he's all about "Let me go."  The last two weeks here, he has been on Tiffany for the exact opposite..."Help me" and "Don't let go".  I don't understand at all.  For example today after the gym back at the hotel for lunch Will was determined to climb in his booster seat (that is strapped onto a chair-not the easiest hurdle to jump) "...

What a beautiful day!  Will and I walked to the gym again this morning...his choice.  He has some new sunglasses that he tried out.  I didn't take a picture (not a very good blogger, now am I), I'll try to snap one and post later! Will had a good day today, but it didn't start out so great.  He was pretty distracted this morning.  I'm not sure why he had an audience of all little friends, including his new Galahad and another Mike (they came as a pair).   It was hard to watch.  Miss Tiffany even had to threaten to make his friends go away... Just wait though...watch what happens when an unexpected visitor pops in.  Ms Linda was on her way next door to the hyperbaric oxygen chamber when she saw Will through the glass doors.  Miss Tiffany knows Linda and gave her the ok to pop in.  She has the sweetest little voice...Mr. Will was lovin' every minute of it!   What a flirt! Thanks Ms Linda for cheering Will on!  ...

Will has a friend sleeping over tonight!   Miss Tiffany made a deal with Will that if he worked hard on the stairs and didn't fuss about it he could take Buzz home for the night!  Mr. Buzz is here now!  Will still doesn't like those stairs but he handled it pretty well today.  He was very happy to bring Buzz back to the hotel.   Will worked very hard today...as he does everyday.  Here he is with a couple other friends...wiped out! See Buzz watching over him.

Will is starting to look better in Alfie!  The front wheels are still locked to help him focus on one thing at a time.  He's still leaning back occasionally, but not all the time.  Miss Tiffany took the brakes off the rear wheels so if Will leans back he will roll backwards.  He didn't spend near as much time going backward today as usual!  Yay! I jinxed the stairs.  They didn't go any better today.  I think I'll leave it with that.  On to tomorrow!

Week 2...let's see what Mr. Will can do!   We walked to the gym this morning.  It was a nice little walk.  I think the cool air woke Will up a bit more and that was a good thing.  He didn't sleep the greatest last night and was a little crabby this morning.  By the time we got to the gym Will was excited to see Miss Tiffany and introduce her to Evie and Mr. Cuddles!   I think this week is going to produce good things!  I have a good feeling about it.  Will had been working on taking his shoes off by himself.  He's getting pretty good at it!  See for yourself! You like all his "friends" watching nearby!  Will and Tiffany work on other things too, but I wanted to show you another clip of the stairs.  Ever since Miss Tiffany combined Buzz and the stairs each day gets a little better!  Today was a little better than Friday...I'm thinking tomorrow will be even better!  He still whimpered a little bit today, bu...

Will and I spent the weekend in KC.  We really wanted to go home and spend the day with My mom and sister (as well as the rest of the fam) for their birthdays, but we decided to stay put and try to relax.  They were meeting at Forrest Park for the Balloon Races on Saturday!  How fun! Happy Birthday Mom and Katie! It was a good weekend, I'm glad we stayed.  Friday night was quiet.  Saturday we ran some errands, grabbed some lunch and then the visited a very nice mass at St. Therese Parish.  A very energetic visiting priest from Cross Catholic Outreach painted a vivid picture of what some parts of the world deal with everyday.  I left there feeling alive and very lucky to be living the life I've been blessed with. After mass we ran one more errand...in search of a wine glass for me and Evie & Mr. Cuddles (more Mike the Knight figurines) for Will.  Unfortunately that took us to Wal-mart (not my favorite place)!  Will was so excited that he...

Today was a new day!  With the help of some little friends and some great ideas from Miss Tiffany...the week ended on a much better note.  Will was excited to take his little friends (3- Buzz figurines, Mike the Knight, Trollee, Yip, Yap, Pluto, "little" Boots and Woody) with us this morning.  I had to give him a little talk first though. I told him they could come along, but only if he worked really hard and didn't fuss about it. I know that sounds really mean.  I promise I said it in a very nice voice!  Anyway, he agreed!   Tiffany had some new ideas too.  First of all she let Will choose what he wanted to do first... for Mr. Independant, that is a big deal!  So Mr. Will chose the scooter!  A new activity this week! Plus he got to use his friends in this one!  Bonus! What a hard worker huh!  A pretty cute one at that! The second choice...the stairs.  Deep breath, here we go!  Here's where the great idea from Mis...

If you ask Will if he still likes Miss Tiffany's gym he says "yes", but that's not the answer I would expect after the last couple of days!  He's still a happy little guy, but also very exhausted!  It was another long morning at the gym, for both Will and Miss Tiffany!  Learning to walk in Alfie again is not easy, but he'll get there...I just know it!  :)  Climbing the stairs on the other hand.  Ugh!  He is just fighting that one.  I know he has a very hard time sidestepping and it's not his favorite thing, but he usually understands what he's got to do and powers through!  Not with the stairs.  Tiffany and I are stumped as to why he's so against it!   Good video was hard to come by today for reasons beyond my control...a spent little boy, but this one kind of paints the picture for you.  I didn't even want to share this one, but I'm hoping by the end of the three weeks I will be able to share the crazy progress he's made!...

Today Mr. Will wasn't as excited to go to the gym.  Tiffany said this is the typical reaction that she normally sees on Wednesday of the first week.   I get it though.   He has been working so hard on things that we just take for granted, which is a normal day in the life of Will, only here (at Miss Tiffany's gym) he works extra hard for an extended amount of time.  I think I said this last time we were here...typical adults don't spend 3 hours a day 5 days a week at the gym unless they are training for a major challenge.  I'm not sure what they would even train that hard for.  Will is working on several new things this time.  He made such great progress in May that now Tiffany can get to other "layers" of skills that Will needs to work on.  Take Alfie for instance, when we came in May my concern was controlling Alfie at all!  Poor Will just would look over to the right...boom, he was turned to the right!  There was no way he could walk ...

As you may have wondered, Will is missing THREE whole weeks of kindergarten for therapy this time.  Phil and I really pondered this decision, but in the end decided that Will's physical development needed more attention right now.  I talked to his school over the summer and let them know that this was our plan.  The principal, teacher and Will's one on one para-professional have all been wonderfully supportive.  I met with Will's teacher and para before we left.  They gave me a packet of work to keep us busy and some very helpful advice and tips on how to "teach".  I am very thankful for this.  I definitely don't want him to get behind...so now the pressure's on!  I decided to enlist the help of Miss Tiffany.  This is a small glimpse of how we mixed cognitive and physical development in one " F is for FUN" package! Thanks for your help Miss Tiffany!  I think we make a pretty good team!

I realize that I haven't posted anything since the last time we were here.  In fact, I didn't even finish posting about the last few days of that time! I will try to get some more pictures up from our busy summer and maybe even some of the start of school while I'm here.  It seems like this is the only time I actually can sit down and post. Life is busy...but good, so I won't complain! So here we are again!  A huge thank you once again to each and every one of you who helped us get here.  The golf tournament and Chihuahua's night fundraising last spring were so successful we were able to come back for another three weeks!  Thank you so much! Will has been talking about Kansas City all summer.  It's so great to know that he enjoyed (most of) therapy last time.  He worked so hard, it will be interesting to see what happens this time. Miss Tiffany heard Mr. Will right when he came through the door.  He was talking up a storm about all the deta...